Amina: Shaking Boundaries of a Woman Inhabited by the Spirits (Senegal).
Culture, medicine and psychiatry March 1, 2025 Angelo Miramonti
Amina, a Senegalese woman, is possessed by lineage spirits and must navigate two conflicting interpretations of her experience: the traditional Lebou view of persecution by spirits and a Western psychopathological diagnosis. She rejects the healers her tradition imposes, instead choosing a priest who respects her need to control her own healing. By strategically working within the traditional belief system rather than abandoning it, she uses possession to renegotiate her role and status within her group. This allows her to expand her agency and affirm her identity as a permanently liminal person, one who inhabits and redraws boundaries between different worlds of meaning.