Bori
The Hausa spirit-possession tradition of Niger and Nigeria, in which mediums host spirits called iskoki.
Also: bòòri, iskoki, yan bori, dan bori
Bori is the Hausa possession religion of northern Nigeria, Niger and neighbouring regions. Its spirits, iskoki, are organised in families, each with a character, such as the hunter, the sickness spirit or the prostitute, and are thought to take over a medium during a ceremony of drumming and dance. The mediums, called 'yan bori, include women and men, and some mix healing with advice on trouble. Older Maguzawa communities kept bori as their main religion; in Muslim Hausa towns it lived on beside Islam and was often disapproved of by reformers, and in some places forced underground. Anthropologists have studied how bori gave a space of authority to women and to marginal people, and how some spirits mock or comment on social life.