the wicked major 39cosmology of the Dinka and therefore conceptualize the Babule as images
of passiones, as ritual representations of external powers by which the peas-
ants of southwestern Niger felt moved. Lienhardt (1961: 151) uses the Latin
word passiones “to indicate an opposite of actions in relation to the human
self,” something that is lost in the modern English term passion. Following
this terminology, the Babule are “the images of human passiones seen as
the active sources of those passiones (151).” But how are these images re-
lated to the actual experience the Nigerien peasants had with the French?
Fritz Kramer (1993: 251) draws on Plato’s conception of mimesis—imitative
representat ion—a nd defi nes it a s “a ba sic for m of hu ma n behav ior wh ich is
not primarily purposive.” According to Kramer, mimesis can be triggered
by the experience of cultural difference in the confrontation with alien
others, who in appearance and behavior are marked by a strong alterity
vis-à-vis the self. The sheer difference and “unfamiliarity of the other can
overwhelm and compel mimesis (251).” Kramer (1993) goes on to say:
Possession is experienced not merely as non-independent action, but in
fact as an express compulsion to “imitate,” to resemble an other which
is different to the subject and which wishes to be represented. A lthough
this “other” is considered to be not the visible reality as such, but rather
“spirit,” here “spirit” is understood as an “image of a passio,” as a piece of
reality which has detached itself and become independent, often being
that which makes the visible entity the member of its class. The spirit host
seems to have ceased to be his self; he acts and speaks as an other; and
precisely this is also the oldest and probably most original distinguishing
feature of mimesis in the European tradition. (249)Spirits may be understood as refractions of reality or, to be more precise:
as externalized refractions of reality as experienced by those who become
affected by it. Within the Hausaphone societies of Niger and Nigeria, new
spirits have appeared quite frequently in the past (Echard 1992; Masque-
lier 2001), and have continued to do so until recently (Casey 1997). Of the
hundreds of spirits that may appear, only a small number are recognized
beyond the immediate context of their first apparition and therefore make
it into the bori pantheon. These are the spirits that strike a chord among
those who take part in the process of establishing their personality and
meaning, the shaping of which occurs after a spirit’s first spontaneous
manifestation (Echard 1992). In the complex negotiations that play out