COVID-19 has forced open even the most reluctant eyes to the essence of the human condition as being one of interconnectedness and interdependence. Societies that pay attention to, and value wellbeing of all people and of ecosystems have not only experienced less infections but, have fared much better in dealing with the impacts of the pandemic. 

The value system that shapes the structure and interrelationships of a society is the most important determinant of health and wellbeing of a people. I believe that of all The Other Hundred Healers, the most powerful healer is in each one of us as human beings. The quality of our relationships with others and our environment is the most reliable predictor of our wellbeing, their wellbeing and that of our planet. 

How will we as a human race emerge from this pandemic and the interlinked emergencies of climate and social inequalities we have brought upon ourselves? The nature and process of our emergence from these emergencies offers us an opportunity to reshape the future we would like to inhabit and proudly bequeath to our descendants. 

Our ancient ancestors learnt that life is an interwoven web that links all life to its source - the great unknown and unknowable. The sacred light of life is in all living things and gives them the energy to be and become ever better as they grow in wisdom through lessons from nature’s intelligence and their inner voices. Modern science has had to bow, reluctantly sometimes, to the unknowable source of life that gives us and the universe infinite capabilities we do not often know we have. 

Awareness of the inner source of life within each of us is often referred to as becoming conscious of the power inside us. This becoming conscious triggers a lifelong journey of discovery of our true essence and the capabilities that lie dormant until awakened to this power. Mystics of all faiths testify to the power of this consciousness and its impact on their lives, and on all those touched by them.

Thomas Merton, one of the greatest mystics of the 20th century, reminds us that: 

“.... the tremendous truth is that to be a person is to be a gift, and to give that gift is to receive the great gift of being a person.”  Africa as the cradle of humanity continues to hold fast to this wisdom in expressions such as Ubuntu/Ukama/Iwa that have embedded this wisdom that to be a person one has to be affirm, and be affirmed by other persons within the interconnected web of life.  Many indigenous cultures across the world also hold fast to this wisdom despite the cultural genocidal impacts stemming from the dehumanizing exploitation of colonialism and slavery.  

My own journey as an activist in South Africa in the struggle for freedom and human rights from the late 1960s, has been enabled by becoming conscious of the power within me as a young black woman in a racist world dominated by white males. Once my generation became conscious of the power we had as young black and women and men to shape the future we aspired to, we became unstoppable change agents and healers of a society broken by racism and sexism. Even the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society who had been awakened by the gift of being acknowledged as fully human by other persons became aware of the power within them to be change agents. 

The greatest healers are often those who have healed their own brokenness and are woken up to the power within them as gifts to others who in turn receive the gift of interconnectedness that enables us to tap into the common source of the web of life. We then become mutual healers of one another and of our biosphere. 

It is this awakening to the tremendous power within each of us that leads to radical change in our relationships with ourselves, our families, communities, societies and the biosphere. We know all we need to know about right and wrong, but the game changer is becoming conscious of our capabilities to change the systems that undermine our wellbeing and that of our biosphere. This is the ultimate power needing to be leveraged to make us catalysts of a healing process to enable humanity to emerge from these multiple emergencies with a new way of celebrating the gift we are to others and to ourselves. 

The tragedies of our world result from the hijacking of the power within others by those in leadership positions who claim to know how to do things for other people rather than working with them to change our socio-economic and political systems to reflect the values of mutual respect and interdependence. My continent of Africa continues to have more than its fair share of such tragedies visited upon citizens by those claiming to have liberated them from colonial oppression only to subjugate them to an endless cycle of dehumanization. 

The Other Hundred Healers are the young people in our world who are shaking the foundations of sclerotic systems that are ill-suited for a post-COVID-19 world from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.  Africa’s greatest opportunity is the awakening of its youthful population to becoming conscious of the power they each have to collectively become an unstoppable force capable of healing their continent of the pandemics of corruption, greed and abuse of natural and other resources by the few at the expense of the many. 

These are the Other Healers who need to heed Ben Okri’s call in his novel, Astonishing the Gods: 

“Do you realise that you know more than you think you know? Do you realise that if you use all you know, all the possibilities within you, that there is almost nothing you can’t do? More serious than that is this fact: if you use more than you know, the world would be paradise.”

We all need to be bolder in reimagining the world we would like to inhabit post-COVID-19 and have the courage to use more than what we think we know to make our world into the paradise it was created to be. That is the challenge to all of us as healers of ourselves and our world.

AUTHOR