Ancestors: A Reflection

South Africa…

The connection between the living Zulus and their passed ancestors is evident in many ways: from naming traditions, to tribal allegiance, to overt ancestral consultations. There is a certain belief that the skills and wisdom of your fore-parents is passed on to you, without apprenticeship or guidance. Part of the journey of our lives is to unearth the wisdom that they have planted within us and use it as a guide.

For example, a colleague of mine has several ancestors who were sangomas, traditional healers who are able to use divination practices in their treatment. My colleague sometimes feels haunted by spirits in his life because he has inherited the wisdom of his sangoma ancestors, but has chosen to teach instead of using those skills. 

Another example is the ancestral consultation in daily events. Ancestors are consulted before weddings, celebrations, and divorce. Our PST host-father convened with the ancestors before embarking on a 2-day journey from home to his work.

To make my own meaning of these stories, I have tried on this new “way of knowing” as one would try on a new pair of high heels. I have attempted, clumsily, to take it through different scenarios and byways to see whether I can gain a greater perspective from a new vantage point.

I offer some of the resonant ideas for my readers here.

Ghana…

I just finished All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by the late Maya Angelou. The book describes her time living in Ghana, a country in West Africa. Towards the conclusion of her time in Africa, she describes her visit to Keta. Keta was a Ghanian village that was leveled by the slave-stealers who swept an entire generation away from their homes, leaving rubble in their wake. Although she had never set foot in this village before, her likeness was so similar to their stolen ancestors that some villagers wept at the sight of her.  Her body reacted viscerally, intuitively to predict the terrain of the landscape and its potential dangers lying around the next curve (ex: an untrustworthy bridge). It was as though she held the wisdom of the place within her very soul, untapped until her feet crossed its threshold.

Can it be possible to spread memory and wisdom from grandparent to child, even without meeting?

Louisiana…

Prior to joining the Peace Corps, I was exploring an interest in transgenerational/intergenerational trauma. Transgenerational trauma is the transmission of trauma (especially extreme, cumulative trauma) from one generation to the next. Meaning that you can experience something so horrific that your children’s children can be affected. There is some debate about how it is transmitted (initially, psychologists attributed it to parenting or external factors, new studies show the transmission at a cellular level, others connect it to something more metaphysical). It sounds like a depressing fascination—and it can be—but, sometimes the most important truths are neither cheerful nor comfortable. They wouldn’t be so important if they were easy.

My interest in researching generational trauma was framed and fed by Joy Dugruy’s speech on Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, sparked by my experience watching 12 Years a Slave and caught full flame by reading Gather at the Table, by Thomas DeWolf and Sharon Morgan. My family has centuries of history in southern Louisiana and, although they were not the wealthiest of southerners and may or may not have owned slaves (I don’t yet trust the validity of my researching skills to say with any certainty), they were witness to the dissolution of African lives into mere flesh, bones, teeth, and meat to be bought, sold, abused, and discarded. The ripples from the pain and inhumanity of slavery still tremble in the US, 150 years after the end of the Civil War.

The history of American slavery does not feel like textbook knowledge; something stirs within me as though I had been present during its prime. The sensation is beyond words or understanding. I knew I wanted to dig deeper, but I was unsure where to begin. Do other people ever feel this way? Just a few months before we left the US, I found Coming to the Table, a group consisting of the descendants of slaves with those of slave owners seeking to uncover the truth of slavery and healing, and I was finally convinced that I wasn’t completely alone. Unfortunately, I have not explored all of these feelings as much as I want.

Is it possible for the trauma of human degradation, the loss of one's humanity, the memory of those crimes—whether as perpetrator, victim, or witness—to live in our bodies and those of our descendants? If so, what lessons can these teach us about how we live our present lives? Is the connection with ancestral knowledge a constant status (either the result of cellular modifications or the existence of spiritual connection) or more intermittent (connected to a finite place or a specific ritual)? Is there any connection at all?

I’m not sure. But it gives me hope to feel that there may be a wellspring of talents and wisdom, much more expansive than our (meager) lives, which we can tap in our most dire moments. We can use all the help we can get.

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NERD ADDITIONS:

The Ancestors and Zulu Family Tradition - Doctor of Theology dissertation by Michael John Nel

Introduction to Transgenerational Trauma  - As originally studied in the descendants of Holocaust survivors

Research that Trauma is Passed "Epigentically" in Mice - Very interesting (and yes, depressing) research about the cellular responses to trauma.