The Elders:  Holding the Space of the Grandmother

Professor Eunice Kamaara, a professor of African Christian Ethics, is an ethicist with over thirty-year experience in holistic health development participatory research and practice.  She is passionate about translating research findings into practical development through policy influence and community engagement.  She co-directs the African Character Initiation Programme, a community based and community participatory organization on mentorship of adolescents for health and values, recognized by the World Health Organization among the Top 30 2019 Africa Health Innovations.

More about Professor Eunice Kamaara

http://innov.afro.who.int/innovators/professor-eunice-kamaara-25

https://neurogene.org/people/professor-eunice-kamaara/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eunice-Kamaara-2

https://mu-ke.academia.edu/EuniceKamaara

The Elders:  Holding the Space of the Grandmother

Mama Mabel Mabena is an Indigenous Wisdom Keeper and Traditional Health Practitioner based in Mamelodi, Pretoria.  She serves as a Managing Director and Financial Officer for Mothong African Heritage Trust – a rubbish-dump-turned-heritage-site – co-founded with her husband, TDr Cebisa Mabena.

Her core passion hinges on raising awareness and addressing both mental and spiritual health concerns within the community, with a focus on people who face barriers related to various social determinants of health.

She believes in collaboration and applies this in developing program plans for workshops to educate vulnerable youth in diverse communities about Indigenous Knowledge Systems, health concerns, and spiritual wellness. She furthermore coordinates and implements outreach programmes in which she trains volunteers to use farming technologies to serve others in the community. Her key modalities are one-on-one sessions, presentations and travelling to venues in different communities.

Mama Mabena avails herself for individual healing and consultation sessions, long distance healing, and personal instruction/coaching. She strongly believes in empowering people to take decisions about their own health.

“I was in a place that even modern medicine could not quite save me. I then turned to naturopathic ways of healing from within and it changed my life. I never had a voice before and cared about people’s thoughts and feelings more than my own. When I finally reached the stage where I had found my true self, I realized that I wanted to guide people to discover their true selves as well, through education and consultation.”

More about Mama Mabel Mabena

Mothong African Heritage Trust

https://www.facebook.com/Mothong-African-Heritage-184816771551365/

Articles

https://rekord.co.za/213810/mothong-heritage-site-has-become-an-education-site/

https://mg.co.za/article/2018-03-29-00-healing-resurrects-blighted-land-above-mamelodi/

https://mg.co.za/article/2019-03-22-00-brothers-in-conservation-want-to-restore-indigenous-knowledge/

The Facilitators: Holding the Space of the Mother

Tebogo Buntu believes that life is not as complicated as we make it out to be. It is when we do not understand ourselves and our roles in life that life becomes complicated. When we start to understand the codes, and symbols of life, the journey becomes simpler. When the answers are there, we start to dance with the rhythms of life.

Tebogo is a community educator and practitioner in Afrikan-centered knowledge and healing. In her capacity as Director of eBukhosini Solutions – a Johannesburg-based company specializing in Pan-Afrikan education, empowerment and transformation – she coordinates learning journeys, seminars, workshops, ceremonies and engagements. Key focal areas include Afrikan identity, self-development, holistic living, conflict resolution, generational trauma counseling and awakening people’s intuitive capacity. Tebogo is also the founder of KANDAKA – Women’s Initiative, a platform for Afrikan women’s dialogues aimed at awakening the divine feminine.

Her home – Ebukhosini – is a filling station that renews the spirit of the weary or forgotten ones, and fuels them into the future.

She dresses to kill. Through adorning with colour, design and fabric she kills all insecurities and brings her true self to life. She lives by the motto that ‘true life begins at the end of your comfort zone’.

“When I was ten years old I wanted to be teacher, not in a traditional sense of how teaching is known. I wanted to share my life experiences with others and create spaces for learning, growing and healing”. Tebogo Buntu is living her dream.

A Message from the Womb

Don’t be afraid of your potential.

The Facilitators: Holding the Space of the Mother

Rutendo Ngara is a weaver of tapestries. She loves The Big Picture – the interwoven connections between the stars, the environment, society and all aspects of NaTuRe. She is equally intrigued by the Little Picture – all the tiny composite parts that make up the Whole. She is fascinated by telescopic visions into cosmic consciousness and microscopic investigations into quantum reality. She weaves interconnectedness, interrelatedness and interdependence into a basket of existence.

Rutendo kicks ass (Yes! She is a martial artist!) and has represented South Africa as a Protea Athlete and international silver medalist in Tai Ji Quan. She loves sparring with the ‘ologies’ – cosmology, epistemology, ontology, teleology and may be found giving a lecture or facilitating a workshop on how they apply within Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

When she is not flowing through Wushu, Yoga or Dance, she applies her mind as a Transdisciplinary Researcher, with a background in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering.  Her professional interests have spanned through fields such as clinical engineering, healthcare technology management, socio-economic development, mathematics, leadership and fashion design; to the interface between science, culture, cosmology and paradigms of healing. Although she is a priestess, counsellor and diviner, she does not believe she is a healer – but rather a mirror-reflecting-the-sun, who ignites others into their own healing superpowers.

