76

At the heart of African societies, and particularly in Cameroon, where I carry out my investigations and collect my data, there are two constants that are difficult to ignore when analyzing the local socio-economic and religious panorama: recurring complaints linked to witchcraft attacks, coupled with a range of therapies so original and varied that they seem limitless. This is because, in their trials and tribulations, their complaints and their quest for healing, people are spoilt for choice when it comes to consulting doctors, pastors/prophets and “traditional” healers, specialists in the three main healing spheres. Apart from doctors and their respective biomedical knowledge, the other two therapeutic figures regularly work by mobilizing supernatural forces held by certain non-humans – beings presented locally as spiritual – when they do not claim to hold these powers obtained within the framework of an alliance with such beings. These powers can – for example – be obtained by attaining a more or less advanced level of ritual expertise, which authorizes them to communicate with these Beings. This communication lies at the heart of their therapeutic strategies, when these healers combine their knowledge of the natural world – of pharmacopoeia – and of the various types of non-human entities (divinities, spirits, ancestors or even particular creatures) with particular methods of interpellation (speeches, orations, special places, techniques/technical gestures, materials, songs/praises, etc.) in order to obtain (or negotiate) healing/revitalization, purification/conjuration, dispossession and blessing services from them. The aim of the present proposal will be to evaluate, using the example of two therapists performing in central Cameroon – a “gnostic priest”, according to his own formula, and a “traditional” healer – the ways in which these non-humans construct their agentivity (Gell 1998), their classifications, and above all the ways of making contact with them, in order to mobilize their particular capacities for action during certain care sequences. I will be relying mainly on material collected over several months of passive and participatory observation between 2021 and 2022, as part of my thesis work. The aim will then be to decipher the ways in which certain humans – ritual experts – establish relationships or cooperate with such singular, invisible non-humans, who are nonetheless not fictional beings and whose impact on people’s lives cannot be overlooked.