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Healers: these pages record the lives and teachings of herbal healers. They are history, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor before stopping or changing any treatment, especially for HIV, cancer or diabetes.

Healers

Queen Afua

Brooklyn-born holistic healer, author and Kemetic priestess Queen Afua (born Helen Odel Robinson, 1953) has taught natural healing for more than four decades through her books Heal Thyself and Sacred Woman and her Brooklyn wellness center.

Not a photo of Queen Afua (no openly licensed photo of her exists): a page of the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Kemetic medical text of herbal remedies from about 1500 BCE, part of the Kemetic healing tradition her teaching draws on
Not a photo of Queen Afua (no openly licensed photo of her exists): a page of the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Kemetic medical text of herbal remedies from about 1500 BCE, part of the Kemetic healing tradition her teaching draws on. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 4.0.

Brooklyn roots

Queen Afua was born Helen Odel Robinson in 1953 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was a follower of Marcus Garvey. As a young woman she was a dancer and singer, took part in the Black nationalist movement, and worked as a community organizer in Harlem (Black Women's Religious Activism).

Her own healing

She suffered from asthma and severe allergies as a high school student. By her own account, a weekend healing retreat in 1969 changed her life: she began detoxing and found Dick Gregory's diet book, and she went on to make holistic health her life's work (Black Women's Religious Activism).

Teacher and author

Her first book, Heal Thyself: For Health and Longevity, appeared in 1987. In 1994 she founded the Sacred Woman Rites of Passage program, and her best-known book, Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit, sets out a 21-day program of womb cleansing and spiritual renewal built around nine "gateways" of initiation. In 2000 she opened the Queen Afua Wellness Center in Brooklyn (Black Women's Religious Activism; AALBC).

Kemetic priestess

She describes herself as an initiate of the Shrine of Ptah and a Khamitic (Kemetic) priestess. With her husband she co-directs the Smai Tawi Heal Thyself/Know Thyself Afrakan Wellness and Cultural Center, and she is the founder and spiritual guide of the Global Sacred Woman Village (Black Women's Religious Activism; Omega Institute). Her students have included well-known artists such as Erykah Badu and Stevie Wonder (AALBC).

The healing claims

Queen Afua teaches that cleansing, plant-based eating, fasting and Kemetic spiritual practice can heal the body, mind and spirit, especially for women. She says this path healed her own asthma and allergies, and many of her students describe similar healing.

Testimony

In the encyclopedia

Sources

  1. Black Women's Religious Activism, "Helen \"Queen Afua\" Robinson" (Scholarly)
  2. AALBC, "Queen Afua" author page (Reference)
  3. Omega Institute, "Queen Afua" (Reference)