Art, Religion and the Supernatural in an African World: The Limit of Horn's Model

Abstract

This article takes an analytical look at Andrew Horn's Ritual, Drama and the Theatrical: the Case of Bori Spirit Mediumship (1981), in which he employs a graphic model to delineate the dynamic relationship between art and religion in Africa. Although Horn uses observations and analysis of spirit mediumship in the bori (cult of spirit procession among the Hausa people of Nigeria) to graphitise his model, this article suggests that the author's representations are tainted by the rudiments of his parent cultural perceptions. Using this model as a critical basis, this article demonstrates the limitation in Horn's understandings, while elucidating and re-graphitising the truer discourse of the dynamics between art and religion in an African World.

SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8 (2) 2006: pp. 33-38