This piece develops some of the ideas discussed in the “Chain Breakers” essay relating to religious and cultural mixing, the spiritual practice of voodou, and modern notions of indigenous / African Traditional Religions.

This week we discussed how traditional African religions are portrayed in the media and how Africans have internalized ideas about indigenous religions. The media’s representation would have us believe that African religions are mysterious, monstrous, and malignant. A common theme is that voodoo practitioners are in the pursuit of self-interested aims (usually making money or acquiring material possessions). Even within films made by Africans, such as in My Wicked Uncle, the antagonist is a self-serving voodoo practitioner who has disavowed himself of responsibility for taking care of his brother’s widow and exploits the generosity of his new son (nephew). The sentiment is that the new religions, Christianity and Islam, morally triumph over the old practices, and bring more satisfaction to Africans. In many ways, the popular depictions of indigenous African religions, and African religious practices in general, run much deeper than a mere commentary on religion, and are meant to instill a mistrust in the African continent and in Africans overall.

Fela Kuti, renowned musician and activist, commented about the fundamental need for Africans to embrace African-rooted knowledge and cultural practices. While he was trained in the United Kingdom, he explored his own style of music and used it as a tool of liberation for himself and his people. Kuti didn’t go to an external source, but made the discovery inside himself. The genre he birthed, Afrobeat, was a fusion of old and the new styles, familiar yet unique. The genre is distinctly African, free and fun, and not bound to the conventions of the traditional. One of the meanings of Sankofa is as you move forward, look back; You must understand where you have been to understand your current location, to determine where you must go. Kuti promoted using knowledge by Africans for Africans. The white man’s ways will not work for Africa because they were not designed with African wellbeing in mind. Kuti, recognizing this situation, made his own style of music that suited the needs of himself and his people. In this day, Africans of the Diaspora have internalized negative ideas about ourselves, to the point that we promote and hold self-defeating notions to be true. This is not an indictment, but a critical observation if decolonization of our culture is to take place.

Even after decolonization of our culture takes place, how do we contend with the systems of power that continually leach human and material resources from the African continent? Professor suggested a closed door policy, much like China had in the past. What could convince Africans to do this? How can one who has been convinced of her ugliness be affirmed in her beauty, value, and power? I believe this could happen, but only through drastic intervention and recalibration. Africa has been divided into fragments, already containing many ethnic and linguistic groups, and further divided through imposed political boundaries. Even the institutions and systems of governance reflect a European inspired, serving, dominated position. Let’s think wildly for a moment of what could be, even if not feasible at the present time. How did pre-colonial groups govern themselves before the introduction to European systems? If the door was closed, would industrialization and connection to the global system be a priority? 

Despite media representations, there are those like myself who are interested in reconnecting with their spiritual roots, revisiting their homelands, and incorporating cultural practices into their art forms to regain a connection with their traditional past. Indigenous practices are a way to venerate ancestors and maintain a connection to a human-deemphasized order of nature. Indigenous practices also promote values like family, community, and generational wisdom through the use of proverbs. These cultural practices survived through the Diaspora, a phenomena which Herskovitz called Africanisms. Foods, music, language, and ways of worship have been carried throughout the Diaspora, so that even though on the surface African descended people have distanced themselves from indigenous practices, the flavor of the practice endures. 

From what I’ve heard on the news, conflicts caused by trying to wholly eschew the ways of the past, have led to bloody encounters between Christians, Muslims, and the general population. Boko Haram, for example, is a Islamist jihadist group, intent on propagating the Quran. In Uganda, Joseph Kony has tried to establish Old Testament law. In adopting new practices, and doing so with a very rigid and authoritarian hand, they have wreaked havoc and destruction on entire communities without remorse. These groups have used holy books to justify terrorism, guided by principles of rigidity and noncompromise. Still, I have only a small portion of understanding about these groups’ aims and objectives. Regardless, religion is the vehicle through which they are promoting violence, which is significant. They are in search of power and control, and are seeking to gain it through violence. But this violence ultimately destabilizes society, tears apart communities, and is a destructive force. Meanwhile, news media representations either remains completely quiet on these matters or sensationalizes death without any analysis or effort to understand the factors that shape terroristic responses.

Abrahamic and indigenous African religious have had contact with one another, have mixed together, have argued with one another, have represented the lifestyles of their practitioners. As we move forward, I wonder about more positive examples of others who have dealt with the duality of spiritual beliefs. I would also like to understand why shame and secrecy runs so deeply when there are overlaps in how the new and old religions and cultures constantly co-mingle and reinforce one another.