Yerima

Overview

Yerima is a spirit-prince whose clothing, weapons and horse equipment are described as gold. Tremearne records many alternative titles, including Dan Galladima, Daudu and Mai-Wuka Daya. In the Nana Magajiya account he removes her son Haukachi to his own household because he fears her violence; invoking him against her anger is said to make her ashamed and distract her. Elsewhere he is credited with taking a chief’s knife to kill poorer spirits who mistake the deed for his father’s.

His dancer wears rich silk and satin, moves with attendants, jumps and falls, then receives a chair and holds court. Another scene has the barber spirit shave him. Kneeling gestures, affectionate contact with followers, sneezing and withdrawal complete the representation. The collector says the female headdress visible on his named human representative Khameis marks that performer’s ritual role, rather than the prince’s sex.

The book does not settle his ancestry consistently. The opening Alhaji account calls him that elder’s son; the later entry names Dundurusu, and asks whether he is an ancestor or a jinn-sultan’s child. The song’s chameleon comparison is expressly explained as changing robes to display wealth. These uncertainties are preserved rather than turned into a single biological genealogy or literal reptile form.

Origins & earliest records

A. J. N. Tremearne reports interviews and ritual performances during four months in North Africa, alongside comparisons to Nigeria. His foreword credits local assistance and photography but these passages do not identify an individual speaker for every statement.

Records & interpretation

The Ban of the Bori, chapters XXI–XXII, complete selected account pp. 301–305; foreword pp. 13–14 and catalog publication date checked.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   The Ban of the Bori: Demons and Demon-Dancing in West and North Africa

   A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and colonial-era interpreter · 1914

   Chapters XXI–XXII, pp. 301–305; role descriptions, performed representation and attributed explanations.

Family, evolution & connections

Yerima’s Alhaji parentage witness

Selected named notices in Tremearne’s 1914 historical Bori account, pp. 296–297.

The Alhaji entry explicitly calls him Yerima’s father. The later Yerima notice names Dundurusu instead. These conflicting witnesses are displayed separately; no mother or shared ancestor is invented. This is source-specific religious genealogy, not biological descent or universal contemporary doctrine.

Yerima’s different Dundurusu parentage witness

Selected named notices in Tremearne’s 1914 historical Bori account, pp. 303–304.

The prince’s own entry explicitly names Dundurusu as father. The earlier Alhaji notice differs. The grouped target profile retains disputed Makeri identification; this branch names only Dundurusu, and does not assert two fathers or settle alias identity. This is source-specific religious genealogy, not biological descent or universal contemporary doctrine.

Six children in one Yerima youth account

The second account on p366, with individual notices through p371; not a consensus Bori family.

Attributed six-child list, corroborating Mai-Lema song and explicit twin notice. Ba-Jin-Chiwu alternatively has Sarikin Rafi as father. Geshe is explicitly Kaura’s foster-father. The first account’s different four-child placement list is not merged here; its wording does not independently establish all birth parents. Mothers are generally unstated except the twins’ unnamed concubine mother.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Digitized historical ethnographic account with interviews and performance descriptionsTremearne — YerimaResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Library catalog metadataInternet Archive catalog — The Ban of the BoriResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Khameis represents Yerima receiving a shave in photograph38, The Ban of the Bori, 1914

The seated central participant is Khameis representing the prince Yerima; Haj Ali enacts the barber Mai-Aska behind him. These named human participants represent the spirit court. Their clothing and gestures are performance evidence, not literal spirit anatomy.