Gods After Our Own Likeness

As I sat in the crowd of about 50 at the Cr8 Gallery in Hackney, London, I remembered the words of the legendary Chinua Achebe- “….there is that great proverb; that until the lionlearns to speak, the history of hunting will glorify the hunter. Once I realised that, I had to become a writer. I had to be that historian.” Undoubtedly, it is this same sense of realisation that inspired James C. Lewis’ exhibition- TheOrisha Experience. Through his camera lens, heoffered us a rare glimpse of the Orishas in all their pomp and majesty, and more importantlyfrom an African perspective.

 

For a long time, the supposed authorities onissues regarding Africa were anything but African, and their uneducated views on our cultural traditions and practices were generally contemptuous. In the end, what became the established truth about us and our customs was not what was defined by us, but what has beendefined for us by others with little or no understanding of our cultural protocols. We accepted as truth the condescending appraisals of our traditional forms of worship by the early European missionaries. The same missionariesthat set up schools where African children weretaught to loathe local deities, yet storieseulogising Greco-Roman gods and goddessesformed part of the school curriculum. These days, you do not need missionaries to perpetuate the indoctrination. African parents will happily allow their children to watch Walt Disney movies like Hercules but will swiftly rebuke a child if he as much as mentions the name of a local deity. Any reference to African gods or goddesses still stirs up a feeling of contempt.

 

Hence, it is not surprising that throughout his formal education, from elementary through to college, James C. Lewis, an African American from Atlanta, Georgia, never came across any tales about African deities. But all this was about to change. Fuelled by curiosity, equipped with a camera and drawing inspiration from the well of his imagination, James showed us a whole new way to tell the African story. This spectacular portrayal of the Yoruba Orishas, never seen before, deservedly drew immense admiration from across the world- from Brazil to Portugaland all the way down to Australia. Something that started as a personal journey resonated with multitudes of people of African descent in a way James never would have imagined. In a captivating mix of colourful art and grandeur, the Orishas have been given a visual dimension.

 

For me, this exhibition was not just about a spiritual quest or the appeal to our aesthetic faculties. It is the deeper impact on our psychology as a race that excites me. That we can see a reflection of ourselves in these demigods is empowering. For a race that has been subjected to deliberate misrepresentationthroughout most of history, it is refreshing to be reminded that we have within us collectively and individually, the power and ability to rewrite our story and even dare to present our gods and goddesses in our own likeness.

Generation Lost

I had an interesting conversation with a Gambian friend not too long ago. Being a Mandinka, I asked him to tell me their version of how the world and humans came to be. His response was simple: “I’m not sure there’s anything like that anymore; now, it will be hard to differentiate between Madinka tradition and Islamic tradition”.  I had this same conversation with a South African friend. I asked this Zulu brother to tell me about the Zulu story of creation. Sizwe stared at me with a puzzled look and proceeded to tell me about Adam and Eve!

Well, after I picked up myself from the floor with laughter, I tried to tell him about the Akan account of creation but I soon realised my own knowledge on the topic was not very impressive either. I spent a good part of the day searching my memory for what I can remember of Nana Nyankopon and how he created man, but I was drawing blanks. And it was not just the creation I did not know. My knowledge of my cultural heritage as an Akan turns out to be shocking. I could not give you dates for traditional festivals, I could not tell you much about the Abusua and its constituents, proceedings of a naming ceremony, names and their meanings and significance and I could not even name the days of the week without stopping to have a deep think. And I am not alone in this boat. Many of my peers are just like me. We are a generation of Gas/Akans/Ewes/Zulus/Mandinkas who know very little about our heritage as a people. And if you think we are bad, take a look at the generations behind us. Most of them who have been born on the continent cannot even have a fluent conversation in their native language. What we have now is a generation without a firm cultural grounding. We lack a good understanding of who we are as a people, so we drift through life like a rubber bag in the wind. We look upon our own with scorn but hurriedly adopt foreign cultures and try to make them our own.

