Malidoma Some and Sobunfu Some

[Ingeborg]

They were mentioned in the thread about Eliot Cowan and I think they might want a separate thread:

Complete names: Malidoma Patrice Some resp. Somé
Elisabeth Sobunfu Some

Both Malidoma and Sobunfu Some are doing lectures, workshops, and seminars in the USA and Europe. While Sobunfu's European activities are directed at a Newage clientele, Malidoma's US students are a mix of white Newagers and Afro-Americans who assume Malidoma will provide them with information on ways of life in Africa. There are several persons who claim either Malidoma or Sobunfu for their teachers on their websites.

Both Malidoma and Sobunfu Somé have authored several books which apparently came out in English language first. The Somés presently live in California.

There is one article with lots of details on Malidoma Somé:

http://www.answers.com/topic/malidoma-patrice-some

spiritual leader
Personal Information
Born in 1956 in Dano, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso); son of Elie (a farmer and miner) and Colette (a farmer and homemaker; maiden name Som,) Dabire; married Elisabeth Sobonfu, June 26, 1989.

Education: University of Ouagadougou, B.A.s in sociology, literature, and linguistics, 1981, M.A. in world literature, 1982; Sorbonne, University of Paris, D.E.A. in political science, 1983; Brandeis University, M.A., 1984, Ph.D. in literature, 1990.
Religion: "Traditional African."

Career
Self-employed writer, speaker and lecturer, 1993--. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, professor of literature and French, 1990-93; Stanford University, CA, visiting professor 1992-93.

This suggests that Malidoma Somé gave up his academic career in 1993 in order to increase activities as an author and vendor of workshops.

The info provided also suggests a continuous programme of studies between approx 1977 and 1990, with three B.As and three M.As obtained, as well as a Ph.D in 1990. Contrary to info given by some sites, he never held a professorship in African studies, but in literature and French, although he never received a B.A in French. However, this also drastically limits the time he spent in his family's village between finishing school and taking up studies, more or less to several months he spent in his home village after leaving school resp dropping out of seminary.

Life's Work
Malidoma Patrice Some is a speaker currently in great demand across the country. He holds three master's degrees and a Ph.D. and is the author of two books and several articles on spirituality. Most importantly, he is a bridge between two worlds, a man whose self- expressed goal in life is to convey his knowledge of the spiritual life of his people to the rest of the world.

Malidoma Patrice Some was born in the African community of Dano, in what was then known as Upper Volta, a colony of France. Today the nation is known as Burkina Faso. Although he does not know the date of his birth according to European calendar measurement, the year of his birth is listed as 1956 in government records. He was baptized in the Catholic tradition as Patrice, shortly after his birth. Some's father was a great believer in the white man's God as well as tribal customs. Some's grandfather held a naming ceremony as is Dagara custom and called him Malidoma, which means he who would "be friends with the stranger/enemy."

For the first four "rainy seasons" of his life Malidoma Some lived with his people, members of the Dagara, in their traditional style. His home was the community. The village was built around a courtyard where the women lived in a large oval mud and wood building called a zangara, and the men lived on the opposite side of the village in a more elaborate mud, wood, and cow dung structure. Several smaller buildings housed goats, chickens, and other animals. Malidoma's grandfather was the village elder, the highly respected spiritual head of the community. Malidoma's grandfather died when Malidoma was four years old. The funeral, which lasted several days and involved much dancing, wailing, and celebrating of his grandfather's spirit, was one of the few memories he has of his early life with his people.

Shortly after the funeral, Malidoma was taken from his home, "literally kidnapped," he said, by Jesuit priests in a nearby colonial town. He was placed in a Catholic boarding school, where he lived for the next 15 years. As reported in the Portland Skanner, he endured "years of physical and emotional abuse from the priests, who were determined to create another black priest." Malidoma left the school when he was 20 years old, walking the 125 miles back to his village, where he was greeted with tears by his mother and older sister. Some realized, however, that he had been thoroughly "indoctrinated," noted the Washington (D.C.) Afro-American, "into seeing the world through the lens of French language, culture, and religion." Malidoma could not remember enough Dagara to speak to his parents or other villagers. He was viewed by many people in the village as a "white Black," a person to be looked upon with suspicion and fear because he was contaminated by the "sickness" of the colonial world. As Some himself said, he was "a man of two worlds, trying to be at home in both of them."
Malidoma's first few months back in the village were difficult ones. He was visited every day by his male mother; in Dagara life the mother's brother, or to those in the West, an uncle. The job of the male mother is to provide nurturing to a boy. "The male mother is thought of as someone who 'carries water,' the energy of peace, quiet, reconciliation and healing," said Some. Malidoma underwent several divinations by tribal elders as they tried to determine what to do with Malidoma. Eventually the village decided that Malidoma must undergo Baor, or initiation. The village elders said that Some had not yet returned home; his soul was still missing somewhere in the land of the white, and that initiation would bring back his whole being to the village.

Baor, or initiation, in the Dagara culture is a month-long process during which a boy becomes a man through a solitary journey away from the village. He was forced to find his own food and sleep in the jungle. Malidoma had never undergone this process because he had been at the seminary. During his month in the jungle Some learned about his own personal power. He also learned much about the supernatural world and the spirituality that the Dagara possess. His tales of his experience include seeing beings from the netherworld, visions from his grandfather, and viewing the beings that inhabit nature. These were new and frightening experiences for someone that had been raised in the Western view of the world.

After his initiation and welcome home the elders called on Malidoma to go out into the world and inform the white man about their world. Although frightened about going back to the white man's world, Some left for Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. He earned bachelor's degrees in sociology, literature, and linguistics at the university there. He also earned a master's degree in world literature. Some related in Of Water and the Spirit that school was very easy for him after his initiation experience. He was able to look at the professors and learn the answers to test questions by reading the looks of their auras. After this he went to the Sorbonne in Paris, where he earned a master's degree, and Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he earned yet another master's degree and a Ph.D. He believes much of his success comes from his talismans and divination objects that he has come to possess since his rite of initiation.

Some came to the United States originally because the tribal elders said it was where he needed to be. They knew his role in life was to explain the Dagara culture, to be "swallowed" by the West, in order to teach others about the African world. He says that he is "able to be more African in the West than I am in Africa. In my country, a man with as many degrees as I have wears a Western suit and tries to act cosmopolitan. He has turned his back on 'superstition' and embraced 'progress.'" Some originally became a professor at the University of Michigan after completion of his doctorate. He has since become a full-time speaker and lecturer. He and his wife Sobonfu (which means keeper of the knowledge) are often found at conferences exploring spirituality and workshops in the Men's Movement
.
Some teaches the importance of learning from and respecting elders and ancestors. He speaks about supernatural aspects of life and the importance of imagination. In his native Dagara home he teaches villagers about the white man, about how he hopes that the Western world can learn to respect the world before it destroys itself. Michael Meade, author of Men and the Water of Life, said that "Some stands on the threshold between the tribal world of magic and living ritual and the modern world of facts and linear logic. He writes as a diviner, seeing clearly into the wounds of these opposing realms. The knowledge, compassion and sincerity of the writing reveals the broken heart in each world and insists on mutual healing and understanding."

