Howard University—A Legacy of Higher Learning, Higher Consciousness

Howard University and its iconic radio station WHUR, 96.3 FM, inspired my interest in journalism, public affairs and broadcasting. I studied these even though the dramatic arts captured my attention in high school (I sang in the concert choir and acted in plays). It must have been the tour of WHUR that steered me toward courses in writing and reporting, and after graduation, the production of a four-part series about a natural healer named Dr. Sebi. Howard adds to its distinguished legacy a roster of noted doctors, lawyers, entertainers and people like Dr. Sebi and me.

Perhaps it’s fate that detoured my career and connected us, for surely the past 16 years of my life have been wrapped in Dr. Sebi’s aura and expertise. I’m all the better for it, grateful that I learned new foodways and health care tips. Grateful for the opportunity, for the past 16 years, to share them with the public.

When Dr. Sebi died in 2016, I wrote a blog that asked the question “Who will pick up his torch and continue his work?” It didn’t cross my mind then that I was the torch bearer, one of them. I asked the question, and for the past 16 years lived the answer.

At this webpage https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/portfolio you’ll experience a sample of my engagement with the public on Dr. Sebi’s behalf. The portfolio is a testament of how Howard University and radio station WHUR influenced my creativity and social conscious where Dr. Sebi is concerned. It’s been a fulfilling journey I’ll always remember.

Goats and Cows in Our Bloodstream. Deficit or Benefit?

Deficit, says natural healer and alkaline herbal medicine specialist Dr. Sebi. His reasons cover two pages in the new book Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali. An excerpt from Chapter Five: On Matters of Food and Health.

When I open the wooden screened door of Sebi’s cabin, I grin and watch a surprising scene:  Dr. Sebi—curer of diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer; herbalist to celebrities; advocate of alkaline food—eating cookies with Matun. I sit down and join them. Every now and then Sebi falls off the wagon. I couldn’t help thinking that the renowned healer was cheating on his die-hard alkaline diet. Sebi sees it another way.

“We call it cheating instead of a conditioning,” he says. “It’s not a cheating. That doesn’t exist, because the gorilla never cheats. The gorilla eats exactly what he was designed to eat throughout his lifetime. So why is it that the gorilla, when he finds himself in a zoo, he too begins to cheat?  Because they feed him bananas. Gorilla does not eat bananas in the forest. But in a zoo he eats bananas. When we were in the forest, we didn’t eat rice and beans. Goats and cows, that represent poison, because there isn’t any nutritionist or biochemist that could show scientifically the benefits of animal blood in the human body. Blood represents disease. Blood is the carrier of disease. And the liver is the filter. So how could ingesting the blood of an animal be useful in my nutrition?  So cheating is a conditioning. It’s not a conscious, deliberate act.”

“What we’re doing now, we’re eating cookies,” I say, chewing what tastes like a gingersnap.

“Well, we are what you would call cheating.”

“We are cheating then?”

“No, but remember, we are only submitting to that part of us that has been so conditioned throughout the years,” he clarifies.

The story continues in Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali.

Available now in bookstores.

Related links: https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/dembali

https://www.sevendaysinushavillage.org

Natural Healer Cites Sources of Racial Conflict and Poor Health in Black Communities, Offers Solutions

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).

Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali Releases November 2020

New Nonfiction book Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali

He put his autobiography, The Cure: The Autobiography of Dr. Sebi “Mama Hay”, on hold to collaborate with author Beverly Oliver on a book he felt needed more attention and development. The book’s theme? Why people reject recommendations in matters of health, race, family, and culture, and how to cross over from that rejection to acceptance. Dr. Sebi coined this rejection and its solution “dembali.” Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali: Crossing Over from Dis-Ease to Ease in Matters of Health, Race, Family, and Culture makes its debut November 2020 (Amazon and Ingram will distribute).

Even though Dr. Sebi died in August 2016, he left behind a wellspring of material for dembali, including a 2008 talk with guests at Usha, his healing village in Honduras, Central America.

“Dr. Sebi’s autobiography is a remarkable work that the public should read,” says Oliver, “and I look forward to the day when it’s published, but considering the social climate we’re in right now, Dembali‘s release is relevant, timely.”

