In response to one of my readers comments that my work reminded them of this author, I conducted research and share here:
Malidoma Patrice Somé: Bridge Between African Wisdom and Western Consciousness
Malidoma Patrice Somé was a West African elder, author, spiritual teacher, and medicine man who dedicated his life to building bridges between indigenous African wisdom traditions and Western culture. Born in 1956 in Burkina Faso and passing in December 2021, Somé became one of the most influential voices in bringing African shamanic practices and Dagara cosmology to Western audiences. His life story—marked by cultural displacement, spiritual awakening, and profound education in both indigenous and Western traditions—positioned him uniquely to serve as what he called “a friend of the stranger,” the literal meaning of his name “Malidoma.”
Early Life and Forced Separation
Malidoma Patrice Somé was born in a Dagara community in Dano, Burkina Faso (then known as Upper Volta), in 1956. For the first four years of his life, he lived in his village in the traditional Dagara way, surrounded by his extended family and immersed in the spiritual practices of his people. His grandfather served as the village elder and spiritual head of the community, and the two shared a profound bond.
This idyllic childhood came to an abrupt end when Somé was four years old. Shortly after his grandfather’s death, he was taken from his village by Jesuit priests from a nearby colonial town and placed in a Catholic boarding school. His father, who had embraced aspects of both tribal customs and Christianity, had given him the Christian name Patrice, while his grandfather had named him Malidoma in a traditional Dagara naming ceremony.
For the next fifteen years, Somé endured what he characterized as severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the priests, who were determined to indoctrinate him into European ways of thought and worship and “create another black priest.” During this time, his native Dagara language was replaced with French and Latin. This experience of forced cultural displacement would profoundly shape his understanding of colonialism’s destructive impact on indigenous societies.
At age twenty, Somé rebelled against his captors and escaped into the jungle. He walked more than 125 miles back to his village without food or money, arriving as a stranger in his own homeland. His mother and older sister greeted him with tears, but the reunion was complicated—he could no longer speak his native language fluently, had never seen a map of his own country, and knew little of Dagara customs.
The village elders faced a difficult decision about Somé’s reintegration. They recognized that his ancestral spirit had withdrawn from his body during his years away and that he had already undergone a type of passage into manhood in the “white world.” Despite this, they agreed to allow him to undergo the traditional baor, the month-long initiation ritual that all Dagara males undergo to transition into manhood.
The initiation proved extraordinarily dangerous for Somé, more so than for culturally-Dagara youths, because of his long absence from the culture and his inability to speak the language. During his solitary journey in the jungle, he was forced to find his own food and survive alone while confronting supernatural experiences. His accounts of this period include encounters with beings from the netherworld, visions from his grandfather, and interactions with the spirits that inhabit nature. These experiences reconnected him with the spiritual dimensions of reality that the Dagara culture takes as fundamental.
Educational Pursuits and Mission
After his initiation and formal welcome back to the village, the elders gave Somé a prophetic mission. They told him that his destiny was to “go out into the world and inform the white man about their world.” The elders predicted: “The village will be reborn in the heart and soul of the culture that is destroying the village.” Malidoma was to serve as a bridge between the indigenous wisdom of Africa and the spiritually impoverished modern West.
Following this directive, Somé pursued an extraordinary educational path. He began at the university in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology, literature, and linguistics, as well as a master’s degree in world literature. He reported that academic work became remarkably easy for him after his initiation—he claimed he could “read the auras” of professors and divine the answers to test questions through spiritual perception.
Somé continued his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he earned another master’s degree and a doctorate in political science, and at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he earned yet another master’s degree and a Ph.D. in literature. In total, he held three master’s degrees and two doctorates, making him one of the most academically credentialed indigenous spiritual teachers of his generation. He also taught African culture at the University of Michigan before his elders redirected him away from comfortable academic positions toward more grassroots teaching.
Approximately ten years after arriving in the United States, while completing his doctorate at Brandeis, Somé received a letter from the village elders informing him that he was married. The marriage had been arranged to Sobonfu Somé, a member of the Dagara tribe whose name means “keeper of the knowledge” or “keeper of rituals.” Though he had never met her and had been living a Westernized lifestyle dating American women, Somé obediently returned to Burkina Faso to meet his wife, understanding that Dagara marriages were based on “energies being aligned, not flimsy notions like love.”
The union represented a profound cultural bridge in itself. Malidoma had spent years in Western academia and lived much of his adult life in the United States and Europe, while Sobonfu was a village woman living without roads, plumbing, or electricity, walking miles each day to fetch water. Despite these vast differences in their life experiences, the couple worked together for years, conducting workshops throughout the United States and Europe on African spirituality, ritual, and community building.
The marriage eventually ended in divorce, with both acknowledging that living in the West without the support of traditional community structures placed tremendous strain on their relationship. Sobonfu described it as “like being on death row in terms of relationship” due to the lack of communal energy and support systems that would have sustained them in their village. She died in 2017 from complications related to a weakened immune system attributed to water contamination. Malidoma later married Ruta Malidoma Somé, who passed away in 2016, and he had children from this marriage.
