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“A new era of understanding and unity for the African Continent” His Excellency Mr Aden Abdulla Osman

His Excellency Mr Aden Abdulla Osman

President of the Somali Republic

Address at O.A.U. meeting in Addis Ababa Ethiopia 1963

“A new era of understanding and unity for the African Continent”

I feel deeply privileged and honoured to have been afforded the opportunity of participating in this historic Conference in which, for the first time, all the Heads of African State and Government have assembled together with the object of realising the unity and well-being of Africa.

It is an inspiring experience to see in this hall, men whose vision and influence extend far beyond the African Continent, and it is our sincere wish that by combining our efforts there will emerge from this Conference positive and constructive proposals for the achievement of African Unity.

I need not emphasize the value which my Government and people attach to meetings of this nature. In these dynamic and momentous times circumstances demand that African leaders meet more frequently to discuss matters of common concern to exchange views on problems affecting the destiny of our Continent, and to align policies on international issues which bear upon the unity and well-being of Africa.

In dealing with our problems, it is necessary that we heed the lessons which history has taught us. We must bear in mind that the interests of Africa will best be served by those who belong to Africa, and whose primary loyalties lie within Africa. It would be prudent to remember that African States share a common destiny, and that no State can hope to prosper in isolation. We must be resolute in our efforts to maintain a united front, and to counteract all attempts at the establishment of permanent rival political blocs or groupings in our Continent.

There is an aspect of African independence that is perhaps unique in history. Having recently conquered our freedom and national identity, often at an immeasurable price in human lives and hardships, we are naturally proud of our sovereignty and independence. And yet, we do not regard national independence as our final goal. We are aware that in the second half of the twentieth century to grow into independence means to grow into inter-dependence, we strive for the consolidation of our national societies, and at the same time we strive for African Unity. We lift our eyes beyond our boundaries and identify ourselves with the struggle of those African brothers who are still under colonial domination.

When we speak of African Unity we must be aware of clichés and empty words. Our guiding principles should be idealism tempered by realism, vision and imagination accompanied by a sober concern for practicability. We should not be afraid to acknowledge that any form of association, federation or union implies a voluntary limitation on each State^’s sovereignty. Recognizing this necessity, the Somali Constitution provides that the Republic "accepts, on conditions of party with other States, these limitations on its sovereignty as may be necessary to ensure peace among nations."

As a result of past conferences and the preparatory meeting of the Foreign Ministers here, considerable progress has already been made in the direction of African Unity and Solidarity. Several important documents, which have emerged from these combined efforts, provide excellent working material for the preparation of an African Charter.

One of the major tasks confronting us today is to articulate our common aspiration for unity into a political framework acceptable to all.

Three main alternatives should be considered. The first is to develop a system of periodic consultations among African Governments for the purposes of concerting their foreign and military policies, and raising the economic and social level of the African people.

The second alternative is the establishment of an Inter-African Organization dedicated to the same purposes, and having its own budget and legal personality.

The third alternative is the creation of an African Union or Federation, with a single foreign policy and diplomacy, a common defence system, a common economic planning, and a unified currency.

There are very important differences among the three alternatives.

Under the first, each Member State, while committed to cooperate with the others, remains free to decide its policies according to its own judgment.

Under the second, each Member State, within the limits of the Charter of the Organization, is bound by majority decisions and undertakes to contribute to the expenses of the Organization in proportion to its national budget.

The third alternative is radically different from the others in that, while the degree of autonomy and sovereignty retained by individual States depends upon the terms of the Constitution, each of them is represented internationally by the Federal or Union Government.

What is, then, the solution best suitable to Africa today? The right answer to this question cannot be improvised or lightly given. I stress that the answer should be the right one; that is, it should take into account the present stage of development of the Continent, and project it forward realistically in the foreseeable future; it should express, if at all possible, the unanimous conviction of the African States.

No doubt, the vision of an African Union, speaking with a single voice in the councils of the world, reflects the aspirations of the peoples of Africa. As a final goal, we should all strive for the realisation of this objective.

