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- The Black Spiritual Holocaust
by Bikbaye Inejnema
Born and raised in the ghetto on Chicagoıs Westside and reared as a Christian Baptist, there was no indication or influence of traditional African spirituality that could be seen, heard or felt in my community. A child of the 70ıs, the only clue I was exposed to that I can remember trying to identify as African was a piece of clothing called a dashiki. This dashiki was something that one or two adults in my neighborhood would wear, but only during the month of February. Inside of the public schools I attended, which were 99% black, there were no pictures, flags or discussions about Africa or its history. At approximately 9:00 every morning, thousands of black children throughout the Chicago public school system would stand with their hands over their heart pledging allegiance to the country that was built on the enslavement of our ancestors. Pledging allegiance to the country that considered a black man 3/4 of a human being. Pledging allegiance to the country that condoned the senseless lynchings of thousands of blacks. Pledging allegiance to the country that made it illegal for blacks to practice their traditional spirituality, speak their native tongues, or even learn how to read.
This reality of our past and present has not been kept hidden. It is what we saw yesterday, today and what we will see tomorrow. This is a perfect example of what can be considered as a spiritual holocaust. The affect of it goes a lot deeper than what can be expressed in one article alone. The fact that blacks in America are educated to be dependent on the same system that colonized the world makes it very difficult and almost scary to venture outside of the psychological box that was created specifically for us. This cultural issue is so bad, that it can be difficult for one to realize that he is an active player in his own degeneration. It has even gotten to the point where the realities of the world and our role within it no longer interest us. We have become so complacent as a people that survival is no longer our priority. We have become comfortable merely existing and living by values that are not ours to begin with.
The education taught to us and our children here in America has succeeded in making sure we acknowledged and even felt compassion for other cultures and the holocausts they experienced. Whether it is the Native Americans, the Japanese, the Jewish etc., their plight and struggles have been imbedded within our consciousness. Every Sunday inside black churches all over the country, one can clearly see the passion that is displayed and generated when the message concerns the children of Israel the bible speaks of. Pastors, preachers, ministers, evangelist etc. use the Jewish exodus and experience as a foundation to identify themselves and their congregation with a culture whose history preceeds their own. Yes, it was a terrible event in the history of the world, but the truth is, they have recovered from it. Can one honestly say that black people have recovered from the spiritual holocaust inflicted upon us?
Somehow, we have fed into the illusion that we are much better off than we were three hundred years ago; that we have made some progress. Some may say this based on the observation that more jobs have become available to us, or we now have the right to vote. Others may say it is because we can sit in front of the bus, or eat at any restaurant we choose. But who owns the jobs we have? Who do the politicians we vote into office work for? Who built the buses we ride on? Who owns the restaurants we eat in? How can these few examples be seen as progress if the results of our battles lie in the hands of the same system that has demonstrated its disdain for us time and time again? How long will we continue fooling ourselves? And this is just on a social level. Spiritually, our situation is much worse.
Traditional African spirituality, (whether one chooses to label it as animist, polytheism, paganism, Kemetic, voodoo) was once the only system humanity embraced that allowed us to come close to the divine world. At that time, there was nothing else. These practices were the way of life for all inhabitants of the Earth for thousands of years. There was no division among people because everyone adhered to the same value system and everyone had their share of what was needed to survive. It was only after the invasion by the Persians and Greeks that new Gods were introduced to the world, new ³spiritual² practices, new values and so on. Well, these are the same exact values that blacks still follow today. The same foreign Gods that blacks worship so vigilantly every Sunday. This represents a spiritual disaster for black people. The fact that we can still be found in the pulpits and basements of churches preaching the glory of the same God that an infantile European culture created to make their goal of ruling the world much easier shows how effective their design was. Letıs be honest, psychologically, their plan worked brilliantly. Even today, if the idea of more than one God is mentioned in a church full of black people, one would probably have to run for cover soon afterwards. And one would really receive a harsh reaction for mentioning a word like voodoo. The European clergy made sure that blacks were painted a negative picture of these and other aspects of their original spiritual practices. This is oppression. Just look at our situation today. Nothing has changed; maybe this is why.
It is the responsibility of every community leader and parent to re-educate themselves and their families regarding their true culture. This will be our only key to survival in the future. But nothing can begin until we get past the denial stage and realize we are suffering a spiritual holocaust. I think if we take an honest look, the realities of how we were taught to hate our own culture will slowly become visible. Peace.
