Malidoma Somé: What the grandparents and grandchildren share together

An excerpt from Ritual: Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman

In the Life of the Dagara people, the first few years of a child's life is spent with the grandparents, not the parents.

What the grandparents and grandchildren share together, that the parents do not, is their close proximity to the cosmos.

Grandparents will soon return to where the grandchildren came from, so therefore the grandchild is the bearer of news the grandparents need. The grandparents must get this information before the child forgets.

Image Damon Davis / Words @malidoma_patrice_some from the amazing book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community