Fire Keeper

As a new fire keeper in the World Ethics Forum, I had the privilege this year of attending our yearly gathering, which was hosted in Kenya.

The core inquiry and collective intention was centred around:

What are the collective practices and capacities needed right now to truly bring a culture of care and kinship into the world?

Coming from Kufunda, this gathering was a wonderful platform for me to share some of our own practices that address the World Ethic Forum’s vision and ways of engaging with life, while also weaving with and learning from the other fire keepers. Over these past five years, the World Ethic Forum came up with six thematic strands, and we spent meaningful time working in groups to put down real ideas on how these could be practically implemented, and what each strand truly means in alignment with the intention of the World Ethic Forum. I was in the Kinship group.

For me, one of the main highlights was how the gathering was a space to really be in practice in a deeply participatory way. The container felt so safe, allowing us to truly listen to what was emerging and to honour our differences with deep respect.

It was also a space that consciously included the voices of the unseen who are still such a strong part of our web of life: the ancestors, the future generations, the more-than-human world, the members of our circle who could not physically be with us, and the voices that are so often not heard. Experiencing a space where every single being was represented and held was incredibly special to me.

I appreciate even more being part of this work as it is actually helping me to remember and restore some of the important cultural practices we still have in Zimbabwe that are deeply connected to Ubuntu—"I am because you are; I am part of a wider community including the more than humans "—and to continue bringing that value more and more to life.

For me, this is Ubuntu. I see that with all that is happening in our world that we are slowly losing some of these core values, and I feel so happy to see the work of returning them to humanity.

I especially enjoyed moments when we were able to re-engage ourselves with nature, with the waters, and even through rituals that remind us we are part of a wider ecosystem.

In dialogues where together we unpacked the reality of separation, made me see the true importance of this work. It has been a wonderful experience of how necessary it is to slow down to meet reality and be in the messiness. This shows the truthfulness in the work.