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Browse Selected Films
The guardian of the forces (streaming, Academic Video Online)
In Togo, Sikavi, the voodoo fetish master, leads a death ceremony which only the initiated may attend. In order to help bridge the gap between "barbarism and civilization, " Sikavi explains his liturgy by using its Judeo-Christian correspondences.
Holy Hustlers (streaming, Academic Video Online)
Charismatic, street-wise young men, living in Botswana's capital, command the prophetic domain in Eloyi, their Apostolic faith-healing church, at a time of escalating crisis. Bitter, sinful accusations divide Eloyi's village-based archbishop and his son, the city-based bishop. The church itself, seen to be 'under destruction', splits.
Séance reflections (streaming, Academic Video Online)
Njebe and Martha, a couple from Gaborone, Botswana, have tried various medical interventions to determine the reason why they remain childless. They decide to consult a charismatic diviner and healer in Njebe's birth village, Moremi. In reviewing portions of their filmed séances with ethnographer Richard Werbner, the couple are moved by the diviner's revelations about their intimate lives, but are puzzled by the diviner's rapid recital of highly ambiguous, archaic verse, his leading them in chants of call and response, and his preaching against Christianity and for restored communication with the ancestors, leaving the couple doubting the healing treatment.
War of the Gods (streaming, Academic Video Online)
While relying on a polemical stance directed against the cultural genocide wrought by missionaries, War of the Gods also contains a wealth of information and detail about Amazonian Indian cosmology, social life and sexual division of labour.
Image Databases
Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window
Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a database of images from museums, artists, libraries, colleges and universities, scholars, private collections, and photo archives available for teaching, education, and scholarship, with all images cleared for educational use.