But we cannot blame ourselves for the kind of up bringing we received. The blame lies with our society, our parents and an educational system that has largely outlived its purpose. Growing up, most of our parents and the school curricula belittled and condemned most of our cultural practices as heathen, desolate, irrelevant, pagan etc.
What children learn at school about our cultural practices is only superficial. And parents have not done a sterling job either, mainly due to religious and economic pressures. I know parents who will put their tv on mute when libations are offered during televised state ceremonies but allow their children to watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks and buy them Harry Potter books to read! Somehow the Caucasian witchcraft is acceptable in their homes but our ancestral means of communicating with the Supreme Being is utterly unacceptable. We are the product of the actions or inactions of our parents, societies and a largely irrelevant educational system. It is therefore not surprising that we have become scornful of and disinterested in our culture.

I know there are those who question the relevance of the preservation of our cultural heritage. To them I say, ask yourselves if it matters. Does it matter if the expert kora player is Japanese? Or the expert on Shona language is German? Does it matter if your children grow up believing their history begun with the coming of the Europeans to our shores? Does it matter if all that you know about yourself is only what someone else has written about you? A society without a specific heritage to lay claim to, will inevitably turn to material goods and superficial urban culture to fill that vacuum. Being divorced from ones cultural heritage is to be removed from ones source of morality. What results is a broken society with no moral compass because the people have no idea where they have come from or where they are heading.

Like the proverbial bird on the Sankofa Adinkra symbol, let us take from the past what is good to enrich the present. Let’s not ignore the profound wisdom in our proverbs and philosophy, let’s not dismiss the strength in the unity of our extended family units and let’s not disregard the importance of our past in our future.

Corrupt And Greedy Citizens Destroy Nations, Homosexuals Don't

Nana Oye’s stance on homosexuality has got many Ghanaians coming out of the woodwork. Many are calling for her head because she said gay people should be accorded the same rights as any other citizen of Ghana. NUGS has cautioned the Appointments Committee of Parliament to reject Nana Oye’s nomination for the position of Minister of State in charge of Gender, Children and Social Protection “in order to protect our highly esteemed Ghanaian cultural values and customary laws” or Ghanaian students will be hitting the streets. If NUGS went on demonstrations against the thievery of public funds by politicians and married men chasing “small small” girls on their university campuses, Ghana will be a much better place.


Like NUGS, all the anti-homosexual crusaders are out and their arguments are as pathetic as their bigoted attitudes. Their irrational argument is two fold- the moral side and the religious side.


The moral argument says homosexuality is alien to our Ghanaian cultural values. They will happily point out homosexuality to be something that has come from the “white people”. This argument assumes homosexuality to be the exclusive cultural preference of some other cultures or nations. Gay people can be found in every society. I do not pretend to fully understand why people turn out to be gay.  They do not choose their sexual orientation, it is rather inborn it seems. It is biological. There are over 1,500 species that have been found to display homosexual behaviour. Are we going to conclude these species consciously chose to be homosexual?


Then we have the religious side of the anti-homosexual bandwagon. They say homosexuality is an abomination to the Lord. But it is funny how they cherry pick and miss out the scriptures that list a load of other abominations like: Lending with interest to your brother- are we going to close down all banks and jail all bankers? Wearing clothes of the opposite sex, re-marriage of former companions, taking ornaments from idols- are Ghanaian women going to pull off their Indian hair, most of which are collected from religious shrines where they were given as sacrifices? Cheating, lying tongue. So there we are! Let those self-righteous, bigoted individuals cast that proverbial stone.


The religious argument also reasons that God did not create the anus for sexual pleasure. And for this reason, homosexuality should be made illegal under our laws. Well, neither was the mouth created for sexual pleasure so why not make all forms oral sex illegal?


And then there is the religious argument for procreation- that the creator commanded humans to breed and fill the earth. They assume legalising homosexuality will somehow cause all humans to be gay and therefore cause extinction of the human race- a very irrational argument to say the least. Condoms and other birth control drugs are sold in every chemist in Ghana yet we somehow think it is homosexuality that will cause human extinction?!

This article is not to say homosexuality is right or wrong. It is to expose the illogical arguments against it. There may be some good arguments for the anti-homosexual cause, but I am yet to hear it. I do not see how a consensual relationship between two adults of the same sex should imperil the wider society. This is clearly a discussion that we need to have as a nation, but you cannot have a productive debate when one side threatens death and destruction upon the other. Equality does not mean that we are all the same. Each of us is different in our own special way. But we also have the common qualities that make us all humans. So each of us should be treated with respect and dignity.  

