Skip to content
RAI FILM
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
shorter than 40 minutes
x
Region
“West Africa”
x
Country
“Nigeria”
x
Keywords
“Possession”
x
Directors
“Speed, Frank”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Year of production
“1966”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
short films
1
x
Region
West Africa
1
x
Country
Nigeria
1
x
Keywords
Possession
1
x
Ritual
1
Directors
Horton, Robin
1
Speed, Frank
1
x
Series
not set
1
Country of production
Nigeria
1
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1966
1
x
Status
Film
Duminea: A Festival for the Water Spirits
1966
20
‘
Directed by
Frank Speed
Robin Horton
.
The communal rituals of most villages of the Eastern Niger Delta focus on two great classes of spirits – the heroes and the water people. The heroes once lived with the men, founded their institutions and brought them their characteristic means of gaining a livelihood. Today, as spirits, they continue to maintain the established institutions and the skills with which people wrest a living from their environment. The water people, by contrast, have never lived with men: they are the creators and owners of the rivers and creeks, controlling the state of the waters and the abundance of fish. The little village of Soku, hidden in the heart of the eastern Delta, has a group of heroes headed by Fenibaso, and its creeks and rivers are controlled by the water-spirit Duminea. This film shows some highlights of the annual ritual for Duminea. As in most Kalabari festivals, spirit possession features prominently in the proceedings. The possession behaviour is controlled by public expectations, which lay down the stage of the proceedings at which each spirit will climb on his priest, as well as the patter of behaviour the latter will display once possessed. This type of possession, indeed, seems best considered, not as a primitive abnormality but as a public chore for which the community commandeers the bodies of perfectly normal citizens.
West Africa
Ritual
Possession