Ancestral Herbal Narratives

[0:14] Nicole Wines: Thank you so very much for agreeing to be a part of this project. This is an oral history collection, the herbal ancestral narratives which will be going up in the Raíces Digital Archive. I appreciate you taking your time to be a part of this, and I can’t wait to hear what you have to share with us. 

[0:34] Okomfo Akosua Anan Chin-on: Okay well thank you so much for inviting us to it. I’m very excited that you have become a pioneer in trying to document these stories because they’re very important. Okay. My mom, Bernadette Chin-on, she’s here. Come nana. I just want to share with her what we’re going to do. 

[1:00] Bernadette Chin-on: Hi everyone. 

[1:03] Nicole: Hi.

[1:05] Akosua: Okay, so we’re going to individually tell our story about herbs and how it has impacted our lives and the importance of it. So Nicole and I, we got one first but if you would like to go first, it’s fine. 

[1:22] Bernadette: No, no, no. You can go ahead, I’ll go next.

[1:24] Akosua: Okay, alright. I just wanted to share that with you. Okay, alright.

[1:29] Nicole: See you soon. So we’ll start with you. It’s very exciting to have family interviews also. I think it’s really important because these traditions are passed a lot of times through family connections and family traditions. 

[1:46] Akosua: Yes, yes.

[1:47] Nicole: So I really appreciate that you both are going to be a part of this project. It’s great.

[1:51] Akosua: Yes, yes.

[1:53] Nicole: Okay, so just a quick introduction, if you could please just give me, uh tell me your name, where you were born, and where we are now. 

[2:02] Akosua: Yes. Okay. My name is Okomfo Akosua Anan Chin-on. I am in Somerset, New Jersey in 2020, a few days short of the great election. And my family are actually multicultural. We’re descendents from the Mende people of West Africa. And due to the Ma Alpha, which we call slave [inaudible], we were transferred over against our will to a plantation in Guyana, South America. And from that route, there was a multicultural nation there so my African mama fell in love with my Chinese great-grandfather, and I am the product. So I have a wide array of different cultural experiences with herbs from both sides of the family including the indigenous people there, the Arawaks as well. So that’s me.

[3:14] Nicole: Wonderful. I want to start off with a complex question, it’ll help to kind of move into talking about herbs and herbalism specifically. So I want to ask, it’s a very big broad question, but this is your interpretation. What does the word healing mean to you?

[3:37] Akosua: Empowerment. I mean, yes, it is a very broad question but when you really think about healing, okay, it’s empowering your mind, your body, your spirit, your life, your thought patterns specifically into being in harmony so you can be the best that you can be. 

[4:08] Nicole: So I want to ask you about your connection to herbs and herbalism and healing traditions. In your lifetime, in the memories that you have of your life, what connection have you had to herbalism and healing conditions?

[4:24] Akosua: Yes, great question. Since I was a child, I mean I know of stories that was given to me from my mother when I was a baby, but of course I don’t remember those times. But I do remember, the youngest memory I had is when I was like two years old, and you know my mother she migrated from Guyana to America, and there was a heating system where it was almost like the radiators, I know you probably don’t know about that at the time, but it would just make a sound like sizzle sizzle sizzle. And steam would come out and I was like whoa this is like amazing. And of course me decided to get close and I was about to get burned and my mom, she grabs me by my leg because I’m like moving and I’m trying to get there fast. And I had a really big, almost like a four inch gash that was on my right leg, okay, and it was very noticeable, probably needed medical treatment, you know, to go to the hospital. But my mom, she didn’t do that. She had a plant, okay, this little, from a two-year-old’s perspective, a spiky little plant that had little ridges on it that was kind of sharp so you don’t want to pick it or whatever. She grabbed that plant, broke it open, and it was gooey. And she put that thing on my thigh and it was so cooling because it felt like fire, like kind of like my skin is kind of breaking apart, and she put that thing on. As you know, the plant is aloe. An aloe plant. And it just did wonders, you know. And that was like my earliest recollection of it, but growing up, if there was any type of illness, physical, so to speak, for digestion, it was always herbs. It was always roots, leaves, flowers. Even on a spiritual aspect, you know, if it was some type of anxiety, maybe test-taking time, you know, chamomile or peppermint fused into the room, it always worked with me. So when something works, you never leave it alone. You embrace it, you know what I’m saying? So there were other options growing up in America where I could have done Western medicine, pharmaceutical stuff, quote pill-popping, you know, and that is an option and I’m not knocking it. If people need that, that’s what they do. But for my body to be healed and whole and empowered, herbs have always been a part of my life from every season.