It is particularly noteworthy that this bio describes Malindoma as a „white Black“, in other words: a person not acculturated in his original culture and ethnic group, the Dagara.

The text also says that he remembers only very little from the first four years of his life in his home village, this sojourn of unmentioned length must be seen as the main period he was exposed to Dagara culture, and this was hampered further by his having forgotten most of what he knew of the Dagara language and thus unable to have conversations with his family.

However, this limited access and exposure to Dagara culture does not keep Malindoma from further claims, like in this Amazon info:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Healing-Wisdom-Africa-Malidoma-Patrice/dp/087477991X

A beautifully written book which brings ancient wisdom teachings of healing and ritual from the heart of Africa to the modern world.
Malidoma Patrice Somé is both an initiated African shaman and a gifted Western scholar. His name literally means “he who makes friends with the stranger” and he has spent his life immersing himself in African and Western cultures in order that he may bridge the gap between the two.

In this book he takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual practices and spiritual wisdom of the Dagara people who are renowned throughout West Africa for their miraculous powers of healing.

In much the same way as Deepak Chopra is able to communicate complex Ayurvedic philosophy in an accessible way, Malidoma Somé applies the solutions of an ancient African tradition to the problems of the modern world. He addresses the widespread psychological problems of loneliness, alienation and lack of purpose with the healing powers of ritual and connection to nature.

This is a ground-breaking book as, for the first time, we have an authentic voice initiated into an African healing tradition who speaks with academic prowess and personal experience of modern Western culture.

What becomes apparent from these paragraphs is that Malindoma claims to be 'initiated' as an 'African shaman'. The intro was most probably written by his publishers, but it has been up at Amazon for years without him protesting the wording, so he apparently does not mind to be called an 'African shaman'. Of all African traditions? The correct term should mention his ethnic group, the Dagara. Same as with indigenous peoples, there are many different ethnic groups in Africa with diverging traditions and ways of spirituality. There is no generic 'African' culture or spirituality. Same as with indigenous peoples, becoming a person spiritually versed person is a matter of years and not to be obtained at a drive-in counter or in a few months.

It is also to be noted that this text introduces the claim of an initiation into a 'healing tradition'. Again, this is not to be obtained in a fly-by way.

It is quite interesting the text compares Malindoma to Deepak Chopra for portraying a „complex … philosophy in an accessible way“ - in other words and translated from Nuage speak to plain English: give a diluted, easy to grasp quick-fix version for impatient Euros expecting to learn all there is and more within a weekend or two.

This is further supported by the following announcement:

https://www.facebook.com/events/113314438802899/

dd 1.6.2012

Fire Ritual: Connect to Spirit, Fire Ritual: Connect to Spirit, contact Jason Cohen at Jason@heART[....] June 1st-3rd.
Join us in the extraordinary opportunity to dive into the spirit world with Malidoma to connect with Ancestors, heal our past, and reshape our destiny! Together, let's build community, share our gifts and realize our dreams. Let's escape the modern world, take up residence on Earthland's sacred land, take refuge in ancient wisdom, and reclaim our true self.

Quite tight a programme for a mere two days:
-- dive into the spirit world
-- connect with ancestors
-- heal our past
-- reshape our destiny
-- build a community
-- escape modern world
-- taking up residence etc.
-- taking refuge in ancient wisdom
-- reclaiming our true self
Nine different elements to be achieved within the course of a weekend. This means that these aims will be approached in a pretty half-arsed way. With the possible exception of item 6: „escape modern world“. This reflects the usual Nuage escapism, combined with a „refuge in ancient wisdom“ which provides another Nuage buzzword.

And this gives a further impression of Malindoma's so-called teachings – a combination of numerology and divinations:

http://www.examiner.com/article/west-african-shaman-to-visit-seacoast-nh

The Dagara are a people of West Africa who live in Ghana and Burkina Faso, and speak the Dagaare language. The indigenous people of the Dagara recognize the five elements of fire, water, mineral, earth and nature. The year of our birth determines which element we are most closely aligned with, and, consequently, what elemental energies we can best contribute in our world. Fire, for example, is associated with the ancestral energy of the dream.

Years ending in 0 or 5 are associated with Earth, 1 and 6 with Water, 2 and 7 with Fire, 3 and 8 with Nature, and 4 and 9 with mineral. This year, 2012, is therefore associated with Fire, with ancestors, dreams and visions, and this is the focus of Dr. Somé's current visit.
Divination, for the Dagara people, is not a simple fortune-telling exercise. Rather, it is described as "an opportunity to hear direction from the realm of the Ancestors, and to connect more deeply with what you know 'in your bones'". It is an "action oriented process that creates a connection to the spirit realm."

Dr. Somé will be offering divinations in the Dagara tradition from April 16 to 18, and he will be offering a presentation on the Ancestors, dreams and visions on April 17. Both events are scheduled to take place in Somersworth.

I very much doubt that this is a traditional numerology used by the Dagara, or else they must have been applying the Euro way of counting the years even before colonisation. Since the largest denomination in the state of Burkina Faso is Muslim, part of the population will have used the Muslim chronology. Somé, however, comes from the christianised Southern parts of Burkina Faso.

[Ingeborg]

Sobonfu Somé

Sobonfu Elisabeth Somé also does lectures and seminars in Europe, particularly in Germany, and her books have been translated to German.

http://www.weltbild.de/3/14584119-1/buch/in-unserer-mitte.html

Author's portrait of Sobunfu E. Some [sic]
Sobunfu E. Some grew up in Burkina Faso in the tradition of the Dagara people. Today, she lives in California/USA with her husband Malidoma Some and teaches the wisdom of her culture internationally in lectures and workshops.

The above bio ( http://www.answers.com/topic/malidoma-patrice-some ) translates her name as 'Keeper of Traditions', whereas one German site translates this as 'Keeper of Rituals'.
As far as I could see, there is no info available on her education and career or DOB.

Her website announces four events in the USA for this year:
http://www.sobonfu.com/events-2/

Grief Ritual in Cape Ann, MA
April 12 & 13, 2014
Gloucester
Cape Ann Village presents this transformational, soul-restoring workshop, designed to provide a supportive, safe space to release our individual and collective grief — grief about the losses we have endured in this and other lifetimes, including, but not limited to: the loss of loved ones, the loss of dreams, the loss of identity, and the loss of connection with our Ancestors, Mother Earth, and Spirit.

