What African Spirituality can teach the world
When it comes to well-known spiritual practices, African spirituality seems to land up at the bottom of the pedestal, the pedestal in which western religions and eastern spiritual philosophies and practices shine and glimmer. Africa has a long way to go to find and own its unique voice in mainstream anything, let alone spirituality. I could go on about the historical reasons of why this is so, but I would like to rather share a slice of my experience in African spirituality.
A few months ago I went through an amagobongo process with a reputable and wonderful African Traditional and Spiritual Healer, Gogo Dineo Ndlanzi. In a nutshell, the process was an intensive week of cleansing, purging, praying and drinking specific herbs (muti/medicine) to connect with my ancestors. The idea of the process is to clear ancestral baggage, to reconnect to and ask the ancestors for help with my divine spiritual purpose and to honour those who came before me. This is a powerful process in that if you manage to confront and heal the wounds that you carry, you might just be healing the wounds of many generations before you and clearing the way for yourself and your descendants. This is a similar concept to the western therapy: Family Constellations, which was partly developed from African spirituality.
From a broad perspective and using the 7 chakras as a metaphor, let me take you on a little journey: the world is currently made up of 7 continents. As human beings, we have 7 chakras in our energy system. Chakra’s are the seven centres of spiritual power in the human body. Each Chakra is represented by different colours and holds various qualities. A few years ago, my mother read and shared something profound with me: each continent of the world represents a chakra, holding the energetic qualities of that chakra. Apparently, Africa represents the heart chakra.
“The Heart Chakra is perfectly situated in the middle of your body (at the center of the seven chakras with three below and three above), balancing the world of matter (lower three chakras) with the world of spirit (upper three chakras). This is the area where physical and spiritual meet. The Sanskrit word for the fourth chakra is Anahata, which means “unstruck” or “unhurt.” The name implies that beneath the hurts and grievances of past experiences lies a pure and spiritual place where no hurt exists. When your heart chakra is open, you are flowing with love and compassion, you are quick to forgive, and you accept others and yourself. A closed heart chakra can give way to grief, anger, jealousy, fear of betrayal, and hatred toward yourself and others.” *
This is one powerful chakra! A balanced unifier. I don’t know about you, but Africa representing the heart chakra makes a whole lot of sense to me: the spirit of Africa is love and compassion, yet because of the past, there are parts of the land and the people that hold much grief and fear. This might be something one can only understand and make sense of by being in or visiting Africa.
During the amagobongo process, I engaged in various rituals – some nourishing, some scary. As much as rituals are a big part of African tradition, I really wanted to experience and feel the deeper essence of African Spirituality instead of getting bogged down by the technicalities of specific rituals. Thanks to my mom’s share about the chakras combined with the rituals and a commitment to the amagobongo process, I discovered and remembered that Africa is ‘HEART’! The more I opened my heart during the process, the more my ancestors began to communicate with me and catalyze my healing. Living in a busy city as a bachelorette, I find that my heart can close as quickly as it opens.The masculine westernized lifestyle overemphasizes being strong minded, so naturally the heart is often compromised. So there I was, exposed to my own heart over and over again and blessed to be held by the strong healers around me who were present without judgement. The level of the sense of community and presence that I witnessed showed me what consciousness really is. Consciousness and the journey of becoming conscious sometimes dresses up as some elite concept, only accessible to a select few. I guess this would be the unhealthy ‘egoistic’ and ‘shadow’ side of consciousness. There are many so-called ‘conscious’ practices and people out there operating in their egos – separating themselves from the so-called ‘unconscious’ people. My dip into African spirituality showed me a deeper, healthier side of consciousness. From my understanding, African spirituality sees everybody as conscious beings at some level. I appreciate this viewpoint as it opens the gateways for all to know and experience that they can reach spiritual enlightenment, live their divine purpose and know that consciousness is not only scheduled for a random elite few. Of course not all African healers and African people are in touch with this essence; there is a shadow side to everything. However, there is much hope as more and more African traditional healers, activists and everyday people out there commit to writing about, speaking about, surrendering to and practicing this essence of African spirituality.
African spiritual practices have a role to play in healing the continent and showing the world how to connect to pure, deep heart. It’s not that other parts of the world do not possess this ability or essence, but Africa possesses a deeper quality of purity, divine light and wisdom of heart. Africa is Heart!
*Resources for chakra definitions/information:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12236/is-your-heart-chakra-blocked-heres-how-to-open-it.html