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Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account. Author: M. It does not obey the ordinary laws of flows and exchange. First, that human blood should serve to fuel the production of wealth in this predatory scheme is no accident. Blood figures as a remarkably generative fluid in local conceptions of physiology and sociality It imparts strength and life to all limbs and organs, and must be continuously replenished though the regular ingestion of food.
Blood, the quality, volume, and consistency of which changes daily, is thus a sort of fuel that gives energy to the body. Through its qualitative and quantitative variations, blood symptomatises the moral and material transactions people engage in. It follows that individuals who engage in witchcraft have bakin jini, and by extension, bakin fata black skin because the gossip which denounces them as witches have stained them. She is, after all, a disembodied spirit, a creature of the wild.
By depleting a person of her blood, the Doguwa takes away more than life. She destroys the very ideas of family and reproduction, of how life is renewed, by perverting the terms blood, nurturance, productivity through which kinship is affirmed and sustained.
As a prime symbol of maternity, milk is a marker of kinship. Milk establishes an inalienable bond between a mother and her child.
Nicolas 68 notes that while a father is tied to his children through blood jini , attachment is also reckoned matrilineally through milk, the vital substance that sustains children during their infancy.
Significantly, it is through milk that a witch is said to pass her malevolent powers to her children which is why a father who suspects his wife of being a maya must pay her for her nono breast milk It can protect against the threat of lightning. Far then from being a neutral substance, its use and ingestion must be carefully monitored precisely because it is so centrally implicated in the materialization or obliteration of kinship and closeness.
Except for the secrecy that surrounds her presence, she behaves as any member of the household would, living, sleeping, and feeding in the family compound. Indeed, like other members of the household, she contributes to the common wealth and expects to receive sustenance. But then when you tell her to go, she always returns. And she kills the people of your household […] even when she is tired of killing people, she stays with you.
She never goes back to the bush. While the maye is said to own the spirit, in a very real sense, she also owns him. Over time, the maye will be forced to sacrifice his family to satiate her gluttonous appetite for blood. Because the kinship created between the maye and the spirit through the exchange of milk is motivated by selfishness rather than solidarity, it becomes antithetical to true kinship itself.
To be sustained, it feeds on the very substance of kinship, blood. By constantly redefining, contradicting, and undermining the boundaries of kinship, it ultimately betrays them.
The recent wave of spirit possession that afflicted Taita schoolgirls in coastal Kenya, he suggests, is a dramatic response to the challenges introduced by the liberalization of the local economy. True, older notions of maita —linked to material wealth, its production and its distortion—have been redeployed to account for new processes and new outcomes—such as when politicians turn to mayu for assistance to embezzle large sums of money from the state coffers.
Nonetheless, I have suggested here, maita increasingly appears to speak to a specific experience of social transformation, having to do with the recent Islamisation of the region. Far from disappearing with the resolute progress of Islam, notions of witchcraft have become central to the ways that ordinary Dogondoutchi residents understand the success and visibility of local elites.
Aside from demonstrating that Muslims are, despite adamant claims to the contrary, deeply engaged with the occult, the identification of Muslim witches is an effective strategy for reasserting the centrality of spirit-centred practices aimed at protecting people and places from marauding spirits.
While witchcraft certainly exists within modernity, people in Arewa do not see witchcraft practices as constituents of the modern, quite the contrary. When individuals accused of witchcraft are declared innocent by the chef de canton, people are quick to suggest that bribery was involved. Paradoxically, it is also why Muslims —who claim to be disengaged with pre-Islamic traditions—are thought to engage in such nefarious processes of wealth production.
Thus, while Doguwa-related witchcraft speaks to and helps define the particular modernity that Muslims embody and the far-reaching changes that Islamisation has brought in its wake, it remains the hallmark of the unmodern—and this is what makes it so powerfully effective.
A pter , A. C omaroff eds. A sforth , A. B eidelman , T. W inter eds. B lunt , R. W eiss ed. C iekawy , D. C iekawy eds. C omaroff , J. D arrah , A. Dissertation Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University. D ordet dir. E nglund , H. E vans -P ritchard , E. F aulkingham , R. F erguson , J. F uglestad , F. G eschiere , P. G reen , M. G reenberg , J.
