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S

The Wicked Major

EMBODYING CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

1

I t wa s g e t t i ng close to midnight when the musicians finally intoned
the hymn of Magajiyar Jangare. The amplified sound of the garaya, a two-
stringed lute, distorted and cracking through the megaphones that served
as loudspeakers, sent shivers down my spine. I had witnessed a number of
public bori possession dances before and knew that this was the sign for
the spirit mediums to begin their preparations. On that night in Decem-
ber 1992, Idi and his group had been performing in Unguwa Uku, one of
the bustling quarters outside the old city of Kano, Nigeria, since the last
prayer, at about eight that evening. For hours, Idi had sweetly praised
women and men among the audience with words sung to the tunes of the
spirit hymns. Those who were praised had reciprocated with cash, thus
expressing their close relationship to particular spirits as well as their
acknowledgement of Idi’s praise. Now Idi sang the lines which prompted
those willing to come forward to serve as the spirits’ “horses,” or mediums,
on that very night: “Children of bori, come forward, your mother has ar-
rived, the one with the large zane-wrapper.” The six-gourd rattle players
sitting in front of Idi gave their best and sped up the rhythm. Clad only
in single cloths tied around their waists or above their chests, the nine
“children of bori,” six men and three women, came up and sat down in the
middle of the makeshift dance floor, an open space surrounded by more