The spoken word is a powerful tool.  In contrast to written text, oration has an added emotional quality that is conveyed in the quivering of the vocal cords and the tambour of the voice.  Words may tell the story, but the voice makes it come alive.  Malidoma Patrice Some recounts his life story in the audio version Of Water and Spirit.  Sadly, you know that as Malidoma narrates his life, he is simultaneously reliving it, making it more vivid for the listener.  Malidoma’s story, however, is not the story of one man’s struggle in a world slowly being dominated by European society.  It is the story of the African culture that is trying to maintain its identity during a time of colonization and change.  Although an autobiography, Malidoma’s story highlights tenants of the African culture and philosophy that we have seen present in other texts and classroom discussions.  Specifically, there is an ignorant Western attitude toward African culture, a sense of African communalism, and a strong belief in the supernatural.

The beginning of the troubles for Malidoma and thousands of African men and women began with the colonization of Africa by the Europeans.  Their intense desire to drive out an indigenous culture and replace it with something familiar and safe, to Europeans only, resulted in the displacement of blacks, such as Malidoma, from their homes.  More importantly, Malidoma’s story confirms that Europeans made no attempt to learn about the new culture they had settled on.  As with Africans who were brought to the United States during the slave trade, Malidoma was not allowed to speak his native tongue, despite the fact that he was in his own land.  The doctrines of respect and love for others that Christianity supposedly espouses were disregarded, as Africans were torn from their communities to pioneer an order of black priests.  In a world where monotheism and Judeo-Christian beliefs have no meaning, colonizing Europeans tried to teach an entire society that its own culture was inferior to Western thought and practices.

Despite this infiltration of Western beliefs, African tribes sustained their culture as best they could.  We see that 17 years after Malidoma was taken from his tribe, when he returns the Dagara are still practicing the same customs.  A strong sense of community is present in the tribe and is reinforced by the reverence of their ancestors.  It is interesting to hear Malidoma’s assessment of Western culture in comparison to his own.  In passing, Malidoma references the Japanese society, which is highly industrialized.  Despite this modernization, as a culture, they still hold their elders in high regard.  Malidoma and other Africans do not understand why Europeans do not follow this tradition.  How could a race that fostered destruction and shunned their ancestors possibly be good?  This skepticism of Western culture carries over to Malidoma himself when he returns to his tribe from the missionary camp.  The Dagara believed that Western literacy had consumed him.  In order to be part of the community again, Malidoma would have to participate in an initiation process with other young tribesmen, which he discusses in exceptional detail (those parts he is permitted to discuss).  Participating in the collective experience of the tribe is important.  Where you live is not only about location but also about a connection to those around you both living and dead.  

The initiation process is an important tool that illustrates not only a sense of community among the African tribes but also a intense belief in the supernatural.  Malidoma states explicitly that “in Western culture, everything must be real and understood.”  Malidoma also provides us with a poignant example of Western scientific thought when he describes the scene in the airport with his medicine bag.  Although the officers do not understand what Malidoma had, they additionally show no respect for it by confiscating it and emptying its contents onto the table.  They label our narrator as some voodoo conjurer.  To further demonstrate the African belief in the supernatural it is interesting to reference the Dagara vocabulary.  With regards to the Star Trek incident, in addition to the fact that the tribe did not question the show’s believability, they do not have a word for fiction.  The only word that Malidoma can substitute for fiction from the Dagara word bank is lies.  The Dagara elders did not try to understand the tape.  In contrast to the European culture, if the roles had been reversed, I am almost certain that a team of scientists or explorers would have been called on to analyze and better understand the technology of the show.  The knowing and understanding is not as important in the African culture as the emotion and feeling.

These three themes we have seen run throughout the texts we have been studying during the semester.  Malidoma inherently wove them into his story because the culture’s beliefs and values cannot be separated from the discourse.  I think it is important to close by noting that a culture’s philosophy can be present, as we have seen here, in oral tradition.  Although Malidoma was reading from a book he wrote about his experiences, he could still relay the story without having written it down, and the story would not be any more void of African philosophy and culture.  Therefore, as Malidoma spreads the word of the African culture (his mission set forth by the elders), he also proves the point that a culture’s philosophy is present in its oral tradition.

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