Michael Moser

1)

Grandfather Bakhes mortuary ritual is one of ideological nature.

Although it is very different from the initiation ritual that Malidoma
(Bakhes grandson) will later face, it is still in fact an initiation.
Initiation rituals celebrate death as an eventual renewal into a new life.
In this case, Bakhe, himself is dying, but his spirit will be re-born and
later reintroduced into Malidomas inner thoughts and perceptions.
There are three phases involved in initiation rituals, and Bakhes
funeral is no exception.
The first stage of the initiation ritual is separation. In this stage,
Grandfather Bakhe is expected to lose his identity. Loss of identity can
be carried out in many different ways. In Bakhes case, he experiences
a journey and a change in appearance. Bakhes death came while he
was on the mission hill (an area near Malidomas village populated by
white, Christian leaders who attempt to convert the villagers). Mission
hill is considered foreign land because it is located outside of the
village, and Bakhe, as an elder and powerful leader, should have died
in the village. For this reason, Bakhe (although technically dead) must
walk back to his village with the rest of the Dagara that were with him
on mission hill. After the journey, Malidomas father shaves
Grandfather Bakhes head until he is completely bald. Up next is the
transitional phase.
The transitional, or liminal, phase is considered the in-between
stage. Bakhe has lost his old identity, but he has not been
reincorporated into the community with his new identity yet. In this
sense he is neither here nor there. He has not fully died and he has
also not fully become a spirit. That being said, behavior reversal is a
symbol of the liminal phase and it can be seen as Bakhe becomes
lifeless as he transitions out of his body and into spirit. This stage is
also often characterized by breaking taboos or ambiguous or
paradoxical acts that are hard to make sense of from an outside
perspective. During Bakhes liminal phase, magical practices took

Michael Moser
place in which many members of the tribe go private. Going private in
simple terms is breaking taboos, a popular symbol of the liminal phase.
As the Dagara begin to go private, they tend to use lobie, invisible
projectiles known to warriors of secret societies which are common at
Dagara funerals. As Malidoma comes to find out, lobir cannot hurt you
unless they are specifically designed to hurt you. Many tribe members
wear animal-skin bags to funerals as first aid kits containing medicine
and healing objects, and others use it to conceal their lobie. The final
stage of initiation ritual is reincorporation.
The reincorporation phase is more of a celebration as the initiate
returns to the community under his new identity. The old identity of the
initiate dies and the initiate embraces his new identity. In Bakhes case,
however, his old identity is his body. His body dies, but his spirit is
reintroduced later on in Malidomas visions. That being said the Dagara
also believe in reincarnation, therefore Bakhe could potentially be
rebirthed back into the community later on. Funerals in the Dagara
tribe are much different to the funerals that I have been to in my
culture. At the funerals that I have attended, people try to hide their
emotions; they will hold back tears or they will even excuse
themselves for crying. In Dagara funerals, however, crying is actually
mandated, and it is one of the few times where men are allowed to cry.
The funerals that I have attended tend to be short, maybe just a few
hours. Bajhes funeral was a multiple day ritual, lasting around three
days.
2) In Of Water and the Spirit, Malidoma is a special kid. He, unlike most of
the kids in his tribe, went to school at a white seminary. He was
kidnapped and forced to abandon his Dagara way of life in order to
learn the white way of life. The education he received in these two
settings were very different from each other.
During Malidomas time at seminary, he was taught to think only
the way that the priests wanted him to think. He was to think logically

Michael Moser
and he was supposed to completely forget about his traditional ways of
thinking. If Malidoma did not know an answer or if he spoke out of
place he was beaten. These beatings taught him to memorize, rather
than to actually learn. Meaning was not important for the students to
learn as long as they knew the terms. For example, when Malidoma
was learning his ABCs, a student speculated on what they meant in
Dagara and he was consequently beaten. Seminary was all about fast
paced learning, where understanding did not matter. This form of
education was comparable to learning in a prison. Speaking out against
the priests was unacceptable, and they were not very forgiving when it
came to punishments. Not to mention, as all males, the older students
sometimes viewed the younger students as girls and possible sexual
partners. The biggest difference between traditional and seminary
education was the ability to think freely. Malidoma was not aloud to let
his inner self teach him or even speak to him. He had to stay reserved
in order to avoid beatings.
In the traditional society, Malidoma learns from experience. He
not only learns from the living knowledge of the elders, but he also
gains knowledge from his own soul. Education the Dagara way is based
off patience, faith, and understanding ones own self and potential. For
example, Malidoma is faced with the challenge of staring at a tree until
it does something special; in this sense, the elders provide him with
direction, but only Malidoma can truly teach himself how to view the
world from the perspective of a Dagara. Eventually he stops
questioning and doubting himself and he refers to the tree as she
rather than it. As soon as he personifies the tree, it begins to shift
into a woman. Malidoma then understands that the tree has always
been a she, but he was unable to see her because he was blinded by
the inability to open up his mind and see her for what she really was.
Although both forms of education feature long, demanding
schedules, for Malidoma, seminary was more academically grueling,

