Madame Fatou Seck (center) at a healing ceremony in the U.S.
I’ve never met Madame Fatou Seck. Yet this great Senegalese healer calls out to me in Spirit.
It’s a feeling that has haunted me for years. I plan to visit Senegal in Across The King’s River to pay my respects to Fatou Seck and others who fight to keep the healing and spiritual traditions of this West African country alive.
I also long to walk barefoot on Senegalese soil. Though, I’ve never been there, I sense some of my ancestors were Senegalese (as well as Yoruba). Stephanie, my wife, has always insisted I look Senegalese. Perhaps this explains the connection I feel – the urge to visit a land that speaks to my past, present and future.
Madame Fatou Seck, crossed over in Spirit several years ago. Those who met her say being in her presence was a moving experience. Charles Finch, an African-american doctor and scholar who has conducted extensive research in Senegal, says meeting Fatou Seck was unforgettable.
“For the first time in my life, I could feel energetic power. When you have that experience, it makes quite an impression,” Finch says.
And Finch recalls how he witnessed “near miracles” while working with Fatou Seck – like the time she healed one Italian man who had suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome, a nervous system disorder, for most of his life.
Born into a family of fishermen in 1896, Madame Fato Seck was called into the healing traditions at age 17 and was “never known to fail” in her healing initiatives. At 26, she became a priestess of Ndeppkat, a spiritual science known for its efficacy in treating medical and mental disorders.
Practitioners of Ndeppkat are all women. Through Ndepp, God, the world of the ancestors and humankind are reunited once again, and “healing is carried out by invoking the intervention of cosmo-spiritual beings known as Rabs. Although there are many Rabs, only seven major Rabs guide human destiny and one communicates with them through drums, dances, songs, invocations, offerings and sacrifice.”
Maam Coumba Lamba: Ndoye is the ruler of the rabs. She is the “Great Mother of the Waters” whose special medium is the ocean.
Maam Massamba: Ndoye is the messenger of the rabs, maintaining the interconnection between the rabs and their human devotees. Trees and forests are sacred to him and when he is well satisfied with obeiances to him, he shows himself as a sudden, powerful gust of wind.”
Maam Nguessou: is the rab of griots and drummers.
Nak Dawur Mbay: is the rab of Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
Ndiare: is the daughter of Maam Coumba Lamba.
And Matuley Faye: is the rab of Muslims.
As we prepare to go into production of Across The King’s River, I can’t help but wonder what Madame Fatou Seck and the Rabs will reveal to me – and you.