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bwiti

Hello to every one who may read this I have read an e-mail that have been sent to Jan and it brought me back to the time i was searching for bwiti. My name is Gamal i reside in Canada and in 2000 , i was looking through some photos that been taking by a french man ,Laurent Sazy for a group initiation in Gabon . I was dreaming that one day i hoped that i could join the group in initiation .

I managed to get hold of Tatayo by phone and i trusted everything he told me and i decided to go to Gabon .


It was very important for me to trust Tatayoo and i felt safe,protected and previliged .I was treated with respect and i have been given choices that i felt they were too many .

Tatayoo took me to different fathers ,but i chosed him . There were lots of steps or stages to go through until the ultimate one which is the initiation day, which no one knew . There were signs to tell that the day was a good day .One, was a restaurent sign reads " eat yourself" which was unusual to read .Two, the kids capture a green snake.Three, the coloured fased monkey spoted coming close to the village .
The preparation was big and detailed . Every one was busy including the children.A new harp was ready, the womens clothes and the facial expressions on every one's face all gave me a sense of how important the process to the people , and how important i was to them . My mother wrote sign that read "welcome our grand father".

I asked for the meaning and according to the Fangs legends , they originated from Egypt and here i'm an egyptian coming to be part of their initiation. The impact on me was just beyond my expectations.

Actually ,
i did not have any expectations , just being initiated and experiencing it .
I was open mineded and very focused and i knew that nothing will distract me from what i was going through . I have a lot more to talk about,but in point forms, I stoped smoking tobaco after 25 years ,drinking coffee, taking headache pills and higher sense of self esteem . I encourage and support you to take the next step and join the party of your rebirth day!!

03 May 2006
Gamal
B.C,Canada
gamaleldin@hotmail.com

 

Daniel,

Hugues Obiang Poitevin is your man. He was the 1st white man to be initiated and now has Ghanga status. He was born french, went to Gabon 30 years ago for a couple of weeks and never came back. He now holds a Gabonese passport.

He is fully committed to Eboga and its importance to the world. There was a book published about him called something like the child of Bwiti which was only came out in French.

I love him dearly and he does fantastic initiations himself out on the point opposite Libreville... but is also perfectly placed to take people to the interior. He is totally trustworthy and does a proper job. I also think that his character and nature is inherently reassuring for people making the step...

His contact is : Hugues - Tatayo - EBANDO : (241) 06 25 09 17 or (241)
06 07 06 30
web: http://www.ibogabon.org
email: ibogabon@yahoo.fr

Josh

12 April 2006
joshponte@mac.com

 

On 26/04/06 15:53, "Aerts Jan" <Jan.Aerts@ua.ac.be> wrote:

Bonjour,
I received your email address through Hugues Tatayo, and he suggested that I contact you with my questions regarding the bwiti initiation.


........................................questions..........


I'm looking forward to receiving your reply.
Best regards,

 

Moukoukou MaMisoba <moukoukoumamisoba@yahoo.es> wrote :
Date: Tue, 02 May 2006 11:46:16 +0200
Objet: Re: Bwiti
De: Moukoukou MaMisoba <moukoukoumamisoba@yahoo.es>

Hello Jan,
Yours questions are indeed difficult ones! For Iboga is a very personal and specific experience for every one who wishes to become initiated although it does extend to the group present. It is an experience you share with your Father and Mother in initiation as the nights unfold.

What I can say about my self is that it has been one of the highlights of my life and believe me I've been around.

I wouldn't put it on the same level as witnessing the birth of a child or getting married or laid for the first time. It is something of its own. Some aspects are not so pleasant, you puke, you see strange images people through new glasses.
As you might have read or heard initiation involves a symbolic death in order to be reborn again.
When you are reborn you are a new person. In my case I could see what part of me I had lived with which wasn't me but just a facade I used to to get by in life ; a facade for others but also for myself.
I came in contact with Bwete through Iboga and Iboga through Kudzu which is a plant supposed to help you get out of addictions.
I have been a drug user since my first cigarette @ 7 or 8 and moved steadily through the harder stuff and the crime that goes with it if one intends to have a decent daily supply.

My last stunt as I was working in Spain ‘99 relocated by the Bay Area company I worked for was the culminating point of my drug consumption. It didn't last long (well, four or five months) and my wife got me on a plane back to Paris where we use to live so that I would get on a methadone program. It worked fine at the beginning but it soon became hell. I was using methadone as a drug and drinking buckets full of the stuff. So after five years I was a psychological and physiological wreck.
Surfing on the net I found the email address of the lady who wrote the book on Tatayo ; Paroles d'un enfant du Bwete. I got on my Mac to ask her for more info and she suggested I get in touch with Tatayo which I did.
I arrived late October with another chap called Phari and stayed for five weeks.
Not only was I initiated but before taken through the rite of the "Cutting of the rope" which has nothing to do with initiation although frontiers don't exist in Africa expect in the white’s minds specifically when it came to sharing the pie.
This rite breaks the bond with the evil which itself can come under different forms. In my case my parents and drugs. It was quite tough going but after that I was ready for initiation which I procrastinated until I had no methadone left. Hadn't I been such a coward I could have slid off methadone by taking little daily doses of Iboga which would have given me the opportunity to have a not so drug cleaning orientated initiation.

The Bwete initiation as such went quite hard for I suffered from the abstinence but nothing comparable to a cold turkey. I’m talking a 1 to 20 ratio. After that I was very very tired when I moved. When I came back to Paris (a different man from the one who had arrived five weeks earlier) I took a combination of minerals, sea stuff, oils and vitamins etc... Within four days I was jumping around in full shape but with my mind else where.
End January  I had an Iboga night with the chap I had  gone with (Phari) and two weeks later I had never been so on top of my life. Very positive full of energy. Methadone an old story.

Jan, if you have reached this stage of enquiring and asking for testimonials I think Iboga is waiting for you. It is not the case or the time for everyone. The first time I enquired with Tatayo the project went into a draw for four months. Iboga decides if and when. If one doesn’t respect things can turn very unpleasant.
Also very very important ; the confession. Start working on it as soon as you can because when the moment comes you’ll have maybe 30 minutes to spill out things (just prior to starting the ceremony). I wrote everything down (gee I though I had not been such a bad guy but in fact the list was quite consistent.

As for Tatayo he is the one and only you can trust on all accounts : his knowledge, the costs of the ceremony (it is as expensive as a wedding or a bar mitzvah, plenty of people to invite, fetch, feed, musicians etc.) The man takes his mission to heart where most of Ngangas don’t go far beyond their wallets. The stories I have heard make you wonder if it is sound to put you initiation in the hands of a local. They rightfully have all reasons to fundamentally despise the white. Time will come I’m sure, but this very matter touches the deeps of the unconscious and that is where all the suffering of Africa is stashed.

Vais con Dios hombre !

Moukoukou MaMisoba

 

Bwiti initiation

Last month I finally made up my mind and went to Gabon to have myself
initiated in the bwiti tradition at Tatayo's place in Sablière.

I am grateful to all of you who have gone before me, and - in sharing
your experiences with me - have given me the confidence to do the same.
I am still struggling to make sense of what has happened to me in
Gabon, and I expect it will take several months until I will know the full
effect it will have on my live.

To Alejandro: thank you for your message. It was more appropriate and
to the point than I could have imagined at the time when I first read
it.

The very best to all of you my brothers,

Jan
Revitsi

5 September 2006
Jan.Aerts@ua.ac.be

 
 
         
creation graphique :
Francis Banguet