Bernadette Rebienot

Member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

“Nothing happens in my country without consulting the women. Our wise people, our elders, they are like libraries. We consult them whenever we need to make large decisions. Every five years, in my country, it is the women who make a peace march. It is the grandmothers, who for one month go into the forest to prepare for this peace march. They fast, pray, and invoke the ancestors. When the grandmothers speak, the president listens.”
—Bernadette Rebienot, member of the 13 Grandmothers Council

A healer and master of the Iboga Bwiti Rite and Women’s Initiations, Bernadette Rebienot is one of the 13 grandmothers of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, a global alliance that teaches ancestral ways of prayer, education, and healing for Mother Earth, all her inhabitants, and all the children, for the next seven generations.

Born in Libreville, Gabon of the Omyene linguistic community, Bernadette is a widow, mother of 10, and grandmother of 23. She has offered initiations and health consultations for more than 30 years, and, before retiring, worked as an educator and school administrator. Bernadette has participated in both national and international conferences on traditional medicine and has served as president of the Association of Traditional Medicine Practitioners for Gabonese Health since 1994.