By Erica Bowman

17 July 2007

The first day I met Amia Traore she accidentally fell into trance, read my fortune correctly, and performed a series of acrobatic summersaults--a trick she only does while in trance and has no memory of later on. This was no small feet, because as you can see Amia is not a petite woman.

I went to Mali, West Africa to apprentice a photographer and instead ended up living with and photographing a powerful priestess who conducted trance healing ceremonies in the capital city of Bamako. Yes, I said to myself as I watched people bow at her feet, THIS is what I am here to do. A few weeks later, I moved into her house and began participating in her day to day activities.

I attended my first ceremony after I innocently accepted an invitation to a "dance party." Upon our arrival, people once again bowed at her feet and greeted her. They brought us chairs and placed them (somewhat intrudingly) in front of everyone else's, and put cold drinks in our hands. From my chair, I watched dozens of women dance rapidly to loud drumming and singing until they became possessed. Some of them screamed and cried, others laughed and made funny gestures that everyone but I seemed to understand, and others fell to the ground and will fearful looks upon their faces. Even as one woman screamed and fell to the ground in sobs, the onlooking women laughed and watched casually, as if to say, "Oh Cindy, she's so funny when she's in trance!"

Not many people have gotten the chance to photograph what westerners would refer to as 'voodoo ceremonies.' I not only photographed, but I lived it. I learned all about my Djiinn, the spirit that enters the body while dancing in trance, spent hours perched on a jagged rock in what I can only refer to as the "sacrifice hut," and became friends with the women who create this powerful community. Yes, these ceremonies are almost exclusively made up of women--a little detail I am still trying to understand fully.

Djinns are spiritual figures found in Muslim scripture and Arabian mythology that are believed to have the power to cause both good and harm in the lives of human beings. Many accidents and health problems are believed to be the work of a Djinns. Djinns differ from angels in that angels are made from light and Djinns are made from fire, and as indicated before they can cause harm. There is an order of Djjins from Priest to hunter to blacksmith, and it is believed that everyone in the world has a Djiinn. My Djiinn, I was told is a wise old water-dwelling man with a white beard named Idjou Mori. He is the priest of all Djinns.

I photographed and participated in half a dozen trance ceremonies. These ceremonies began at 10 am and lasted until sun down. Some involve fortune telling, animal sacrifices, healing potions, cleansing baths and others involve summersaults, dancing, traveling to the river, and elaborate costumes.

I became a part of the Jinnidon society. Many of these women became my friends, and by the end, even I could laugh at the possessed crying woman that had become my friend and say, "Oh she is so funny when she falls into trance." Though I never experienced or met my Djinn, I without a doubt saw others encounter theirs. I grew to respect all of the practices I witnessed and marvel at the thin veil between the reality I was sitting in and the spirit world that these women seemed to enter easily and naturally. I believe that these practices are based on special gifts--gifts that are perhaps lost in the western world because of a permanant spiritual veil that was hung up ages ago. I may not not understand exactly what I saw, what I witnessed led me to believe that there really is a man named Idjou Mori who watches over me while I sleep.

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