In my culture, the culture of the Dagara, the whole concept of the intimate relates to ritual. Outside of ritual, nothing can be truly intimate . . . Any close, intimate relationship is impossible without ritual space. Anything beyond the normal, day to day issues like how to plow the field, how to plant millet or dig yam, touches upon the spiritual world, the ancestral world, and therefore, belongs in ritual space.
— Malidoma Patrice Some, Aphrodite's Daughters by Jalaja Bonheim