Botswana...Black roots science Our tribe of Batswana is divided into many smaller clans. Im from the clan called Bakhatla. Ill briefly outline our initiation system for those who are new to such information. There are three types of initiatory training among my people, as is the case among many Afrikan tribes. The first is general rites as you put it, which youths undergo at about puberty. After that, a handful are selected to be trained as Dingaka (Ngaka - singular; Dingaka - plural). The term, Sangoma, belongs to the Zulu tribe, and is not used among us, but it means the same thing, as you probably know. A second group, much smaller, is then selected at a later stage to be trained as griots. I am a griot - a tribal historian, and not a Ngaka. There are two types of griots. The first is called Moseki, or a memorizing griot, for lack of a better word. Such initiates are trained usually from childhood in certain rites that vastly improve their powers of memory to exceed that of ordinary people. Then they are taught oral history, and memorize it word for word, so they can transmit it to following generations exactly as they received it. The second type of griot is called Motshidi. This word is difficult to translate. But it effectively means one who lives with the ancestors. I am a Motshidi. The central tenet of Afrikan initiation rites is that the lives of our ancestors, the Gods, are still as vibrant today as they were in their time. With this tenet as the foundation, we are trained to access that vibrancy, and transport our minds or spirit to their time. We are guided to travel in spirit until we reach what we call Mojako (the Gate) and receive the blessings of the Gatekeeper. Then we are assigned a Custodian, through whose eyes and mind we see the past. We are thus enabled to research and investigate the lives of our ancestors exactly as if they were living right now. The time we live in in that state we call Ditoro or Dreamtime. Its not related to outside time. In just 3 nights we are able to live a thousand years or more in Ditoro. The experience of Ditoro has a vividness that far exceeds that of modern ordinary experiences. I was taught that our ancestors lived in that type of vivid consciousness as their normal everyday experience prior to 6,000 years ago. Our present minds have been severely slowed down, so to speak, due to the deterioration of our bodies, which are inferior to what our ancestors had then.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:03:42 +0000