African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 887
central state government) and ecological crisis (recurrent droughts), both of which
threaten long-standing Tuareg beliefs, practices, and social institutions.
Therefore, during possession rites, when human and spirit realities most obviously
interpenetrate, or fuse, as Stoller (1989) suggests, cultural knowledge is momentarily
embodied, expressed indirectly via the images and antics of the alien performance, and
undoubtedly changed.
Songhay Rituals
Without denying their seriousness to participants, possession ceremonies have been
described in aesthetic terms as theater, allegory, satire, and burlesque, and as witty and
historically per-ceptive metacommentaries on the human world. Among the Songhay of
western Niger, myths constitute the charter of the spirit-possession cult: there are myths
about the origin of the various families of spirits. Each has a genealogy, with names and
ethnic origins for all the families of the Songhay pantheon. Human beings are never far
from the domain of the spirits, and the spirits often intervene in the social affairs of
human beings.
Spirit incantations take the form of praise poems in which the sorko, a bard of the
spirits, first indirectly declares his powerlessness—a kind of prostration before the spirit
world—and then sings about the great exploits of the spirits. The most important set of
praise songs is called Tooru che and is recited for the nobles of the Songhay spirit world.
Entrance into a spirit-possession cult occurs, not by personal choice, but when a person is
struck by an illness that does not respond to any kind of treatment, thus signifying that
the sickness is extraordinary, precipitated by a spirit.
Ritual elements of Songhay possession include music (especially songs), dance,
costumes, altars, stones, hatchets, antelope horns, and dolls. The Songhay state that the
godji violin or the drum carries the words. Songhay say that the sound of the godji “cries”
for all Songhay, penetrating them and making them feel the presence of the ancestors. It
is the most sacred of instruments. The sound of the godji is a tangible link between
Songhay present and past, for this wailing sound revivifies deep-seated cultural themes
about the nature of life and death, the origin of the Songhay, and the juxtaposition of the
social and spirit worlds. These themes, in turn, reinforce Songhay cultural identity.
Ritual music is a veritable support for the phrases of the praise poem. Stoller explores
the power of sound in Songhay spirit possession. The sorko, the praise-singer to the
spirits of the Songhay pantheon, is a healer in his own right: he knows the words that can
repel witches and sorcerers. The zima, or ritual priest, is the impressario and healer
associated exclusively with the Songhay possession cult. These men and women know
the words that have the force to beckon the spirits from the spirit world to the world of
social life. All these practitioners must undergo a long apprenticeship, during which they
memorize scores of ritual incantations and learn to apply these special words to the
substances they prepare for clients. A magical substance (a vine, a tree bark, a stone, or a
cowry shell) is without power unless a possession-ritual specialist has imbued it with
force.
It is clear that esthetic and performance dimensions of possession are inseparable from
its spirituality, from its capacity to reformulate identity or to heal. Since possession is