In a post we made on December 5, 2024 (Shamanism in Togo – Africa Traditional Beliefs), we noted that Mircea Eliade, in his Shamanism (Princeton University Press, 1972) explained what he regarded as shamanism and, after doing so, he went on to note that it is a predominantly Siberian-Central Asian phenomenon, that it may exist elsewhere, and that it does not exist in Africa.

For Eliade the shaman is a shaman if and only if, in addition to being witch man, medicine-man, he masters the technique of ecstasis which allows one to have out of body experiences, embark in magic voyages to the superior/inferior world.

All of the voodoo priests we interviewed in (Southern) Togo reported to experience magic flight, to visit the netherworld, to have out of body experiences just like the shamans that Eliade had so carefully studied. Which is why we said that there is shamanism in Togo.

A few days ago, in a post devoted to Mami Wata (The curse (or the blessing?) of Mami Wata – Africa Traditional Beliefs), we noted that she often disguises herself as a prostitute, that men who become her lovers are rewarded with wealth, luck and various powers/abilities, and that they need to remain faithful to her–which means that need to practice celibacy/chastity with any other woman.

Something similar happens in Central Asia, where, according Eliade (1972)

the abassy (spirits), youths or girls, enter the bodies of young people of the opposite sex, put them to sleep, and make love to them. A lad visited by an abassy no longer approaches girls, and some of them remain bachelors the rest of their lives. If an abassy loves a married man he becomes impotent with his wife. All this, Sliepzova con cluded, is of general occurrence among the Yakut; a fortiori, the same thing must happen among shamans. (p. 74).

In other words, sexual intercourse between Mami Wata and West African men or between abassy and Central Asian young men/women leads to celibacy. It is interesting to note that celibacy (or rather chastity) is the price that one has to pay to have special access to superior beings (Gods, Spirits) and to remain in their favor both in West Africa and in Central Asia