At this stage, however, I wonder whether the African States would be prepared to surrender their recently acquired sovereignty to a central government. In our view, such a momentous decision should be reached only at the end of a process of evolution. We should begin with less binding forms of association. These would enable us to acquire the habit of working together towards the solution of common problems, and would gradually prepare us for the adoption of closer bonds.

It seems to us that at this stage of development, our common desire for greater unity among African States would best be expressed by the formation of a new Pan-African Organization. The Organization would have its own juridical personality, and would be parallel to the regional agencies already existing in other continents, in full accord with Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.

In our view, such an organisation should have four principal organs:

a) A Pan-African Assembly, which should normally meet once a year and decide the general action and policy of the organization;

b) A Council, which should meet whenever necessary, deal with urgent matters, and be responsible for the implementation of the policies laid down by the Assembly;

c)A permanent Conciliation and Arbitration Commission which should deal with the settlement of territorial and other disputes between African States;

d) A Secretariat, responsible only to the organisation which should be entrusted with the performance of the administrative and technical services.

An organisation of this nature would provide a forum for periodic contacts among the leaders of African States. In particular, it would serve to reach a peaceful settlement of controversies and disputes among African countries; to coordinate the policies of the African States at meetings of the United Nations and of other international organisations; to promote the economic and social progress of the African Continent.

The Permanent Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, which I have in mind, should consist of a panel of highly qualified Africans, who command universal respect. The Member States of the Organisation should be urged to submit inter-African disputes to the Commission. The success of this machinery for the amicable settlement of State differences would strengthen mutual confidence and would prepare the ground for closer forms of association.

In the economic and social fields, the Organisation should be concerned with raising the standard of living of the African people; in particular it should examine thoroughly and promptly the existing projects and recommendations, such as the creation of an African Common Market, an African Investment Fund, an African Development Bank, and others.

Permit me, however, to sound a note of caution. There are matters which must be dealt with by each individual nation; others may be most effectively dealt with on a regional or continental scale; others still should be tackled on a world-wide scale. Before embarking on a course of action, such as the creation of a new African technical agency, it should be ascertained whether the proposed organ would provide the best solution to the problem at hand. Any decision should be preceded by a thorough study of the financial, technical and other practical aspects of a proposal. It should be borne in mind, for example, that the African States here assembled are members of the United Nations and its specialised agencies, and we all contribute to their budgets.

 It is important, therefore, to avoid unnecessary duplication and expense. In deciding whether a new project should be launched or a new agency established, we should be satisfied that there is a real need, and that the function is not already effectively performed by existing agencies.

I have considered it necessary to touch upon the organisational requirements of African Unity because the soundness or otherwise of its structure will affect profoundly the success of our endeavours. To ensure that our organisation develops soundly it is important that we build on solid foundations, and the strength of those foundations will, in the last analysis, depend on the degree of understanding and good will which bind the Member States. It follows, therefore that those problems which hinder the development of relations between African States must be attended to without delay. If they are left unresolved they could well harm relations and consequently imperil the foundations of our unity.

The kind of problem which we have in mind is that concerning terri­torial disputes between African States. We are aware of course that this is not the forum for discussing individual disputes between countries but territorial disputes are issues that go straight to the hearts of the people.

History has shown that the most serious obstacle to African Unity originates from the artificial political boundaries which were imposed on large areas of the African Continent by Colonialist Powers. We have seen how traditionally integrated societies were torn apart and how their land was cruelly partitioned to serve the selfish interests of others.

It has been suggested by some that any attempt to adjust existing boundary arrangements would aggravate rather than ease the situation, and for that reason matters should remain as they are. We do not subscribe to that view for several reasons. It would amount to us condoning actions and policies which we know very well are wrong and unjust. It would, too, admit a defeatist attitude and imply a lack of courage to solve African problems. Finally, it would show that we are short-sighted to think that African Unity can be achieved by side-tracking contentious issues that are the realities of the African scene.

It is for this reason that we seek in the friendliest spirit the indulgence of this great Assembly for a better understanding of the territorial problems which face the Somali people. In doing so, our purpose is not to promote discord or hostility between the States involved, but to seek recognition of the fact that the problems deserve the attention of the whole family of African Nations.

