The Worker's Cauldron
A podcast about the cultural politics of the paranormal. Where Karl Marx shakes his fist at the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot speaks to us about the legacies of colonialism. We discuss the contemporary obsession with all things supernatural through a socialist, feminist lens and ask what our strange experiences and beliefs tell us about the society we live in.
The Worker's Cauldron
News of Njuzu: Mermaids and Modernity in Postcolonial Zimbabwe
In 2012, workers building on a dam in Zimbabwe all walked off the job in protest of unsafe working conditions. What made this story international news was that the workplace danger was mermaids. This week, we discuss the spiritual significance of the njuzu, or the mermaid in Shona indigenous religion, how the country’s troubled history of colonialism informs this belief, and what it all has to do with a massive religious revival in the early 1990s.
Bonus: The Imperial Gaze in western paranormal podcasts
Thanks to Ian Lee for the Creepy Internationale theme song and here is that video about Mermaids in Zimbabwe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1o8lVP8fmI