Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #38 – Yoga as a Healing Tool – Yoga in Sierra Leone with Osman Teezo Kargbo

Welcome to Episode #38 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Osman Teezo Kargbo onto the show, a yoga teacher from Sierra Leone who was trained by the Africa Yoga Project. My conversation with Osman Teezo Kargbo, a yoga teacher from Sierra Leone, was so humbling as we looked at Osman’s history and story about how yoga came into his life, and gave him the ability to heal from a lifetime of hardships, trauma, and war.  I hope that this conversation made you re-think about what yoga can do for not just an individual person, but for an entire community.

If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about war and peace, and how yoga can be a light in a community, then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Osman Teezo Kargbo 

Osman Teezo Kargbo is a yoga teacher from Sierra Leone, in West Africa. He started his yoga training with Africa Yoga Project in 2018. Since then, he has given yoga outreach to different communities in Sierra Leone. He also hosts yoga workshops with nurses at the biggest nursing School in Sierra Leone, and he aims to become a yoga therapist. He teaches Baptist Vinyasa yoga, yoga for children, meditation, and pranayama. 

What to expect in the Yoga In Sierra Leone episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Osman grew up in the midst of wars, and family and societal hardships. He met a yoga teacher with the Africa Yoga Project, Edward Kekura Kamara, who then introduced him to the practice of yoga and then eventually got him involved in the Africa Yoga Project teacher training program. Osman found great healing in through yoga, and is proud to have impacted his community through offering free outreach yoga classes. Osman has also taught yoga at hospitals, and hopes to continue offering healing yoga classes to those who are hospitalized in the future. 

Curious? Tune into the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast to learn more about Osman, and about yoga in Sierra Leone.

For the skimmers – What’s in the yoga in Sierra Leone episode?

• Re-think about what yoga can do for not just an individual person, but for an entire community. 
• How a supportive yoga community can be as one family
• Yoga teaches self-love and self-acceptance, just as it helps heal trauma and to garner acceptance
• Yoga helped him cross into other tribes, and different ethnic groups, who speak different dialects. He never had interacted with other groups and tribes before teaching yoga. He now reaches out to these communities, teaches yoga to them, and shares yoga with them. He said it’s difficult to communicate, but now they 
• There are many open doors and many locked doors, you never know when a door will open

Favorite Quote From Osman Teezo Kargbo

“Yoga can be used to heal those traumatic situations, there are a lot of youth that are into drugs right now because they have nothing to do. They find themselves as drop out,  this is the end of their lives. We have few of these people that have joined my yoga classes and they testified that after joining your classes for a month now, through your coachings, through your teachings, your advices here. I found peace and I started changing from negative to positive. And to me, yoga can be a healing tool. Yoga can be something that can help those people in my country.”

Connect with Osman Teezo Kargbo

https://youtube.com/channel/UCbFnevMDdFcKtIzUdxu8EcQ 

https://www.facebook.com/This-Is-Yoga-Sierra-Leone-West-Africa-102168361279713

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#38 Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Yoga in Sierra Leone Osman Teezo Kargbo – Transcript

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family. And welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today I am so excited to welcome Osman Teezo Kargbo onto the show today. Osman is a yoga teacher from Sierra Leone in West Africa. He started his yoga training with Africa Yoga Project in 2018. Since then he has given yoga outreach to different yoga communities in Sierra Leone and he also hosts yoga workshops with nurses at the biggest nursing school in Sierra Leone. He aims to become a yoga therapist and he teaches Baptist Vinyasa yoga for children, meditation, and pranayama. So thank you so much Osman for being on the show.

[00:00:47] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Hi Lily. Thank you for welcoming me. 

How Did Yoga Come Into Your Life?

[00:00:50] Lily Allen-Duenas: So I would love to start off by asking you how yoga first came into your life?

[00:00:56] Osman Teezo Kargbo: It’s an amazing story and I will always love to share it. I was born a year after the rebel war, the civil war in Sierra Leone. So I can say I did not experience peace for over 10 years. Since my childhood. And I am the last one of my family from a humble background. My father is a victim of polygamy.

