@Ijexa. Alas dear brother. I said ran. Well my organisation ran these things and makes me think the amount of progress we would have made.

Classes were run by our Education Division that had some wicked and forward thinking brothers and sisters in it. So they ran these things cross curricula. The kids in our supplmentary schools were taught it, trainees on various programmes and projects were taught it.

Still got my Kiswhahilli dictionary and stuff.

This is why we need to create our organisational infrastructures and stuff, because that is the only way we can teach and spread new languages efficiently. You are not simply teaching a class of people, but hundreds simultaneously and imagine if that continued for 20 years the implications and options.


Fredniceone.gif

ijexa wrote>>What I have tried to highlight... is that African traditional Islamic and Christian institutions have in some cases like the Egyptian... Nubian and Ethiopian churchs... have a long standing history whichpre-date their European counterparts...

And it is these things froma cultural... historical and spiritual perspective that deserve to be protected... and it is that which I am putting to the Christians and Muslims... with the implied question that shouldn't even every aspect of their belief as an African operate within the framework... in a way that strengthens the communial base...

Every... single belief system has a cultural bias... and if the cultural bias of any Africans belief system does not spring from an African cultural/spiritual basis... then in must spring from and reinforce a non-African basis... and in this world of cultural conflict and supremacy... every choice... even a spiritual one... tips the balance either for or against...


i understand your point which. are there any sites in which i could look this up or books even

LadyDay wrote:
I totally agree. It is very interesting to read the responses,in particular to Islam. Last year I converted and now I am out of it. Basically becasue I feel that it is just the same as Christianity. It is someone elses faith,not the African peoples amd their descendants. Ijexa(pretty name) you mentioned that black Muslims should follow an African form. I think that you have the right idea,but still,Islam is a foreign religion,no matter how much you indigenize it. Just something that people should keep in mind.

although I don't practice Islam anymore,I still loooove that gnawa music. Anyone else a fan,of say Hassan Hakmoun?banana.gifbanana.gif

Medusa

Open letter to the Uncle Tom Called:

Paul Davis

A Sell out Actor who went "undercover" to maintain the ignorance and arrogance of Western Cultural values over Africans.



Yes, we all have people especially Actors that say " But I needed the work" the sort of excuse an SS Officer would say about the burning of Books written by Jews.



Or a Kappo ( Jews superivisor in a Concentration Camp) Paul Davis, seeks to blow the lid off African Medicine Men, but in doing so he plays to sterotype of what African Religion and beliefs are.



Belief is a very cultural thing. And simply because one doe's not understand it do'esnt invaildate it. Indeed, many People pay White Medicine Men huge sums of Money for cures against evil spirits and are never cured. Yet all the time these White Witch doctors ordained with the highest respect among society practise their craft.



They are usually called , Pyschologists. How many of their Patients ( or Clients) reoffend or slide into the very states they claim to have cured them from.

When we buy into knocking our Culture by taking the Pay of the White establishment we inflict untold damage on the perception of us as a people and simply bleach our rich Culture.

Just wondering are there any Africans in the UK that practice thier traditional religion. Cant believe every Afican out there is Muslim or Christian/

@for those that want to.. how can we practice a African based religion in the West. What are/should be the modern taboos of a African religion living in the west?

Sorry Ijexa but you expressed the original question /needs to be posed again I feel.. plus u said it better..

@All

Hmmmmm...?

Reading bits and pieces that have been posted within this area... one of the things that strikes me is the complete abscence of any evidence of African based religious thinking and spirituality... and a particular focus on non-African modes of thought and being... with people involved full-blown in European based Christianity and Arabic based interpretations of Islam...

So... there is one thing that I would actually like to throw out for discussion...

Africa has it's own tradition of Islamic and Christian belief and institutions which pre-date current European and Islamic modes of thought by centuries... both religions were accepted within Africa before spreading to both Asia and Europe...

So... to those of an Islamic and Christian persuasion... why do you not seek and associate yourselves with the African aspects of your religion... why do you still seek and love that which does not take spring from the bedrock of African historical and cultural tradition... and thereby deny the true basis of who and what you are...

To illustrate the entire body of religious and spiritual klnowledge that exists... read... The Role Of Women In African Traditional Religion by John Mbiti...

http://www.afrikaworld.net/afrel/atr-women.htm

And...an article on Akan Cosmology...

http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/akancosmology.html

Ijexa

Islam has always been accomodating to African traditions and African as a race. Among the first converts to Islam was Bilal who originated from Habash(Ethiopia) and was originally enslaved by Arabs. He converted to islam and was mistreated by his nonmuslims keepers. It was Arab Muslims who bought his freedom for their Muslim brother. Not only that Bilal came on to occupy a very prominent position in the later days of islam including being an army general.



Secondly Islam acknowledges that the previous faith do have some merit as 200,000 messengers of God were sent to previous nations to preach the worship of one true God the creator of everything which is the essence of Islam. And African nations do fall under those 200000. And what Muhammad came to do was to complete the message of this worship of one God.



It is possible that the so called 'African religions' were originally Islam but over the passage of time the original message was corrupted and some peo-le diverted from the path of true faith. This does not just imply to African religions but almost definately some of the Asians as well as those from otherparts of the world.



A further point is the fact that Arabs are infact an African race. Arabs dare descendents of Abraham through his second son Ismail whose mother was Hajar an Egyptian woman. Not only that I do not believe that someone has to be black to be African. Just like asians can come from many colours from tamils of South East Asia, who are darker than some Africans, to Uzbeks and persians of Northern Asia who are very light I do not see why light skinned Algerians or for that matter light skinned palestians cannot be accepted to be as African as a dark skinned Congolese. The point is not all Africans are black skinned just like not all Asians are light skinned.



Finally Geological evidence suggests that the arabian peninsula was joined to the African continet. Infact redsea is a very recent formation. years ago Africa andAsia were joiuned together, an Earth quake happened and split the 2 land masses and formed the crack which was then filled by water to form the Red Sea it was the same earth quake which formed the Rift Valley of Eastern Africa.Infact even after the formation of red sea Africa was still joined to Arabian peninsula through the Sinai and it was the construction of the Suez canal (man bad phenomena) which utlimately comleted the job of separating Africa from Arabia and it happened as recent as the 19th century.



The conlusion is Islam is as much an African relgion as Christianity and as Judaism is as the 2 religions originate from a part of the world which originally belonged to Africa. So islam is not an alien notion to Africans.



Having said all that religions are a means of someone to attach himself to his creator and this attachment is spiritual and emotional colour of the skin should not be an issue. God does not love someone based on his skin colour but based on his charachter, and his sincerety towards God. Muslims are not Muslims for Arabs they are Muslims for God. and there have been many Africans over the centuries who have been better Muslims thanArabs. I am sure a similar argument can be made about Christianity.



thank you very much for yout time