Michael Moser
while traditional education was more physically and mentally grueling.
Both of these forms of education, however, are different to the
education I have personally received.
The education I have received has been somewhat of a hybrid
between these two forms. For example, in grade school I was forced to
strict schedules and rules that I had to abide by otherwise I would be
punished (although my punishments were not beatings). Many of my
classes also taught to the textbook, which somewhat resembles the
seminary way of teaching to learn fast and memorize rather than to
actually comprehend the material. That being said, some aspects of
my education were similar to that of Malidomas traditional education.
Although I did not go into the woods or experience life altering visions,
I did have classes that taught with the attitude of guidance and
experience. For example, I had an independent study class in high
school for a marketing class. I was the only student in this class and as
a result, the teacher would give me some brief instruction at the
beginning of the class and I would learn by myself through experience
while she taught a normal class. This class allowed me to learn not only
more about a subject I was interested in, but also about myself and
how I learn best.
3)

Malidoma, now twenty, escapes from seminary and returns to his

birth village after fifteen years of being away. In order to be
considered a true village member, or even a person at all, one must go
through an initiation. This rite of passage usually occurs when boys of
the tribe are around thirteen years old. Malidoma never got his chance
to be initiated, therefore in order to be a part of the village or to even
be considered a man, Malidoma must go through his initiation.
Some of the elders in his village have trouble allowing this to
happen because Malidoma has now been brainwashed by the white. As
Malidoma Some puts it, to my people, to be literate meant to be
possessed by this devil of brutality (167). They feared Malidoma

Michael Moser
because of the constant destruction that whites had caused them.
One of the elders, Fiensu even refered to Malidoma as a time bomb,
sent by the white man to destroy their village. Eventually they allow
Malidoma to undergo the Boar initiation.
The Boar initiation is an ideological ritual, specifically a rite of
passage ritual. It is clear that Boar is a rite of passage ritual because
every boy must go through it to become a man, and Malidomas father
tells him that in order for him to become a village, this version of him
must die (symbolically) so that he can be reborn.
As I mentioned in question one, initiation rituals have three
phases, separation, liminal, and reincorporation. The separation phase
clearly occurs when Malidoma is separated from society and taken into
the woods with sixty-three other boys to be initiated. The liminal phase
occurs as Malidoma sees the tree as a woman, because he finally
starts to let go of his seminary school of thought. Many symbols occur
in this phase that represent the womb=the tomb idea, but the main
ones are nakedness, humility, and eventually death.
Nakedness is common among rites of passage and Boar is no
exception. Malidoma must complete his initiation naked. I think one of
the reasons behind this is because of its relation to birth. After all,
Malidoma is sent into the woods to be reborn, so it only seems natural
that he would be naked at his new birth. Malidoma in particular must
learn humility and patience because he is the most doubted initiate.
Everyone expects him to fail, so when he falls behind or when he is
being watched intently by the elders, he must face it with humility. His
first test, the tree watching test is a great example of this. He watched
the tree intently for days, not knowing if he would ever see it change.
Meanwhile, all the other kids were moving on to their next test and
Malidoma had to not only face everyone elses doubts, but most
importantly, he had to learn not to doubt himself. Just before the
reincorporation phase, Malidoma must go through a death and a

Michael Moser
rebirth. He symbolically dies as he goes through a burial test. In this
test Malidoma and a partner must dig a grave and spend the night in it
with only their head out of the dirt. This test was painful and torturous,
but it symbolically represented his old self dying. Also, Malidoma must
travel to the underworld for his final test. In order to get to the
underworld, he must pass through a cave. Malidoma even compares
this cave to a womb, but it was also, in fact his tomb. After this test,
Malidomas old self had officially died and he was officially reborn as a
member of the tribe. The reincorporation phase occurs as Malidoma
and the other surviving initiates make it out of the forest and back to
the village. When they arrive the entire community is there to
celebrate with music, dancing, and food.
4)

According to Malidoma, for the Dagara, a persons life project is

therefore inscribed in the name she/he carries (1). Malidoma means,
be friends with the stranger/enemy. As far as I can tell, I believe that
Malidoma did in fact meet his destiny.
After returning to his village from seminary, Malidoma relearned
some Dagara and began translating and scribing for many people in
the village. He became useful for the village because of the two
cultures that he had experienced. Although this shows Malidomas
mixed life, it does not quite coincide with his name or his life project. I
felt like he finally met his destiny after his initiation. The elders
doubted Malidoma; they felt that he could not think in the ways of the
whites and in the ways of the Dagara, but after his initiation, Malidoma
proved them wrong. The elder that doubted Malidoma said, but today
as I look at you, you are part of us and also part of them (299). His
destiny can be seen clearly at the end of the book as he returns back
to France. He attends a four-year university and becomes a connection
between the tribe and the whites. As someone who has an
understanding of both cultures, he can now express to the whites how
they have affected the Dagara tribe.

Michael Moser
Ancestors and reincarnation also tie into the concept of naming
destiny in Malidomas culture. For example, Malidomas grandfather
also refers to him as brother. Bakhes brother was a hunter who
ended up running off with a girl living in another world. As time went
on, Bakhe decided that a funeral ritual was necessary. Just before the
funeral ritual was to take place Sabare, Bakhes brother, came back to
the village and urged Bakhe that a funeral ritual was not necessary
because he was not dead. He then immediately returned to the
womans world and lived there until he was eventually reborn as
Malidoma. For this reason, Malidoma is both Bakhes grandson and
brother and that is why Bakhe has called him brother or Birifor.