Israel, Paolo2023-03-302023-03-302022Paolo Israel. 2022. Of borders and crossings: the lives of a healer in northern Mozambique, Journal of Southern African Studies, 48:6, 1134-1135, DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2022.2175540https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2022.2175540https://hdl.handle.net/10566/8711Background: Daria Trentini�s book is a narrative exploration of the life and practice of a healer in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula. Ansha, the titular protagonist, was a Makonde migrant from the province of Cabo Delgado who moved to Nampula, converted to Islam and set up a �spirit mosque� in which the Koran and herbal knowledge were used to cure afflictions. Spirit possession (majini) was central both to illness and healing. A being of many worlds, Ansha crossed, navigated and negotiated a number of borders: between ethnicities, regions and religions; between sickness and health, the city and the countryside, the spirit and the human domain. Indeed, the figure of the border � especially the notions of �border crossing� and �border events� � provide the book with its central conceptual anchoringenAnshaMozambiqueBorder crossingSpirit mosqueHealerArticle