[00:01:21] He had four wives and my mother was the third wife. There comes a time when my father no longer takes care of my responsibility and my siblings. So because of his financial status and all of those things we are done by my mother. It was a good fight. My father died in 2007 and I completed my high school in 2014.

[00:01:47] So after so many years of struggle with my family, I enrolled in a filmmaking course institution called Feature View Media and House in Makeni. This is where I met Edward who was a yoga teacher from Africa Yoga Project. I was also traumatized because of my family with relationships, society pressures, because I live in a society we are in, it’s not really good for my mental health, or for my mental wellbeing. So all I wish was to have that one moment where I can just be, maybe just for 60 seconds, relaxed and let go of all the stress and be happy with myself. So after trying yoga with Edward for the very first time, after so many promises with Edward.

[00:02:39] I tried yoga. So it’s become something I always needed. After the practice I was relaxed, I slept off and that was my first experience sleeping after I did practice or, oh, so this is all I needed all along. So I started practicing yoga with Edward and it’s become part of my daily lifestyle since then up to now. 

[00:03:03] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. It sounds like yoga came into your life when you were finally ready for it in a way like with so much hardship and struggles. And I’m so sorry to hear them, but I feel like yoga came into your life, right probably at that time when your heart was really calling out for more peace or a way to process what had happened. Do you feel like it, it came at the right time?

Yoga Coming At The Right Time

[00:03:31] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Yeah. I feel like it came at the right time because it’s been a hard and tough time for me, since my childhood has been a lot of hurdles. From the 11 years of the rebel war, we had Ebola, mudslide, and a lot of traumatic issues. It’s very hard for me to find peace.

[00:03:50] So yoga came at the right time. I was able to dive in to find peace and the greatest part of it. I found a family. We all share common interests and that was not like a competition. It is also so wonderful because, whenever you live in a community, there is so many competition among others to grow.

[00:04:13] You find yourself with a lot of pressure. So being among the family of yoga with no competition and we all share common interests.. We care for one another, that was the greatest accomplishment for me. And it really came at the right time. It’s brought a lot of peace. 

[00:04:32] Lily Allen-Duenas: I’m so happy to hear that, that the community that yoga has built around you. I know that is very special for me as well. When I get to meet people like you, Osman, from around the world and get to hear their stories, or when I even get to be in a yoga studio, myself and teaching with students or taking classes with other teachers. I also feel that kind of, that shelter, that yoga creates for us, like a little safe haven, where we get to be ourselves, release our tension and stress and support each other, as you said. So it’s a huge gift.

How Can Yoga Help With Mental Health?

[00:05:12] Lily Allen-Duenas: Osman, I would love to hear, since we’ve been talking about it, tangentially, I’d love to hear how you feel that yoga can help with mental health?

[00:05:21] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Sure, yoga can help mental health because I’ve been thinking about my 10 years since childhood of struggling with looking out for what is peace and what is war, because it’s also hard for me to define what is peace. When I was 10 years old, we had a civil war. So all my childhood was war, war, war, and war. So when I grew up, at the age of 15, I had a lot of struggles finding out what is peace and what is love.

[00:05:55] So I am quite emotional, and I’m trying to figure out how to find peace within myself. So I became one of the most quiet boys around even though sometimes when I speak with friends, I have to talk a lot, ask so many questions and just to experience love and care. So my involvement with yoga has created that peace that I can never imagine.

[00:06:24] When I had a lot of impact with my community, it tells me. Because I use that as a good introduction within my relationship and friendship, because of the family background I came from, sometimes I become frustrated. Like us, we are not playing with you because you don’t have toys. So that’s a difference. It’s always within the community and friendship. So I have that pressure within me until when I find yoga I get to move along with different people from different communities, different tribes, nations, and we all share common interests.

