Tag: spirituality

Reflexões de Salvador: Monday, August 11

Dique do Tororó
On Monday, we visited three locations–a central theme of the first two was the Orixa tradition in Brazil.

The first trip was to the Dique do Tororó features statues of various Orixas including Iansã, Nanã, Ogum, Oxalá, Oxossi, Oxum, Xangô, Iemanjá; in addition to, Ewá, Logun-Edé, Ossain, Oxumaré. This lake was a very inspiring site as it represents the inscription of African knowledges on the spatial environment. This was a constant element of being in Salvador–the seemingly ubiquitous visual representations of Africanness, especially as exemplified by the Orixas.

Further, given that they represent divine forces, elements of nature, social archetypes, and ethical values and practices–the various representations of the Orixas serve as a potent reminder of how people conceive of and celebrate the sacred in their day-to-day lives. Further, they illustrate how African spirituality functions as an anchor of personal and collective identity, as well as how the concepts and values that the Orixa exemplify possess enduring relevance and meaning in the lives of millions of people both in Brazil and around the world.

Museu Afro-Brasileiro-UFBA
Our second trip was to the Afro-Brazilian Museum contained exhibits on Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions. It included clothes, paraphernalia, furniture, and various objects associated with the rituals and traditions of Candomblé. There were also items present from Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, and other parts of Africa that demonstrated the depth of continuity between Africa and Brazil.

A highlight of this museum was a collection of works by two artists depicting the orixas. One was a collection of carvings by artist Manoel Do Bomfim which, aesthetically, brings to mind art from the Edo Kingdom of Benin. The other collection was a piece titled “Mural dos Orixás” by Carybé (born Julio Paride Bernabó). It featured 27 panels displaying Orixás from both Yoruba (Ioruba) and Ewe-Fon (Jeje) traditions. It was visually striking in its interpolation of materials–wood, metal, shells, and so on. Further, its use of color produced highly evocative pieces that conveyed motion and energy, capturing the profound beauty and complexity of Candomblé.

Associação de Capoeira Angola Navio Negreiro (ACANNE)
That night I ventured out to my first Capoeira class, which was at the Associação de Capoeira Angola Navio Negreiro run by Mestre Renê Bitencourt, a student of Mestre Paulo dos Anjos, who was a student of Mestre Canjiquinha.

Mestre Renê teaches Capoeira Angola as a mindful, ancestral practice. He constantly emphasizes the importance of listening and observing–listeninig to the music and observing the other practitioner with whom one is playing. His emphasis on listening is analogous to something that my teacher, Mestre Preto Velho says, “Stay in time of the motion within the space of the jogo.” In this way, Mestre Renê taught the need to stay focused on what was happening in the jogo, while also reacting accordingly to the other Capoeirista’s actions. In the context of class he also talked about safety and being “calma” (calm) during one’s practice, and I would add, throughout one’s life.

In terms of physicality, Mestre Renê’s class demonstrated that Capoeira Angola is not easier than other styles of Capoeira. While it places less emphasis on acrobatic movement, it is no less demanding in terms of the dexterity, agility, balance, and strength that it requires. Thus, the movements were physically and mentally demanding. Also, like all Angola styles, his was a grounded form of Capoeira wherein we spent most of our time on the floor and a good amount of that time inverted. Further, his approach to teaching emphasized the dynamic and interactive corporeality of Capoeira–the dynamic exchange of movement and intention inherent in the jogo, the game of Capoeira.

Lastly, the energy of the class was phenomenal. In the roda, Mestre Renê demonstrated that Capoeira is about warriorhood–about facing the challenges of life and living head on. Also, the atmosphere of the class, the community which pervaded the group was palpable. This also reflects the point that one enters into the practice of Capoeira via physical movement, but movement should not be perceived as the totality of the art. It is a practice focused on preparing one to experience life itself.

Reflexões de Salvador: Saturday, August 9, 2025

Museu Nacional da Cultura Afro-brasileira.
We set out on Saturday to visit our second museum, the Museu Nacional da Cultura Afro-brasileira. This was an excellent trip that featured art from Projeto Afro–an exhibit that focuses on works from various Afro-Brazilian visual artists. The pieces were very moving and included works in multiple mediums–paintings, sculptures, and audio-visual performance. Themes of history, resistance, exclusion, colonization and decolonization, and societal progression and regression were all explored.