H unter , M. L ambek , M. T erray dir. S trathern eds. M arwick , M. M asquelier , A. M auss , M. M eyer , B. M iddleton , J. M oore , H. N icolas , G. M eillassoux dir. R utherford , B. S anders , T. S anders eds. S chmoll , P. S mith , D. S mith , J. S mith , M. S oares , B. T aussig , M. W alsh , A. W eiss , B. Navigation — Plan du site.
Keywords : Niger , Dogondoutchi , muslim identity , spirits. Plan Islam, Modernity, and the Occult. The Proliferation of Maita in the Age of Islam. Wealth, Witchcraft, and Anti-Sociality. Witchcraft, Muslim Elites, and the Weight of the Past.
Milk, Blood, and the Betrayal of Kinship. Bibliographie A pter , A. Notes 1 Traditionally recognizable by their facial scars, Hausa-speaking Mawri identify themselves with the Hausa, a large sedentary population of subsistence farmers that constitutes about 50 percent of the total population of Niger. Educated Nigeriens speak of la sorcellerie when referring to maita. The complex ways that bori has simultaneously competed with and borrowed from Islam means that some see no incompatibility between their commitment to bori and their identities as Muslims.
To them, possession is part of a wider religious enterprise. Others disagree with this picture, and see bori as incompatible with Muslim practices. Such divisions often follow gender lines. Therefore one need not look far to initiate contact with one of these spirits.
In the very act of offering a chicken rather than say, a goat to the Doguwa, that witch thus sets in motions the fateful process that will eventually result in the death of numerous people. Or your father, followed by your mother. There the accused was given swamp water to drink.
If he vomited it, he demonstrated his innocence, had the water been swallowed, he showed his guit and had to pay the sarki 8, CFA. By enabling communion with the spirits who have the power to cure, to protect, and the empower, bori devotee affirm their usefulness in the community M asquelier I met spirit mediums who credited the fact that they never wanted for anything in their spirit s.
There was nothing suspect or immoral in this partnership. Muslims, on the other hand, credit their wealth to hard work and the blessings they receive from God, which is what raised the suspicion of neighbours. He went to see his teacher who told him that he would have such dreams until his family held a walima.
The procedure is not without risks: the healer performing the exorcism may well end up being the next victim of the Doguwa spirit if his own spirits do not offer enough protection. Therefore, only experiences bori healer advertise their services as exorcists. Some were young, others much older.
While a few lived in the same village as the witch, many were residents of Dogoundoutchi, where Usuman came to the market—the largest in the region—every Friday to sell his goods.
In one case I heard of, the accused was escorted to Gumbin Kano by his paternal uncle and found guilty of witchcraft. She had felt out of sorts, weak, oppressed. The reverse effect was seen when abortion was banned in Romania [ 67 ]. The above statistics and the evidence presented underscore the need for Islamic nations to re-visit their policies on abortion.
The available evidence indicates a large disparity in Islamic thinking on TOP, suggesting the need for Muslim nations to collectively resolve the issue of abortion in Islam for a common stand on this matter for the betterment of the Islamic nation at large and for preserving the well-being of women.
The issue of the termination of a pregnancy past days of pregnancy due to severe foetal anomalies in Islam lies somewhere between the permissible and forbidden.
Due to the enormous amount of pain and suffering that the mothers of affected foetuses endure, the authors implore scholars to re-visit and debate the issue further for pregnancies beyond the th day.
The authors urge Muslim law makers to deliberate and consider abortion past the th day of fertilisation to avoid substantial hardship to mothers and family members if it is certain that the severely anomalous foetus will decease after birth or will be severely malformed and physically and mentally incapacitated after birth.
If no religious intervention is instituted, the guilt-conscious Muslim society, and in particular the affected mother, may have to endure pain and suffering for years if the anomalous foetuses are left to proceed to term in spite of the knowledge bestowed upon the learned community that has the means at its disposal to prevent such catastrophes.
The reference to the previous two verses ,80 may not find favour with clerics, and their relevance to the current discourse remains to be acknowledged by the relevant authorities. The authors highlight this verse to stimulate a debate on TOP post the th day of pregnancy. More importantly, it is crucial for policy-makers and clerics that advise governments on the issue of edicts pertaining to the TOP debate and to formulate effective policies or edicts so that sufferings can be avoided.
