Language holds so much, like understanding of place and time. My name, Yaa, alludes to being born on Thursday and Addae, emphasizes the morning sun; two of the three pieces of information needed to calculate an astrological chart - the last being the location of birth. Although the western concept of a ‘chart’ does not exist in Akan cosmology, the study of our relationship with planetary movements manifests in other ways. Kra, best likened to the concept of ‘soul’, is determined by the day you came into this world which gives you a corresponding Kra din (soul name) and celestial association. Mine, Thursday, is Jupiter - positioned in alignment with expansion and learning.
If you’re as fascinated with space as I am, you may have heard of the Sudanese star system that informs Dogon astronomical beliefs. Indigenous to the central plateau of present-day Mali, European anthropologists have long debated over how Dogon Ogotemmeli (elder/cultural custodian) were able to accurately observe the companion stars of Sirius, Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons before such a finding had been documented in the West. Regardless, astrology - best known as the movements and patterns between terrestrial events and everything else going on in the universe - has existed for thousands of years in various forms.
The tropical zodiac system, which was adopted in the Hellenistic period of Mediterranean history, has remained prevalent in Western astrology. Nowadays, being asked if you know your ‘sun’, ‘moon’, and ‘rising’ is becoming more commonplace again. Yet the practice is still widely misinterpreted. What causes a field to be taken seriously and what is relegated to frivolous make-believe? Is it rigorous methodology? Research? Or perhaps, whiteness? In ‘Dear Science and other stories’, scholar Katherine Mckittrick proposes a consideration of science as a “study of how we come to know Black life through asymmetrically connected knowledge systems.” She theorizes the generative possibilities of how we arrive at ‘knowledge’, saying “science and story are not discrete; rather we know, read, create, and feel science and story simultaneously.”
This speaks to Black astro-studies, too. Earlier this month, astrologist Alyssia Osorio shared a link to a pdf titled ‘Astrology and Psychology: Keys to Understanding Human Personality’, authored by Vida M.Gaynor. Dr.Gaynor, a former psychologist at Maryland Psychiatric Hospital, wrote her 1981 PhD dissertation to “trace the separate development of astrology and psychology as two of the methods which have been used by humankind in its attempts to understand and orient itself in the world.” Her work was resurfaced through the research of Black astrologist and mental health advocate, Elmina Bell.
This is why projects such as the recently funded Black and queer-led anthology of marginilized astrothought, Mercury’s Brood, are so important.While non-Abrahamic practices have been historically penalized on the continent, the continued reckoning with colonial legacies has more African youth re-examining their relationships to ancestral faiths. This leads to increased interest in indigenous frameworks and consequently, growing representation online. What does the internet as a medium allow for? The digital landscape offers both a platform and a global community for alternative ways of knowing and understanding about African astrology.
Here are three African astrologers who exemplify this in their work:
Ehime Ora
Brooklyn via Niger Delta, Nigeria
Ora teaches through storytelling, weaving lessons and feelings. Born in Ibadan to a Urhobo mother and Edo father, they later relocated to Brooklyn, United States, where she’s based. Ora is now an Omo Awo which is the high priestess of the Ifá and Orisha tradition. She’s also an astrologer, photographer, and art history student.
Active on Twitter, Patreon, and Instagram, Ora has over 105,000 followers collectively. They look to her for spiritual education resources on astrology, Ifá, and pop culture such as a breakdown of Orisha references in Beyoncé ’s Black is King.Ora started studying astrology after noticing a pattern: three generations of women in her family shared the sun sign Taurus. She began exploring this connection to understand the potential inherited maternal wisdom.
“So I’ve always been a writer. I remember being six years old, telling my mom, I'm going to be an author when I grow up. I still love writing. I still love creating stories. I would try to make things fit to survive, but my heart has always been in storytelling and that's what I really love about teaching too,” Ora says.
In our 30-minute interview, she tells me three stories: how the sun and the moon decided who would rise first, the creation of Ile (Earth) by the Irunmole, and why the universe is an ongoing project sparked after Akamara blew breath into a bag of sand. Her style of sharing is in line with Ifá’s emphasis on oral tradition. The religion’s literary corpus, Odù, comprises 16 major books with 16 ese (teachings)- following a similar mathematical logic to binary code. Odu Ifá, along with other Yoruba proverbs, stories, and poetry, are not written but spoken. Usually passed on through elders, its use of sound and conversation becomes a technology that enables community, and places value on embodied knowledge.
Ora not only channels creativity through words, but also imagemaking. Her practice extends to other mediums such as photography which is published on her website, and research into the religious significance of African art like The Benin Bronzes. However, being a prominent Black spiritualist is not without its challenges. Ora says: “It can definitely lead to snide remarks from the white astrology community on Twitter. I always get these harsh remarks about the work that I do. Once you reach high social visibility, you're in a space of constant critique. And you know, some of them can definitely be justifiable.”“There's a huge shadow side that a lot of people don't really talk about. But going through healing work, and doing your own shadow work, you’re able to break those chains and feel really comfortable in the spaces that you're in,” she reflects, reminding me that ultimately we choose our destinies, and Ora’s is to be heard, seen, and felt.
