Humanity stores its highest values and ideals within the doctrines and rituals of religious beliefs. I will highlight three of the world's largest religions and take a brief look at the quickest spreading religious tradition of Africa , Yoruba-based Ifa. The degree to which any one or all of these institutions reduced or embraced people has had a lot to do with whether a group became a victor or a victim . This essay will familiarize the reader with the historical climates created by religion. It is my hope that this work will clarify that those who were enslaved and those who were colonized were victims of misguided applications of religious beliefs. Finally, I contend that culture with theology are the conceptual and theoretical tools that free people from political, social, spiritual, mental, and economic oppressions by providing the spirit with an awakened conscience.
The role of religion in world affairs cannot be minimized. It has been religion that sustained and gave solace to enslaved and improvised souls. Many people of several cultures have died and been oppressed in the name of religion. It has been religion that has also endowed people with the passion it takes to press on toward a future despite dire circumstances; religion has infused the human psyche with a determination to endure and a will to exist against the odds.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims, as dominate world religions, have tainted their spiritual paths with bloody battles and established their respective territories by using various methods of subjugation.
Ideas surrounding liberation, resistance, and cultural renewal are not new, particularly to Pan Yorubanist in the diaspora. What has charged these otherwise political themes and transformed them from concepts into action has been religion.
When social consciousness married theology, a theory of how to use religious doctrine to improve every day life was born. It became known as liberation theology. Its underlying structure views religious principles as a fundamental basis for defining human rights and holding society accountable. Canonical resources and cultural heritages force an awakened spirit to apply the crux of what they hold sacred in such a way that it prevents the annihilation of human dignity and cures the spirit. Emancipation is more than personal freedom; it is the outcome of an active faith. Once a person familiarizes themselves with sacred doctrines it becomes clear that the quest for freedom is supported by most religious tenets but freedom has other components. Trust and fellowship travel well with any construct of freedom but both are illusive.
At this point I must emphasize that it is religion that is calling dis-placed Africans back to the continent particularly Yoruba descendants. Whether it is doctrine or spirit that takes the lead in the pursuit of freedom ; moving forward with confidence and expectations of solidarity can be a façade. There are assumptions that slavery was a collaborative endeavor between those who gathered people and those merchants who took Africans screaming in chains to other shores. Those who are responding to the global reality of Africans are aware of something more accurate than recorded history. Regrettably it is not trust or the option of having an association with people with whom there is only an assumption of having beliefs and goals in common that cause quite a few people to travel to Africa . The younger ancestors of the diaspora whisper history in he ears of their descendants and reveal the reality of selling and buying people in the physical appearances of our children. History created social realities or cultures that impede complete trust or unhampered fellowship.
There is a way to circumvent catastrophic events that were religiously induced, particularly among those seeking a theology that is liberating. The foundational step that supports social action on behalf of a doctrine includes the re-establishment of cultural contexts that support religious and spiritual practices. First extract, then examine and then adapt cultural norms from ancestral social orders that address societal inequities, restore self-esteem, and instill human dignity is the global answer for the diaspora. While portions of the spirituality and religion have been memorialized in the diaspora but on the continent th ere has been an abandonment of the distinctive ways of Yoruba living. In other words, older aspects of Yoruba culture have been abandoned and others have simply disappeared with time.
The absence of the everyday circumstances and structures that surrounded Yoruba society and gave birth to the spirituality of Ifa has caused a disconnection from its core. Once this relationship between life's mundane events and the models of excellence presented in the sacred texts is regenerated the liberation of Yoruba spiritualists will be secured. Many Africanists travel to the continent in search of a way to deepen the relationship with the divinities and ancestors that traveled with and sustained their people through the atrocities of slavery and colonization in foreign lands. While they search for spirit they seem to be unaware of the presence of invisible energies in their immediate environment. Environments that sustain and positively re-enforce a Yoruba centered life can be constructed, if people listen to Ifa and then hear with more than their ears.
