tending birth canal of earth soul

maaianne knuth

zimbabwe

My journey with the feminine has been a journey of coming home to myself – the animal of my body, the depth of my heart, and the grace and clarity of my mind. We have been taught that to be a woman is about being ‘nice’ and through the ages many of us have been wrapping ourselves into what society and man deemed safe. To return to the fullness of who we are – of who I am-  comes with grief and rage but also with great joy – expansive joy of full and rich expression of the power and potency of woman and of the feminine. 
I am a bridge-builder – whose lineage straddles two continents - Africa and Europe. I am a dancer whose coming home happened particularly through the intelligence of the dance – dancing my soul into the web of my body. My life’s work is to bring people – children, women and men home to themselves – to step fully into their gifts and their wholeness – to vibrate at their particular frequency of light. My work is rooted in Zimbabwe and I work with and from the Soul of Africa to enable people of this land to embrace who they are and what they have to bring to the world. I have a sense of the feminine that breathes through the soil of this land being in a process of waking, slowly but surely. I see how, as she rises it may come with the grief and the rage, but also how through our work as midwives, releasing emotions and finding new ways of expression, the feminine of this land can find her way through to the Deep Joy of waking and expressing. The image I have when I feel the earth of Africa stir is of Woman rising unshackled. 
I am the co-founder of Kufunda Learning Village (www.kufunda.org), an eco-village and learning centre aimed at the creation of locally rooted solutions to community self-reliance challenges through people’s imagination, collaboration and resources. We work with communities across Zimbabwe; we are learning our way into biodynamic farming, deepening our spiritual connection with the land we steward; we have founded our Waldorf Inspired school with 80 children from the neighboring community (and growing) teaching the young with head, heart and hands; we host programs for women, for men, and youth - continuously learning our way into the possible future that we long for.