Why Black Youth Need Rites of Passage Programs

This& post& was originally published on& Defender Network By Aswad Walker | Houston Defender | Word In Black (WIB) – Every traditional society in the world recognizes the need to have regular, ongoing rites of passage (ROP) ceremonies as part of their annual and life routines. In the classic book “Of Water and the Spirit,” author and medicine man Malidoma Somé shared his story of being kidnapped by Christian missionaries and taken away from his people, the Dagara of Burkina Faso. Though Somé was eventually able to escape that captivity and miraculously find his way back home, he said he felt like a person without a home – trapped between two worlds. Even though he consciously rejected the indoctrination he was receiving from the Christian missionaries who told him daily that his people’s traditions and beliefs were savage and heathen, subconsciously, Somé admitted, it had an effect on him. So, once he was back home, he was still not at home. Making matters worse, rites of passage were/are foundational to the Dagara way of life. And Somé had passed the age of his traditional passage journey. But that would mean he would live the rest of his life without being...