Did you know that each zebra’s stripes are unique? Just like no two human fingerprints are alike, no two zebras have the same stripe pattern. Asase Yaa, Mother Earth of the Ashanti people of Ghana, loves us all: humans, animals, and plants. And whether we have stripes or spots, leaves or limbs; she loves us all equally. From her womb, she gives birth to us. Into her arms, she takes us at the moment of our death. Want to pray to her? There are no temples for Asase Yaa, no priests to serve her. You go to a field, kiss the soil, fertilize it with your tears. She’ll hear you. She is earth itself.

When Asase Yaa takes on her goddess form, she has a beauty that is both regal and completely untamed, dangerous even. Watch out, here she comes prowling! Her shiny black skin is streaked with ancient clay patterns and stripes, her sharp white teeth are ready to tear through lies and deceit. Yes, as the upholder of truth and virtue, Asase Yaa can turn from benevolent mother to wrathful lady in a second. Even now in some parts of Ghana, when someone is suspected to be less than truthful, they are dared to touch earth with the tip of their tongue as evidence of their honesty. And still on Thursdays, the day that Asase Yaa was born – her name literally means ‘ female born on Thursday’ – agricultural workers who are devoted to her will lay down their hoes and scythes to give the Queen of the Earth a well–deserved break.

One of my favorite stories about Asase Yaa centers around her magical sword that fights by itself on command. One day, trickster god Anansi steals it from her and uses it to defeat his enemy. But he doesn’t know how to stop it and it ends up killing Anansi himself. After that, the sword sticks itself into the ground and becomes a plant with leaves so sharp that they cut anyone who touches them. To this day, people hurt themselves on the plant because Asase Yaa hasn’t commanded the sword to stop. How clever! I believe that by doing so, the earth goddess has created an important tangible reminder for us. When we treat the earth without respect, when we disturb the equilibrium of the system long enough, at one point, that loving, nurturing earth will bite back.