the wicked major 47herited the “force” the early Babule adepts had seen in the colonial Eu-
ropeans. During the Biafran War (1967–1970), the number of people in
the armed forces soared from 10,000 to 250,000, leading to a heightened
military presence and new military infrastructure, such as the building
of barracks, throughout the country (Tyoden 1989). In the aftermath of
the war, soldiers became role models of sorts for many young men. “The
army’s style of life... contains a strong emphasis on material consump-
tion and its symbols. It is not uncommon to find that many officers own
large and luxurious cars, large radiograms, and houses, and that they also
consume a lot of alcohol and make little pretense over their delight in
wine, women and songs” (Ukpabi 1976: 75–76). Popular cultural forms
responded to the material wealth and power of the soldiers. Musicians
chose impressive titles for themselves, such as “General” or “Brigadier,”
and members of youth gangs used nicknames like “Colonel” or “Com-
mander” (75–76). Hausa musicians and their female dancers performed
the soja-dance (soldier dance), which featured marching and parading
dancers and musicians imitating military bugle tunes (Ames 1973).
Given the Nigerian public’s fascination with all things military, it is not
surprising that the images of the Babule spirits constructed by the bori ad-
epts were also militaristic. In the bori mythology of the 1990s, the Babule
lived in barracks, and their delight in “wine, women and songs” echoes the
picture Sam Ukpabi has drawn of this borrowing of military elements into
Nigerian popular culture. W hen the Babule mounted their “horses” dur-
ing possession dances, they dressed in uniform (see figure 1.1) and ordered
alcohol and cigarettes. Both substances also served as their sacrificial of-
ferings. Moreover, they were believed to make their mediums rich and
fa mous a s long a s t he “ horses” obeyed t hei r r u les. A nd it seemed to me t hat
as the spirit mediums—many of them young men—came to resemble real-
life soldiers, they became all the more appealing to women, who tended to
be att rac ted to sold iers. Fi na l ly, some of t he spi r it s’ pra ise songs seemed to
be highly influenced by the praise songs composed by Hausa singer-poets
around 1968, which were intended for the federal troops fighting against
the Biafran rebels (Krings 1997). Lyrics such as “Black ones, lads of the gov-
ernor / You know how to dance, you know how to fight / Soldiers, rolling
flight of the black-and-white crow / Everyone who sees your blackness /
will also see your whiteness,”^4 ha rken back to t he wa’ kar soja (s o l d i e r s o n g )