Some particularly compelling works that I saw were sculptures by Rubem Valentim and Mestre Didi and paintings by Guilhermina Augusti, Massuelen Cristina, and Moisés Patricio. These pieces explored African and Afro-Brazilian spirituality, aesthetics, as well as histories of racialized subordination and resistance.

The other major exhibit titled, “Òná Írín: Caminho de Ferro” was a collection of sculptures by Nádia Taquary that explored various themes related to Ogum, the Orixa of iron, warriorhood, technology, and the forging of the path. It featured various visually striking works including a statue of Mami Wata and an oríkì (a praise poem) to Ogum.

Memorial das Baianas
We also visited the Memorial das Baianas, a small museum located in Pelourinho near the Elevador Lacerda. This museum focused on the role of Afro-Brazilian women within their cultural traditions. Exhibits explored the history of Black women going back to the era of enslavement, their roles as keepers of tradition, in addition to their labor and economic impact. Further, there were beautiful representations of traditional clothing from across time that were also displayed.

African spirituality eschews abstraction

I came across a post on a social media site which featured a video of what appeared to be an African American woman thanking God for slavery, which supposedly saved her from being somewhere in Africa worshiping a tree. A commentator who re-shared this post indicated that he would rather worship a tree since trees are, after all, real.

His was a good commentary on the logic of African spirituality, that is that it eschews abstraction and elevates that which gives life to the status of the divine. After all, why shouldn’t humans worship the trees, the sun, the earth, and those other things upon which life depends?

Below I list a few examples of how Africans recognized nature as divine from the Akan, Igbo, and Yorùbá traditions.

DivinityAspect of natureCulture/tradition
AnyanwuSunIgbo
Asase YaaEarthAkan
AlaEarthIgbo
Ṣàngó (Changó, Shango, Xangô)LighteningYorùbá
AmadiohaLightening and thunderIgbo
Nana Adade KofiLightening and ironAkan
Ògún (Ogun, Ogum)IronYorùbá
Ọ̀ṣun (Oshun, Ochún, Oxúm)River, fertilityYorùbá

Spirituality and revolution

There is an imperative for social change that is articulated in the spiritual systems of many African cultures. The demands for honesty, righteous character, service to one’s community, frugality and restraint, reciprocity, discernment, and sacrifice are not merely matters of personal, spiritual cultivation. Nor are they born of a lack of concern for the physical world that we inhabit. These are commitments that require a parallel commitment to self-transformation and the revisioning of the world.

For instance, to be mAa xrw (true of voice) in a world awash in the currency of lies can be costly. But this is a necessary disposition if isft (wrong-doing) is to be appropriately understood and corrected. To strive towards the practice of mdw nTr (divine speech) is not only a matter of seeking to build bridges between the kmtwy (African/Black people) of the present world and the deep thought of their ancestors. mdw nTr, as a body of living practice, requires that the world be refashioned wherein alienation is not an inevitable outcome of the human condition.

There are other, innumerable examples, but I submit to you that only WE can save us, and that our culture is one of the most underutilized assets in this struggle.

Nature, humanity, and the divine

A few days ago I posted something about the implications of the desacralization of nature and the erosion of humans’ relationship with it. I was happy to see that this topic was recently addressed on the Medicine Shell. The reality is that not only was Africa historically wealthy in terms of our ancestors’ knowledge of nature, but also their ability to apply such wisdom in ways which were sustainable. The loss or suppression of this knowledge vis-á-vis enslavement, colonization, globalization, and modernization–all processes of westernization–have not only attenuated our connection to the natural world as a people, but have limited our consciousness to a paradigm of life where nature is seen only for its extractive, instrumental value–a form of relation that has and will continue to be disastrous for humanity.

On spirituality and alienation

Q: How does the issue of alienation apply to spirituality? There is a noted dialectic between the harmful effects of alien religions and the corresponding rejection of African spiritual systems.

