Adeline Maquelier is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University.

“Masquelier locates cultural production at precise moments of colonial and postcolonial relations. The result is both an intimate, densely textured portrait of bori spirits and an exciting demonstration of how people attempt to formulate and appropriate the forces that have undermined their community.”- Michael Lambek, author of Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery, and Spirit Possession “With its rich primary data about bori, its creativity and freshness, Prayer Has Spoiled Everything will be of enormous interest to Africanists and to religion scholars of many types.”-Karen McCarthy Brown, author of Mama Lola: A Voodou Priestess in Brooklyn

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Terms Introduction 1. Bori, Power, and Identity in Dogondoutchi 2. Lost Rituals: Changing Topographies of Spirit/Human Interactions 3. Socializing the Spirit 4. The Everyday Life of Bori: Knowledge, Embodiment, and Quotidian Practice 5. Kinesthetic Appropriation and Embodied Knowledge: Babou Spirits and the Making of Value 6. Taking Hold of the Kasuwa; The Ritual Economy of Bori in the Market 7. The Mirrors of Maria: Sweetness, Sexuality, and Dangerous Consumption 8. Lightning, Death, and the Politics of Truth: The Spirits of Rain Conclusion: Continuities and Discontinuities in Bori Notes Bibliography Index

Adeline Maquelier is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University.

“Masquelier locates cultural production at precise moments of colonial and postcolonial relations. The result is both an intimate, densely textured portrait of bori spirits and an exciting demonstration of how people attempt to formulate and appropriate the forces that have undermined their community.”- Michael Lambek, author of Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery, and Spirit Possession “With its rich primary data about bori, its creativity and freshness, Prayer Has Spoiled Everything will be of enormous interest to Africanists and to religion scholars of many types.”-Karen McCarthy Brown, author of Mama Lola: A Voodou Priestess in Brooklyn

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Terms Introduction 1. Bori, Power, and Identity in Dogondoutchi 2. Lost Rituals: Changing Topographies of Spirit/Human Interactions 3. Socializing the Spirit 4. The Everyday Life of Bori: Knowledge, Embodiment, and Quotidian Practice 5. Kinesthetic Appropriation and Embodied Knowledge: Babou Spirits and the Making of Value 6. Taking Hold of the Kasuwa; The Ritual Economy of Bori in the Market 7. The Mirrors of Maria: Sweetness, Sexuality, and Dangerous Consumption 8. Lightning, Death, and the Politics of Truth: The Spirits of Rain Conclusion: Continuities and Discontinuities in Bori Notes Bibliography Index

Adeline Maquelier is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Tulane University.

“Masquelier locates cultural production at precise moments of colonial and postcolonial relations. The result is both an intimate, densely textured portrait of bori spirits and an exciting demonstration of how people attempt to formulate and appropriate the forces that have undermined their community.”- Michael Lambek, author of Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery, and Spirit Possession “With its rich primary data about bori, its creativity and freshness, Prayer Has Spoiled Everything will be of enormous interest to Africanists and to religion scholars of many types.”-Karen McCarthy Brown, author of Mama Lola: A Voodou Priestess in Brooklyn

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Terms Introduction 1. Bori, Power, and Identity in Dogondoutchi 2. Lost Rituals: Changing Topographies of Spirit/Human Interactions 3. Socializing the Spirit 4. The Everyday Life of Bori: Knowledge, Embodiment, and Quotidian Practice 5. Kinesthetic Appropriation and Embodied Knowledge: Babou Spirits and the Making of Value 6. Taking Hold of the Kasuwa; The Ritual Economy of Bori in the Market 7. The Mirrors of Maria: Sweetness, Sexuality, and Dangerous Consumption 8. Lightning, Death, and the Politics of Truth: The Spirits of Rain Conclusion: Continuities and Discontinuities in Bori Notes Bibliography Index