The Healing Wisdom of Africa

Finding Life Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community

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Through The Healing Wisdom of Africa, readers can come to understand that the life of indigenous and traditional people is a paradigm for an intimate relationship with the natural world that both surrounds us and is within us. The book is the most complete study of the role ritual plays in the lives of African people--and the role it can play for seekers in the West.
The Healing Wisdom of Africa Introduction: Living in Two Worlds
Part One: Healing in the Indigenous World
1. Healing, Ritual, and Community
2. The Healing Power of Nature
3. Indigenous Technologies
Part Two: Relationships of Healing: The Community
4. The Value of a Healthy Community
5. Mentors and the Life of Youth
6. Elders and the Community
Part Three: Understanding Ritual
7. The Elements of Ritual
8. Dagara Cosmology and Ritual
9. Preparing for Ritual
Part Four: Rituals of Healing
10. Fire Rituals
11. Water Rituals
12. Earth Rituals
13. Mineral Rituals
14. Nature Rituals
Part Five: Healing in the Western World
15. Initiation: A Response to Challenges of the West
16. Maintaining Community through Ritual
Index
Malidoma Patrice Somé, born in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) West Africa, is initiated in the ancestral traditions of his tribe, and is a medicine man and diviner in the Dagra culture. He holds three master's degrees and two doctorates from Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. He currently devotes himself to speaking and, with his wife, Sobonfu, conducting intensive workshops throughout the United States. View titles by Malidoma Patrice Some

About

Through The Healing Wisdom of Africa, readers can come to understand that the life of indigenous and traditional people is a paradigm for an intimate relationship with the natural world that both surrounds us and is within us. The book is the most complete study of the role ritual plays in the lives of African people--and the role it can play for seekers in the West.

Table of Contents

The Healing Wisdom of Africa Introduction: Living in Two Worlds
Part One: Healing in the Indigenous World
1. Healing, Ritual, and Community
2. The Healing Power of Nature
3. Indigenous Technologies
Part Two: Relationships of Healing: The Community
4. The Value of a Healthy Community
5. Mentors and the Life of Youth
6. Elders and the Community
Part Three: Understanding Ritual
7. The Elements of Ritual
8. Dagara Cosmology and Ritual
9. Preparing for Ritual
Part Four: Rituals of Healing
10. Fire Rituals
11. Water Rituals
12. Earth Rituals
13. Mineral Rituals
14. Nature Rituals
Part Five: Healing in the Western World
15. Initiation: A Response to Challenges of the West
16. Maintaining Community through Ritual
Index

Author

Malidoma Patrice Somé, born in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) West Africa, is initiated in the ancestral traditions of his tribe, and is a medicine man and diviner in the Dagra culture. He holds three master's degrees and two doctorates from Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. He currently devotes himself to speaking and, with his wife, Sobonfu, conducting intensive workshops throughout the United States. View titles by Malidoma Patrice Some