Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community

by Sobonfu E. Somé

A natural sequel to Sobonfu Som's book on ritual and intimacy, Welcoming Spirit Home draws on the wisdom of the African ancestors to show how to build communities where children are not only welcomed but prized. The author demonstrates how ritual and the spirit can be used to enrich daily life.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Africa

141 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that someone gave to me years ago and I finally got around to reading it. In it, Sobonfu Some shares some of the ancient traditions and rituals of her Dagara tribe - mostly around child-bearing and -rearing - and also offers some modern ways to implement the rituals here in the West to help renew a sense of connectedness and community.
I especially appreciated the idea that a baby is "spirit" coming "home," and that a family needs to prepare a place for spirit and welcome it. This is a quick read with some useful tidbits for sermons about families, church community, and religious education.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting cultural information that barely avoids getting new-agey. I found the most relevant section to be on children, where she talks about including them in the community and encouraging their spiritual development. The birth section was also somewhat helpful, but with the rest of the book I had trouble finding practical applications to my own family life. I believe in the power and importance of community, but that doesn't help me more easily imagine it appearing in my own life anytime soon.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

There wasn't anything totally ground-shattering here, but I love Subonfu Some's kind and gentle voice and I can totally get behind her message in this book. Basically, she stresses the importance of a loving community, and the healing powers of ritual. I think ritual is something really important that most of us could definitely use more of, but the rituals Some describes in this book are probably well outside the reality of most westerners.

[Nakia Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good book to read if you are planning to conceive a child. It was out of print when I found it for 50 cents. I was pregnant and it just fell into my lap. It gives a good cultural and spiritual perspective on children and community.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing, heart-opening book from Sobonfu!

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

if only we had such spiritual births all the time

[William Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skewl book, was pretty good!

[AS]

I was eager to read this because it sounded interesting and there aren’t a lot of things out there about Burkina Faso, but I just didn’t prefer the author’s writing style and found most of what she was saying to be really, really general and vague. I liked the author’s ideas about the importance of community and everybody having a place in it, but I was getting frustrated with how there were no examples, no anecdotes, nothing specific at all to help the reader picture how this actually plays out in the traditional society she talks about. It just seemed way too idealistic. And this was how I was still feeling after wading through it for about 40 pages, so I decided to give it a break.

I think I’ll skim the rest and see if it gets any more specific. I like her ideas and values, but just would like something more concrete.