Mojo Mustapha – Founder of Hedonisia Hawaii
Mojo was born in England with parents who immigrated from Trinidad. He studied Sociology, Political Science and Women’s Studies in Canada. After university, he started traveling. He has been to 39 countries including Iceland where he attended the 2019 #MeToo International Conference in Reykjavik.
Mojo has lived in many community settings around the world. A Kibbutz in Israel, a Japanese ‘Gaijin House’, a tantric community near Amsterdam and a spiritual ashram in India were among the many alternative communities he lived in.
When Mojo started Hedonisia Hawaii in 2004, there were, 18 rusting cars junk and trash on the land left by the previous owner all over the property.
Mojo took this junkyard and with the help of an international assortment of volunteers and interns, turned it into an eco-tourist community, that was a success with visitors coming from around the world.
Mojo wanted to create a community that grew food and also practiced the idea of pleasurable activism, having fun while working on meaningful projects. As part of the Hedonisia mission statement, work at the community was divided into Brain, Body and Heart options. This allowed visitors to come and enjoy a discount working vacation in Hawaii where they could contribute their experience to projects that resonated with them.
As the Community Director, Mojo was not satisfied with simply creating an eco-hostel in paradise. Over the years, Hedonisia slowly evolved into an ecofeminist community.
Post-Volcano Mojo in his own words
Hedonisia Hawai Eco-Feminist Community took a single day to be inundated in the 2018 Kilauea eruption. The community was supposed to be the culmination of my life’s work. Instead, almost everything I owned and worked for, was covered by lava.
Our beautiful community now only exists in memories and our website. It was much more than a community on a piece of land. It was a very personal relationship. I felt married to this land for 14 years. Sometimes, I feel like the widower whose partner died in a tragic accident.
To lose 90% of your assets and income in one day is one of the most stressful things that can happen to a person. Losing my community to the volcano was devastating on a personal as well as economic level.
It has been a painful adjustment. However, we have only one life. So, despite the great sadness, I feel inside, I try to keep a smile on my face and focus on turning it into something positive.
Shit to Sugar or Lava to Lotus
Some tips on how I survived my first apocalypse. They might help you to stay positive in these challenging times.
- Let yourself cry. From the moment two years ago on the morning of May 27, 2018, when I discovered the lava had taken my property, I let the tears flow. I did not try to be a macho male type and hold it all in. I just let it flow. It was very cleansing. I would often smile and feel strangely relieved after a good cry.
- See the Positives in a Crisis. When you are in crisis, it’s a great time to really take a hard look at your life. A crisis is a time of danger and opportunity. It is a great time to make major changes in the direction of your life.
- Hedonisia Lava to Lotus Web Portfolio. Working on passion projects keeps me busy and engaged with the added benefit of keeping me in a more positive frame of mind. The volcano was the most traumatic period of my life. And then came Covid 19. Two apocalypses in two years! Turning these experiences into something useful was better therapy than seeing a psychologist!
- Have a Sense of Humor! Some of the most resilient people I"ve met are able to laugh at their calamities. Sometimes it may even be a bleak dark sense of humor. As one Russian told me, "Mojo, we laugh through our tears."
Wishing you all much aloha.
Mojo Mustapha
Hedonisia Hawaii Community Director