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Modes of Binding, Moments of Bonding 197

modern as Christianity to counter dominant Christian stereotypes and
“make it attractive to the people.” In its public representation, then, it is
very particular about beautification, hygiene, and orderliness. This implies
a focus on, for instance, the white costumes of Afrikania priestesses, beauti-
fully dressed crowds of people and traditional “pomp and pageantry” and
the elimination or concealment of practices like bloody animal sacrifices,
frenzied spirit possession, or the stinking fermentation of healing herbs in
water. The irony of Afrikania’s project, however, is that while trying to
attract the public to a positive image of ATR, it hardly connects to existing
religious traditions and the shrine priests and priestesses whom it claims to
represent.

Addressing and Attracting “the People”

The question of Afrikania’s audience is complicated, because Afrikania
targets very different people at the same time on very different grounds.
Moreover, it no longer has its own media audience, as Damuah had and as
Otabil has, but depends on the audiences of the programs that feature
Afrikania. In this case we can better speak of public then. In this section I
discuss Afrikania’s imagined publics, its differentiated and often volatile
membership, and the clients of its spiritual consultation service. From its
very foundation, the notion and awareness of “the public” has been crucial
to Afrikania’s activities and formats of representation. The recurring con-
cern is to show the goodness of traditional religion and culture to “the
people,” “the general public,” or “the rest of mankind” and Afrikania has
developed a strong public voice. Often Afrikania directly and exclusively
addresses this abstract, unknown public, as when the leaders speak in a
radio or television program or send letters to the editors of newspapers.
Sometimes an event is directed both at a physically present audience and
“the general public,” such as when the press is present to cover the proceed-
ings of a newsworthy Afrikania occasion or when a Sunday service is
amplified to the whole neighborhood. And sometimes “the public” is also

addressed indirectly, for example, when prospective Afrikania priests are
taught how to go about representing their religion or shrine keepers are
told to keep their shrines neat and hygienic.
This “general public” Afrikania addresses, however, is very diffuse and
differentiated. First of all, “the public” is implicitly envisioned as Christian,
urban, and alienated from traditional culture and religion. These are thus
more or less the same people as those addressed by Otabil. Afrikania’s con-
cern, however, is with changing people’s negative attitude toward ATR in