20 December 2023
Returning to the Roots of Iboga
Artist Chor Boogie Becomes an Artist of the Missoko Bwiti Tradition
By Chor Boogie, aka Nganga Gnyangou
Edited by Elizabeth Bast
MAPS Bulletin: Volume XXXIII Number 3 • 2023
“Have you ever been to a slave castle?” asked the man from Ghana, as we stood outside a temple shrine for the dead on one sacred desert playa. “Vultures still circle over it 200 years later.” He paused. “Half of the people died on the journey to the slave castle. Half of those people died in the slave castle. And half of those people died on the slave ships. The people who survived all of that… Those are your ancestors.” His words sank into my depths. I have their strength. And I carry their pain.
My ancestors are the real reason why I came to Iboga. They called me home through an open wound, for this was the place where the medicine entered. My art career had brought me everything I thought I wanted, only to find it was never enough. There was a dark “nothing” in my chest. After 13 years of sobriety, their ancient and concentrated pain brought me to seek relief through poison. And their profound strength whispered the way.
When I confessed to my wife that I had relapsed, she talked to the trees (literally). That’s her church, nature. The trees told her, “Iboga.” So we did research, which was initially terrifying as we read about adverse events and even deaths. We came to learn that proper medical screening and medical support could exponentially increase safety. We finally found a traditional Bwiti healer who was serving the medicine in Costa Rica alongside an experienced medical doctor.
At that point, my wife of six years could barely recognize me. After one night with the medicine, she could see me again, where something else had been inhabiting me before. After that first ceremony, I said: “I love my life. I never want to disrespect myself again.” Six months later, we were both in Africa experiencing a Bwiti initiation, rite of passage, and wedding. In that Bwiti temple, I saw the origins of hip-hop and all African-American cultures through the dance, music, and tribe. The cultural threads could never be severed, even through slavery.
Through my trials and tribulations, I know my ancestors and my soul were protecting me through my life and guiding me to the Bwiti.
In its essence, the Bwiti tradition is the study of life, which is never-ending. The Bwiti is not about beliefs; it centers around the art of knowing. Beliefs are like clothing that you can take off at any time, whereas knowing runs deeper.
My grandfather always carried the wisdom of the Bwiti. My paternal line was Bwiti since I was born, without knowing the name for it, through our family’s ethics, values, arts, culture, rhythm, connection to nature, and relationship to the mind, body, and soul. These are my roots. The medicine and the tradition empowered what was already there. That is where I get my strength, from my family.
I’ve been to Gabon for six immersive journeys now, and plan to return every year. When I was first ordained as a nganga (healer and seer), I was not expecting it. I was there to study, serve, and bring others to the medicine. And that’s why I was put in my position by my teacher, Master Binana. I am forever grateful for his generosity and integrity. Being a nganga is an honor and a big responsibility, and I’ll be learning for the rest of my life.
Binana invited me into the Maghanga ma Nzambe council, an NGO and non-political organization of Bwiti lineage holders with the mission to protect and serve the integrity of the Bwiti traditions and their relationship to Iboga. According to senior director Master MOUBEYI-BOUALE, Maghanga ma Nzambe “brings together practitioners from the main families of the Bwiti Missoko rite in its various ancestral branches. It works to raise awareness of the richness of Gabon’s cultural and natural heritage in general, and defends Iboga in particular, as well as the plant essences used in traditional medicine.” The council has asked me to share their message: People who hold the Iboga medicine or elements of Bwiti in the West should be a part of this council. The Bwiti want to share the medicine. It’s just all about going down the proper channels of apprenticeship and respect. Ibogaine is a different medicine held in a clinical container, so this message is specific to Iboga and elements of Bwiti.
After one night with the medicine, she could see me again, where something else had been inhabiting me before. After that first ceremony, I said: “I love my life. I never want to disrespect myself again.”
My relationship with the Bwiti tradition and culture shaped and formed my life, past, present, and future. The past is through healing my ancestors. The present is by me living with it, practicing and studying every day. The future by teaching my sons these principles:
Strength, patience, tolerance, abundance, genuine spiritual love, attitude is gratitude, honesty, willingness, humbleness, health, wealth, wisdom, knowledge, trust, truth, acceptance, adjustments, intentions, enthusiasm, originality, balance, and peace while realizing there is a balanced perspective to everything.
Why is the Bwiti important in relationship to this medicine?
The Bwiti have studied this medicine for eons within a devotional, reciprocal relationship. There are priceless gems to be found in that intimacy. The Bwiti have cultivated a deep understanding of human beings’ minds and our spiritual reality. There is protection that comes from the lineage and the eyes of our elders on us. The music is a healing technology that has been channeled through the medicine. The torch, made with countless plants, herbs, and blessings, brings an ancient memory of safety in the night. Many aspects of traditional ceremony have protective and therapeutic functions. The spiritual shower ritual offered after an Iboga ceremony helps wash away the past and call in new blessings. The relationship with Iboga also gives the Bwiti knowledge of the medicine spirits in every plant, tree, and every living thing.
Binana says: “Bwiti is all of life. You can live without the Bwiti, but living with the Bwiti is an addition with all the knowledge.”
Iboga is regarded as both father and mother, and the highest intelligence of all plants. It was first held by the Bobongo people (known by the colonial term as Pygmies) who then taught the Bwiti. I sense that this medicine created life itself as we know it, having watched human beings from the very beginning. The Bobongo are one of the most ancient genetic lines in the world. With well-established Western scientific evidence of neurogenesis provided by the medicine as well as anecdotal reports and a preliminary study suggesting that the medicine can help to heal traumatic brain injury to some degree, just imagine the neurological evolution it gifted to our ancient ancestors over countless generations in prehistory.
