Case file · Folklore / legend
Zār spirits in a Sudanese village
From 1976 the anthropologist Janice Boddy lived in a village on the Nile north of Khartoum, which she called Hofriyat, recording how zār spirits possessed women and spoke through them at ceremonies.
1976 CE · 16.00, 32.60 · status: account
The account
Her book 'Wombs and Alien Spirits' (1989) showed zār as a way women commented on gender and illness. The spirits included Ethiopians, Europeans, Westerners and pashas.
The sceptical view
Sudan's Islamist government pressured zār groups after 1983, and religious scholars still condemn the practice.