Calabash Child and a Celebration of the Griot

In Africa the preferred container for all sorts of purposes—music, magic, healing, sustenance, ritual, ceremony and fulfillment is the calabash. As herbalists, we celebrate the magic held within the calabash but we also realize that this earth wisdom should be available to all—this is the lesson of orisha Osayin and the calabash. With no choice left Osayin’s calabash of herbal information, recipes, rituals and ceremonies for health and spiritual well-being, is now open to all. If you dare to look deep within the calabash, who knows what might be waiting inside?

Calabash Child

One Igbo folk story from Nigeria shows us that there are truly surprising things held within the calabash plant. A royal couple is unable to have children. They have a sincere desire for a child; their heart goes out to this wish each day. Meanwhile, their farms are doing exceedingly well and are about ready for the harvest. The King’s wife goes out to the fields to marvel at the huge leaves and flowers of her plants. She notices something moving beneath a particularly promising calabash plant. Low and behold, it is a child--a beautiful little girl. This girl does not have a human mother or father. She is born from within a calabash. When the King’s Wife calls her Calabash Child she rolls into a ball and becomes a calabash once more. Excited by the possibility of having a child of her own, Calabash Child or not, the King’s Wife gives her a name to represent her extraordinary origins, Ifeyinwa (nothing like a child) and brings her home. The King gives the girl a pet name of his own, Onunaeliaku (born to consume wealth). He and his wife lavish the girl with love, attention and gifts. Soon enough she becomes spoiled and is not nice to anyone. Naturally everyone wants to call her Calabash Child but she is proud and haughty, especially after being adopted by royalty. She forbids anyone to call her Calabash Child. One day, when the King and his wife are away on a trip the servants dare to call the girl “Calabash Child.” They know she does not like it but her poor behavior toward the workers makes them eager for revenge. They irritate her to no end by reminding her that she comes from within the calabash plant. The girl tells her parents and this causes the harshest punishment of all to be dispensed on all participants in the taunting—death. With the offering of human blood spilled on Mother Earth on her behalf, Calabash Child becomes a girl made of flesh and blood.[1]

Watch and Listen to this calabash music of the West African Griots

This was inspired by my work, "A Healing Grove"

[1] Inspired by Buchi Offodile in The Orphan Girl and other Stories: West African Folk Tales, (Brooklyn, NY: Interlink Books, 2001), 157-161.

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden. Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit. The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts. ...

Tree Whispers

Tree Whispers Shinrin-yoku is a complementary medicine modality, designed to up-lift sub-par health conditions, through lifestyle changes that involve immersion in nature, specifically the wildness, we call a forest, where the senses, including our intuitive sense and ability to heal ourselves through it, is ignited. Forest bathing, as Shinrin-yoku is popularly called, has come to our attention, at a time when the scientific community is abuzz about the ability of trees - be it in stands, groves, or forests, to build community. This, at a time, when we as humans, struggle hard to build and sustain healthy in-person communities, in the face of Online communications. Books like “The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate Discoveries from a Secret World,” (Wohlleben 2016) by Peter Wohlleben is a Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post bestseller. It makes readers privy to trees’ communication skills and social networks, that is, it helps us entertain...

Art of Motherland Herbal

Motherland Herbal is my latest book, set to be released June 11th by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. It is a cross-genre work, primarily an herbal guide, with elements of memoir, and creative nonfiction. It encompasses my passion for folklore and mythology, from the African diaspora. I’m back here to begin a series of posts built around the art within its pages. Today, I share my inspiration for the book cover art. One of my favorite houseplants is our Money Tree. Rich in lore, intimately connected to abundance, prosperity and luck, I adore this plant. It is plentiful, in its growth habit, beautiful in its variety of green leaves and becomes luminous in the morning, when it catches light, hence the yellow-orange negative space around the leaves on the cover. I enjoy the playful way the art director at Harper, inserted the text, showing the title, subtitle and my name. The cover was a wonderful collaborative effort. It is designed to be inviting, informative and lumin...

Stephanie's Studio

Search This Blog