Prosperity Ritual
May 2-4, 2014
Detroit, OR
We will awakened in a powerful way this weekend the physical, spiritual, and financial prosperity we want in our lives, making room for NEW VISION, NEW CREATION, and MANIFESTING POWER.

Grief Ritual in Indianapolis
May 16-18, 2014
Beech Grove, IN 46107
In this residential weekend retreat, Sobonfu shares one of the most important rituals of her people – The Grief Ritual is a soul-cleansing rite that can help release grief, lighten your soul, let your true spirit be heard and help you become more balanced.

Grief Ritual Northern California
May 23-25, 2014
Applegate, CA
There is a need to periodically feel and express grief in order to purge the soul from hurts and pains. The interdiction and suppression of emotion in general, and grief in particular, has recently been linked to the general sense of spiritual drought, emotional confusion and certain illnesses we experience in our life.

One site promoting Sobunfu resp her books, CDs, and lectures is owned by Corinna Veit of company Begegnungsreisen whom we already got a thread on ( http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2626 ):
http://www.begegnungs-reisen.de/sobonfu_some.html

Sobonfú Somé
comes from the Dagara people of Burkina Faso, West Africa. Her name means „Keeper of Rituals“. Sent by her tribal elders, she travels through Europe and America, giving lectures and offering seminars in order to fulfil her life task expressed in her name.
Sobunfu's message refers to the way of life of her people: „The aim of a community is to make sure that every member is heard and may contribute the gifts they brought with them into this world.“

Sobonfu teaches an approach to rituals as simple, natural, and healing means of life which we can integrate into our everyday life.
100% of revenues of all seminars and lectures will go to non-profit projects, mainly to drill wells in those regions of Burkina Faso which are most short of water.

Same as her husband, Sobonfu claims to have been sent by her elders. They seem to have taken this up from indigenous sellers of ceremony as a sales pitch.

It is quite remarkable that she asserts to give all revenue to welfare projects, in particular since the home region of the Dagara is not among the regions most short of water in Burkina Faso.

Sobonfu's German activities are aimed at the Nuage scene. In 2000, she made an appearance at the ZEGG Summer Camp (ZEGG, or Centre for Experimental Culture Design, has been mentioned in one of our threads http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=888.msg4712#msg4712  . They cooperate with several persons from Deer Tribe and with Francis Talbot aka Manitonquat.)

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/fr2/conversations/topics/104

Z E G G S U M M E R C A M P 2000 * July 21 - August 6
ZEGG - Center for Experimental Culture Design - is located 80 kms
(50 miles) southwest of Berlin. It is the home of 75 adults and 20 youth
and children living together communally. ZEGG's goal is to explore and
pass on its mental/spiritual and experiential discoveries and
accumulated knowledge for the building of a vibrant, humane and
nonviolent culture.

The SUMMER CAMP is a festival to inspire personal development, the
exploration of a political worldview, and an active participation in
healing ourselves and the planet. […]
Friday, July 21 - Saturday, July 29 COMMUNITY AS THE LIFESTYLE OF THE
FUTURE […]
Sunday, July 30 - Sunday, August 6 INDIVIDUAL VISION QUEST AND
POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES [...]

GUEST SPEAKERS
[...]
July 22 - 24 Sobonfu Some: "We are born for a purpose". Sobonfu Some
comes from Burkina Faso in West Africa. Her tradition is that of the
Dagara people. From there she brings spiritual knowledge and experiences
of tribal life which are highly challenging for the Western lifestyle.
She is known for her book "The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient Teachings
in the Ways of Relationships."

Corinna Veit's above mentioned site also sells a CD with a lecture given by Sobunfu Some at ZEGG in 2008.

Sobunfu was one of the lecturers at 2013 Pacha-Mama Camp in Souther Germany:
http://www.pacha-mama-camp.de/dascamp/referenten-kunstler-visionare-2013/

In 2013, Sobonfu Some and Angaangaq Lyberth were among the lecturers (see thread on Lyberth: www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1833  ). Apparently, there were also sweatlodges done during the camp.

Sobonfu will also be lecturing at the 2014 Camp from August 1-10, 2014, together with several more established Nuage characters:

This year, from August 1-10, 2014, we may look forward to a rich programme with renowned and promising lecturers and workshop leaders. Pioneers of a worldwide change in consciousness as the African wisdom teacher and community activist Sobunfu Some, the Greenland shaman elder „Uncle“ Angaangaq, biophysicist Dieter Broers, and one of the 13 grandmothers, Aama Bombo, Manfred Mohr and many more wonderful regional lecturers. […]

We have threads on the 13 grandmothers ( http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1216.0 ).
Dieter Broers is not as much as a biophysicist, but a Nuager who writes books on esoteric as well as pseudo-medical and pseudo-scientific issues, and has invented pseudo-medical devices. He claims to have studied electrical engineering and to have two Ph.Ds, both were obtained from title mills, however.
Manfred Mohr, according to an article at German Wikipedia, is a chemist, poet, coach, trainer, and author. The article lists some nine publications which mostly fall into the realm of Nuage resp self-optimising literature, while one seems to publish his poetry. Mohr is also into Ho'oponopono.

The camp fee will be € 249 for adults, with € 59 charged for one single day of attention with the exception of the days with workshops held by Lyberth and Some which amount to € 120 each.

The fee includes workshops, lectures and other events, but excludes accom and food.
Catering is compulsory, at € 25 per single day of attention resp. € 225 for all nine days. Children from 5-7 pay € 7 per day, from age 8-13 € 10 per day, and 14-17 € 15 per day.
Accom is provided either at a camp ground with € 6 per night and person, children from 5 years on pay half of this amount. A closeby seminar house provides accom in single (€ 29 per day) or double rooms (€ 44 per day), three-bed rooms (€ 57 per day) or in dorms (€ 15 resp 12).

Apart from this appearance, Sobonfu offers a thee-year intensive training which starts in June 2014.

http://www.verbindungskultur.org/willkommen-in-unserer-mitte-3jahrige-ausbildung-mit-sobonfu-some/
The info text is available in English language at this site:

Facilitating Nature Based Rituals
A unique, intensive living-and-learning-experience for working with individuals, groups and for your own personal path.
“This program encourages you to go beyond old wounds and to develop into your own being.”

