Ceremony

Tuesday 31 August 2010

In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered.
All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual.  Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime.  Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted.  All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.
The tribal ceremony often lasts several days.  At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.

Alice Walker, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

7 comments

  1. World changing, Sue. Let's go 'primitive'. We've forgotten what works.

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  2. Oh, my goodness! Well, not mine, exactly, but... Precisely what MysticBrit says. Thank you so much, Sue!

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  3. So the consensus seems to be "wow," huh, people? Hehe :) I love what Harry says too.

    PS: Looking forward to getting back to blogging on a more regular basis. I am cutting back my work hours because it's all rather too unbalanced. I look forward to writing more on here; I miss it very much

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  4. I have read that somewhere before and was amazed. We should learn something.

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