Leve and the Water of Life : Herbalism and African Mythology

This is a myth with origins in the Mende cultural tradition of Sierra Leone. 

Source: https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/mende.html, Reference to The Amistad Revolt

Leve, The Supreme Creator

Leve is the name for the supreme deity among the Mende, identified in some myths as "female" or of feminine nature.

Leve is later replaced by the male-presenting God, Ngewo, as creator. They are now blended into one single god. 

"Leve initiated the moral codes that determine good social behavior. He brings society into being, and when men cannot fulfill their proper functions in society, or when they desire to take on new functions, they are born again" (pg. 122, The Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub)

Comment: Reading this myth from the Mende tradition, I was immediately moved by the universality of what Leve, the god/goddess, represents. She is Maat, the goddess of balance, truth, justice, and harmony of the ancient Kemetic tradition. She is so many who teach us and mold us into healthy, whole spiritual beings. Those who are here to guide and remind us of our true essence and power. The responsibility that lies in our potential. 

"In ancient times, people forgot god, neglecting to pray to Ngewo, not bringing a certain herb for the ancestral spirits. Then life changed for them..." (pg 123, The Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub)

Comment: Who do we become when we forget to feed the spirit and not just the flesh? What are the needs and desires of our spiritual essence? Our inner worlds need tending and sometimes excavating, depending on what we have harbored on our journey. I love the mention of a "certain herb" here. The mystical nature of plants, their ability to guide us back to a place of ancestral remembering and honoring. How do you honor your dead? What have your ancestors been calling on you for? Asking you to tend to...inside?

"One night, the voice of Leve could be heard, directing the people to bring the herb, along with palm-oil rice and water for the dead, informing the living that they must pray to Ngewo" (pg 123, The Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub)

Comment: Prayer has shown up in so many ways on my spiritual journey. It was never what I thought it was supposed to be. Never once did I not feel the doubt and shame for not following in the spiritual footsteps of my elders. How do we answer the call of our gods? How do we open our hearts to receive what is for us, for you and you only? How do we know what to take and what to leave? What do we hold sacred to our own practice and relationship with the spiritual and ancestral within us? Leve spoke to the villagers. Did they know her voice? Whose voices are coming through you? Speaking over you? 

"The people went out that night, seeking the origin of the voice that they heard, and they came upon a man whom they had thought dead. He was sitting under a tree covered with the leaves of the herb; he carried palm-oil rice and a shell containing water. " (pg 123, The Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub)

Comment: A dead man walking. This aspect of the myth makes me think about the cycles of death and rebirth. The need for death for new life to be born. Endings and new beginnings. Where do you currently fall on this spectrum? He has everything that they seek, everything they didn't know they needed until they knew. What do you know that you weren't aware was available for knowing? 

"The people watched, as the man poured water on the ground, announcing that it was for the ancestors, at the same time asking the ancestors to care for their living children. Then he sprinkled water on the people, and ate the herbs. The villagers also ate the herbs, and from that period things improved for them. See also Ngweo. (pg 123, The Dictionary of African Mythology, Scheub)

Comment: The beauty of demonstration here, showing the way, guidance. Pouring the water on the ground and invoking the names of the ancestors and their blessing. Their protection. Consuming the herbs feels symbolic and familiar, like the way we consume the body of Christ in the Christian faith. I was raised Baptist, and there was always a sense of uncertainty and confusion around consuming the body in the image of man and not a force as deeply spiritual as nature. Why not the herbs? Why not water? Why is the intake of breath not held as sacred? When we follow in the ways of the spirit, of what feels sacred and ritualistic to us, is that what brings us closer to accessing the fruits of our own inner worlds? For the villagers, things improved from that moment forward. 

What are the possibilities that await us from returning to the sacred? Being led and surrendering to what's sacred inside of us?

Image credit: The Mende of Sierra Leone photographed during various performances, ca. 1960s. The Mende, like other ethnic groups of Sierra Leone, sang and performed songs that had significant meaning(s), for example: songs of sorrow, songs of love, and songs of thanks. Images courtesy of the Cootje van Oven collection. 

"Leve and the Water of Life" Source text: Scheub, H. (2000). A dictionary of African mythology: The mythmaker as storyteller. Oxford University Press.