| Intro | Burkinabe writer |
| Is | Writer |
| From | Burkina Faso |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | male |
| Birth |
1 January 1956 |
| Age | 65 years |
Malidoma Patrice Somé (born 1956) is a West African writer. He was born into the Dagara people in Dano, Burkina Faso. Somé writes books and teaches workshops on West African spirituality. He currently lives on the West Coast of the United States.
Background
At age four, Somé was forcefully removed from the Dagara by his father, and taken to a Jesuit boarding school where he was provided with a Western education by priests who were determined to create another black priest. After enduring 16 years of physical and emotional abuse by the priests, he left this school when he was twenty, and returned to the village of his birth. Upon his return, integration into his traditional tribal religion and customs was difficult, due to his long absence from his culture and his apparent indoctrination into Christianity and a “white man’s world”. Elders from the village believed that Somé’s ancestral spirit had withdrawn from his body and that he should undergo a dangerous, month-long initiation process called Baor, an initiation among Dagara males which is believed to reunite soul and body.
Somé says the Dagara believe that each person is born with a destiny, and he or she is given a name that reflects that destiny. Somé says his name, Malidoma, means “he who makes friends with the enemy/stranger.” Somé believes it is his destiny to come to Western audiences and promote an understanding between Western and indiginenous cultures.
After living in the west for about 10 years, while completing a PhD at Brandeis University, Somé went back to Burkina Faso for an arranged marriage to Sobonfu Somé, another member of the Dagara tribe. They have since divorced.
Education
Somé holds three Master’s degrees and two doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University.
Somé currently conducts Kontomble initiation and divination retreats and other workshops in the US and Europe.