Paper short abstract:

This paper uses the story of a spirit medium who in 2007 famously courted public controversy and government ministers, to explore the uncertainties that surround the authenticity of mediumship and possession in Zimbabwe, the political consequences and dangers, but also opportunities for mediums.

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses the story of the so-called 'diesel n'anga' - a spirit medium who in 2007 famously courted public controversy, and government ministers, with her claims to be able to procure refined diesel from rocks - to explore the multi-faceted uncertainties that surround the authenticity of mediumship and possession in Zimbabwe, and the serious political consequences and dangers, but also opportunities that these can have for spirit mediums. The claims of Rotina Mavhunga ('diesel n'anga) were unusual, as was the government's apparent incredulity, and her subsequent fall from grace extreme, once her fraud was finally uncovered. But spirit mediums and ancestral cults have long been implicated in Zimbabwean politics, dating back to the early rebellions against colonial rule in the 1890s. Because their authenticity, legitimacy and authority as mediums, as both representatives and vessels of ancestors, exists beyond the limits of political control - their very presence pointing to other ancestral or divine sovereignties - Zimbabwe's postcolonial government has often treated spirit mediums with a great deal of ambivalence, even as some spirit mediums have sometimes become deeply imbricated in political scandals. The case of Mavhunga and other less well known examples, illustrate how the ambiguities, ambivalences and uncertainties of performance, agency and authenticity, that lie at the heart of mediumship, offer both opportunities and risk; making spirit possession in Zimbabwe an inherently precarious occupation.