Malidoma Somé authored several influential books that became cornerstones of contemporary spiritual literature. His most celebrated work, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman (1994), is a memoir detailing his childhood, kidnapping, seminary experience, escape, and transformative initiation into Dagara shamanic traditions. The book received acclaim from notable figures including Alice Walker, who praised it as “a shimmering ‘missing piece’ in the story of the earth.” The work offers readers vivid descriptions of the supernatural experiences he encountered during initiation, where “the natural and supernatural blend together.”
His other major works include Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (1993), which explores the essential role of ritual in human life and community building, and The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose through Nature, Ritual, and Community (1999), designed as a practical guide for Westerners seeking to reconnect with nature and spirituality using the Dagara five-element cosmology as a framework. These books together formed a comprehensive introduction to African indigenous wisdom adapted for Western practitioners.
The Dagara Cosmology and Five Elements
Central to Somé’s teachings was the Dagara cosmological worldview organized around five elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Mineral, and Nature. Unlike Western linear thinking, the Dagara see the universe and life as fundamentally circular, represented in a Medicine Wheel that serves as “a foundational technology for living in harmony within the self and within community.”
Each element carries specific meanings and powers. Fire, the original element, connects to the spirit world, ancestors, dreams, and visions, and “puts us back on our spiritual track by consuming that which stands between us and our purpose.” Water brings cleansing, reconciliation, purification, and peace-making, carrying the power of connection, flow, and healing. Earth, the central element, is the mother inviting people home to community. Mineral invites remembrance through ritual of who we are and why we are here, carrying the power of intuition and connection to ancestral roots. Nature opens people to transformation to realize their authentic selves.
Somé taught that each person is born with a dominant element that denotes their special gift or purpose. These elements are not merely conceptual but are accessed through ritual practices that engage all six senses and create direct experiential contact with spiritual dimensions of reality. He emphasized that “feelings are sacred” and that the elements provide pathways to reverse the cultural conditioning that forces people to betray their own feelings and perceptions.
Teaching and Workshop Leadership
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Somé became a prominent figure in multiple spiritual movements in the West. He was embraced by leaders of the men’s movement, including Robert Bly and Michael Meade, and became a featured speaker at events like the Minnesota Men’s Conference. His teachings on the necessity of initiation rituals for young men to make the transition to manhood resonated deeply with those concerned about the lack of meaningful rites of passage in modern Western culture.
A few years before his death, at his tribal elders’ direction, Somé gave up his comfortable university professorship to travel throughout the United States and Europe conducting workshops, retreats, and intensive training programs. These included multi-day ritual intensives, men’s gatherings, women’s gatherings, and mixed-gender workshops focused on different aspects of Dagara spirituality. He also trained practitioners in cowrie shell divination, an African oracle practice he adapted for Western culture, conducting certification programs for those called to this practice.
His workshop style emphasized creating “ritual space” by “intentionally calling upon immaterial forces” to provide guidance, healing, and transformation. He taught participants to create both individual and community rituals addressing issues such as health, abundance, grief, and personal growth. A key aspect of his teaching was the creation of “indigenous devices of protection”—talismans and sacred objects that serve as representations of hidden power.
At the heart of Somé’s philosophy was a radical critique of modern Western culture’s disconnection from community, nature, and the spirit world. In a frequently quoted observation, he stated: “Sometimes I think everybody in this culture is on fire.” He diagnosed Western culture’s core ailment as disconnection—from self, from others, from ancestors, from nature, and from the spiritual dimensions of existence. He taught that “disconnection is the source of all our ailments—whether physical, psychological, social, or spiritual.”
Somé emphasized that true knowledge is not limited to intellectual understanding or empirical proof but is “a living, experiential, and spiritual force that binds the individual to the community and the cosmos.” He argued that Western education fails to account for the core human being, focusing excessively on survival and material success while neglecting individual identity, gift, and purpose. In contrast, traditional initiation “protects the integrity of the individual in order to maximize the chance of that individual’s gift coming out.”
A recurring theme in his teaching was the essential role of community in human flourishing. He wrote: “What one acknowledges in the formation of the community is the possibility of doing together what is impossible to do alone.” He observed that isolation and individualism in service of “the Machine” of modern industrial society leaves people without means to express their unique genius, resulting in “an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them is blind to it.”
Somé also emphasized that spiritual practice must not become an escape from reality but rather a means of facing adversity with spirit as “a loyal soldier” showing how to meet life’s challenges. He warned against New Age tendencies to pretend “everything is fine when it isn’t,” which makes people vulnerable to exploitation.