[7:31] Nicole: And you have that memory from all the way back at two years old.

[7:35] Akosua: Yeah, yeah. And I still have the mark but it’s a little tiny mark so of course I remember that. 

[7:44] Nicole: And so from that time on, did you begin to learn about herbalism and herbs from your family, from your mom?

[7:54] Akosua: Specifically from my mom. My mom. My mom, she actually, and she’ll share this with you and stuff, her grandmother was a healer like a midwife and she knew of all the herbs of South America that would help to keep a family whole and still. My mom came from a big family of six children, and someone was always bumping their head. Someone was always, you know, some medical thing, you know. And you couldn’t even run to the doctor that fast because it wasn’t like over here where we have you know the hospital close by and you drive. You know, the doctor is like miles away and it’s a hike, it’s a bicycle ride, it’s not one, two, three. So you have to figure out how to run a household safely so she learned from there, also through cooking. In terms of, to answer your question, in terms of growing up, you know coming of age as a woman you know, when my body decided to let me know that it was time to be a mom, my first menses, you know, cramps, I had herbs I used to help soothe that transition and to empower me with it and to look forward to you know accepting this new chapter in my life, you know, from actually being blessed to have the experience of carrying a child in the womb. I use certain herbs to keep my nutrients up, you know, even childbirth and my choice to have a homebirth and to have a homebirth safely, I had my herbal stock in hand. Being a young mother, just going throughout life, it has always and will always be a part of my life. 

[9:51] Nicole: So you have a pretty strong connection to the herbal healing tradition.

[9:55] Akosua: Like they say, I and I. 

[10:02] Nicole: Do you have any memories of other members of your family or community engaging in herbal or other healing traditions or it’s more specifically your mom that you remember?

[10:14] Akosua: Specifically, my mom. One of the things growing up in New York City even though it was a very urban environment, we always had time to go for nature walks. We always had time to visit places like the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, the New York Botanical Gardens. I was part of an organization called Operation Green Thumb where behind big, what they say, NYCHA New York City Housing Authority buildings, they used to have a little kind of plot that wasn’t owned by anyone, and we became involved into like planting vegetables and making it like a garden in Brownsville, East New York. So it has always been a part of my life.

[11:07] Nicole: Great. Next question you already answered about specific memories. I love that memory of you and your mom, that first time that you can remember the healing with the aloe. How has this transitioned into your adulthood? Would you consider yourself an active practitioner of herbal healing traditions in terms of the community or is it more of a personal and in family practice?

[11:45] Akosua: Well I would not get a check from dispensing herbs so that’s not my profession. However my profession is about helping to empower people to heal with their bodies in the medical field. And I have worked on wound care, stomas, heart issues, and although I am not allowed to dispense it, I’m very much allowed with someone asking me a question to share what knowledge I have and it has worked. It has worked specifically I know of a patient who had, an elder, from a different cultural background from mine and had a really bad time with his ostomy, and they prescribed medication. I was there to do the wounds, and once again, I said let’s try some aloe, let’s just put some aloe on it and see how it feels and see if that’s something you want to do. You will have to do it, I can’t do it but if you would want to do it. Fortunately, his daughter who was in charge of his care was a midwife and she tried it and he was in treatment for three years with the same wound that would not heal, tried the aloe, and in two weeks it was better. So you know, I really have to say that Mother Earth has really blessed us because in our lives, we travel many places. We travel where there’s like cold kind of environments, snow and ice and, you know, freezing rain. We travel where it’s very tropical, and regardless of where we go from wherever we go in the diaspora, we always find her there to support us. Her plants to support us. Her trees to provide oxygen for us, you know, so I have so much respect and thanks to Mother Earth and her plants. 

