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MAURITANIA
Great
Grand Mother Earth
By
Jheri St. James 
“Hello
Gary, Sorry for the delay. I was on vacation and
I have lots of things to take care of. Please see
attached documents (you can see the “dunes
de sables” of Mauritania. The word of peace
in Mauritania is: SALAM. . . Happy New Year, Best
regards, Ghoujdi Lalla Aicha” (Her collection
photo above.)
And
yes, that’s all we have, folks. Other than
the 12 emails in the file from Gary Simpson to Ms.
Aicha wondering if we had been deserted. Well, no,
we did get the soil. Maybe it came from this location
above, or maybe this is a movie photo. Sometimes
we never find out the details of a soil collection,
and must remain grateful just to have it. Mauritania
after all may not be the easiest place from which
to obtain or write about this sandy sample.
 The
story of Mauritania has been one of constant change
between various ruling entities. Independent from
France in 1960, many groups have seized power and
then lost it through geographical, political and
ethnic struggles. And what else is new on Planet
Earth? This writer could count on one hand the number
of countries whose soil is the platform for peaceful
existence upon the surface of our Great Grand Mother
Gaia.
Bordered
by the Atlantic Ocean west, Western Sahara north,
Algeria northeast, Mali east and southeast, and Senegal
southwest, this country was named after the Roman
province of Mauritania. The capital and largest city
is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast. About
20% of the population lives on less than US $1.25
per day. Mauritania is also “a source and destination
country for children trafficked for forced labor
and sexual exploitation, slavery-related practices,
rooted in ancestral master-slave relationships which
continue to exist in isolated parts of the country.
Mauritanian boys called talibe are trafficked within
the country by religious teachers for forced begging;
children are also trafficked by street gangs within
the country that force them to steal, beg, and sell
drugs; girls are trafficked internally for domestic
servitude and sexual exploitation; women and children
from neighboring states are trafficked into Mauritania
for purposes of forced begging, domestic servitude,
and sexual exploitation.” (www.cia.gov/library/ublications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_mr.html)
| Quran
Collection in Chinguetti (below) |
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*
* *
 Warfare
on Earth is the product of the violent taking of
land from, first, indigenous peoples. Sub-Saharan
African groups, sometimes collectively referred to
as Kewri, primarily inhabit Senegal, including the
densely populated fertile Chemama land on the Mauritanian
bank of the Senegal River. They were probably the
first losers of land.
One
interesting current evolution of this land grabbing
has been the formation of The
Morning Star Foundation,
a group of indigenous grandmothers from around the
world. The Morning Star
Foundation is committed to creating public awareness
for the protection and preservation of all indigenous
nations on Mother Earth. Their primary purpose is
to protect and support “traditional” elders,
sacred sites, sacred burial grounds, and sacred ceremony.
W.O.M.B.
(Wisdom of Mother Beauty) Grandmother’s Gatherings is an affiliated grassroots movement of these grandmothers, “Life-Givers” of
our Mother Earth. Twenty seven grandmothers have
met as a group for four years now and the concept
continues to grow. Grandmother Joyce Fifi Gubevu
is the South African member, a respected traditional,
tribal healer in her country. Other grandmother activist
groups are forming as well, using their accumulated
wisdom energy to save our Great Grand Mother Earth.
Go to their site to see beautiful indigenous items
for sale and/or to make a donation.
Here
is one of the Grandmothers’ ceremonial prayers:
”We
send our love and prayers out to all of you
who live in the direction of the North, Wazi
Yata. We pray that you will have a warm home
and plenty of food, water and blankets to
make it through the severe winter season.
We also send our prayers out to all our four
legged, winged ones, finned ones, creepy
crawlers, the standing people and stone people
relations. They too need to make it through
the winter's frost. We especially send protection
out to our salmon relations that are under
attack through over fishing, industry pollution
and mining interests in both North America
and Alaska. Every living thing is an important
part of our Eco System here on Mother Earth.
We should always speak up for all our relations
and not think that we as humans are always
the most important living thing. They all
came before us in native/indigenous creation
stories. It is our responsibility to take
care of them, our sacred water of life, Mini
Wakan, and Uchi Maka, Mother Earth. This
is why we are here, to be the caretakers
and to walk in beauty on our Mother. Not
destroy what we have been given. These things
are all necessary in order to make sure there
are forests, lakes and animals here for our
next generations. We should remember this
when we look into our grandchildren's eyes
and our elders’ eyes. We have so
much to be thankful for every day. May
you all
be open to the Love and guidance that Great
Spirit sends you every day.” |
Like
the Common Ground 191 project, the Grandmothers envision
our planet as one living entity, with human beings
as only transitory inhabitants. Every slave and every
slave master has a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother.
Let us add our prayers for integrity and moral eye
contact between all people on our planet. Let us
not desert the idea of oneness--in our project, with
the Grandmothers, and with our Great Grand Mother
Earth. Thank you to Ghoujdi Lalla Aicha, the anonymous
collector of soil from Mauritania, part of the often
forgotten but gigantic stage upon which we are born
and die, and within which we rest. Salam.
The
Village of Bareina in Southwest Mauritania
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