Chapters in the 210-page book include: Code of Ethics and Race; Race and Resonance Matter–Resonance More; Dr. Frances Cress Welsing; The Nuances of Black Identity; and Anthropology and Human Nature. Seven chapters, a Foreword, Introduction, Epilogue, Notes, and a Bibliography fill the book.

Health, nutrition, natural healing–Dr. Sebi’s platform for more than 35 years–occupy Dembali’s pages but are slightly secondary themes. “Cassava’s Hidden Nature” and “Alkaline Food–A Nourisher” are two chapters.

From rage to solemnity, Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali is reminiscent of a fireside chat with the author.

New Project Features Dr. Sebi

Author Beverly Oliver collaborated on two books with alkaline herbal medicine practitioner, Dr. Sebi. Before he passed in August 2016, he started a third book, one with a theme he called dembali. It is currently in the pre-publication phase with Oliver and will be available November 2020 (Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali: Crossing Over from Dis-Ease to Ease in Matters of Health, Race, Family, and Culture). But for anyone new to the late healer’s life, a remarkable and controversial one that includes his cures for AIDS, cancer, diabetes, lupus and sickle cell anemia, we encourage you to begin your journey with Dr. Sebi in the two previous books: Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi and Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing: Why An Herbalist’s View Matters More Today Than Ever Before. You’ll find samples of both books in the following link, as well as a preview of the upcoming Dr. Sebi Speaks of Dembali.

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/single-post/2020/06/17/Past-Present-Coming-Soon

An Innovation in Alkaline Herbal Medicine

How Do We Reverse Disease and Heal Our Electric Body?

The answer? The African Bio Mineral Balance. Until his autobiography is published, Dr. Sebi’s best representation in publication, besides Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing (yes, we’re a bit biased here), is Aqiyl Aniys’s book Alkaline Herbal Medicine: Reverse Disease and Heal the Electric Body. In 118 pages, Aqiyl explains in simple but effective words the African Bio Mineral Balance, a natural healing method Dr. Sebi created to reverse disease. Aqiyl accurately writes that the African Bio Mineral Balance is a treatment for all races because “the African genome has been determined to be the foundational genome of all Homo sapiens or modern people. The healthy expression of the African genome present in all people is achieved in a specific way . . . and a good way to better understand this process is to better understand how an ecosystem works.”

Alkaline Herbal Medicine has six chapters about herbs and food that readers will find easy to understand and apply to their lives to prevent disease and to eliminate disease already present in the body. There’s even a chapter on how to prepare the herbs Dr. Sebi used to treat disease for more than 40 years. A treasure trove of natural health information.

So far, I found only one instance where I disagree with the book. In Chapter 2, page 25, it says Grade B maple syrup has been removed from Dr. Sebi’s nutrition guide because “Some manufacturers of maple syrup and sugar often use formaldehyde to keep the hole open in the maple tree to extract sap.” Actually, it’s illegal — and has been since the 1980s — to use formaldehyde to keep the tap holes open in maple trees. Maple syrup production receives approval and organic certification when it is guaranteed and proven formaldehyde is not present in maple trees. So, maple products, especially organic maple products, are healthy natural foods to eat.

Other than that one disagreement, I recommend reading Alkaline Herbal Medicine because it’s one of the best ways to know how and why herbalist Dr. Sebi heals people. Alkaline Herbal Medicine: Reverse Disease and Heal the Electric Body is available at Amazon.com. Sojourn to Honduras Sojourn to Healing is also available at Amazon.com.

Dr. Sebi’s legacy of teaching an alkaline approach to food and health continues in these books, and you’ll find one of the best paths to reverse disease and heal our electric body is found within their pages. An open mind while reading them and even a moderate change in diet will help.

https://www.sojourntohonduras.com/about

Welcome to JBDavid Communications

We’re on a journey.  Information.  Insight.  Collaboration.  Art & Humanities.  The Healing Arts, especially where the renowned natural healer Dr. Sebi is concerned.  All of this is why we’re here.  Head on over to the About Page for more reasons why.

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