Post by jew85em on Mar 23, 2017 14:51:01 GMT -5
This book list 100 African religions before slavery and colonization link
Heres the book link
www.lulu.com/shop/akan-takruri/100-african-religions-before-slavery-colonization/paperback/product-23065199.html
Heres the $9 ebook link
www.etsy.com/listing/498266858/100-african-religions-before-slavery-and?ref=shop_home_active_1
Oromo tribe Ethiopia
Oromos believe thatWaaqa Tokkicha(the one God) created the world, including them. They call this supreme beingWaaqa Guuracha(the Black God). Most Oromos still believe that it was this God who created heaven and earth and other living and non-living things. Waaqa also createdayaana(spiritual connection), through which he connects himself to his creatures. The Oromo story of creation starts with the element of water, since it was the only element that existed before other elements.
Oromos believed that Waaqa created the sky and earth from water. He also created dry land out of water, andbakkalcha(a star) to provide light. With the rise of bakkalcha,ayaana(spiritual connection) emerged. With this star, sunlight also appeared. The movement of this sunlight created day and night. Using the light of bakkalcha, Waaqa created all other stars, animals, plants, and other creatures that live on the land, in air, and in water. When an Oromo dies, he or she will become spirit.
Some Oromos still believe in the existence of ancestors' spirits. They attempt to contact them through ceremonies. These ancestral spiritsappear to relatives in the form of flying animals.
Original Oromo religion does not believe in hell and heaven. If a person commits a sin by disturbing the balance of nature or mis-treating others, the society imposes punishment while the person is alive.
Oromo heroes and heroines are the people who have done something important for the community. Thinkers who invented thegadasystem,raagas(prophets), and military leaders, for example, are considered heroes and heroines. Today, those who have contributed to the Oromo national movement are considered heroes and heroines.
Baganda
The Baganda believed in superhuman spirits in the form of mizimu, misambwa and balubaale. The Balubale were believed to have been men whose exceptional attributes in life were carried over into death.The mizimu were believed to be ghosts of dead people for it was believed that only the body could die and rot but the soul would still exist as omuzimu (singular of mizimu). Such ghosts were believed to operate at the family level to haunt whoever the dead person had grudges with. If the mizimu entered natural objects, they were believed to become misambwa. At another level, the mizimu could become tribal figures and also be known as Balulaale.
The supreme being among the Baganda was the creator Katonda. Katonda was, believed to have had neither children nor parents. He was said to have created heavens and the earth with all that they contain. Katonda was however, not believed to be very different from the other Balubaale. In fact he was believed to be one of the seventy –three Balubaale in Buganda. There were three temples for Katonda in Buganda and all of them were situated in Kyaggwe under the care of priests from the Njovu clan.
The other Balubaale had specific functions. The most important among them were; katonda, Ggulu, god of the sky and the father of Kiwanuka, god of lightning. Then there was Kawumpuli, god of plague, Ndaula, god of small pox, Musisi, god of earthquakes, Wamala, god of Lake Wamala and Mukasa, god of Lake Victoria. Musoke was the god of the rainbow and Kitaka was the god of the earth.
There were temples dedicated to the different Balubaale through out Buganda. Each temple was served by a medium and a priest who had powers over the temple and acted as a liaison between the Balubaale and the people. In particular clans, priesthood was hereditary, but a priest of the same god could be found in different clans. The priests occupied a place of religious importance within society and they usually availed themselves for consultation.
The Kings had special shrines of worship. The Royal sister known as Nnaalinya took charge of the king’s temple. There is a tradition among the Baganda that the Balubaale cult was introduced by kabaka Nakibinge to strengthen his authority and that he combined both political and religious functions for that matter.
Fulani
The Fulani of Mali, also known as the Fula or Fulbe, can be found throughout Africa, although they predominantly inhabit West Africa. They tell the following poem of creation which involves their supreme god Doondari.
A Drop of Milk by MarcGC
How the World Was Created From A Drop of Milk
At the beginning there was a huge drop of milk.
Then Doondari came and he created the stone.
Then the stone created iron;
And iron created fire;
And fire created water;
And water created air.
Then Doondari descended the second time. And he took the five elements
And he shaped them into man.
But man was proud.
Then Doondari created blindness and blindness defeated man.
But when blindness became too proud,
Doondari created sleep, and sleep defeated blindness;
But when sleep became too proud,
Doondari created worry, and worry defeated sleep;
But when worry became too proud,
Doondari created death, and death defeated worry.
