My Africa, My Africa: A Spiritual Journey and Cultural Exploration
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In fact, if anything, there are traces of history that suggest that all Africans once worshipped a mother-goddess. In the Yoruba spiritual system the creator of all, Olodumare, is sometimes said to be male, sometimes female. Furthermore, Olodumare is not almightily worshipped. Instead, Olodumare is said to have created deities whom people can worship and interact with. These deities are called Orishas and they too can be female and male.
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Which is not to say that there is always gender harmony among the pantheon of Yoruba deities. Yoruba spirituality is a reflection of reality and the Orisha, like the humans over whom they govern, get into all number of kerfuffles concerning gender. But the mythology surrounding them is feminist because it unfailingly portends a crisis if harmony is not sought. Although there is a tendency nowadays for women to associate with female Orisha such as Oshun and Yemoja while men associate with the male Orisha like Shango and Ogun, this is a western-influenced binary gendering of the spiritual system, and in my view a great loss.
Women can especially find value from the energy of the male Orisha and men can benefit greatly from associations with the female Orisha. That it is nature- and species egalitarian. The Orisha, like many of their counterparts in other African spiritual systems the earth goddess Asase Yaa in Ghana, Dzivaguru in Zimbabwe, Mamlambo in South Africa , are anthropomorphistical of nature elements. To give some examples, Yemoja is the spirit of the ocean personified, Oya is the energy of the winds personified and Shango, the force of thunder.
Once a person is inculcated in the system of Orisha veneration, they would therefore treat nature with compassion. Similarly, animals are not viewed as inferior to humans because we all depend on nature in equal manner. By contrast, animals are often seen as companions who in African myths even can occasionally marry humans and produce children who are both human and animal.
Animals are also seen as teachers, who each have a specific lesson to teach. The tortoise, for example, teaches how to watch out for sly and mischievous behaviour by itself being guilty of that. Anansi the Spider in the Ghanaian tale, similarly teaches about mischief if more positively. That it encourages happiness. Unlike organised religion, which dogmatically reinforces ideas of sinfulness and shame, African spirituality is not dogmatic, it does not have one single messiah who dictates exactly how spirituality must be expressed.
Instead rituals and customs can be practiced in correspondence with all the characteristics of human behaviour.
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Therefore rather than punish practitioners for destructive emotions, it warns them against the impediments to joy that are caused by things such as dishonesty and greed. Nor is the body and the physical sensations it produces seen as shameful. This is also why it encourages happiness. Because the key message is to act with higher consciousness from a place of self knowledge, which you could argue is the source of happiness.
The truck drivers she had been sharing the road with began to recognise her and ushered her to the front of the queue. His eyes were like marbles, and my passport was stamped in a jiffy. View image of Albu was inspired to take the journey after listening to a radio show Credit: Instead, Albu quenched her boundless thirst for Africa through its people.
Akindeji Wesey (Author of My Africa, My Africa)
Her travel diary is filled with page upon page of names, numbers and business cards, including the addresses of hundreds of teachers she sent schoolbooks to through a charity she is affiliated with. In Tanzania, she stumbled upon a small village and began talking to one of the elders, named William. They spent hours together that day and the next, sitting on a bench while putting the world to rights.
Months later, a letter from him plopped through her door in Cape Town. I, in my own way, promise to give you company. During the trip, Albu learned to shake off age with a flick of her hair. In Tanzania, at a honeymooner resort, she peeled off her dress for a midnight swim. Her enthusiasm for Ethiopia is particularly infectious — for the dramatic landscapes and for the profound spirituality that imbues the place. Sudan, too, she describes with a sense of awe that I suspect is reserved for an Africa with which she no longer feels familiar.
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View image of In Botswana an elephant nearly came to blows with Albu's car Credit: Held at border control for several days while Tracy was fitted with Arabic number plates, her only option was to sleep in a cafe. Tailor this Tour idea. What to expect Is there anything more romantic than Africa?
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