Explores the place of secret ritual in a globalized world.

"With a subtlety of thought and a finely tuned awareness of his ethnographic experience, the author provides us with a study of secrecy and the power of tradition that resonates widely with contemporary anthropological studies of heritage, tourism, and the production of locality."—Michael Rowlands, University of London

"A masterful analysis of the relationship between ritual and modernity."—Charles Piot, author of Remotely Global, Village Modernity in West Africa

How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? In this provocative and compelling book, Ferdinand de Jong shows that secrecy provides a powerful means of asserting locality against the forces of globalism. Focusing on initiation rituals and masked performances, de Jong shows how the people of the Casamance region of Senegal have used these practices to incorporate Islam, colonialism, capitalism, and contemporary politics into their world. This book will appeal to readers with interests in the making of modernity and the importance of performing secrecy in global contexts.

Ferdinand de Jong is Lecturer in Anthropology at the School of World Art Studies and Museology at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.