I HAVE LEARNED

I HAVE LEARNED... 

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.

I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.

I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do but to the best you can do.

I've learned that it's not what happens to people that's important. It's what they do about it.

I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned that no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.

I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I've learned that it's a lot easier to react than it is to think.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.

I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I've learned that learning to forgive takes practice.

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.

I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I've learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I've learned that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned that you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are more humiliating, and what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

I've learned that your family won't always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren't related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families aren't biological.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned that sometimes when my friends fight, I'm forced to choose sides even when I don't want to.

I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned that sometimes you have to put the individual ahead of their actions.

I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I've learned that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I've learned that no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you will hurt in the process.

I've learned that there are many ways of falling and staying in love.

I've learned that no matter the consequences, those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.

I've learned that no matter how many friends you have, if you are their pillar you will feel lonely and lost at the times you need them most.

I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I've learned that writing, as well as talking, can ease emotional pains.

I've learned that the paradigm we live in is not all that is offered to us.

I've learned that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.

I've learned that although the word "love" can have many different meaning, it loses value when overly used.

I've learned that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

Moving from Plantation to the Chur-Chation

 January 1, 2012 From Mansa Musa Moving From The Plantation To The Chur-Chation. Modern Day Religious Slavery and Its Devastation. 

Before I start this rant, I want to pay a special thanks to my guardian spirit for opening my eyes to the knowledge and wisdom that I am about to share with everyone here. What was revealed to me is not a vision or a revelation, but just the way to see things from a different prospective. All the information was already here and available for many to see, but having eyes they see not, having ears, they hear not and having a brain, they thinketh not. These subjects are very delicate ones and should be treated with lots of loving care and understanding.

This New Year’s Rant is about two subjects that many people normally don’t feel comfortable speaking out about and for others, they often speak way too much about it and still not have a clue how they are still affecting many of our people in the world today. I am speaking about Religion and Slavery. Yes, religious slavery in the modern world. For all those people who may feel offended with my post but are still on my Facebook Page, I don’t really care if you stay or leave, I will continue to post what I want, when I want, on which ever topic I want and I will continue to do so in the future.

According to the Webster Dictionary, the word Religion is; a particular system of faith in and worship of a Supreme Being or a God; a practice of devotion or conscientiousness; recognition on the part of man of a controlling superhuman power entitled to obedience, reverence and worship. However, when it comes to religion nowadays, many people uses it for control and domination over others by the use of two things; Fear and Faith. Just as fire, religions do serve a good purpose in humanity and also can be misused for destructive behavior once it is not handled properly. As we can clearly see, many people use religion for all the wrong reasons in most cases in this day and age.

A slave as it is defined or described in the Webster Dictionary is; someone without freedom or personal rights; a human being who is owned by another human being; someone who is dominated by some influence, habit or way of life. As we look around us today, many of us are in slavery in one form or the other and don’t even know it or even care to escape from our captors. Sometimes women can find themselves trapped in a relationship which can be similar to be a slave. Their husband or in some cases their partner has total control over their lives in every way. And just like in physical slavery, they are subjected to both physical and mental abuse, but for whatever reason or reasons, they stay put for fear of been lonely. As was in the old slavery days, many slaves refuse to escape, for fear of not to be able to look after their own well being. They have been in that condition for so long; they don’t know any other life.

Just as it is in life or a marriage, the same scenario is been displayed in all religion nowadays. Many people are trapped within the ideology of religion that they don’t even know that they have become a slave to that way of living. If we were to examine the parallel between Organized Religion and Slavery, we will be able to see that they both are identical in many aspects. In this lecture, I will endeavor to demonstrate the similarities. We have to understand that Organized Religion is just like fire, it is neither good nor bad, but just how the individual decides to use it. As fire is neither good nor bad, it all depends on how you use it; you can take fire to provide heat, light and as a means to cook your food, you can also use fire to destroy people or properties.

Slavery was condone and was rampant throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. It came a little after murder in magnitude to creating disasters for mankind, and has got to be one of the most immoral things a person can do to another human being. Yet the Bible clearly approves of slavery in many passages, and it goes so far as to tell when you can have sex with the female slaves, how much to pay to obtain slaves, and how hard you can beat them. We can see in Leviticus 25:44-46; it states; however, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.

