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from http://www.geocities.com/omo_sango_oya:
God in African Belief Part II
A Theological Overview of God in African Belief
What do Africans find in Nature that they also find within themselves, and what is the spiritual significance of such concepts? In Kemet, we run into the problematic term neteru, which the Egyptologists have misdefined as “gods”. Even E.A. Wallis Budge had to admit to the danger of translating this term as “gods” (“Book of the Dead”; Budge). Schwaller de Lubicz in his Temple in Man defines the neteru as “powers of nature” which is closer to an Africentric view. Not only are they powers within Nature, but they are also powers within the human nature. This was the profound teaching of the sem (priests) in the temples of ancient Kemet. These Africans along the Hapi (Nile) not only viewed themselves as one with Nature, but also as mini mirrors of the larger universe. Ra Un Nefer Amen tells us that the faculty within Man associated with elevating the lower base nature to the Divine Self is called Ausar from the Kemetic theological perspective. These powers and concepts did not disappear with the fall of Kemetic civilization to Europeans and Arabs. They survive transaharanly and Diaspora wide among such groups as the Akan, Congolese, and the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria.
The Yoruba term Orisa (pronounced oh-ree-sha) is sometimes translated as “selected conscious”. Each Orisa represents one of the various states of consciousness within Nature and the human being. For instance, Obatala represents clarity and purity of heart, thought, and intention, but it is Ogun that clears away the excess rubbish that blocks our roads to upliftment, hence true success. But none of the Orisa function in any capacity if they are not in harmony with the will of Olodumare (God). Among the Buganda it is said that Katonda (God) functions Its powers through the lubaales. The Igbo call their emissaries of Chukwu (God) ayaana. All three of these concepts represent that the One God’s works are manifest variously, and further underscores the fact that God’s power cannot be compartmentalized and rationalized as is often done in Western religious theology. Elder Ani states “The task of the European theologian was to give European religion the shape of European philosophy, so as to enhance its value”(p.182).
According to the Eurocentric worldview, belief and spiritual experience are non-values, or at least less valuable than European rationalistic philosophy. Not wanting to reject or neglect their Greco-Roman heritage, they included Greek philosophy in their theology to rationalize and reason religion. Thus, their left-brained thinking caused them to concretize spirituality in their religious formulation. As the great Yoruba poet and dramatist Wole Soyinka stated in an interview: People do not realize how unrealistic christianity is.
The African concept of God allows for the harmonious interaction between Man and her environment as expressed in Nature, as opposed to the Western concept of a constant battle with Nature (just as they say there is a constant Battle of the Sexes). Sadly enough, this anti-Nature sentiment seems to have become the very drive behind their technology which serves many good purposes, but is destroying the very world around us due to their imbalanced worldview (remember right brained and left brained thinking). Who else could have thought of a way to burn a hole in the sky? Science has been falsely deified and made the measure of all things "true and real". This is guised under the Western pseudo-universal way-of-knowing, which is commonly known to us as reason and rationalization (in a very non-spiritual and concrete form). Rationalization, more than not, includes a more physical and anti-spiritual mode of recognizing truth, or what is perceived to be the truth in the rational tradition. Those wishing to truly understand the Africentric perspective of spirituality must keep this in mind. This Euro way-of-knowing has little to no respect of the metaphysical realm. The metaphysical realm is that invisible realm of origin from whence all physical phenomenon arises. From the lack of spiritual cultivation, the West has deified the physical side of the equation. Of course, I am not in any way implying that the physical should be neglected. I am only saying that you cannot worship the creation as the highest end while ignorantly neglecting that creation’s origin - the Creator Itself. Do not worship the messenger and miss the message for the messenger tends to convey the message imperfectly and you will miss the point.
