Above: “Mama Zogbé” (Sagbé) at conclusion of Amengansie ceremonies. Our Ancestral names are bestowed after the completion of very difficult and challenging secret ceremonies.
To understand the path of the Amengansie is to understand the mysteries of Africa. The Amengansie is crowned with many deities. She is the mediator première between the living and the dead. She is the chief, oracle, mother, aze and queen of all of the spirits anywhere in the world, and across all cultures, ethnicities & faiths.
It is through the Amengansie that families come to speak with a deceased loved one to settle family inheritances, disputes, to learn the status of a missing relative, the true cause/nature of their deaths, etc.
It is through the Amengansie that initiates come to speak with their crowned deities or to verify if their ceremonies are correct. It is through the Amengansie that the living come to learn what their destin (soul spirit) wants of them. It is through the Amengansie that clients come to confirm the results of an Afa consultation.
The Amengansie performs all ceremonies. Most Amengansies (just as Mama Zogbé) are also full Bokonos (Babalawos); having undergone their Afa ceremonies in the sacred forest (just as the men). In functionality, the Amengansie is literally the vocal oracle of Afa, the deities and the Ancestors. They are Chiefs, and are enslaved to no one but the Ancestors and the gods.
However, the sacred road of the Amengansie is wrought with great suffering and difficulty. Even in Africa, not everyone knows of the road. But, it has finally been brought here to the U.S. as the enslaved Ancestors here have demanded.
In time, many will begin to understand the core of what is truly Ancestral and what is merely fantastical, magical pursuits of personal power and egotistical ambition. The difference is both quantitative, moral, qualitative and life altering.
Depending upon one's personal destin (ori) and ancestral roads, through the sacred process of initiation, one will find themselves obtaining many spiritual names. Chief amongst them depends on one's deities, ancestral roads and personal destiny. Spiritual names are often metaphorical and coded with proverbs which explain our mission or “walk” in this life.
In the West, one's new name can present a great challenge, since a change in one's name is increasingly viewed with suspicion and might be considered by some as an attempt to hide or to erase one's past through an “identity change.” Further complicating matters are the phonetic differences between African linguistics and the English-speaking West. As more Americans are reconnected with their ancestral roots, and more foreigners are initiated into the traditions, the issue of translating and adapting one's name to their specific culture can become arduous.
One of the toughest ceremonies to endure is that of the Amengansie. The road of the Amengansie is by birth inheritance, called by one's own Ancestors to undergo. It is not a commercially available road to the curious or to the “power seeker.”
This ancient tradition runs in families in Africa and especially in the Diaspora. Their enslaved ancestors haunt their families and whomever they have chosen; until the person seeks consultation to learn what is going on. This ancient tradition is at the core of African ancestral mysteries. When one is called to undergo Amengansie, the Ancestors’ insist that they walk the trail of suffering to experience their lives as slaves. The burlap (lappa) cloth shown above is white at the commencement.At the conclusion, it becomes blackened with the suffering, the blessings, power and protection of these mighty Ancestors.
In Ewe, the Ancestral name is written as Mama “SAGBÉ”. Pronounced “sog-bey” and spelled phonetically as “Zogbé” for the English-speaking West. Mama Zogbé's spiritual name was bestowed by her Ancestors (Ewe great-great grandmother) after undergoing the Amengansie ceremonies inherited from her great-great grandmother. The literal meaning of “Sagbé” is expressed both allegorically and metaphorically as:
History
"Sagbé [Zogbé] is an ancient, slave priestly name, chosen by my Ancestors, to represent their legacy and their struggles here in America, as our lineage ancestors were brought here and enslaved. It is the “heavy load” of the calabash, carried on one's head in service to the Ancestors, to bring the tradition here to North America. The name did not originate with them. It dates back to the early 6-7th century in the East, where priests were called, empowered and reawakened to assist in the massive refugee crisis taking place as a result of invasions and enslavement from the Arabs.
The Amengansie tradition of the enslaved is more than 2000 years old. Within the Amengansie tradition, there are elders before me who have been bestowed the name “Sagbé” due to the legacy of the “spiritual load” they are called to carry for their Ancestors as a result of slavery from within Africa. Additionally, when one undergoes the ceremonies of the Ancestors, they are no longer the same person that you once knew, or thought that you knew. They receive a new name by them, and cannot respond to the old “soul.” It is considered sacrilege, an offense and spiritually dangerous to refer to someone whom has undergone the ceremonial rites by their old name. When contacting us, you are free to use either 'Mama Sagbé' or the phonetic 'Mama Zogbé.' Either one is perfectly acceptable."
