Malidoma Patrice Somé

Malidoma Patrice Somé (1956–2021) was a writer and workshop leader, primarily in the field of spirituality. Born in a Dagara community in Dano, Burkina Faso, West Africa, he was raised by Jesuit priests from the age of four, pursued higher education in the West, and spent most of his adult life in the United States and Europe.

Background At age four, Somé was removed from the Dagara community by his father, and taken to a Jesuit boarding school where he was provided with a Western education by the priests. Somé wrote that he endured sixteen years of physical and emotional abuse by the priests, and that he then left this school when he was twenty to return to the village of his birth. Upon his return, integration into the traditional tribal religion and customs of the Dagara people was difficult, due to his long absence from his parents' culture, and his indoctrination into Christianity and a "white man's world". Elders from the village said that they believed Somé's ancestral spirit had withdrawn from his body and that he had already undergone a type of rite of passage into manhood in the white world. Somé wrote that he believed it was his destiny to come to Western audiences and promote an understanding between Western and African cultures. They later divorced. Sobonfu Somé died in 2017.

Education Somé held three master's degrees and two doctorates from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University.

Death Somé died on December 9, 2021, under unclear circumstances, and the cause of death remains unknown. One source suggested it may have been linked to a hormonal complication possibly caused by contaminated water.