With Halloween just a few days away in the USA, where I am based, it’s a moment (sometimes a week, a month, or more for some) that many embrace with festivities that include costumes, candy, and communal frights. For me, it remains more of a spectacle observed than participated in.
The Western concept of Halloween sharply contrasts with Africa’s traditions of spiritual and ancestral storytelling.
While Halloween has made some inroads into certain urban areas across the continent thanks to globalization, its approach differs fundamentally from African narrative traditions, where stories of spirits, ancestors, and the mystical serve deep socio-cultural purposes.
Of course, for brevity, I’m painting with broad strokes here.
For instance, a holistic African cosmology views ancestors not as entities to be feared, but as ever-present guides and protectors, whose influence permeates daily life.
Moreover, spiritual power acts as a conduit between the living and the dead, the material and the spiritual, the past and the present.
In this context, Halloween’s limited presence in Africa is evidence of more deeply entrenched traditions around the supernatural, providing alternatives to Western horror conventions.
What have you watched or are you watching in this realm?
The comment section is all yours!