by Àwòtunde Yáò Fáşęyίn
All too often Afrikan people, whether on the continent or abroad, have fallen victim to the lofty ideas of spiritual universalism. The history of this is quite interesting and is rooted in the institution of New World slavery here in the United States. During slavery, our Ancestors were taught that there was one God that created all things in existence. At the same time, these Afrikans were told that their own concepts of the Creator were wrong and even Satanic, and that it would befit them to worship the god of their oppressors. To cap it all off, our Ancestors were taught that this same god that created everything decided to create them (Afrikans) as inferior beings and as servants to others for perpetuity!
In time, and through many movements, the descendants of these slaves began to seek loftier concepts of God and reject many of the inferiority teachings associated with the white people's god. One problem was that the seeking took place within the framework and very religious ideology that the white slave masters had used.
In accordance with the plan (and do not ever think that this oppression and its current result was not a plan by design), the descendants of the former slave masters had to re-devise old methods that had been put in place to make the Afrikan lose every bit of her Afrikan self; a plan designed to make the Afrikan a Black mental replica of the descendants of their former slave masters. This losing of the self would help facilitate a pattern and mentality of non-consequence towards the preservation of self and time-honored cultural traditions, especially those that are spiritual ways of life. They began to say, and you here it even today, "it does not matter what color god is" because that is what their new spiritual slave masters have taught them it is best to say.
Universalism sounds like a good idea on the surface, but one must examine exactly where does this so-called universal understanding of the Creator come from? First of all, someone or some group had to come up with the idea. Therefore, it is born from a particular people's mind and/or culture. Second of all, when expressing universalism through an existing religion or religious institution, one must keep in mind that that institution or religion came from someone's mind and/or culture also. Hence, any supposed universalism is still rooted in someone else's nationalism or worldview.
Different groups or persons within various cultures have arisen within those cultures to reinterpret, advance, and formalize the structure of its ideology based on the conditions and mind-evolution of their time. For instance, though the Greeks and the Romans come from the same cultural asili (same mental and cultural root) the Greeks decided to interpret Catholicism in what is now referred to as the orthodox way. They reinterpreted according to Greek understanding, geography, and culture. They have different saints because of their own historical experiences. For the Greek to reinterpret Christianity according to Greek understanding was not a violation of its Roman foundations, because the Romans and Greek are brothers and sisters. It was a continuation of the same legacy. But what if we saw, in mass numbers, Hindus in India doing this same thing with Catholicism. It would look quite strange wouldn't it?
So while many of us are falling into this false idea of spiritual pluralism the rug is being pulled right from under us. We witness the veil non-denominational churches, universal Eastern religious philosophies, etc. They all, in one way or another, contribute to the plan, or at least aid it in some way. The plan? The total de-Afrikanizing of the New Afrikan being.
The important factor is that the New Afrikan remains the cultural other within such a framework. How culturally criminal is it to tell a people who have been brutalized and criminalized for 478 years in America, and just when they have a chance at resurrecting traditions that were stripped from their Ancestors, that worshipping the Originating Mystery in an Afrikan way is not relevant because of some supposed universalism?! That approaching spirituality from a New Afrikan perspective is limited? I say that instead of limited that it is quite part of a natural order!
Yes, it is true that there is but one Originating Mystery. That is beyond doubt. Yet, there are many paths available towards Its end. Each people have developed a way for themselves and the New Afrikan does not have to stand outside of the circle of this ongoing human process.