Trance States and Sufi Stages: The Poetics and Politics of Murid Theatre in Senegal

This essay explores the history of a form of theatrical performance in Senegal used to transmit the founding story of the Senegalese Sufi order known as the Muridiyya. Although absent from the extensive scholarship on Murid cultural and expressive forms, this innovative performance practice proves remarkable in its staged manifestation of the baraka, or spiritual essence, of the order's founding saint, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. The essay focuses on the presence and function of states of religious trance as experienced by both performers and spectators. It underscores the political role of such trance states on a stage space passed on under French colonialism, while exploring trance's poetic value as a means of staging the interplay of the seen and unseen worlds.