Hausa animism, Maguzanci or Bori is a pre-Islamic traditional religion of the Hausa people of West Africa that involves magic and spirit possession. While only a part of the Hausa people (mostly within urban elites) converted to Islam before the end of the 18th century, most of the adherents of the religion did the same between the jihad started by the Islamic reformer Usman dan Fodio around 1800 and the beginning of the 20th century, while a small minority converted to Christianity. Religious affiliation to this traditional religion is virtually nonexistent at the beginning of the 21st century; however, Hausa animism and Islam among Hausa people have coexisted for centuries, and some practices related to animism carry on locally.
When discussing "bori", there is a distinction to be made between the beliefs of the Manguzawa (which consist of pagan or heavily pagan influenced Hausa religion), the general belief in spirits and animism that persists even among Muslim Hausa, and the possession-trance group that puts on dance performances and ceremonies.
Terminology Bòòríí is a Hausa noun, meaning the spiritual force that resides in physical things, and is related to the word for local distilled alcohol (borassa) as well the practice of medicine (boka).H. R. Palmer. "'Bori' Among the Hausas". Man, Vol. 14, 1914 (1914), pp. 113–117. The Bori religion is both an institution to control these forces, and the performance of an "adorcism" (as opposed to exorcism) ritual, dance and music by which these spirits are controlled and by which illness is healed.Lewis, Al-Safi, Hurreiz (1991).
Spirits are called bori, iska (plu. iskoki), or aljan. Iska has a non-Muslim connotation, so many Muslim Hausa prefer to use the term aljan, which comes from the Arabic word jinn.
Possessing spirits in the possession-trance group are called the spirit(s) "on (your) head". Possession-trance group members are called yan bori (children of the bori), dam bori (son of the bori), yar bori (daughter of the bori), doki (horse) for male devotees, and godiya (mare) for female devotees. Attendants who help the yam bori but don't trance are called masu kiwo (herders or grooms), and help them get dressed and keep the spectators safe.
Musicians may generally be called maroka, though more specific terms exist. Female musicians are called zabiyoyi. A mawaki is a vocalist. A mabushi is a wind instrument player. A makadi is a drummer. The female chorus at bori events is called the Yan Kwarya whether they are professional musicians or not.
Pre-Islamic Hausaland According to Abdullahi Smith, the high god of Hausa animism was called Ubangiji, and spirits among people iskoki, which communities sought to maintain good relations with. Rituals were led by priests (bokaye), family heads, and on occasion the sarki (king).
An aspect of the traditional Maguzawa Hausa people's religious traditions, Bori became a state religion led by ruling-class priestesses among some of the late precolonial Hausa Kingdoms. When Islam started making inroads into Hausaland in the 11th century, certain aspects of the religion such as idol worship were driven underground. The cult of Tsumbubura in the then-Sultanate of Kano and many other similar Bori cults were suppressed, but Bori survived in "spirit-possession" cults by integrating some aspects of Islam. The Bori spirit possession priestesses maintained nominal influence over the Sultanates that replaced the earlier Animist kingdoms. Priestesses communed with spirits through ecstatic dance ritual, hoping to guide and maintain the state's ruling houses. A corps of Bori priestesses and their helpers was led by royal priestess, titled the Inna, or "Mother of us all".Variations included Iya, Magaram, and Magajiya. See Bergstrom (2002). The Inna oversaw this network, which was not only responsible for protecting society from malevolent forces through possession dances, but which provided healing and divination throughout the kingdom.
Post-Islamic and contemporary practice History Muslim scholars of the early 19th century disapproved of the hybrid religion practised in royal courts; zealous Muslims were to use this hybridization as an excuse to overthrow the Sultanates and form the Sokoto Caliphate.Robinson, David, Muslim Societies in African History (Cambridge, 2004), p. 141. With the birth of the Caliphate, Bori practices were partially suppressed in Fula courts. Bori possession rituals survived in the Hausa refugee states such as Konni and Dogondutchi (in what is today southern Niger) and in some rural areas of Nigerian Hausaland. The powerful advisory roles of women, exemplified in the Bori priestesses, either disappeared or were transferred to Muslim women in scholarly, educational, and community leadership roles. British and French colonialism, though, offered little space for women in the official hierarchies of indirect rule, and the formal roles, like the Bori, for women in governance largely disappeared by the mid 20th century.See Bergstrom (2002)'s discussion of this, particularly under the Zinder caliphate in Niger.