Some people will try to prove that the slavery in the bible is different to modern day slavery by saying that those slaves were actually servants or indentured servants. Many translations of the Bible use the word "servant", "bond servant", or "manservant" instead of "slave" to make the Bible seem less immoral than it really is. While many slaves may have worked as household servants, that doesn't mean that they were not slaves who were bought, sold, and treated worse than livestock. In these other passages of the Old and New Testament and many other such passages are details of how to treat a slave; Exodus 21:2-6, Exodus 21:7-11, Exodus 21:20- 21, Ephesians 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:1-2 and Luke 12:47-48.

However, slavery in the modern days within the last two centuries was even worse than what was prescribe in the bible. Today we have what I prefer to call Religious Slavery and it has been practiced on many unsuspecting people and they don’t even know it. Most of the slavery in the olden days was more of a physical nature, unlike the slavery of today is of the religious type. Many people have used religion to enslave their fellow humans and feel no remorse because it was condone in the Bible. There are great similarities in both form of slavery; physical and religious.

In physical slavery, anyone can be brought or sold by their master at anytime of their life. They did not have any control over what they eat, where they live, who to or who not to worship, who they are allowed to get married too or how many children they were allowed to bear. The difference between physical and religious slavery in this aspect are about the same. In religious slavery, you become your own master, but you are dictated by the leaders of your religion of what to eat, who to worship, when to worship them, where you live, who you can get married too and how many children you can have.

In physical slavery, once you and your family are purchased by a slave master, he will change your name to reflect that you and your family are now his personal property, just as it is stated in the Bible. If the slave owner’s last name was Peters, James or Jones, then your last name will be changed to suit his own. And if you were further sold to another slave owner and his name was Roberts, then your name will be again changed to Roberts, which identify you as that new owners’ property. In some cases, you will be branded with a hot iron with the initials of that slave owner, so that in case you were to escape, the slave catchers can easily identify to which owner you belong too.

In religious slavery, once you and your family join any religion; your identity is automatically changed to reflect that particular religion. In religious slavery, you are now encouraged to dress, eat, talk and conduct your life based on that religion principles. You are no longer a FREE person to dress the way you want to anymore, you cannot eat anything you wished anymore and you cannot associate with anyone that you chose to be with, unless it was sanctioned by the leader of your religion. You are now known by your rightful religious identifying name, to distinguish you from all other religions. You now become a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Moor Israelite, Hebrew Israelite, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic, Janis, 5 per centers, Buddhist and all the other different religions name. This form of slavery keeps you faithful to the religion that you are now enslaved too. And just like physical slavery, your personal names can quickly identify who is your master.

I have quite a few brothers and sister on my Facebook Page, and just by seeing their name, I can tell which religion they are enslaved too. Many of them strongly believe that they are the Chosen People of God, so they changed their name, and I might add, voluntarily to reflect their religion. In physical slavery, the master’s name was forced upon you, but in this religious slavery, you choose to name yourself. So you will have lots of brothers and sisters with Hebrew sounding names, or Muslim sounding names or in some cases God attached to their names. I have seen many brothers especially, with name that they truly believe has the many different names for God attached to their given names. The same way with the Sikhs or Hindus, they all believe that to attach a God sounding name to themselves, they are special or very different to everyone else.

Most of those people are enslaved to their religious beliefs and cannot escape without severe penalties of been excluded from their religion. The big difference is that many people voluntarily chose the religion that they are involved in after they have reached the age of reasoning. When they were young, they were enslaved to the religion that was practiced by their parents. And the simple way it is done is by using two sets of common denominators; fear and faith and reward or punishment. Just about every single religion plays on people’s fear of the unknown to keep them in check.

If they cannot put fear into your heart, then they will use faith as their backup plan. After using fear and faith, they then follow them up with reward or punishment. Rare do you ever see they use facts versus fiction. Just about every religion uses rewards as their means of getting you to comply with their dogma or religious agendas. You are not allowed to think for yourself, and they will seek out certain passages from their holy book, forbidding you from ever questioning their authority. Just like in physical slavery, you dare not question your slave master about why he is treating you the way that he chooses to treat you.