[14:04] Nicole: How much of what you know about herbs and herbal healing would you consider to be ancestral knowledge and how much would you consider to be kind of accumulated knowledge that you’ve gotten through other means like books or the Internet?

[14:27] Akosua: That’s a great question. I say it’s like a tandem relationship. Sometimes when you’re able to kind of put down the cell phone, put down the Internet, put down the books, and just kind of touch your heart and listen to your breath, you know, when you’re not focusing on other things, the ideas come to you intuitively. All of a sudden, you’ll be like well why don’t you try that, you know? That inner voice regardless of how quiet it may sound, it’s actually the ancestral knowledge telling you to go and do the research, so it’s like part a), it comes from listening to your inner voice which is basically whispers from the ancestors like literally whispers from the ancestors. And sometimes if you take the time to really quiet yourself like meditate, you know, and I’m not saying a long meditation or chanting, just listen to your inner voice. Ideas and thoughts come to you. 

[15:43] Nicole: You mentioned a little earlier getting knowledge of herbal traditions from multiple cultures because of the multicultural background of your family and your country, the history of your, of Guyana, and now you’re here in the U.S. which is also very multicultural especially in the Northeast where we are. So can you just describe that a little more, discuss that a little more, what are the different traditions, the different cultural backgrounds that have come together to bring you this knowledge?

[16:24] Akosua: Okay. A great question. Although we are different, we are one. Okay. Although we are different, we are one meaning that people like to eat. Doesn’t matter where you’re from. If you have a good food, a good dish that smells really good and tastes good, and after you eat you could just like, your stomach is like thank you, that’s the connection. So through culinary, right, culinary is one aspect where the infusion of different dishes would kind of blend together. So when I cook, you know, I kind of focus on like the Chinese theory of the five elements meaning the fire, the earth, the wood, the water, metal. Okay, all of those are combined with different seasons and spice and herbs. And when you put a delicate blend where one is not overpowering, but it’s just kind of like a nice blend to it, that’s where it kind of infuses together so you know it’s not something that’s uncommon in my household where we have a plant. I know in America, a lot of people have these bottles with dry seasoning and that’s what they do. We don’t do that. We go to like the plants that we have. Like okay I need a little thyme and we’ll pull something from here and we’ll pull something from there and we use fresh herbs. So I would say culinary is a very strong impact of it, number one, for sure.

[18:27] Nicole: In your background, how were these traditions generally passed down?

[18:38] Akosua: Oral tradition, basically, oral tradition. Take the time whenever your elder, your nana, your papa would cook or whatever they would do, you know, you kind of like, kind of, you know, it’s a lot of questions that run through your head. That’s not the time for questions. A lot can happen by observation, by watching, you know. Like they say, you know, your children may not listen to what you tell them to do, but they are definitely watching what you do. So I used to see my mom in the kitchen, you know, and even though my size, you know, let’s just say for the record, my size is deceiving, you know. The way to my heart, you can cook, it’s a done deal. So it was started by the aromatherapy, from the different dishes that were in my home, so I grew up with, you know, very interesting dishes, you know, very different types of drinks made from herbs like ginger tea, sorrel, you know, just different papaya drinks, you know, pineapple cordial, these are things that we made, you know. 

[20:02] Nicole: So oral tradition from the different, would you say that these traditions are passed down through an oral tradition in all different cultural traditions or is that more on one side than another?

[20:19] Akosua: No, I would say definitely more oral. Actually a project that I’m working on is I’m trying to work on a cookbook in which I can actually document it. You know, like a family recipe book that I want to pass down to my son and his children, you know, and their children’s children, just so it can be recorded. But mostly it has been through oral tradition.

[20:47] Nicole: So you’re going to continue to pass along the knowledge, huh?

[20:49] Akosua: I hope so. I hope so. That is definitely a goal I want to do while I’m still on the planet. 

[20:56] Nicole: Wonderful. Have you, it’s actually, it’s interesting that you said that because my next question was about how the teaching of these traditions has evolved, and so you mentioned that in general they’re passed down through oral tradition, oral history, one family member to the next, within a family. But how do you think that has changed in modern times and evolved?