WHY I THINK THE NEXT POPE WILL BE A BLACK AFRICAN

With the confirmation of his plans to resign the papacy on the 28th of February, the speculation circus rages on about who will succeed Benedict XVI. Though I am not a catholic, I will be elated to see a Negroid Pope elected. And I have reason to believe there is a fair chance of that happening. Before I proceed, I must confess I did not set out to research into papal names and symbolisms. I was looking into the history of the Moors in Europe and this is simply a by-product of that search. Though I find some compelling signs pointing to a black African successor, my conclusions are mere inferences.

It has been a long standing tradition for Popes to change their names when elected pontiff. This practice begun around 533 AD, when a pagan convert to Christianity, became Pope and changed his name from Mercury (named after the Roman god) to John II. It is also customary for the Pope to have his personal coat of arms. Papal names and coat of arms are therefore carefully chosen and adorned with symbolisms to convey messages deeper than meets the eye.

Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, the Pope chose the name Benedict, “….firstly, (because of) Pope Benedict XV, that courageous prophet of peace, who guided the Church through turbulent times of war.” It must be noted that Benedict XV’s reign only lasted 7.5 years and on 28th February, when he steps down Pope Benedict XVI's own reign would have lasted just under 8 years.

Benedict XVI also said he chose the name to evoke the spirit of Saint Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism whose influence helped spread Christianity over Europe. "St. Benedict is very venerated in Germany, particularly in Bavaria, my homeland. He is a basic point of reference for the unity of Europe and a strong reminder of the undeniable Christian roots of its culture and civilization." Is the Pope hinting at the undeniable fact of the Moorish people's profound impact on the furtherance of Christianity and the civilisation of Europe?

So who is St. Benedict? Benedict was also known as Benedict “The Moor” or “Il Moro” which translates Benedict The Black. He is said to have been born of Moorish slaves in Sicily in 1524. Now you may ask; who are the Moors? There has been a systematic agenda to misrepresent the Moors and rewrite them out of the history of Europe. But the evidence of their presence and profound influence on the European people and culture keeps mounting. In an attempt to deny the truth, Euro-centrists have sort to portray the Moors either as black African slaves or a group of Muslim non-Negroid Arabs that briefly invaded Iberia (Spain), but were repelled by the Crusaders. This could not be further from the truth. How can they be non-Negroid when all over Europe the word moor refers to a person of Negroid origins. (Spanish and Italian- moro, Portuguese- mouro, French- maure, Romanian- maur, German- mohr). The truth becomes undeniable when you find images of Moorish people adorning countless family and town and city emblems all across Europe. (Check this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-0MyTsmiU) The Moors were no slaves. Why will a family or a town put the image of its slaves on their coat of arms or build statues of them and name pharmacies, pubs and inns after them? They appear on there because, they were amongst the rulers and patricians of that society. Europe at this time was a place where people of all origins lived together, unscathed by racial prejudices.

At the beginning of the 8th century, Moorish soldiers crossed from Africa and invaded Spain, spreading to other parts of Europe. It is worthy to note that, the continent is at this point, in a period described as the Dark Ages. These Moors will intorduce advanced levels mathematics, astrology, architecture, agriculture and medicine which will help propel Europe into what has been known in European history as the Renaissance. Luckily I was coerced into attending most my history lectures in my final year at university, so I read quite a bit on the Renaissance. The Italian city of Florence is widely considered as the birthplace of the Renaissance. Is it just a coincidence that the first Duke of Florence, Alessandro de Medici, is of Moorish origin? One of the greatest English playwrights of the Renaissance era was William Shakespare. No Shakespare is not Moorish, but Othello is. In the tale Un Capitano Moro- The Black Captain, Othello is described as a brave and competent soldier, and a Moorish prince and ambassador living in Venice.

Going back to the papal speculation, Benedict XVI does not only choose to use the name of Benedict, a Moor. He goes further. The picture below is that of the Pope’s personal the coat of arms. On the top left corner- as you look at the shield, is a Moor’s head wearing a crown. Before he became a cardinal, Benedict XVI was the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. The crowned Moor is adopted from the emblem of the Diocese of Freising. The origin of the crowned head on the Freising emblem is however unclear. This is hardlly surprising as there has been a conscious effort to stifle and distort the historical account of the Moors.

