Abstract
Although studies of migration have grown exponentially in recent years, their focus has for the most part painted a picture of individuals and groups moving from (rural) peripheries to (urban) centres, akin to the prophesies of mainstream modernist theory. In South Africa, formidable scholarship has tackled the challenges and opportunities which urban milieus have provided for rural migrants.
Much less attention has been paid to urban-rural movements and the transformations of identities, relations and powers which these have engendered. This paper considering the dynamics of ancestral spirit possession in the case of Tshivenda-speaking migrant men argues that urban-rural migration has constituted a significant, although highly contested and multi-faceted process in contemporary South African society.
In particular, it aims to show that movements mediated by the notions and practices of spirit possession invoke experiences of place and gender which problematize both local and analytical conceptions of 'city' and 'country', 'centre' and 'periphery', 'manhood' and 'womanhood'.