In physical slavery, the masters are the biggest beneficiaries of all your hard labor and get to live the life of luxury while the slaves can only wish to enjoy some of the perks of the masters, but never even has the opportunity to do so. In the olden days of slavery in the Western Hemisphere, there were many very large plantations which were worked on by slaves daily. The slaves did not have any say in the sharing of the profit that they help generate for their masters. They were whipped daily to stay in line and do what they were told to do and if they start to give too much trouble, they were sold to another slave owner. In religious slavery in the Western Hemisphere, there are similar things occurring in the various places of worship, where the upper echelon are the only one benefiting from all the hard labor of their followers and you dare not complain. What the religious slaves get are promises for their good behavior and a pretty sounding title in this life.

As you look around, you can see the massive wealth that are been generated weekly by many of the self proclaimed preachers, ministers, pastor, teachers and leaders, while their followers are still living from hand to mouth in abject poverty. They live in the best high class expensive houses in exclusive neighborhood, drive the best cars, wear the most expensive jewelry and clothes and also eat the best food available. This type of slavery is allowed to continue because it was all started from in the bible, where it was legal to practice it. However, many people think since they don’t use any whips or chains on you to upkeep their slavery system in operation, then it is not slavery.

So many men and women will voluntarily go to the modern day plantation called a Synagogue, Church, Mosque, Temple or any run down store front on either Saturday or Sunday and partake in this religious slavery system. Just like in the old slave system, the slave masters know what to say to keep their slaves in check and know what to do when one or two gets out of line. The same thing is happening today with those massive plantations passing as places of worship.

We are told that you have to belong to one of these plantations to be able to inherit the afterlife. Meanwhile, the religious slave masters are enjoying their afterlife of wine, milk and honey in this present life. These “Chur-chations” does not pay any taxes and the religious masters are not accountable to anyone else but their board of directors, who the masters have total control over. This is the modern day slavery system which has made many men and women very rich, off the hard work of their followers and it is getting worst every day. In certain cities, you will find about five, ten or even more churches within a few square miles block. Some of these plantation are small with a few religious slaves, while others may have hundreds and even thousands slaves. They are all in the same game of selling salvation for a price. All the slaves get in return for turning over their money is a promise of a good time in the afterlife, and it is all done under the guise of religion.

Even in some of these religious slavery organizations you are told that you have to kill followers of other religions if they don’t want to be converted to your way of slavery. So we have the Jews fighting the Palestine’s Muslims in the Middle East, the Catholics fighting the Anglicans in Northern Ireland, the Shiites fighting the Sunnis, and the American Christian fighting the Middle East Muslims. Now not all wars are fought to convert others, but the determining factor always has a religious background added to it. Some wars are for pure greed and domination of others who may look different that the invaders. Just about every war that are been fought today, are always along the lines of religion.

Every religion wants to convert you to their belief and is willing to kill you if you don’t co- operate with their teachings. Religion and slavery goes hand in hand from the beginning of time up to today. Most of the people who benefited the most from the physical slavery of the millions of African people were either Jews, Christian followed by Muslims and many other religious organizations. Many slave ships were named after Christian deities for them to look sanctified and sacred as they transport their human cargo to the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

But nowadays, the religious slave master, are not taking them out of the different countries anymore, they are building large religious plantations in those countries instead or they will have massive religious crusades filling huge stadiums of devoted slaves. If you cannot get the people to come to you to hear your religious sales pitch, then you have to take the message to the people.

Religion is a big business and slavery is needed to keep it flourishing. If the bible had never fully sanctioned slavery, the world would be a much better place for all of mankind. But with many of my brothers and sisters today, they are partaking in this devastating slavery system and many of them don’t even know it or even care to abolish such practices. They think if they can quote a few verses of chapter from their holy book to justify their religious beliefs, they are going to inherit a glorious afterlife. Many of these so called religious slaves are quick to label themselves as “God Chosen People”.

I truly believe that there is no such race or people as “God Chosen People”. Everyone was born within the human race, for them to become a human being. Outside of the Bible, there is no proof that any one race is first, second, third or fourth class people. Inside of the bible is where you will find all that division and hatred, based on the theory of the twelve tribes from an ancient past. In the bible is where it is taught how to treat, buy or sell another human being as your personal property. I will like for anyone who may disagree with my lecture will submit proof which is found in nature that there are chosen people or race? I will like for them NOT TO USE THEIR HOLY BOOK AS A REFERENCE TO SUBSTANTIATE their claims that they are from any “Chosen Race”.