Evidently, Pope Benedict XVI is a man with a deep sense of history and has undoubtedly chosen a name and symbolisms that seems to be riddled with clues as to who he will want as a successor. He chooses a Moor’s name and uses a crowned Moor’s head on his coat of arms then decides to resign at a time when two cardinals of Moorish origin are front runners for the papacy. Is this all a coincidence or it is by design? If I were a betting man, my money will be on cardinals Turkson and Arinze. It looks like it will be a two Moors race.

Jungle Gold- Gold Rich Land, Dirt Poor People

I was up pretty early this morning. Annoying, considering I am on leave and should be getting maximum sleep. Failing to get back to sleep, I reached under the pillow for my phone and went through my daily morning routine of checking my facebook, twitter, whatsapp ad email accounts. It seemed like I was the only one up at stupid o’clock. I laid in the darkness for a bit fiddling with my phone. Then I remembered someone mentioned a Discovery Channel documentary about illegal mining in Ghana the other day. So I ended on Youtube.

My immediate reactions minutes into the documentary were the usual fury whenever I see something embarrassing on Ghana. But as it went on, it became apparent how overly scripted this documentary is. Many of the scenes have obviously been staged for dramatic effects. It felt like something copied from a re-enactment scene in Crime Watch. Their stay in the “jungle” would not have been complete without the shots of the leech conveniently lodged on the ankle of one of the crew members and a cameo appearance by the highly poisonous green mamba. Funny how there were no mozzies in the “jungle”, with all the pools of murky water these clowns created with their illegal mining. And the subtle play on the old colonial hierarchical system. At the top is the greedy white explorer/exploiter, then the Indian middleman operating the excavator and at the bottom, my people!

Many scenes in this documentary may have been scripted, but we cannot ignore the message in there. That a section of Ghanaians can be so poor whilst the land they live on abounds in gold is a shame on every Ghanaian. That two debts-ridden yanks can come into a village in Ghana, have a hearing with the CHIEF and his ELDERS and have little school children take the day off school to perform at the gathering is just unbelievable. Surprising how this issue of illegal mining was not a major debate topic during the election period. I guess this is just an indication of how much these politicians care about the people.

For those two greedy yanks, it was a win/win situation whatever the outcome. If they find the gold, they make money and if they did not find the gold, they would still make money from the screening of the documentary. But for us, all we get from this as a nation is bad press and death traps.  

Colour Code: What Shade Of Black

Last year I spent some time in a part of south central Asia. I would hesitate to call these people racists but they do have a pretty down trodden view of a dark skin tone. Everyone in the TV adverts is fair-skinned. They even have skin products that block out the darkening effects of the sun and make the skin much fairer. And it’s a thriving business. All the big western cosmetic companies that make millions from selling tanning lotions in the west make just as much money, if not more, selling products that do the exact opposite on this side of the globe.

I was not sure who was more surprised at this; me or these white Europeans I was with. They would not pass up an opportunity to lay in the sun to top up their tan. The locals however found it absurd that people in the west would even pay to go on the sunbeds. And their concern was not because of the health risk related to the constant exposure to UV rays; rather, they found a pale skin colour to be much more desirable than a tan.

Apart from Alek Wek, I am struggling to think of any other very dark skinned female fashion icon. I think our standard of beauty as Africans and black people, has a leaning towards a fair skin tone. It is what we see on TV and in the lads’ magazines that shapes this view. Beyonce, Nikki Minaj and Rihanna look whiter with each new music video. I checked the colour settings on my TV twice this week already, so it cannot be that. And I have had my eyes checked too-well that is only because I wanted an excuse to buy myself one of those cool Ray Ban glasses- but it turns out my sight is impeccable. 

So Hollywood favours a tan, Bollywood a pale skin but what does Nollywood say? Is it Alek or Bey, licorice or caramel? Personally, I like a bag of M&Ms.

Maclean Arthur: We Left Africa- But We Will Be Coming Back Home

This is inspired by Afua Hirsch’s article for The Guardian: Our Parents Left Africa- Now We Are Coming Home (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/ghana-returnees-afua-hirsch-africa ). This article is not meant to be a direct response to the one named above but to merely offer a different perspective on the issue of the economic migration of Africans to the west and the return home- from the perspective of one born and raised in Africa but living in the west.