Rutendo is co-founder of Ancient Wisdom Africa and sits on a number of boards, councils and working committees – including the Credo Mutwa Foundation, Assegaia Alliance, Earthrise Collective and the South African Wushu Federation.

Rivers are her respite, forests her fortitude, mountains her mainstay. She is an advocate for NTU – the all-pervasive force that permeates Time and Timelessness, Space and Spacelessness. At the age of 10 she knew she had to write a book. Like her doctorate, it is still on retreat, and will be born soon…

A Message from the Womb

Tap into the Void – the Source of No-thingness…. And you may find that the Super-hero you have been looking for… is housed within your Womb….

The Co-Facilitators: Holding the Space of the Aunt

Lerato Mileng is playful. She is humorous and enjoys animating the universe with peals of laughter. She embodies the Spirit of The Creatives through Poetry, Writing and Graphic Design. She merges stillness with movement as a Dance Meditation practitioner with a Tantric base to her practices. She vibrates in rhythmic harmony with Hetheru, Nomdende, Marimba and Oshun. She is an advocate of the Feminine Divine.

Lerato Mileng is also serious. She is the director of RatoMillion Media – a media company focusing on film production, literary works, publishing incubation and skills transfer. Through the company she has followed a call to restore Ancestral ways of Story Telling and appreciation of indigenous languages (particularly Setswana). Her incubation programmes focus on empowering marginalized youth through creative writing; and survivors of Gender-Based Violence through filmmaking.

Lerato is part of the Ancient Wisdom Africa practitioner network, as well as co-host of Kandaka Women’s Circle with Ebukhosini Solutions. She has a practice called MiL Living which translates to Divine Living. Through MiL Living, she enlightens and guides people through self-healing journeys to achieve Holistic Wellness.

Her main work is rooted in supporting self-healing and activating feminine energy. She strongly believes that all humans alive have the ability to heal themselves.

She is passionate about the pursuit of Joy in life: Being joyful and bringing joy unto others.

A Message from the Womb

Pure Joy dwells in your sacred connection with I … re-membering I and healing I.

Pure Joy dwells in you owning your feminine power that is housed in the sacredness of I … Your Womb.

The Co-Facilitators: Holding the Space of the Aunt

Kopano Maruping manifests the future through stories.

“There are two things that I loved when I was growing up, I wasn’t sure if they could be turned into careers, I wish I had known earlier. I always wanted to write stories. I kept journals with imaginary friends in them. Later, I had a fascination with fortune telling, I felt that fortune tellers had the power to give hope to people. I felt that If you knew a glimpse of a good future, that was enough to keep you going and striving to reach better heights… well that was 29 years ago”

Kopano is a corporate communications specialist by profession, with over 15 years in internal communications. Writing and speaking are a huge part of her corporate life that have come to reveal themselves as part of her gifts in the healing space. Journaling for healing, moon and bath rituals are a big interest in her healing work and space. When not at work or doing healing work, Kopano has an African inspired kid clothing range (Fresh Love Kids) where she uses the characters to tell an African superhero story to the little ones.

Kopano runs Journey Healing Studio – a Healing Studio that deals in organic herbal products, organic skin care, organic teas as well as spiritual talk and writing therapy for healing.

A hobby that’s close to her heart is photography, “for me taking pictures is very important, even though you can never truly freeze time, or completely see natures beauty in a photograph, it allows you to pause and keep everything still in that moment, forever, for generations to come. It allows you to share stories and memories even when you are no longer there… when I ask my lens for words, it responds…”I remember everything beautiful and sad from yesterday, TODAY!” 

A Message from the Womb

Be kind and loving, to every part of you

Support Team: Holding the Space of the Sisters & Daughters

Teboho Mphuthi is an alchemist who mixes elements together in organic skin and hair care products as well as herbal blends. She also mixes beads, wire and twine together into adornments to accentuate the soul.

She has studied Entrepreneurship Development, Enterprise Development (focusing on Logistics) with the University of Pretoria and is yet to complete a Financial Management course majoring in Accounting.

Her academic background has made her an entrepreneur through and through with passions in Branding and Consultancy. These, she believes in one way or another tap into her spiritual gifts as well.

Teboho is funny and talks a lot (mostly when comfortable) yet comes across as so reserved on the first encounter. She is a recluse and while solitude is her best friend, she writes and does modelling as a form of exhaling and expression.

She is fortunate that her hobbies happen to be how she sustains herself financially and spiritually.

If she had to have a quote to live by it would be: ‘Something’s got to give!’