Voices of a long ago time are imbedded in the collective subconscious of those who answer the “ call ”, from Ifa or destiny, in the diaspora. Loud utterances call out to many descendants who carry the genus or have an ancestral debt to “ remember. ” The call to pick up and carry into the future ancestral wisdoms and ways comes in dreams and are often heard as things that go bump in the night; other times these voices make the soul scream in response to someone humming a gospel melody or chanting a prayer; all these seemingly insignificant incidences have the ability to trigger responses from the sub-conscious, laying just, below conscious awareness.
Every one may not hear the voices. In fact, there may have been five-hundred slaves on a boat and out of those five-hundred the descendants of four-hundred and ninety-nine may not hear a call to respond or feel a need to answer any religious command. Those four-hundred and ninety-nine may have acquiesced and assimilated the culture and religion of the merchant-master; but there is and always will be that one who resisted and exponentially hears the echoes from across the sea. Disturbances in the psyches of people who were temporarily lost continue hundreds of years even after generational connections in new places have been established. Although these new countries are now considered “ home ” there are still feelings of not-quite-belonging that have arisen out of racism, poverty, and oppression. The intrusion of internal wailing for some descendants has stopped or at least decreased for this moment in time among the four-hundred and ninety-nine, but for that one , the sound has intensified and is now deafening. It was these sounds, these wailings that forged links of commonalities between people from different parts of Africa when they arrived in the so-called “ New World ;” sound brought individuals together. Sound was the nutrient that nourished the human organism giving it strength to oppose slavery and resist colonization enforced by the merchant-masters in North and South Americas and through the Caribbean islands.
The One became many and now there are well- traveled paths leading back to the soil that was left behind so long ago. These paths are there to be discovered by future generations that lead the next Ones to return to ancestral lands and embark on their journey of a lifetime; partaking in an expedition of giving and retrieving what has been stored on both sides of the sea.
The politics of resistance is the wind that sails the boats, particularly, in the Yoruba Diaspora back to the African continent. There seems to be an invisible agreement between the Creatrix and the ancestors. Re-patriots are being regurgitated each year on the shores of African countries, ironically, by the same sea that carried away their ancestors. Is Yorubaland, as one of these, able to accommodate the passion, and love for forgotten eras that are held in the thoughts and feelings of the returnees? Memories retained by the collective follow these descendants back home. The ancestors of these descendants may have left by force but their offspring are returning by choice. Returnees are easily recognized by their eagerness to revitalize ancient tradition and by their dedication and efforts toward cultural retention does this cause them to be viewed only as an enigma and not parts of the African experience? Do continental Yoruba consider that there is a covenant between descendants in the diaspora that may not have anything to do with the people of Africa ?
Instead the covenant may exist between the people of the diaspora, the soil, and sea on the shores of Africa ? Are descendants aware that once their feet touch ancestral land it's possible to be awakened and once awakened forgotten sensations and a collage of new self-images flow into the conscious mind? It is important to note that these new visitors to foreign shores are not empty containers they come to Africa with full containers. People of the diaspora are the exclamation mark in the paragraph that describes the processes of African transformation and spiritual illumination. They carry a light that is the result of having survived trails of fire. The offspring of Africa have been ancestrally tested by the world and survived.
Religion has caused many dislocated offspring to reach out in hopes of re-establishing a spiritual non-imperialistic connection with the African continent. Are people mimicking the relationships Catholics have with Rome , Jews and Muslims with Israel and Mecca ? Naiveté is an ingredient that can sour hope and misunderstood zeal can lead people into sacrilegious implementation of religious events. This type of religious decay is apparent in the e xcessive fervor and violence that launched early religious movements. Egyptians enslaved Jews, Muslims held jihads or Holy Wars and Christians led Crusades while many Africans along with children, men, and women in the cottage industries of Europe and the caste system of India were victimized and exploited all in the name of “ religion. ” The Qur'an definition of jihad is basically the same as a Just War as described in the Cannon Law of Catholicism ( Smith : 168). The Qur'an commands Muslims not to be he aggressors but “for the sake of God” if they attack you “slay them wherever you find them.” But the greatest jihad is the one a Muslim fights with him or herself.
