Cleansing Ritual
Two women preside over this man's ritual bath on the seawall at Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana, South America. This type of practice is part of the African religious tradition and is known as "spiritual work".
These practices are closely related to Comfa, which is the principal ritual of a folk religious complex (also called cumfa or cumfo) whose defining elements include ecstatic, trancelike dancing, and spirit possession, induced by drumming. It is practiced in Guyana, South America, mainly by the descendants of enslaved Africans. Comfa appears to have evolved from West African sacred performances remembered and reinterpreted by enslaved Africans, as they encountered European and Asian culture bearers in the New World. According to sociolinguist Kean Gibson, the foremost expert on Guyanese Comfa, the religion is currently practiced by about 10 percent of the country’s African-Guyanese population.... Cultural historian Brian Moore [ ] indicates that in postcolonial Guyana, the religious practices designated by the term Cumfo were also referred to as Watermama in honor of the river gods or Wind (pronounced wine), in reference to the kind of dancing that reportedly took place during these ceremonies. (taken from: www.bookrags.com/tandf/spirit-possession-dance-in-guyana-tf/ )
Cleansing Ritual
Two women preside over this man's ritual bath on the seawall at Kingston, Georgetown, Guyana, South America. This type of practice is part of the African religious tradition and is known as "spiritual work".
These practices are closely related to Comfa, which is the principal ritual of a folk religious complex (also called cumfa or cumfo) whose defining elements include ecstatic, trancelike dancing, and spirit possession, induced by drumming. It is practiced in Guyana, South America, mainly by the descendants of enslaved Africans. Comfa appears to have evolved from West African sacred performances remembered and reinterpreted by enslaved Africans, as they encountered European and Asian culture bearers in the New World. According to sociolinguist Kean Gibson, the foremost expert on Guyanese Comfa, the religion is currently practiced by about 10 percent of the country’s African-Guyanese population.... Cultural historian Brian Moore [ ] indicates that in postcolonial Guyana, the religious practices designated by the term Cumfo were also referred to as Watermama in honor of the river gods or Wind (pronounced wine), in reference to the kind of dancing that reportedly took place during these ceremonies. (taken from: www.bookrags.com/tandf/spirit-possession-dance-in-guyana-tf/ )