Lesley tao Mowat – reflections.
African Religions – 4.26.03
Professor Kofi Opoku

I told Kofi at the end of class that “I was like a clam in a really wonderful ocean today”. And that’s truly how it was. The generalized world view and spiritual outlook is so similar to the core of the ‘shamanism’ which I practice, that I was right at home. It was fascinating to hear Kofi tell us the proverbs and stories. He is a really good teacher.

The proverbs that he opened the class with really say alot – I wish everybody could hear them and really take them in:

“One must come out of one’s house to begin learning”

“If you have not been outside your home, you do not say your mother’s soup is the best”

“Truth is like a baobab tree and one persons’ arms cannot embrace it”

“However big one eye may be, two are better”

“Hunt in every forest for there is wisdom and good hunting in all of them”

How I love them. It says so much about the African world view and many other spiritual paths as well. (It pretty much describes me! ) This world view seems to have something to do with cultures that have oral traditions rather than ‘the word’. This is just occurring to me now and I don’t know if it would hold up when really investigated. As I’m writing, I’m thinking about Hinduism which is so open to many deities – Buddha was added in even though he criticized the Hinduism of his time (whatever it was called) and started a new path. And Hinduism certainly is based on written texts! But these proverbs certainly speak to the people who are born into a certain religion, never look at anything else, are sure theirs is the only way and are critical + hostile to other spiritual paths. “One must come out of one’s house to begin learning” “If you have not been outside your home, you do not say your mother’s soup is the best” In such colorful, simple and earthy language it really says it all. Who would not understand this?

Listening to Kofi speak of his country, continent and culture – such a warm and loving feeling was swirling around me. It seemed so much emotionally healthier than what goes on in our culture. It was striking how religion is not a separate category, but part + parcel of everything – “part of life at every stage and it follows you after your departure from here”. There was a real sense of gratitude for what mother earth gave and a connectedness with the world around – not just talking about it, but living it! This is something that I aspire to and it can be heartbreaking to live in a culture that does the very opposite.

Many of the concepts he spoke of – the importance of ancestors, for instance, and how they are still with us, the ability to interact with them and have contact – well these are concepts that are in Shamanic cultures as well. Actually, African cultures do have what could be called a shaman. Malidoma Some calls himself one. So many of the concepts were very familiar to me. I’ve worked with them in a core shamanism type way, not an african way. We’re also working with descendents, a pretty wild concept.

Of course they have the concept of ‘the creator’ – a spirit without form or shape. There are no visual representations of this spirit although there are of many other spirits. It was very interesting to hear a bit about the Yoruba pantheon of orishas. When in Brasil in March 2002, I met a man who was part of ‘Umbanda’ which is a Brasilian offshoot of Yoruba. He had told me which orishas I had working with me – Kofi answered some questions for me about this which really helped me. It was so fascinating!

One thing I came away with was the incredible creativity of these cultures. Kofi talked of drumming and it was drumming to a very high degree as a form of communication and spirituality and healing. Of course there was the proverbs, a very creative form of storytelling or poetry or I’m not sure how to describe them. And then there were the visual symbols he showed us which was wonderful. They were so simple and yet the explanations were so profound. The word ‘okra’ means the “part of the creator in you, that which makes you a living human being. When okra returns to its source you are dead”. Well the name of the symbol for okra means “Iwill only die if God dies”. This is deep stuff. The art is highly symbolic – suddenly african fabric takes on a whole new depth. Again, much of it I can so relate to because of the shamanic work I do. It’s an interesting experience to have something be so foreign yet be something so close and personal to me.

I thank the school for this opportunity to learn from Kofi for an entire day. It was a treasure.

Note: Reverend Lesley tao Moawat was Ordained in December 2004.