Starting in June 2014
This is the first time that this training is being offered in Europe – a unique, in-depth training in facilitating nature based rituals, rooted in the authentic traditions of the Dagara in West Africa.
It is compelling and profound to remember why you have come into this life, to sense your own purpose and to become conscious about your own individual gifts and qualities. In indigenous cultures all over the world this experience used to be an essential element of growing up and becoming an adult.
Young people were being supported in strategic ways to discover their own path with this. During this training you will get to know the indigenous approaches and methods that Sobonfu Somé brings to us from her culture, to embark on an exploration of the unique qualities and gifts that were given to you when you were born. You will be able to discover especially those that are hidden behind old pain and past failure.
In the circle of peers your gifts will be acknowledged by the community, so that they can fully blossom. In connection with the others you will step into leadership for the community, into leadership roles of the indigenous kind.
The training will help you to cultivate a deep feeling of humility and gratitude. It will support you to live the life that you came here for.

For whom is this training?
Are you yearning to live from your greater, true Self, and break away from old limitations and habits?
Are you seeing value in the old ways and do you know the importance of community?
Do you feel a deep connection with the great beyond?
Do you seek to know yourself and to mature in your personal development?
Are you in a personal transition right now?
Are you seeking for nature based approaches and tools to build and strengthen community? 
Do you wish to find methods to utilize and design cultural elements within your own professional context or personal and family life?
Would you like to integrate nature connected rituals into any kind of work that is supporting individuals or groups (children, youth or adults)?

The Objective
By participating in this program you will master the basic components of ritual and sacred space.
You will gain an understanding based on your own experience, of what ritual is and what it is not; and you will know when and how to use it within your own personal context of partnership, family, community and work.

The Pathway
We will achieve these objectives through accessing spiritual and mythological resources that have long been a part of indigenous cultures.
Participants will learn how to embody these resources in ways that are meaningful within our contemporary culture.
We will also learn how to use these resources for healing and inner development, first for the individual, then for the community.

Some Components of the Training
Principles of Healing
Building community
Rituals and creating sacred space
The power of prayer, intention and invocation
Embodying the five elemental energies of the Dagara cosmology
Discovering your connection to your ancestors
Introduction to divination (using Cowry Shells)
Uncovering meanings in symbols
Finding your personal gifts
Exploring dreams that reveal life patterns
and more

Structure of the Training
The training runs for three years and will end in December 2016. It includes the following workshops:
- 6 intensive workshops (each 3-4 days) for the participants of the training, led by Sobonfu Somé (one workshop per each 6 months)
- 6 public workshops (each 3-4 days), led by Sobonfu Somé, right before or after the intensive training, where the things you learned will be deepened and put into practice. This includes a guided preparation time for each public workshop.  Training participants are paying a reduced fee for these workshops that is already included in the costs for the training. The team is being led by Judith Wilhelm and Elke Loepthien.
- 3 Meetings in between (3 days each) for reflecting together as well as to strengthen your personal connection to nature, to support the integration of the things you learned into your own life and to get to know the 8 Shields System, based on which our events with Sobonfu are being organized and led. These meetings are let by Judith Wilhelm and Elke Loepthien

Presently, they got the course planned with events for 2014 and 2015:

Dates
Start of the training is June 27th 2014.
2014
1. Training-Block: 24.–27. June
1. 19.-22.06. public workshop
In between Meeting: 7.-9.11.2014
2. Training Block: 21.-24.11.2014
2. Public workshop  (Grief and Creativity): 27.-30.11.2014

2015
3. Training Block: 19.-22.06.2015
3. Public Workshop: 25.-28.06.2015
In between Meeting: 30.10.-1.11.
4. Training Block: 20.-23.11.2015
4. Pubblic Workshop (Grief & Creativity): 26.-29.11.2015
The workshops and trainings will happen twice a year, once in Northern Germany, once in Southern Germany. We are aiming at announcing the exact dates one year prior.

This amounts to some 19 days of training per year. The annual fee does not quite reflect this:

Costs
Early Bird: 1.690 € per year (or 145,- €  monthly, for registrations before April 30.2014)
Regular Price: 1.790 € per year (or 155,- € per month, for registrations after May 1st 2014.
(plus costs for food and board

What does not get mentioned is that the price increases when paid in monthly installments: to € 1,740 for early bird bookings, resp. € 1,860 for later booking; without this increase, installments should be € 140 resp € 149. The amounts due for food and accom will come on top of this in any case. Whether this is an appropriate amount for learning how to use cowrie shells for divinations is another question. Since cowrie shells come from the South Seas, I wonder whether they were being used traditionally by the Dagara who a) have no access to coastal areas, and b) live on the 'wrong' side of Africa in the West.

[Defend the Sacred]

At University, an old friend of mine met and married an African man from a tribe in West Africa. Having been away at school during the time his age group went through their Manhood Initiation, he had to go through the ceremonies with a younger age group, after he graduated and they returned to his tribe. The process she described, though from a different tribe than the Dagara, is similar to what I think may have happened when Somé returned to his relatives as a stranger (though my friend's husband had never lost touch with his family, nor had he lost his culture or language).

Those rites have nothing to do with "shamanism."  They aren't intended to make boys into ceremonial leaders. They are only about making boys into men by the standards of that culture. From my limited knowledge on the topic, they involve integrating a boy into his role in the tribe as a man. If Somé even went through this whole ceremony, I'm not sure how well he could have grasped what was going on, since he didn't know the language and couldn't even understand his own family. Obviously, the process of integrating him into the tribe did not work. He only stayed for a few months and then left to sell ceremony.

I can't even imagine he witnessed, let alone understood, enough of the ceremonial life of that tribe to even begin to make the claims he has. I think he had fully assimilated into a Western mindset, and chose to confabulate something every single member of the tribe goes through into a unique, speshul snowflake experience. And for his claims of being an elder, who can make other young people into elders? What living culture makes a kid in his early twenties an elder? It doesn't happen. That only happens in the minds of fantasy-prone nuagers like Kiesha Crowther.

I think he is an outcast who is trying to make a life for himself exploiting what little his people gave him. It's a very sad story, but I have no pity for him after seeing the way he is misleading people.  I've seen white and Black folks go to him and get their heads full of BS about how they can "become Indigenous" by paying him. There's a youngish guy in our area who is calling himself an Elder, based on workshops with Somé. This man is a big proponent of the "become Indigenous" thing and is now promoting himself as an Indigenous person when he's nothing of the sort. The weird things these people say... it's a real delusional lot.

Repeating some of what I posted in the Cowan thread:

See attached photo of the individuals Somé initiated as "Indigenous African Elders"

Somé claims to make white people who've never been to Africa into Elders of the village he was not wanted in, where he only spent a brief period of time, where they named him, "friend of the enemy" and we're supposed to believe that they then sent this enemy out into the world to sell their seekrits and make strangers the "elders" of their village. It's the same story we hear over and over from people who are exploiting a tiny bit of exposure to NDN ways (or NDNs who've sold out); the claim they are the saviour sent forth by the tribe to sell ceremony. I think out of either white guilt, ignorance or greed, people have cut Somé more slack because he's African. What he's done is very sad; but that doesn't make it OK.

