The Hadimu are an indigenous
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
* Black Association for Nationa ...
ethnic group native to the islands of
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...
and
Pemba Island.
A now extinct
spirit possession
Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and re ...
cult existed among 19th-century Hadimu women revering a spirit called ''kitimiri''. This cult was described in an 1869 account by a French missionary. The cult faded by the 1920s and was virtually unknown by the 1960s.
[Alpers, Edward A. 1984 "Ordinary Household Chores": Ritual and Power in a 19th-Century Swahili Women's Spirit Possession Cult The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1984), pp. 677-702]
References
Zanzibari people
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