About Me
Medahochi at a very early age identified with Afrika, his ancestral home. Afrika
has always been central in his life. His mother proclaimed that he would become
a Root Doctor while he was still young. Fulfilling the calling his mother made of
his destiny, Medahochi studied at the feet of a root doctor in Tennesse. He
learned the herbal, healing methods of Afrikan peoples.While serving the Army in Hawaii at the age of 21, he read a story in a Reader’s
Digest of an Afrikan who escaped from captivity. He was inspired by the resistant
spirit of the Afrikan and sought to create an Afrikan name for himself. Medahochi
began to examine the role of resistance played in the history of Afrikan peoples
worldwide. In the story the Man was told that he was a “Qâ€. Q was the son of
Kofi. Kofi was the son of Shango the king. It was at that point that Medahochi
took the name of Kofi. He continued to seek the spiritual path of Afrikan lifeways.
Medahochi began to understand critical elements in his family history centering
around Afrika. His father was a blacksmith a worker in iron. His grandfather was
also a blacksmith. Workers in iron according to Afrikan tradition are influenced by
Ogun, possessing warlike attributes. Ogun is prominent in his family linage.
Blacksmiths played key roles in Afrikan resistance insurrections in Haiti, in the
rebellions of Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner. Blacksmiths created
cutlasses and other battle implements in those struggles. In 1959, Medahochi
began to study in the Moorish Science Temple of Noble Drew Ali.When Afrikans in America first began to investigate purely Afrikan religion, they
were inspired by people like Afro Cuban master drummer Chano Pozo, who
sang about his Orishas especially Shango. Early in 1960 two Africans in America
made a pilgrimage to Cuba and were initiated as priests. Ten years before
meeting Baba Oseijeman Adefunmi, Medahochi was learning to be an Afrikan priest. Oseijeman
was initiated a priest of Obatala, the other was Chris Oliana, initiated a
priest of Aganju. Medahochi would learn of students and teachers of Yoruba culture
in New York and travel there to study under that Afrikan Spiritual system
with Baba Oseijemann. Medahochi was the 2rd Afrikan in North America to be
initiated into the Afrikan Spiritual Systems.He studied in Gary. Indiana in the mid 1960s with Baba Oseijemann before traveling
to New York. He was initiated by Baba Oseijemann into Shango in Gary,
Indiana.By 1969 Baba Oseijeman Adefunmi left New York and founded a village in
South Carolina near the Savannah, Georgia border. Medahochi and Oseijemann
would travel to South Carolina even before Oyotunji Village was established
seeking to create a place to be Afrikan. Baba Medahochi would later join Baba
Oseijemann in South Carolina at the Oyotunji Village, when it was established.
Later, he was initiated Talomayombe in the Congo Spiritual Tradition from Cuba
in Gary by Saul Hernandez, a Black Cuban. Between 1978-79 he was initiated
into the IFA EHVE spiritual system of Togo, West Africa. After relentless study and
practice Medahochi created the first Ori shrine in North America. Baba Medahochi
also was the first Afrikan in America to prepare an Ori shrine for another
Afrikan in America. His study has always led the charge for Pan-Afrikan Spiritual
Traditions (AKAN, EDO, EBO, EFIK, ZULU, YORUBA, DAHOMEYAN, and BOMANA
) to reveal the unity and commonality of all of them. As a practitioner of
IFA knowledge he has sought to make it known to Afrikans in America. While
engaging in indept study, he became a pioneer member of the provisional government
of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) in 1970. It was his realization that
spirituality cannot be divorced from political philosophy. One had to be a Pan-
Afrikanist and spiritually grounded in Afrikan spirituality. One could then be
equipped to wage spiritual warfare!As a student of Afrikan spiritual systems, Medahochi taught himself Spanish,
French, Portuguese, Kiswahili and Fongbe. During 1993, Medahochi was invited because of his wealth of knowledge in Afrikan
Spiritual traditions to speak at the Parliament of World Religions representing
Afrikans in America. By 1996 he was initiated into the Ogboni Secret Society.
He has been enthroned as the Ahxosu of the Dahomeyian Rites of North America.
Medahochi’s family deities are OGUN, OSHUN, SHANGO, IFA and GRANDBWASILE.
His ancestral clan name is AJINAKU.Through over 70 years of study, Medahochi has concluded that the indigenization
of Afrikan Spiritual Systems has to pass through our experience in the MAAFA
in order to restore our historical memory. It is the way to recapture our
dis-membered Afrikan Spiritual way of life. Medahochi describing our spiritual
legacy has said, “ Studying our Afrikan Spirituality is like being in a Mansion with
a thousand rooms. Each room is a piece of the whole of the Afrikan Spiritual Universe.â€
We say Medaase pi to our esteemed elder for leading us in the quest for
Afrikan resistance and sovereignty through Afrikan Spiritual Traditions...