Mutabaruka Speaks on Black History on Cutting Edge 1-31-2018

I was listening to Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge radio show on January the 31st, previewing Black History Month which would begin the next day. The Bredren reasoned in depth about the brainwashing that plagues African people and how we get caught in European interpretations and philosophy. Basically, how as black people we just accept European culture, embrace it and defend it as we own. I think its because many of us are lost, especially when it comes to history and culture. Many of us accept European culture, religion and mannerisms without even understanding how these things developed and how they became ingrained in our day to day lives as black people. 

Mutabaruka said:

"Issa mad thing. Is mad we get mad. All a we get caught in it; all a we, there's no exception to the

rule.... Valentine's day a come, most people get caught inna that. Easter a come, it bigger get caught inna because that is the most auspicious 

Mutabaruka

time of the Christian calendar. That nuh have nothing to do with Africa; that nuh have nothing to do with blackness. All when you hear a man talk bout him a read Bible and a try switch the characters in it to black, him thinking is white. Is not the color of the characters, is the mindset that drives the characters in the Bible. So you could a paint Moses black little more, and Jesus Christ black little more, it don't make no difference if what is there yet still wallow inna the same thinking that in the first place tell you they white. We need fi search fi a new understanding, 'cause Planno did say a new faculty of interpretation. Even Rasta get caught inna it. We get caught inna it to the point where now that we all Jews, heh-heh, and we love say it too, and 'we are Christian soldiers, onward Christian soldiers marching on.' Our reference is always in the context of European understanding. So we define and we use logic that is determined and decided by western thinkers, western philosophers, and we don't know how to decipher what is ours and what is not ours..."

Now I can guess that many readers are thinking, So what? Jamaica (or any other Caribbean country) is a Christian society. 

Yeah, but how did it get so? And, if we know that it was forced upon our forefathers, then why black people so quick and ready to defend it? And worse, if you tell some of we that Shango is we thing, is our culture, some of us going to get vex and tell you that you working obeah. 

Now, get this straight: I am not a follower or practitioner of any form of obeah or voodoo. But those things are our own African thing and I acknowledge them as such. I even embrace the knowledge, knowing full well that just because Europe says that these things are inequity and idolatry, doesn't make them less important or less-than anything for that matter. Black history and culture is our story, its rich and we need to learn to embrace our African selves.

Mutabaruka stated:

"African sensibility don't prevail inna the Jamaican society. We celebrate almost 360-odd days of white history and tomorrow is the first day of February, which is Black History Month. But most people will not, and I'll repeat, most people will not even think of commemorating Black History Month. As one, young politician say, 'Black History Month is irrelevant to Jamaica. It was started in America because of the need, and because of how white people was treating black people in America so that was the necessary in America but here it don't necessary.'

But it more necessary yahso. Because the slave master left all of him thinking here and it embedded and pinned down inna we. That all when him no deh yah (when he's not here) we are living out the slave masters ideas and philosophies. And we even implement it and institutionalize it inna we politics, inna we religion, inna we social order..."

Another point I thoroughly agree with. We uphold Christmas, which is a lie, and turn our noses at Kwanzaa? And give all kind of reasons why we won't support it; bout how that is an American thing.

But Ethiopian Orthodox (one of the oldest Christian churches) doesn't celebrate the 25th as Christ's birthday. You know who instituted the 25th as Christmas? Rome. So, in fact we following the Romans. So, we following Rome, but can't see the goodness in a Pan-African concept like Kwanzaa? Or, Black History Month?

Because these are American holidays that have nothing to do with us. But we celebrating Halloween!? Stop the madness.

Christianity in Ancient Africa: Part I

                           Christianity in Ancient Africa: Part I
                                  copyright 2014 K. Omodele

With political friction sparking in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt over the past few years, religious tribalism ignited when fanatics claiming Islam attacked Christians, and destroyed Melkite and Coptic churches in these ancient lands. Wait! Hold up! Christians in Egypt? Soon as we hear the word "Christianity," many of us begin thinking: Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican, even Mormon. Say "Christianity in Africa" and certain images jump up in our minds: European missionaries converting villagers, fattening them up for the colonial kill.

Yes, Eurocentric Christian traditions are definitely perpetuated in the West. However, Egypt in the First Century A.D. was home to many of the early scholars and thinkers who shaped Christian concepts. African Christian societies existed in Aksum (Axum) and Nubia long before most Europeans even heard of Yeshua*. And when we learn the plight of grass root Egyptians under Graeco-Roman rule, we get a firmer understanding of Egyptians' embracing Christianity.

Egypt Under Graeco-Roman Rule
In 332 B.C., the Greek army of Alexander conquered and colonized Egypt, enforcing a tax system on the Egyptian peasantry that was much harsher than the one imposed by the Egyptian pharaohs. Then when the Romans took over Egypt around 30 B.C., their system was even more rigid and exploitive. The Roman Empire ruled without regard for the humanity of the Egyptian peasant. The abject oppression had many Egyptians marooning from their fields- rather turn into a bandit in defiance than beggar or a slave to the Roman system. It was in this setting, in the First Century A.D., that the Apostle Mark established one of the earliest Christian diocese.

Christianity quickly garnered appeal amongst some of those Egyptians most subjugated by the Romans, offering a sense of hope to the down-trodden, promising deliverance to sufferers who endured affliction in life. Early Christians in Egypt shunned the materialism perpetuated by the Roman Empire and preferred living in isolated communes. They developed a tradition of self reliance. They prayed and meditated intensely, contemplating the complexities of the human spirit.

The Romans definitely considered these early Christians an extremist sect. Being Christian those days meant being viewed as a rebel, a subversive element, a threat to the status quo- the Roman way of life. They were deemed radicals against the Roman machine; so, thousands of these early Christians were persecuted mercilessly, martyred through centuries until the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and established it an official religion. In 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, Constantine then called for the the Roman church to follow one common doctrine.

*Yeshua is Hebrew (the man was Jewish). The Greeks called him Iesous, which became Jesus to the Romans. Jesus is the Latin derivation of Iesous which came from Yeshua, his actual Hebrew name.

READ MORE:
Christianity in Ancient Africa Part II- The Egyptian Coptic Church; Christianity in The Kingdom of Aksum (Axum)
http://consciouspen.blogspot.com/2015/09/christianity-in-ancient-africa-part-ii.html

Christianity in Ancient Africa Part III- Christianity in Nubia (the Kingdoms of Noba, Makurra and Alwa)
http://consciouspen.blogspot.com/2015/09/christianity-in-ancient-africa-part-iii.html