A GENIUS OF INDIGENOUS PRACTICES
I remember when I was in college (it feels moons ago now!), I took this class on indigenous African religion where we read this book called “Conversations with Ogotemmeli.” I remember that book being the most complicated piece of philosophy (it was both a religious and philosophical text) I had read, and I read complicated philosophers like Plato and Hegel.
The thing I remember most, though, was a class when the professor stopped lecturing and sat with the class to discuss the dynamic of white/European anthropologists going into the African continent to raid the coffers of indigenous practice. We had read other similar books, and he highlighted that there was an arrogance from most of the anthropologists thinking that they had managed to learn the whole spiritual system. It was at this point that he, an African himself, started to laugh more than I had ever seen him do. He told his racially-mixed but predominantly-white classroom that indigenous elders gave those scholars just enough information for them to THINK they learned their religion—but that an elder would never give away their secrets and medicines to outsiders who were not initiated into those mysteries. They just won’t.
More recently, I saw someone state on social media that, in their experience and learning of ATRs, that ATRs and its practitioners are more focused on practice than philosophy and meaning. I found myself chuckling like my professor did all those years ago. Just speaking for the ATR systems I practice, I promise you that we do indeed have philosophy, mythology, and theology. But much of that stuff requires initiation to learn. Some of those things are like handing someone a loaded gun, and a person can do damage with just a little knowledge. If all you learn from us is a little of the practices, you’re not learning the tradition.
Case in point: my godfather in one of my ATRs once verbally slapped the hand of one of my godsiblings. Why? Because that godsibling was singing a spiritual song that was within the general tradition we practice, but NOT a song of our branch. At the time, I didn’t understand my godfather’s reaction. He just looked at my godsib and, with the “fuck around and find out” laugh he has, said “Do you even know what you’re singing?” I later learned that he was saying this because, like the movie Sinners, spirits RIDE on the songs of ATRs. Our songs conjure spirits and phenomena. It’s not something to play with. You can call to you more than you can handle!
Elders of these traditions will not share with those who are neither initiated, nor ready. People also make the mistake of thinking that because they are initiated, that somehow means now you have access and the right to everything. Not so. The person teaching you must see that you’re ready. And by ready, I don’t really mean some arbitrary power play judgment. Elders who do that are working out their issues on you. By ready I mean that there is a specific amount of development, wisdom, and understanding you are reflecting. That a person has progressed with their self-work and is not full of defense mechanisms, arrogance or any other things that become obstacles to growth. You must do your work to be worthy of receiving indigenous medicines.
This is one of the geniuses of ATRs and other indigenous traditions. It is also a big reason why indigenous traditions are not for everyone.
