Hidden schemes and suspicious constructions. Inversive moments of occult infrastructures in Madagascar

This contribution explores rumours of dubious activities at coastal sites in Madagascar, investigating occult formations through their underlying infrastructures. By introducing the concept of 'occult infrastructure', it illuminates the socio-material arrangements enabling the flow of occult forces. Suspicious constructions, marked by technological innovations and symbolic displays of power and social status, embody tangible expressions of occult infrastructures. The contribution contends that the interplay between the enduring nature of these structures and the transient quality of occult rumours creates moments of inversion – a temporary overlap between the occult and the ordinary, resulting in brief revelations before receding into concealed realms. This alignment of temporal, discursive, and material elements within occult phenomena aims not to uncover a hidden scheme but to provide an additional layer of understanding to an ongoing narrative.