[Defend the Sacred]

Going back over what my friend said about her husband's manhood rite... she stressed that what the men learn in the rite is always to be kept secret. Not even shared with their spouses, let alone strangers. Maybe the Dagara are different. But I'm not going to assume that. Somé has made a lot of money based on that assumption.

[Odelle]

Malidoma Some recently appeared in a non-interview (no quotes from Some) in thespiritscience.net:

http://thespiritscience.net/2014/06/16/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hospital/

The Shamanic View of Mental Illness

In the shamanic view, mental illness signals “the birth of a healer,” explains Malidoma Patrice Somé.  Thus, mental disorders are spiritual emergencies, spiritual crises, and need to be regarded as such to aid the healer in being born.

What those in the West view as mental illness, the Dagara people regard as “good news from the other world.”  The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm.  “Mental disorder, behavioral disorder of all kinds, signal the fact that two obviously incompatible energies have merged into the same field,” says Dr. Somé.  These disturbances result when the person does not get assistance in dealing with the presence of the energy from the spirit realm.

One of the things Dr. Somé encountered when he first came to the United States in 1980 for graduate study was how this country deals with mental illness.  When a fellow student was sent to a mental institute due to “nervous depression,” Dr. Somé went to visit him.

“I was so shocked.  That was the first time I was brought face to face with what is done here to people exhibiting the same symptoms I’ve seen in my village.”  What struck Dr. Somé was that the attention given to such symptoms was based on pathology, on the idea that the condition is something that needs to stop.  This was in complete opposition to the way his culture views such a situation.  As he looked around the stark ward at the patients, some in straitjackets, some zoned out on medications, others screaming, he observed to himself, “So this is how the healers who are attempting to be born are treated in this culture.  What a loss!  What a loss that a person who is finally being aligned with a power from the other world is just being wasted.”

Another way to say this, which may make more sense to the Western mind, is that we in the West are not trained in how to deal or even taught to acknowledge the existence of psychic phenomena, the spiritual world.  In fact, psychic abilities are denigrated.  When energies from the spiritual world emerge in a Western psyche, that individual is completely unequipped to integrate them or even recognize what is happening.  The result can be terrifying.  Without the proper context for and assistance in dealing with the breakthrough from another level of reality, for all practical purposes, the person is insane.  Heavy dosing with anti-psychotic drugs compounds the problem and prevents the integration that could lead to soul development and growth in the individual who has received these energies.

On the mental ward, Dr Somé saw a lot of “beings” hanging around the patients, “entities” that are invisible to most people but that shamans and psychics are able to see.  “They were causing the crisis in these people,” he says.  It appeared to him that these beings were trying to get the medications and their effects out of the bodies of the people the beings were trying to merge with, and were increasing the patients’ pain in the process.  “The beings were acting almost like some kind of excavator in the energy field of people.  They were really fierce about that.  The people they were doing that to were just screaming and yelling,” he said.  He couldn’t stay in that environment and had to leave.

In the Dagara tradition, the community helps the person reconcile the energies of both worlds–”the world of the spirit that he or she is merged with, and the village and community.”  That person is able then to serve as a bridge between the worlds and help the living with information and healing they need.  Thus, the spiritual crisis ends with the birth of another healer.  “The other world’s relationship with our world is one of sponsorship,” Dr. Somé explains.  “More often than not, the knowledge and skills that arise from this kind of merger are a knowledge or a skill that is provided directly from the other world.”

The beings who were increasing the pain of the inmates on the mental hospital ward were actually attempting to merge with the inmates in order to get messages through to this world.  The people they had chosen to merge with were getting no assistance in learning how to be a bridge between the worlds and the beings’ attempts to merge were thwarted.  The result was the sustaining of the initial disorder of energy and the aborting of the birth of a healer.

“The Western culture has consistently ignored the birth of the healer,” states Dr. Somé.  “Consequently, there will be a tendency from the other world to keep trying as many people as possible in an attempt to get somebody’s attention.  They have to try harder.”  The spirits are drawn to people whose senses have not been anesthetized.  “The sensitivity is pretty much read as an invitation to come in,” he notes.

Those who develop so-called mental disorders are those who are sensitive, which is viewed in Western culture as oversensitivity.  Indigenous cultures don’t see it that way and, as a result, sensitive people don’t experience themselves as overly sensitive.  In the West, “it is the overload of the culture they’re in that is just wrecking them,” observes Dr. Somé.  The frenetic pace, the bombardment of the senses, and the violent energy that characterize Western culture can overwhelm sensitive people.



Schizophrenia and Foreign Energy

With schizophrenia, there is a special “receptivity to a flow of images and information, which cannot be controlled,” stated Dr. Somé.  “When this kind of rush occurs at a time that is not personally chosen, and particularly when it comes with images that are scary and contradictory, the person goes into a frenzy.”

What is required in this situation is first to separate the person’s energy from the extraneous foreign energies, by using shamanic practice (what is known as a “sweep”) to clear the latter out of the individual’s aura.  With the clearing of their energy field, the person no longer picks up a flood of information and so no longer has a reason to be scared and disturbed, explains Dr. Somé.

Then it is possible to help the person align with the energy of the spirit being attempting to come through from the other world and give birth to the healer.  The blockage of that emergence is what creates problems.  “The energy of the healer is a high-voltage energy,” he observes.  “When it is blocked, it just burns up the person.  It’s like a short-circuit.  Fuses are blowing.  This is why it can be really scary, and I understand why this culture prefers to confine these people.  Here they are yelling and screaming, and they’re put into a straitjacket.  That’s a sad image.”  Again, the shamanic approach is to work on aligning the energies so there is no blockage, “fuses” aren’t blowing, and the person can become the healer they are meant to be.

It needs to be noted at this point, however, that not all of the spirit beings that enter a person’s energetic field are there for the purposes of promoting healing.  There are negative energies as well, which are undesirable presences in the aura.  In those cases, the shamanic approach is to remove them from the aura, rather than work to align the discordant energies

Alex:  Crazy in the USA, Healer in Africa

To test his belief that the shamanic view of mental illness holds true in the Western world as well as in indigenous cultures, Dr. Somé took a mental patient back to Africa with him, to his village.  “I was prompted by my own curiosity to find out whether there’s truth in the universality that mental illness could be connected with an alignment with a being from another world,” says Dr. Somé.

Alex was an 18-year-old American who had suffered a psychotic break when he was 14.  He had hallucinations, was suicidal, and went through cycles of dangerously severe depression.  He was in a mental hospital and had been given a lot of drugs, but nothing was helping.  “The parents had done everything–unsuccessfully,” says Dr. Somé.  “They didn’t know what else to do.”

