Of Water and Spirit Essay Questions, Colby Edwards, December 8, 2016

1) The death of Grandfather Bakhye and the ritual that accompanies it is a critical moment
in the life of Malidoma Patrice. This ritual is an ideological ritual. While being an
ideological ritual, it is also a rite of passage ritual. There are three stages that make up
this rite of passage ritual, and the order of these stage do matter. These stages of a rite of
passage ritual can be applied to the death ritual of Grandfather Bakhye. The first stage is
separation. In this stage, the person undergoing the ritual will be separated from the rest
of the community in some fashion. In Grandfather Bakhyes case, this is when he died.
His spirit has left his body, and is no longer in his body. The next step in this ritual is
transition. In this stage, the person changes. This doesnt necessarily have to be a physical
change, but it usually is. The whole purpose of this step for the participate to leave their
old self behind, and they will take on their new self in the next stage. During this stage in
the death ritual of Grandfather Bakhye, the Daraga people believe that his spirit is on an
adventure to find the world to which he belongs. To respect his journey, grandfathers
body is kept in a tent and constantly supervised to keep the flies away. In the transition
stage, Malidoma Patrice describes what seems to be like a festival of sorts. The
community will gather on the first and second days of the funeral and grieve the death of
Grandfather Bayke. The types of activities that take place on this day are; singing,
drumming, eating, cooking and dancing. There are also people selling handmade items.
The next and final stage is the incorporation stage. During this stage, they are
incorporated back into the community and now accept their new self. This stage also
includes a ceremony that marks their status change. This stage takes place on the last day
of grandfathers funeral. His body is brought out of the tent for the community to see.
The healers and elders begin to prepare his body for burial. At the end of the day, the
body is buried and the ceremony is over. Grandfather has now claimed his identity as
Malidoma Patrices guardian angel. Kontombili was a creature from other worlds. These
creatures are what give the Daraga people their knowledge. Malidoma Patrice describes
to us seeing these creatures come and to his grandfathers funeral on the third day.
According to Malidoma Patrice, these creatures came down and paid respects to Bakye
and then vanished. This is a significant symbol because Grandfather Bakye told us only
special people could see the Kontombili. The fact that Malidoma Patrice could see these
creatures shows that he is special. He was being a bridge between two worlds and here he

Of Water and Spirit Essay Questions, Colby Edwards, December 8, 2016

is displaying that capability. The lobir is a critical symbol for Malidoma Patrice that
occurs during the liminal phase. As lobir is an object, usually an arrow, that is thrown
onto a good person, by an evil person. When Malidoma Patrice finds the lobir, he has no
clue what it is. As he comes to discover, it is a missed arrow. The elders believe that this
means that Malidoma Patrice is immune to all things evil. Grandfather is in a state of
limbo or holding during the liminal phase. He is going through a rite of passage so his
body looks dead, but his spirit is actively searching for its next form. As we see in the
book, grandfathers spirit finds its form as Malidoma Patrices guardian angel. A
Daragian funeral is defiantly different than any funeral that I have ever been too. I think
one of the biggest differences is the amount of people that were in attendance. From what
Malidoma Patrice described, the whole community was involved. I have never been to a
funeral with more than two hundred people in attendance. Another difference would be
that it last for three days. From what Malidoma Patrice described, the funeral was sun-up
to sun-down for three fun days. That is very different from any funeral that I have been to
that lasted, at the longest, three hours.
2) Malidoma Patrice had to go through the Boar initiation because the elders held that his
soul was not in the place that it should be. Specifically, they thought that his soul was
separated from his body. They believed that if he went through the same initiation that
he would have to go though as a teenager to become a man, his soul would be
reconnected with his body. This initiation was called the Boar initiation. Some of the
community believed that no matter what Malidoma Patrice did to redeem himself, he
would never be welcome back into the community. Those people felt that he had learned
too much from the white man and he could never be trusted. The elders were skeptical of
his amount of knowledge because of the damage that the white man had already done.
They were truly afraid that if his soul was not connected to his body, he would be a
danger to their way of life. Like the death ritual, the Boar initiation is an ideological
ritual. The stages are basically the same as the death ritual that lasted over a six-week
period. The first step is separation. In this stage, all of the boys went into the wilderness.
The second stage is transition/liminal. The whole purpose of the transition stage is to
forget the old self, and find the new self. The first womb=tomb example begins when
the boys take their clothes off and become naked. We come into the world naked, so they

Of Water and Spirit Essay Questions, Colby Edwards, December 8, 2016

are entering this new stage of life, or world, naked. The second example of
womb=tomb is when Malidoma Patrice meets the Green Lady. He stares at a tree for
nearly two days before she begins to speak to him. This encounter leads him to forget
everything that is happening, and led him be totally in touch with nature. Being naked
and in touch with nature allowed Malidoma Patrice to be completely connect to finding
his new self. The boys then go into the last stage, which is reincorporation. As the boys
return, they are greeted as men instead of boys. In class, we talked about two common
symbols throughout many indigenous communities. These symbols are fire and a drum.
During the Boar ritual, the elders had a nightly ceremony around a fire and beat on a
drum. The drum symbolized the heartbeat of the ceremony. The fire symbolizes the soul
of the ceremony and of the men that have went through this ceremony before. The
drumming and the fire seemed to cause the boys to be more in touch with their dreams.
3) When answering these questions, I choice to use the name Malidoma Patrice. I felt that
this was the most appropriate way to address Mr. Some. He was given the name
Malidoma when he was born. This name was given to him by his mother, and is from the
Birifori clan. This clan is simply a group of the Dagara people. Mr. Some went by his
tribal name of Malidoma until he was almost five years old. When he was abducted by
the mission, they named him Patrice. This was an effort by the mission to rebrand him
and encourage him to forget his heritage. I do think that Malidoma Patrice has met his
destiny. The main reason that I think this is because his grandfather has already predicted
that all of these things would happen. Malidoma Patrice was able to overcome all odds
and live in both cultures. He was kidnapped from his village, and forced into a highly
religious community. He then managed to make it all the way back to his village. Then he
had to go through the grueling six-week Boar ritual. He made it through all this and is
now able to act a bridge between these two very different cultures. So yes, he has met his
destiny. Malidoma Patrice told us multiple times that the Dagara people believed that
every time there is a death, there is also a birth. During his Boar ritual, Malidoma Patrice
visits the underworld and realizes that this belief is true. He says that the reason he was
able to endure all his life events, is because he was in another realm. This whole
experience made him realize that the world is many dimensions. He believes that when
someone dies in one dimensions, they simply move to another one to live. This is most

Of Water and Spirit Essay Questions, Colby Edwards, December 8, 2016

likely the reason that he has spent a large portion of his life trying to educate people on
both sides of this cultural dived. It is interesting to imagine what could happen if we had
more people like Malidoma Patrice who would promote peace and understanding rather
than hate and war.