10/05/2022
From Ukumbwa Sauti:
"In the Dagara tradition from west Africa, we do not expect our Ancestors to "rest in peace". Because we have a dynamic and active relationship with our Ancestors, we expect them to get to work to help us to get work done on this plane and on Theirs.
There is no "rest". They are there to work....just like we are here on this plane to get things done. We pour libation for them. We feed them. We talk to them every day, maybe all the time. They are a live dynamic in our communities and in our lives. We can't afford to have them go to sleep on us.
Don't send our Ancestors off to some nebulous "rest". Keep them close. They are still with us. They can assist us in ways we need. Stop this colonizer, christian context of thinking about our dead. Botham Jean, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Kwame Nkrumah, James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman and our badass Aunt Zula are waiting for us to put them to work. Tell them what we need right now....ask them to help us dismantle racism and decolonize our minds, our homeland, Africa and every inch of indigenous land on Earth.
Death is not an ending. It is a transition. Energy is conserved....even western science knows THAT. When my father died, I brought my flask to blow rum for him at the cemetery. But it was an antiseptic roamin catholic cemetery....and I know he wasn't there. I send him offerings almost every day.....and he knows I'm on his side....and I know he is on mine. I know him better now than in his embodied life. Our Ancestors are our resources....and we are theirs."
This is also the belief traditions of many other cultures. I never think of my ancestors as sleeping - they are "on to the next"! They are living on another plane, in another dimension, learning still - but close always. Often those who have gone before us now are able to help us much more than when they were alive. ASK.
They live in your DNA.