I was born and raised in Ghana, but I have been in and out of the UK since I was about 17 years old. I therefore did not have to go through the topsy-turvy period of trying to discover my cultural identity as do many children of African descent growing up in the west. Though I am embarrassed by stories like the one that appeared on the cover of the Economist in 2000, I am not affected as much as my cousins who have been born and raised in the UK and whose knowledge of Africa is largely shaped by what they see in the media. Unlike them, I know of a different Africa- an African where the roads are just as good as those in the west and people drive around in Range Rovers. Consequently, I did not go through that excruciating experience of denying ones own roots and disassociating oneself from Africa and anything African. Many like me, who relocate to the west at an older age, have different kinds of issues to deal with; you get white Europeans looking at us like we all speak in clicks and have come from war ravaged countries where we walked 10miles every morning just to fetch water from the same river our livestock drink from. I remember I was once sat in a predominantly white church where the vicar had just returned from an evangelism trip to Uganda. Before his sermon that morning, he decided to show the congregation photos from his trip on the projector screen. He had visited a church branch in one of the shanty towns. The flick showed images of living accommodations constructed from scrap metal, plywood and plastic sheets-one on top of the other and situated right in next to a massive refuse site. As I sat there lost in my thought wondering what becomes of children born in such an environment, I had a gentle tap on my shoulder. It was the vicar’s wife and her words were; “Does this remind you of home?” I was dumbstruck and could not utter a word, so she obviously took my silence to mean a “yes” in response to her question. I could not help but think the whole congregation had the same question on their minds. The vicar had no other photos of Uganda other than that of the shanty town. So a congregation of about 20 went home that Sunday with one image of Africa in their heads. This is our battle; constantly battling the stereotypical image of the African. And we battle these stories and images not because we deny Africa faces issues of the poverty, famine and senseless wars, we do so because we know there is another Africa whose story never makes the headlines. Because we are aware that the constant reproduction this negative image does nothing but rob us of our dignity as a people.  

Though it may still be true that life abroad means “access to a stable income, reliable healthcare and a credible education”, unlike the Africans from Afua’s mother’s era, leaving for this breed of African migrants is not permanent. Not only are flights home more frequent and comparatively cheaper, we are starkly aware of the changing fortunes of Africa and the many economic opportunities its offering. So when we have had the education, the work experience and managed to pull enough resources together, we find our way back home. And we do go back with good experience, having travelled the world and observed and engaged with many other cultures. That is why whenever I go back to Ghana to see the family, I scream if I have to queue up for hours and be played like a ping pong between different customer service desks just to get my own money from a bank; because I have lived in a society where customer service is excellent most of the time. And in the same vain, whenever I visit Ghana, my heart warms with pride when I see my neighbour admonishing my niece and nephews when they are being mischievous because I have lived in a society that has a broken family and societal system and experienced the consequences.

I do not hold our experiences to be richer and better than those who have lived on the continent all their lives, but our experience however offers a different perspective which can be harnessed for our common good. The African migrant of today has the ability to negotiate both worlds with relative ease. We can put on a British or an American accent if the need arises or switch to our local African languages so we do not get swindled by people back home who may mistake us to be foreigners.

Year after year, several Africans resident in Europe and America make that final journey back home. It was several years ago they begun that sojourn- they carried not just their luggage and passports bearing a much sort after visa, they also carried within them a dream. A dream that some day they can come back home and build economic empires so big that their children would not have to make this journey ever again. But as one group gets off the plane at the Kotoka International Airport, another jumps on, back to Europe and America beginning their sojourn. It has become something of a cycle. But this cycle is losing its momentum. For a long time bad press has sucked away belief in us as a people and in the continent. But somehow there is a new sense of optimism within Africans- on and off the continent, returnees and “stayees”. Africa is on the surge and it is no longer so uncool to be African or to be associated with anything African. I tune the radio to Kiss Fm in London and I hear D’banj singing Oliver Twist, I go to a club in Dortmund and I see people dancing azonto, I drive through Brussels and I see someone in African prints. Africa is on the rise.

On my last visit to Ghana in April 2012, I sat watching telly with my mother. It was a children’s rap competition and what struck me was the fact that none of these children performed lines by Drake or J. Cole, they were spitting the lyrics of Sarkodie, Kwaw Kesse and EL. I sat with a grin across my face. The change has finally begun. When I was growing up our rap icons were all American. We wanted to speak and dress like them, so we longed to be American. Now this generation of Ghanaian children have their heroes in Ghana. Just like their icons, these children now believe they can live in Ghana and be whatever they wish to be.