NOTE: The word 'Slave' as it is used in the Vodoun Religions of West Africa, refers to the ancestral spirit sects created by the families and ethnic Vodoun groups whose family members were sold into slavery. Many of these enslaved were priests as well as lineage Vodoun adherents. The ancestral spirits of many enslaved in the Diaspora went back to their Vodoun lineages in Togo, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin and elsewhere. Those slave orders of priests/priestesses are a very spiritually powerful group and now dominate the Vodoun religions in West Africa. To such an extent, in West Africa, it is considered a badge of honor to identify oneself as Tchamba or slave spirit child. Slave Spirit lineages are collectively known today as the Tchamba or Mama Tchamba and many of the Vodoun lineages are matrilineal. We feel that it is very important to the Diaspora, especially those of the Vodou lineages, to have their Tchamba Slave Ancestral Stool and shrine installed no matter their religious affiliations. In the Vodoun of West Africa, one will find this shrine in the house of a Christian, Muslim, and other non-traditionalist. If one is a descendant of slaves, or have had their family member sold into slavery, one is not considered spiritually complete until this ceremony is first performed. This is one of the shrines that Mama Zogbé is called to resurrect for Tchamba ancestors here in America.
Most in the Diaspora have been conditioned to view slavery as a unique American experience, an aberration in western world history. In truth, the persecution, and enslavement of Africans and their religions has been on-going since so-called “biblical times.” What few also do not realize is that many of their ancestors who were captured and enslaved in the West already descend from ancient ancestral slave Sibs (denominations) such as the Tchamba, long before their arrival in America.
Mama Zogbé, middle, Opening ceremony with libations. performing ceremony for initiate. Togo, West, Africa.
This is one of the reasons why many report their “souls feeling so ancient,” but cannot place a meaning to its source. Because of the way in which anthropological events are recorded and understood by the West, these crucial ancestral connections are never acknowledged or are denied, or are simply poorly understood. The African experience is not static. It is an ancient spiritual continuum that spans the whole of time and all nations and all indigenous spiritual paths. It is the Ancestors who holds the sacred knowledge to those ancient spiritual connections. Without them, no matter what path an African/Diasporan might follow, they will never find their way home.
MAMA ZOGBÉ (RIGHT) IN TOGO, WEST AFRICA
Mama Zogbé initiated and trained adherents in both Togo and in the United States. She is respected, recognized and aided in her Ancestral calling to resurrect legitimate slave lineages in the Diaspora. Millions of Africans captured, transported and enslaved in America descend directly from the Vodoun religions of West Africa.
Many on their search for their ancestral spirits tend to seek out New World Diaspora Vodou such as Haitian, which unfortunately today, is heavily infused with other non-African elements that has either obscured or is in lack of the sacred rites needed to legitimately reconnect them to their vodou deities and ancestors. For some, this might be okay, but for the great majority of African descendants they must come to the source if they are to reconnect. It is only from the spirits of these West African lineages where they will find the Ancestral Sibs (denominations) such as Mama Tchamba and others which were established by the slave ancestors for the children of the enslaved.
The Vodoun religion is the most maligned religion in the world, thanks to the West. One of the main reasons is because it is the sacred source of both spiritual power, ancestral legitimacy, community sustenance, and lineage continuity for the Diaspora; which during slavery and African colonization needed to be suppressed. Unfortunately, during the Civil Rights movement, the central focus was on bringing dignity to the African first as human beings. Once this was accomplished, the Diaspora clung tenaciously to western Christianity, leaving their ancestral religions in the muck of western cultural bigotry and religious disparagement where they remain today. We speak much about the great kingdoms of Africa and its cultures, without realizing that it is the deities of Africa who guided and orchestrated Africa’s ascendancy making them the envy of the ancient world. The Dorian Greeks, Romans, Celts, Turks etc., made regular pilgrimages to Africa seeking her sacred mysteries rooted in her indigenous religions. For the Diaspora, in order to be truly liberated they must honor and respect the spiritual womb from which they evolved. It is the only true revolutionary act as a descendant of slaves, in desiring to know thyself.