[00:07:03] We see ourselves as one family. We also see ourselves as the same. So since then I find out that yoga can be very good tool for my mental health, and since then I started loving, I started accepting who I am, I started seeing situations as they are because it’s natural that things happen and sometimes we cannot change it you just have to let it flow and accept the moment. So since then I have become more and more peaceful and happy. So I can say yoga is a great tool for my mental health.

[00:07:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, yoga is a great tool for mental health for me as well. I know that it helps me to find more space, absolutely. To find more kind of space, to think, to pause, to process instead of reacting so quickly, or with anger or with a strong emotion. I feel like through meditation, through pranayama, through yoga Asana, I’ve also learned some tools to help me not just process, but also to move forward.

[00:08:15] Do you feel like yoga has helped you with those things?

How Yoga Helps With Strong Emotions 

[00:08:19] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Of course, because one thing I feel I have to manage is that I am a very emotional person. Sometimes I become angry very quickly. I have that kind of a feeling that whenever I see something I feel sorry for everything that I see. That has been holding me back for all my years because being emotional is something I fight.

[00:08:38] I fight so hard to get myself to perform because I know things happen in life and we just have to accept things that are happening even passionately to yourself with your lifestyle and your family. Now that I have met yoga, I find out that there are a lot of changes in me right now. Because I accept things as they are, and I take responsibility for any action that I do.

[00:09:05] And it’s something that is so useful to me because living in a community, we are in you, I’ve seen a lot of challenges. If I became somebody who is so emotional, you can see things that are sad and relate to them, to myself. It’s like I’m slowly dying for problems that are not specialized in mine. So when I found myself through yoga and meditation practice, a lot of pranayama breathing techniques, so I was able to control my emotions. Yeah. I was able to see things and accept them. So it’s really good too, for me. And it’s really worth it to have yoga in me everyday. 

[00:09:55] Lily Allen-Duenas: That’s really powerful Osman, I know that you do a lot with your community to help them as well. So I know you teach yoga in hospitals and with nurses and with children. So how do you feel that yoga helps? 

How Does Yoga Help A Community?

[00:10:11] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Yoga helps a community greatly. After my 200 hours here, with the Africa Yoga Project, I came back to my community and started giving out free outreach classes. First of all, the most powerful thing that happens to me is that here in Sierra Leone, we have so many ethnic groups and among the ethnic groups, we have tribes and we have other dialects. So I find myself in a tribe called Temne and I can speak Temne and speak a little bit creole and English. When I came from Africa Yoga Project and they asked us to give free outreach glasses to different communities, that was my first challenge.

[00:10:58] Going into different communities. Where you cannot speak dialects trying to impact something in them was one of the greatest experiences I have faced. I live in my country for over 20 years before diving into yoga and I’ve never had that experience.

[00:11:17] Let me go into a different community, trying to interact with people from different dialects. But yoga forced me to do that. And I find so much peace and I’ve had so many experiences.trying to at least communicate with people from different ethnic groups and different dialects in my country.

[00:11:35] And it has a great impact in me because sometimes we have our own definition of different other people because of their behaviors because of the dialects and tribes, but as a yoga teacher, when I reach to those communities trying to impact yoga in them, seeing how the love it, seeing the smile that it puts on their face, seeing the love we share together, the food we eat together. Some even give me this, oh, I have these mangoes, I have this food. I have this wonderful painting for you. I love the yoga, because there has been a lot of perspective of what yoga is in different parts of my country, because yoga was new and yoga was like related to one of these religion that I’m worshiping, which is the Muslims though we have different poses like down dog for, those are related poses is those are related things we see in the Muslim religion and a lot of people relate yoga as a religion which is very huge impact in my community. So a lot of people are free to practice yoga. When I tell them, Hey, listen, I am a Muslim and I worship the Muslim religion.

[00:12:55] I am also a yoga teacher, which means yoga is not a religion or yoga it is not what you think it is. I dive into those communities. It is so amazing to see how people call and join my classes and how normally they want to communicate with me. And I cannot understand their tribe.