Briefly the Somali problem is this: unlike any other border problem in Africa, the entire length of the existing boundaries, as imposed by the colonialists, cut across the traditional pastures of our nomadic population. The problem becomes unique when it is realised that no other nation in Africa finds itself totally divided along the whole length of its borders from its own people.

Those who oppose the reunification of the Somali territories, attempt to portray the Somali people's desire for unity as a form of tribalism. Such opponents use every means at their disposal to rank the Somali people as an ordinary tribe without any rights to nationhood. The Somali people are a nation in every sense of the word.

A nation has been defined as “a people, usually inhabiting a distinct portion of the earth, speaking the same language, using the same customs, possessing historic continuity, and distinguished from other like groups by their racial origin and characteristics. It is constituted by inborn qualities which render it indissoluble.”

The Somali people share all these common bonds, and in addition, share a common religion. There is no doubt, as scholars have universally acknowledged that the Somalis constitute a nation.

This concept of nationhood is profoundly felt by all Somalis, those living outside the territory of the Republic, as well as those living within it.

An eminent expert on the peoples of the Horn of Africa has recently written: “The haphazard partition of Somali grazing lands by Britain, Italy, France and Ethiopia towards the end of the nineteenth century separated, quite literally, brother from brother by a series of artificial and often disputed frontiers across which Somalis, as nomads, have to move.”

By becoming united, the Somali people feel that not only would their welfare be secured, but that as a single entity they would be able to contribute effectively to the ideals of African Unity. In their present situation they cannot do so. They cannot develop into a coherent whole, while one-and-a-half million of them are still living in areas administered by Britain, Ethiopia and France.

The Somali area administered by Britain is known as the Northern Frontier District. Last October when an impartial commission was charged with ascertaining the view of the inhabitants living there, it found that 87% of them were in favour of union with the Somali Republic. By expressing themselves overwhelmingly in favour of joining their brothers, the people of that region have demonstrated that they emphatically do not consent to be governed by the authorities in Nairobi. Furthermore by boycotting unanimously the Kenya elections, they have demonstrated that they emphatically do not consent to participate in the government of that country. It is because Britain has refused to recognize the will of the inhabitants of the N.F.D that a dangerous state of unrest has arisen there.

The strong desire expressed in the N. F. D towards union is shared also by Somalis living under Ethiopian and French rule.

It is not our wish, at this stage, to go deeply into the Somali territorial dispute with our host country Ethiopia. We shall simply summarize our stand on this matter by saying that Ethiopia has taken possession of a large portion of Somali territory without the consent and against the wishes of the inhabitants.

The present state of agitation and ferment in those areas will continue to fester, unless an equitable solution is found. If the wound is not healed, it will constitute a constant source of trouble in the region, and may affect adversely the friendly relations between the Somali Republic and her neighbours. Let there be no misunderstanding about our intentions. The Somali Government has no ambitions or claims for territorial aggrandizement. At the same time, the people of the Republic cannot be expected to remain indifferent to the appeal of its brethren. The Somali Government, therefore, must press for self-determination for the inhabitants of the Somali areas adjacent to the Somali Republic. Self-determination is a cornerstone of the United Nations Charter, to which we all subscribe. If the Somalis in those areas are given the opportunity to express their will freely, the Government of the Republic pledges itself to accept the verdict.

Before concluding, I should like to summarise in a few words the position of the Somali Government on other important issues.

We share the strong feeling of all Africans that the liquidation of the last vestiges of colonialism from the African Continent must be accelerated. We urge, in particular, that the people of French Somaliland be given an opportunity to determine their own future freely, without pressure or intimidation. French Somaliland, as you may have noted, enjoys the unreliable position of being the last French colonial outpost in Africa. Whenever the question of independence for Africa is raised, there is a tendency to devote most attention to the larger colonial territories, and overlook the struggles of the smaller ones. In our opinion, all colonial occupied territories should be considered in the same light. It would give encouragement to the people of French Somaliland and also to the other smaller territories if this Conference could endorse the proposition that the indigenous populations should be allowed to exercise their right to self-determination without further delay, and that moral and material help will be provided by African States.

