Introduction

Summary

It was past midnight, and the Saharan sky was devoid of moon or stars. The desert winds scattered sand and dust into eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Shadowy figures arose from mats, clutching at voluminous robes, sleepily weaving their way across the village among rocks and goatsties to the compound where there was to be a possession performance. Asalama, the woman in trance, sat silently in a shimmering white blouse as kerosene lamps flickered in the background. Slowly she arose from beneath a blanket and began swaying from side to side to the sounds of singing and drumming. Her motions became more rapid, and the audience praised her dancing. She then danced wildly, throwing herself from one side to the other, remaining seated all the while, until she flung herself to the ground, exhausted.

I first visited Asalama's compound with mutual friends who told me that Asalama suffered from tamazai, “an inner illness and a dangerous sentiment,” and the basis of possession affliction. Although Asalama's audience praised some aesthetic aspects of her possession performance, they also ridiculed her for appearing too often at possession ceremonies, for “craning her neck, looking for a man.” Asalama's male cross-cousin jokingly warned that their sixteen-year-old female cousin, soon to undergo a possession ritual herself, “would become crazy, like Asalama.”