Paper short abstract:

Looking at the embeddedness of digital technologies among Ghanaian traditional priests, this contribution aims to present the ambiguities and opportunities offered by the adoption of new media in the context of a religious tradition.

Paper long abstract:

Being for long time stigmatized by Christian discourses on the morality of African spiritual mediations, in recent years Ghanaians traditional priests took the chance to speak for themselves through social media, therefore entering a globalized network where people from different backgrounds become involved with African spiritual practices as followers and clients. Indeed, offering their services online, and embedding digital technologies into their practices of mediations with the spiritual domain -- readings, initiations, healings -- many priests successfully mobilize people imagination on African spirituality bringing their own, local knowledge, on a global stage. At the same time, given the competitive configuration of the "spiritual market" in Ghana and beyond, they also have to legitimize and maintain their position. Therefore, dynamics of validation, revelation and concealment of real spiritual powers are subject of discussion and criticism among practitioners, observers and policymakers. Focusing on the aesthetics through which some Ghanaians traditional priests display their material relationship with the spirits they work with, this paper aims to look at the role of digital media in connecting people and spirits in order to understand how new technologies are appropriated, regulated and normated in the context of a non-centralized, non-book based, religious tradition.