[00:13:13] So sometimes I have to find somebody very close to me to help me interpret that language. It’s just so amazing to see how best I can try to understand other tribes or other people from different ethnic groups, from different communities- that’s family, that’s a union is so amazing for me. And it has had a good impact in my community. And recently, after doing my yoga training with Yoga Ravita foundation, I dive into a different perspective about yoga because we have a lot of people in the hospitals, people that cannot stand up, they cannot move people that are in the sickbed for weeks without moving.

Yoga in Hospitals

[00:13:56] Osman Teezo Kargbo: So I’ve been thinking about these people. I say, why can’t I just incorporate yoga in health? So I started a project called Yoga in Health. Yoga Ravita Foundation to see how best I can teach nurses, because they are the closest to those patients. So I started a workshop in Lonsaw. 

[00:14:17] And it was so successful. I preached to them. I told them if you can accept yoga and you have the impact of yoga, you can go out there in the hospital, not just to administer the drug to the patient, not just to give them injections, or sometimes they have been in bed for over days without practicing. And if I know that their muscles and joints become stiff.

[00:14:43] So if you go out there as a nurse and you have a little experience about yoga therapy, you can go there and service it. You’re happy. Also, you can sit here. Why can’t you stand off? We have this yoga series in yoga. Bravida Pawanmuktasana Series 1. Sit down and do stretches with your muscles.

[00:15:02] Start with the arms and all the joints.. You can do that to your patients by doing so, you strengthen up their muscles.. Their muscles have become loosen. So if you administer the drug or the injection, maybe it’s the right time because the injection or the medication will go down smoothly. But sometimes you find out when you’re in the hospital and this patient is sick. has been in bed for over days. You went there and administered an injection. At the end of the day, it’s the end up. So that’s all on another page about its impact in terms of health. So I started giving out free teachings, free workshops with Nurses. I had financial challenges. I have had to stop recently because I cannot pursue the workshop because I have no sponsor.

[00:15:54] I had to move on my own. I have to put something out of my pocket with the little things that I get for my filmmaking. Just in fact, my community just impacts other people’s lives. So it has been a very good experience for me and I enjoyed doing it so much because what I learned is it’s not about what you get, it’s about what you can give out and what impact you can make in your community.

[00:16:21] So I’m in love with doing what I’m doing, and I would love to continue doing what I’m doing. And I think it is the right time for me. And I see so much acceptance in terms of the nurses, the accepts, the yoga practice and what, nurses and other doctors have been given this yoga practices they accepted and I’m sure gradually it will move and reach out to different community in my country. 

[00:16:49] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much Osman for sharing that. It sounds absolutely incredible to be doing this yoga therapy in the hospital for people who can’t move or don’t move easily. And I agree with you. It’s not about having a healthy, able body, it’s just about having a body. You don’t have to have any flexibility or any fitness level or any health level.

[00:17:13] It’s just about how the practice can heal and how the practice can work for you. So I’m so grateful that you were able to serve your community, doing that for so long. And I hope that some sponsors come up and help so that you can go back to doing it. What are your future plans for yoga? Do you have any other future plans for what you’d like to?

[00:17:38] Osman Teezo Kargbo: I had a future plan for yoga because I have been striving for so long to at least have a studio on my own. Free outreach classes and we are in, I can give my donation classes and private spots. It has been a very good challenge for me.

[00:17:57] Yeah, I moved trustees here in my country to formularies for you because in Africa, in my country here, there has been a lot of mis-. funding in terms of other NGOs and other people asking for donations. And yoga here is a very new thing and there has been no, no fundraisers for me I tried so much now to the ministry of health in order to see if I can get sponsored.

[00:18:21] In terms of having my own studio, then it’s so hard for me, but now I am trying to pursue my other cause that to be a yoga, therapy so I am in backing on taking another West Africa Examination because I need one subject with physics to go in for another course, which is related to yoga.

