Sabbatical leave

I’m on sabbatical leave this spring semester.

Forward to my origin

I will go for the next year

to learn Ifa computation,

in which my ancestors

have hidden the secrets of life

knowing that one day my eyes would open

and see the truth hidden in plain sight.

I’m going to study Ifa computation.

From one West African village to another,

I will study those things all my teachers declared devilish,

evil, forbidden, pagan, abomination, taboo and fetish.

I forgive my teachers because they did not act out of malice.

They just didn’t know any better.

They were just plain ignorant,

misdirected, simple but innocent minds.

But how will I learn to forgive myself

for not figuring out more quickly

that my teachers were wrong

to teach me that the ways of my ancestors

are evil and that civilization lies

in abandoning my organic indigenous ecology?