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4. The Naked Spirit: Disrobing, Deviance, and Dissent in Bori Possession
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122 four The Naked Spirit Disrobing, Deviance, and Dissent in Bori Possession Adeline Masquelier Excessive laughter and gazing on nakedness, Is wicked among Muslims, As are showiness and disrespect, False accusations and ignorance, A full veil is best for women. —Hausa song on women’s proper attire. In Beverly Mack, Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song (2004) Stripping on the Possession Grounds In May 1989, during a bori possession ceremony held some ten miles south of Dogondoutchi (Niger) in a Mawri1 village I shall call Ourgam, something quite unexpected happened. It was late in the afternoon and some villagers had assembled on an empty lot to witness a husband’s gesture of gratitude to the spirits who had made his wife well following years of illness. The man had pledged that he would hold a wasa (possession ceremony) for the spirits if his wife recovered from the affliction which plagued her. Several years later, he was honoring his promise. After some of the Zarma-speaking spirits who control the rain—upon being invited to make an appearance—had taken hold of their hosts’ bodies, a young medium I shall call Zeinabou was suddenly possessed by a spirit whose presence had been neither requested nor anticipated. Such unexpected possession would even become a major source of embarrassment for some of the attending parties—including me. Bori spirits, I should point out, are known to occasionally show up uninvited when they feel the need to communicate urgently with a person or to make pressing revelations (Masquelier 2001, 2002). In this respect, the sudden irruption of The Naked Spirit 123 Zeinabou’s spirit on the possession grounds was hardly unusual, especially given the junior status of her devotee—a recent initiate—who presumably lacked the expertise with which more experienced mediums controlled and contained defiant spirits. What that spirit did following her entrance on the possession scene, however, would prove far more problematic. There was, at first, nothing remarkable about the way Zeinabou started to shiver and shake. Her face twisted as if in pain and her bulging eyes rolled in their orbits. As the trance intensified, Zeinabou, alias the spirit, stood up and started walking furiously across the ceremonial grounds. Then, all of a sudden, and instead of mingling with the other spirits who had recently arrived and would soon be welcomed with offerings of money, the spirit suddenly stopped. The light was quickly fading and the air was thick with the red dust raised by the frenetic stomping of dancers who, oblivious to the spirits’ presence, lingered , unwilling perhaps to let the joyous occasion turn so soon into a work session. Despite the lack of visibility, I could see beads of glistening sweat running down Zeinabou’s forehead. Then, abruptly and without warning, the spirit started to untie her host’s wrapper. Alarmed and mindful of the very negative implications of nakedness in Mawri society, I rushed to Zeinabou’s side to try to prevent any further disrobing. The raging force that had opportunistically invaded the young medium’s body bore no resemblance to any of the five spirits that regularly possessed Zeinabou. I had partially managed to hold on to both extremities of the wrapper in an effort to cover Zeinabou’s waist and legs when the spirit started violently pulling down Zeinabou’s underpants . Abandoning all attempts to cover the young woman’s partially naked lower body with her wrapper, I quickly took hold of the undergarment, hoping to prevent the spirit from further disrobing—and ultimately disgracing—her host. In vain. My strenuous efforts to protect Zeinabou from the impending shame of nakedness proved to be no match for the spirit’s uncommon strength. As I wrestled with a force about which I knew nothing, thoughts raced through my mind. Darkness had almost completely set in, I realized gratefully. Perhaps few were aware of the shocking events unfolding before their very eyes and this was why no one had come to lend me a helpful hand. Perhaps, knowing of my close friendship to Zeinabou, participants expected me to take charge and rescue her from any potentially threatening situation. At last, after what seemed like an eternity, the spirit escaped my grasp and, while I stood shaking and out of breath, holding the undergarment, she took off. Soon after, I saw my friend collapse on the sandy ground—an indication that the spirit had left her host—and I rushed once more to cover her bare...