In Africa, the spiritual power is at the center of everyday life, politics and religion. Whatcharacterizes this power, in most of the continent, is its recourse to magic and sorcery. This thesisintends to to understand, if and how, the manipulation of a magical and spiritual reality, might havehelped a dominant power in exercising an hegemonic control. Or on the contrary, to dismantle it.The analysis will focus on two main sources: an ethnographic work based in Congo and a medievalepic set in West Africa.