Diasporas
The common thread among groups that form the world's Diasporas is that they all have spiritual beliefs and cultures that originated in a specific land or evolved as a result of shared ethnic -based theories. Jewish ancestors, like Arab Muslims, came from the Middle East , and both religious beliefs have spread, regardless of ethnicity and race. The authentication and inclusion of people born and living outside of a religion's originating territory is still taking place. All dispersed people create or discover new aspects of their previous interpretations which produce a myriad of possible new forms.
Just to mention a few “new” manifestations of Judaism there are Orthodox, Conventional, Messianic, and Hassidic forms of worship. Rabbinical Jews spend a lifetime studying the Torah, the written word. Other Rabbis are devoted to the Talmud or two thousand years of oral contemplations. Jews believe that when the Messiah is born their diaspora will coalesce and its effect will be reversed. In the 16 th century Jewish Kabbalist Isaac Luria taught the concept of Tikkun-ha-olam. Tikun-ha-olam is “mending the broken world by rituals, prayers, and moral actions. Among the Yoruba good character and mending the world are inter-related and what Ifa asks humanity to cultivate.
On the other hand the Islamic Diaspora produced different types of Muslims. They are too numerous to name them all but some of the sects that are more commonly known are: Orthodox, Sunni, Sufi, Fundamentalist, Shiite and the Nation of Islam.
The Sunnis and the Shi'ites disagreed as to who was the correct person to succeed Muhammad . Sufis or those who wear wool are considered to be the mystics of Islam. There have been many Persian poets who have written about the ecstatic experiences of God's love. Muslims influenced and were influenced by the cultures of diverse countries. Islamic influences spread from the “…Atlantic to the Indus and frontiers of China , from the Aral Sea to the upper Nile . (Smith: 177)” They reached Morocco , Persia , and Pakistan .
Islamic laws pervade every aspect of everyday life so the influence of other cultures upon their diaspora was not as obvious as Islam's impact on the countries they invaded. For instance Islam greatly molded the dispersal of Africans. In an essay titled, “Christianity, Islam and Slavery ” Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn wrote, “ When Arabs invaded Northeastern Afrika in the 7th century A.D., in the name of Islam, this brought about a whole new relationship to the institution of slavery. Afrikans were captured, treated brutally and inhumanely, then shipped off to other Arab countries in Asia , or other parts of Afrika that they controlled. This happened approximately 600 years before the European Christians got involved.”
Religious templates have evolved and cultural DNA has been recalibrated. Relocation of dispersed people causes, out of necessity, adaptation of religious notions produce new ideas and set new precedents. Beliefs and practices become something other than they were while remaining anciently the same. Reclamation and diasporic exaltation takes perceptions to a new level. It should be no surprise that members of a diaspora reclaim the ancient and exalt understanding to a new level or paradigm shift.
In spite of the fact that I am calling for things to be “ brought back ” I am aware that new ingredients will contribute to the shape of what is reconstituted.
All of these groups, like Yoruba theologies, are now global. Jews, Muslims, and Christians share sacred themes that have the ability to saturate aspirants with hope and create opportunities for fellowship with others. But their s acred books have been transformed into high-tech weapons. The pliability of s acred scriptures makes them easy fodder for political manipulation. Therefore they have been used to create and to dismantle unjust violence and oppression.
Consequentially, the membership of the Catholic Church and Islam is extensive. Christians, including Catholics, represent approximately thirty-three percent of the world's religious population; their numbers are estimated as being close to two billion people but declining. Islam has also become a stable and formidable religious power its rapid spread has been phenomenal. In 1991, religious historian Huston Smith wrote, “As there are some 900 million Muslims in the global population of five billion, one out of every five or six belongs today to this religion which guides human thought and practice in unparalleled detail.” More recently, in 2005, Islam was calculated as having 1.5 billion followers. Contemporary practices of African Traditional Religions, despite displacement during the slave trade, have 100 million people in the diasporic practicing some form of traditional religion.
Liberation Theology
Liberation theology was a term first used in 1973 by a Catholic Peruvian priest, Gustavo Gutierrez . His views were not only religious; they were political and grounded in social activism. He thought that the role of the Catholic Church was to emulate Christ 's interaction with poor and oppressed people. Society thought it was strange for priests and nuns to actively participate in the open clashes between opposing groups for a better life in the here and now.
