Malidoma Patrice Somé | The Sun Magazine

Malidoma Patrice Somé

Malidoma Patrice Somé is a native of Burkina Faso in West Africa. He holds two doctorates and is the author of Ritual: Power, Healing, and Community (Swan/Raven & Company). He lives in Oakland, California.

— From August 1994
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

My First Night At The Initiation Camp

This year the millet fields had been generous and the harvest good. The hard work of collecting and transporting grain from the farm to the house roofs, where it waited to be put into the granaries, was over. Now, in the fallow dry season, the villagers turned their attention to spiritual matters — to initiation.

August 1994
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