The continuing anachronism of colonial regimes in Angola, Mozambique and South West Africa is intolerable. It is equally anachronistic that the democratic principle of “one man one vote” should not yet have reached Southern Rhodesia.

We are looking forward to the early independence of the peoples of Kenya, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Zanzibar, and will welcome them warmly in our community.

The South African Government's policy of apartheid and racial discrimination has been universally condemned. We can never rest as long as this outrageous contempt for the dignity of man persists.

We continue to subscribe to a policy of non-alignment, in that it enables us to examine dispassionately the merits of each issue, with prejudice towards none.

We fully support the efforts made by all peace-loving nations towards the achievement of general and complete disarmament.

We believe that the creation of a nuclear free zone of the African Continent similar to that recently proposed for Latin America, would be a significant contribution to the lessening of world tension. For the same reason we are opposed to foreign military bases in Africa.

We reaffirm our belief in the principles of the United Nations Charter, and our confidence in the Organisation as an indispensable and effective force for the improvement of the human condition. As the United Nations now has twice as many Members as it had when it was created, we will continue to press, jointly with other African countries, for the structural changes necessary to reflect more adequately the present membership of the organisation.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank His Imperial Majesty, the Ethiopian Government and people, for the warm hospitality they accorded us in their capital. May this green plateau, fragrant with eucalyptus and ringed with noble mountains, be the birthplace of a new era of understanding and unity for the African Continent!

African Culture - Kwame Ture

“THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN GODS:THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS” MOLEFI KETE ASANTE

By Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade

FROM:asante.net

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THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN GODS:
THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
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ACCRA – W.E.B. DU BOIS CENTER – JULY 10, 1998
Professor Molefi Kete Asante
Temple University
Introduction
I am pleased that you have come to hear my lecture tonight and I want to thank the organizers of this event for their diligence and generosity. In particular I would like to publicly thank Dr. Kofi Anyidiho, and Executive Director Moore, the staff and the Board of the DuBois Center for making this occasion possible. I give praise to Nyame, Asase Yaa, and the Nananom nsamanfo for whatever clarity I am able to share with you.

I shall begin my lecture with a conclusion: Until an African leader publicly acknowledges, honors and prays to an African God, we Africans will continue to be viewed as pathetic imitators of others, never having believed in ourselves.

So powerful is the concept of religion when we discuss it in connection with civilization that to deny the validity of one’s religion is to deny the validity of one’s civilization. Indeed to deny one’s religion as valid is to suggest that the person is a pagan, a heathen, uncivilized, and beyond the sphere of humanity. So to talk about religion is to talk about our views of ourselves, our understanding of our ancestors, and our love of our culture.

To establish my argument that we have a crisis in civilization because we have a crisis in religion I will make several points dealing with the themes of tradition, history, religion, and human action.

Traditions
There are no people without traditions and traditions are the lifeblood of a people. A people who refuse to express its love and appreciation for its ancestors will die because in traditions, if you are not expressing your own, you are participating in and expressing faith in someone else’s ancestors. No person is devoid of an attachment to some cultural fountain. Whose water are we drinking?

Our African history has been a recent orgy of forgetfulness. We have often lost our memories and accepted the gods of those who enslaved and colonized us. This is something the Chinese and the Indians have fought hard to keep at bay. While we have often embraced our enemies gods they have found those gods to be anathema to their interests. Show me the gods we Africans worship and I will show the extent of our moral and ethical decay.

Those who speak to us of Christian or Islamic morals have often been the very ones who had defiled our ancestors’ memories and called out sacred rites paganism. Malcolm X once said that the world pushes the African around because we give the impression that we are chumps, not champs, but chumps, weaklings, falling over ourselves to follow other people rather than our own traditions.