[21:25] Akosua: World Wide Web. Internet. Instagram. YouTube. Just basically twenty-first century has met a way to record this, you know. 

[21:40] Nicole: And do you think that’s, has a positive impact or a negative impact or both or neutral?

[21:50] Akosua: Anytime people have a chance to dialogue and to communicate, okay, and to communicate clearly and where there’s vision and a picture and an outcome, it’s always a good thing. Always a good thing, you know. So I would say it’s positive but I don’t want it to overpower the blessings that we have when people can just come together without electronic devices and to just talk and to share because that is very important. That’s like the foundation I believe of it. 

[22:35] Nicole: Do you, you actually mentioned this a little bit too about spirituality and the spirit, and I wanted to ask in the knowledge that you have of your cultural traditions that deal with herbs and herbalism and healing, what is the connection between healing and spirit and healing and energy?

[22:56] Akosua: Oh, it’s a big connection. I know this may sound a little different because you know they have something called Montu which is the being, the energy force of it. So trees have energy. Plants have energy. Herbs have energy, and people have energy. So sometimes, you know, I’m sure you can get lots of books about herbalism, you know, from pioneers of it. However, not every herb, although it has healing properties, is for everybody. Okay. It depends on the person, if they’re open enough to respect the herb meaning are you open enough to take only what is needed? Are you open enough to take what you need without killing the plant, without killing the trees? Are you open enough to just talk to it and explain why you’re using this? It’s a very sacred thing. The energy of someone, you never, one of the things you really have to do is remember you have to be in the moment, okay. So when you’re doing herbal work, when you’re doing healing, when you’re thinking about yourself, that’s not the time to run through your laundry list of things you have to do. That’s not the time for you to be thinking about what’s gonna happen after that moment. Once you interact with the plant, once you interact with life, you have to consciously be in the moment. And once you are, you’ll listen of course the plants will give you indications that they are good for you. You might see the leaf when you put your hands over it, it might actually fold towards you. Or the plant might kind of have a magnetic energy in which, you know, you might go to a garden or an herbal walk, and you find a particular tree that’s just welcoming you to come closer, to come into its aura, okay. It’s very important that, yes it is a connection between energy and healing and for you to get the best out of any type of herbs that you use, the first thing you have to do is express gratitude, you know. Thank you, thank you Mother Earth. Thank you Father God for this opportunity to interact with the environment. Thank you for this plant for surviving, the seasons of winter and being able to blossom and to show your leaves and your strength to me. Once you do that, the plant is more open to like work with you, and you’ll have a more positive effect. I’ve known people, because I used to work in a health food store while I was going to school, and you know I have customers that come in and they’re like yeah that plant, that herb didn’t do anything for me, oh what’s the use, and they all say derogatory things about the plant you know not thank you, you know. And then they wonder why it doesn’t work for them. You have to understand, it’s an interconnected relationship like any type of relationships. What you put into a relationship, you’ll get right back, you know. If you put wholeheartedly, your heart and you put wholeheartedly the work and the time to do something, you’ll definitely get it back and it will show. But if you go into it like a consumer with like kind of a little chip on your shoulder, well here’s my dollar plant I need you to do this and that, I want total health and I want it now, guess what? It’s not gonna happen. 

[27:12] Nicole: And is this part something, is this something that you learned from the books and the Internet and the World Wide Web, or is this something that you learned from your family tradition and the oral tradition and your ancestors?

[27:30] Akosua: Actually it’s through observation. I’ve had a lot of experience with people who are trying to get the balance for their health, you know, as in the field that I told you about, in the medical field, you know, I feel blessed, really blessed, to be in that kind of position because it’s an opportunity to really get to know people and you know when I was saying that we’re all one, everyone wants to be healthy. And when your health is fragile, you know, there’s a honesty that comes out, you know, the facade that people put on to face the world, you know, the mask that we wear, that’s gone. Okay. It’s just about the pure spirit and what goes on. So I have really been humbled and grateful and thankful for the opportunity to interact with people at sometimes at their most vulnerable moments so I’ve seen it up close.

