KULULEGO! | June 2018

Many of you have followed our South African journey over the years; to include my own calling to be initiated into the Sangoma (Traditional Medicine Doctor) tradition.  I just spent the last weekend with the Sangoma’s, attending a three-day ceremony of drumming, dancing, praying, laughing, and eating of traditional foods.  I slept two nights in the floor with the Sangoma’s.  The second night as I lay on my grass mat, the Sangomas sang our group to sleep for an hour in beautiful harmony of songs of love, unity and peace for our ancestral nations of color to come together as one. 

It is still a shock to the Zulu people that a white woman especially a white woman from America could possibly be a Sangoma.  Two days ago, I stopped into a shop for a cup of coffee.  Many of the staff hid in the Kitchen when they saw me come in with my traditional red and white beads on.  An elder Zulu woman greeted me with the traditional “Makhos”, which means greetings “great spirit”.  I gave the traditional greeting back raising my hands, both palms facing her to acknowledge her ancestral greeting.

She then asked, “Are you really a Sangoma?”  Yes, I responded.  She then spoke what many were afraid to ask, “I was too afraid to ask, thinking it can not possibly be true because we were taught that white people do not have ancestors!”  I then shared that her thinking is normal.  That many white people do not believe they have ancestors, but the ancestors are waking us up to the truth that we do.  She had a huge smile on her face and yelled back at the others hiding in the kitchen that yes truly I am a Sangoma and that it was safe to move in closer.  Eyes wide, as they took in the visual sight of me, they began to ask where I trained and with whom.  When did I graduate, and do I really work as a Sangoma in America?  This was a wonderful opportunity for them to expand the limitations of their own mind as our cultural differences begin to weave together for the greater good of all. 

During the 3 day ceremony that I was in South Africa to attend, all the Sangomas, in their traditional red, white and black colored dress, sat on one side of the Makhozini (sacred hut) while 14 of us from the United States and Canada sat on the other side of the room.  The Sangomas are a very solidly grounded group of men and women who are comfortable in their own skin.  They are known as the people of the drum and their spiritual practice is to drum and dance to uplift their ancestors and sing gratitude for the abundance we are given by God.  They smile and laugh often, moving frequently to assist us westerners’ to feel comfortable in this very rustic environment.

On our side of the Makhozini, we sat in our western “whiteness”.  I could see our own culture teaches us to over-think, worry, stress, and have a great desire to please.  This cycle of being can make it difficult to simply sit for hours on end without “doing” anything!  Our group tended to watch the clock and ask multiple times, what are we doing next, what is the plan, how long will we be here, can we help, and what are we waiting for?  In the Sangoma culture the cadence of time has an entirely different flow.  Individually and as a group the Sangoma’s follow the ancestors and spiritual guides (…and the energy…) when it comes to doing what will come next.  Each ceremony is completely different because the spiritual guides/ancestors have a different plan for each person.  I could see that this ceremony was very different than my ceremony two years ago.  The westerners in attendance asked me many times what to expect since I had been through it before but I had to encourage them to continue to “let go” of expectations.  Those of us with “a western mind” with all of our nervous energy want to know every detail so that we can feel safe. 

After the 3 day ceremony we made our way back up to the Drakensberg Mountains and 4 of the Sangomas joined us to spend the night so they could catch a taxi for their own homes the next morning.  Our group was in deep process filled with questions.  I was rushing around arranging the meals, shopping lists, and special request list, as well as feeling the pressure of the time-line to get the Sangomas to the taxi that was an hour drive away.  I could feel the pressure to “get everything done” in a timely manner.  I went to speak with the Sangomas to tell them, in my broken Zulu, what time they could expect to be taken to the taxi.  They must have noticed that my shoulders were up around my ears, ungrounded, and my voice a high pitch of stress!

KULULEGO!   KULU….LEGO!  KULU……..LEGO!  They kept repeating this over and over and over again getting louder and pronouncing this Zulu word.  Then they began to laugh, dance and sing the word Kululego as they circled me.  What does this mean?  What are they trying to tell me?  What am I missing?  Do they want to go to the taxi stand?  Then one of the Sangomas raises her hands into the air and yells in English, BE FREE!   RELAX! CHILL!  I felt a huge swoosh of energy shift within me and immediately calmed, laughing to myself as I realized what a huge difference this is in our two cultures! 

I realized that if they stood waiting for me next to their bags for the next 5 hours they were going to be just fine.   I must simply do what needs to be done in the moment and I did not need to worry about anything else.  Can you imagine standing for hours waiting for someone and never getting irritated, annoyed, impatient, or snappish?  This is exactly how the Sangomas are.  They believe that everything has a natural order and rhythm.  Being at peace within yourself is the ultimate of importance so that you do not get sick and so that you can remain in joy with all that life has to offer in every moment. 

Kululego has been a great teaching for our entire group this trip.  In the twenty times I have been here with many groups I had never heard this word before.  Now, I will never forget it!  So, Kululego everyone, relax, chill and always BE FREE!

Energy tips

Kululego is pronounced, Ku lu leg o.  In energy tips you will do a simple meditation to let go of everything that interferes with you being free of worry, stress, and anxiety. 

1. Create a location in your home or in nature to sit and be still.
2. You may have a journal with you. Light a candle, place some gentle music if that will assist you to relax. 
3. Close your eyes, turn within, and begin to breathe naturally or with slow, deep breaths. Breathing in fresh expansive air and breathing out old outdated toxic energy.  Repeat this until you can feel your body begin to calm.
4. Imagine a grounding image to connect you to the core of the earth, the heart of the great mother earth. Keep strengthening this connection until you can feel the gentle pull of gravity settling you into your body. 
5. As gravity pulls at you, allow yourself to “let go” of the tension that you hold in your body. Dropping it bit by bit down your grounding to be recycled back into reusable energy.  Notice where you hold this tension within you; sense this tension from a place of the curious observer.
6. Remind yourself what todays date is and your current age. In our work we call this present timing and present aging.  It helps you to move out of the past, and out of the worrisome future into the present moment. 
7. Then begin to say to yourself, Kululego, over and over again. Notice the areas with in your body that does not feel free and breathe into those places repeating Kululego until the tension relaxes and you can feel the natural flow of energy return to your body. 
8. Repeat the word, Kululego, like a chant, gently rocking, moving with the energy as it shifts and changes you into a place where you feel totally free.
9. Journal about what you noticed as you did this exercise.
10. Invite yourself to know the multiple dimensions of this Zulu word. Repeat it as often as you need.  In the car, store, at work.  Imagine the Zulu Sangomas laughing and dancing in a circle around you as they sing Kululego…..Kululego……KULULEGO!
11. BE FREE, RELAX, AND CHILL!
12. Makhos!