The Healing Wisdom of Africa Quotes

“Whether they are raised in indigenous or modern culture, there are two things that people crave: the full realization of their innate gifts, and to have these gifts approved, acknowledged, and confirmed. There are countless people in the West whose efforts are sadly wasted because they have no means of expressing their unique genius. In the psyches of such people there is an inner power and authority that fails to shine because the world around them is blind to it.”
― Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community

“In the cosmology of the Dagara peoples, matter and Spirit are fused. These two phenomena are complementary, each a reflection of the other. In the Dagara story of creation, the physical world that we can touch and feel and see came into being in parallel with a brighter, more dynamic and expansive energetic world that we call the Other World, or the Spirit World, or the unseen world. These two aspects of the universe do not exist as a polarity, for each is a manifestation of the other, and each is dependent on the other, with a stream of interaction going both ways to maintain balance and stability. The indigenous belief of the Dagara is that we are primarily Spirit. In order to exist as material beings, we have to take a form, and there is the sense among my people that to be in matter is not the most familiar or suitable form for us. To fit ourselves into the narrow part of the universe that allows energy to exist as matter takes some getting used to, and we only bother with it at all because it serves the useful and unavaoidable purpose of expanding the spirit in us.”
― Malidoma Patrice Some, The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community