Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

When I met Queen Mother Chief High Priestess Dr Osun Dara Nerfertiti-El, on Sunday, February 17, in Port Maria, St Mary, I was instantly captivated by her air of regality. Dressed in traditional African clothes, with her staff of office in hand, she exuded an aura of peace and tranquillity, her smile as bright as the mid-morning sun.

I later found out that she is known internationally as a reader, herbalist, healer, and naturalist. But more importantly as a woman who travels the world promoting unity among the African diaspora. Embracing, respecting and preserving the African cultures are also integral in her role as Queen Mother.

Coming from a long line of traditional healers and herbalists, Queen Mother has Asante (Ghana), Yoruba (Nigeria) and Caribbean blood running through her veins. As a young girl in Nigeria, her elders knew she was special; she seemed to have got the gift of discernment to see events before they happen, and figure things out without any prior knowledge of them. At age seven, she started having dreams and visions.

When she was 10 years old, Queen Mother dreamed of her mother's death. Her mom died two weeks later. The funeral was just as she had seen it in the dream. At about age 13, she also dreamed of her father's passing. "In that dream, he was working, and a blackbird flew out of a window and started pecking my father in his chest. He slumped down to the floor. A few weeks later, my father had a massive heart attack and died," she recollected.

She was frequently consulted to tell her dreams, but she says, "I never really wanted to do it; I didn't want to be bothered with it, because the children laugh at you, they make fun of you, but as I grow older the elders influenced me to become more involved in it."

Under the guidance of her spiritualist aunt and grandmother, whom she called Mama, she learned traditional healing and herbal medicine. Queen Mother would observe what they were doing, and listen to their conversations, sometimes secretly. Mama, who was a Queen Mother herself, was a traditional healer, spiritualist and herbalist.

Ordained

From left: The elegant Queen Mother is in a happy mood with Errald Miller and his wife Portia Simpson Miller, leader of the opposition. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

As Osun Dara got older, the elders were impressed with her knowledge of traditional medicine. She was initiated and received the title of Chief High Priestess of Osun (pronounced Oshun) by the elders of Osun society, in the Osun state of Nigeria, in the 1980s. As Chief High Priestess, she is to follow "the footsteps of the ancient ancestors", which means that she is a traditional healer, herbalist, naturalist and spiritualist.

In 1995, she was installed as Queen Mother by visiting kings, chiefs and queen mothers from Ghana and Nigeria, and the chiefs from Ghana. Queen Mother is the highest honour a woman can get in Africa. She is the one who crowns the tribal kings. No man can ever become a chief without recommendation by a Queen Mother. She represents the culture of the society.

Performer of miracles

Osun Dara is a title that was bestowed upon her when she was installed as Queen Mother. It was chosen by her grandmother who said she would perform great miracles and that she would heal many people. Dara means goodness; Osun Dara means to perform miracles, "which do not necessarily have to be healing from a physical perspective, but from a spiritual and a mental perspective".

Her role as Queen Mother, therefore, is "to carry the link between African and the African diaspora, to carry the banner as the chief, to lift up the conscience of the people and be knowledgeable of the past as well as the present and the future".

Because, she says, "When we forget who we are as a people we enslave ourselves, our minds ... and one way that we can release the shackles is to return to what our ancestors had done in the past, and that is spirituality, communalism and unity among our people versus capitalism."

Queen Mother believes in the involvement of family, neighbours and the extended family in preserving our heritage: "When we go away from the extended family and don't embrace our own traditional heritage and culture, and go to another man's culture, and another man's lifestyle, this is when we become obsolete in society."

In an effort to prevent the obsolescence of our African culture, the work continues for Queen Mother Chief High Priest Dr Osun Dara Jama Nefertiti-El, reader, spiritual counsellor, herbalist, traditional medicine practitioner and healer. She says, "By the grace of the Most High, it is still yet a long road to travel, a very long road to travel. I can't say I am tired, because I have many more mountains to climb, though sometimes it's a lonely road."

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com