The Orisa in Relation to Man and Creation
As mentioned earlier, Africans on the continent proper and throughout the Diaspora have different names for the Creator, but more importantly share a unifying concept of Man’s relationship to the Creator. Africans from the original Anu who produced the original Kemetic dynasties to the Ashanti of present day Ghana, have always believed in and drew strength from the fact that the Supreme Source of All works through the very creation that emanates from It. Westerners and Arabs could not understand this in the processes of their rampage, pillage, sack, and in many cases plagiarization, and utter desecration of Mother Africa, her people, and culture. If it is God that works through the creation, and Africans were the first to understand this (which seems quite plausible with them being the original people), then suffice it to say that Africans in no way could worship the creation itself. Africans have reverence for creation and Nature, but they do not and could not worship them. I once heard a high ranking Catholic priest at a local university say that Catholics do not pray to the saints and statues of saints, nut that they in fact pray through them. Why is it that they can not use this same understanding when they come into contact with indigenous forms of worship such as African and Native American belief?
Just what is the philosophy behind the Ifaic concept of God? How is it that the Orisa express the totality of the One Ruler of the Worlds? And what, if any, are the Orisa’s connection to the Neteru of ancient Kemet? Chief Baba Ifa Karade in his monumental Ojise: Messenger of the Yoruba Tradition states on page 113:
The Orisa are the elemental entities consisting of divine creative essence and nature substance called in combination ase (pronounced ah-shay). They are perpetual, continual, self generative and self-illuminating. They possess the ability to integrate their inherent energy-ase into the more physical forms of nature such as rivers, trees, mountains, animals, human beings, and so forth.
I gather from Baba Ifa’s instructions that the Orisa are the unseen motivating forces in the cosmos that have been here since the dawn of creation, and before. In nature, we see the Orisa as natural phenomena. In humans, we see the Orisa as different aspects of the Creator (called Olodumare in Yoruba). In respect to humans, in their contractive aspect they are latent variegated energies, but in their expansive state they are manifested personalities, psychic abilities, trance abilities, or simply put, energies that have taken on some degree of form. They are within the human as different levels of potential spiritual expression.
The Yoruba teach the Orisa originally came to earth (aiye) as emissaries of Olodumare to set the earth evolution in motion. They were to live the human experience in order to better speak to the multifaceted human condition. Thus, they along with the Ancestors, have to set the guidelines, according to the will of Olodumare, of righteous living. Thus, the human evolution is to be a divine mission according to Yoruba theology. Human evolution should be as much a replica of divine example as possible. A careful study of Ifa divination will show us a glimpse of the unfolding of the divine plan according to what Baba Ra Fagbemi calls the Opon Principle. Baba Ra states simply that the Opon Principle is likened unto the Law of Cycles. You must study the divine cycles of the cosmos in order to attempt to study the plan of God. It is like reading Nature, which, of course, means the reader, has to be in tune with Nature Herself.
The sacred scriptures of the Yoruba, called the Odu Ifa, say this of the human condition in the Holy Odu Irosun Iwori: Surely, human beings were put here to do good. As stated, the Orisa are within Man, and it is a part of Man’s destiny and duty to tap within that divine spirit-well that Olodumare created all humans with called ase. Baba Ifa Karade teaches us that several of the major Orisa can be likened unto the Eastern concept of chakras. And why not? It is well known, but not highly publicized by Western science, that there are energy centers within the human body that can be opened up to receive and express divine metaphysical enlightenment. It is also well known that many people have been healed with the proper knowledge of how these centers work in harmony with the Divine Plan. Now if these energy centers have always existed within the human (God is, always was, and will always be) then it is obvious that those cultures that first recognized this fact are going to label them according to their own language. And it is a known fact that Blacks in Africa and India came to this conclusion and taught it thousands of years before the current Hindus of India codified it. So we find that Baba Ifa is well on point in this concept.
Let it be known that the Orisa are not something to simply be understood intellectually. We must realize that these are spiritual realities to be experienced within our very beings. This is the understanding of Africans and all other earth-centered cultures (Native Americans, Eastern religions, etc.) that allowed them to remain in such a harmonious state with Nature and God. The Yoruba call upon and give praise for the divine presence and manifestation of these latent forces within the human experience. Real spiritual truth is to be experienced and the Orisa exist to lead us to that truth.
