"Pagamentos" and Balance

Mamo Zeukukuy (Norberto Torres)

The world is ruled by nine masters, and its them who make the balance of the Universe possible. This nine masters keep to the Black Line territories, and from here they irradiate for all our younger brothers: for whites, for all our native brothers who look after La Sierra Nevada with us: for the motilon, and wayu or guajiro, whom we should not forget, for we ought to share in harmony our territories.

Some years ago, in one of our sacred peaks —the Inarwa Tana (called "alguacil" by the whites)—, the Government installed, like a stab, a series of antennas and a permanent military station. They also plundered the relics lying there, and took them to a museum. That is what the soldiers told me some years ago.

This peak is a very important one for all the Mamos of the four castes that dwell in the Sierra Nevada. It was put under our care, and we should offer it the due "pagamentos"; but we cannot, because of the militarization of our peak. This situation has brought violence to Colombia. And this is not all: the Government has always been trying to destroy our thought, our own ideology. But we still exist to keep watch over the last remains.

Tourism is another evil to us, for it is destroying our lakes and Chunduas or snowy peaks, which are very important to us. Because if the father and mother who dwell here are destroyed, the same will happen to Colombia and the whole planet. But we still guard Nature in the Sierra, because everything was born here, here is everything, and the Mamos are the keepers of Nature. And that is why the world still exists. But the world is going out of balance because only a few Mamos are left; but we feel the need to rescue it, and have enough energy to do it.

I want to insist upon this matter of Inarwa Peak , for long ago the government promised a solution, but up to now nothing has been done.

Our thought is universal, for it encompasses all that exists; that is, the visible and the invisible; the great mysteries hidden in Nature, and which until the present most of humankind have been unable to know, since they turn everything into chemistry and science, ignoring that everything, plants and stones included, has its spirit. And all this composes a thought that pervades the Universe; all is united like a breath.

This is a thought that has not been made up by me; it is thousands of years old.

If the Government does not help us to recuperate the nine sacred relics of Inarwa Peak, and if we are not permitted access to it to offer the "pagamentos", anihilation will soon befall. For violence and catastroph is what we see in the world today. Therefore it is necessary that whites become aware of the importance of making the "pagamentos", which have been neglected, and in this way see how we can find a solution for all this.

The sacred relics that have been pillaged from us have various colors, since every stone embodies its own mystery, and they are nine masters who are the spirits of every sacred stone, each one with its own symbolism. This nine sanctities represent the mother of all foods and plants that nourish us, giving rise to the existence of all kinds of corn and beans and foodstuff. And they are all represented in the nine sanctities; but without them, how will the Mamo have powers? How is he going to offer the "pagamentos"? How is he going to take care of Nature and crops?

Deseases will strike the food. The plants already have many plagues, and they are extinguishing. Because we cannot relinquish our "pagamentos", since the House is empty and we do not have whom to offer our pagamentos to, and in this way there can not be balance.

It is necessary that the Government take apropriate measures, for Mother Nature owns all plants that nourish us, and therefore if our sanctities are given back to us, there will always be food. But if they are not given back to us, crisis will soon befall, food would fail, there will be no production, plant deseases will strike; and we mamos will not know what to do, for we have no fathers.