Spiritual Lineage

Before colonial regimes narrowed spiritual expression into rigid binaries, many African and diasporic cosmologies understood divinity as expansive, fluid, and multidimensional. Sacred embodiment was not confined to masculine or feminine categories; it moved between energies, roles, and forms without contradiction.

Diaspora Thredz draws from these ancestral frameworks — not to replicate ritual regalia, but to honor the philosophical and cosmological principles embedded within them.

In Yoruba traditions, the orisha Ọ̀ṣùmàrè embodies cyclical renewal and movement between forces, symbolized by the arc of the rainbow and the continuity of the serpent. In Fon cosmology, Mawu-Lisa represents a unified divine principle expressed through complementary duality — lunar and solar, receptive and radiant, inseparable in power. The primordial creator presence of Nana Buluku transcends categorical boundaries altogether, existing as generative source beyond singular identity.

These cosmologies inform the conceptual architecture of Diaspora Thredz.

Through couture, drag embodiment, and textile installation, the work re-engages spiritual multiplicity interrupted by colonial imposition. Each garment becomes a site of reclamation — where movement becomes theology, silhouette becomes archive, and adornment becomes sovereign declaration.

Diaspora Thredz does not claim priesthood, ritual authority, or sacred object reproduction. Instead, it operates in reverent dialogue with diasporic memory, honoring ancestral intelligence while reimagining embodiment through contemporary art practice.

This lineage is not nostalgia.
It is continuity.
It is sovereignty remembered.