Eco-spirituality and indigenous knowledge system of Africa: an adaptation of Olokun ritual dance as therapy for PTSD

The idea of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) has received diverse critical attention since its early beginnings in twentieth Century United States as well as in Europe. Central to the development of the concept is its relationship with sundry aspects of medical practice as well as experimentation in somatic practices. Within the last four and a half decades, the praxis of DMT has, for the most part, been conceived from the lens of improvisation, body movement, and imagination as techniques deployable in integrating the mind and body. This praxis is largely founded on the premise put forward by Eurocentric DMT theorists at different times. This study takes a detour from Eurocentric praxis of DMT. It examines the ecological cum spiritual efficacies of Olokun ritual paraphernalia and its impact in the practice of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) as well as treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a medical setting. In the study, focus is given to the vitality in Olokun cosmic universe, its archetypal incursion into the arts, particularly dance therapy, its anime, aspects of its depth and universality. It establishes the centrifugality of deploying elements of African ritual dance for the purposes therapy within the medical domain. It uses research instrumentations such as participant observation, key informant interview [with Olokun high priests and priestesses] as well as focus group discussion with men of the Nigeria Mobile Police Force to get data. It concludes that Olokun ritual dance is totemic in the sense that it resonate an inner code of African humanistic values of creating harmony and balance from ‘inside-out’ – something that is yet to be given intellectual rigour within the larger context of the world dance movement cultures.