Kel Essuf
Tuareg · numen · Tuareg traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Kel Essuf, the 'people of solitude' or 'people of the wild', are the spirit-beings that inhabit the essuf - the empty, silent immensity of the desert that is at once solitude, wilderness and longing. Encountered in deserted places, darkness and the disorientation of long crossings, they enter and afflict those who are alone, causing illnesses of the heart and soul. As documented by Susan Rasmussen among the Kel Ewey and by Johannes Nicolaisen and Dominique Casajus elsewhere, they are not exorcised but negotiated with in the tende n goumaten rite, in which a mortar-drum and the massed songs of women summon the spirits and coax them into release rather than combat.
Domains
- wilderness
- spirit possession
Powers
- possess and afflict those who are alone in the wild
- be summoned and appeased by the tende drum and goumaten songs
Epithets
- Kel Essuf — the people of solitude / of the wildDominique Casajus, 'La tente dans la solitude: la societe et les morts chez les Touaregs Kel Ferwan' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press / Paris: MSH, 1987) (secondary)
Relations
- companion: AmerolqisThe spirits of solitude are the reservoir of poetic and musical inspiration associated with the poet-genie Amerolqis.Susan J. Rasmussen, 'Spirit Possession and Personhood among the Kel Ewey Tuareg' (Cambridge University Press, 1995); Aghali-Zakara & Drouin (1979) (secondary)
Sources
- The Kel Essuf are spirit-beings of the essuf (solitude/wild) who possess the isolated and cause spirit-illness treated in the tende n goumaten possession rite.: Susan J. Rasmussen, 'Spirit Possession and Personhood among the Kel Ewey Tuareg' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) (secondary); Johannes Nicolaisen, 'Essai sur la religion et la magie touaregues', Folk 3 (1961): 113-162 (secondary)
- Essuf denotes solitude, wilderness and longing, and the Kel Essuf are its inhabiting presences, felt around graves and empty spaces.: Dominique Casajus, 'La tente dans la solitude' (Cambridge University Press / MSH, 1987) (secondary)