Her passions involve issues of Identity and all things mysterious.

A Message from the Womb

Work on unifying your forebears from the Womb as that’s the beginning of healing in your family’s lineage through and through.

Support Team: Holding the Space of the Sisters & Daughters

Mbali Kgame is dedicated to working on-the-ground to capture the subtle complexities that underpin human interaction, with a specific focus on the black condition and an engagement in re-imagining the Afro-decolonial narrative. She has done this as a cultural journalist, creative writer, children’s stories author and early childhood programme teacher/facilitator. Her children’s stories ‘Hair Magic’ & ‘The Djembe’ have been selected as part of the ‘Read for enjoyment’ Nali’ibali radio campaign. Her writing appears on digital journals/platforms such as  Menjik- Pot app for children,  herri, Global Citizens, Design Indaba & Afriquette.

Born and bred in the looney, yet creative and lively township of Zola, Soweto, Mbali’s lived experiences influence her work as well as her every day praxis which include learning and teaching in Black Consciousness Pan-Afrikanist community such as Ebukhosini Solutions and Blackhouse Kollective.

It is through this praxis that she finds herself needing to delve deeper into uncovering and healing the wounds she carries, those shared with the collective and those that are personal to her – most importantly getting in touch with her feminine energy.

Mbali is passionate about serving Afrika and her children in one way or another. She is a hip-hop fanatic and in an imaginary world, she would perform alongside her favourite artists as a lyricist and dancer.

A Message from the Womb

Yes, get to know me, I am your home.

Support Team: Holding the Space of the Sisters & Daughters

Jabu Madinane is a forever evolving human that is always looking for better ways to heal, learn and discover very profound things about self and the world around her. She is career-driven, a creative at soul, a leader at heart, a volleyball player in practice and a mom to an adorable 5-year old.

Jabu is lover of music – she listens to and discovers new music everyday while working, studying, doing yoga, taking a jog or reading books. She loves curated mixtapes and is an avid mixtape collector.

 A Message from the Womb

If any generational spell was meant to be a general curse dear womb this is where it ends… with me. Our ancestors are with us, absolutely no impediment will be in our way. We are doing this together.

Meet Our Special Guests

Technical Guruness with Sefale Montsi

You are interested in everything and you can do anything they said, and it is true.

She has organised live theatre shows, been in ICT war rooms, worked on ship-building projects, been in mining, banking, defence, and so forth. She wants to be useful in the universe and help to make things work. Marvel has not yet made her a superhero but she is watching as they bring in more characters.

Hobbies? She loves words. All words. A lexicophile, she is. She reads for fun and so she can discover more words. “My current favourite word is liminal because it describes the transitional space I’m in as I go deeper into being. My name: Sefale.”

The words for her spiritual gift? “They say I am intuitive. Sometimes people or beings speak to me. I am learning to listen. More than that, I am a pragmatic student of the ancient, present and future time.”

‘Online Retreat’ means technical stuff in the background. Join us as Sefale does technical…

Meet Our Special Guests

Dikgwedi with Galetlolwe Semenya and Tsoana Nhlapo

Dikgwedi/ Izinyanga – founded by the powerhouse of Galetlolwe Semenya and Tsoana Nhlapo –  is a space where women gather to teach and learn from each other about aligning with the Universe, being on time and healing themselves first before seeking external intervention. Through the space, women are empowered to realise that they are the first line Healers / Ritualists in their homes. When the Mother is intact, and all the first line medicines are administered, the family’s spiritual journey continues growing from generation to generation.

Join Dikgwedi as they take us through age-old African Rituals of Menstruation.

Meet Our Special Guests

Moonsmooch with Kitu Mahibila

Keitumetse Mahibila (Kitu) is a Musical and Culinary Healer-Facilitator who provides food and song for the soul.

She is a trained chef and experienced cook who is as passionate about preparing food with love, as she is about creating lively, ambient culinary experiences. She is also a lyricist and songstress and her voice can be found booming through a microphone into the altar of hearts.

As a healer she incorporates her musical and culinary skills with breathing and meditation techniques, paying special attention to the importance of nutrition and sustenance in healing and empowerment.

Join Moonsmooch as she takes us through ‘Detoxing the Tongue, Nourishing the Womb’.

Meet Our Special Guests

Forest Queen with Khethiwe Bikirah Mndawe

Khethiwe Bikirah Mndawe is a young communication and Indigenous knowledge systems practitioner, focused on the arts and literature, with a strong background in media and publications. She has a keen interest in community development projects and IKS research.  Khethiwe is a creative person who also enjoys doing exhibitions, art curation and serving as a creative heritage youth activist.

As a healer, she has an ecotourism business, where she works with sacred spaces and runs healing retreats for cleansing and spiritual wellness.

Join Forest Queen as she takes us through ‘Herbs for the Womb’.