Damian Walter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Bernard,
>
> This thread's dropped off the page now, so not
> sure if you'll spot this or not, but for what it's
> worth I've just come across another reference on
> 'African shamanism' that might be of interest:
>
> Prinz, Armin. 1994. "Initation of Shamans of the
> Azande". Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study
> of Consciousness, 3: 133-144.
>
> Summary
>
> The shamanistic nature of rituals during
> initiation of African healers are often not
> noticed and therefore denied by many
> anthropologists. However, among the Azande healers
> from Northeast-Zaire and South-Sudan, these
> shamanistic elements (dreams of vocation,
> apprenticeship, accompanying transcendental
> entity, journey to the world beyond, change of
> personality, death and rebirth) do, as shown in
> this paper, undoubtedly exist in their classical
> appearance. Therefore it seems legitimate to call
> the healers of the Azande shamans.

Thanks Damian,

The elements cited certainly fit a shamanic healer. I looked and I don't have access to that publication through the UT library, do you?

Bernard