[Pain]

I'm studying the Akan Akom spiritual system. I haven't actually had an Okomfo divination yet to find out my lineage. Ifasehun, you know the deal with that from another thead. I'm both working to find one here or to travel to a state that does have them such as Maryland or New York. For now, Akan is what's calling me the most. Vodun, Ifa, Igbo all appeal to me too, but Akan calls me the most. I could be dead wrong I know. lol I'm just rolling with it. Aside from studying online, offline just recently I bought the book "The Quest For Spiritual Transformation; Introduction to Traditional Akan Religion, Rituals and Practices" by Nana Akua Kyerewaa Opokuwaa. So the next thing I'll be doing is setting up a personal shrine, but not before I e-mail Afsani with a couple of questions based off of what I have read so far.

Below is how I feel about the unity of our spiritual systems/ ethnic groups issue. To me, also, our spiritual systems are pretty much ONE. I see the differences in them almost as denominational differences in Christianity. Also, I concur with what Ifasehun has stated so far in this thread as well.

Htp



Whenever you approach the origin of things you will have a multiplicity. For example with languages. If you want to find the origin of so-called "Afro-Asiatic" languages you will be taken to Ethiopia. There are more "Afro-Asiatic" languages there than anywhere else combined. If you want to find the origins of language it is with so-called black people. Among so-called black people you will find more languages than all the languages combined of non-black people in the world. Genetically, so-called black people are the most diverse on the planet. We have more alleles than any other people. Alleles are what account for genetic variation within so-called races. All the non-black people in the world are genetically more closely related to each other and us than we are to each other. This is why you can have one group of us like the !Kung in Southern Africa who will be more closely related to people from far east Asia/ the Alaska natives than they are to another group of us living 1 mile away from them. You need that type of diversity to create anything. Gotta have something/s to create with. Just as "God" is the ONE that is ALL, we are the physical manifestation/ representation of God on this plane/t qualitatively, not quantitatively. This understanding is manifested even in our original spiritual systems that were misconstrued as mere polytheism which doesn't begin to capture our concepts.

The unity/ unification is understood/ perceivable in the over-all result/ goal/ purpose/ effect of the different parts that we play. The result/ effect is the maintenance of divine law and order for the goal/ purpose of experience. This is wholistic thinking. People who classify themselves as white invaded the different areas of the world and found people behaving much in the same manner as I am describing now and because of their left-brained/ uni-hemispheric tendencies, they could not perceive the interconnectedness of not only the people, but the people and the rest of nature itself. They could not see the result/ effect/ purpose. Therefore they always sought to manipulate the people, the environment, the animals to behave in such a way that their purpose now became to produce a result or an effect that was beneficial primarily to people classified as white. This is the problem with seeing only the parts of a thing and not the whole. This is a fragmented mindset. This type of mind always seeks to separate/ segregate as if one thing totally has nothing to do with the other.

When one has an understanding of WHY we are as diverse as we are, we begin to understand that the likely result of ALL of us becoming one nation (with what the implications of nationhood are), is the end of our experience, the end of creation, the end of existence. The key is in how we did it before, but remember that there's always room for improvement. The "great" civilizations that we have had such as Kemet, The Indus Valley civilization, Sumer, Kena'an, Ta-Seti, the early empires of Japan and China, the Olmec civilization, Songhay, Mali, Ancient Ghana, Great Zimbabwe and so on only required some out of the whole. These civilizations were an amalgamation of different groups of so-called black people who recognized the commonality in the goal/ purpose/ result/ effect of their spiritual nature/ mindset and behavior. They decided to organize and consolidate. However, in my opinion, a couple of the main reasons we are in this mess right now is because we did not heed the word of our ancestors first of all and we also didn't take it a step further by protecting each other. We witnessed them taking our brethren in Asia asunder and we didn't make up our minds to protect each other. Kemet was an amalgamation of different African ethnic groups with their own spiritual systems. They didn't give up their respective spiritual systems and didn't have to in order to become a nation. It was good that when so-called white people first invaded the north of Afuraka and we had to retreat to the interior that we had our original uncorrupted culture still in tact and to go back to. This is also another reason why I don't think we all need to be united in the sense that some people think we should be. All so-called black people are not going to change from their way of life to do things the way that I think we or some group of us think we should be doing it and there won't come a time when all so-called black people decide that they all want to be a part of one nation. Not everyone will be willing to sacrifice their culture like that. Some out of each group, however, will concede to their understanding and some is all we need. That some will serve as representatives/ ambassadors of their respective groups. They will be the ones who bridge the gaps and create unity/ unification in a way in which we've never had before and we urgently need. First we take it back, then from there we take it further than we did before. That step further that I'm talking about is simply the understanding that WE PROTECT EACH OTHER. We don't stand by and watch some outlaw people loot, plunder, rape and commit genocides against our people. We can have our respective spiritual systems without fighting with one another. I haven't heard of any ethnic group in Africa being ordered by the Vodu, the Orisha, the Arusi or the Abosom to kill or commit immoral acts against another ethnic groups. The problems we have with each other are not because of our spiritual systems. The causes for those problems have to do with things we discuss all the time on here so it isn't necessary for me to get into.

I know it was long. That's me. I'm long winded. This is pre-typed so it isn't meant to offend anyone.

Htp