But when death became too proud,
Doodari descended for the third time,
And he came as Gueno, the eternal one,
And Gueno defeated death.
Banks Islands of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea
On the Banks Islands of Vanuatu, the first being in the world was Qat, a creator god and hero who fashioned islands and covered them with trees, animals, and plants. Qat also made humans by carving dolls from wood and then dancing and singing them into life. Then he created day and night so that people could work and then sleep.
Many Melanesian peoples believe in monstrous ogres that eat people. An ogre killer becomes a hero by slaying these monsters. Ogre killers often perform other great feats as well. According to a myth from Vanuatu, a terrible ogre killed everyone except a woman who hid under a tree. The woman gave birth to twin sons who destroyed the ogre and cut it into pieces, an act that enabled the people who had been eaten by the ogre to come to life again. The people reestablished their society and began to follow new rules of behavior.
Marawa, the spider, is a friend of Qat. When Qat created humans Marawa tried to do the same, but his wooden figures turned into rotting corpses. That is how death came into the world. Tagaro, a trickster of Vanuatu, destroyed his evil brother Meragubutto by persuading him to enter a burning house to gain more magic and thus increase his power.
Importance of African religion
Learning African religion is very important. It gives you an insight into how early Africans delt with living, in a much different environment. I have to say, Africans very much so earned their right to that continent. Note, that when most of the religions I listed started, it was a totally different landscape then today. These people were still getting to learn about some of the wild animals in the area, they had to co-exist with. Many of the animals of yesteryear, are extinct. When the Sahara formed it created many problems. Some say the Earths axis shift, caused more concentrated heat to the area, transforming fertile land into a desert. Theres many theories, but may I add, that most of the land around that area at the time was marsh like areas, due to the Polar Ice Caps melting. So Africans had to travel by papyrus boats half the time. This was a danger all in itself, because there was no telling what type of large snakes, or crocodiles lurked in the waters.
So now this brings us into where the religion comes in. If you are dealing with all of this and trying to insure a whole tribe, wouldnt you need religion? I think of it like if you have a small child who is scared of the dark, and thinks its a monster out there ready to get them.The only thing that you have to tell them is to say a prayer, and the monster wont get them. That went the same way for early religions. If they were in the jungle hunting, some believed that God or their creator was right behind them watching over them. If they looked back then God would no longer protect them, and they take the risk of getting eaten by a large animal. If they heard of someone who went into the woods and had been eaten by a wild animal, they would tell the people, that they didnt obey Gods rules, and that was the reasoning for the mishaps happening.
Other religions had laws that were one in the same. For example, if you committed a crime, you owed the victim tribute, meaning you owed that person in the form of some type of annual offerings that had monetary value, until that person forgave you. If that person didnt forgive you then you would not have your creator's protection over you. Then the whole entire time that you are in the process of paying tribute, the Creator wouldnt watch over you. So if a tribe invaded another tribe and lost, it could really cost them. Plus they were in fear of their creator not watching over them and a natural disaster, or famine would hit. This system was carried well into the 1600's during the time of slavery. In my humble opinion, this was a key system that kept Africans for the most part at peace with each other. That and the fact that populations were lower at a certain point and time, and everyone new which tribe were their cousins.
Like many other tribes around Africa, The Noks had a tribute system. A tribute system is built into religion and it is law. This is what kept Africa peaceful. It is sometimes confused with slavery and indentured servitude, but it is much more than just the two. With a tribute system if there were problems in agriculture for that year a tribute would be made to the creator, in forms of cattle or valuable goods. This also was used as a peace agreement among tribes. Notably the Asante, Dahomey, and Oya were practicing it when colonizers came. This made it easy for colonizers to collect slaves, and they took full advantage of the system.
You can read about the Noks judicial system below, were the tribute system was incorporated.
"It is a known fact that the Nok’s judicial system pre-dates the western judicial system. The Nok people created classes of courts used for adjudicating cases from minor civil cases, such as family disputes and false allegations, to criminal cases such as stealing, murder and adultery. The people believed that every crime attracts a curse which was capable of destroying whole family and therefore must be uncovered to avoid the consequences.
The suspect was brought before an open court for traditional oath taking, which involved standing between two monoliths facing the sun, the most supreme god called Nom. The suspect then swore to tell the truth. Cases that cannot be resolved in the open court are taken to the high court which sits within an enclosed shrine.
The court was presided over by the Chief Priest and various clan heads. Anyone found guilty was fined goats and chicken for sacrifice to the gods and local wine for the chief priest. The town would then declare a day of celebration on which the people would thank the gods for their graces in successfully resolving the issue and averting doom for the people".
