WataDauta

THE BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE

BECAUSE we have forgotten our ancestors,
our children no longer give us honor.

BECAUSE we have lost the path our ancestors cleared
kneeling in perilous undergrowth,
our children cannot find their way.

BECAUSE we have banished the God of our ancestors,
our children cannot pray.

BECAUSE the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing,
our children cannot hear us crying.

BECAUSE we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering,
our befuddled children give birth to children
they neither want nor understand.

BECAUSE we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our
gates, an holds us up to the mirror of the world shouting,
"Regard the loveless"

Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our
lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate,
to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things,
knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters.

We ARE our brothers and sisters.

IN HONOR of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues,
and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation, we make this pledge.



PRAYER FOR OSHUN

Oshun, oyeyeni mo... Oshun who is full of understanding,
O wa yanrin wayanrin kowo si... Who digs sand and buries money there.
Obinrin gbona, okunrin nsa...
The woman who seizes the road and causes men to run away.
Oshun abura-olu... Oshun the river which the king cannot exhaust...
One who does things without being questioned.
Ogbadagbada loyan... One who has large robust breasts.
Oye ni mo, eni ide kii su...
One who has fresh palm leaves, who is never tired of wearing brass.
Gbadamufbadamu obinrin ko See gbamu...
The huge, powerful woman who cannot be attacked.
Ore yeye o... Most gracious mother.
Onikii, amo-awo maro...
Onikii, who knows the secret of cults but does not disclose them.
Yeye onikii, obalodo... The gracious mother, the queen of the river.
Otutu nitee... One who has a cool, fresh throne.
Iya ti ko leegun, ti ko leje... The mother who has neither bone nor blood. Legends abound about this female force, but she is to be respected on all levels. She is Olodumare's representative to remind of the love that should exist in the universe. Ashe-O