opinion

The Nele Guani
by Raúl Leis R.

In those days the Earth was wounded, so those who had a lot of power abused the weak and vulnerable. Their maximum leader was Nele Gubiler and they proclaimed that they were the exclusive possessors of power, authority, knowledge and truth.

Then there arose a young man, Nele Guani, who spoke to the people: "Brothers, our authorities are going to bring us terrible suffering. We're going to cry because of their wild passions. Brothers, we're threatened by a violent drought --- the sun's going to burn a lot."

The authorities came in and mocked him, saying: "What does this small, young and false nele know? What's he going to teach the people? Everything is in order, in balance and calm."

The sun heated and beat down upon the Earth with long, inclement days, the lakes dried up and the streams turned into dry trails.

Nele Gubiler couldn't do anything to stop the drought. Desperate, he asked Guani to intercede, and he, seeing the people's suffering, accepted. Guani called upon Paba and the rain painted the countryside green, and the orchards and gardens produced better than ever.

Guani said: "The leaders must love the poor on their travails, the women in their exhaustion, everybody equally. They must orient the people and guide us."

Nele Gubiler said: "I couldn't do my duty. I preferred to push my community toward a ravine and not to level ground. I'll get off my hammock and now I won't continue to make these people suffer," and he resigned.

Then the communities asserted the need to change not only specific leaders but the sense of leadership itself, so that a leader must serve the people instead of himself. They must also recognize the necessity of listening to everyone and of freedom of expression.

This summary version of the Kuna story sung by Sahila Fred Green, translated and synthesized by Aiban Wagua, contains much symbolism, as it tells us of uses and abuses of power, of the authoritarian venality that runs through our society in its different spheres. It also expresses the need to coordinate ethics with power, free expression and the need for coherence between words and deeds.

To generate change, Guani had to demonstrate extraordinary powers in order to get to the point of questioning abusive power. The drought, more than an absence of rain, was a lack of justice, brotherhood and solidarity that was drying society. With rain, values could be reborn and the will for transformation could be strengthened.

Guani is about more than one person, it's about a collective of people animated by values and positions, the carriers of equity, transparency and participation. It's also a message for those who discount the contributions of the young, the humble, the excluded.

Who are, or can be, Guani? Where are they? They're needed now, not as the possessors of extraordinary powers, but as the bearers of other, ordinary things, in the form of values, proposals, hopes and solidarity, those who can make the rains fall on our droughts.

Editor's note: A nele is, in the Kuna language, a shaman. Paba is a Kuna name for God.