THE BRIDGETOWN PROTOCOL SPIRITUALITY, CULTURE, ART & RELIGION WORKING GROUP REPORT
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Back to Working Group ReportsPART III - WORKING GROUP REPORTS
Chairperson: Trevor G. Marshall
Rapporteur: Brother Leader MbandakaINTRODUCTION
PRIORITY AREAS
CURRENT PROGRAMS
RECOMMENDATIONS
BARRIERS
STRATEGIES
WAY FORWARDSpirituality: Consciousness and reverence to a Divine Creator and the spiritual essence of being – the centre of Afrikan Culture, the core of Afrikan consciousness and the essence of the Afrikan personality; all that exists is spirit.
Thus spirituality is the foundation of Afrikan family and community life. It is also the foundation of education in the Afrikan context and, therefore, our Ancestors taught us education is the process of transforming the learner through progressive stages to become more Godlike.
Culture: The manifestation and expression of the Afrikan spirit through cultural mediums, e.g. language, names, garments, ritual ceremonies, music, dance, value systems, art, aesthetics, agriculture, politics, economics, education etc. This culminates into a process, which gives a people a general design for living and patterns for interpreting their reality.
Art: The creative expression of culture (e.g. music, dance, craft, sculpting, etc.)
Religion: A strict, prescriptive code of worship and perception of the Divine Creator.
1. Imposition of non-Afrikan religions (European, Arabic, Asiatic, Semitic) on Afrikan people and its detrimental effects.
2. Lack of knowledge of our own authentic Afrikan spiritual-cultural traditions.
3. Demonization of Afrikan spiritual-cultural traditions, e.g. characterized as evil, pagan, idolatry, etc.
4. Destruction of the Afrikan communal family structure and value systems.
5. Lack of an economic power base/system to facilitate the solutions to our problems.
6. Institutional racism in religions.
7. The increasing generation gap and the degenerative impact of society upon our children and young people1. Caribbean Cultural Center – Afrikan Diaspora Institute (USA)
· Based upon syncretic Afrikan spiritual-cultural traditions, (i.e. Yoruba, Santeria, Voudoun, etc.) providing healing, ritualistic dances.2. Afrikan Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (Global)
· Over 100 years of restoring knowledge, language, history, culture of all Afrikan Hebrew Israelites throughout the Diaspora.
· Repatriation to Israel and the Continent (Ghana, South Afrika, Benin).
· Organized extensions of Afrikan Hebrew communities throughout the USA, Caribbean, Europe and South America.
· Established institutions, schools, businesses (restaurants – soul vegetarian, publishing companies, music studios etc).
· Restore our people’s consciousness to one Creator and law, structure and commandments of the Creator, and a healthy lifestyle.3. Rastafari Movement (Global)
· Repatriation (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana).
· Keeping culture and history of our people alive globally.
· Economic self-reliance.
· Health and good diet.
· Elevation of an Afrikan King.
· Defending and preserving the Afrikan family.4. Alkebu-lan Revivalist Movement (UK)
· Fellowship - Regular Afrikan centred communal worship. Defending and preserving the Afrikan family.
· Undertake Life-cycle Blessings (Naming, Rights of passage, Marriage, Passing over – i.e. burial).
· Fund raising for building an Ipet-Isut (Holiest of places).
· Celebration of Afrikan centred Cultural Holidays (Kwanzaa, Afrika Liberation Day, Mosiah Celebration).
· Economic, social, health, education and community programs.5. Sankofa Productions – Afrikan Centred Arts & Cultural Organization (Barbados)
· Has established an arts & cultural centre that offers developmental programs and activities to youths and adults, i.e. (classes, workshops, seminars and performances). · Implement arts and culture as an educational tool through schools, communities, churches and national and government organizations.6. Black Theology Groups in Christianity, Islam etc. (Global)
· Making the theology and practice relevant to the identity, history and culture of Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants, e.g. production of Afrikan pictorial bibles.
· Challenging the institutional racism/euro-centricity.
· The Black Church continuing the legacy of the civil rights movement.
· Some church bodies and leaders have acknowledged and apologized for the wrongs done to Afrikan people.
· Anti-racist and justice work is increasingly being done by many church bodies and organizations.
· The Nation Of Islam (NOI) as a group of Afrikan Muslims have been very instrumental in pastoral work, economic development, security, health, tackling drugs and gang violence, visiting prisons as well as building schools and politicising the Afrikan community.7. Umoja Learning Circle (Canada)
· First Afrikan-centred school in Toronto
· Teaches five Afrikan languages (incl. Twi, Kiswahili, Akan)
· Mathematics/science, literary pursuits
· Organic gardening, vegan diet, planting trees and cleaning up the Humber River, keeping of animals.
· Young people range in age from 3-11 years
· Board of education pays teachers salaries but the school and financial support for resources are totally community based. A payment scheme has been set up where community members make yearly deposits to an account that supports the school. Very successful, the children are phenomenal and comfortable in their skin.1. Affirm the right to Afrikan self-determination, i.e. to define ourselves, speak for ourselves, re-educate ourselves.
2. Re-educate and re-dedicate ourselves to Afrikan centred spiritual-cultural traditions.
3. Implement the life principles of Nguzo Saba in our everyday lives (Umoja – unity, Kujichagulia – self determination, Ujima – collective work and responsibility, Ujamaa – cooperative economics, Nia - purpose, Kuumba – creativity, Imani – faith) and the virtues of MA’AT (truth, justice, righteousness, harmony, balance, reciprocity, order).
