Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Twin poetic stories of spirit and human truth, August 12, 2003
Gathering in the Names is a journey of the spirit...twin spirits to be exact, as we follow the double memoir of Augustine Kandemwa and Michael Ortiz Hill, two healers from distinctly different paths, one a black African nganga (healer), one a white American nurse and nganga, on a journey that charts independent but parallel stories through New Mexico, Los Angeles, Zimbabwe, Catholicism, Buddhism, American in the 60s, Apartheid in Africa and the complex world of dreams and ancestors. Told in alternating chapters in the give and take of campfire storytellers who speak both to us and each other, this slender book is rich with poetry and courage. Each author reveals a path from complex childhoods to political activism to the unique initiations through which healers are shaped. The stories they share are sad, hard and humorous, poignant and painful, humble and brave, sometimes shocking. It takes courage to tell stories like these, as it takes courage to be a healer, a peacemaker, to attempt to heal the world. This book is a journey of faith, a quiet teaching, and a gift to the reader who finds it in his or her hands. "The spirits have gifts," says Ortiz Hill in one of the later chapters, "and we ourselves are gifts that the ancestors want to give to the world. The only thing to do with a gift is to pass it on." So read Gathering in the Names. Read it again. Pass it on. The second read is as rich and worthy as the first.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quick easy read...long lasting impressions, August 12, 2003
By A Customer
What a brave and gentle book! Michael Ortiz Hill and Augustine Kandemwa, two healers who recognize each other as twin brothers across race and culture, offer the reader a moving, beautiful account of what it means to become a healer and a peacemaker. Their independent stories, told in alternating chapters, both parallel and intersect each other as Kandemwa charts his course through teaching under Apartheid, work as a policeman, the African nationalist movement and war and his intiation as a nganga (healer). For his part, Ortiz Hill was a self-taught philosopher and sometime street kid who came into himself as an activist and nurse, as well his own initiation as a nganga. Their individual stories and their common one are a moving read which does not shy away from the pain and suffering of life, but offer it up with poetry, tenderness and understanding.
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