Black People Magick

<3 Help fund an Afro-Indigenous midwife <3

When I made this shirt, I felt the resistance from some of my community and family members. Resistance both out of love, and also out of fear. More on this a little later...

I also feel the pain of the separation from Alkebulan (the indigenous name of Africa).

Like the Taino shirt, there is loss in forgetting. The trauma from the brutality of separating us from our traditions, languages, foods, and medicine has caused us so much hurt. Who are we when we don’t honor who we were/are? Who are we when we don’t tap into the full power of ourselves.

In my humble opinion, I believe we become TARGETS. We become unprotected. We lose our ancestors and our collective strength that is based in energy and the life force, which is all materialized from the Earth. We also become ENEMIES to ourselves, so much so that our family condemns us for being practitioners of our own ancestral forgotten legacies and medicines.

It is hard to put into words what wells up in me and I reacquaint myself with my native ways. It is equally hard to be judged and misconstrued as a devil worshipper or satanic. These Afro-Indigenous religions hold so much more. They represent survival in syncretism. They hold the literal stories of the capture, packed in ships, and whipped. They intrustically tell the tale of how genius we were and how our ancestors are always finding ways to hold on to God. In it there is bits and ways that they had to heal, mend, and break apart to cleanse what no longer serves us.

This is not the full extent in how Ifa survived for Africans in the diaspora. Enslaved Africans even made Christianity Super Black! These are just some of the names.

My hope with this shirt is to raise the monies so I can reclaim the legacy of traditional and modern midwifery care, but more importantly to show us the ways we held on to our ways despite the ways that our brothers and sisters used Islam and Christianity to silence, shame, and enslave us. Please note, I mean no harm. Religion is not the cause of human suffering, but it has been a catalyst.

Peace and understanding to those who innerstand that these ancient traditions will continue to survive.

Let’s remember whose religion dominated and crucified the New World. "First they came with their bibles and then they came with their guns." Bring truth to power and to honor.

Protect yourselves and love up on all the ways we are Us. Ashe0oo0oOoo