Ideologically, faith, hope, and charity are vows nuns, brothers, and priests of the Catholic Church have taken and taught. Faith is anchored in unconditional love but “… faith without works is dead” ( James 2:20). Hope also has a love component. Belief in the resurrection of Christ and the ultimate “ Promise ” of soul liberation and joining with God demonstrates the unconditional love God has for humanity. Gutierrez 's faith is obvious in his definition of hope which he writes allows humanity to “…plan history in revolutionary terms.” He explained that, “ Hope thus emerges as the key to human existence orientated toward the future, because it transforms the present.”
Therefore faith, hope, and charity within liberation theology are demonstrated by concrete responses to societal conditions. Since the twelfth century these virtues have been included in the reasons why many religious people gave up worldly things in order to work, minister, and teach the poor. And as a result many were oppressed themselves. But what was different was liberation theology took these clerics out of the church, the monasteries, and secluded convents into the streets to stand beside the oppressed; they took action which was prompted by their religious beliefs.
These clerics actively participated in violent clashes between groups searching for a better life in the here-and-now and those who were benefiting from poverty and oppressive regimes.
As a result during the 1970's and early 80's, the Catholic Church through the development of liberation theology assumed a leadership role in the struggles against dominant oppressive regimes in Latin America and South Africa. Dedication to improving life in the here-and-now became the goal for these Catholics rather than the biblical idea of waiting for rewards in the after-life.
In every day language, a theology of liberation leads us to critique our lives, analyze, and express the impact religion and spirituality has on others and on our selves. Its grassroots message empowers people to take control over their own lives. This ideology prompts people to assume a leadership posture by accepting their scriptural obligations whose gift is always self-empowerment.
Yoruba Liberation, Resistance, and Renewal
In order to liberate the minds and lives of people stuck on the assembly line of society's dysfunctional reproduction of itself, an awareness of ethical ideals grounded in intellectual and spiritual heritages must be cultivated. Dispersed people share some obvious and usually adverse effects that have been heaped upon their original ethnic identities by forces devoted to getting rid of culturally specific expressions. What all diasporas have in common is the dilution of their original philosophical basis of their spiritualities, family structures, and artistic expressions, verbal and non-verbal language-their culture.
Resistance
Arabic and European invasions infiltrated and continue to dissolve indigenous lifestyles that surround the ideals and insights imbedded in the sacred texts, art, and beliefs that set the foundation for living a life that is in harmony with the collective wisdoms of conquered lands.
Christians and Muslims used their holy books to undermine the oral and cultural methods of historical retentions. Christians replaced belief in deified ancestors with images of Caucasian saints, prophets, angels, Savior, and Supreme Being. The result is a belief in white supremacy which continues to damage the self-esteem and identities of African people. Don Ohadike addressed the doctrine of racial superiority in Sacred Drums of Liberation when he wrote,
“The tendency was further advanced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when European imperialists recruited Christian missionaries to serve as a cultural wing of European colonial expansion into Africa . Acting in concert with European anthropologists and colonial officers, missionaries peddled the ideology of white supremacy and ensured that Africans were treated as second-class citizens in their own countries. In Algeria , for instance, the French adopted a policy that made the lowest European settler the superior of any African.”
It must not be forgotten that dilution of the moral and cultural fabrics of society did not happen without individual and collective African participation. Ancient and contemporary; on the continent and throughout the diaspora people made momentous contributions to the weakening of mass development. People grabbed onto whatever religion was available in their pursuit of solace. In the diaspora keepers of ancestral memories resisted total adoption of the cultures and spiritualities of their captors. Religious practices and theology became a way to keep the mind and spirit free despite physical and material impacts of racist policies.
In the United States Islam took on a new cultural demeanor. The teachers of this new form of Islam recruited many of its followers in the jails and off the street corners. Islam was able to rehabilitate those who were thought to be career criminals. A “new” face was put on an old Middle Eastern religion. The Nation of Islam flooded African American neighborhoods with new images of self-respect and cleanliness. Members of “ The Nation ” were easily recognizable and they shared their dietary restrictions and approach to better eating habits with the larger community.
