Closing the Month of Sankofa with Ancestral Prayer and Healing

The gathering for ancestral prayer and healing at Hillside International Truth Center, Atlanta, GA

On a warm Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, Hillside’s Presiding Bishop Dr. Jack L. Bomar, led the sacred, community “Ancestral Prayer” ceremony. It included drumming that girded the rhymical and ancestral honoring blessings with the pouring of libations by Hillside member Sharon A. Smith. Today, she said, “I am the High Priestess” while acknowledging the oldest person attending the ceremony to give her the permission to continue.

The ceremony was the culmination of a monthlong series of genealogy workshops led by the Good Genes Genealogy Services team. GGGS donated its services to its host, Hillside International Truth Center, which is undergoing a massive renovation on the church’s nearly 50-year-old facility.

The outdoor ceremony was highlighted by Bishop Bomar leading the attendees in a process that began with everyone listing their ancestors on a blue sheet of paper. Everyone was asked to call the names of the ancestors and affirm the following prayer:

Some 60 persons recited the prayer and continued their family ceremony to remove any negative Karma they felt towards ancestors, and they symbolically cancelled all ancestral debt with the purpose of their families moving forward in all levels of prosperity.

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Our Creative, Progressive Ancestor: Mama Helen

The forever Actress, Musician, Clothing Designer, Seamstress/Tailor, Theatre Director, Opera lover … our Grandmother “Mama Helen” Mary Wilkes Owen Douthy, Omaha, Nebraska 1963
Mama Helen’s Omaha (Nebraska) Central High School yearbook photograph, Class of 1935.
Mama Helen retired from SAC Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base in 1969.

To summarize my maternal grandmother’s life: She did the most.

In the winter months during 1963, my Maternal Grandmother, Helen Mary Wilkes (and also spelled Wilks), was donning a thinly clad garment and acting in the Greek tragedy, “Antigone.” That in of itself is nothing spectacular.

That is, except that “Mama Helen” (as were told by her to call her), in 1963 was also a mother of adult children and a high school student while working as an unnamed “Hidden Figure” at the Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base in nearby Bellevue, Nebraska. She was not supposed to be a “brain” at Offutt where she worked as administrative assistant to the scientists. She was actually an astute mathematician with an amazing intellect with exemplary secretarial skills.

Mama Helen was not supposed to be on the theatre stage at her age, 45, in a supporting role to help build her acting repertoire. She was not supposed to understand the Greek language and read Latin. She was not supposed to be old enough to be the mother of the play’s director. After all, she was a black woman who should have been content to remain hidden as a white-collar worker albeit with tremendous skills outside of the workplace. I often traveled with her from North Omaha to theatres around the city and developed my love for Latin, global travels and writing.

Thankfully, Mama Helen was never content being confined to what the so-called societal norms were in Omaha and across the nation. She would always tell me about her travels around the world. She was the super volunteer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She played the organs at various churches on Sunday, often for no pay as she considered it her tithe to the church and unto God. Monies were stretched in the household, according to my mother, Angeline Cecil Owen Wead, the oldest of six children born in five years to Mama Helen and Grandpa Eugene Owen, II. Mama Helen was mostly the single parent in their household as my grandfather was off to build his hopes of a Hollywood career as a dancer and singer.

Thankfully, the village that was led by our Great-Grandmother Edna Lou Wilks Robinson, worked. Mama Helen received significant assistance from Grandmother Robinson.

In later years, Mama Helen was voted into the prestigious Omaha Central High School Hall of Fame. In this tribute to Mama Helen when she was inducted in the Hall of Fame that also honors Warren and Susie Buffett, my Dad, Dr. Rodney S. Wead, countless athletic, political, academic, world leaders and more, Mama Helen was remembered:

“Helen loved music and the arts and volunteered with Opera Omaha, Omaha Community Playhouse, Center Stage, and Chanticleer Theater. She served on the Nebraska Arts Council and Omaha’s Human Relations Board.

Helen passed away in 2008 at the age of 90.”

Upon Mama Helen’s retirement, she devoted her time to a program that she earlier developed to help single women develop skills to become secretaries, assistants and other related jobs inside of offices. She conducted the classes at a local community center.

Create a social media post honoring your ancestor

Steps to help you to share stories about your ancestors

  1. Walk with your ancestors by researching their lives.
  2. Narrow down your work to focus on one ancestor.
  3. Once you locate periodicals, broadcast reports, historical data on military cards, death certificates and more about your ancestor, take the time to capture where the information leads you to build the rest of the story.
  4. Honor your ancestor. Take a moment and offer a wonderful prayer for her/his walk before you. Look for similarities between your life and the ancestor’s.
  5. Share your results so that others may benefit from their stories. It also helps to establish your interests in activities.
  6. Repeat steps 1 – 5.

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