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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Lightning, Death and the Avenging Spirits: Bori Values in a Muslim World |
| Author: | Masquelier, Adeline M. |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | February |
| Pages: | 2-51 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Niger |
| Subjects: | Islam magic Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft spirit possession syncretism |
| Link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1581373.pdf |
| Abstract: | 'Bori' is a cult of spirit possession. It has adepts among the Mawri peasants of Arewa, southern Niger. This paper discusses 'bori' adepts' attempts to gain control over the flow that encompasses physiological, economic and cosmic processes all at once, and which finds its most salient expression in 'bori' understanding and management of lightning. Through an examination of the images, practices and disputes relating to local conceptualizations of lightning, the paper explores the unconventional forms that power, dissent and resistance take in the context of 'bori' and discusses the implications of the cult's representations of authority in the current sociopolitical context of Mawri life. Focusing on the interrelated themes of fire, rain and smithing, lying and oath-taking, flow and blockage, and burial and justice, the paper shows how 'bori' constitutes a statement of protest and defiance in the face of Islamic domination. Central to the argument is the notion that 'bori' articulates various levels of experience by mediating distant and elusive forces through the management of corporeal signs and immediate contexts. 'Bori' theories of lightning are part of a coherent vision of the world which centres upon notions of flow and balance at the personal, social and cosmological level. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
