Bwiti

Bwiti has not yet appeared in the United States and thus has not made a request for a religious exemption for its consumption of iboga. Clearly, Bwiti would satisfy criteria for a bona fide religion in the context of drug use (or “nondrug” use).

2007, Margaret P. Battin, Erik Luna, Arthur G. Lipman, Paul M. Gahlinger, Douglas E. Rollins, Jeanette C. Roberts, Troy L. Booher, Drugs and Justice: Seeking a Consistent, Coherent, Comprehensive View, page 194

In West Africa, iboga is most often used as a sacrament of initiation in the Bwiti religion. Bwiti is a widely accepted and officially recognized religion in Gabon and in recent decades has spread to several neighboring countries.

2010, Stephen Gray, Returning to Sacred World: A Spiritual Toolkit for the Emerging Reality, page 297

Bwiti is a new religious movement found among the Fang and Metsogo peoples of Gabon in equatorial West Africa. This ecstatic, syncretic cult, influenced by the Bieri ancestral cult and Christian evangelism, has been characterized as a reformative movement and as a dynamic form of resistance and response to colonialism (Fernandez 1982). The polymorphous Bwiti religion is spread throughout Fang territory, but chapels are relatively autonomous, and there is little organization beyond that found at the level of individual villages (Fernandez 1972).

2013, Des Tramacchi, “6: Entheogenic dance ecstasis: cross-cultural contexts”, in Graham St John, editor, Rave Culture and Religion, page 132

To enter the Bwiti religion initiates must see Bwiti, the Ancestors. The only way to see Bwiti is in the altered state of consciousness induced by Iboga, the sacred plant entheogen utilized by Bwiti followers.

2007, Christina Pratt, “Bwiti”, in An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, Volume One: A-M, page 75