With their permission, Dr. Somé took their son to Africa.  “After eight months there, Alex had become quite normal, Dr. Somé reports.  He was even able to participate with healers in the business of healing; sitting with them all day long and helping them, assisting them in what they were doing with their clients . . . . He spent about four years in my village.”  Alex stayed by choice, not because he needed more healing.  He felt, “much safer in the village than in America.”

To bring his energy and that of the being from the spiritual realm into alignment, Alex went through a shamanic ritual designed for that purpose, although it was slightly different from the one used with the Dagara people.  “He wasn’t born in the village, so something else applied.  But the result was similar, even though the ritual was not literally the same,” explains Dr. Somé.  The fact that aligning the energy worked to heal Alex demonstrated to Dr. Somé that the connection between other beings and mental illness is indeed universal.

After the ritual, Alex began to share the messages that the spirit being had for this world.  Unfortunately, the people he was talking to didn’t speak English (Dr. Somé was away at that point).  The whole experience led, however, to Alex’s going to college to study psychology.  He returned to the United States after four years because “he discovered that all the things that he needed to do had been done, and he could then move on with his life.”

The last that Dr. Somé heard was that Alex was in graduate school in psychology at Harvard.  No one had thought he would ever be able to complete undergraduate studies, much less get an advanced degree.

Dr. Somé sums up what Alex’s mental illness was all about:  “He was reaching out.  It was an emergency call.  His job and his purpose was to be a healer.  He said no one was paying attention to that.”

After seeing how well the shamanic approach worked for Alex, Dr. Somé concluded that spirit beings are just as much an issue in the West as in his community in Africa.  “Yet the question still remains, the answer to this problem must be found here, instead of having to go all the way overseas to seek the answer.  There has to be a way in which a little bit of attention beyond the pathology of this whole experience leads to the possibility of coming up with the proper ritual to help people.

Longing for Spiritual Connection

A common thread that Dr. Somé has noticed in “mental” disorders in the West is “a very ancient ancestral energy that has been placed in stasis, that finally is coming out in the person.”  His job then is to trace it back, to go back in time to discover what that spirit is.  In most cases, the spirit is connected to nature, especially with mountains or big rivers, he says.

In the case of mountains, as an example to explain the phenomenon, “it’s a spirit of the mountain that is walking side by side with the person and, as a result, creating a time-space distortion that is affecting the person caught in it.”  What is needed is a merger or alignment of the two energies, “so the person and the mountain spirit become one.”  Again, the shaman conducts a specific ritual to bring about this alignment.

Dr. Somé believes that he encounters this situation so often in the United States because “most of the fabric of this country is made up of the energy of the machine, and the result of that is the disconnection and the severing of the past.  You can run from the past, but you can’t hide from it.”  The ancestral spirit of the natural world comes visiting.  “It’s not so much what the spirit wants as it is what the person wants,” he says.  “The spirit sees in us a call for something grand, something that will make life meaningful, and so the spirit is responding to that.”

That call, which we don’t even know we are making, reflects “a strong longing for a profound connection, a connection that transcends materialism and possession of things and moves into a tangible cosmic dimension.  Most of this longing is unconscious, but for spirits, conscious or unconscious doesn’t make any difference.”  They respond to either.

As part of the ritual to merge the mountain and human energy, those who are receiving the “mountain energy” are sent to a mountain area of their choice, where they pick up a stone that calls to them.  They bring that stone back for the rest of the ritual and then keep it as a companion; some even carry it around with them.  “The presence of the stone does a lot in tuning the perceptive ability of the person,” notes Dr. Somé.  “They receive all kinds of information that they can make use of, so it’s like they get some tangible guidance from the other world as to how to live their life.”

When it is the “river energy,” those being called go to the river and, after speaking to the river spirit, find a water stone to bring back for the same kind of ritual as with the mountain spirit.

“People think something extraordinary must be done in an extraordinary situation like this,” he says.  That’s not usually the case.  Sometimes it is as simple as carrying a stone.

A Sacred Ritual Approach to Mental Illness

One of the gifts a shaman can bring to the Western world is to help people rediscover ritual, which is so sadly lacking.  “The abandonment of ritual can be devastating.  From the spiritual view, ritual is inevitable and necessary if one is to live,” Dr. Somé writes in Ritual:  Power, Healing, and Community. “To say that ritual is needed in the industrialized world is an understatement.  We have seen in my own people that it is probably impossible to live a sane life without it.”

Dr. Somé did not feel that the rituals from his traditional village could simply be transferred to the West, so over his years of shamanic work here, he has designed rituals that meet the very different needs of this culture.  Although the rituals change according to the individual or the group involved, he finds that there is a need for certain rituals in general.

One of these involves helping people discover that their distress is coming from the fact that they are “called by beings from the other world to cooperate with them in doing healing work.”  Ritual allows them to move out of the distress and accept that calling.

Another ritual need relates to initiation.  In indigenous cultures all over the world, young people are initiated into adulthood when they reach a certain age.  The lack of such initiation in the West is part of the crisis that people are in here, says Dr. Somé.  He urges communities to bring together “the creative juices of people who have had this kind of experience, in an attempt to come up with some kind of an alternative ritual that would at least begin to put a dent in this kind of crisis.”

Another ritual that repeatedly speaks to the needs of those coming to him for help entails making a bonfire, and then putting into the bonfire “items that are symbolic of issues carried inside the individuals . . . It might be the issues of anger and frustration against an ancestor who has left a legacy of murder and enslavement or anything, things that the descendant has to live with,” he explains.  “If these are approached as things that are blocking the human imagination, the person’s life purpose, and even the person’s view of life as something that can improve, then it makes sense to begin thinking in terms of how to turn that blockage into a roadway that can lead to something more creative and more fulfilling.”

The example of issues with an ancestors touches on rituals designed by Dr. Somé that address a serious dysfunction in Western society and in the process “trigger enlightenment” in participants.  These are ancestral rituals, and the dysfunction they are aimed at is the mass turning-of-the-back on ancestors.  Some of the spirits trying to come through, as described earlier, may be “ancestors who want to merge with a descendant in an attempt to heal what they weren’t able to do while in their physical body.”

“Unless the relationship between the living and the dead is in balance, chaos ensues,” he says.  “The Dagara believe that, if such an imbalance exists, it is the duty of the living to heal their ancestors.  If these ancestors are not healed, their sick energy will haunt the souls and psyches of those who are responsible for helping them.”  The rituals focus on healing the relationship with our ancestors, both specific issues of an individual ancestor and the larger cultural issues contained in our past.  Dr. Somé has seen extraordinary healing occur at these rituals.

