How important is Knowledge of Afrikan Languages to Afrikan Spiritual Systems?

[Obadele Kambon]

How important is Knowledge of Afrikan Languages to Afrikan Spiritual Systems?

[imhotep1906]

Mbote

I would say it is of the utmost importance. As Ankh Mi Ra states in Let The Ancestors Speak, "You must understand Mdw Ntr to understand African Spirituality, and you must understand African Spirituality to understand Mdw Ntr!"

But equal to learning the language, you have to learn the Nza (Cosmology) of a people if you plan to attempt to understand ritual and the spiritual system of that group (Nza-Kongo for instance).

Your cosmology determines your anthropology, your anthropology determines your social policy. Cosmology is the heart of all people and to try and understand African people without understanding the "Great Belief" (as Credo Mutwa calls it), you are wasting your time.

But as Fu-Kiau notes, languages are the code to knot and unknot meaning. Without initiation into the philosophy of the people, expressed within the language, you can't get too far.