Religion. Re ligare ( Latin) to re-join...
This sequence of sentences/ thoughts about that and related matters:
Question : Who should represent Africa in the BBC series "Genius of the ancient world"?
Question : Who would be the candidates for representing Africa when it comes to the series, "geniuses of the modern world"?
BBC: Genius of the ancient world. So far it's Socrates, Buddha, Confucius...
This documentary is a must see - it is guaranteed to set the African thinking about Africa, since the usual African theme is, "The story of mankind begins in Africa"
BBC : Geniuses of the ancient world : Confucius (of China) who is easily identified as a main inspiration of what is known in the West as "the protestant work ethic" a necessary ingredient for nations that believe in "development"
Religion is still important.
The explanations given of the significance rituals - re interpreted by Confucius for his people of China, covers some of the concerns that Cheikh Anta Diop and people like Ashra Kwesi, Dr. Ben, Ivan Van Sertima and lately, some of the issues that Osofo Kofitse Ahadzi takes up in the interview about Traditional African Religion and Culture i.e. the integrity of religious systems that are organic, that have germinated in indigenous soil - in contrast with "foreign" religious cultures that are sometimes imported, transposed / imposed wholesale, sometimes with their liturgies in other tongues (Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, ) customs, traditions, social organisations, notions of sin, their monasteries, nunneries, their deacons, pastors, priesthoods, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, popes, redeemers, messiahs - such religious titles and language - as when Nnamdi Kanu, modestly or immodestly asserts, "I am the messiah of Biafra" , to redeem his people - reminiscent of Sabbatai Zevi and in the religious sphere, some other false messiahs . But NK is talking politics - like KN (Kwame Nkrumah) who said, " Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you."
Religion? Judaism for example, is not just a religion. It is a peoplehood . In other words, Judaism is a religion that's usually practised by Jews.
Nnamdi Kanu said, "I am not allowed to contest for presidency because I am Igbo". Since he says that Judaism is his religion, I thought that below the headlines I was going to read a subtext that ran "And secondly, anti-Semitism. I am not allowed to contest for the presidency of Nigeria, because I am a Jew".
A Jew first and an Igbo second or an Igbo nationalist first and foremost? It should be interesting to see how many Muslims and how many from among Nigeria's Christians and other faiths will vote for him if he is given a chance to run for the office of President of Nigeria, or indeed, President of Biafra. How many Christians would prefer to choose him instead of someone of their own faith.
In the department of controversy, doubts, irony and anomalies, about Yoruba religion, to date, Ignoramus has only read Canon Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyer's God: Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of traditional belief in Ghana, Nigeria & Sierra Leone and J. Ọmọṣade Awolalu's Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites - and has been wondering if the Jews will restore animal sacrifice when they build the third temple ?
In Nigeria ( and nowhere else) I got to understand the significance of sacrifice ( it's cultural) and the Christian mission's winning argument - not a goat or a cow but "the holy lamb of God" that was sacrificed on the cross to propitiate the sins of mankind...
Time is going so fast that I'm losing count of his prodigious output, but once I grasp the fundamentals of the Yoruba religion, Professor Falola's latest will be on my agenda - to understand how indigenous cultures and religions continue for hundreds of years, in their new diaspora environments , inevitably with accretions...
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