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Jonathan Lopez
Katsanos
Global Connections
5/2/17
Of Water and the Spirit
For the Of Water and the Spirit assignment, I chose to listen to the audio version of the
book by Malidoma Patrice Some. The book covered many of the topics that we addressed in
class and was quite interesting. It was insightful to hear about the culture of someone like Some,
seeing as our cultures differ enormously. This book helped me to gain meaningful knowledge
and perspective from Some’s culture.
When it came to the part of the book pertaining to the passing of Malidoma’s grandfather,
Bakhye, it was shown just how intricate and spiritual the Dagara people are. A funeral, for the
Dagara people, is an event that helps strengthen the bonds of the community. Malidoma went on
to explain that when someone dies, the entire community is supposed to pause what they are
doing and only focus on the deceased for a period of three days. Everyone is expected to show
grief, as the deceased person is able to move on with the help of the community’s tears and
actions of grief. Some said that because his grandfather was so highly valued, the funeral was
filled with screams and wails of those grieving.
During the ceremony for Malidoma’s grandfather, an aspect that shows how spiritual the
Dagara people are was when the arrow that this grandfather often used was sent shooting and
eventually ended up coming back to his grandfather. The arrow comes back to the person who
sent it off. Some said this “show” was one of the greatest aspects of his grandfather’s funeral and
shows how he is connected to many realms of reality. Another element that showed that there is
much spirituality connected to the death of a loved one was when Some saw Kontomble.
Kontomble is the creature which helps a deceased one cross the river to the other side, so that
they can finally have peace. Some said that he saw Kontomble appear next to a rabbit, that
would’ve been his first catch, and appeared as a little man that asked him why he would kill his
brother. This just goes to show that the Dagara people are very spiritual, and believe in visions of
things that do not seem to belong to this world. As far was what type of ritual Bakhye’s funeral
was, I believe it was an ideological ritual. I would describe Bakhye’s funeral as an ideological
ritual because his funeral has the purpose of bringing the community together, which is what
characterizes an ideological ritual. In addition to bringing together the community, the funeral
brought everyone’s emotions to feelings of sadness, as they had to show grief to pass over their
loved one. The ritual changing their emotions is another characteristic of an ideological ritual,
because it is supposed to change your mood.
The three stages of initiation can be applied to Bakhye’s funeral. The first stage of
initiation, separation, can be seen when Bakhye dies. This is the moment when the Dagara
people see his body as an entity, and his soul something that is now free and separate of his
body. The second stage, transition/liminal stage, is displayed during the funeral itself. Since
Bakhye’s body cannot pass over to the other side until the town has showed him enough signs of
grief and the Kontomble helps him to passover, he is just waiting in the “in-between” until
everyone has grieved him properly, and the Kontomble has helped his body to cross the river to
the other side. The people crying and wailing at his funeral is a symbol of the liminal stage,
along with Malidoma seeing the Kontomble before he killed his first rabbit, which was a sign
