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Film, Video Women, Rain and Religion: Diola Prophets in Post-War Senegal

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Women, Rain and Religion: Diola Prophets in Post-War Senegal

Summary

  • This talk examines the history of a Diola prophetic tradition which was exclusively male before the colonial conquest, but has become predominantly female in the 20th and 21st centuries. Using a term "Emitai dabornol," which means "God sent him/her." Robert M. Baum has uncovered oral traditions concerning more than 75 indigenous leaders who claimed direct revelation from the supreme being and commanded them to teach. Baum focussed on three of them: Alinesitouḗ Diatta, who emphasized a week-long rain ritual while rejecting French Colonial agricultural development schemes, only to be exiled to Timbuctou where she died at age 23; Berthe Alinesitouḗ Diatta, who played the earlier prophetess in a 1960s local theater and who in the 1980s had visions of her own from Emitai; and Todjai Manga, who was the most successful post-colonial prophet, launching a revival of rain rituals and new teachings about Diola agriculture in a time of frequent drought and climate change.

Event Date

  • September 29, 2023

Running Time

  • 57 minutes 7 seconds

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Women, Rain and Religion: Diola Prophets in Post-War Senegal. 2023. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11102/.

APA citation style:

(2023) Women, Rain and Religion: Diola Prophets in Post-War Senegal. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11102/.

MLA citation style:

Women, Rain and Religion: Diola Prophets in Post-War Senegal. 2023. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11102/>.