Healing the Waters

Authors

  • Omileye “Omi” Achikeobi-Lewis

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Keywords:

grief, ancient trauma, epigenetics

Abstract

In this paper I put forward the African and Shamanic  belief of the Daoist tradition  that ancestors and their memory are real, passed on from generation to generation. This memory includes the trauma memories of enslavement, and post slavery.  

This understanding becomes important in the field of trauma and grief healing, as the transmission of  ancestral trauma and grief memory, from one generation to another is not fully understood.  This has wide implications for those of African descendants who have suffered from ancestral, historical and continuous trauma. And for all who have suffered harm to the body, mind, and spirit resulting from loss of land, home, culture, and torture in its many forms.

I examine the images of Kwame Akoto-Bamfo Memorial Heads installed in water, as a visual way to guide and lead this discussion. Understanding the transmission of ancestral trauma especially in relation to African descendants is like climbing the Mount Everest of the Trauma field. If this trauma can be understood more fully, recognition that such trauma exist can open the field of trauma to profound exciting ways on how to effectively shift these sort of trauma memories up and out of the memory of the waters of the body. Above all, we give dignity to those who suffer from ancestral traumas of this magnitude by acknowledging their trauma is real.

Author Biography

Omileye “Omi” Achikeobi-Lewis

Dr. Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis is a former graduate student of London University School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where she studied African Studies and International Politics. At SOAS she fell in love with studying ancient healing practices. She deepened her studies of trauma healing as a student of Winthrop University Counseling and Development program, and eventually began to hone her knowledge of how to shift ancestral trauma while studying Classical Chinese Medicine as a doctorate student at The Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts. She has spent many years of her life following what she now calls the Black Trauma Trail, and an intensive year in Ghana understanding what she calls the Mount Everest of ancestral trauma caused by the transatlantic Slave Trade. She is the author and illustrator of My Heart Flies Open published by North Atlantic Books, distributed by Penguin Random House, and is currently working on her next book, The Stories in the Blood: Alchemy of Healing the Ancestral Trauma Body. Dr. Omileye has a deep belief that the ecology of our Earth and Waters is affected by the lineage wounds we carry collectively. When we heal, the waters and Earth heals too.

References

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Published

26-02-2025

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2024): With the Dead: Performance Philosophy, Dying, and Grief

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis

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