Jamaica’s Taino chief speaks abroad on stories as medicine

Earlier this month, Jamaica’s Taino chief, Kasike Kalaan Nibonrix Kaiman, gave a presentation titled, ‘Stories as medicine: Taino and African Healing and the Environment in Jamaica’, at Northeastern University, a private university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in Kingston, Rhode Island.Kasike Nibonrix Kaiman, a medicine man, was enstooled as chief of the Jamaican Tainos (Yamaye Guani) in 2019.

The talks were part of a joint endeavour between the Africana Studies Programme at Northeastern and the University of Rhode Island, “to creatively strategise with Kasike Kalaan Kaiman about an indigenous and African project in the rural Jamaican village of Woodside in the parish of St. Mary”.

At Northeastern University, the event was co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Programme and by the Arts & Humanities Social Action Lab (Ethics Institute), which “connects the transformative potential of arts and humanities methods with grassroots community activism”, and “promotes generative collaborations between grassroots community organisers and university-based arts and humanities scholars, in the pursuit of new knowledge and praxis (practices) for social justice”.

The University of Rhode Island website notes, “The collaboration is also being supported by a five-day research retreat at The Manship Artist residency in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where Chief Kalaan, University of Rhode Island professor Catherine John and Northeastern University professor Kris Manjapra will spend joint time strategising about African and Indigenous collaborations.”

This talk addressed “stories as medicine” in the Jamaican context, linking it to climate change, the disconnection with environmental cycles, and possibilities for healing.

“Indigenous stories, which are tied to lands, whether you are from the lands or not, help us to align with the cycles of these spaces and understand where our priorities are to be placed at whatever point in the cycle of life humanity is today,” Kasike Kaiman told The Gleaner.

He said the youths should become a part of the narrative, to continue the practice as keepers of our stories. For, “society falls into known traps when we forget our stories and the guidance they give us”. “Stories have life and use [their] tellers to evolve and remain relevant through time, allowing a deep connection to the audience,” he explained.

MORE RESILIENCE

In the Lokono story shared at Northeastern,“there were evil spirits that brought plagues, and this pandemic represented a return to ancestral wisdom and medicines for them, which is similar to the world’s experience of COVID-19. Those armed with these stories held more resilience with navigating these cycles. Understanding this was not new for our people, but (was a) return of a cycle, and gave meaning to something seemingly disruptive, such as pandemics and natural disasters”.

At Northeastern Kasike Kaiman started his presentation with honouring the indigenous people of Massachusetts,“who themselves hold stories”, and recognised Louise Bennett Coverley, Dr Amina Blackwood Meeks and Robert Nesta Marley as persons who heal others through stories – Bob Marley’s medium being his songs. He also credited Blackwood Meeks, Louise Bennett Coverley and Marley at the URI. After briefly introducing himself, recognising ancestral presence, and welcoming other indigenous people, he made calls to the sacred directions of the east, west, north and south. He also honoured Mother Earth, the Celestial and the Creator. He interspersed the calls (made in English and indigenous languages) with the blowing of the ocarina (an indigenous wind instrument).

Recently Kasike Kaiman called upon the Jamaican government to legitimise the indigenous status of the people in his tribe amid concerns that plans which began in 2022 to do so have stalled. He said the journey to Massachusetts and Rhode Island informed his personal journey and from the experience he has three takeaways.

These are: first; the ancestral indigenous concept of a prophecy is an ancestral message with markers to identify when we are to act; it is not something that will happen to us, but something we invoke as was done at the gathering of these ancestral stories around the sacred fire. Second, indigenous stories explain our ancestors’ view of the world and give insight into how they navigated it as guidance for future generations. And third, time is circular in most indigenous cultures, there are several beginnings and ends. All stories are relevant for future generations.