LWA EP #3: The Afro-Asian Re(Vodu)tionary — Sena Voncujovi
Sena Voncujovi on Voodoo in Africa, connecting Africa and Asia, and his entrepreneurial journey.
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In this episode of Learn with Avthar, I talk with Ghanaian-Japanese entrepreneur and African spiritual practitioner (Bokor), Sena Voncujovi.
I first met Sena in 2012 in Costa Rica. Since then we've shared countless hours of insightful conversation. This podcast is one of the most interesting talks we've ever had.
I learned so much about African spirituality, how Sena connects Africa and Asia through his work, as well as the lessons Sena learned as a founder of not one, but two organizations!
Who is Sena Voncujovi?
Sena Voncujovi was born in Japan and raised in Ghana. He comes from a family of African traditional healers and is a Bokor, one who has been initiated into Fa (Ifa) - the West African geomantic system of divination. As a Davis United World College Scholar, he graduated from Middlebury College in the USA, with a bachelors degree in international politics, economics, and African Studies. He founded ReVodution: Voodoo Education to educate the world about African spiritual traditions and co-founded Jaspora to build a community for the African diaspora in Japan. He's currently a Yenching Scholar at Yenching Academy of Peking University.
Sena Voncujovi and his father, Christopher Voncujovi, talking African traditional spirituality
Episode Contents
Sena's experience as an African spiritual practitioner and his take on why Voodoo is misunderstood by Africans and the West.
What does it mean to be a "Bokor"?
How Sena leverages digital media to show the world the truth behind African traditional spirituality
The story of Sena's multi-cultural upbringing and why his father, Christopher Voncujovi, is the most successful person he knows.
How Sena's work and life connects Africa and Asia
The book that influenced Sena's life the most
The mindset that helped Sena become a clear, independent thinker
What it was like to attend a Black Lives Matter protest in Japan
The belief Sena changed in order to achieve his entrepreneurial goals
Sena's experience at United World College Costa Rica and African Leadership Academy
How Sena found his natural strengths
Sena Voncujovi with his brother, Pele, in Japanese attire
Sena in traditional Ghanian attire
Episode Highlights
I've pulled the best highlights from the podcast for you to listen to here:
Christopher Voncujovi: The most interesting person you've never heard of
The father of guest Sena Voncujovi is a magician, African traditional spiritual healer and global traveller. His name is Christopher Voncujovi and he's perhaps the most interesting person you've never heard of. Sena paints a fascinating image of his father who has a phenomenal story to share. Growing up exposed to several different religions, Christopher Voncujovi questioned organized religion and began delving into the world of spirituality, yoga and meditation. Sena talks about Voncujovi's journey of seeking out individual connections from several diverse religions to reach a higher level of spirituality and why this journey has made him the most influential figure in Sena's life.
Christopher Voncujovi: The most interesting person you’ve never heard of
Surprising misconceptions about African Traditional Spirituality
To this day, traditional African spiritual practices are banned in many countries and depicted as "evil" in many TV shows around the world. In this clip, guest Sena Voncujovi describes his experiences being an African spiritual practitioner and how he has seen African Spirituality being misunderstood as Satanic, by Africans and foreigners alike. Sena explains how these misconceptions have shaped the world's view of African Spirituality in a negative and degrading light.
How this Ghanaian-Japanese Entrepreneur bridges the gap between Africa and Asia
In this clip, guest Sena Voncujovi describes his experience of being a bridge between Africa and Asia through his life and work. Sena describes how his commitment to invest in Japan led him to work with Ashinaga, a Tokyo-based non-profit organization. Sena talks us through his experience working alongside Japanese and African scholars, educating them on areas like social entrepreneurship, African development.
How digital media helps reveal the truth about African Spirituality
We live in an age where we're just one post, picture or video away from reaching thousands of people. This power of digital media and social media platforms is something my guest, Sena Voncujovi, realized he could use to better educate the world about African Spirituality, from the perspective of a practitioner. In this clip, Sena Voncujovi describes the incredible journey of how he created the ReVodution film series, films which challenge the world's perspective of African Spirituality and what it actually entails.
Overcome information overwhelm by deciding for yourself
"I think it's very important for you to be able to decide for themselves, especially in this age of too much information. You're going to be fired with information. You're going to have to decide. My approach has always been to try it first...and If you're going to fail, fail fast, fail early, fail you and learn and be able to adapt quickly"
In this clip, Avthar and guest Sena Voncujovi explore the importance of learning from your lived experience and deciding for yourself. They describe the value of independent thinking in a world of informational overwhelm and subtle manipulation through social media and news. They also give you a framework for how you can make informed decisions from your first-hand experiences.
Japan's response to BLM protests
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement took the world by storm in 2020, demonstrating a worldwide stand against racial inequality and police brutality. In many places, BLM protests were met with more violence and brutality, while in others they took place undisturbed. In this clip guest Sena Voncujovi describes his experience in taking part in a BLM protest in Japan alongside 3000 other protesters, in a march led by the Japanese police.
What is holding the Entrepreneur in YOU back?
"You don't need to have everything set in order to start."
This was just one of the sage pieces of advice Sena Voncujovi dropped for aspiring entrepreneurs in this fire clip. Sena talks about how planning and preparing held him back from taking action and how he learned to fail and learn quickly in order to succeed as an entrepreneur. How many of us spend our lives waiting for someone else to give us the go ahead or that final push into doing what we truly love or are passionate about? Avthar and Sena discuss what's holding you back, as well as the effect of people who surround you on your growth and ambition.
Should Africans who've studied abroad return home?
Should African students who've studied abroad return home? If so, when is the best time? In this clip, Avthar and guest Sena Voncujovi, two Africans who've lived and studied aboard, wrestle with these questions in the context of their own lives. They talk about timelines for returning to Africa, how you can return home without making an impact and how you can impact your home country through your work abroad, using the example of Sena's work with African entrepreneurs while living in Japan.
Creating African leaders at African Leadership Academy
In this clip, guest Sena Voncujovi describes his experience with the African Leadership Group, an organization dedicated to producing the next generation of leaders on the African continent. Sena talks about his time at African Leadership Academy in South Africa, as well as being the first study abroad student from a US institution at African Leadership University in Mauritius. He highlights how these experiences impacted his life and shaped his passion for Africa.
Young Vodu priest explains African Traditional Spirituality in 2020
Guest Sena Voncujovi has been practicing African traditional spirituality for over 12 years. He's nicknamed "Bokor Costa Rica" and "Bokor Worldwide", as he's shared his knowledge about Vodu and African spiritual practices passed down to him by his father with folks from all over the world, during his time in the USA, Costa Rica, and Japan. In this clip, Sena describes his family heritage of traditional healing, why African spirituality became associated with Satan (hint: the media), and his experience teaching Africans and non-Africans (westerners, asians) the truth about Vodu. He also tells us how he leverages digital media like film and livestreams, and social media platforms like Facebook, to give the world a practitioner's perspective of African Traditional Spirituality.
There are elements of our identity that are subconscious, but when we become an "other", they become crystalized. So the more we put ourselves in situations that we become an "other", the more we actually learn about ourselves, about identity and what makes us unique in the world.
In this clip, guest Sena Voncujovi describes how he found his strengths by exposing himself to as many things as possible and taking in as many different perspectives as he could. He also talks with Avthar about how others can go about replicating his process of self discovery.
Sena performing a spiritual practice with his father