In the origin story of Iboga within the Missoko Bwiti, it is said that the first woman who ingested the medicine did so accidentally, after which point she saw her ancestors. The medicine evolved itself to connect us to our ancestors and deliver their wisdom, and this is a gift from God.
Epigenetics is modern science catching up with what the Bwiti have known since the beginning of time: We carry our ancestors’ pain and strength within us. Our well-being is their well-being. They heal through us as we heal.
Binana says: “The Bwiti is like a Big Big house, and Iboga is the key to opening this door. The ancestors are the people who are sitting inside the house and who are advising you.” The Bwiti have developed technologies to communicate with ancestors in the spirit world—which we understand to be a place, not a hallucination. The true purpose of this medicine goes far beyond just detox and healing addiction. It’s about healing the mind, body, soul, and ultimately the entire bloodline.
All this healing makes way for our visionary creativity and ingenuity to shine through. This is a “soul-utions” medicine and we need them more than ever before.
Also in the origin story, it is said the second person to ingest the medicine did so intentionally, and it was then that she formally met the spirit of the plant teacher. It said, “Hello. I am the spirit of Iboga. I have been watching you humans for a long time, and you love to ask questions: ‘What is my purpose? What is life? How can I be happy?’ I have come to answer your questions.” This medicine is here to help us find answers to our most meaningful questions, so as a human collective, let’s ask the biggest questions.
My journey with the Bwiti brought me to found a healing retreat center, SoulCentro, with my wife, Elizabeth Bast, in Costa Rica. Everything we do here is in collaboration with our Bwiti teacher. Our intention is to serve as a cultural bridge to Gabon.
The Bwiti know that reciprocity is a foundational principle of nature. SoulCentro and the revenue from my art sales have supported collaborative reciprocity projects for our elders’ villages, including building homes, a new temple, an international school with a guest house for international students, electricity, internet, vehicles, water wells, and more. They want to participate in the global conversation as much as we do. These projects all empower the community to be ever more self-sustaining within the current socio-economic reality. I could not have done all this without my art patron, visionary entrepreneur, and environmental advocate, Wes Carter.
Reciprocity with indigenous wisdom keepers is not only the right thing to do, it is a joy. It’s so much more than about writing a check. It’s about relationships and mutual respect. Life is about giving.
We can be in reciprocity with our ancestors through our own healing, liberation, joy, and gratitude for life. We can honor all that they survived so that we can have the opportunity for self-determination and self-actualization. We can even be grateful for their mistakes so that we don’t have to repeat them in our lifetime.
We can be in reciprocity with the medicine itself, and this is what bears the full fruit of its healing potential. When we come to the medicine, we don’t just say: “Do this, this, and this for me.” We offer of ourselves as much as we ask so that we can humbly become medicine. We can simply give our deepest possible attention to the journey and tend to the answers we receive.
To be in the true spirit of reciprocity, we must be aware that Iboga is facing sustainability issues and will be threatened with extinction by ravenous Euro-American consumer appetites and antiquated approaches of materialistic commodification and extraction. We must support vetted sustainability projects such as Blessings of the Forest. Additionally, intelligent commerce rooted in reciprocity and regenerative systems can work to help sustain this sacred plant for future generations and empower indigenous communities in Africa.
In a letter to the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission regarding its proposed $42 million dollar budget to study Ibogaine, Senior Director of Maghanga ma Nzambe, Master MOUBEYI-BOUALE, affirms that “knowledge of Iboga came from the intellectual work of their ancestors, and their descendants must benefit from its global use.”
Stephane Lasme, a Gabonese entrepreneur, co-founder of RE7-Health—an ethical and fair-trade Iboga cultivation business, and a managing director at STEDDE Capital, says: “The unique genetic requirements of Iboga limit its growth to Africa’s Congo River Basin. This places a significant responsibility on the local people to preserve and increase the number of Iboga trees, preventing their extinction. Despite its regional nature, Iboga’s derivative, ibogaine, shows immense therapeutic potential for global issues like addiction and mental health disorders. Balancing the preservation of this regional treasure with its global healing potential necessitates ecologically sustainable cultivation and fair economic models, ensuring Iboga’s future and preventing the loss of this crucial natural medicine on Earth.”
We can be in reciprocity with the earth—and life itself. It has been the spirit of colonialism that has brought the planet to the brink of environmental collapse with its greed, dominance, and extraction. It is the spirit of reciprocity, more than anything else, that is the great remedy. This is the teaching of Iboga, the Bwiti, and the ancestors.
Chor Boogie
Chor Boogie is a critically acclaimed international visionary aerosol artist and muralist from the United States and a founder of SoulCentro Iboga Retreats in Costa Rica along with his wife, Elizabeth Bast. In 2014, Chor experienced a profound healing from addiction with the help of Iboga and Bwiti, the medicine and tradition of his direct African ancestors. After a decade of study and service, he was ordained as a Nganga by his Bwiti teacher, Binana, who requested that Chor help represent and share Bwiti in the West. Chor is one of few Westerners who has been inducted into the Maganga Manzambe, a Bwiti leadership council based on spiritual lineage. Chor integrates elements of Iboga visions into his art, visually transmitting the medicine. Chor is passionate about including the voices of indigenous relations in the global conversations about Iboga. Chor’s Bwiti name is Gnyangou, which means the medicine of the sun.
