First let me say that this is a beautiful thread. As for why many people turn to Egyptian systems rather than West African/Yoruba-based systems, I think it has to do with the way in which particular nationalist/community leaders develop a following within certain communities. I forget the guys name, but I know that the Egyptian system has gained much popularity in New York because of a small movement started by this one community leader (in Brooklyn maybe? I'm actually not that well versed in this.). I dunno why certain things seem to stick with a given community. Maybe African Americans think that Ifa is more what "those Spanish people" do ...

It is interesting to note about the origins of the Yoruba people though. I was recently reading that they actually were initially based geographically around where Egypt is today and migrated to West Africa centuries ago. Thier belief system had a lasting impact on the systems that were to later develop in Egypt, so perhaps the two are not so radically different.

Finally ... what's this about you making music?!!!! What is it like? For a while now, I've been working on my own project of fusing hip-hop/spoken word with Orisha rythms and songs (as well as Rumba and Salsa). What kind of stuff do you do/play? Are you a drummer? Akpon? Instrumentalist? You can't just get away with a small plug like that and expect music fiends like me not to want to know more (like you didn't want that ...).

love and respect,
El Rey


http://www.mumia2000.org
http://www.mumia.org
http://www.mumia911.org

EFF A FAKE QUOTE! I DEAL WITH THE REAL (so if its artificail let it be ...) (c) Blac... awww, you know who

;-);-);-);-);-);-);-)
A mob is not autonomous: it executes the real will of the people who rule the state. The slaughter in Birmingham Alabama, for example, was not, merely, the action of a mob. That blood is on the hands of the state of Alabama: which sent those mobs into the streets to execute the will of the State ...

... A mob cannot afford to doubt: that the Jews killed Christ or that n*ggers want to rape their sisters or that anyone who fails to make it in the land of the free and the home of the brave deserves to be wretched. But these ideas don't come from the mob. They come from the state, which creates and manipulates the mob. The idea of a black person as property, for example, does not com from the mob. It is not a spontaneous idea. It does not come from the people, who knew better, who thought nothing of inter-marriage until they were penalized for it: this idea comes from the architects of the American State. These architects decided that the concept of Property was more important -- more real -- than the possibilities of the human being. (c) James Baldwin.

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who are you









really