Image courtesy of Ehime Ora
Image courtesy of Ehime Ora
3 of Ora’s Good-To-Know’s :
1. Iya Ifayomi, Founder of Ancestral Herbiary
2. Olakemi, also known as Melanated Momma
3.Oloye Ifáṣèyí Bamigbàlà, Ifá-Òrìṣà Priest, Professor, and
retired U.S. Air Force Director of Psychological Health
Images courtesy of Chiizii
Chiizii
London via Onitsha, Nigeria and New York, USA
Chiizii is a multidisciplinary artist, astrologer, fashion designer, archivist, and Aries sun. Her astro-journey began on cafeastrology.com - the website often at the top of the list when you Google ‘birth chart’. She revealed there were one too many uncanny similarities between her father and a former lover - who shared the same birth month - which presented an opportunity to use astrology for getting to the bottom of things. She soon got good at assessing people’s placements and this encouraged her to put more time into further research.
For Chiizii, astrology is extremely personal: a way to identify truths she can sense, but has not yet been able to name. Her first astro-classrooms were online which were specifically astrology accounts and Patreon. Pre-coronavirus pandemic, she frequently volunteered with Astromixer which is an astrology-themed adults game night, and now co-facilitates online astro-jeopardy games with her study group, Umu Anyanwu.
Even though astrology institutions, diplomas, and certificates do exist, both Chiizii’s relationship with artmaking and the solar system involve redefining learning. She breaks down to me how even her learning style is evident in her birth chart with the dominance of Jupiter ruling higher education.
Chiizii says: “My chart verbatim says that I'm supposed to be an artist. That's kind of what astrology does - it gives you almost like a layout of who you are already, but just in simpler language. These are the talents that you have - it puts it into very direct and straightforward language. I feel like a lot of things that people are or want to do - they're always thinking about whether it's correct for them, or whether it makes sense or whether it's even true. But that’s what's nice when you see it in a chart because charts are not biased. It just is what it is - takes your birth information and tells you about yourself, essentially.”
Currently pursuing a PhD focusing on art as a tool for information exchange, she has continued to develop her multifaceted repertoire. Chiizii recently branched into editorial design with The Red Bulletin’s online and print publication for Notting Hill Carnival. Last month, she announced the upcoming release of a new photography series titled ‘Traffic in Accra’, and a reprint of her previous collection, ‘Agbogho Chizitalu’. The latter was centered on her research on Igbo spirituality and the masquerade tradition representing women from her ancestral home, Onitsha.
3 of Chiizii’s Good-To-Know’s :
1. iJaadee, Personal Astrologer to SZA and Kehlani
2. Jazz Grant, Artist
3. Devin B Johnson, Artist
Image courtesy of Grace The Witch
Grace
London via Akwamufie, Ghana and Veneto, Italy
I first came across Grace The Witch through her sharp political commentary on Twitter. I followed her for analysis on global events and good taste in memes. As the International Director of the Association for Young Astrologers (AYA), Grace is determined about creating a community amongst astrologers all over the world. She has been studying astrology for most of her life after being inspired through gardening from the Italian side of her family.
“My grandfather's home had the Farmers Almanac and in it was like a story for each season. You know like, the roses bloom when Venus is the closest to Earth, which is around May, and it's cyclical. It was more like gardening and the timings of Earth. So that was really nice because it planted a seed literally in my head, and then I grew up and recognized - this is astrology,” Grace tells me.
Through astrology, Grace imagines new ways to learn, combining, “vision, speculation, observation, discussion, and creativity”. She describes herself as ‘anti-academia’ as most of her life she’s learnt through relationships and experimentation until she decided to spend more time for study in an anthropology program at University of Goldsmiths, London. These skills also manifest in her astro-studies. She has designed research readings that challenge dominant western interpretations of astrology to make way for more liberatory frameworks, such as ‘Chiron and Blackness: The Mythology of the Racial Complex in the Chart’ and ‘From Uranus to Prometheus: sovereignty and agency while surviving capitalism.’
Grace describes this approach as a form of social behavioural astrology which provides tools for how we might navigate current world structures and create new ones, explaining, “It uses intersectional qualitative and quantitative research methods, informed by Black Critical Theory (specifically sociology, philosophy and anthropology of religion). It does so to understand the impact of planetary movements over our everyday life within the specific context of othering, identity negotiation and liminality - intersections of socio-economic privilege and stereotypes, and more.” Her dedication to religious studies ranges from Catholic theology to classical studies to her practice of Lucumí - an African diasporic religion developed in Cuba.
If her podcast, blog, and thorough citations, are not enough, you can also book a study consultation with her on her SOS Hotline, or join her in spaces like an e-campfire with Black Girl Camping.
Image courtesy of Grace The Witch
Image courtesy of Grace The Witch
3 of Grace’s Good-To-Know’s :
1. Ali Olomi, Historian of Islamic & Pre-Islamic folklore and traditions
2. Eshe Kiama Zur, Doula, Coined term ‘Full Spectrum Community Care’
3. Adéọlá Adérè̩mí, Critic & Editor In Chief of Distinguished Diva