niger 1979

After obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Cologne in 1978, I was offered a post-doc to do fieldwork in Niger. I was attracted to the area, because I had visited the country in 1971, on an epic trans-Saharan journey that led me from Algeria all the way south to Lagos, Nigeria, and from there west through Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Mali to Dakar in Senegal. At the same time my research in Cameroon had left me with a deep sense of music's power in shaping social interaction and in transforming people. Having spent a semester studying the Hausa language and inspired by Gilbert Rouget's book "La musique et la transe" I decided to spend time in Maradi, in the south of Niger, some 50 miles north of the border with Nigeria.

As it turned out, the music and culture of boorii spirit possession was deeply intertwined with Maradi's pre-Islamic history and the massive transformation of Hausa society and culture in the wake of Niger's post-colonial realities. As a consequence the research project covered three major topics: the current situation of "griots," the social organization of musicians in the Maradi valley, and the role of music in boorii.

Click on the links below to learn more about these topics.

                      "griots" in niger             |                musicians in the maradi valley           |                  boorii