A: I’ve tried to follow in Jacob H. Carruthers’s footsteps by (A) acknowledging the importance of indigenous African spirituality as a necessary component in our re-Africanization and (B) acknowledging the need for a posture of “non-aggression” pertaining to this, lest we descend into the idiocy of Holy Wars. However, I think that we have to consider what is lost when we ground ourselves in alien paradigms, as religion is so central for many African people, who see it as a way of living. The question becomes what ways of living, being, and knowing do these systems propagate and if these are detrimental or advantageous to our community.

There are many aspects of indigenous African spirituality that are valuable on the conceptual, social, and even structural levels. I’ll discuss these in turn. First, is the emphasis on inner “divinity”, that is the mtu (human being) as divine as an alternative to the idea of one being born in sin, which is really just another example of fundamental alienation.

Second, are the ethical values of African cultures, which compel for us to act ethically towards ourselves, community, and nature. There is no African belief that I am aware of wherein watu (humans) have been given dominion over nature. This is a worldview born of a fundamental misunderstanding of the consubstantial nature of life on this planet. In fact, in the African paradigm, one has a moral obligation to safeguard nature for the denizens of the future.

Third, is the value of ancestral veneration, which in reality is a means for keeping people connected to the lineage. This provides a connection that compels the mtu to study, honor, and ground themselves in their traditions–as opposed to eschewing them in preference for venerating someone else’s ancestors.

Fourth, is that African traditions offers a basis of critique for many of the conceptual assumptions of other religions–pacifism and detachment versus the need to act deliberately to actualize one’s destiny, intolerance and forced conversion rather than a perspective that emphasizes commonality across related traditions, resignation to an oppressive and alienating order in contrast to a mandate to actualize Maat or what the Akan call Onyame Nhye-Hyɛe–a conception of divine order, and so on.

Finally is the rejection of the cultural primacy and conceptual hegemony of non-Africans. When we embrace our own traditions, we demonstrate not only their suitability, but the value and relevance of our ancestors and what they bequeathed to us.

 

The mtu (human being) and African spirituality

Within the African worldview we see a conception of the mtu (human) as existing in body, mind, and spirit. At the foundation of this scheme and within the framework of traditional society was a comprehensive orientation towards developing the self and each of its facets holistically.
 
Hence, the warrior arts are but one small part of the cultivation of the body. Whether we are referring to boxing, wrestling, or weapons training, these not only sharpened the body, but also the mind. It is this orientation which continues to inform the work of many enlightened practitioners.
 
The mind is a major concern within African cultures, as the cultivation of intelligence, wisdom, discernment, propriety, and ethics are major ends of the process of socialization. This is why intelligence and wisdom are common themes in sayings, proverbs, and stories from throughout the continent and the diaspora. Many of the most scathing critiques relate, not only to behavior which is regarded as unethical or improper, but also to behavior which demonstrates a lack of intelligence. Further, the former is linked to the latter, as people who seem to be incapable of proper action are often regarded as being intellectually deficient–hence expressions such as someone being “messed up in the head”, “touched”, needing to “get their mind right”, or “special” are meant to convey such deviance.
 
Lastly, “spirit” is a major concern within African cultures. “Spirit” is variously conceived as the non-physical aspect of the being–the source of one’s vitality, often a higher or more elevated self, a self that has transcended time and space (as in an ancestral self), as well as one’s destiny. Much of the nurturing of the mtu in the traditional context was related to the notion that each human being arrives with a purpose, a veritable message from the ancestors to bring forth into the world. Apart from literal interpretations, this can also be seen as indicating that each mtu represents a purposeful existence, a set of dynamic and finite capacities that gain expression through the permutations of their journey through life, and the degree to which these facilitate a higher level of realization as to their inclinations, capacities, potential, and their ultimate decision (either conscious or unconscious) of a path in life–and that these are, inescapably–linked to their ancestral inheritance.
 
It should be noted that these concerns are the core of much of what is articulated or presented as African “spirituality”, and that this obviously entails a range of social structures whose work is focused on the development of the mtu and the independence of the taifa (nation). Ultimately there was no separation in terms of the path towards “spiritual enlightenment” and the means which enabled the society to minister to its needs on a day-to-day basis. Thus those concerned both about the practice and institutionalization of African spirituality should be mindful of this.