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Prophecy, Sorcery, and Reincarnation
independence movement that liberated Guinea-Bissau in 1974. We
learned how Islam and traditional Mandinga beliefs continue to be
cornerstones of an enchanted world, suffused with the will of Allah
and mystical forces and presences. Here was a world in which mar-
abouts made secret potions that opened our minds and greatly en-
hanced our language-learning abilities. We surprised many with the
speed in which we became proficient in Kriolu (Guinea-Bissau’s un-
official national language) and Mandinga, although my wife’s prog-
ress, our friends would say, always surpassed my own.
We also attended the dramatic, spontaneous performances of Kan-
karan on the streets of Bissau. Kankaran is a masquerade figure who
mysteriously appears and disappears as he scares away malevolent
spirits looking to eat the souls of boys undergoing initiation rites. Our
neighbors warned us never to look at Kankaran with our own eyes,
lest he decide to try to kill us. Some had died from his attacks. Mov-
ing furiously about the city, covered in a full-length bark-colored “cos-
tume,” Kankaran always carried two machetes, one in each hand, and
he would slap them together every few minutes, while issuing a pierc-
ing scream. The sound resonated for blocks, causing a collective sense
of fear and excitement that lingered for hours, if not days.
On other occasions, we met people who were bewitched by irans
(spirits that were invisible to everyone except porteiros or visionaries,
those who had an innate capacity to identify them in a crowd). We lis-
tened as our neighbors in Bafata-Oio recited the legends of Amadou
Bamba, a Muslim saint and mystic who lived in Senegal in the nine-
teenth century. He is still remembered for his heroic resistance to French
colonial forces, who tortured him in order to show him the futility
of his faith. During a month-long voyage from Senegal to an island
prison colony somewhere off the coast of Africa, the French author-
ities refused to allow him to pray on board the ship. In response, we
were told, he simply prayed outside the boat while he and his prayer
carpet gently glided over the ocean, keeping pace with the ship. To
this day, the place where he is buried, Touba, Senegal, receives mil-
lions of pilgrims a year on the anniversary of his death.
In Guinea-Bissau, I began to feel that there was more to the world
than natural forces and human agency. The weight and loneliness of a
