Boa Sr, the last member of the Bo tribe. © Alok Das
The Elders Told us…That is How We Know
That is a quote from the last of the Great Andamanese people a lady by the name of “Boa Sr” who died this week at the age of 85. In the 70′s the tribe was relocated from their ancestral lands to a tiny island near Port Blair in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of India. She was the last of a people that scientists say migrated from Africa oh, about 70,000 years or so ago, and the last speaker of her native tongue called Bo – and the ONLY speaker since her husband died a few years back.
This quote was in reference to many things – but maybe more importantly how she survived the earthquakes and tsunamis to hit so frequently in the area. Amazingly – she attributed the knowledge to that what she was taught by her elders – NOT- modern technology – NOT – modern government intervention – and certainly NOT what she may have heard on the radio or read in the newspaper!
She attributed her knowledge to her elders, who received this knowledge from their elders, who received this knowledge from their…I’m sure you get the picture. It was the elders in her village that also were the teachers – which is why the elderly were so revered and respected in her culture.
In her 85 years on this earth – the Great Andamanese were for all practical purposes wiped out from a high of 5,000 people, in 10 tribes with 10 distinct languages – to only about 50 people today – and she – the only native speaker of their language. Her complaints?
Oh – things like…
- that she always wanted to go back to the place where she was born – but wasn’t allowed to.
- that alcohol was a big problem among her people – and it was killing them one by one.]
- she felt that her tribe would be better off in the jungle – because it was the contact with modern societies, their habits and the diseases they brought which was killing her people.
Does any of that sound familiar to you? It should – because it is the same thing that happend over and over again in the United States of America – with our own native Indian tribes, South America, Latin America – and even the island country of Hawaii!
Modern man, with his “infinite” wisdom and his command of the seas and the air. This man, with his near perfection of modern warfare, medicines to cure and treat, and even a supposed understanding of the inner workings of mans mind & soul. This man – in their arrogance to spread the so called wealth of the modern era – as to this day refused to heed history, and the lessons that could be gained from the mistakes of our ancestors. A lesson that this lady from one of the most ancient cultures knew full well that…
It is the elders that must teach, and we must learn. THAT is how you will know.
I wonder what else she could have taught us – if we only listens, if we only cared. If we only cared enough to save these indigenous people from the ravages of modern man, and to simply leave them as they have been for hundreds of thousands of years!
The world is a much smaller place now the Bo is gone, and we now have one less way to look back and learn…from our elders.
If you must – a modern rendition…
Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you’ll know by.- Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Teach Your Children
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