Exploring Questions Around African Beliefs and Identity
I think spiritual burnout has led many people to make drastic decisions or to misinterpret their experiences. Some people left church because of spiritual burnout. Some people cut their beads, burnt their cloths and called ancestors demons because of spiritual burnout. In some cases the severity can lead to something that resembles a mental illness. […]
I think spiritual burnout has led many people to make drastic decisions or to misinterpret their experiences. Some people left church because of spiritual burnout. Some people cut their beads, burnt their cloths and called ancestors demons because of spiritual burnout. In some cases the severity can lead to something that resembles a mental illness. […]
The vast majority of us will eventually find ourselves in some form of a crossroads in our spiritual journey. When we get to this point the decisions that we are faced with can sometimes make us doubt everything that we hold as not only true but also important about our beliefs. Can you think of a time in your life when you got to this point? I spoke to Gogo Moyo about how she dealt with the paradigm shifts that she faced in her journey as a Healer, a Gobela as well as one of the most prominent public figures within the spirituality space.
The vast majority of us will eventually find ourselves in some form of a crossroads in our spiritual journey. When we get to this point the decisions that we are faced with can sometimes make us doubt everything that we hold as not only true but also important about our beliefs. Can you think of […]
But the topic of spirituality in the workplace is still a very broad one in terms of individual experiences and I was curious as to how others have navigated their encounters with spirit and spirituality as well as the complexities of spiritual purpose. So I spoke to Gogo Jebhu who spent years in the corporate space and has since transitioned from being an HR practitioner to now being a full-time Gobela.
But the topic of spirituality in the workplace is still a very broad one in terms of individual experiences and I was curious as to how others have navigated their encounters with spirit and spirituality as well as the complexities of spiritual purpose. So I spoke to Gogo Jebhu who spent years in the corporate […]
The nature of African spirituality is such that it involves not just the acknowledgment of the existence of the spiritual realm but also the existence of amadlozi and spiritual forces and the individualized encounters that we have with them in our daily lives. What is strange though is that as African spirituality continues to grow […]
The nature of African spirituality is such that it involves not just the acknowledgment of the existence of the spiritual realm but also the existence of amadlozi and spiritual forces and the individualized encounters that we have with them in our daily lives. What is strange though is that as African spirituality continues to grow […]
This episode is a continuation of the topic asking Does changing countries affect your identity? It is part of a series that deals with the question of whether or not our identity affects our spirituality. I encourage you to make time to listen to the previous 3 episodes to get a better understanding of how this topic has evolved. In this episode, I'm going to be speaking to Buhlebezwe Siwani. She is a healer and an artist who works predominantly in the medium of performance and installations. She was raised in Johannesburg and due to the nomadic nature of her upbringing, she has also lived in the EC and KZN. She now lives and works between Amsterdam and Cape Town.
This episode is a continuation of the topic asking Does changing countries affect your identity? It is part of a series that deals with the question of whether or not our identity affects our spirituality. I encourage you to make time to listen to the previous 3 episodes to get a better understanding of how […]
What happens to your identity as a black South African when you no longer live within the socioeconomic or political or even the cultural norms and criminal violence that defines so much of who we believe we are? If you are a black South African who is or has been living abroad for some time how do you define who you are? To get some perspective on this I spoke to a few South Africans who are currently living in other countries to try to understand what their lived experience has been in how being away affects how they see and engage with their sense of identity. I figured that this topic would need more than one person and also cannot be tackled from a strictly spiritual perspective so it will be a mini-series talking to different people from different countries. The first person I will be talking to is Lerato Shadi. Lerato Shadi is a visual and performance artist whose work challenges common assumptions to critique Western notions of history and make visible that which is invisible or overlooked. She works across video, performance, and installations. Lerato was Born in Mahikeng, South Africa and now lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
What happens to your identity as a black South African when you no longer live within the socioeconomic or political or even the cultural norms and criminal violence that defines so much of who we believe we are? If you are a black South African who is or has been living abroad for some time […]
So I want to know how does our identity, how does our sense of self affect how we navigate our beliefs and how we respond to the world in general. I want understand specifically how does the way that we perceive ourselves manifest the lives and socioeconomic challenges that we face today. I spoke to […]
In the process of the change and evolution of our societies, how does language affect our relationship with spirituality? I spoke to Gogo Khanyakude who is a healer, a gobela, and someone that I believe is one of the most important voices in our generation when it comes to the modern interpretation of African spirituality.
Very often we find ourselves feeling like noh mahn, something somewhere isn’t right. There’s something that is simply not adding up about how life functions. Right now the vast majority of us are going through a lot. Socially, our communities are a mess. Economical ku wow. Relationships…haai ke they are crying.So I spoke to Gogo […]
So in the last episode, we discussed whether or not it is possible to practice multiple spiritual beliefs at the same time and I personally concluded by saying that maybe it would help to get a better understanding of what exactly these multiple spiritual beliefs actually are. Maybe then we will be able to say […]
: The world that we live in today is increasingly global. Through the internet, there are virtually no boundaries stopping us from being influenced by many other beliefs and religions around the world.This ease of access to different beliefs has meant that we have, whether consciously or subconsciously, started incorporating aspects of other practices into […]
Have you ever had that moment or that period where you wanted where you just wanted to pack up one day and just disappear? To just leave everything behind and head out into the night and go as far away as you possibly can? Let’s do that. Tonight, let’s just disappear.
