An Ode to Healing Black Women
featuring the work of Rosana Paulinho
The Spirit of Black Womanhood
I find so many women of African descent with a very divine predisposition. A disposition rooted in a necessity to heal, reclaim tradition, elevate their ancestral lines, break free of generational trauma, and do more than just survive—not only for themselves but for the betterment of their bloodlines, families, communities, and, subsequently, the world. There have been many moments where I felt like I wasn’t just crying for myself but for my ancestors too. And in those moments, all I could think about was how many Africana women inherit the work associated with the trauma of our parents and ancestors. An inheritance that many are given the task to alchemize for the betterment of their bloodline. All of which, if unaddressed, can manifest in the womb and create a sense of fatalism and all kinds of sickness, from mental health issues to autoimmune diseases. This is a feeling I have known all too well. A pattern I have known all too well. A reality many of us face every day, with every decision, with every release, with every cry, with every experience of joy, and with every lesson.A reality where the physical and spiritual side effects of racism, violence, and oppression stare us in the face whether we have the words to rationalize it or not, and we prevail.
I think it's because we’re the bearers of children... our spiritual connection to having a womb... a sacred disposition to inheriting spiritual gifts more often than others... The prerequisites of the role, I'm sure, are determined bloodline to bloodline, and not always equated to gender, but the toll it takes on those chosen is an experience I want to honor. An experience I want to highlight as sometimes they are the toughest journeys to walk. But we aren't journeying alone.
I've learned that as women we are often powerhouse receivers of genetic knowledge and spiritual downloads deeply rooted in our connection to the divine and through the collective memory held within our wombs. This is where the work of Rosana Paulinho reminds me of how the womb houses the memories of our DNA, our ancestors, and our predecessors. The intensity of gifts and genetic memories (good, bad, or indifferent) are passed down, and the chosen ones bear the weight of it.
There is a need for us to process and filter through personal and ancestral trauma, personal and ancestral power, and personal and ancestral healing modalities, all for the continued elevation of the collective.
In Indigenous spiritual traditions and cosmology, the womb is understood as a portal where our ancestors are reborn in us to fulfill destinies in one's bloodline and the world. This can be seen in the work of Rosana Paulinho, a Black Brazilian woman and artist of over 25 years.
Many are called few are chosen
“Many Black women are born not knowing that their suffering stems from their disconnection with their ancient rites and spiritual duty to continue the work of their ancient mothers”
- Mama Zogbe from the Foreword of The Sibyls: The First Prophetess of Mami Wata
For so long, we’ve been discredited as the original woman and first human being, conditioned to be seen as the mules of the world, the undesirable and forced to carry the trauma and labor that come with that conditioning... but no more. Many of us are learning and embodying our indigenous legacy as Black women on a spiritual level, understanding not only our history but also how to set boundaries, communicate our needs, believe in our worth, pour into visions, and actualize our freedom dreams.
Despite racism and ongoing systems of oppression working against us, we are doing the deep work to leave behind unhealthy habits rooted in systemic oppression and colonial thinking, and rooting deeper in our ancestral power as the heads of our communities. We’re relearning what love looks like to us, among us, and within our respective communities in hopes of shifting the world. This is part of a massive wave of healing and accountability taking place led by Black women. I argue that Black women are leading humanity worldwide, following a divine call amidst extreme violence, war, poverty, racism and policing. This call urges us to further embrace our inheritance and legacy of matriarchy, a legacy rooted in God, memory, reclamation, and futurism.
Mama Zogbe, in the introduction of The Sibyls: The First Prophetess of Mami Wata, states, “What passes for ‘traditional African culture’ today, where women have been subdued and relegated to marginal roles in African political and religious life, is the result of the patriarchal usurpation of the older matriarchal orders, upon whom the patriarchs sought to contain and control her divine powers and political and economic influence.” This usurpation is still happening despite our known regard, achievements, and leadership throughout history. It arguably still applies all across the world.
From high maternal death rates of Black mothers in North America to skyrocketing violence against Black trans women, to the blatant disregard of Black women’s abuse in places like the Congo, we are still the most vulnerable, neglected, and disrespected in today’s global society.
However, amidst this pain, chaos, delusion, and attempted erasure, we have always been our solution. All is not lost. Colonization, enslavement, and capitalism were a match made to drive a wedge into our humanity, but it has been the work of healing Black women leading us to a greater one. Black women are leading us all to undo the behaviors brought on by the ideology of white supremacy. It is healing Black women who are shifting our narratives from abused to empowered. It is healing Black women reclaiming their autonomy and identity as their own.
We are leading a legacy of healing and resistance! We are addressing where the wounds started and using shadow work, changed behavior, ritual, prayer, our voices and our creativity to lead us back home. Home to ourselves and home within our traditions.
The Reality of Healing
We are constantly sifting through a world of ideas where femininity is dominantly understood only as the labor we can produce, its proximity to desirability, and ideas/standards set by whiteness…However, healing Black women are understanding and embodying divine femininity as a connection to spirit, earth, God, community, sensuality, culture and balance. We are remembering in a way where our healing is a clear act of resistance. Where even though we live deeply influenced by European cultural thoughts on women and gender, we still function and create outside of it based on our own remembrance and culture…
A friend of mine said that her ancestor came to her in a dream and stated that we do not remember alone…and its true…we don’t…our ancestors are always with us whispering in our ears, living in our DNA, and making place in our presence. Where the task of healing, developing good character, and leaning into our destiny is a foundation. A task of character that I see so many Black women leading in. African descended women born into settler colonial states make a choice to resist. We make a choice even in the face of its difficulty to not be compromised by pain, insecurity, and abuse even in the face of it. We choose to create experiences that reflect the reality we want to see possible. We become the world we want to see…and that is a legacy trailing through our veins. A reality influenced by the prophetesses that came before us, the deep soul lessons that have impacted the way we understand our success, our sense of community, our connection, our wellness and our humanity. Black women have always been bearers of so much ancestral wisdom because we are the first diviners, the first mothers and the first prophets.
We have been divinely appointed from the very beginning of time…always being innate agrarian artists, creative, knowledgeable in many systems of thought, rooted in spirit, full of earth medicine and healing however it may show up for us. So anytime we show up in that manifestation we are reclaiming our thrones. And this is why our wounds, pains and layers of trauma caused by settler colonialism can’t be overlooked. It must be turned to, it must be addressed and it must be understood on a soul level so we don’t perpetuate the anti-blackness, sexism, sexual abuse, mental and emotional abuse within our own communities ever again. It must be eradicated because the struggles of humanity and more specifically Black people are intrinsically connected to the lives of Black women (past, present and future).
So let’s continue to do it for us. Modernity has tricked us into thinking by creating a matrix of progress through technology and industrialization that we are well off. But Black womens’ connection to the infinite and ancestral realm runs as deep as our pain. And the layers of oppression and trauma that are deeply enmeshed in our ancestry lets us know we can’t skip past our healing. This is what it means to actualize liberation and healing as Black women in the 21st century reality. This is what it means to be a warrior, a creatress, an artist and a woman.
The growth continues…
With love,
7souljah