Soul Loss and Spirit Possession among the Gun of Benin and the Kulango of the Ivory Coast

People who hear voices, and who live their lives according to the messages, wishes or threats of these voices, have always existed and will always continue to exist in this world. Our Western, scientific culture usually considers this kind of experience as a symptom of a mental disease, but this idea is not universally accepted, either in terms of space, or in terms of time. The aim of this paper is therefore to offer two specific examples of the way in which two very different West African traditional cultures relate to the themes of soul loss and spirit possession. I will thus consider the Gun of Benin, who live in the south-eastern forest of the country, and the Kulango of the Ivory Coast, a Gur people living in the north-eastern savannah region.