Nokulinda's quest is for us to be more true to ourselves

Johannesburg - When one opens the book “Ancestory: Ancient Lessons for Modern Life”, one would expect to be greeted with a folklore tale or an important message on the power of an individual’s ancestor. This is no “Eat, Pray, Love” or “The Alchemist”.

“Ancestory” is more of an open letter from a traditional healer (isangoma) Nokulinda Mkhize, using her life lessons and her journey as a sangoma to speak on the fractured relationship people have with themselves, their ancestors and other humans.

Mkhize has been a practising sangoma since 2008. She has amassed a wealth of knowledge and cultural values which she distils through insights from her communities in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, her family and her experience as an isangoma.

“’Ancestory’ is a simple, straightforward book just like me. There are no special stories or lessons on understanding our ancestors or our African spirituality.

“It’s meant to serve as a starting point for adults to continue understanding our past, our current selves while gaining intelligence and resilience from our indigenous knowledge to push us further,” said Mkhize.

She said that the book essentially asked the reader to conduct continuous self-reflection into our past, helping to bridge the gap between chaotic modern life and the challenges it brings, based on the foundations of our ancestral histories. The search for the lessons and values that Mkhize writes about in her book is visible in the actions of people in society.

Mkhize does her utmost best to display the disparities in an individual’s search for holistic happiness in a capitalist society while relying on the lessons through histories that look away from metric-based success.

Through the historical erasure, forced removal and fragmentation by colonisation and the apartheid government, many South Africans felt they had to shed their identity to survive. In contemporary times, that process continues through the favoured assimilation in westernisation contributing to a gap within the black community.

Through her gaze and experiences, she unpacks the institutional roles of our paternal and maternal guardians within our communities.

“As much as we want to continue to be compassionate and cognisant of the extent of the fragmentation of the African community in society as a whole, we also have to realise that the norm of the subliminsed black person is not the norm,” said Mkhize.

“There’s a lot of things that people do that they don’t have to do that makes their lives harder. There is no answer to the difficulty of life because life has always been hard for everybody. But I do say, ‘guys, this of yours of status? Why this English? Why this thing of metrics?”

“Ancestory” is a book that expresses words based on reflection. To those who read through the pages, it sounds like a call to action, a lambasting, or a conversation with a like-minded individual over a cup of bush tea.

“All of this knowledge, oral histories and intelligence are still relevant to who we are today because it all forms the foundational space of Isintu,” Mkhize said.

The author said that she was inspired and honoured to be able to share information, insights and knowledge from her life in her community and as an isangoma that enriches the quality of people’s lives.

“I wrote ‘Ancestory’ from a place of great love, and not the cute type of love. I wrote it with the fundamental message to spark curiosity in each person so that every person who reads the book can find their curiosity and then apply their reality and figure things out with the people in their lives,” Mkhize said.

“This is not a bible or a text that says step one, step two, like ‘The Secret’. It’s just a book to spark your curiosity, a book that you feel like you go ‘Oh there’s something to look into’.

“’Ancestory’ is there to kind of nudge you in the path of your growth and learning, with your community, your accountability in mind and your effort.”

* “Ancestory: Ancient Lessons for Modern Life” by Nokulinda Mkhize is available at Guided Africa for R264.50 and Amazon.com for readers abroad.