[00:18:45] I’m sure if I succeeded in diving into I want to make sure I develop my project with this yoga in health regarding reaching out yoga to different health sectors in my community and in the country, as a whole., I want to make sure I develop that project and I’m still working on it. I’m still seeking out for donors..

[00:19:06] And I’ve reached yoga to those people because. There are many doors, there are many open doors. Sometimes. We reach out to close doors and we find out that we are stuck because we want those closed doors to be open.

[00:19:22] So I’ve tried so much and there are locked doors. There are doors that are closed but I never stopped trying. I keep on moving. I keep on moving. I know maybe one day there might be an open door for me. So I’m figuring out how I can best develop this project. yoga in health., I’m still working on it. And to the world out there, if anyone is seeking out to support and help I am here seeking out for it, my country here in Sierra Leone, we have a lot of, lots of traumatic situations among youth, among peer groups, ourselves. ,among adults, so I think yoga is a very good tool. Yoga can be used to heal those traumatic situations, there are a lot of youth that are into drugs right now because they have nothing to do. They find themselves as drop out, this is the end of their lives.

[00:20:19] We have few of these people that have joined my yoga classes and they testified that after joining your classes for a month now, through your coachings, through your teachings, your advices here. I found peace and I started changing from negative to positive. And to me, yoga can be a healing tool.

[00:20:41] Yoga can be something that can help those people in my country. To see how best to establish yoga in my country because this is yoga and I’m sure it is good to help a lot of people in my community.

[00:20:56] So these are my future plans for now. 

What Is Sierra Leone Like?

[00:20:59] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for sharing them with us, Osman. I love your plans. They’re beautiful. They’re bright. And you are completely right. Doors are open. Doors are closed. Just keep trying to open them. And I would love to if you could share with our listeners, what is Sierra Leone as a country? Like? Maybe we could pretend that somebody never really heard much about Sierra Leone before. Could you share more about your country?

[00:21:28] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Yeah. So early on it is in West Africa and the coast, and it is a very small country?

[00:21:34] With is has a boundary with Guinea Liberia. And we are surrounded with beautiful beaches, high lands, we have amazing people here. We love strangers to visit always, and we love to give the best hospitalities to strangers because we always want people to go and come back. My quantity is small and we have a lot of business people here, but I can see if you come to Sierra Leone, you can enjoy the best weather ever. We have mountains. You can see some animals and other natural things that you can see in the forest. So if you want to visit Sierra Leone, come to Sierra Leone it is amazing. You are welcome in Sierra Leone. 

[00:22:23] Lily Allen-Duenas: It sounds absolutely beautiful and I do love warm weather. Absolutely. And beaches, of course. So also, could you share more about the Africa Yoga Project and your experience with AYP? 

The Africa Yoga Project

[00:22:38] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Yeah. Let me tell you about the Africa Yoga Project. My workmates Africa Yoga Project was due to my commitment in the practice with Edward. Who happens to be my first yoga teacher in Sierra Leone. So there was a scholarship and I applied for it. Luckily I succeeded and it was really an amazing dream to clear. It was my first trip on air and it was my first trip out of my country.

[00:23:07] I used to remember when we are kids seeing an airplane or helicopter passing in the sky—we would be shouting, running, chasing it. And sometimes, I stand off and just watch it and say one day I would wish to be up there. So my journey with Africa Yoga Project, he reminds me of those days when I wished to be up there. And being that I came from that community, a humble background. I never thought I could achieve that dream. When I was given the scholarship and I was given the ticket, I thought it was a joke. I was like, how can this happen? Just look at me going into the flight, moving out of my country.

[00:23:51] Until the day comes, when I went to the airport, I was the last, the last person that we were waiting for in the flight. Can you imagine? So I left my country for this experience with the Africa Yoga Project. And it was amazing and I met a lot of amazing people. And, Yoga in Kenya with Africa Yoga Project did change my life for good because during my few days in Kenya with AYP, I discovered a lot of potential in me.

