Re: Abosom/Orisa Power vs white Perpetration of Genocide and Enslavement
Were/Are the Abosom/Orisa/Vodun/Nkisi and other Afrikan Spiritual Forces not powerful enough to stop genocide/enslavement against Afrikan people and only able to resist to a certain extent
Man oh man what a can of worms. You know Obadele I've found myself in many conversations about this and I try my best to understand the full set of circumstances around this event. There are some of our people who are attracted to the culture who cannot accept the Abosom, Orisa, Arusi, Nkisi, Vodu etc., as anything but just energy. They can't accept the personalities or anything indicating a consciousness with these forces because the dilemma for them is then how could they have let this calamity happen to us.
When it comes to explaining why when we called on them were we not able to stop this I really don't know what to say.
How I explain it is that I try to keep it in context. When krakkaz came to the shores of West Africa in the 15th century they saw some groups of us living in villages, some of us still in a state of disorder and some of us in the process of building up empires. I try to explain that what they saw going on when they came was not how things always were. What was going on for us at that time was directly related to the collapse of several great (in size and achievement) nations in West Africa i.e. Wagadugu, Mali, Songhai, Gao, Kanem etc., The peoples of those empires had been migrating - some for decades and some for centuries after that. Also, the collapse of these empires most notably Wagadugu was due to foreign interference in the form of Africans practicing foreign culture and Arabs assisting them. Furthermore, the whole reason we were in West Africa was because we fled persecution in North East Africa from foreign invaders. Therefore, what was going on in West Africa at the time of the coming of krakkaz in the 15th century "a.d." was directly related to actions carried out by krakkaz in the North East of Africa from as far back as the 15th century "b.c."
Here's my thing. We have the writings to show even from back in that time that we had always been told by our ancestors and ancestresses about these people. We had always been told about how we are to relate to them. The mistake as far as I can see was standing by and watching them attack and wipe out our brothers and sisters in other parts of this world. Some say that it's because of that good and compassionate nature in us that we won't actively go out and seek to do them harm. They say that the way we are is that as long as you're not doing anything bad against us then we figure live and let live. The problem I have with that is that it's not looking at the bigger picture. When I look at the history I don't see a pattern of us going out into the lands they occupied in Europe and Asia and taking them out and that makes no sense to me.
It's like the cells in certain parts of the body seeing Cancer in one particular part of the body and they don't react as long as the cancer stays where it's at. That's insanity. Cancer can stay in one part of your body and kill the whole body from what it's doing or it can metastasize (invade other parts of the body). So because we didn't act sensibly, in my opinion, we're now in a situation where for instance, stuff that they're doing in Alaska or Iraq (all the oil their taking out of the earth) is having a negative effect in places in Africa and Antarctica which will in turn affect the whole world really.
I hate how we fail to see the big picture. I wish I could impress upon the people of Sierra Leone to stop cutting down their trees and giving it to white folk in order to sustain themselves right now. I wish I could show them that this has already happened in Haiti where they cut down so many of their trees to give to white folk to pay off a debt they never owed that now much of their soil is no good to plant any food in order to sustain themselves. I could show them how mining the earth for bauxite has destroyed ecologies in Jamaica that therefore have animal species disappearing and plants and herbs that people would use for healing purposes are gone.
Anyway.......
My point is that we can't dig these large holes for ourselves and then expect the Abosom, Vodu, Arusi etc., to bail us out. We gotta do all we can do and all we're suppose to do first and we haven't been doing that. Some of it is due to our leaders. For instance in Wagadugu there came a time when they began to allow Africans who were practicing foreign culture/ spirituality into high positions of the government. This should have never been. It is a betrayal of the citizenry by the government. It's even worse when you have the leader of the country converting to foreign culture/ spirituality. It's even worse considering the history of how this "religion" came to be - all the African people that were wiped out and oppressed in its formation. So the government did its own citizens in. However, I also think that the culture among the citizenry should be one in where if they see things such as this happening they should immediately move to over throw such a government. From what I've read, this didn't happen. We saw a taste of it in Ancient Kemet with Akhenaton. Some say it was his mother who influenced him or someone who helped raised him. They say mother because we were taking foreign women as wives. Akhenaton attempted to do away with, what we can call, the Vodu, Abosom, Orisa et., He picked one and said to hell with all the rest - closed down temples and such. This was the same thing that the white man Soter, the Greek did when they invaded much later. He put the image of Serapis in his image for the people to worship. Tried to put his image in the temples alongside Ausar and the priests all rejected it so he then closed down all the temples.
It's like eating a whole bunch of junk food when you know better and then when you get sick you expect the Orisa to bail you out and afterwards you still go back to doing the same thing. It's not a matter of the Abosom failing to help you, to me. It's a matter of your behavior catching up to you eventually.
I could be wrong about all that.
or
is genocide/enslavement part of some larger divine purpose that fits into a greater plan beyond our comprehension that these Spiritual Forces have knowledge of?
Obadele, this is the only way that I can accept that the Abosom "help" white people. This is the only I can understand it. If it was a case, for instance, that we didn't have what it took way back when to actually wipe these people out and that things had to get to a certain level technologically for us to be able to or if certain things had to happen to give us the will to want to do what needs to be done or both then I understand. It's a hell of a price to pay yet I can still understand it.
Once again, I can see this in our bodies. There are cancer cells that have different functions just like regular cells and there are cancer cells who will actually trick our normal healthy cells by mimicking the behavior of normal healthy cells in order to avoid detection by our natural killer cells. There are also b-cells in our bodies. They are otherwise known as memory cells. They latch on to the diseased cell to learn about it and formulate strategies on how to kill it. They transfer this information to the natural killer cells to implement. Those B-cells are also responsible for whenever the particular disease in question comes back again. It stores the record of it so that the next time it will recognize it on the spot and know exactly how to respond to it right away.
Now imagine what state the body would be in if the b-cells were being told constantly to "get over the past". Lol We would all be dead. Some of us are so innately hypocritical.
Then there's also what you said about the Abosom being smarter where the people are smarter. So it comes down to what people are thinking about and talking about and how. Were we calling upon the Abosom talkin' bout how we wish white people would love us? Were we calling upon the Abosom for the right things? It seems to me that they did in Haiti. Defeated the French, Spanish and British military. They seemed to have made up their mind on the issue of white folk in a singular moment of clarity.... Just a moment.
Aside from that, If they really are just blind forces that will do whatever African people ask of them then we are doomed.
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They can call you whatever they want, he said. "Savior"... "Destroyer".... All that matters is what you choose.
Bear witness to his choice, children, and give thanks to your Gods. And then pray for their mercy.
For tonight, Awoɔ may sleep...
But his rage will never die.
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