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Remembering Our Purpose
 An Interview with Malidoma Somé 

By Sarah van Gilder

Sarah: How do you go about being that linking agent?

Malidoma: It’s essentially connected with what the elders of the indigenous world dream of to see cultures from all over come to a point of mutual understanding and respect so that the wounds created by their experiences with each other can come to a healing place.

What I’m doing is actually on behalf of those elders. It is inspired by their spirituality, how they see themselves as humans in nature, how they view their own social system.

It entails a lot of things speaking about community medicine, building communities — starting with the individual’s identity and community identity. Much of my teaching is a simple validation of people’s feelings, visions, and experiences that they cannot find a context for because the context in which those experiences and visions are happening is systematically postmodern. For people in the West to see somebody who is from a still-existing indigenous place, who can validate and explain the realities they’ve been experiencing at that very personal level, makes all the difference.

Sarah: Can you tell me something about the way children are brought up in your culture?

Malidoma: First of all, children are looked upon as mature people who are in a state of physical adjustment.

Normally, six or 12 weeks into pregnancy there is a ritual that is lead by a group of advisors who get together with the pregnant woman. The purpose of the ritual is to inquire about the identity of the soul who is waiting to be born. Those attending ask the baby "Who are you? What are you coming here for? What can we do for you, as people who have already arrived?"

Normally, the mother takes on a very shrill, thin voice, known as the spirit voice, to respond to these questions. Based on the answers they get, they design a name for the baby.

At birth, the newborn’s first cry is taken very seriously. It is not considered a cry; it’s looked at as a signal that the new soul has finally arrived and is crying out to see if there are other souls. And for that reason, those attending the birth bring in other children who are supposed to scream back at the crying newborn.

It’s very common to find a mother at night who hasn’t seen her 8-month-old baby for the past day. She doesn’t know where he is; she just knows he’s somewhere in one of the many houses and she knows he’s safe. And, more often than not, there’s another child who stays with that mother while her own child is gone somewhere. This is a very common practice in the villages; it gives the child a very broad sense of belonging.

So children grow up very, very aware of what a village is about; everybody chips in to help raise the child. It’s very rare that a child feels isolated or develops psychological problems; everyone is very aware of where he or she belongs.

Sarah: You mentioned earlier the initiation process. Why is this so important?