[00:24:25] I was able to stand up for myself and I found greatness in me. I never knew before. I was able to interact with those people. I shared a story about when I was growing up as a teenager from a Muslim background. We are not allowed to leave our homes to go to clubs, but because of friendship influence. I used to sneak out at night and wait for my friends to grow up just to be social. But when I came back home, I went to sleep because I came home very late and I want to miss my morning prayer in the Morning. So my mom would go to my door and say Osman, can you please get up it’s time for. It was one of my most embarrassing moments for me. I thought my mom was being bad. I said, mama how would you just be waking me up in a moment? I am just going to sleep. And she from, I said, oh, sorry. So I will not have that much potential to speak up the truth.

[00:25:28] Can you imagine, after my training with Africa Yoga. I had to come back home and explain to my mom. I say, mom, I want to confess on these things that I said, I used to sneak out. I used to sneak out with a girl with my friends. No, I have to see everything out. My mom was so surprised. She said, what makes you say this?

[00:25:46] I said, because I’ve learned to be more authentic, to speak the truth, to let go of those things that are holding me back. My mom was so happy for me. She’s the number one person that is always supporting me when it comes to yoga.. So my experience with Africa Yoga was a very huge one.

[00:26:07] When I came back with the little stipend I earned from the Africa Yoga Project mentors was one of the greatest accomplishments for me as well. I was able to start an apartment on my own with my mother. 

[00:26:22] Through the little stipend that I gained from the Africa Yoga Project. And I succeeded in that. And today 

How The Africa Yoga Project Impacted Osman

[00:26:29] Osman Teezo Kargbo: I was able to survive through that. I survived through yoga. I survived through my Africa Yoga Project, the counseling that they gave me and through my mentorship program, I survive from all those people.

[00:26:41] And to see since then I’m able to take up leadership roles in my community. I have impacted so many people through my free outreach yoga classes. Up to this moment. I don’t know how to charge people to pay me for my yoga class. People who say, oh, how much can I pay you for your yoga class?

[00:27:00] I said, you can pay me anything you feel like paying me. All I need for you to do is to accept and to allow me to teach you and to see our best, this yoga can impact your life. I need money, but I need to impact you first. So whatever you can offer you. So I don’t have a fixed amount of payment charging people.

[00:27:20] It’s very amazing. So my experience with the Africa Yoga Project, it’s something very great for me. It’s a change from negative to positive. It’s an impact for me. It’s a life changing journey for me. I’m so happy to be part of it. 

[00:27:38] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for sharing that the Africa Yoga Project is incredible. I am always in awe of what they’re doing and their mission, their vision, and how they support people to become yoga teachers to serve the community. So amazing. So thank you so much for sharing your story with the Africa yoga project with us.

[00:28:02] And my last question for you is I was wondering if you could share with our listeners, do you have any online offerings or anything you want to share about Zoom yoga, or even your social media show?

[00:28:16] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Mostly you can find me through my Facebook, Facebook accounts with my name and I have a pinch in my Facebook account, which I manage for West Africa yoga. 

[00:28:28] And also you can reach me out to WhatsApp plus two or 3, 2 7, 7, 9 it’s 6 0 0 1 . And also we have a group which formed years back about with teachers, which is called, This is Yoga.

[00:28:46] It’s a Facebook group and a Facebook page. This is Yoga. So thank you very much for that. 

[00:28:51] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you, Osman. Thank you so much for being with me today as well. It has been a joy to be with.

[00:28:58] Osman Teezo Kargbo: Thank you, Lily. And I am so happy to meet you and I’m so happy and proud to tell you. This is my first podcast ever. And it’s my first experience and I didn’t enjoy it. Thank you very much. 

Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

[00:29:13] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. My conversation with Osman Teezo Kargbo, a yoga teacher from Sierra Leone was so humbling as we looked at, oops, mom’s history and story about how yoga came into his life and gave him the ability to heal from a lifetime of hardships, trauma and war. I hope that this conversation made you rethink what yoga can do, not just for an individual person, but for an entire community.

[00:29:50] Thank you for tuning in to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast.

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