Zhana's Blog - Posts Tagged "malidoma"

I read this powerful memoir by Burkina Faso’s Malidoma Patrice Somé many years ago. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the effect of colonisation on the African psyche.

In the first half of the book, Malidoma lives a peaceful life in a village in which his grandfather is a highly talented shaman. After his grandfather dies, Malidoma’s father gives the six-year-old child to the Catholic priest. The father had given his children by his first wife to the priest, and the children had all died, as had his wife.

Malidoma and the other children are brutalised for many years. As we now know, Catholic priests have been accused of abusing children physically and sexually. As this book makes clear, this was happening in Africa as well.

When Malidoma eventually manages to escape from the seminary, he cannot speak his own language and has never seen a map of his own country. So how will he find his way back home to his village?

Perhaps the most important part of the book is the Introduction, in which Malidoma states that African leaders all went through the same education he did. This indoctrination programme was designed to separate leaders from their own people. The effect of this supposedly elite education is to encourage leaders to look down on their own.

The second half of the book describes Malidoma’s initiation, which he undertakes in order to be considered truly a part of his own village community. It is made clear to him to that the initiation is dangerous and he is risking his life by taking it on.

Anyone who wants to glimpse the strength and power of African traditions needs to read this book.