Of Water and the Spirit final Exam Questions

1.

Grandfather Bakhyes mortuary or death ritual I believe is a type of transition

ritual. Grandfathers spirit is going on a journey from one place to the next. The three
stages of initiation are separation, transition, and reincorporation, which describe
perfectly the death ritual taking place for Grandfather Bakhye. First grandfather has died
and is being separated from this world that we live on, with his spirit leaving his flesh.
Second a sequence of transition must take place as his spirit moves on. This is also
referred to as the liminal phase and is interesting because the whole village aids in his
journey during this phase. It is believed that the village must weep for many days and that
their tears help carry the spirit onto the next place. During this time the spirit is in a sort
of limbo position, not in this world but not yet in the next. A sort of neither here nor there
predicament. If all the parts of the ritual are not completed fully the spirit will be stuck
and not make to the next place. Finally grandfathers spirit makes it to reincorporation.
This is where his spirit is reunited with that of his ancestors in the next place and he has
completed his journey and death ritual. This type of funeral is very different from the
funerals that I have experienced. One being that the funeral last for days while the
funerals I have attended only last a few hours at most. The other difference is that the
people in attendance of the funeral do not aid and participate in the way the Dagara
village does. Yes some will cry during the funeral but it is not linked to aiding the spirit
on its journey but simply a sense of loss.

2.

Somes culture in Africa has a unique education compared to the traditional seminary
education he receives. In Somes culture education is based the understanding of the
spiritual world which this world is a lesser and not as pure form of. Education in his tribe
consists of learning survival, and having the lessons and morals necessary to treat their
environment and way of living properly. This type of education focuses on the main
proportion of learning is spiritual which is of great contrast to the seminary education
Some received. The seminary education is what modern education is today, focusing on
reading and writing as the most important proportion for the education. Modern
education does teach survival or the ways of the spiritual world. Although this education
does place emphasis on knowing their God and sin, its real intention is to teach a
scholarly and intellectual perspective knowing their historical achievements and the
ability to speak, read, and write their language. In my own education compared to both
Somes culture and the seminary education, I find that the education I received more
closely lines up with that of the seminary. Seminary education was definitely stricter and
had a stronger religious objective to convert them to missionaries but I did go to a private
catholic high school where religion class was part of each grade. My educational
background still followed up with learning history and proper ability to read and write
just like seminary. In contrast with Somes culture however my education did not focus
on a spiritual world or survival, nor did it even acknowledge it for that matter. My
educational experiences and that of Somes culture could not be more polar opposites.

3.

Malidoma Patrice Some must undergo initiation when he comes back to his birth
village because that is the only way he can be accepted as part of the village. Everyone in
his village when they are a teen must go through initiation, which is a six-week spiritual
journey with the elders. However the elders did have a lot of concern when deciding
whether or no Some should go through initiation or not. The issue with Some is that he
was well above the age in which initiation usually takes place. This was a problem
because being about 21. He was more likely to have developed habits and less likely to
be as receptacle to the activities that must take place. This differed from the usual
members who went through initiation since they were still teens and therefore less set in
their ways, in turn being more open to receiving what initiation had in store for them. The
second issue that the elders faced in whether or not to let Some go through initiation was
his time spent in seminary. Some was taken when he was very young and therefore had
spent less time living in the village learning things that aid in the success of going
through initiation. Also Some had a seminary education and had learned to read and
write, which was the white devils knowledge and bad knowledge. This posed an issue
since he could not forget what he had learned at seminary and where that information was
stored in his brain, was the part of the brain where what is learned in initiation was
suppose to go. The elders struggled because they had never had anyone who knew how to
read and write go through initiation before, but in the end the town caller was sent to
paint a white cross on Somes door, summoning him to initiation. Initiation was a very
brutal process and not everyone survived from it. One the first activities Some had to do
was to go out naked and sit 20 yards from a tree that he chose and stare at it. This was
difficult since he was sitting on very hot gravel in the middle of the day for hours and was
being bit by ants, distracting him. He did not understand why or what was the meaning of
staring at the tree but finally once he began to be focused he soon saw that the tree turned
into a green woman, to whom he ran out and embraced, feeling soft and comfortable in
that state. But soon felt the moment leaving and realized he was just wrapped around the
trunk of a rough feeling tree. Somes second event in which he recounted in his initiation
was that of a sort of group activity which he was now feeling more ready for having seen
the green lady and gaining more of an understanding of what he was suppose to be
learning. In this activity the elders held up a skin that was lit in a circular fire, making a
portal of some sort. They were instructed to run one by one and jump as high as they can,
then come down strait. As he watched others go before him he became worried since two
that had jumped in the portal had not come back out. When it was his turn, he describes
that it felt like falling for a very long time and then finally just landing suddenly on his
feet, but with no bracing needed. The final activity that Some describes was being tasked
to walk to a cave in a mountain that was some distance away. By the time the cave was
reached it was dark so at the end of the tunnel he could see light. As he went father into
the cave the cave became smaller to the point where he was crawling. But finally he
made it through and walked down the mountain in a spirit world. As he walked he passed
a crocodile, which he learned was his totem animal, and found a rock that when he held
in his hand started to glow and grow to the point where he was inside the rock like a
womb. After this experience he found a naked girl carrying water on her head who
pointed him towards another cave to where he could return. Once he returned to the
regular world he took the stone he had picked up and gave it to the elders, which
completed his initiation.
4.

Destiny and naming is very important in Somes culture. Somes destiny was to
go out to the rest of the world t bring light about his village and way of life to modern
society. The elders in describing his path and purpose for his life told this destiny. From
childhood his destiny was being molded into becoming a medicine man himself. When he
was young he went out to the brush with his mother and saw a spiritual being in the brush
which can best be described as a leprechaun in modern terms and understanding. His
grandfather was a medicine man and so was his mothers brother, which explains why
from an ancestor and reincarnation stands point that he would become one himself. When
he was just a boy he was taken by the white men and placed in seminary school, which
gave him the education, he needed to be able to communicate with the rest of the world.
Finally he was able to escape and return home after hurting a professor, which provided
him with the opportunity to go through initiation. With all of these events having taken
place in his life the elders were able to remind him of his destiny and send him out to the
rest of the world prepared for what he must do.