Taking a sacred ritual approach to mental illness rather than regarding the person as a pathological case gives the person affected–and indeed the community at large–the opportunity to begin looking at it from that vantage point too, which leads to “a whole plethora of opportunities and ritual initiative that can be very, very beneficial to everyone present,” states. Dr. Somé.

The Shamanic View of Mental Illness

by Stephanie Marohn (featuring Malidoma Patrice Somé)

(Excerpted from The Natural Medicine Guide to Schizophrenia,

pages 178-189, or The Natural Medicine Guide to Bi-polar Disorder)

[Gabrielle Whitehorse]

Malidome has an encampment here. I have amassed a huge amount of data on his group. Contact me offline ti discuss please. You are the first I have ever seen expose him. Thank you!!! Gabrielle

[Epiphany]

Malidome has an encampment here. I have amassed a huge amount of data on his group. Contact me offline ti discuss please. You are the first I have ever seen expose him. Thank you!!! Gabrielle

Can you share some here publicly too? Or pass on to a moderator?

[Gabrielle Whitehorse]

I am happy to share. Here's a newspaper account. Please copy paste as I don't know how to make it live. Full article below:

http://eastwickpress.com/news/?s=Bly+Hollow+Barbies

Macabre Doings On Bly Hollow Road

June 22, 2012 by eastwickpress

by Kieron Kramer
This spring some perverse person or persons nailed 13 Barbie Dolls to utility poles on Bly Hollow Road in Cherry Plain. The dolls, all female, all new, were nailed through their belly buttons about seven feet up the poles. Two of the dolls were black, and one of the black dolls had its legs cut off. The dolls were noticed by Stephanie Hindes, who lives with her husband Mike and her two black daughters, one in a wheelchair, near the top of Bly Hollow Road. Mrs. Hindes reported this apparently cruel and threatening act to the State Police.

The State Police interviewed some residents on Bly Hollow Road, but their investigation, although ongoing, seems to have stalled since there are no witnesses and since no fingerprints were found on the dolls. The investigating officer speculated that the perpetrator wore gloves while unwrapping the dolls and then while affixing them to the poles. Anyone who watches one of the many crime shows on TV would know enough to do this. But the intentionality, and the awareness on the part of the perpetrator that there would be severe punishment if caught, underscores the seriousness of this event. It’s not a childish prank, but rather an attack on gender and race that violates civil rights not to mention common decency. Perhaps the worst part is that there are now fearful adults and frightened children living on Bly Hollow Road.

The appearance of the Barbies is not a figment of Stephanie Hindes’ imagination or a baseless rumor. They were seen by travellers on the road, including Berlin Highway Superintendent Jim Winn. But it was not until Julie Harrell, a close friend of the Hindes, reported the incident with Stephanie Hindes during the public comment period at the Berlin Town Board meeting on Thursday, June 14, that it became public knowledge. Thanks to them it is now an issue for the entire community to resolve.

Students at Berlin Central School and residents of Cherry Plain will remember the tragic death of the Hindes’ son, Tony, when he lost control of his car on a snowy road on Monday, December 13, 2010. The accident occurred on Bly Hollow Road near Brook Road. Tony was beloved by many students at BCS, but on Wednesday following the accident a lock down of the school was ordered. At that time Interim Superintendent Brian Howard sent out a letter to parents and posted it on the District’s website advising them that, “The Middle School/High School was in an emotionally charged state today because of the death of a much beloved former student. Tensions were heightened when inappropriate statements were made by a few individuals. We became concerned that altercations may take place. The Middle School/High School was in a temporary lockdown. Students were escorted to their busses to go home. All after school and evening activities are canceled for today.” Tony Hindes was black. So, there are probably many suspects in the area who could be responsible for the racist act of placing Barbie Dolls near the Hindes’ residence on Bly Hollow Road.

Who Do Voo Doo
Ostensibly, Harrell and Hindes came to the meeting Thursday to object to a property tax abatement applied for by Robert Walker, President of the Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation. The activities of this foundation, which Walker characterized in a telephone interview as educational in nature, take place on his property on lower  Bly Hollow Road. Berlin Assessor Allan Yerton confirmed that the Foundation has applied for a property tax abatement. A decision will be made when and if the Foundation attains 501c3 status as a non-profit organization. Yerton said he has consulted with County officials and was told that if the Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation attains 501c3 status from the State then they must be given a tax abatement. Such property tax abatements are given to educational as well as religious organizations.

Unfortunately, in arguing against the tax abatement for the Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation Harrell and Hindes wove a wide web of innuendo, guilt by association and accusation attacking the foundation’s leader Malidoma Some, a writer and lecturer on the ancient traditions of his village and tribe in Burkina Faso, a country in west Africa, the Ancestral Wisdom Bridge Foundation (formerly known as East Coast Village) and even the country of Burkina Faso itself. Xenophobic in nature, many of the incidents they described could be interpreted by a neutral as legal, harmless, coincidental or even educational. Walker said that the Foundation is trying “to create a place where the teaching of Malidoma Some can be established.” Some comes to Cherry Plain to give presentations on the culture and rituals of his west African village. “A number of these rituals include animal sacrifice,” admitted Walker, “which are part of the African tradition and is not meant to be offensive to anyone. In these rituals we respect the spirit of the animals that are sacrificed and then eaten. Compare that to the animals that are slaughtered by the hundreds for human consumption in the US and other western countries without concern for the spirit of the animal.” It is through the rituals that Some presents that bridges between such very different cultures and traditions can be built, Walker added.

Somehow, Harrell and Hindes made a connection between the foundation and the Barbie Dolls on Bly Hollow Road as if the long arm of Mattel had reached into a west African nation and provided an instrument for satanic witchcraft. The Barbie Doll was invented in 1959 as a teenage fashion doll by Ruth Handler (co-founder of Mattel), whose own daughter was called Barbara.

[Gabrielle Whitehorse]

http://eastcoastvillage.org/main/

http://eastcoastvillage.org/main/upcoming-events/ritual-healing-village-elements-nature/

This Malidoma led continues to be investigated by local and NYS law enforcement.......interestingly, a five year analysis of both broups (Aviela and Ancestral) shows a distinct lack of truthful reporting of actual profits made by these highly expensive events. The IRS Criminal Investigations Unit has interviewed this author extensively about the tax information brought to their attention. Please pray for our community that this horrible travesty be finally released and sent where they belong. Thank you and blessings, Gabrielle Whitehorse

[Gabrielle Whitehorse]

Here are interesting links that describe what goes on behind closed doors at the East Coast Village. This event costs $5000, is not on Malidoma's calendar nor on the East Coast Village calendar, and according to the East Coast Village three other events have taken place at Cherry Plain.

http://terileighblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/eldership.html

and at Malidoma's compound.

