Afro World - What is the Bwiti cult ?
The Bwiti affects more than half of the populations of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and develops in Cameroon in the Pahouine populations close to the Fang people.
Despite these many variations, there are some major branches, and the foundations of religion are still stable.
The Bwiti can be compared to Christianity with its major branches, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and the many evangelical churches.
According to the Bwiti, the meeting with the forest spirits and the success of the ceremony depend first of all on the perfection achieved in the performance of the rituals
in terms of the schedule to be respected and the choreography, the least neglected detail suffices to compromise the effectiveness of the traditional rite.
The ritualization of time and space are pushed to the extreme.
The Bwitists use during their ritual ceremony a small shrub called Iboga. Iboga or "Sacred Wood" or Tree of Life
Iboga suppresses the notion of time; the present, the past and the future merge and the man returns where he comes from.
Nzambe-kana, father of the human race, and Dissumba, first woman on earth, mother of the human race.
There are three main steps as in any initiatory process:
- DEATH: the body collapses so that the spirit escapes.
- TRAVEL: in State of Modified Consciousness.
- THE RENAISSANCE: with a new name (the Kombo) as the child who has just been born.
The Bwiti Dissumba - named after the first woman who sacrificed herself in the myth for man to acquire knowledge
allows the person to seek a spiritual dimension that will lead him/her to cross the boundaries of the invisible to find and bring back his/her Kombo.
The Kombo is the name that the entities of the invisible will give him/her and which will be the indisputable proof
that she/he has traveled well in the space time of his/her memory but also in the memory of the clan and of course in that of humanity .
Initiation to Dissumba is above all a mystical initiation where the search for Truth is a priority.
A large amount of "Sacred Wood" is given (that can go from 6 tablespoons to 2 or 3 bowls...)
so that the initiate discovers the relation that the man maintains with the Cosmos...
He must know where he comes from and where he will leave after death.
The Bwiti Mitsogo, considered the closest to the original Bwiti, is the specific Bwiti of the "Ngangas to Mitsogo" (the great healers / saviors / prophets).
This is the Bwiti care where we cure problems that we can not manage on earth. The ill happen when one has lost his/her way...
The Nganga (the one who initiates, the one who knows, the one who cares) is also, in the Bwiti Mitsogo,
a seer who must be able to probe the invisible walls of the patient in a triangular including the Sacred, the cosmogony of the world and the roots of the earth.
Thus in the Bwiti cult, the Bandzi (the initiate) begins his initiation in the forest.
There he is washed, cleansed spiritually, purified; he makes his confession (essential to avoid the return of boomerangs of the plant when the blockages jump)
and painted white kaolin (which symbolizes the man, the reproductive liquid but also the pure spirit) and red kaolin (which symbolizes the flesh,
women's menstruation, terrestrial identification), he is then brought back to the Bandja (the temple) where the Ngoze (the vigil) will be able to begin.
The sound of the Ngombi harp and the Mongongo bow will allow him to hear little by little the vibratory messages of the divine breath.
A red parrot feather on the forehead (the parrot is the sacred animal of Gabon that will help him bring back the messages of the invisible).
The Bandzis throw at each entry into the Bandja the ritual phrase:
"Bandzi, Nima, Kambo, Nganga, Bokayé!" And the Assembly answers: "Aye!"
On a scientific level, in small doses, Iboga, composed of indole alkaloids, nervous and muscular stimulants, allows a sustained effort.
At intermediate doses, it has the capacity to bring back the past (dreamlike) and suppress opiate addiction;
Ibogaine acting on the NMDA receptors and on the dopaminic system.
In sub-toxic doses, it provokes an experience close to the NDEs (EMI- Experiences of Imminent Death),
which explains why in a mystical level, the Bwitists can make an encounter with the spiritual entities of the Invisible and the memory of humanity in the Modified Conscious State,
the initiate visualizes the World Origins Film and the place he/she holds in this gigantic canvas.
Iboga would be active on several brain areas. Ibogaine is active on the cerebellum and the limbic system - seat of pleasure and drug addiction.
According to the researchers, Iboga provides neither dependence nor pleasure but it can serve as reflection, meditation especially
or spiritual journey if we take into account the explanations of the initiates.
Also note that the American film Black Panther was inspired by the effects of Iboga
during the scene showing T'Challa drinking the power of the black panther allowing him to travel in the world of spirits or ancestors.
The power of the black panther is actually Iboga.