Travatello 1

Connor Travatello
Professor Katsanos
LBST 2102-338
December 8th, 2016
Of Water and the Spirit Essay Questions
1.

The mortuary ritual of Grandfather Bakhye starts out on mission

hill where he was taken once he died at the compound. Grandfather

Bakhye must make it back to their homeland even after one has
passed. This is a big part of the Dagara cultures death ritual but it can
only be accomplished through the use of the symbolic hyena tail (pg.
51). Grandfather Bakhye walked back home from Mission Hill where
his physical body laid gripping the hyena tail Malidomas father had
given him. The reason for this is because in the Dagara culture, they
view everyone as equal whether they are dead or alive and they are
just as important in either form. While he was doing this, a meal was
being prepared for the grandfather because the Dagara culture did not
want him to leave them to go to the ancestors on an empty stomach.
They also stripped him of his clothing as well as shaved his head. This
type ritual is solely done to individuals of great importance to their
community, which shows the respect Grandfather Bakhye had as a
medicine man and a member of the Dagara Burkina Faso community.
While on his journey to his home with the hyena tail, the grandfather is
now in the liminal phase. He is in between the living and the spirit
world and he can be brought back for certain parts of the ritual such as
he did for his last meal and for some other speeches to the family after
the meal (pg. 54). In my opinion, Grandfather Bakhyes whole
mortuary ritual is ideological because he goes through changes in
different ways. The stages of initiation that the grandfather goes
through is a change in his appearance, dying in a symbolic way, and
having a burial to remember all he has done for the Dagara

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community. Another symbol is the grandfather leaving his body, which
escaped the laws of gravity and creates a new law for the Dagara
community about what they can and cannot eat. When comparing this
funeral to other experiences of mine with funerals, it is extremely
different. My experiences of funerals have been very depressing with
lots of mourning. However, in the Dagara culture, it seems almost the
opposite. While there is still mourning going on, the whole
environment seems generally happy. For example, The general
atmosphere appeared festive. It was hot and everybody was sweating.
Outside the compound I could hear the music of the xylophones, the
songs of the chanters, and the crowds monotonous, persistent
murmur. Everywhere cries and laughter mixed to create an
atmosphere of festive tragedy.(pg. 59). I think a festive tragedy, as
quoted, is the perfect way to describe Grandfather Bakhyes funeral
and it doesnt relate to any funeral that I have seen or been to.
2.

After the long, 120 mile long journey to the seminary from

Mission Hill, Malidoma realizes how much different it is. He begins

describing the school as a titanic religious establishment (pg. 99)
and goes on to talk about the teachers stating that they all taught one
subject. All of the books were in French, with English as a second
language and Latin as a requirement. At the seminary, there was a
daily schedule that was routine for everyone (pg. 105). It began with a
priest waking everyone in the dorm at 5:30 a.m. up by turning on the
lights and clapping. This was all very different for Malidoma because
back at the compound, he would ask his grandfather anything that he
needed to know. He never had a fixed schedule that he was required
to follow. All of these languages were very new to Malidoma too
because back at the compound, he spoke Dagara all of his life.
Malidomas whole life was never on a structured schedule like he had
at the seminary. Whenever he wanted to learn something, he would go

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to Grandfather Bakhye who would always have a long, detailed story
that tied in an answer with it. A good quote to describe this is
Grandfather never tackled a question directly. He had the habit of
introducing an answer by way of a whole bunch of stories that often
placed the question being asked into a wider context. (pg. 28). I can
compare both of these forms of education to my own in a few different
ways. For example, I have learned a good majority of the things I know
today from my elders just as Malidoma did before he was kidnapped.
They have made me into the person I am today and most of the time,
they are the first people I go to when I have questions in my life. On
the other hand, I have been in a structured education for as long as I
can remember. Going all the way back to pre-school to the college
classes I take today, we have been put in a fixed time schedule such as
Malidoma was in the seminary. Even though it may not be to the
extent that his was, such as waking up at 5:30 or doing something
every hour youre awake, pretty much all of us have experienced a
structured scheduled type of education.
3.