Ohadike gives the reader snapshots of other groups who either “ switched ” or blended their traditional beliefs with “ World Class Religions :” Mau Mau leaders in Kenya used Christianity to fight the Anglican Church. In Jamaica he chronicled the development of the Rastafarian movement and how Marcus Garvey 's vision led them to embrace Ethiopia , the cradle of Christianity, by making it their “ holy land “. Cuba 's “Santeria,” Haiti 's Voodoo, and Brazil 's Candomble are examples of African-fused beliefs. These forms of worship developed out of the relationships of the slaves with their ancestral beliefs, native practices, and the religions of the colonizer. Santeria and Voodoo used Christian icons as a mask to cover what were really African icons.
Yoruba and War
Yoruba people have not fought wars over religion. The most violent acts that happened to and among Yoruba in the name of religion was the slave trade. Like the Jews, African's also had an exodus from their originating continent. Their exodus however moved millions toward enslavement and not to a Promised Land . Slavery and colonization stripped re-located people of everything that could be taken or replaced.
Ullie Beier, a scholar, once asked Wole Soyinka about wars and religion's place among the Yoruba during an interview. Beier said to Soyinka “You said that Yoruba religion “liberates” can you expand on that?” Soyinka answered with the following insight, “I believe a truly liberated mind is never aggressive about his or her system of beliefs. Because it is founded on such total self-confidence, such self acceptance of others that there is no need to march out and propagate one's cause. That is why Yoruba Religion has never waged a religious war, like Jihad or the Crusades.”
However, there were some things that could not be removed through war or displacement, such as, the qualities of character and strength of spirit that kept the psyche and spirit emancipated. On the continent of Africa and throughout the diaspora circumstances and revelations gave birth to religious enlightenment which fed the soul's hunger to survive. Although Africans adopted Christianity and Islam, one of the reasons they did so, was because they understood that conformance was a tool for liberation and capable of being used as a soft mode of resistance.
Liberation through Cultural Implementation
The first thing dispersed Yoruba have to do, like many other people, is to revisit the ancient ways of their ancestors to seek remedies from yesterday for today's social challenges: random violence and racial cleansings, hunger and poverty, homicides, and suicides are psychotic responses to contemporary pressures. Yoruba world-wide face the challenge of how to live a Yoruba-centric life outside of its cultural environment? The answer is, it must be created.
In order for the family to survive and thrive its structure must be re-defined. Examination of ancient models of partnerships and methods of selecting mates that can be adapted to suit community needs can lead to stable home conditions. Regeneration and revitalization of the ancestral context among practitioners that have embraced only the religious aspects will accelerate spiritual advancement and expand people's grasp of Ifa's sacred texts.
Domestic life and children are suffering because there are so many people warehoused in the penal system, lost to drugs, or just plain casualties of society. If your spirit identifies with being Yoruba wear and design clothes that are acknowledged as being African. Learn the language, enjoy the food, and pass the youth through rites of passage programs. Too many children are using gang membership and pregnancies as rites of passage. Elders need programs supported by their peers and their communities that provide time and space for introspection and appreciation of their life's achievements.
Religion has to be freed from the pews of the church, the mats of the mosque, and the mere verbalization of Ifa verses and allowed to flow through the fabric of everyday lives. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Yoruba-based theology are sacred wisdoms with embedded cultural contexts. The main question is what is the relationship between social reality or culture and spirituality? Sacred wisdoms contained in religious doctrines must be separated from the politics and the bloodshed associated with centuries of wars, the horrors of slave trade, the suffocation of oppression, and societal apathy.
In order to restore what was stripped away from people who originated or claim kinship from particular ethnic groups an exploration of their fore fathers and mothers “ old ways” has to be performed. There just may be ancient answers that can be adapted to address contemporary problems. In the same way that Ifa Orisa has proven its flexibility and accommodated ancient beliefs.
