Communicating with the Spirit World

Many African religions believe that the world of spirits and the world of humans are closely intertwined. Spirits live near human beings in the same communities and often exist in a reciprocal relationship with them.

Among the Dogon, the dama is a rite of passage for young men, which also helps the recently deceased enter the state of being ancestors. The rite happens only once every several years, and masked participants dance to usher the recently deceased into the world of the spirits. The masks prepared for the dama are elaborately carved and represent animals and the mythical ancestors.

This early twentieth-century wooden tray is used to determine future events with the Ifa divination system, a part of Yoruba religion.

These nineteenth-century Yoruba sculptures from Nigeria commemorate twins who died. Twins are of great significance in many African religions, as among the Dogon, discussed in this chapter.

Sacrifice

In African religions, people communicate with supernatural beings primarily through sacrifice. In many religions the world over, the dedication of something valuable to a spirit—a sacrifice—has the power to influence that spirit.

In other African contexts, larger sacrifices, such as an animal, are necessary. In some religions, there has traditionally been a close relationship between practices of healing and sacrifice. Illnesses may be attributed to a spirit’s punishment of a person’s bad behavior. In such cases, an animal may be sacrificed as a form of repentance and as a request for forgiveness from the aggrieved spirit. The Nuer, for example, typically sacrificed animals as a substitute for the person who was afflicted with an illness. The animal was offered to the spirits in exchange for the health of the person. However, in recent years, as Nuer people have begun attributing illness to biological causes instead of angry spirits and as more have adopted Christianity, the use of animal sacrifice in healing has diminished.²²

Divination

In some African religions, people use a practice called divination to communicate with spirits. Divination is the attempt to predict the future through supernatural agents or powers. The Yoruba use a divination system called J/h to communicate with the spirit world. A person called a diviner performs the divination. Yoruba religion teaches that Ijfa was developed when the High God removed himself from the earthly world. His children remained behind, and he gave them a divinatory system to communicate with him. They shared this system with human beings. Through Ifa, humans are able to communicate with and make requests of the gods and the spirits of the dead.

Yoruba diviners also use Ifa to predict the destinies and future of individuals. The diviners use a special collection of poetic verses and palm nuts to foresee future events and converse with supernatural beings.

Palm nuts with a blue cloth bag, used by the Yoruba people for divination.

Spirit Possession

Another way people communicate with the spirit world is through spirit possession. A belief in spirit possession is prevalent throughout Africa, and in many places this sort of interaction with spirits is a normal part of daily life. People communicate with spirits through a medium —an individual who has become possessed. Although both women and men may become possessed, in many cultures women are far more likely to become so. The possessed individual is called a medium because she mediates between the human world and the spirit world. The spirit takes over the medium’s body, and the medium then acts according to the will of the spirit while she is possessed. Because spirit possession usually takes place in public, many people can witness the possession and interact with the spirit through the medium. When a spirit possesses a person, she enters a state of trance. Others may then talk to or make requests of the spirit through her.

Throughout Africa, people ascribe different meanings to possession. Some traditions view possession negatively. It might cause illness or cause the medium to harm others. In such cases, a spiritual healer may be called upon to drive the spirit away. Elsewhere, people may encourage possession in order to communicate with the spirit world. Individuals may use special dancing, music, and drumming to entice a spirit. In such contexts, some people may be more prone to spirit possession than others. Sometimes, people who have the ability to become possessed achieve a special religious status.

In West Africa, there is a widespread belief in spirits known as bori who have the power to possess people. There are many different bori, and they have individual personalities. Among the Mawri people of Niger, spirits such as Maria, a flirtatious young prostitute, regularly possess mediums.-³ In Northeast Africa, the zar spirits are similar to the bori and are prominent throughout the region. Possession beliefs are also prevalent among Muslims and Christians in Africa. As these religions gained adherents in sub-Saharan Africa, many elements of preexisting religious practice remained. For example, Mawri people began converting to Islam in the mid-twentieth century, but the bori spirits remain. In Northeast Africa, the zar spirits possess both Muslims and Christians.

Why do people become possessed? What does it mean for those who become possessed? Many scholars have tried to answer these questions. Some have argued that spirit possession is therapeutic for those who have mental or physical illness. Others suggest that spirit possession is a way for people to deal with rapid cultural change and the problems of modernity. For example, when the spirit Maria possesses Mawri women, they might be expressing an internal conflict between their desire to be traditional wives and mothers and the temptations of urban life and consumer culture, which Maria loves.-⁴

Women often play a prominent role in possession complexes, and throughout Africa women are often more likely to become possessed than men. When possessed, a woman becomes a powerful representative of the spirit world. Some scholars have argued that this allows women to achieve a temporarily high status in male-dominated societies and in religions in which men control mainstream religious practice.-⁵ However, women’s spirit possession practices are frequently at the center of religious life, not relegated to the margins. In Nigeria, Edo women participate in the worship of the god Olokun, who is at the heart of Edo religion. In Edo cosmology, Olokun is a very important god who has authority over fertility and wealth. By participating in the possession cult, Edo women gain permanent high status in the community. And although women who serve Olokun as priestesses do not have political authority in the same way men do, they can exert a great deal of power by settling disputes and acting as medical advisors.—

Two Orixas, or orishas, who possess the women, dance in their finery at a Candomble festival in Brazil held in their honor.