Cohabiting with Spirits: The Biography of a Marriage in Mayotte

Possession aptly describes the explicit manifestations of spirits when they temporarily displace individuals by assuming control of their bodies and minds, but the word does not account for what it means to cohabit with them. Cohabiting with Spirits offers an intimate portrait of the intertwined lives of a married couple together with the various spirits who came to possess each of them. Set against the backdrop of the island of Mayotte during the twentieth century, the book paints a vivid picture of the couple’s lives, navigating the demands of their respective spirits while practising an art of cohabitation, both with the spirits and with each other.

While studies of spirit possession often focus on ceremonial practices and dramatic performances of spirit mediums in trance, Michael Lambek shifts the focus to explore what it can be like to cohabit with spirits. The book examines the ways in which various spirits entered the lives of this married couple and how their presence shaped the hosts’ careers as healers, leaving lasting impacts on their domestic and personal lives. Based on rich ethnographic research conducted over the course of several decades, Cohabiting with Spirits presents a rare biography of “ordinary” Africans in the twentieth century and celebrates the resilience of a strong marriage.