The distribution of religion represents the distribution of power. African distribution is minimal and exists in a few places in the diaspora like Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica and the American South. The religion that people practice is based on the influences that have captured their imaginations. In the American South and the Caribbean and in South America one will often find the Yoruba religion. It is Africa’s most powerful religious export to the Americas, but this is still a minimal influence when one considers the fact that others have imposed their religions on us and we have accepted the imposition often without a fight from our traditional leaders. Indeed our traditional religious leaders have often been hijacked by the material goods offered by the purveyors of these migrating gods.

History
The great African pharaoh, Menes, united the two lands (TAWY) bringing 42 clans or nomes under one government around 3100 B.C. By this time already Africans had formulated the first human response to the unknown. If anything we knew God befor anyone else, not because we were wiser but because we were first to be civilized.

If you take any of the scientific reports we know that the first hominids were from Africa. Australopithecus afarensis is 4,200,000 years old and Australopithecus ramidus, 3,800,000. When Richard Johnason discovered Dinqnesh, later called Lucy, by the Europeans, he claimed to have found the earliest example of a hominid in Ethiopia. Until 75,000 years ago all humans were black. Did they have an appreciation for the Almighty? Did they formulate a response to the unknown? Of course they did; they were human and human before anyone else.

Our ancestors brought forth the first civilizations and gave the world the oldest organized cosmological explanations. Thus, Ra as Ptah, Atum, Amen, Khepera, Khnum – the many names of the one, the Supreme, created Shu and Tefnut, air and moisture, Geb and Nut, earth and sky. Then came Ausar, Auset, Nebhet, and Set. Ausar was killed by his brother Set and Auset put him back together with the assistance of her sister, Nebhet and her son, Heru, who avenged his father by killing Set. This is the story of good over evil. The purpose was to create Maat, balance, harmony, justice, righteousness, reciprocity, order. These are the key concepts in any ethical system and the fact that they emerged first in the Nile Valley of Africa suggests that other ideas, related to these ideas, found their way into the very practices and beliefs of our people throughout the continent. The deliberate attempt by the European to separate Africans from the classical civilizations of the Nile is one of the biggest falsifications in history. Only when we reclaim our history will we be able to see that the origins of many religious ideas are African. How is it that the parent has become the child?

Thus, not only do we have the earliest emergence of God, we have the first ethnical principles, reinforced by proverbs, and refined in the oral and artistic traditions of our narratives.

The ancient name of Egypt was Kemet and it was the culmination of classical Africa’s achievements in science, art, architecture, medicine, astronomy, geometry, and religion. The Greeks honored the Africans as the originators of the science and art practiced by the Greeks themselves. It would be the Europeans of the 15th through 19th centuries that wouild try to divorce Europe from its African origin and deny Africa any role in civilizing the world.

The early Greek historian, Herodotus claims that nearly all of the Greek gods came from Africa. We know that the Greeks worshipped Imhotep as Aesclepius, the God of Medicine, and that the name Athens, Athena, is from Aten.

When Constantine in 325 A.D. took ideas from African spirituality and created a control mechanism at Council of Nicea he was trying to organize a system for using African spiritual ideas. The early Christian church had to deal with the fact that Christians had used many African ideas, the son of God, eternal life, and the resurrection, in their religion. The sad fact is that since we have forgotten so much we do not know that we are the originators of religion.

The abandonment of our history, indeed the abandonment of our gods, the gods of our ancestors, have brought us deep into the quagmire of misdirection, mis-orientation and self pity. When the missionaries forbade our shrines and punished us in the Americas when we called the names of our gods and sounded our mighty drums they were looking for the Pavlovian reaction they finally got in millions of Africans: African is bad, it is inferior, it is pagan, it is heathen. We often hear others cursing our ancestors in ways the Chinese, the Lebanese and the British would never allow. Why is this? Are we truly shamed by our military defeat? Can we no longer think about how right our ancestors were in exploring human nature and positing ways to combat the unknown? Cannot we create new forms out of the old mold or must we throw away the mold?

What would be anymore pagan than the wanton willful destruction of millions of Africans, Jews, Native Americans, and Chinese by Christians Europeans? How could white men pray to a god on the second floor of a slave dungeon while on the first floor they held our ancestors, yours and mine, in horrible bondage? What kind of religion denied our humanity at the same time they were raping our women, brutalizing our children, and demanding our wealth and our souls?

