ARIFA,
stories about the invisible world
Arifa is the name of this central character in the Stambali cult.
This ritual, which came from Sub-Saharan Africa, spread to North Africa with the arabic slave trade. Mix between the Bori ritual and the cult of saints in popular Islam, the Stambali has become a tradition in contemporary Tunisia.
Today, Riadh Ezzawech is one of the last Arifa who practices this traditional ritual in Tunisia. It is through his body and through his powers that the African spirits speak to humans.
Riadh represents about twenty different spirits that each insiders comes to solicit during private or public ceremonies, to benefit their favors.
Faced with the death of the elders, the disillusionment of the contemporary world and the desacralization, this ritual is progressively disappearing.
