Unseen Art Scene (mirror)

  Tomatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family, poisonous to some but play a big role in Ghanaian domestic life as there is a market dedicated to the red fruit. The fish is the symbol for Christianity. The colours on the girl's face could refer to the Lebanese/Chinese/Indian invasion of Africa and the way in which the Continent is having to come to terms with becoming more culturally diverse. The mathematics or science, in the background, doesn't necessarily always add up. The lines repeated on the blackboard are a form of punishment in a borrowed language of a Colonial past. The Fish and tomato Trader in Class again? I like this work immensely as it's multi-layered and has real depth. The dominant use of the colour blue could suggest the idea of being all at sea...i.e. adrift or lost in a made up world without roots. Tomato Market | Accra Ghana Source: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71855000/jpg/_71855169_lagosreutomatoes16.jpg The series of works e

Gays: Guardians of the Gates An Interview with Malidoma Somé Copyright © 1993 by Bert H. Hoff This article appeared in the September, 1993 issue of M.E.N. Magazine .   Source: http://www.menweb.org/somegay.htm   Malidoma Somé recognizes that he learned more through his initiation as a Dagara tribesman than from his PhDs from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University. His name means "be friendly to strangers," and he is charged by his elders of the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso (east of Nigeria and north of Ghana) with bringing the wisdom of his tribe to the West. His book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (reviewed in this issue) is highly praised by Michael Meade, Robert Bly and Robert Moore. If you were not fortunate enough to catch his reading at the Elliott Bay Bookstore last August, you can find out more about him through the book and tape reviews in this issue. During one of the Conflict Hours at the Mendocino Men’s Conference Malidoma spoke eloquently on indigen

What a Shaman Sees in A Mental Hospital June 12, 2014 / 428712 views  Source: http://earthweareone.com/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