It is true that the idea of Christian names or Muslim names promotes and advances those cultures. Why must you change your name even if you chose to buy into a foreign religion? What is wrong with your name? Any religion that asks you to do what others do not have to do is asking you to abandon your mother. The question is, why would you abandon your mother?

Religion in General
What is religion but the deification of ancestors, the making sacred of traditions within the context and history. How can we honor any god who was used against us? The only people who accept alien gods are defeated people;
all others honor and accept their own name for the Almighty. We must learn to appreciate ourselves and our traditions. What is wrong with the African God?

What would we think of a Yoruba who accepted Chinese ancestors as his own? We would find it quite interesting and wonder how it came to be. But what of Africans’ acceptance of others’ gods? Is there no tradition with these alien gods? Of course there is tradition with these gods! To accept the Jews’ god or the Arabs’ god or the Hindu’s god and so forth is to valorize those histories above your own. Indeed, it is to honor the names in those myths and stories higher than your own stories, it is to love the language, the places in their stories above your own. Why is Mecca, Rome, or Jerusalem more sacred that Bosumtwi? Quite simply, it is imperialism, not by force of arms, but by force of religion which sometimes comes
armed.

Joel Kotkin’s Tribes – a book about people ready for the 21st Century claims that only Jews, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and British are ready. These groups have some commonalities which include (1) strong sense of identity, (2) international network, and (3) a passion for technology.

He does not include any African community or ethnic group. In fact, he believes that the African people were best organized under the leadership of Marcus Garvey who believed that Africans were not only capable of achieving without the whites; Africans had to achieve without whites in order to be seen as fully participating in the drama of history. Kwame Nkrumah believed in much the same idea.

Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations claims that there are six major civilizations: Chinese, Japanese, Orthodox, Hindu, Western, Islamic. He says each one has a nation that is vanguard, deeply committed to its religion and history. Africa has no such vanguard nation and furthermore Africa has yet to emerge from under the cloaks of its interventionists. Of 53 nations only one nation is more African in religion than either Christian or Muslim. That nation is small Benin.

Benin is 87% popular traditional African Religion. But it is a small nation with limited influence in a propaganda fashion. As such we do not expect African traditional religion to play a major part in the civilization of Africa for a long time to come, but we can begin to examine the questions, to raise the issues, and to interrogate our practices.

Let me explore African Religion with you to provide some common understanding.

African Religion
In the first place it is important that we call popular traditional African Religion everywhere by a common acronym, Ptare. This means that Akan, Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu and Shona are the same religion with different branches. Just as Christians may be Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics, and just as Muslims may be Mourrides, Sunni, or Shiities. There is no difference in speaking of Ptare as one religion and speaking of Christianity or Islam as one religion.

I believe that Popular Traditional African Religion everywhere (Ptare) is as old as civilization, indeed, it is much older than either Christianity or Islam. The major characteristics of Ptare are found in all of the traditions from East to West and from North to South. The fact that we have often misunderstood the legacy we have inherited is not the fault of those who left it; it is our fault for preferring the oppressors’ legacy over that of our own ancestors.

The characteristics of Ptare include:

Creator God
Domicile of Gods – Presence, Shrine
Priest/Priestess of God
Devotee of God – medium (Noc??)
Herbalist – Pharmacist
Psychiatrist – mental harmonizer
Diviner – scientist, Hunter’s/explorers
All ritual in Ptare seek a return to Maat.
Everything is one – we are a part of the whole and nothing is disconnected from the Almighty. That is why we recognize Mother Earth as well as Nyame.
What Europe sees and teaches as limitations in Ptare are really advantages:
No vast interpretative literary corpus to say what is and what is not – Ptare’s interpretations are often dependent on a multitude of situations that demand attention.

No concentration on the material manifestations of the God’s house. All temples started as shrines and from the shrine place people build other edifices. Buildings should have some historical or religious significance.