His teachings on the power of silence and nature stand in stark contrast to the verbal, conceptual orientation of Western culture. He wrote: “The power of nature exists in its silence. Human words cannot encode the meaning because human language has access only to the shadow of meaning.” Peace, he taught, is “letting go—returning to the silence that cannot enter the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained in words. This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.”
Understanding of Colonialism and Cultural Destruction
Somé brought a nuanced understanding of colonialism’s psychological and spiritual impact. He learned from his grandfather that “any person who sets out to hurt someone is actually more in need of attention than the person who is being hurt.” While acknowledging that the West had decimated his culture, he and the village elders recognized that “the only way to address the issue was to understand the pain that was ailing the West.” He attributed the desire to hurt or dominate to “a kind of alienation from self and from nature” and “the lack of initiation.”
He witnessed how colonialism destroyed entire families and households by forcing “a turning away from the traditions of the ancestors and an embracing of a new culture in the name of ‘progress’ or ‘development’.” He noted that many people who are ethnically Dagara “have no clue how to perform an initiation” because they live isolated in colonial institutions and “know nothing of who they are.”
Yet Somé recognized that “the West’s problem is no longer the problem of a single culture; it is now a world issue.” He pointed out that the West had first destroyed its own indigenous traditions before exporting that destruction globally. His mission, therefore, was not one of accusation but of offering healing wisdom to a culture that had lost its way, extending compassion to those “struggling with our contemporary crisis of the spirit.”
Ritual, Ancestors, and the Invisible World
Central to Somé’s worldview was the understanding that the visible, material world exists in constant relationship with invisible spiritual dimensions. In Dagara cosmology, “there is no distinction between the natural and the supernatural: the living speak with ancestral spirits, and those who possess the appropriate knowledge move habitually to other worlds.” Ancestors are seen not merely as deceased relatives but as active presences providing guidance, wisdom, and protection.
He taught that healing comes “when the individual remembers his or her identity—the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom—and reconnects with that world of Spirit.” Each person is born with a destiny, reflected in the name given through divination by elders in contact with spiritual dimensions. The role of ritual and initiation is to help individuals remember and actualize this destiny.
Somé emphasized that ritual creates “a sealed capsule” and that its power lies partly in secrecy, silence, and concealment. Breaking the ritual space is “bursting the bubble, inviting an explosive decompression.” This stands in contrast to Western tendencies toward self-promotion and display of spiritual attainment. True spiritual power, like the crocodile, operates as much through stealth as through strength.
Malidoma Patrice Somé passed away on December 9, 2021, during what the Dagara calendar marked as a Water Year. In the final three months of his life, he faced significant health challenges while continuing to conduct workshops and meet with students, demonstrating what one close associate described as living his medicine as “the Warrior that he is.” He spent his final weeks in intensive care with Theresa Sykes, who had worked closely with him since 2003 as colleague, office manager, and co-facilitator, remaining at his side until his transition.
At Somé’s request, his body was returned to his homeland in the village of Dano, Burkina Faso, where traditional Dagara funeral rites were performed over three days, followed by an Ancestralization ceremony marking his transition to the ancestral realm. The funeral was attended by extended family, community members, and representatives from his Western students, honoring both his Dagara roots and his global impact.
His death prompted tributes from spiritual communities worldwide. Many described him as “a great tree that protected us, fed us with ancestral wisdom, reminded us of our gifts, and led us down the rabbit hole of healing rituals and initiations.” His legacy lives on through the thousands he taught, the rituals and practices he established, and the ongoing programs conducted by those he trained.
Malidoma Somé’s impact on Western spirituality extends far beyond his published works. He played a crucial role in making African indigenous wisdom accessible and applicable to Western audiences struggling with what he identified as a profound crisis of meaning, purpose, and connection. His ability to inhabit two vastly different worlds—as both a traditionally initiated Dagara shaman and a Western intellectual with multiple doctoral degrees—gave him unique credibility and insight.
His teachings offered concrete practices and frameworks for addressing modern disconnection through ritual, community building, and reconnection with ancestors and nature. The five-element cosmology he shared provides a practical map for personal and collective healing that continues to guide practitioners. His emphasis on the necessity of authentic initiation for young people speaks to ongoing concerns about the lack of meaningful rites of passage in contemporary society.
Perhaps most significantly, Somé embodied the possibility of reconciliation between cultures that have been in conflict. His name—Malidoma, “friend of the stranger”—captured his life’s purpose of building bridges across the vast cultural gulf between indigenous and modern worldviews. He demonstrated that ancient wisdom traditions and modern rationality need not be adversaries but can “join together to collectively address the earth’s deep need for humanity’s attention.”
His frequently quoted teaching continues to resonate: “The spiritual thirst that is latent in everybody can never come to a place of fulfillment unless people begin to think of each other as potential brothers and sisters.” In an era of deepening divisions, Somé’s life and work stand as testament to the possibility of profound connection across difference, and to the healing potential of remembering our essential unity with each other, with nature, and with the spiritual dimensions of existence.
RoachCreative 