These Sacred Fish Taught Our Ancestors About Faith
Have you ever wished you could be in two places at once? Our ancestors deeply revered this sacred fish for being able to exist between worlds, releasing their sacred wisdom into the water – sacred wisdom that would later remind our ancestors’ of their resilience.
The Edo people of Benin had great reverence for Olokun, the mysterious Orisha of deep ocean waters known for abundance, prosperity, and maintaining balance between the realms of the living and dead.
The mudfish thrived on both land and water, burrowing deep into muddy riverbanks during dry season, where it remained dormant. The Edo saw this dormancy as a temporary death, revering mudfish for being able to exist like Olokun, between two worlds.
In addition to its ability to live in two worlds, mudfish could also emit an electrical shock when disturbed, asserting its power.
The Edo people quickly established the mudfish as sacred, representing prosperity, peace, fertility, and rebirth. Mudfish were royal.
When Portuguese boats first arrived in Benin around 1485, the Edo saw the Portuguese as powerful because they were able to travel on land and in water. The Portuguese took brutal advantage of this reverence. They enslaved many of the people, who would later use their spirituality to gain Haiti’s independence.
Anti-Blackness cruelly exploited our ancestors’ spirituality and sacred ways of knowing.
But our ancestors still found their way back to resistance. How can we use the mudfish to fuel our spiritual strength?
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