ABSTRACT
Harry G. West and Todd Sanders try to avoid identifying the religious and spiritual as constitutive particularly of postcolonial modernities by introducing the term ‘occult cosmologies’ – which they define, in a non-pejorative sense, as ‘systems of belief in a world animated by the secret, mysterious, and/or unseen powers’. In South Africa, the work of David Levey has been exemplary in trying to balance the demands of critical rigour and the realities of belief in literary studies. Textually, Ashforth’s monograph takes risks, shifting narrative strategies frequently and often eschewing the measured academicdiscursive third person for the engaged, embarrassed or confused firstperson. The apartheid system came to an end and with it the emotional resonance of that harsh word signifying shared oppression for black people.