[28:41] Nicole: Thank you for sharing. Do you feel that in modern times, are we in any danger of losing the connection to these types of healing practices and traditions or do you feel like this is knowledge that is being well-preserved and passed along whether it’s in your community, the wider community, your family, our Earth community?

[29:12] Akosua: We are in danger. We are in danger. I wish I had a different answer, but the purpose of this interview is for truth, you know, and to be honest. Do not take things for granted, you know, life, particularly a human life, is really short, you know. And unfortunately, it’s been a war against Mother Earth and technology and then if you throw economics in that, you know, people will do things. Corporations will do things like, you know, pour oil into the waters, into the oceans, you know, or test things and then it’s dispersed into the air. And we have certain things in which the natural environment, the homeostasis that we need for the plants, the flora, to survive, for the fauna to survive, is in danger. So if we are constantly battling this and everyone is not on the same page, you know, meaning from the youngest to the oldest, you know, throwing paper wrap into the ocean just for fun, throwing coins into the ocean just for fun, and not thinking about the environment and how that’s going to affect people who are objects that will affect our Earth that we need, you know. I mean I know people are doing testing and saying yeah we can get up to Mars and this and that, but if we do the same thing we’re doing here on planet Earth, guess what? Mars is gonna be in a little bit of a jeopardy and it’s not gonna happen right away for us to go there. So we have to understand that it’s important number one to respect our environment, you know, to write to corporations and really understand how they treat the Earth, you know, how do they dispose of their refuse, you know, what environmental practices are they doing or are they just being consumerism and just like, you know, building and you know garbage dumps and are they running checks for that to see how healthy it is you know. Are they flattening that out and building housing complexes because the money is great and those children who are in the housing complex all of a sudden have a lot of diseases that they didn’t have before, you know, so it is a major issue, and it cannot be one person, it has to be a collective effort of everybody in your every day of life to think about yes I am special and so is Mother Earth and so are we and how are we going to preserve that? Because this land that we’re kind of like walking on and gracing our presence with, you know, we inherited that from our ancestors, it’s not ours. You understand what I’m saying? This is really something for our children’s children to do. We got to make sure that we give them something that’s viable and nurturing. 

[32:43] Nicole: It’s true. That actually answers the last question. 

[32:49] Akosua: Okay, okay. 

[32:50] Nicole: I was going to ask two questions in one, but I’ll ask you know specifically about the knowledge that comes with herbalism and herbal healing traditions, why is, how do you see that fitting into what you just told me and why is it important specifically, beyond the environment as a whole, but specifically to preserve and to share and to pass down these traditions that have to do with herbs, herbalism, herbal healing, and other healing forms?

[33:32] Akosua: Okay, it’s almost like thinking about it in very simple terms. And I’m sorry, I may be giving you very simple answers, I’m not sure that um. Okay, okay. It’s not really deep but how do we as a collective group of people, forget about nationality and culture, as a collective group of people, what do we need to survive? Right? We need food, we need water, and we need shelter. If we don’t take care of the Earth, how are we gonna survive? To when I was saying before, it was like I and I. You know. We aren’t going to be empowered and healed if Mother Earth is not empowered and healed. Okay, so it’s the collective effort for not just our survival because we don’t just want to survive in this world. Anybody can survive, you know. A cockroach can survive and teach us a thing or two. But we want to thrive, you know, thrive and be healed and whole and continue to be able to have the physical aspects of ourselves to help us to execute the higher things that we’re supposed to be doing in this short life that we have been given by the Creator. 

[35:04] Nicole: Is there anything else that you want to add or say?

[35:08] Akosua: I just wanted to say thank you so much. I felt really compelled to be a part of this project, you know, because I feel it’s important. It’s very important to me, so thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this with you and to all.

[35:25] Nicole: Thank you so much for sharing.

[35:27] Akosua: You’re welcome.

[35:29] Nicole: Always. But I’m really glad you participated in this project.

[35:33] Akosua: Okay, thank you. Thank you.

[35:35] Nicole: Thank you.