We Don't Call on Our Ancestors Anymore?

Ada Ka Ibe Ya | photo by Nkeiruka Oruche

About 4 years ago, while putting away laundry, and walking through the kitchen, I overhead my mother saying to my children “We don’t call on our ancestors anymore, we don’t do that”. I kept going about my tasks and didn’t respond. Because, at the time, I didn’t have any. A year ago, I happened upon a BBC video article where Nollywood Actor Bob Manuel Udokwu asserts that we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to our cultures. He highlights that the Europeans came and gave us practices and stole ours for their amusement and wealth… and we stopped calling on our own ancestors and started calling on their own ancestors who we don’t know. And my tongue loosened. 

"We don't call on our ancestors anymore " 

But why? We call on St. Peter. St. Paul. We follow the scriptures of people unknown to us. We relegate your cultural wisdom to archaic. We call our ancestors demonic.

We change our names. 

Why do the ways and practices of the Europeans supersede those of our ancestors?

What is the rationale for elevating practices from somewhere else and denouncing mine?

I still don’t have all the words. I still don’t have a response. But I’m fucking around and finding out.

Ancestors. All Souls. All Saints. Ndiichie.

Let me introduce you to/remind you of Ndiichie. 

“The Ndiichie (esteemed ancestor spirits) also held a high place in traditional Igbo society. Elders have always been revered in Igbo society, and even more so after they passed onto Be Mmuo (the land of the spirits). The Ndiichie would often be consulted to offer advice to their descendants and appeal to the Alusi on their behalf. Ndi Igbo have never worshiped their ancestors, only venerated them, which is no different then what Catholics do to their saints or what every country does to its national heroes. Respect and honor for the Ndiichie was shown in one way by pouring of libations while chanting incantations. Ndi Igbo believed in the concept of reincarnation and felt that the Ndiichie often reincarnated back on Earth. In fact, all Mmadu (human beings) were believed to reincarnate seven or eight times, and that depending on your karma, one either ascends or descends into another spiritual plane” – Onyemobi

Death does not automatically make one an Ndiichie. There are guidelines about how you showed up for the family and community while walking this plane, coupled with prescribed rituals and ceremonies connected to this rite of passage. But we've discarded them. We've lost practices like greeting and acknowledging Ndiichie as we gather, as we go about various parts of our life. 

In Igbo traditional practice you're to be able to name up to 7 generations of ancestors. For many of us, this is impossible for many painful reasons. We may not know them by name, and some of them really do not need to be called, but we can still hold the intention and do what we can.

DRUMLUCK/ ANCESTOR DAY WITH BOOMSHAKE

Photo by Brooke Anderson

On Nov 2, I'll be commemorating and celebrating with my Boomshake family and community. For the past couple months we have learned, reflected, practiced songs and stories. Each exploring our own ancestral connections and heritage, how we honor and celebrate the Dead. We have done this held and led by Monica (in spirit), Cadence Myles, Pedro Rosales, Valerie Troutt, and myself.

And with the labor, love, and creative vision of Mitali Purkayastha, Carmen Jovel, Julia LaChica, Vivian Renteria, Joanna Villegas, Sarah Norr, Nicole Zapata, and our Boomshake Community participants and families, we are manifesting a beautiful, and nourishing space of cultural dishes, music, prayer, games, and being, in honor of our dead.

You're invited. Open to all ages.  Come, it's Free but you gosta RSVPee. 

SUPPORT OUR CULTURAL EXCHANGE AND DOCUMENTATION IN NIGERIA WITH GBEDU TOWN RADIO

Gbedu Town Radio on stage for Mixtape for the Dead & Gone: Ahamefula | June 2022, San Francisco

Like I said, I don’t have all the answers but I’m continuing the query. As you may know I’ve been conceiving and bearing ‘Obi gbawara’m//My Heart Shattered or What happens after I die?’ (OGB), a cultural documentation & multimedia performance project documenting Igbo traditions in death and grief.

The current phase of this project is going to visit Igbo lands in Nigeria, and I’m going with a delegate of 7 people from Gbedu Town Radio performance company, and we will be in exchange and partnership with another Cultural group in Nigeria, to study, visit cultural sites, interview, and document the herstory and practices, what we still have and can. 

We are raising $75k in funds to cover the costs of paying artistic and coordinating personnel in the US and in Nigeria, support staff, accommodation and transportation, technical equipment, and economic support for the various cultural communities that we will be connecting with.  

Your financial support will go deep and wide.

Deepest thanks to you who have supported us thus far.

Please donate, and share.

Thank you.