So now you can see the importance of African religion, and why most people in the conscious community want to cling onto these for the most part forgotten systems. It’s the key reason for me writing this book. We have to know what we came from to know where we are going.
Ethiopian Ancient law system
Seera Gumaa Oromo
Ok so we have the judicial system in America, and its not designed for African Americans. Its setup as a way to make money, or it is a for profit corporation. That’s crazy in itself if you look at the fact that black people created the judicial system. I wanted to explore more of the ancient law systems that were setup. We are always told this lie that Africans invented slavery. That’s hard for me to believe when you can trace back these ancient tribes and they had these systems in place thousands of years ago. Ok lets look at two controversial situations in history. One is Egyptian slavery of The Hebrew, and the other is Egyptian slavery of The Nubians. With the African systems they had in place for law, it would have been no place for slavery in that system. Now lets say The Hebrew were the Hyksos as prisoners of war. They wouldn’t have kept them there for that length of time, nor would they have had them anywhere near sacred Pyramids or structures. Plus the Bible is not a History book. Secondly lets look at the inscription in the Palermo Stone. It says that the Egyptians and the Nubians got into a war with each other, and Egypt won the battle. This was before the dynasties formed. They later made amends and formed a nation. The only thing about that is people try to say Nubians were slaves to the Egyptians. So lets examine that. In the Palermo Stone it says Egypt won the war and received 200,000 herds of cattle. Now if you know anything about African ancient law and its tribute system, you know that losers of battles were in major debt to the winner, not only spoils of war, but an extended period beyond that. This might have been the system that was in place, and through them paying tribute, they might have made an agreement to unite.
One other area to look at is African judicial system being enforced by families, because remember at one time in Africa everyone moved as individual families. If crimes were committed, it effected the whole family, because it would take away from the families saved livestock and agriculture that they had planned out to get through a certain time. So you could imagine that they would keep each other in line, because last thing you want, is for a crime to be committed and you have to offer up over half your livestock through a time of famine. I can imagine this could cause families to break off from the tribe if a crime was committed, or if they were charged with a crime, they did not commit. This would be another reason for migration of a tribe from one area to the next.
Ok now lets talk about Ethiopians ancient law system and tribute system called Seera Gumaa Oromo
By: Getachew Ch. Nadhabaasaa
What is Seera Gumaa Oromoo?
Seera Gumaa is Oromo people’s long-continued conventional body of rules of blood compensation for making and restoring peace. It enforces and reinforces the killer/murderer (the offender) to pay symbolic balance of compensation (in former times in kind, for example heads of cattle, nowadays in cash) to the nearest relatives of the person one had killed (victim). When the killer is influenced and enforced to pay compensation, members of the victim’s clan, the lineage group in particular, are solemnly appeased to accept the compensation for peace. They accept the peace not only for themselves but for those biologically and socially interconnected Oromo clans, who are not localised but dispersed all over the Horn of Africa.
Seera gumaa Oromoo also stipulates mechanisms that can deter potential threats of conflict escalation to perpetual retaliation. As an institution, it lays fundamental rules governing behavioural activities to be followed, that the Oromos are timely urged to follow and work on it for reconciliation (araara).Both parties, the offenders as gumaa payers, and the defenders as gumaa receivers, are governed by the rules and procedures of Seera Tumaa Oromoo (in this case seera gumaa) in restoring peace. It is an impressive institution, in its intensity, very ideal to the Oromo people of the Horn of Africa that crowns the positive rule of peace.
Procedures of Conducting Gumaa for Peace
The process of conducting gumaa for peace essentially requires the involvement of three important bodies (in some cases four)
1. The Hayyuus: Magistrates of the Gadaa System
The hayyuus are the ones who are acting on behave of peace (nagaa/nagayaa) of the nation at large. They are peace-makers who take initiative and start a go between two feuding parties for peace. They are not for jaarsumma who would work as fact finders and read the final verdict. They are working on the discernible existing facts. They exert their cumulative knowledge, wisdom, patience and effort to defuse the vibrating tension before its explosion to retaliation. The hayyuus are the ones who can revitalise the ailing peace of the nation to normal life.
