You Need to Read: Of Water and The Spirit
I just finished reading the book Of Water and The Spirit: Ritual Magic and Initiation in the life of an African Shaman authored by Malidoma Some'
Its is an autobiography describing the first 21 or 22 years of the authors life where as a small boy he is abducted by Jesuit Missionaries and forcibly and harshly indoctrinated in to their spiritual traditions as wells their way of knowing thinking and processing the world around them. Only to eventually leave return to his village and attempt undergo the manhood initiation of his people. Through these two sections one can see the conflict that occurs between what is white and also what is tribal as Malidoma struggles to complete his initiation tasks that require him to ignore the teachings of the Jesuits which he was immersed in for 15 years.
His initiation serves to reacquaint him with the the various layers of reality in which the spirits of the world and his ancestors dwell. The place where his people draw their strength and their way of knowing, their wisdom, their understanding of the universe and ultimately our legacy. Malidoma brings us a world where there is no separation between what we would call the natural and the supernatural. As one of his elders put it, There is simply the nature you can see and the nature that you cant see.
You NEED i repeat NEED to read this book if your serious about reclaiming our lost legacy. Malidoma Some's insight is indispensable. After all its hard to return to and not to know where your returning to.
1 comments:
Looks like a good read. Another book that gives an imaginative look at magical realism and a world where the spirit world exists and is respected and understood is Ben Okri's The Famished Road. The protagonist of The Famished Road is also a youny boy, an abiku child, who exists between spirit and physical worlds and numerous times has to escape being kidnapped by the spirits who want him to return to their world.
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