Hello. My name is Eliseo "Cheo" Torres and I'm an administrator and professor at the University of New Mexico. One of the classes that I teach is on traditional medicine of Mexico and the Southwest, and the roots of this medicine are many, and one of them being of African roots. Today we have one of our brothers from Gabon, Africa, which is the west coast of Africa, with us today, Bokaye, and he will be introduced by Angie Thompson. Angie is a student at the University of New Mexico, and she did an internship and studied abroad in Gabon. While in Gabon, she met Bokaye and was impressed with his healing powers. He worked with music in healing people. She asked if she could bring him to the class on traditional medicine we teach here every summer. Here he is, and we have been enjoying him for this last week. I'd like to Angie to introduce him and to tell us a little bit of what we're going to see in just a few minutes, Angie, if you don't mind. I'd be happy to Cheo. So this is my friend, Bokaye Ndong Mba. He is from Libreville, the capital city in Gabon, which is on the west coast of Central Africa. He is a musician, he plays the sacred harp, which is called Gombe in his tradition. He practices the tradition of Bwiti, which is a spirituality, a healing, a way of viewing the world. It's many things and it's difficult to explain exactly. It's something that captured my attention after I started studying curanderismo, and I realized how similar the two traditions were. So Bokaye has been kind enough to join us and share how he heals in ceremony, how he heals with his harp, and how he uses all the other instruments and tools of Bwiti that come from the rain forest of Gabon. I wonder if you could ask Bokaye, what are his impressions for New Mexico. This is his first trip abroad, he's been here about a week? Not even. Is he used it or what is the good, the bad and the ugly of this country? Ask him. He said, "Wow really, this American life is something. I'm very curious about it and it's also kind of crazy. But I found New Mexico to be the center of an amazing movement of spirituality." Wonderful. Well, maybe we can get started and he can tell us what's happening, and tell me I'm going to be receiving the wonderful energy that he is going to be sharing with us. Yes. Bokaye [inaudible] He said that he brought all of his things of Bwiti, just the essential part. He would like to begin to talk about Bwiti and what tools he uses. What is Bwiti? It's a word in Mitimbo that means connection. It's a connection that includes the plant that everybody calls iboga. He said he'd like to introduce the first instrument of Bwiti and what's considered the first instrument of man and his tradition. This is the first tool that the Bwiti spoke through to the people. When you're in ceremony you can never see the sword, you can never see this instrument that's called the Magongo. You can only hear it, because it's like the ancestors playing long time ago. You can't see them, you can only hear. The Magongo is an arc. It's very representative. Here's the sky and here's the Earth, and it's God who sees what happens in between these two places. The world can't see you. Just like you can't see God, you aren't allowed to see the person who plays the Magongo. This is the instrument that accompanies the spirits or the genies of Gabon when they enter into a ceremony in true healing. So if we were in ceremony right now, this would be the first instrument that you would hear as the ceremony is beginning. Then more and more people began to enter the temple. They start clapping like so, the women begin to dance. The men, do they dance? The men dance too, yes. Depends on the traditions. They're all different. Everybody knows the women dance really good. Another interesting thing about the magongo is you can't just find a regular piece of wood and make it into a magongo. It's a very special type of word and it needs to be already in a curve when you see it in the forest. So magongo's are special things and it's believed that you find a piece of wood like that. It's really important that it becomes magongo, that but it's certainly going to be Just a demonstration. It's the feeling that it brings that person. So it's the sound of the magongo that takes the person who is about to be initiated and who is undergoing healing ceremony to the other world, the land of the dead. This is the boat in which he goes. Normally, it's considered that women don't have the right to see this. Okay. So before it enters temple, the woman cannot see it. If the woman see it, the wood will change. Okay. We also have this to call the spirits. This is called letika. It's a horn that's very special. It's a difficult because it's an animal that's hard to find. It's necessary you find a special horn that has both the white and black which are two of the three colors of Bwiti, white black and red. So you call it like this. It's all the energies of the planet, the four corners of the world. When you when you call them, the genie's are there, they come. After you play the magongo as they as the harp arrives which are called in ingumbe. She's come, and the harp has come to reinforce the valor of Bwiti and reinforce the energy because magongo has lost its valor. Seeing his headdress also, would he like to wear his and put some paint on her? No? Sure, I'll ask him. So he was explaining that the magongo has it has lost its power because it's not the original magongo, the magongo who came from a mysterious place. So gradually it lost its power and that is why the harp has come into the tradition. So normally after the horn is, so this this is the kaolin clay. It's white. This is, they call it karna but it's really red bark of the padauk tree that's been ground and dried. Here we have the earth white, the white earth. It's very clean and fresh. So I can I can create a different makeup every time. Each way of applying makeup has a special significance to it. So the first, I will put on the red, after, the white. Okay. I'm going to make a small demonstration. I do it like this or I do like this. This make up has an exact significance like I said. For example, if I leave it like this and then I put the red there, if it's like this, yeah why the kaolin? Because you'd use the white kaolin to make yourself in the image of the others who live in the forest, the genie, right? The spirits, the genies. This is like the face of the moon. This is also to represent what is it within man. Men, we have water and blood. This is the water, the white kaolin. The red is the blood. It's for the energies to connect. The red kaolin one is the kaolin of the women, the color of the women. The white is for the men. You don't have the right to make a preference. That's how it is. Automatically, you must do both because we need to become one. Unfortunately, we only have a few minutes. I wander if he may want to share the harp with us before we end. Sure, okay. Wonderful. These are always together. It's okay. When you use this? You use it to be more connected, and to pray better. You use it to grab the attention of the spirits, the genius who listen to you. [inaudible] This harp is called the Mother. She's the mother of love. Normally, when you see a harp, it usually doesn't have a head. She has the appearance of a woman. But it's only to represent the fact that women are the image of love. Because the harp itself is the image of love. [inaudible] Thank you. This is wonderful. We do want to thank you Angie and Bokaye. Thank you so much for a wonderful presentation. Again, these are the roots of Curanderismo and we appreciate you. Thank you so much Bokaye. All right. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your stay. Thank you my friend. Thank you for having us today. Thank you. So as he explained earlier, every song also has significant. In this song in particular is to always, to keep your love and your good spirits about you. What he sang here, is that I hope that the Bwiti will continue. That's what the word said. Well, thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Cool. [inaudible]