The Power of Oromo Sacred Objects
The hayyuus are accompanied by Oromos’ powerful sacred objects. Among them: Kallacha, Caaccuu, Alangee, Cokoo (ritual spear) inherited from past ancestors, and bridled horses (cancala/luugama). These are indispensable sacred objects, carried by appropriate persons that accompany the hayyuus whenever they go to the victim’s village for peace. The sacred power for araara is essentially believed to have been encapsulated in these millennium old Oromo sacred objects. They persist to exist and continue to offer their sacred services in cleaning the polluted peace of the people despite condemnation to extinction by foreign-injected elements against their sacredness.
2. Clan members of the killer (an offender)
These are groups of gumaa payers and peace givers. It is not only the individual who has committed the murder whose hand is believed to be full of blood. The action he has taken against the life of the man is also believed to have contaminated hands of his clan members. They are the ones who bear primary obligation to clean the spoiled hands of their brother (direct committer of the crime) and themselves, too
3. Clan members of the victim (a defender)
These are gumaa receivers, peace accepters and restorers. It is viewed as if members of the victim’s clan are also killed. As a reason, they may raise their spears against the killers for revenge if they are not instantly intervened and deterred by the reconciling power of the hayyuus.
Preliminary Requisites
The gumaa norms of conduct for reconciliation require the defender’s party (victim’s family/clan) to accept the appeasement of the hayyuus for araara (reconciliation).It requires patience and wisdom of knowledge on the part of the hayuus to persuade them, in particular, those near relatives of the victim’s paternal lineage. It may not be an easy task to get their consent at initial stages. However, since they cannot be above the conventionally agreed upon norms of the society, they ultimately come to comply with the rules of the institution in exchange for symbolic compensation.
The victim’s family (clan) cannot ask the hayyuus to fix either the maximum or the minimum amount of compensation they accept or reject, nor do they appeal to their “foes” for compensation. Its procedural activities are regulated as enshrouded in the seeraa gumaa Oromoo tradition for peace. It is neither for punishment nor a debate of a win-to-win solution.
Members of the killer’s clan, if they are truly in need of peace, may urgently appeal to the hayyuus to undertake the gumma peace process. They, members of the killer’s clan, by themselves, cannot directly go to the families of the victim and appeal to them for peace; or acknowledge the man’s offensive action against life. They do not even directly look at their faces, especially at members of the victim’s paternal lineage. They have to strictly control their feet not to trespass upon the areas where lineage members of the victims are living. Failure to strictly follow these custom-regulated rules can thwart the beginning of the peace process, leave alone to come to reconciliation.
The Buyyaa Ceremony: The Final Chapter of the Peace Process
By holding what is known as the buyyaa ceremony, the gumaa reconciliation process will be coming to an end, which will be held at meadow where abundant green grasses, trees and a river that flows throughout the year are available. On this day, the payment of blood compensation, as decided by the hayyuus in light of seera gumaa, will be officially announced and handed to the nearest relative of the deceased (killed) person. If it is committed in self-defence or happened by accident, the amount will be less than the intent one. The killer’s clan cannot ask the hayyuus for revision. What the hayyuus could do is to ask the victim’s clan (gumaa receivers) to reduce for them certain amounts which is, in most cases, acceptable.
In the process of gumaa payment for peace, the other important point to be stressed is that, the killer is totally deprived of paying, even a single cent, out of his handhuuraa (private property), even if he is a millionaire. He is enforced to solicit for contribution tying his hands with chain. The chain shows the impurity (pollution) of his hands, contaminated by the pure blood of the man he had deliberately or desperately a cause to spill. He is now begging other innocents to help him clean his “xurii” (=dirty) out of his hands.
It is on this ceremony, that the killer(s) is officially presented to the public. In areas where the Waataa communities are living among the Oromos, the man is brought to the ceremony by Waataa ritual leader, the guardian of Waataa’s sacred object called botowaa. Until this day comes; the man stays under Waataa’s full protection. No one dares to attack him or molests him as far as he is under Waataa’s protection.
At this place, a ram is immolated whose meat is left only for birds of prey. The killer and the victim’s near relative will go to the house of the killer, sit side by side and sleep together at night. An exultant woman, with honey full of sour gourd, receives them at the gate. An uncastrated steer is immolated at the gate. At night, they sleep together. Their toes are tied to each other by a piece of intestine from the immolated steer. In the morning one of the killer’s sisters cuts the intestine from their toes with a sharp edge of a spear. The End!
The buyyaa ceremony celebrates the true face of gumaa for the restoration of peace, deterring and liquidating all possibilities of retaliatory vengeances. It ushers the termination of looking each other as “foes” (blood feuds) or seeking for revenge. It signifies the return of peace to its equinoctial position. It radiates a luminous peace to all members of the community at large.
