Abstract
It is misleading to claim, as do certain anthropologists, that there are two kinds of trance in the Maghreb, one Arabic or Islamic (sufi), and one “black African”. It is a question rather of the relation between mysticism and possession. This study is based on a survey I conducted in Annaba (Algeria) between 1987 and 1990. It shows how the mystic passion in this town is organized in a tight articulation between a cult of saints, a cult of ancestors and a cult of the town itself. The trance of possession can be experienced as violent suffering, or as a gentle madness. Whatever form it takes, the trance must be controlled, in particular by music and dance in a mystic ceremony.