Genis, Gerhard2022-10-062022-10-062021Genis, G. 2021, '‘A haunting of ancestors’ : the conjuring of memory in indigenous South African poetry', Pharos Journal of Theology, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 1-17., doi : 10.46222/pharosjot.102.117.2414-3324 (online)10.46222/pharosjot.102.117https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/87538This paper focuses on the interaction of language, the physical and psychological body and the environment in creating a conjuring of ancestors in indigenous South African poetry. The ‘haunting’ of the ancestors is mirrored by the intergenerational word-traces in the indigenous poems. These ‘poetic bodies’ are laced with word and phrase markers that consist of cultural-specific metonyms, metaphors and archetypes. The poetic bodies are subsequently stringed together by the word-traces that pulsate in the chromosomes and the minds of the progeny. They order the remembrance and re-membrance of the ancestors within a specific cultural-historical context. Significantly, these ‘poetic bodies’ are conduits of consciousness that reflect communal practices or archetypes and images of loss and gain.en© 2021 Open Access/Author/s.Indigenous poetryAncestorsPoetic bodiesIntergenerational memoryRe-memberingArticle