MAMA ZOGBÉ (IN WHITE) IN TOGO, WEST AFRICA
Mama Zogbé completing sacred Afa ceremonies as Chief Hounon. The Vodoun in West Africa is very much centered on bringing the gods home to their lineage heirs in America.
Mama Zogbé being honored as Chief Hounon, by Togbui Vodou elders from Togo and Benin, and the Vodou community.
In the ancient capital city of Kathmandu,Nepal, there is a mystical shrine that contains literally thousands of scrolls of the destinies of certain individuals of every race and creed around the world. Those individuals do not know who they are, until something inspires them to visit this ancient city. Upon finding (through happenstance) this holy place, they are presented with one single scroll sealed with their actual names. Contained therein, is the written destiny for their life’s work on earth. That is how the Vodoun religion is for the Diaspora. Their ancestors are holding keys to the roads that lead to their destiny, and any spiritual birthright that they might have inherited. Someday, many will shed the learned mental shackles of fear and shame towards African religions. Many too will be inspired and led to the correct place where they will discover themselves. The Vodoun gives to each whatever they and their ancestors have earned in the tradition.
(above center) Mama Zogbé completing another major round of ceremonies to her ancestral deities. In Yeveh Vodoun, one must complete all sacred ceremonies before they are permitted to establish their Egbes.
Many in the Diaspora who have attempted to learn about the Vodoun religion are faced with a plethora of New Age websites being hosted by westerners delivering their own brand of “Voodoo” as it relates to their self-styled Wicca, Thelema etc., traditions. Though disturbing, the Diaspora need not feel intimidated by this. When Africa’s history is ever correctly recounted, one will learn that since the beginning of time, the world has always been attracted, awed and inspired by Africa’s “mysterious” mystical powers and divine mysteries. This ancient religion has been around for thousands of years. It has withstood more than two-thousand years of foreign colonial invasions. The Vodoun’s sacerdotal power, its true mysteries, and its spiritual authority is jealously guarded by the ancestors within the family lineages in Africa and in the Diaspora where it will remain.
Amengansies (Chief Hounon Amengansie Mama Zodédé, right) dancing traditional ancestral dances. Lome, Togo.
(Left to Right)
Amengansie and First Wife of Djihoussou Mama Apokassii, Chief Hounon Amengansie Mama Zogbé and Chief Hounon Amengansie Mama Zodédé.
The priesthoods in the Vodoun religion in West Africa are ancestrally inherited on the same level as Judaism is to the ancient Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Jews. Vodoun’s religious sects are inherited through the bloodline, both matrilineally (mothers) and patrilineally (fathers). For example, the priesthood clergy presiding over Mami Wata, many Vodou (deities), and the slave sects of Mama Tchamba are women, and are inherited from the mothers. She initiates both men and women. Because of the entrenchment of patriarchy in Africa, the role of women priests have been relegated in the foreground. It is unfortunate that as the traditions take root in America, these same attitudes are also being imported, causing much confusion and exploitation. In America, there are ceremonies that can only be performed by woman clergy that are being done by male priests. There are ceremonies that both men and women must have performed by a female priest. When the will of the Spirit is not being respected, this in the end, hurts everyone. In time, those Spirits will not be at peace, and the person is left again to search for what is wrong with them. The African enslavement experience is a continuum and involves more than racial and cultural oppression. For women, it began more than 2000 years ago, beginning with the dismantlement of the African matriarchal sacerdotal systems throughout Africa, and her colonies in Asia Minor, ancient Babylon, ancient Syria and elsewhere. African-American women are in the best possible position to understand that what is today passing as “traditional” African Religious culture is actually African culture under the rule of patriarchy. This understanding is based not on western feminism, but on the history of Africa and the decline of its female sacerdotal preeminence throughout Africa and the ancient world.
The Vodoun religion is not a tradition imprisoned by rhetoric, rigid religious (scriptural) dogma, nor ones personal agenda. It is not necessary to adopt an Afrocentric (or any) philosophy in order to participate in the Vodoun religion. It just so happens that in the New World most who are born with an ancestral calling, suffer under the yoke of a painful history of slavery, discrimination and oppression in the West and around the world.