Within the African worldview there is no concept of a devil that is in constant battle with God. Only through colonization and enslavement have Africans adopted such a notion, and in some instances they have infused it into their own indigenous belief systems. Africans believe that Father-Mother God created all things in the universe, but that the creation itself, through time evolution, is not perfect. Imperfection cannot help but bring about conditions that misrepresent God’s divine plan. Hence, there exist negating forces throughout the universe called the ajogun by the Yoruba. From my understanding of Ifa theology, Olodumare did not create the negating forces. Olodumare created humans that are not perfect that created the conditions that would allow negating forces to germinate and then manifest. They have ultimately found their place within the balance that Olodumare rested the worlds upon. These negating forces seem to be emanations of the evil we see in the world. It is held that Olodumare is essentially good, but it is through the human faculty of free choice that evil comes about. There is no the devil made me do it blame-shift philosophy in African belief. Africans, due to their right view of God, have never felt unworthy of the Divine Mercy. He/she who errs in African society is not a sinner all alone going to a place called hell, but they are simply out of balance and conversion to a better way of life does not require the Western concept of repentance or the admittance of any degree of worthlessness. What it does require is a true effort for better understanding. As pertains to Man being in a state of imbalance, the African sage Amen em Ope of Kemet says that God is in Its perfection. Man is in his/her inadequacy. This is not a sinner for life or born in sin inadequacy, but it is simply based on the idea of Man’s failure to reach the divine inner recesses of his/her soul where his/her destiny imprint resides - God’s individual blueprint for you to be guided by Ancestral wisdom (Akan, Congo, Ifa, etc.).
The Yoruba teach that the human chooses a destiny in the heavens (Orun) even before the physical conception process takes place. It is through the birthing process that Man forgets this destiny, hence the first step towards misalignment. Through Ifa divination (dafa) the human can access the true intent of the spirit realm, and retrieve that destiny in order that stability may preside over one’s life. It is the human’s responsibility to develop genuine, gentle, and divine character called Iwa Pele to live truth and contribute to the balance of the world. In the aforementioned proverb by Amen em Ope, he warns against human egotism, boastfulness, and self-righteousness. On the other hand, Paul exerts his new Jewish sect to be perfect, thus presenting an unrealistic challenge to someone he earlier says is born in sin! It seems that Christianity has often presented its adherents with the proverbial carrot on the stick syndrome. It is dangling right there in front of you, but it seems as if you can never grasp the nourishment that it purports to offer. On the other hand, African religion teaches us about the world as it is, and how to deal efficiently with that reality by developing Iwa Pele.
We are like roses that have grown from concrete. One of the greatest miracles to date is that African people are still here after the rapes, lynchings, burnings, brickings, floggings, neighborhoods being terrorized by the US government genocidal programs, and the like. We are still here fighting; trying to gain a semblance of what it means to be African in such a society. African spirituality reveals that these are trying times for African people worldwide. But it is also a time of re-awakenings. We are returning to tradition and becoming the better for it. If we return to tradition as a unified front, there will be no more need for singing and marching, begging and feet shuffling. Our own African traditions have all the answers we need to get back to our original grandeur.Let us continue in song, dance,prayer, study, and daily struggle to raise up the divine spirits of those that have come before us. Sankofa.
ASE, ASE, ASE O!
Select Bibliography
Amen, Ra Un Nefer, Meteu Neter Vol I, Khamit Corp. Publishing, Brooklyn, New York 1990
Ani, Marimba, Yurugu, Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 1994
Asante, Molefi Kete, Afrocentricity, Africa World Press, Inc. Trenton, New Jersey, 1988
Badejo, Diedre, Osun Seegesi: The Elegant Deity of Wealth, Power, and Feminity, Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey 1996
Diop, Cheik Anta, African Origins of Civilization, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, Il 1974
Diop, Cheik Anta, Civilization or Barbarism, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, Il 1991
de Lubicz, R.A. Schwaller, Temple in Man, Autumn Press Inc., Rochester, Vt 1977
Epega, Afolabi & P.J. Neimark, Sacred Ifa Oracle, Harper Collins, New York, Ny 1995
Karade, Baba Ifa, Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Me 1994
Karade, Baba Ifa, Ojise: Messenger of the Yoruba Tradition, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Vt 1996
Karade, Baba Ifa, Imoye: A Definition of the Ifa Tradition, Athelia Henrietta Press, Brooklyn, Ny 1999
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"the real pyramids were built with such precision that you can't slide a piece of paper between two 4,000 lb stones, and have shafts perfectly aligned so that you can see a tiny aperture through dozens of these mammoth blocks
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