“We are a Family and Community driven initiative to Empower, Uplift the lives of girls and young women with Mentorship, Education, Life skills and Connection to their cultural heritage through African-based Rites of passage”

“ If we stand tall it is only because we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors”

                                                            African Proverb

French anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep who coined the term Rites of Passage(ROP), described the concept as follows:

The life of an individual in any society is a series of passages from one age to another, progression from one group to the next is accompanied by special acts  ceremonies whose essential purpose is to enable the individual to pass from one defined position in society or the community to another. During the process of passing through several stages and transversing several boundaries, the individual is modified.

It is based on African cultural practices of marking young people’s entry into adulthood by providing them with the skills, knowledge, and experiences they need to be successful, responsible, and independent adults

According the author, Yoruba priestess, professor and workshop facilitator Luisah Teisch, traditional or indigenous rites of passage  systems such as in Africa have 7 major elements in common.

• Identification: the entire community can identify who will be required experience which rite; the initiates are organized into gender based age-grade groups from birth.

• Separation/ Isolation: Separation from ordinary life and reality, often placed in some form of isolation for ,meditation and contemplation.

• Purification: initiates are often required to fast, refrain from certain foods, submit to celibacy or abstinence or given special medicines/ herbs to take for a period during the process.

• Confrontation with fear: The scene from roots in which Kunta Kente is taken in a hood or a cloak or darkness by his father along with all of the other adolescent boys into the forest is a pivotal point of the character’s life. He is unsuspectingly torn away from the safety of his child hood home and everything that he has known up until this point, during the night. Up until this point his life has been pretty predictable and fairly routine. As a child one relies on their elders, especially their parents for guidance and their bear necessities. In traditional rites of passage , elders often design test of courage to help the initiate come face to face with things that they fear the most. The lesson is to acknowledge the fear and move forward with the process in spite of it.

  Development of Courage and the ability to stand up in the face of adversity /danger are essential for Character development or shaping character of a person.

• Death and Rebirth:  The concept of dying out of one stage of existence such as childhood into higher level adulthood is symbolically portrayed in either some form of dramatization, dance or act. When the little girl enters the Sacred Grove she is considered to be dying to the outside world. Through the process of initiation her parents and community are receiving a new woman and member of the community.

• Transformation Learning: the initiate is taught inherited knowledge.

• Reintegration and Celebration: initiates are brought back to the larger community and acknowledged with celebration and rejoicing.

Young Empowered Wombmyn Achieving Self

In 2006 the first official cohort of YEWAS was established in Oakland and Sacramento by Asatu Musunama Hall, Director of Sacred Grove with Rolanda Allaha Wilkins founder of Sacramento-based Earth Mama Healing, Inc. under the guidance of our elders and mentors some of who were former( SOT )mothers, founders of African-centered learning Institutions,  leaders  in the Pan-African movement and Cultural  arts educators.  Mama Upesi Mtambuzi, Yaa Titilayo Makini, Mama Shukuru Saunders, Sister Linda Johnson, Mama Ikenna Ubaka, Iya Jumoke Blue.  The founding cohort was comprised of 17 girls of African descent from Oakland, Richmond, and Sacramento. We created a year-long program that culminated in a weekend ROP(initiation) and community ceremony.

Since 2006 Sacred Grove has hosted YEWAS, a free year-round program in Oakland for girls of African descent. The mission is help adolescent girls and young women of African descent make a successful, holistic transition to womanhood, to develop a Strong Sense of Self, and positive relationships with other girls and elders and learn wise decision-making skills to help them be confident and successful.

Asatu works in sisterhood with the groundbreaking Bay Area African-centered  Sisters of Tomorrow led by the Ayodele Kinchen. We are blessed to have access to the wise counsel of the SOT Founding Queen Mothers Mama Nobantu Ankoanda and Mama Ikenna Ubaka.