Summary
In this paper I propose to discuss a modality of spiritual mediumship that questionsmainstream interpretations of such phenomena as processes of materialization,manifestation and aesthetic display. I will use the case study of the prophetic cultures of the Tokoist Church in Angola, a Christian prophetic movement that emerged in the late colonial period, founded by a former Baptist student called Simão Gonçalves Toko (1918-1984). The church was founded after what was described as a Pentecostal event (Blanes 2014), but subsequently developed a form of prophetic spiritualism - locally referred to as corpos vates or foreseeing bodies - that produced an internal archive of prophetic knowledge, handed to the world through the channeling effected by spirits of ancient prophets. In this work we observe processes of enskillment and learning to discern that produce what I call silent prophets, a human-spirit relationship based on secrecy and semiotic reduction. These 'silent prophets' constitute a form of mediumistic and prophetic practice that are opposite to what Dick Werbner (2012) recently called holy hustlers: they are anonymous, secluded, antimaterialistic and anti-aesthetic. Invoking ethnographic and historical research conducted among the Tokoist corpos vates between 2007 and 2015, I will use this discussion as a pretext for a debate on the aesthetics of religious - spiritual mediation.
Keywords
Religion. Mediation. Spirits. Angola. Prophetism. Technology.