Advantages of Ptare
The ethical principles are more conducive to community, not so geared toward individualism. Some religions demonstrate their power by showing what they can build but this is only a matter of financial not moral wealth. Are you more civilized because you can build a nuclear bomb?

We must not be impressed by the things which can be created because we are human and have the same capacity and can create the same things out of our own minds. But our African gods do not advance destruction. They have never been gods of death, but of life.

The material manifestations of religion are not the wisest standard of how good god is unless your god is money. The new religions seem to bring schools and hospitals but we have always had those institutions without calling them by those names. Now it is time that the practitioners of Ptare explain the interrelationship of the traditions of ordinary life in the context of institutions. Our entire existence is religion. Our shrines are sacred places on sacred land given by the ancestors. Our health is interconnected to our spirituality.

We Africans have always believed in a supreme deity
whether the name was Nyame, Oludumare, Abasi, Nkulunkulu, Woyengi, Chukwu, Mawu and Lisa. This is true although others have said we did not. They have confused a lot of us.

When the white missionaries translated the bible in our languages, they asked our ancestors for the name of the Almighty and they used the names our ancestors had always used for the Almighty and then told us that we did not have a belief in the Supreme.

But we now know that our priests were no less wise in their observations than the Greek sophists, the Hebrew prophets, the Arab ulema, or the Chinese literati.

Our ancestors believed in pluralism without hierarchy — many expressions of God without saying mine is right, or the only one, and yours is bad, pagan, and heathen. Perhaps had we done that we would have stopped the alien religions at the shore, but we are the world’s first humanists and we allowed others to come with their goods and their gods.

They came with a political ideology in the name of religion. It was imperialism. Imperialism brings destruction, obliteration. How could we fall for it for so long? The introduction of a book or a gun caused us to lose our
footing, to stumble on our way, to denounce our fathers and mothers.

There are no other people on the earth who have had to denounce their ancestors in order to become better people. Is it because our ancestors are so strong that we are forced to denounce them before our conquerors? This is one thing you shall never find me doing because I know too much about my African contribution to history.

Contributions of Ptare
The first naming of the divine, netcher, god, or netcheru divinity from which some say the English word nature is ultimately derived.
The first trinity: Ausar, Auset, Heru which has been repeated by Amen, Mut, Khonsu and then God, the father, God the son, God the holy
spirit. The Christians took out the mother who represented Auset -and gave Christians a virgin Mary, but she was no god. Asase Yaa is Mother Earth, but no one can have a son without a mother
The first idea of a son of god or a daughter of God. Sa Ra or Sat Ra.
The first black stone altars – long before the Kaaba was revealed at Mecca.
The first example of the resurrection from the dead Ausar. This is also where we find that the Neb Ankh – Lord of Life was not a sarcophagus, that is, not a flesh eater, but something that spoke of life.
The name of god Amen now used by others in their prayers.
The idea that your good should outweigh your evil, that your soul should be lighter than a feather, that perfection is not what is sought after, but overwhelming goodness.
The complementarity of males and females, different roles but not subjugation, Mawu and Lisa, male and female – Auset and Ausar, complementarity.
The first records of ancestors’ wisdom. The books of Ptahhotep, Kagemni, Duauf
The idea of heaven and earth, Nut , Geb, Auset is called, Lady of Heaven
Here in Africa humans have prayed to God longer than on any other continent. When the pyramids were finished, Europe had given the world not one organized civilization, even Asia was just stirring. Just look at a broad chronology:
2500 B.C. – The African people along the river valleys of the eastern highlands floated stones down the Nile to help monuments to God.
2500 Hsia Dynasty rises in China
2200 BC. Harrapa and Mohenjo Daro were found in India
800 BC Homer is the first voice of the Greeks
500 Romans come to power in Europe.
639 A.D. Arabs are able to cross into Africa with force under General El As from Arabia-Yemen.
Africans made the idea of the beautiful and the good one world nfr – nefer
Ptare gave the world its first ethical system: Maat – balance, harmony, justice, righteousness, reciprocity, order – Maat was the only major deity without priesthood since all were priests of Maat.