4. Identify European falsehoods and re-establish the truths of our Great Ancestors.
5. Neutralize global white supremacy and European imperialism.
6. Restore the sanctity of the Afrikan family - the first centre of education and spiritual cultivation.
7. Acknowledge and respect the positive work that Afrikan Christians and Muslims are doing to further the liberation cause.
8. Create safe environments to dialogue and debate differences within our communities.1. Deeply embedded oppressive and pernicious belief systems which hold us in mental bondage.
2. Global white supremacy/European imperialism in all its overt and covert forms and its determination to deny the Afrikan World the right to self-determination (Kujichagulia).
3. The ignorance and apathy among Afrikans and Afrikan Descendants resulting from the legacy of the Maafa; enslavement, colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalization.
4. The use of surveillance, infiltration, drugs, clinical interventions, military, economic, biological, geological and chemical means, and other forms of terrorism to destroy our liberation leadership and organizations.
5. Lack of defence, security and intelligence resources to protect Afrikan and Afrikan Descendant communities and organizations from the above.
6. Economic disenfranchisement/exploitation.
7. Chronic disunity amongst our people.
8. Chronic mis-education.To establish a global Pan-Afrikan, Spiritual-cultural council of Elders, spiritual leaders and practitioners with regional, national, community/organizational and family subsidiaries.
Mandate:
· To develop programs and institutions for teaching, practicing and promoting Afrikan Spirituality globally.
· To establish programs for developing a global Pan-Afrikan spiritual order.
· To develop programs of action globally for promoting Afrikan spiritual consciousness within ‘Black Theology’, as expressed in Christianity, Islam and Judaic traditions, and to forge a process of unity amongst Afrikans of varying faiths and religions.
· To challenge the various religious institutions that are Euro-centric in origin and practice. To further deconstruct and reconstruct their theologies, ideologies, missiologies (theology of mission work) and religious practices, to engage in organizational transformation and to encourage supportive networking.
· To develop programs for the restoration of Afrikan art forms as mediums of Afrikan Spiritual-cultural expressions and transmissions. In context, we must demand the return of our stolen sacred artifacts from European countries (public and private collections).
· To wage a global spiritual-cultural revolution, based upon the foregoing, to restore respect for Afrikan spiritual- cultural traditions as the foundation of all world religions.
· To develop programs and actions countering the disregard and marginalization Rastafari communities experience globally; and approach Afrikan and Caribbean governments in this process
· To ensure that our Afrikan traditional systems are included in whatever conversations occur around spirituality and religion, be they at the ecumenical or inter-faith levels, local, national, regional and international levels (the Councils and Conferences of Churches, the World Council of Churches and the World Council of Religions)Semantics of Survival
We must review and eradicate language that promotes negative images of Afrikan People, e.g.WHITE SUPREMACY
Minority
3rd World
Western Culture
Latin Am./Jazz
Tribe
Primitive
Slavery/Slave Trade
Slave
Underclass
Slave master
Minority
US Democracy
Hispanic
AFRIKAN/SELF EMPOWERMENT MA’AT
Melanite
1st World
Euro-centric Culture in Western Hemisphere
Afrikan Jazz/American
Nation
Classical
Tri-continental enslavement, Holocaust/Maafa
Enslaved Afrikan
Disenfranchised
Enslaver
Marginalized
US Republic
Chicano/Afrikan descendents
· Homophobia – objections raised to use of this word in response to Afrikans who may, from their philosophical perspective, be sceptical to homosexuality.
· Afriphobia – suggested term for the fear of Afrikan people affirming the right to self determination.
· Also, guard against any terms/slang utilizing the words ‘dark’, ‘Black’, in a negative manner, and any terms/slang utilizing the words ‘fair’, ‘light’, ‘bright’, ‘white’ in a positive manner.
· Afrikan Image Revolution: Document the restoration of our daily living, re-establishing Afrikan Images as beautiful and courageous.
· Create a voice, plus safe spaces for the voice of, those with little power among us (women, seniors, disabled, alternative lifestyles), the disenfranchised among us. NB: Discussion on homosexuality – strong opinions expressed against alienation and persecution, notwithstanding opposing views.RESOURCE ACQUISITION
· Self financing - We must commit ourselves to a collective process of financing our liberation, disciplining our spending in order to maximize our contributions.
· We must insist that our successful entrepreneurs, celebrities and entertainers return and make contributions to the development of their communities.
· We must lobby and solicit support and contributions from governments of Afrika and the Afrikan Diaspora as well as the Black Caucus of the USA.
· We must create a Pan-Afrikan Trading bloc, reviving the vision of His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s Black Star Line.
· We must solicit funds from all local companies, businesses and multi-national corporations that do business within Afrikan nations and communities.
· We must identify and solicit funds from foundations and philanthropic institutions, which exist to promote art, culture, social, and economic development.
· We must mobilize our community to boycott all companies that do not contribute to the development of our communities.
· We must establish a global Pan-Afrikan bank and autonomous financial institutions.
· REPARATIONS!!!
SECURITY
We affirm the need to build pan-Afrikan defence and security (including intelligence) institutions for the protection of the communities/organizations and their leadership.RISE, YOU MIGHTY PEOPLE, YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WHATEVER YOU WILL!
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World Conference Against Racism 2003. All Rights Reserved.