Malidoma, as representative of his village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and an initiated elder, has come to the west to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years. At this critical time in history, the earth's people are awakening to a deep need for global healing. African wisdom, so long held secret, is being called on to provide tools to enable us to move into a more peaceful and empowered way of being, both within ourselves, and within our communities. The indigenous spirit in each of us is calling for cleansing and reconciliation. The ancestors are responding.
from The Healing Wisdom of Africa by Malidoma Somé:
The Dagara creation story says that the planet we are on is a frozen extension of a much brighter and more harmonious spiritual world. If we don't maintain this world, something will happen to the Other World. Our relationship with the Spirit World is a two-way stream, and we need to fine-tune and maintain the lines of communication between the two worlds...
The Dagara people understand that the spirit that animates each one of us in our life can be reborn, and that the purpose of this reincarnation is to try once again to fix this world. And this is why when we come here we are not at peace until we find ourselves useful, wanted, and needed. We do not come to this world on vacation. We come here for service, and we have to remember what that service is. The nature of our service--our purpose--was configured already in the Spirit World before we came here. Community is the mirror that allows us to see our purpose, and the school where we first learn the meaning of service.
The spiritual cosmology of an indigenous people like the Dagara does not involve worship; rather, it is a paradigm for understanding based on careful observation of and a long and intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds us. The five elements of the Dagara medicine wheel reflect this cosmology, and in symbolic form contain the wisdom of the ancestors. It is my prayer that people in the West will find in this paradigm and the wisdom from which it arises that which is useful to them.
K'a te sankun koro sium a ti tieru
ti kuti zumon
Ka ti tuon gnin a ti vla zie to to sao deu
May all ancestors join force to wake up our spirit
and put good thoughts into our psyche.
Then we shall see the good that awaits us and accept it
