Botanist and natural healer Dr. Sebi put his memoir on hold to collaborate with author Beverly Oliver on a project focused on health, race, family and culture and how to cross over from deep-rooted, life-threatening practices to acceptance and wellness. He named this process “dembali.”
Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali: Crossing Over from Dis-Ease to Ease in Matters of Health, Race, Family, and Culture is the latest release by Oliver. Part memoir, part social commentary, the book is reminiscent of a fireside chat with Dr. Sebi.
“Dr. Sebi’s autobiography is a remarkable work he shared with me in 2005, and I look forward to the day when it’s published,” says Oliver. “But he decided the health and state of black people deserved attention, not his life’s story, and considering the social climate we’re in right now, Dembali’s release is relevant, timely.”
Dembali is the lens Dr. Sebi used to observe communal and environmental challenges within the black community and the same lens through which he viewed solutions.
Nutrition, natural healing, Black and Latino health—Dr. Sebi’s area of expertise for more than 35 years—occupy the book’s pages but are secondary themes. His main assertions are forerunners of the Black Lives Matter conversation and include:
Code of Ethics and Race
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing
The Nuances of Black Identity
Race and Resonance
Anthropology and Human Progression
A Woman’s Role in Natural Healing
Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali: Crossing Over from Dis-Ease to Ease in Matters of Health, Race, Family, and Culture ($20.95, 210 paperback pages, 146 eBook pages, 5 ½ x 8 ½, ISBN 978-0-578-69948-6) is available now at online booksellers and Ingram for retailers. For more information, visit www.sojourntohonduras.com/dembali or www.jbdavidcommunications.com.
About the Author. Beverly Oliver first interviewed Dr. Sebi for radio station WHUR-FM 96.3 in Washington, DC. She produced a four-part public affairs series about his natural healing philosophy and his first company, The Fig Tree, that aired on the station’s weekly newsmagazine, The Sunday Digest. This is her third book on Dr. Sebi, who died in 2016. It follows Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi (2007) and Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing (2010).
JBDavid Communications 