Of Water and the Spirit
“Of water and spirit” describes the hardships of Malidoma and the African civilization. The Dagara believed that every individual comes to life with a special destiny; most of the names are programmatic. The belief is a person life project is inscribed in the name he or she carries. Malidoma, which means to “be friends with the stranger/enemy, his come to befriend us and tell us the story of his life and his people. My name is Ashe. Ashe means the power to make things happen. So along the line of my life I have to ability to make situations and events occur.
Malidoma was born in Burkina Faso, in the country of the Dagara people. He lived in the village of Dano until the age of five. Malidoma was kidnapped by a French missionary priest. A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. This “missionary” temporarily divided Malidoma from his nation. The missionaries were attempting to convert and train a legion of black Africans who might go back to their tribes and bring them to Christianity. The Europeans used the methods of brain washing to discontinue the Africa Civilization from their roots. The priest started off by kidnapping and isolating the African people. With Isolating they wouldn’t have anyone to turn to. No one they can check in with such as family and friends. Next step was terror. They would beat the Africa people until they felt with one more hit they would die. This was traumatizing. In fact they would then feel like they are an infant mentally. The whites would then “be nice” to the Africans after they beat them. This always was mentality draining and the Africans were forced to become depended. They were taking advantage sexually. Last was imprint. They were designed to obey the white man. The kidnapped child was design to change the culture to wherever...