BLACK HISTORY MONTH
THE (ACRED WISDOM OF AFRICA
It T a k e s A V illa g e
B y S obonfu S ome
To create a community that will
work for people here, there is a need
to look carefully at some o f the fun
damentals o f a healthy community -
spirit, children, elders, responsibil
ity, gift-giving, accountability, an
cestors, and ritual.
People in the West can create a
sense o f community in their cities
just as people in West Africa have.
They can do this by providing one
another with continuous support.
Each o f us needs something to hang
on to. T hat’s why you have all these
small communities here and there -
a group o f women working on social
issues, a group o f men, and all these
small groups pursuing a common
goal. They are attempts to re-create
a piece o f that greater community
that used to be and that has been
destroyed.
The only difference is that most o f
these communities don’t focus on
spirit. They tend to leave the spirit
outside o f their activity, which is a
mistake. It’s another way o f saying,
“We are in control,” when in fact a
true community must be based on
spirit. Spirit should be the leader and
the g u id e for ev e ry b o d y in a
community .Community is the spirit,
the guiding light o f the tribe, whereby
people come together in order to
fulfill a specific purpose, to help oth
ers fulfill their purpose, and to take
care o f one another. The goal o f the
community is to make sure that each
member o f the community is heard
and is properly giving gifts he has
brought to this world. W ithout this
giving, the community dies. And
without the community, the indi
vidual is left without a place where
he can contribute. The community is
that grounding place where people
can and share their gifts and receive
from others.
Intimacy, the natural attraction o f
two human beings to each other, is
something that the elders say is ac
tually prompted by spirit, and spirit
brings people together in order to
give them the opportunity to grow
together. That growth is directly con
nected to the gifts that tw o people
are capable o f providing to the vil
lage. And this is why when a couple
is in trouble, the whole village is in
trouble.
People in the village will involve
themselves in the problem s o f a
couple and dissect them and make
sure that they fix them because their
interests are at risk. So community
support is not entirely altruistic.
People are not necessarily coming
to help the couple. They are coming
to help themselves. If a couple is in
trouble, those around them may not
get what they need.The absence o f
true community leaves a couple to
tally responsible for themselves and
anything else around them. It nar
rows down their ways o f getting
needs met, so that their relationship
becomes their community. And if it
is not able to fulfill this role, then the
individuals begin to feel like a fail
ure. It affects the psyche so dramati
cally that they feel that there’s no
place for them. What they thought
was their support group, their part
nership, is unable to satisfy their
needs.
There are things that men do in
order to nourish what they call their
female self and things that women
have to do in order to nourish their
male self. In the village, once a year,
men who have gone through initia
tion together meet at the same spot
where they were initiated and have a
ritual that looks something like moth
ering. Their behavior is a kind of
strict male-to-male emotional ex
change. T here’s something about it
that breaks down the narcisstic feel
ing that comes with managing re
sponsibilities.
Even though it’s not a funeral
(where men, women, and children
can cry together), the men cry as
much as they want. T here’s a need
to reawaken the part o f the self that
is in touch with emotion, and this
ritual allows them to do so without
waiting until somebody dies.There
is a caretaking, not prescribed, but a
random caretaking, that goes on.
Someone, because o f inner pressure
o f some sort, will break down, and
someone else will take care o f him.
And while taking care o f him, the
caretaker too is going to break down,
and someone is going to come and
join them. So it becomes a continu
ous support and nurturing ritual.
It makes it easier for some reason,
when the men come back, for them to
stop feeling that they have to invoke
some kind o f control within the ritual
space o f intimacy. In other words,
when the sense o f responsibility and
o f being a man in the community
stops overwhelming someone who
has participated in this ritual, the
circle o f intimacy they create with
their partner becomes closer to what
spirit wants.The belief is that the
male tends to put on his warrior
mode even in the ash circle o f inti
macy. When that w arriorselfhas not
been tamed by some kind o f moth
erly energy, it is almost impossible
for a man to engage in intimate rela
tions with his partner.