I hope I can get lots of people very mad at what I have said, and after they have gotten mad at me, they will stop and think for a while to see if what I revealed here makes any sense to them whatsoever. Many people are still finding themselves in slavery and bondage and they don't even know it or what to do to escape from it. To me, and I can only speak for myself, Modern Day Religion is one of the biggest Slavery System that mankind has ever devised. There is a big difference between Religion and Spirituality.

If you take the parallel of Physical Slavery and put it next to Religious Slavery as I have attempted to do in this lecture, you will see that they are both identical in just about every aspect. I hope I have explained in details how many of us were transported out from the plan- tation to the Chur-chation. According to one of the great physical slave liberator from the past, Harriett Tubman; she said, “I could have rescued many more of my people from slavery, if only they knew that they were slaves”. It’s about high time all right thinking people should join together to abolish slavery from the face of the earth in all its various forms; Physical as well as Religious.

But I know that such dreams may never come through, because it will be the end of all wars and hatred among all people. No longer will we have Jews and Gentiles, Christians and Pagans, Hebrew Israelites and Esau’s, Shiites and Sunnis or all the division of the human race based on any biblical or other holy books doctrines. Religious Slavery is big business and the ones who benefit the most are not going to give up on their power that easily. Just like in the past in the United States Of America and other countries in the Western Hemisphere, there had was to be many civil wars and mass protest to stop the form of physical slavery from continuing after over four hundred years.

This form of religious slavery may be with human beings for another thousand years before we all realized that everyone who was born from a woman is either our brother or sister and not a religious being. We have to all first try to get over what was taught to us from the bible about physical slavery, before we can move forward and live as human beings. If not, we will continue to see brothers and sisters calling themselves all different types of biblical names and still fighting one another to no end. We have to start from now and respect others who may choose not to be part of any RELIGIOUS SLAVERY SYSTEM AND BE FREE.
End of article. Find original here: My First Day Of The Year Rant: Moving From The Plantation To The Chur-Chation. Modern Day Religious Slavery and Its Devastation.

Nana Baakan's Response:
Thank you, Mansa Musa, but tell me, what is your take on the African Traditional Spirituality rituals, lore, sacrifices, etc? Your article did not specifically point to this, and while African Spirituality is not called a religion, in effect many of the same things happen among the "worshipers". In fact, these folks have to fight tooth and nail to tell folks it is not a religion, yet there are shrine houses, temples, artifacts, etc. that are sold to the people by the "so-called" ordained to be the best to do the selling. There is an exchange of items, changing of the names; threats of punishment, fear and faith in these shrine houses, temples, etc. Is there really any difference??? Is this organized thing with all these protocols that must be followed or you will offend the "Gods" and different than the institutionalized religions that you have mentioned here? And what about slavery? Was it not a practice among the Africans before they were taken from the homeland? In fact, was it not something that was done after the many wars on the Continent? Not to mention the invasions, and land-grabbing, and wealth grabbing along with the capturing of the women and children?? Your point is well taken, and invariably anyone would be hard pressed to bring proof of the error, or say that you are wrong. My question is, is their a bias on your part for African traditions? Do you see that in painting these parallels, your brush must be even broader than mentioned here, as you are talking about "Humanity" and while there are many Christians, Muslims and Jews in this world, there are many more who are not (though I will wager that you did allude to this). Very anxious to see your response!

Mansa Musa: My sister, you have asked some very important questions and I will endeavor to answer you to the best of my ability. So I will go through what you have posted here and try to be brief, but precise. Thank my sister for asking me this important question and I quote; “what is your take on the African Traditional Spirituality rituals, lore, sacrifices, etc? Your article did not specifically point to this, and while African Spirituality is not called a religion, in effect many of the same things happen among the "worshipers". My answer is; prior to the modern day religion as we presently know about it, African Spirituality was based on the worship of the Spirit as our God; it was never based on worshiping of God in a human form as it is presently been taught in most religions, simply because they never had a bible. They will worship the spirit of their ancestors and even up today, many of them still do. The purpose of paying homage to your parents or grandparents instead of any other known or unknown deity was because you knew of them personally and no one had to tell you to believe in someone you never knew or saw. 