In modern Muslim Hausaland, Bori ritual survives in some places assimilated into syncretic practices. The ranks of the pre-Muslim "babbaku" spirits of the Maguzaci have been augmented over time with "Muslim" spirits ("farfaru"), and spirits of (or representing) other ethnic groups, even those of the European colonialists. The healing and "luck" aspects of the performances of Bori members (almost exclusively women) provide new social roles for their rituals and practitioners.Umar Habila Dadem Danfulani. Factors Contributing to the Survival of the Bori Cult in Northern Nigeria. Bori ritual societies, separated from governing structures, provide a powerful corporate identity for the women who belong to them through the practice of traditional healing, as well as through the performance of Bori festival like the girka initiation ritual.Masquelier, Review (1992). The possession-trance group is only one aspect of the Maguzawa religious practice, and it is the major one that has held on in Muslim communities.
Beliefs The beliefs espoused by Bori-Islam about a person are similar to the multipart soul concept found in other cultures. In the body of each person, there is the soul, residing in the heart, and the life, which wanders about inside the body. They have a bori of the same sex, which is an intermediary between the human and the jinn. Between puberty and marriage, most have a second bori, of the opposite sex, which most be consulted before marriage to prevent the fallout of its jealousy, as it has intercourse with the human as they sleep. In addition to all this, there are two angels over a person's left and right shoulders, recording their evil and good thoughts.
The Manguzawa are either not Muslim, or are considered to have only superficially converted. Allah is considered distant, with the iskoki (spirits) instead being the active supernatural force in people's lives. The Maguzawa theology is monotheistic in the sense that one being controls the universe. Today this is Allah, but before Islam this role may have been filled by Sarkin Aljan, who is the head of the bori and the city Jangare even today. The spirits serve as intermediaries between humans and the divine creator. There are four main elements to their beliefs: family rituals, public rituals, individual aspects, and possession-trance rites.
The family rituals are done by the Mai-Gida (head of the patrilineal extended family that works the same ancestral land, gandu), in connection to agricultural events and marriages. It consists of sacrifices made to the inherited iskoki spirits, with them drinking the blood, and the sacrifices eating the meat or giving it as alms. The family rituals are not done by urban Muslim Hausa. The public rituals have fallen out of favor. The individual aspects are mostly sacrifices done for personal ends. The socially acceptable of these are offerings done by groups to the relevant spirits to ensure their cooperation in their occupation, and offerings prescribed by a boka to remedy spirit caused ailments. Some may also do sacrifices to evil spirits (dodo) to get help in committing nefarious deeds. The possession-trance group among the Maguzawa is simpler and less prominent. Its ceremonies are tied to specific events and crises. Each clan has one spirit that is "on the heads" of all members, but some individuals may be possessed by other spirits as well.
Spirits There are many spirits connected to people, animals, plants, and big rocks. The two personal ("friendly") bori are like the qarin, which does not come into being until after the person it is attached to is born, as that is when a person's sex is known (one of these qarin-like spirit is of the opposite sex). All these- people, animals, plants, and big rocks- have a permanent soul (quruwa), two attendant angels, and a bori of the same sex.
There are other bori not directly connected to living people, such as those which are or are inspired by Muslim saints, well known jinn, embodiments of other tribes, ancestors, the spirits of infants, totems (such as animals), and gods. The bori are like humans, but they are not human, and they are not visible in human cities. They are considered both above humans, in heaven (because they are sometimes conflated with angels), and below humans in the earth. The bori, like people, keep cattle, though this does not prevent them from bothering human herds. Many of the bori belong to 12 families or "houses". Bori are considered to be like the people they live among. The names, characteristics, favorite resting places, appropriate sacrifices, and more of the spirits form the basis of ritual practice. The rosters of known Bori spirits and their behaviors tend to remain the same, and the spirits stay relevant, though their genealogies may change. Spirits are often divided into "white" or "black", which mostly overlaps with the categories of "Muslim" and "pagan", and the categories of "town" and "bush". However, a Muslim spirit may be called black if it causes certain afflictions, such as paralysis. The black/white and Muslim/pagan distinction seems to be Muslim in origin, while the town/bush distinction seems to have been native, and location based identification is more prominent.
In Kano, Jangare, the city in which the Bori live, is ruled by a "Court of the East", with Sarkin Aljan as the head, and is a centralized authority compared to others' accounts of a more mild feudal organization. In Ningi, he is the ultimate head and divides authority with the heads of the other houses. Everyone agrees that there are 12 houses, but they do not agree on who rules or is part of them. Houses are generally said to be ruled by a first born, and spirits are grouped by ethnicity, occupation, and descent. This becomes complicated as relational terms used for spirits are vague, and spirits practice a complex system of child avoidance and adoption. The basic information is contained in praise-epithets, songs, and spirit behavior at ceremonies, but is interpreted differently. Though these interpretations vary between different people, each person is consistent about their own recounting. The houses are linked by adoption, clientship, office, kinship, and affinity. For example, the Fulani house is linked to all other houses via marriage, and occasionally through the marriages of the offspring of brothers and half brothers. The other spirits tend to endogamy.