In the village, in order for the
feminine and the masculine energies
to live harmoniously, women and
men must commit themselves to work
at balancing their sexual energies.
When either energy dominates, it
becom es overpow ering and can
threaten the stability o f the village.
For this reason women not only
gather up on a yearly basis with their
initiation sisters, but they also get
together as often as they can and go
to a cave or go to the bush. There we
do a set o f rituals in order to build our
masculine energy by acting out our
rage and anger and by taking on
m en’s roles.
W hen we go home there is a small
welcoming ritual. We are all received
into our homes in such a way that we
don’t start to build upon our re
newed masculine energy and be
come completely masculine, nor do
we go back to being completely in
the feminine energy.
We accept the tradition that
women must work with women in
order to build a feminine identity and
that men must work with men in
order to build a masculine identity.
This way, when a man and a woman
come together, they are better able
to relate to each other.
You may notice in many villages
in Africa that during the days women
are all together, men are all together
also. This is not a sexist practice. It’s
just that for som e reason there’s a
feeling that a clear sense o f other
ness is essential to a harmonious
coming together with your mate.
Today w eare called upon to wage
w ar with the opposite gender. Wc
need to embrace the new millennium
with a brand-new eye, a new heart,
one that allows for mutual respect.
W omen and men live their own mys
teries, and neither gender will ever
fully grasp the other. The model o f
the village is there to encourage sex
ism, nor to make men and women the
same, but to create an environment
in which both genders appreciate
and honor the other.
Ritual is what I call the "sacred
geometry" that’s needed to pool
our energies and create a healing
effect. We must move that energy
from our center of being.
IGINS
“Yo”
“Yo,” the word used on rap tunes
and as a slang greeting is actually a
sacred African mantra. The Bambara
o f Mali believe the Universe begins
and ends in the sound ofYo. Yo is the
first sound, but it is also the silence at
the core o f creation. And emanations
from this void, through the root sound
Y o, created the structure o f the heav
ens, o f the earth, and o f all living and
nonliving things. They proceed with
the belief that everything, including
hum an consciousness, em anates
from the root sound Yo.
Negro
The word Negro poetically refers
to the tribes people o f the Niger River,
meaning people o f the "water flowing
into sand.” It specifically refers to the
Niger River, whose strange U-shaped
course must have convinced early
travelers that the river simply termi
nated in the desert sands.
Black
The original definition o f ‘black’
bears little resemblance to the mean
ing o f the word today. In African
mythology, black has no intrinsi
cally negative connotation. The
phrase “black people” means People
o f the mountains o f the west; people
o f the setting sun; people o f the dream
time; people o f the seeded earth;
people o f the fertile womb; people on
an underground journey toward God-
realization; people o f immeasurable
radiance; people o f infinite com pas
sion.
The Cross
The Cross was know n as a sa
cred symbol in A frica w ell before
the advent o f C hristianity. Known
as yow a, this cross, w hich pre
dates the intrusion o f C hristianity
into central A frica, is the center-
piece o f oath taking and some ritual
intiations. The Bam bara o f W est
A frica holds that the center o f the
cross is sym bolically the kuru
(God-point); here the Bam bara say,
life em erges from divinity through
birth and merges back into divinity
through death, and through this
cyclical transformation, we achieve
immortality.
Original Sin
A frican m ythology dictates hu
manity was bom not in Original Sin
but in O riginal B lessing. The
Mbuti o f the Congo region do not
regard the separation o f hum anity
from God as a fall from grace. The
Mbuti honor a divinity that is ev
erywhere felt, a sacred presence
experienced not ju st the trees and
stream, or the sky and soil, but
from the totality, down to the last
gram o f sand
Virgin And Child
The image ofthe Virgin and Child
was an image borrowed from a much
earlier Egyptian image o f Itis hold
ing Horus. The divine Goddess
Mother, an image replicated in an
Egyptian statue o f the pharoah
Amun Ra sits on the stone throne
o f the Great Goddess Isis, as though
a child on the lap o f its mother.