It is typically those ancestors that tend to dominate until they are appeased through righting these wrongs by the dominate culture. However, when it comes to the Vodoun religion proper, whatever one's political, spiritual or personal paths, if they have ancestors and Vodoun deities that are beckoning them home, answering that call is all that is important to them. One can be Christian, Muslim, Afrocentric, Rastafarian, Republican, Democrat, inter-ethnic/religious marriage, etc. The moral, economic and social implications of one's life choices is decided by one's own ancestors, personal soul and the Vodoun. However, it is cautioned that if one does venture down the road of the Vodoun, one must be prepared to make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to be successful on this path. Example: If one's ancestors owned slaves, they must be compensated. If one's ancestors abused slaves they must be appeased. If an enslaved ancestor comes from an African lineage that sold slaves, they must make compensation, etc. If the dominate race/culture benefited from slavery, some compensatory measure, memorials, celebrations etc., must be established to appease them.
Mama Zogbé performing traditional ceremonial dances.
Mama Zogbé (rt) preparing for ceremonies at her shrines in Martinez, GA.
Making Da/Dan
The myth that the Vodou cannot be made in the U.S. is not true. The mere existence of “Diaspora Vodou” (i.e., Haitian, Dominican, Jeje (Brazilian) etc.,) disputes this myth.
The Vodou is born into the blood, and anywhere African and Diaspora people reside, they can make the spirits if they are legitimately trained priests with authority to do so.
Mama Zogbé (r), emotional at completion of final round of sacred ceremonies as Chief Hounon in the shrine of Ejiogbé. In completing her ancestral obligations to both her great-grandfather and mother, she received the name Mama Zogbé (Mina: Sagbe). Zogbé is an uncommon name in which only one 90 year old elder previously was called in the Egbe. It speaks to the very long and difficult road one has to suffer in order to find one's way back home. At the end of these ceremonies, Mama Zogbé was no longer considered a woman. She was viewed as a man who could cut all legs and perform sacred ceremonies in the major shrines in her Egbe in Lome. Chief Hounon Amengansies who go through these specific ceremonies, regardless of gender at birth, are viewed as such once the ceremonies are accepted and completed.
Mama Zogbé in final round of sacred ceremonies. Lome, Togo.
"Before the turn of the century, in the old New Orleans, where some of my own ancestors descend, they made Vodou, Adé, Amengansie and performed other ritual ceremonies, before the Christian persecution.
It is important for those called on these paths by their ancestors to re-learn their roads.
The spirit (Tchamba) ancestors of those who were enslaved have been waiting a very long time to reconnect back with their descendants in the New World. Although western anthropologists have written extensively about their version of the Vodoun religions of West Africa,
all have vehemently denied, or it simply never occurred to them that the African-American Diaspora might be suffering due to this vital spirit-ancestral dis-connection.
They assume because the languages and outer cultural celebrations have been lost, that there is no connection. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of the social malaise, poverty, mental illnesses, family conflict/darkness, spiritual emptiness, alienation, and a lack of social connectedness afflicting many African-American families, is directly related to those ancestors who may be trying to reach them to assist or unblock their roads. It is the ancestors who hold the wealth and other blessing for their kin on earth. Jesus might be fine, but the ancestors have first divine rights to their own. Those ancestors are also suffering because they long to have their selected kin properly initiated so that they (ancestors) can take charge as the spiritual head of their families here on earth. “As above, so below,” is a very accurate characterization of the state of African families who remain disconnected.
"Down Time."
The Vodoun is not an ego-centered, solitary path of personal power. It is a continuum and extension of the spirit and soul of ones first ancestors. It is for the individual initiate, the family, and the community. Chances are there are children, siblings or other family members that are born with something the ancestors want them to have. Although it is good that some forms of African Diaspora religions have been preserved in the New World by others, it is vital for the African-American Diaspora to understand that their ancestors and family deities extend back much, much further. And because certain ceremonies are lineage specific, many of the sacred rites that have been lost [in the New World] may be because they must be performed by the consecrated hand of someone from their own ancestral lineage. Once these rites are re-established in the USA, they can be performed by them for others if they are pathed to do so.
We conclude with the most important of all of these ceremonies. The path of the Amengansie. One of the most important Ancestral roads that exist in many families in the enslaved Diaspora. The Amengansie is the chief, queen, royal, azé and mother of all of the spirits, including Mami, Vodou and Mama Tchamba.
The Amengansie is the voice of Afa, and more importantly, she is the oracle for all of the dead, especially the Ancestors. She is the mediator première between the dead and the living. It is through the road of the Amengansie that one hears directly from their Ancestors, the dead and all of the spirits. You can read more about this very sacred and important path of the Amengansie here.