The idea of eternal life – Ankh neheh was African

The first libations, offerings and burning of incense as ritual forms

The ten commandments were preceded by the 42 confessions in the Egyptian Book of the Dead or more accurately the Egyptian Book of the Coming Forth By Day.

Ptare gave the idea of collective and communal salvation rather than a rampant individualism which says save me and the rest of the world go to hell.

The Future
All futures are made by human beings. But the begin with consciousness which precedes Afrocentricity.

A few days ago I walked into a Kumasi restaurant and found that I could get Ghanaian food only by pre-arranged request. But western food was immediately available. Imported. Are African Gods only on request? We determine
this by how we live.

The Wolof and Senegal say wood may remain in water for ten years but it will not become a crocodile. We live Africa by living its tried and true values and customs -
this is a credit to our gods. Almost all of the disarray in Africa can be traced to the disruption of the traditional religion. In fact, one can go from country to country and find that the cause of the problems can be laid at the feet of alien civilizations. This is not a wild statement; it is based on deep reflection and study.

I believe in the African gods and believe that just as we have exported our cultural forms in music, art and science, the world needs a more sane and sensible ethic.

What Must Be Done
We must talk honestly to our elders — those who have not abandoned the traditions – consult the priests, learn from them, and discover the source of our problems.

Remove all images of a white Jesus. This is not correct even if one is Christian. The historical Jesus had be black in color despite the missionaries’ attempt to paint him English and Swedish.

We must believe that our names are as sacred as Arabic or European names.

We must understand that when others extend their values, religion and institutions they are penetrating our traditions with the poison of alien power that teaches us to hate ourselves and to love our oppressors. Meanwhile, they never follow the prescriptions they leave for us.

We must enhance the economic, political and military power of African states because a lack of such power creates self doubt, identity crisis, and a search for the material gods of the west who seem to produce these things. But spirit is greater if we use it and we can only use it if we practice.

We need boldness from our leaders to accomplish this transformation.

The British called Harry Lee the best Englishman east of the British Isles when he finished Oxford. He changed his name, converted to Confucianism and they wondered what happened to him.
He learned Mandarin Chinese and became Lee Kuan Yew, a leader who rejected Western values.

Asians are calling for Confucianism as they emphasize tradition. The Japanese are calling for Nihonjinron, Japanese values. Why must we be stuck with the attitudes and values of the European, so-called Christian values, particularly since they have shown themselves to be bankrupt on many fronts.

We can achieve our aims not so much by modernizing African traditions as Africanizing modernity itself. We are the modern people. Our ecological values, relationships values, respect for others values are the keys to the future.

Conclusions
I recognize that humans cannot advance without answering some basic questions like, Who Am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of existence? Who are we as humans, Africans, Ghanaians, Gas, Ewe, Guans, Akans, African Americans?

Religion provides compelling answers and often small communities of others who believe like we do. African deities and the Almighty God of Africa do that for us. They give us identity and direction.

We are the children of the Supreme God sustained by our ancestral connections, formed to glorify the best values of Maat, encouraged to assume responsibility for each other in a community of consciousness.

Failure to do this is a deviation, an abomination and we can only re-connect through rites of ablution— making, doing or sacrificing time, money, energy in the name and interest of Africa. The concept of the gift is the idea, not what we give.
This may change given education, science, sensibility, scarcity, etc., but we need to sacrifice for Africa.

But our God must not be one of exploitation, egocentrism, conservatism and westernization. If so, we shall go to hell.

We must create our African personality and identity in art, dance, medicine, education, science, and religion and if we cannot do it here in the land of Okomfo Anokye, Nkrumah and Du Bois, then it cannot be done in Africa.

If we do not do it here in the land of Yaa Asantewaa, then we can never be the hope of the hopeless.

If Africa cannot find its way, then I fear the prospects of the world.

But Africa will rise to throw off the vestiges of mental enslavement and there shall be rejoicing among the Nananom nsamanfo. The ancestors will say: Rejoice! Rejoice! Let the Gods of Africa Rejoice!

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Note: Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is the author of 42 books, more than 200 articles, the father of Afrocentricity, and the creator of the first doctoral program in African American Studies.

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