Kogi

In our modern societies we are looking now more than ever to indigenous peoples for solutions and knowledge on how to sustain a better way of living in the world. In this unique time of change, as both our awareness and challenges grow, the Kogi, from the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia, offer us a timely reminder and an urgent message for us to consider.

The Kogi first began speaking to the outside world in 1990 in a highly compelling documentary made by Alan Ereira for the BBC, and now they have felt it necessary to speak to us, their Younger Brothers, again. The Voice of The Kogi is their latest attempt at sharing their urgent message to the world.

The book is a rare opportunity to receive the words of the Kogi elders in their pure form, as they share their wisdom and knowledge directly to the reader. The Kogi have been observing us closely from their secluded mountain home, witnessing the continued destruction of earth that cannot be ignored any longer. They have seen that our globalised structures lack the solutions necessary in solving our enormous ecological, social, economic and individual challenges that we face at present on an unprecedented level.

Having lived in seclusion for many centuries, and being one of the last remaining intact indigenous tribes, the perspectives, wisdom and principles that the Kogi, and their neighbouring tribes, share in this book offer us new and vital approaches to social and environmental justice and sustainability. What they offer us is a culture and tradition that has withstood outside interference for centuries, it is as unbroken as ancestral knowledge can be in this day and age, and is in danger of disappearing from our world completely.

The book is a unique invitation to sit with the elders of the tribe, just as the author, Lucas Buchholz, did, and offers an insight that very few people have been welcomed to capture. Lucas Buchholz spent several months living with the Kogi, and was asked by the elders of the tribe to write this book to spread their message at this time.

In the course of the book the Kogi elders ask us not to simply attempt to copy their experiences and traditions, but they inspire us to remember what we have forgotten and to forge our own paths and honor our own innate wisdom. Our responsibility is to listen to them, and act before it is too late.

The chapters of the book comprise a combination of direct quotes and speech of the Kogi, complemented with the authors contextualization and explanation of what was shared with him, as well as his own experiences and journey living with the tribe.