Obi Nka Obi: Our Interconnected Nature

Obi nka obi (pronounced “o-bee in-ka bee”),  a Twi word of the Akan people from Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The literal translation is “bite not one another” and it is a stylized image of two fish biting each other.

We recently had the pleasure of touring a small exhibit at the University of Ghana's African Studies Department. There, a brilliant young man walked us through the history of currency and finance in Ghana. I looked into the displays, each one holding delicate and intricately decorated artifacts, imagining the people who used them- shells for currency and beautiful brass lock-boxes for their gold dust. He lead us to a display that contained beautiful pieces, with a range of shapes and mystical looking animals- these he said, are from the time period where the currency had a lesson. Each piece connected to a parable or common refrain, and I stood in front of the case imagining a person with a pocket full of stories and lessons. One artifact jumped out at me in particular, it was the image of two animals, maybe fish or gators, in a circle or cycle with the tail of each in the other's mouth. Obi Nka Obi the curator explained, it means if you bite someone be prepared to get bit also, for their tail might be in your mouth but your tail is in theirs as well. Everyone has the ability to bite, everyone has the ability to get bit back. He went on to explain that the lesson behind this symbol is not just one of do no harm, but also of our interconnectedness. 

I found myself touched by this symbol and what it said and didn't say. What it said is that we hold each other, that we have the ability to hurt each other but the responsibility not to. What it didn't say is that we are all one, or some other trite rationale for coming together. The gators are unique from one another and allowed to be even if connected to each other.

I think about our U.S. currency and the stories it tells, white men of power and privilege who failed to acknowledge that they took more than could ever be forgiven of them, and in their failure to see that you destroy what you bite, they chewed up the whole world.

Some early evenings I walk across this campus, cooled by the gentle breeze from a nearby ocean, greeting the trees and animals, collecting wildflowers for my altar. I gently whisper to them what they already know, that my liberation is their liberation and their liberation is mine and in this moment, under this Ghana sunset, we are both free.

Ana Maria De La Rosa

Throw it in a Circle!

Why Communal Healing?

“I’m not sure what healing looks like, but I know it happens in a circle.”

– Ana Maria De La Rosa

Ana is a dear friend and colleague from our time as a community organizers, political strategists and non-profit managers in Florida. So, when I arrived at Princeton Theological Seminary, I was more comfortable sharing with her the things that God had been whispering to my heart than I was announcing them in a classroom or to other students. Opening up to Ana, a student in her final year of a health advocacy master’s program at Sarah Lawrence college allowed us to discuss the shared desire to create something more than political avenues to access health insurance. We both realized we shared a vision to create healing communities that address the generational pain inflicted on people’s minds and souls when they suffer under unfair systems of oppression. In essence, we had both seen what happens when political entities thrust broken and hurt individuals into fights for justice without tending to the wholeness and wellness of the families that are impacted.

Even the mainstream strategies for healing that Americans employ are centered on individual clinical care. The stigma and cost associated with identifying as someone who needs healing and seeking it both serve as barriers to recovery, wellness and beloved community. Ana Maria and I both committed to work together to build a community of Faith, Healing and Justice, such that circles of support would exist where people could share in shouldering each other’s pain and creating paths to wellness such that broken people and communities would be better able to act as agents of change and have greater impact as they seek to improve society. Since that Fall semester in 2015, I have used my time at PTS to read and write about communal healing models that bring people together. Both my studies and my experiences have shown me that God calls us to community and that we are stronger, healthier and whole by being together. It is this theology that sits as the foundation of the organization and ministry that will become the Faith, Healing and Justice Center.

We've traveled all the way to Ghana, not just to study and research healing models, but to build a foundation for our own circle. We came to go about the business of getting free and being well, ourselves. We have chosen to be a circle of support for each other and for ourselves. We have chosen to extend the circle to those close to us in mind, spirit, experience, proximity and need. We have chosen to become a circle of possibility so that we can live differently. Better. Peacefully and Joyfully. 

We are becoming

We are going to Ghana to learn a better way. 

As dear friends having served as community organizers, political strategists and non-profit managers in Florida, we both realized that our individual missions were actually part of a shared vision to create healing communities that address the generational pain inflicted on people’s minds and souls when they suffer under unfair systems of oppression. We have both seen what happens when political entities thrust broken and hurt individuals into fights for justice without tending to the whole person. We envision a different approach that will eventually materialize as a Faith, Healing and Justice Center. In order to make realize this vision, we want to learn from women who have done this work effectively. 

So we are going to Ghana. 

The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians located at Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra, Ghana is a prime example of what is possible when an affirming community is formed and holds space for those who are seeking healing. We are going to study there for a month to learn, listen and to “write the vision and make it plain” before returning to the United States and creating a place that is loving, healing and faith-centered with an eye towards social justice.

We love who we are; women that were gifted with this vision of healing. However, to fully realize all that is within us, we will have to journey into becoming . . . more. Deeper. Broader. Lighter. Not different, just more of our true selves. We look forward to the journey and we thank you all for supporting and coming along with us on this journey. 

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Sheena: I have been consistently devoted to connecting with people on a state, local, national and international level for over 15 years as a community organizer, public speaker, activist, trainer, and minister. Dedicated to more deeply studying God’s word, I’m discovering new and exciting ways to serve at the intersection of Faith, Healing and Justice.

Ana: I am a mission-driven health education and policy specialist with community organizing and program development experience. I specialize in trauma-informed interventions, resilience, anti- racism and social justice approaches to community health.