JOURNEY of the SONGHAI & MAAT/Religion

[Baba Ahmed]

"Our people expressed their religious beliefs through the concept defined as MAAT that they considered as a divine order established at the time of creation. This order is manifested in the normalcy of phenomena. In all African societies, it manifests itself as justice and in an individual's life as truth. Maat is this order, the essence of existence, the concept of harmony with the divine order of the universe.

To the ancients, space was of life and death importance. This is evidenced by their mysterious megalithic monuments that were tuned to the rhythm of the star cycles, which they realized were the pulse of life affecting vegetation growth, animal migrations and mating cycles correlated with the positions of the moon, stars and the sun.

In a mountainous area of the Republic of Mali, approximately two hundred miles south of Timbuctu, live several large African families: the Dogon, the Bambara, the Bozo and the Minianka. In striving for greater calendrical accuracy, the astronomer priest of various families such as the Dogon, incorporated the rising and setting of certain stars or groups of stars into their calendar for greater accuracy and community harmony, which fosters greater mental development among the African Peoples. This is why we say...that power is organized energy or effort.

The complex knowledge of the Dogon of Mali about the Sirius Star System is sending shock waves around the scientific world. Not only did Western Africans plot the orbits of stars circling Sirius, but have revealed the extraordinary nature of one of it companions 'Sirius,' but have revealed the extraordinary nature of one of its companions 'Sirius-B,' which they claim to be one of the densest and tiniest of stars in our galaxy. Sirius-B is not only the smallest type of star in the sky, it is also the heaviest. It consists of a metal the Dogon calls sagala, which is a little brighter than iron and so heavy that all earthly beings (with) combined strength could not lift a cubic yard of it.

They say there is another star besides Sirius-B (po tolo) orbiting Sirius called 'emme ya' which is larger than it but four times lighter and travels along a greater trajectory in the same direction and in a period of fifty years. This 'emme ya' (sun of women) has a satellite called 'nyan tolo' (star of women). What is really astonishing about these ancient Africans revelation is that Sirius-B (po tolo) is invisible to the unaided eye.

This is why M.I.T. Professor Kenneth Brecher in his essay, Sirius Enigmas, was so startled by the complex and incredibly precise knowledge of the West Africa Dogon people about the orbits and trajectories of stars within the Sirius System, exclaimed rudely, "THEY (Africans) have no business knowing any of this.' PAFO (Pan African Federation Organization) KNOWS that as this knowledge of our people becomes more and more widespread, the white racists desperados will continue to try to say that somebody from outer space taught us all of this. Now you can more readily see why it was important during our physical captivity as well as now to blot out our true history. They just simply couldn't afford the truth to be known, not only to us, but to their own people as well.... They portrayed us as animals, with no supposed civilization except perhaps on the lowest level of neolithic existence.

The televsion version of ROOTS projected this, when Alex Haley finally found Kunta Kinte. By that time, our original cities had been destroyed, thus forcing us into a different type of living conditions especially since our choice land was taken."

THE JOURNEY OF THE SONGHAI PEOPLE, by Robinson, Battle & Robinson. pps 173-174. 2nd edition, 5th Printing; copyright 1987.
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Baba note: I was moved to post this after reading part of a thread that supposedly deals with "connecting to our spiritual center." If u read the latest posts there and one or two from me and brutha Kweku Omowale, my comments there should be put into the context of these few words about the Dogon people in particular.
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EDIT (12 June '06): Just noticed that the Minianka are the people Yaya Diallo is from, author of The Healing Drum...


Medase