It was this flexibility that allowed viewpoints and practices to continue to morph alongside dominant religions creating a diverse diaspora. Taking back what was taken away and re-building with the confidence of certainty, not faith will expand the participation and orchestration of visible and invisible worlds in the lives of devoted people. What gave people the courage to wage struggle against internalized oppression and intolerable external policies and conditions has to be rekindled.
Spiritual doctrine and social consciousness is how religious beliefs improve life. Some slaves of the past used their knowledge of herbs to cure themselves; others used the strategies from military training in Africa to organize rebellions when they took their exodus in the forests of strange lands in search of “ free ” territories, such as the maroons in the Caribbean island of Jamaica and the courageous who founded Palmares in Brazil . Descendants of today have chosen to keep their memories alive through ceremonies and oral transmissions of their history. Rituals are methods of retaining and reclaiming culture. Through slavery, reconstruction, civil and black power movements activists in the United States sought spiritual beliefs that were reflections of their political positions.
The practice of Liberation theology is not limited to Christians, Latinos, or the Catholic Church. Emancipation of spirituality and the importance of cultural retention certainly apply to any member of a diaspora. Gutierrez believed that the application of theology should eliminate injustices that cause poverty and apathy of the human spirit. By mobilizing aspirants he challenged government leaders to address these issues and inspired the powerless not to put up with the inequalities, either social or economic. Once these inequities are adjusted people will have their dignity restored and be free to develop themselves.
The goal of Gutierrez 's theory is to r e-establish a relationship with God and with other people. Social consciousness is an outcome of spiritual worship. Liberation theology explains principles of theological imperatives included in most religions; all scriptures advise humanity to use their doctrines to sustain human dignity, retain culture, and freely explore their relationship with the sacred.
A spirituality that leads to social activism provides a generative force that critiques life and seeks to improve the social conditions of everyone. Its grassroots message empowers people to take control over their own lives. This ideology prompts people to assume obligations that come with leadership. Religion and spirituality are supposed to make us better people and by extension, the world a better place.
Although Liberation Theology was originally intended to address problems in Latin America , its implementation, like Yoruba spirituality, can be applied by religious activists in many cultures. Spirituality has empowered people to wage social struggle against oppressive policies and conditions. This combination of spiritual doctrine and social consciousness is an example of how religious beliefs can make life better.
Despite the size of the African continent and the numbers of people worldwide who trace their ancestry to Africa , the ancient beliefs whether they are earth or sky-based traditions are not listed among world traditions. Even though, the texts of most theologies bend easily they are still used as fundamental impetus for identifying and empowering people to wage social struggles against oppressive policies and conditions. This does not mean that every adherent to any religious practice will successfully seek an association with people who they believe share similar beliefs nor will every devotee incorporate originating cultures into their daily lives. But all exalted wisdoms offer people hope and the expectations of attaining human dignity and healing of the mind. It is people's ability to integrate the virtues of their religious traditions and live according to the principles of their scriptural advice that determines whether or not their sacred texts are weapons or medicine.
Kwaku Person-Lynn , Ph.D. Christianity, Islam and Slaver. Published: June 7, 1999.
Author of FIRST WORD Black Scholars Thinkers Warriors. Online Source. Page number not applicable. http://www.africawithin.com/maafa/christian_slavery.htm
Smith, Huston . The World's Religions A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions. Harper Collins Publishers, New York , N.Y. Page 177. 1991.
Online Source: www.adherents.com . August, 2008.
Gutierrez , Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation History, Politics and Salvation. Translated and ed . By Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson . Orbis Books, Maryknoll New York . 1973. Page 216.
Ohadike, Don C. Sacred Drums of Liberation Religions and Music of Resistance in Africa and the Diaspora. Africa World Press, Inc. Publishers, Trenton , New Jersey . 2007. Page 142.
Beier, Ullie and Soyinka , Wole. Wole Soyinka on Yoruba Religion A Conversation with Ullie Beier. Isokan Yoruba Magazine. Volume III no. III. Page number not appropriate. Summer 1997. Online source: www.yoruba.org . September, 2008.
Liberation Theology General Information http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/liberati.htm |