For anyone who is still trying to figure out their way in African Spirituality, the prospect of having to consult with a Healer or Sangoma can be extremely daunting. Part of the challenge with this process is that you are coming in with a lot of misconceptions, a lot of confusion and, to be quite […]
In Part 4 of our series on Practicing African Spirituality for Beginners, uMkhulu Mahlalentabeni will be taking us through Understanding Cleansings in terms of what they are and what makes them necessary. I also share a personal story in relation to this topic
The idea of embracing African Spirituality in all its different facets has generally become something easy to talk about. We speak openly about ancestors and the relationship that we have with them. It’s all fun and love and light until the topic of umuthi comes up. For many of us, we grew up with a […]
Umsamo is one of those extremely vague yet still seemingly integral aspects of African Spirituality. The definitions and understandings of it vary greatly across cultures. In Part 2 of “Practicing African Spirituality for Beginners” Gogo Jebhu takes us through a deeper understanding of what umsamo is as physical structure and what it represents spiritually.
So, here you are. You have developed an interest in African Spirituality or something in you is pulling you towards that direction. You have a basic understanding of ancestors and you are aware that they play a role in your life even though you are not entirely sure what that role is and you find […]
We continue the conversation with Gogo Aubrey Matshiqi as we dig deeper into the history of African Initiated Churches. This episode also unpacks what happens historically when two conflicting beliefs crash into each other and we look into African Spiritual aspects such as Isithunywa came to be and what they actually say about Christianity.
African Spirituality and Christianity are seemingly two opposing ideologies. Yet, there are African Initiated Churches such as ZCC and Ibandla Lamanazaretha (Shembe) who are somehow able to situate the African identity whithin Christianity. Historically, how did these churches come about? Spiritually, how do they navigate the realities of the lives of their followers? Then there […]
What is the nature of belief? Why do we, as human beings, have the capacity to believe and what purpose does it serve? In this episode it is just me and you hanging out and exploring the mindboggling concepts that impact on how we engage with our beliefs.
The assumption that we often about technology is that it relates to things like automated electronic machinery and artificial intelligence. But each point of the evolution of human society was pushed forward by what was seen at that time as technological advancements. These advancements impacted not only on culture and how we understood ourselves but they […]
Most of us aware that social media does affect our psyche even though we not quite sure how or to what extent. But have you ever wondered how it affects your spirituality? For those of us using social media to help us understand African Spirituality better, it can be quite tricky to figure how real […]
As Africans, it is almost a given that the land is an integral part of our spiritual identity but I want to know how. I want look specifically at sacred sites and how they correlate with the cosmology of our beliefs. The reality is also that many of us live in urban areas and cities, […]
The subject of the evolution of African spirituality is a very complex one. Spirituality itself is a very broad topic especially if you want to approach it from a historical point of view. I would actually like to know where our understanding of spirituality evolved from and, more importantly what are the other aspects of […]
We as black South Africans, are very keenly aware that our culture is slowly disappearing. Yet, at the same time, there has been a resurgence of interest in African Spirituality. The number of people who are becoming iisangoma has exploded and every other month there seems to be a new TV show that talks about […]
How far away are we from a time when we have a health system where western medicine is fully integrated with African Spiritual modalities in such a way that we trust that system not only with our physical health but also our spiritual healing? I figured that the best person to speak to on this […]
We’ve been raised to believe that culture and spirituality are synonyms. for the same thing. But as our collective understanding of spirituality grows and so many aspects of our cultural practices being questioned, is culture and spirituality really the same thing? Where do you draw the line? I spoke to Gogo Aubrey Matshiqi to try […]
At times it happens that when we are busy navigating our spiritual journey we can get caught up in making it all about ourselves and the challenges that we face on the path. Parenting can be a jarring reminder that the world does not revolve around us and our problems because oftentimes it forces you […]
What we rarely talk about when it comes to African Spirituality is the toll that it takes on our mental health. The belief system that we have inherited is rife with pervasive trauma and leads many people to want to avoid anything with African Spirituality in its entirety. I wanted to understand the impact of […]
Nowadays there’s a tendency to believe that the journey through African Spirituality is only reserved for those who have a calling to become Healers. But the reality is that very few people are called to go through ukuthwasa. So what about everyone else? How do they get help and guidance in navigating their beliefs? In […]
MAKING SENSE OF THE SPIRITUAL
How Their History & Evolution Defined Our Social & Spiritual Identity
How The Pre-apartheid Shebeen Culture Changed The Direction Of African Spirituality
The Realities of Spiritual Displacement
How Women's Manyano Shaped African Spirituality
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
