Time and place of trial lecture
The trial lecture will take place 3 June at 10.15 in auditorium U40, Domus Theologica.
Read more about the trial lecture.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Michael Houseman, Section des Sciences Religieuses, à l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
- Professor Marianne Moyaert, Faculty of Theology, VU University Amsterdam
- Professor Kjetil Hafstad, University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology
Leader of the disputation
Dean Aud V. Tønnessen.
Supervisors
Professor Jone Salomonsen and professor Oddbjørn Leirvik (co-supervisor) University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology.
About the dissertation
This dissertation is a multidimensional study of the Kundum and Mother River festivals in small towns in western Ghana among the Akan Nzema ethnic group. Based on ethnographic participant observation and interviews undertaken among this group, the thesis has investigated the historical background of the festivals, the preparations they require, the various activities that compose them, the ways they are appreciated by different religious communities, and the several ways of dealing with social problems through the festival rituals. It has done so to improve understanding of the impact of these festivals on the everyday local community and the interactions between members of different religious traditions. The festivals promote the practice of a layered relationship involving ritual assemblies and interaction with the non-humans, interpersonal relationships and interreligious relations. The thesis, however, is not primarily an ethnographic study but a more complex enterprise, combining different methods and scientific modes of work in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the effects of African traditional religions’ rituals in the context of a modern African society and in relation to other established religious communities.