the wicked major 51some difficulties at that school. Reading English textbooks is proving
particularly challenging for him. His teachers, too, are unfair to him:
although he goes to as much effort as his classmates, his grades are always
worse than theirs. Mai ya’ki knows how to help. He will instruct his me-
dium Isa to prepare a charm, which the student should bury under “the big
kapok tree” at the school compound. That way, the teachers will become
more favorably disposed to him. The student does not seem to know the
tree and asks the spirit for its exact location. Mai ya’ki asks counter ques-
tions, which is typical of spirits, until the student names the place of “the”
tree himself. On top of that, Mai ya’ki promises to provide a potion which
the student is to drink before reading English textbooks. The student
signals his appreciation and again explains how difficult he finds reading
English. Mai ya’ki tells him the title of a textbook and asks the student to
note it down and buy it. “It will improve your reading skills! And you may
also buy fine English literature. Not just any trash, but something fine—
like Chinua Achebe. Do you know Chinua Achebe?” The student con-
fesses that he does not know that author. Mai ya’ki spells Achebe’s name
several times and tells the student to make a note of it. For his help, the
spirit orders a red-feathered rooster as sacrifice for himself and a white-
feathered hen for his mother (the Fulbe spirit Doguwa), and tells the
student to bring the money for the two chickens when he returns to collect
the charm and the medicine. The student accepts Mai ya’ki’s request and
promises to return next week. (author’s field notes, February 16, 1993)As no other visitors were waiting, the spirit prepared to leave. We shook
hands, I bid him farewell, and his medium’s wife helped to remove the
uniform. He dismounted his medium through a series of gestures and
movements somehow the reverse of those displayed during his mounting:
energetically slapping his stomach several times with one hand, moaning
with a deep rattling sound and foaming at the mouth, shouting his praise
names, and suddenly becoming stiff—before sneezing three times and
falling to the ground.
Apart from ordinary people, some Babule mediums, or rather their
spirits, were said to also count among their clients Nigerian military
men, some of whom, out of gratitude, gave Babule mediums parts of their
uniforms, especially belts and boots. Many bori mediums believed that
Nigerian soldiers were actually “working” with the Babule spirits—that
is, offering them sacrifices to gain their assistance and protection. One of
my interlocutors was even strongly convinced that someone like Lt. Gen.
Joshua N. Dogonyaro, a prominent man in Babangida’s military junta