The sandman has paid you a visit. You sleep and dream that someone is making love to you. A man, just as real as in real life, moving back and forth inside you, as if you belonged to him forever. Day breaks and you realise with fright that it was not an erotic dream. Your thighs are moist, your skin is red in places, your stomach hurts and the sheets smell of sperm, sex and sweat. What happened? What was it? Did the Spirit of the Night visit you? In Burkina Faso and in Martinique, this is what some women experience and affirm – what they believe, as well – when they are unhappy in love, or are unable to have children. Convinced that they are possessed, their only alternative is to turn to a healer for help.
However, beyond the troubling relationship that the women maintain with their Spirit, "Night Husbands" questions the relationship between men and women. What is its value and how is it expressed? What role do men play within the couple and what is the importance of this role? What if being visited by the Spirit is simply a means for these women to more freely express their desires and frustrations?