Returning to his birth village after fifteen years of being

separated from it was not easy for Malidoma. He walked home almost
three hundred kilometers from the seminary through a jungle just to be
back at the compound. Once he arrived, he struggled communicating
with his family and other members of the village. The reason for this is
because, after fifteen years, Malidoma had forgotten how to speak
Dagara and would talk in French when he did speak. This was hard for
Malidoma to adjust to as he states, If only I could remember how to
speak Dagara! Noise without meaning is irritating, especially when
you know that the noise is hiding from you something vitally
important. (pg. 161). Malidoma also struggled fitting in with his fellow
community members and also adjusting to village life. It had been
over a decade since Malidoma has been at the compound so he had a

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hard time helping his father do the everyday work that he would have
been accustomed to, as his siblings were. As quoted Initially, I had
tried to work with them, but I was so clumsy I was more of a hindrance
than a help. My father suggested that I watch and learn instead. (pg.
170). This is concerning to the elders of the village because they
believe that Malidoma has been brain-washed by the white men at
mission hill and the seminary. After this theory was heard throughout
the village, the question arises of whether his views and thoughts can
be brought back from the ones that he learned and was exposed to for
the fifteen years he was gone. The elders, including Malidomas father,
believe that the only way to cleanse him and open his mind back up to
the Dagara cultures beliefs, rituals, and everyday life. His father then
informs him that he needs to go undergo and initiation in order to be
fully accepted into his village once again. I believe that the type of
initiation Malidoma goes through is an ideological one because it
involves the manipulation of ones prior beliefs and changing them to
favor a certain culture or religion. The initiation begins with Malidoma
and some other children being taken away from their villages and
brought into the bush while also being stripped of their clothes. This
first stage is known to connect the candidates for initiation with their
ancestors on a spiritual level. The next stage of initiation was one that
Malidoma was doubted to succeed in. In this transitional stage,
Malidoma was placed at the base of a tree facing another tree.
Malidoma stated, We were to sit, stand, or kneel about twenty meters
from the tree and look hard at it. We were supposed to see something,
but were not told what. (pg. 206). He stared at the tree for a whole
day without a thing; despite thinking he saw an antelope at one point.
However, the next day came and as soon as the elders were going to
give up on him, a beautiful green woman appeared in the place of the
tree. It was finally what they were waiting on Malidoma to see. The
next stage of initiation is where all the children had to jump into a light

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hole but they had to catch themselves by grabbing the light lines as
they were falling. Malidoma noticed that as he was falling in the hole,
he had no physical body and wasnt able to touch himself (pg. 243).
He noticed a mountain in the distance but it ended up pulling back into
reality. His final stage was to find an egg shaped cave, which would
allow him to enter the Kontombl world. Once in the Kontombl world,
he crossed over a bridge of crocodiles and then he violated a rule in his
village, which is, when he was pushed off a cliff. This brought
Malidoma back to the original world and he had now completed the
initiation and was brought back to his village to be fed and washed.
This initiation process proved himself to everyone else in the village
and he was now recognized as one of their community.
4.

Naming in Somes culture is very symbolic and important. The

Dagara culture names their children according to tasks they wish the
child to accomplish throughout the course of their life. It is a constant
reminder to the name holder what their duties in life are and it can
even be an answer to questions people, such as Malidoma, have for
why things are happening in their life. The first few sentences in this
novel give a good explanation to the importance of naming in Somes
culture when she writes, My name is Malidoma. It means roughly be
friends with the stranger/enemy. Because the Dagara believe that
every individual comes into this life with a special destiny, some names
are programmatic. They describe the task of their bearers and
constitute a continual reminder to the child of the responsibilities that
are waiting up ahead. (pg. 1). This describes the naming aspect of
Somes culture perfectly because Malidomas whole life story is a
prime example of the meaning of his name. At first, I was questioning
whether he has really met his destiny as one who makes friends with
the stranger/enemy until I reached the end of the novel where he talks
about traveling to Ouagadougou to learn about western ways (pg.

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310). He then goes on to talk about how he is going to bring the
knowledge he gained from Ouagadougou back to his birth village and
educate the villagers on other ways of living to possibly improve the
quality of life in his village. There is now no doubt in my mind that he
has met his destiny. By having the knowledge of two completely
different worlds, can be very beneficial at times but also has its
disadvantages as Malidoma says, I still often suffered from being a
man of two worlds: conflicting worlds that, when combined, could
elevate me to a plane of perception from which I often saw situations
through two different points of view- neither of which seemed to quite
match up with the other. At times that double perspective landed me
in bizarre and uncomfortable situations. (pg. 310). I can see how
having those two viewpoints can be irritating at times since you are
stuck between two perspective in your own mind and there are very
few people who understand both. Malidoma also has met his destiny
by going to college, where he received three bachelor degrees and a
free airline ticket with which he chose to go to France to further expand
his knowledge on different places around the world, I was finally living
out the destiny foretold by my name-Malidoma-he who makes friends
with the stranger/enemy. (pg. 311). When it comes to ancestors and
reincarnation, the ancestors talk to the mothers about who is to be
reincarnated and what their destiny is going to be The living must
know who is reborn, where the soul is from, why it chose to come here,
and what gender it has chosen. (pg. 20).