It is argued the physical well-being takes precedence over religious well-being. Intervention is lawful if it is useful and beneficial, and the performance of a specific medical procedure that benefits the physical well-being of an individual outweighs generalized religious prohibitions [ 7 , 68 — 70 ].
The authors wish to caution that total perfection cannot be anticipated from edicts and protocol because fallacies do occur and must be anticipated. It cannot be assumed that edicts are a pgon of proper conduct. In light of the existing religious edicts from various countries, the termination of pregnancies on less firm grounds and for less medically sound reasons has to be avoided.
Decisions to perform TOP need be undertaken by an institutional committee formed by the institution. The activities of the institutional committee may be overseen by a national committee to ensure that the issues pertaining to abortion are performed in a way that effectively avoids mistakes.
This will ensure that abortions take place only in instances permitted not only by religious edicts but also with sound medical judgment and that the decision for the same should be made through the concurrence of members of diverse but related medical fields such as obstetricians, perinatologists, neonatologists, geneticists, and other relevant medical and surgical sub-specialties, including religious and ethical representatives.
The job of these two committees will be to oversee the decisions regarding the TOP due to severe foetal anomalies with known poor prognoses. The national committee shall report to the highest health authority in the country. It is also the responsibility of these two committees to maintain a register of pregnancies that were terminated. It should also maintain a record of false diagnoses and complete statistics of the procedures performed for future reference and use.
No termination of a pregnancy should take place without permission from these committees. If a medical team and a structured program are developed to address these issues, it will become possible to avoid mistakes and prevent the loss of life because of the abortion of normal foetuses due to errors in judgment.
Contrary to the dictum that Islam has a solution for all ills, policy and law makers in Islamic nations are still grappling with the issue of TOP, which remains largely unresolved. The authors state that this issue has not been resolved because the available decrees on TOP continue to cause affected women considerable pain, stress, and real suffering.
Policy and law-makers have to confront this issue to reach a decisive solution to the problem. Women should have an avenue to make an informed decision pertaining to TOP that is guilt-free.
Women have to be empowered to effectively address severe incurable and fatal foetal anomalies. It is recognized complexities [ 70 ] confronting the issue of TOP are enormous but these have to be resolved as parents and in particular mothers have suffered and continue to suffer. This has gone long enough. It must be viewed as a matter of grave magnitude that needs urgent attention.
Medical practitioners calculate pregnancy from the first day of the last menses. Fertilisation of an ovum takes place in the Fallopian tube, and then, it takes approximately 7 days for implantation in the uterus.
Thus, the implantation of the fertilised ovum takes approximately two to three weeks from the day of the last menses, which is followed by ensoulment of the foetus days after fertilisation while some religious school of thought hold that this occurs at 42 days and an embryo is not an individual until passage of 14 days post fertilization [ 19 ]. Healthcare providers must calculate the day of ensoulment carefully to avoid unacceptable mistakes.
The days mentioned in the hadith texts and the juristic discussions begin from the time of fertilisation, which is equivalent to days 19 weeks from the last menstrual period.
On this basis it is critical practitioners recognize ensoulment begins at days from the last menstrual period and take all necessary measures to detect foetal anomalies early enough to enable parents avail of TOP prior to ensoulment. All major lethal anomalies take place before ensoulment where the initial screening for foetal anomalies is usually performed.
These facts are important for healthcare providers if a decision regarding TOP is required. A discussion of the prevalence and prevention of genetic disorders, and a list of genetical abnormalities affecting pregnancies in a consanguineous Muslim society has been described [ 7 , 71 ].
In matters pertaining to the health and emotional well-being of women, it may be pertinent to engage qualified female Islamic clerics to deliberate meaningfully on such issues alongside their male counterparts in equitable, impartial and rational terms so that decrees and recommendations on crucial issues such as TOP can be formulated to ensure the well-being of women.
Some service providers may harbour reservations against TOP. The single most critical factor in preventing harm to mothers of anomalous pregnancies is time. Early detection and intervention is crucial. It is therefore critical front line healthcare providers in obstetrics be vigilant at all times to detect anomalous foetuses at the earliest stages so that termination may be offered prior to ensoulment, which carries less guilt for all parties concerned.
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