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ELDER INITIATION OF
Malidoma Somé
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In December 98 and early January 1999 Malidoma Somé was initiated into the Elders of the Dagara Tribe of West Central Africa. Malidoma's initiation into young manhood over 20 years earlier was described in his well known book, Of Water and the Spirit. This web begins to tell the story of the second initiation into full maturity.
The initiation as an Elder is limited to the few Dagara who have proven themselves worthy of the highest honors and responsibilities. Only the most accomplished Diviners, GateKeepers, Shamans and leaders are invited. The Elders preserve the highest secrets of the tribe, and protects its medicine and inner technologies. Only the Elders have full access to the tribe's knowledge base. Due to Malidoma's accomplishments and importance to the tribe, he has, at age 42, became the youngest Dagara ever to become an Elder; not to mention, the first with a full Western education.
The Elder initiation usually extends over months involving hundreds of complex rituals, community events, spiritual methodologies, and a variety of ordeals. Due to Malidoma's time restraints the Elders compressed his initiation into an extremely intense series of rituals running continuously for 30 days. To say the least, the Elder initiation process changed Malidoma in many profound and lasting ways.
The initiation was conducted by dozens of Elders from all over Dagraland. Most of the initiation occurred in Malidoma's home village outside of Dano. Although a few close elders mentored him in the process, most of the Elders involved had never even met Malidoma before. During the initiation Malidoma could sit only on the ground, could not bathe and was frequently covered in ash. He never knew what to expect next, and was rarely allowed to speak. He was led through a constant series of rituals, divinations and teachings. Most of the rituals involved music and rhythm in one way or another; typically involving group chanting.
Unlike the initiation into manhood described in Of Water and the Spirit, most of the Elder initiation rituals are conducted openly, and are not secret. For that reason a few Westerners were allowed to witness and video tape many of the rituals conducted outdoors during the day. This web will present excerpts of a few of these events to allow you to see and hear it for yourself. Someday it is hoped that Malidoma will more fully share the Elder initiation; perhaps with a book. He says it will take him several years to process all that happened, and understand it well enough to try and put it into words; not to mention that the official completion of the whole process will not take place until January 2002. We hope that the videos and photos shown here will give you some idea of the great beauty, imagination and intensity of the Elder Initiation process.
One of the rituals that occurred in the early days involved what we might call a "give away". Here people in Malidoma's village, and in the small town of Dano, had an opportunity to give something to the initiate, Malidoma. This was sure to bring them luck. All the gifts eventually went to the "mother of the ceremonies." Malidoma had other Elders with him who would receive the gift and put it into Malidoma's pouch. You were not supposed to give anything directly to the Malidoma. Also, Malidoma could not speak to the person making the gift, or give thanks. The ritual started in Malidoma's family compound. The pictures above show Malidoma sitting by a wall, waiting for friends and family to come by and make an offering. Shown below a small child breaks the rules and makes a gift directly to Malidoma, who seems to be enjoying this whole process. Children are free to do this because of their natural closeness to the Ancestors. You can see this ritual occurred after Malidoma was given his crown, and bow and arrows. The rituals where his face was painted with ash as shown at the top of this page, and where his head was shaved completely, came much later.
The Pictures shown above and below are from a ritual conducted on the roof of Malidoma's family home in the village. The basket shown is fillet with millet. The ritual is a consecration of the millet for later use as beer in the homecoming celebration. Many of the events took place on the roof, or on the ground in front of his father's home. The video excerpt shown here provides a good example of the kind of rhythmic song/chants song used in many of these initiation rituals. Malidoma had never heard any of these songs before, as they are reserved only for Elders. The leader of the ritual calls out different verses, and then the other Elders sing the same verse again. In this ritual there is a large basket of seed or grain in the center of a circle which several men are using as a kind of drum. The caller is rhythmically swinging a towel in time to the drumming. The chanting here goes on for about 12 minutes before a divination begins using the seeds. Malidoma is seated just outside of the circle, shown in the back, and on the right (below). Click on the photo above for the streaming Real Audio version of this video. Try the picture below for the higher quality QuickTime Movie version, but be careful, the quick time movie must be downloaded to your computer first and is a large file (6,909KB).
The sacrifice of a chicken is a part of many Dagara divination rituals. Indeed the chicken is an important part of Dagara culture, and they can be found "free ranging" everywhere in a village. In the divinations the throat of the chicken is slit, and its quick, sometimes dramatic death is carefully observed for meaning. If this strikes you as cruel, think of the senseless, mechanical killing of chickens by the millions in small cages of the poultry factories in the West. Here it is personal and brings meaning and food to the whole village. Click on the left to see the Real Audio streaming version of the end of one chicken sacrifice, and on the right to see the downloadable Quick Time version. 
The grand finale to the Elder Initiation shown here is what we might call a victory run. First there are a few speeches honoring Malidoma and his accomplishments. People from villages near and far came to attend. A few ministers from the government of Burkina Faso were even on hand. After the speeches Malidoma runs a few hundred feet through a crowd of wildly cheering villagers to the shrine room of the Ancestors. This is the culmination of homecoming and surrender into the hands of the Ancestors. As you can see he is in full ritual dress and is carrying a knife symbolic of protection. Click on the picture above to see the video streaming with Real Player. Again, try the picture below for the better quality QuickTime Movie version of the run that you download and view. Warning it is a large file (4.8 MB).
After the victory run a great party begins. With high spirits thousands celebrated Malidoma's initiation with dance, music, food and drink. As shown above the dancing begins with Malidoma, his family and happy Elders. The dancers circle around musicians in the center in a kind of line dance. The dancing goes on all day and into the night. In the photo below the drummer is seated next to the bicycle on the left. The man on the right is playing a wooden xylophone. Click on the picture above for the Real Audio streaming version of the dance, and on the photo below for the Quick Time download. Warning its 10.2 MB in size. It looks cloudy because the air is filled with dust from the dancers. At the bottom are two more photos from the party. A mother and child watch the dancers, and an Elder clowns around for the camera with a coke bottle. As you can see, many of the Dagara like to wear ski caps. They like the colors and don't seem to mind the heat. Many also wear coats all year round which is amazing considering the temperature averages 100 degrees!
Malidoma in Moment of
Deep Introspection and Bliss
Copyright Malidoma Some 1999
