OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman

 

By Malidoma Patrice Some

Note: A highly CYGM-recommended book to read on African Spirituality.

A powerful spiritual autobiography of a walker between indigenous and modern worlds.

Book Review by Frederic & Marry Ann Bruss and sourced from:  https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/7051/of-water-and-the-spirit

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OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT book review

Malidoma Patrice Some was raised in a village in Burkina Faso, West Africa. He is a medicine man and a diviner in the Dagara culture. He also holds three master’s degrees, as well as two Ph.D.’s from the Sorbonne and Brandeis, and for three years taught literature at the University of Michigan.

His name, Malidoma, means he who is “to be friends with the stranger/enemy.” Some’s mission in life has been to create pathways between the African tribal world and contemporary Western culture. He is a genuine pathfinder in a time when these two alien worlds can benefit immensely from each other’s knowledge.

Malidoma Patrice Some’s autobiography, Of Water and the Spirit offers an incredible behind-the-scenes look at the Dagara people. He was singled out by his grandfather, a priest, leader, and counselor for 50 souls, to serve the tribe in a special way. But before he could move forward in this mission, Malidoma was kidnapped from home by a French Jesuit missionary who had befriended his father. For 15 years, Some was cut off from his tribal roots as he was trained to be a priest. However, he escaped from the seminary at age 20 and in a 125-mile trek through the jungle returned home.

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