Note the "snuggling with African beauties and the mangled barbie" references. Who would hand over young children to "snuggle" with an American and for what reason ??

http://people.tribe.net/cd633f95-a23c-4215-84ca-eb89dd1acf90/blog/a370530d-d159-4444-96bb-350f92a14211

[Gabrielle Whitehorse]

A more complete list:

Here are interesting links that describe what goes on behind closed doors at the East Coast Village. This event allegedly requires more than $5000 for each participant, is not on Malidoma's calendar nor on the East Coast Village calendar.

According to the East Coast Village three other Elder Initiations have already taken place at the Bly Hollow Compound, which is hidden from public view. Residents Jonathan Post (the Beer Diviner who was arrested by NYS Police for illegal sales to minors), Cindy Parrish Post, his wife, and Robert Walker, all residents of Cherry Plain, are listed as "Elders," meaning they have gone through the $5000 two week initiation process already.

http://eastcoastvillage.org/main/elder-initiation/

A description of one participant's Elder Initiation:

http://terileighblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/eldership.html

Description of a visit to Malidoma's compound in Burkino Faso.

Note the "snuggling with African beauties and the mangled barbie" references. Who would hand over young children to "snuggle" with an American and for what reason ??

Remember the 13 barbies found nailed to telephone poles on Bly Hollow Road. This is FACT, and in NYS Police Records.

http://people.tribe.net/cd633f95-a23c-4215-84ca-eb89dd1acf90/blog/a370530d-d159-4444-96bb-350f92a14211

Fund raising by many East Coast Village members is public:

http://gogetfunding.com/support-zayin-s-bokara-elder-initiation/

http://www.gofundme.com/initiationaamirah

http://www.jeffbrooks.net/darshanna/

You can also find them on facebook where their hopeful Elder Initiates ask for funding:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecvdagara/

Photos of the Elder Initation "homecoming," also not listed on any calendar

http://bloom-media.photoshelter.com/gallery/Elder-Initiation-Homecoming-060712/G0000m6DeL8mDiYE

Very interestingly, Malidoma Some conducted fund raising (funneled through the East Coast Village) for a Youth Festival held in Burkino Faso....where did all the youth come from, and who escorted them home again?

https://ourdivinemedicine.wordpress.com/tag/burkina-faso/

http://www.drumsofchangedrumsofspirit.com/Services-And-Products.html

Quote: The plan is to raise $15K or more in the next few months for this weeklong event which will happen on February 25 - 27 of 2010.  Your tax deductible contribution can be sent directly to Aviela Inc., c/o Robert Walker, P.O. 82, Cherry Plain, NY 12040. Next, we will want as many people as can make it to prepare to be physically there to partake in this event so that the population of all the 37 villages of the area can see how your effort acknowledges the importance of this crucial moment.

This is a call to rise for it is now our time to shine.

ASHE

Malidoma Somé
 
Contact
phone: 407-568-1946
info@malidoma.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope that you will share this information far and wide. This group has admitted (in the Eastwick press article previously referenced) to Animal Sacrifice... who knows what else goes on there. Certainly the compound remains a place of interest to many ..... we continue to pray for our community.

Gabrielle Whitehorse

[BrandemeerHG]

I´m not very familiar with sub-Saharan African religious traditions, i don't know how open some of those communities are for strangers, but my fraud radar has switched to "ALERT!" as i read about this person:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobonfu_Som%C3%A9

http://www.sobonfu.com/

"The author and seminar leader was prepared in her tribe from birth to share the ancient wisdom, rituals and customs of her ancestors with the Western world" translated from this Website: http://www.verbindungskultur.org/in_die_fuelle_finden/

She is now dead, but in her lifetime she earned money with ceremonial teachings for western people, like you can see in this video:

https://vimeo.com/199830081

She didn't earn bad, 1.790 €  for one year of teachings (German Language): http://www.tagungshaus-mikado.de/ritual-ausbildung-gemeinschaft.html

She also did workshops in the US:

https://www.ncclaguna.org/events/dagara-grief-ritual-sobonfu-som%C3%A9

http://www.healingintuition.com/events/20100312.shtml

https://www.ciis.edu/ciis-news-and-events/campus-calendar/some-sobonfu-sp17-wks

I know that there are some Voodoo groups here in Europe leaded by Africans who accepting European peoples for Initiation if they are in personal friendship with them, but the things she did doesn't seem authentic to me. Perhaps some people here know better about African traditions and can say something about this person.

Another interesting part of her teachings is, that she is trying to integrate western LGBT* people in her concepts, similar to some other fraud people, who try to appropriate Two Spirit concepts into western Society.
A Video about her views about gay people, she claims to be based on indigenous traditions of some specific African tribes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GQ2dEGHmo0

From this book:

https://www.amazon.de/Spirit-Intimacy-Ancient-Teachings-Relationships/dp/0688175791

[Defend the Sacred]

Merged new thread into existing one.

[Sparks]

Sobonfu Somé [not Sobunfu] has been mentioned elsewhere in the forum:

Ms Veit also organizes travels to Africa, and oganizes lectures and seminars for her contact there, Ms Sobonfu Some:

http://begegnungs-reisen.de/sobonf_1.html

Sobonfú Somé
comes from the Dagara people in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Her name means „Keeper of Rituals“ in translation. She was sent by her elders to fufill her life task which is expressed in her name. She travels Europe and America, does lectures and seminars.

Sobonfu's message relates to wisdoms of her people. „The aim of a community is to take care that every member is heard and may introduce the abilities they brought into this world in the right way.“
Sobonfu teaches an approach to rituals as a simple, self-evident, and healing means of life which we can integrate into our every-day life.

Revenues of all seminars and lectures will go to non-profit projects at 100%, mainly into drilling wells in those areas of Burkina Faso where water is most scarce.

It is quite interesting to see the similarity of claims: sent by elders, life's task, complete with the claim of revenues transfered „to my people back home“.

[Sparks]

A new topic in the forum about someone who claims to have been taught by Sobonfu Somé:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5354.0
[Roan Kaufman, Shamanic Practitioner]

I posted this in that thread:

From the poster: "This ritual is offered in the spirit of Sobonfu Somé who taught the Dagara grief ritual for many years in the United States before her death in 2017."

The forum has a thread abut Sobonfu Somé and her once husband Malidoma Somé:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4323.0
[Malidoma Some and Sobunfu [sic] Some] — About the "Dagara grief ritual" see first two posts and my update today.

Especially: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4323.msg44657#msg44657
[Sobonfu Sone [sic] – Claimed to be African spiritual teacher for western people]