Healing of the nation

Against the backdrop of candles, flags, signing and chanting, they offered flowers and fruit and fasted.

But most importantly, they prayed.

“The endless challenges faced daily in this culture could be traced back to a disturbing relationship with ancestors. This in turn could be a reflection of the rather dysfunctional relationship forced upon people by the circumstances of modernity. How do we repair, heal, and honour the undying tie with our forebears?” Malidoma Patrice Som?, philospher, Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Our nation looks on bemused and helpless as gangs run amok using drones and sophisticated weaponry to terrorise not only citizens, but the police. Kidnapping has become so common again that this week, two people were charged with wasting police time for claiming that they were kidnapped.

And in Barrackpore, two schoolboys savagely beat a taxi driver because he refused to allow them in his car. In the ultimate irony, the driver explained to reporters that he did not want to pick up the boys because of their aggressive approach to him.

We continue to seek solutions, to understand where we went wrong and how we can be fixed. In a deliberate effort to explore our positive traditions, elders gathered in Renegades panyard to discuss rituals of birth and rites of passage as practised within their various belief systems.

As they talked to us about their sacred practices, it became clear to the small gathering that there is an urgent need to share the knowledge of these practices that rooted us and gave our lives order and meaning.

It became clear that it is time to make them visible, relevant and integrated into wider society.

It all centres around the mother.

Mammy, Mai, Iya, Mama … she is the key to bringing a child into the world, and she is central to passing on values and wisdom to the child.

In many ways, the mother is the link between the child, family and community.

Cristo Adonis, the peyai, shaman or medicine man of the Santa Rosa Community in Arima, explained that indigenous peoples recognise the supremacy of “Mother Earth” and that children of indigenous peoples are taught to respect her from the beginning.

“Western philosophy teaches that man has dominion over everything.

Indigenous peoples are taught that they must share all spaces, to respect all things. So, for instance, we would ask permission of the earth to pick herbs. In everything, we venerate the earth, our mother who gives us life.” In the Orisha belief system, the act of procreation is considered sacred. Practitioners believe that there is an unbroken chain between the ancestor, the mother, the family circle and the unborn. For them, children choose their parents; their choice is in line with their destiny and what they have come to earth to achieve.

This concept of the “unbroken chain” of life is common in Hindu, Orisha and other traditions. The mother carries and nurtures the child who is linked to the ancestors, and to the community waiting to receive him or her. The rituals of childbirth link the different realms, completing the circle of life and opening portals for healing.

As we grapple with teen pregnancies, youth lured into gangs and drugs and communities under siege, the wisdom of the elders is telling us that we continue to disregard ancient rituals at our own peril.

The bells ring out, a clarion call for a return to divinity. What will it take before we heed the call? D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e artist and f o u n d - er of the NGO, the I n d i g e - nous Creative Arts Network – ICAN