Leggende di “sequestro” e di “espianto degli organi”. Uno studio tra Italia e Camerun

Abstract

The survey presents ethnographic data on some conspiracy legends regarding COVID19 recorded in two different grounds: Cameroon and Italy. The authors focus on these legends with particular attention on the content and the intertextuality of the narration. The texts have repetitive patterns and argue that the pandemic is an invention of the “strong powers” to kidnap healthy people and explant their organs, in order to commercialize or make other sacrilegious, occult use of them. The myth of the “kidnapping” and “mutilation of bodies by occult powers / for occult ends” is also present in periods other than that of COVID-19 and falls within the vein of “urban legends” and “conspiracy theories” that attribute sacrilegious actions to minorities or other groups considered dangerous for their being essentially antisocial. This type of legend is therefore updated and put back into circulation today, in a moment of particular anguish. As the authors are still immersed in the pandemic, the conclusions of this analysis of imaginary production are precarious. Therefore, the main purpose of the article is to reflect on the production of popular thought.