The Dogon Are Walking is a yearly tour where the Dogon travel to places around the world sharing their knowledge. The unique position of the Dogon is that their physical dwellings and rough terrain allowed them to escape much of the devastation of colonization.
By Djedka Zeshera
Historically, the seeker made the trek to find the teacher—traveling to temples, mystery schools, and sacred sites to receive what they were looking for. Today, that has been flipped. The teachers are the ones walking. And they are coming to find you.
The interest in decolonizing and returning to indigenous traditions is growing steadily, but with that interest, many people typically hit a roadblock in their journey.
"I want to reconnect, but I don't have any elders to learn my culture from."
This is one of the most common responses I get when I create content about the importance of returning to indigenous ways of life.
People are in a sort of analysis paralysis because of this very real and very common situation. One of the most common questions I get asked is how do I reconnect when there is nothing left to reconnect with?
Before diving into solutions, it helps to understand how indigenous knowledge actually worked before colonization.
We find that a common misconception is that before colonization, our ancestors were living with the same "us vs. them" mindset that we live with today. Although we cannot speak for every indigenous group (indigenous people are not a monolith) I can tell you that the concepts of race and nationality are very different from how the Dogon Indigenous people view humanity.
It was not uncommon to share your culture's wisdom with others, including people from other cultures. In fact, the Dogon's oral history traces their lineage back to the times of ancient Egypt, when they were known to be the guardians of knowledge in the Nile Valley. Much like modern universities, the Kemetic people (also known as the ancient Egyptians) upheld sophisticated and rigorous systems known as mystery schools or initiation camps, precisely for this purpose.
Don’t misunderstand, this knowledge was heavily gatekept, as it took great time and humility to gain access to even the first level of knowledge. The doors of these mystery schools were open to anyone, regardless of race, as long as the individual fit the criteria of someone qualified to receive this knowledge. Once they demonstrated they could be entrusted with it, they were given the knowledge, sworn to secrecy, and sent home with this newfound wisdom to be used for the betterment of their people.
All this to say people across cultures traveled. They learned from each other. They exchanged wisdom. Nature and reality hold unlimited secrets. Some groups of people have unlocked many of them through their dedication to the pursuit of knowledge.
People today are asking the wrong question when it comes to reconnecting. Instead of asking "how do I reconnect if my community lost everything," the question should be: "where do I go to bring back knowledge to help my people?" — not to teach it to everyone, but to embody it and use it for the benefit of your people.
This is a fundamentally different posture. It shifts the seeker from someone waiting to be handed a tradition to someone who actively goes out to retrieve one. That shift in framing changes everything, including who you're looking for and where.
If you are already moving, the teachers are already moving toward you.
The Dogon Are Walking is a yearly tour where the Dogon travel to places around the world sharing their knowledge. The unique position of the Dogon is that their physical dwellings and rough terrain allowed them to escape much of the devastation of colonization, and they were therefore able to keep most of their systems intact, including their initiation systems and mystery schools. The Dogon understand that in order to tip the scales toward a brighter future, we need more people aligned with indigenous ways of living. Now in its 4th year, led by Iritah Shenmira Naba (Neb) and with the blessing of indigenous royalty, the Dogon are touring the world to provide healing and knowledge to people looking to reconnect, regardless of skin tone or country of origin.
It is important to note that although most people who attend these retreats say their lives have been totally transformed, their experience at these retreats is not even the tip of the iceberg, more like a speck on the tip of the iceberg, in terms of how much wisdom this culture has been able to preserve. One attendee described it as the first time in her life she felt her nervous system fully settle. That’s not because she found all the answers, but because she finally found the right questions. For those that are looking to go beyond this first step, it will start by their own efforts to walk to meet the gatekeepers and enter the initiation camps.
The Dogon Are Walking tour kicks off this coming week in Los Angeles from June 4–7.
Tickets available at dogonwisdom.com
