How to heal tribes to each other through the works of your heart, mind, and hands, while supporting individual growth to greater freedom and wholeness.
My human experience has been one heck of a cosmic joke, I have always felt I was on the move shifting in both linear and spontaneous directions most of which I was never present to observe or experience anything to the fullest. I was afraid to confront myself, my human potential, in case something like this still exists or is part of the play of life.
As a nomadic being on the road and growing up while living with tribes from the little villages in Kenya to Israel and the world, I have basically learned what it means to be a human being. However sadly, it may sound, it took me decades to understand something that is embodied within me and walk with me like those inner voices that never end the stories in my head.
The general themes of the collectives demand a free pass in the name of democracy, but the waters of humanity are the same and only manifest differently based on time and space.
For instance, the emotions of love, bliss, jealousy, anger, addictions, sickness, and the thrill of adventure. These collective emotional gifts express themselves in the same way and are not limited by time and space. A mother crying about her dead child in the war in Israel is the same as a mother crying about her dead child at a crime scene in Africa.
Awakening the tribe is being present with yourself and questioning your motives/intentions of becoming human.
Some of our escapist ideological motives are those we acquired through nurture and are always used as an excuse for justifying our way of becoming human. The linear questions embodied in the expression of our duality include peace and war, love and hate, life and death, lies and truth, god or not god, good and evil, black and white, rich or poor.
The illusion or reality of this universal quest is that all tribes are trying to manifest a “more beautiful world that the heart knows is possible” (Charles Eisenstein) and to announce this good news to others while sharing their treasures of peace, love, and unity in the name of changing the world or in the name of God.
Am not saying I’m offering something different or I have a more noble cause for humanity.
There is a big difference between a tribe that wants to change the world and they are militant or religious to their cause, and a tribe that is focused on changing itself with a deep understanding that we are all entangled into one, and what happens to one happens to all (we are because you are -ubuntu philosophy).
The tribal way of change is leading from the heart, changing yourself first before the world can change. It’s about listening and being present. It’s an invitation to come and see, ask questions, and experience learning by doing what you love.
It’s about asking how can we manifest our truth in a non-violent way, how can we find inner peace and freedom!
Sometimes I see most of my militant/ religious friends inviting me to go demonstrate for a cause and yes their invitation is very valid by all logical common senses, I agree sometimes because, in the end, it doesn’t matter, it’s part of the energetic vibration we need to cause the change of the collective. It sometimes makes us sleep well at night for a few days until another injustice happens and we are back in the street cultivating the spirit of separation.
For instance, when I fight the police I forget they are fathers, brothers, daughters to someone. On the other side, the police are just pons in the bigger matrix, they will say we are good people but when we dress up we are just doing our jobs and the same way am religious to my cause is the same way they are religious to their jobs, the irony is they also have bills to pay just like me on the street.
So I ask you, to whom should I direct my cause? the same way I am a slave to my cause is the same way the police are slaves to their duty, time, and space. This is also the same way the queen and multinational corporations are holding my leaders by the “balls” in current neo-colonial Africa, masking themselves through desperate and greedy African leaders to blackmail and force my brothers and sisters into modern slavery and self-denial as directed by mainstream propaganda networks.
As Jean Vanier said, “nobody can force you to love and nobody can force you to freedom” this also applies to the African tribes.
The temporary changes happening now are achieved by the struggle to win followers and are usually followed by the aggressive imposition of the masters’ way of leadership. I agree sometimes they give life and have also helped me to write these words, but this outward change doesn’t guarantee inward change. This external linear thinking not only acts as breeding hotspots for rebels but cultivates the “snob culture”, especially for living as a tribe. In a society where everybody is blind to themselves, who can lead us towards the light, maybe there is no need for the light path, or it’s best to just get comfortable and trust the technology of the wise blind man.
If you live by ubuntu as a tribe, then I see no demonstration of superiority or inferiority complex over others, making them feel like children of a lesser God. Where there is no universal message of freedom and life of all beings, then humanity is broken and separation is the root of all the suffering we see in the world today.
I agree there are many tribes today and even before us that have achieved a lot of good for humanity, like inventing wine, agriculture, hospitals, schools, technologies, and art. Nevertheless, if the motive of this creativity does not support life then the tribe is dead. A living tribe prioritizes only giving life to others while transmitting newness and meaning as a message of living hope.
This entails engaging in actions that reveal to others their unique fundamental value, beauty, and relevance in the tribe and the universe. Inspiring confidence to rediscover and explore their capabilities, grow in love and manifest their superpowers as a way to meet themselves and others. Catalyzing their missions to rediscover themselves and to find inner freedom while surrendering to the new flow of life as a way to break the yokes of shame, guilt, and fear.
The way of the tribe is tapping and surrendering to unconditional love, it’s to love one another just the way they are light or dark, evil or good, it’s a simple but vulnerable safe space of forgiveness and freedom.
The African Ubuntu philosophy stands for “we are because you are”, is a regenerative way of thinking supporting the facts of the web of life, i.e., all living beings are designed to give life to each other and co-evolve together as a whole.
From generation to generation, our indigenous tribes knew this knowledge and lived by this ancient wisdom which is still entangled within us.
For example, life flows through the animals, plants, and bacteria to give us life and we also do the same whether we like it or not. Whether you are a wicked human killing 1000 trees and animals, the sun will still rise and shine to all beings including you and all trees will still give you oxygen and you will still give out carbon dioxide, this is what I say the tribe is called to give life to each other without conditions.
“The mysteries of the universe unfold to those who listen”. Listening is being present to the process of giving life to others, your attitude through love, and tenderness while surrendering to the process of giving life to others will transcend you into a higher dimension of being and therefore truly meeting each other. This is how we change the world by changing ourselves and manifesting abundance in the tribe.
A Living Tribe plays a crucial role in creating and cultivating these pathways that support the flow of life holistically, empowering a kind of wholeness that breaks the chains and ideologies of separation, to meet with the poor and not only to be poor with them but also to free the oppressed, help the blind to see and liberate those in prison.
As “artisans of peace, love, and unity”, we have a choice to accept all through unconditional love, leading from the heart, mind, and the works of our hands. This kind of giving yourself is true freedom, this is true change and this is daring yourself to change for the world to change.
When you dare to do the impossible things, like starting a tribe or community that brings reconciliation, forgiveness, healing, and wholeness to the people and their place while surrendering to the cosmic flow of life for it to manifest. This is going against the prison of self-satisfaction in the normal comfort zones. It’s like the pride of competence, power, position, or the comfort zone of just wanting to do the things you know you are capable of doing and hence limiting your spirit of adventure and surrendering to cosmic surprises. To live is to adventure, to live is to travel, to live is to experience newness.
Welcome to the tribe with no borders and let’s dream again like we are home.
Playfully by; Nomadic Shmoof — Founder Ocha kwetu Tribe Africa
Place-Based Systems Transformation, Indigenous led-regenerative development & Progressive education. Interweaving community, food, forest & travel in solving the challenges of today.