The worship of a spirit is not a religion as it is defined by the dictionary. Man never created the spirit, but they created all religions and all religions have their own dogma or teaching based on control of the minds of the followers. Once my brothers and sisters remove the spiritual aspect out of that confine and start erecting building to house their meetings and for commerce, then it becomes more like a religion. Once men set themselves up as the head of any organization with the authority to dispense reward or punishment to a member, then it is practicing a religion. In the olden days, there was never a need for any building to hold your services, because it was done in the open fields or in the village. The knowledge was passed down from generation to generation by the way of customs and oral teachings. There was never a need for books to store the knowledge, when there were village griots to save the knowledge and retell it in the form of stories. So based on what you describe in the following paragraph, if such activities are now been practiced, they are indeed practicing a form of religion as far as I am concerned. 

And you asked again; “And what about slavery? Was it not a practice among the Africans before they were taken from the homeland? In fact, was it not something that was done after the many wars on the Continent? Not to mention the invasions, and land-grabbing, and wealth grabbing along with the capturing of the women and children?” 

That is a very interesting topic that I have spoken about lots of time before. There are many  different forms of slavery that were practiced in the African continent. I will be very wrong if I was to say that there was no slavery in Africa before many of us were sold and brought to the western hemisphere. However, before you were shipped to the west, you were free people and when you were sold, and then you become a slave. What we have to take into consideration was that, once slavery was practiced from a biblical point of view, it gives everyone and their brother the right to do so. Because if you can prove to someone that your God sanction slavery because it was written in your holy book, then you are setting up the human race for destruction. Slavery as it is defined as the owning and selling of another human being goes contrary to the Universal Laws Of Nature or as I will say, it goes against the principles of Spirituality. The bases of Spirituality is that everyone was born free and should always remain that way until they are transformed into another dimension. As a human being, you don’t have that right to own what you cannot create, especially when you are also part of that creation. In the spiritual life, the slave owners’ suffered just as much and sometimes even worse than their slaves. Once you take it upon yourself to own something as unique as another human being, then you are saying or playing that you are a God. 

When I speak of Organized Religious Slavery, I am covering all those who chose to use their religious teaching as a tool to enslave their brothers and sisters. I know that such behavior is not limited to just the Western Hemisphere, but it is a worldwide problem. That’s why I always speak of all of humanity and not just of African people. But more so the religious slavery that are practiced in North and South America and all the rest of countries in between. I know nowadays, many African countries are quickly adopting the Christians and Muslims way of life and also start having the same type of problems like those who they chose to follow.

I am seeing the same thing going on right now in Nigeria, where we have those Muslim believers who think it is alright to firebomb the Christian Churches and kill lots of innocent men, women and children, all in the name of their religions. As I state in my lecture, that is another form of slavery that they are practicing, in which if you are not practicing the same religion like mines, then my God or master tells me that I will have to kill you. What they don’t understand is that’s another human being who was also created by the same God, that they are now destroying. The only sad difference is that those people chose to worship a different God than theirs. And the beat goes on and on in different part of the world. It is sometimes called, ethnic cleansing, for the lack of a better word. In most cases, religion is the main foundation for most of those crimes against humanity. 

There is no bias on my part for my African traditions. Africa is and has become just as developed as many other parts of the world. However, from a spiritual point of view, the way the people used to worship prior to the intervention of many other religions is what causing many of the problems today. I know that there were wars long before all others came to the African shores, but they were not based on the religious teaching as we have them today. Once the Bible was introduce as the yardstick for living, many of the African civilizations began to crumble. Because based on many of the teaching from the bible, human being are reduced down to nothing. The worth of human being has become valueless. 

But don’t get me wrong, the bible in of itself is not the cause, but the way many people chose to interpret it and the many translations are what have caused most of the problems in the world. There are lots of good principles to be found in the bible, also there are lots of atrocities all carried out in the name of that book. So as I like to say, the Bible is just like fire, you can use it to do a lot of good things with it and you can take it to do a lot of evil things also, but the bible is just that, a book, it is neither good nor bad, but the way you chose to use it. 

Thanks my sister for asking those question and I hope I was able to share with you my answers. And as I, like to say, I may be wrong, and if I am, I will quickly admit so and learn from my mistakes. Ashe. 

Mansa Musa I quote; “what is your take on the African Traditional Spirituality rituals, lore, sacrifices, etc? Your article did not specifically point to this, and while African Spirituality is not called a religion, in effect many of the same things happen among the "worshipers". My answer is; prior to the modern day religion as we presently know about it, African Spirituality was based on the worship of the Spirit as our God; it was never based on worshiping of God in a human form as it is presently been taught in most religions, simply because they never had a bible. They will worship the spirit of their ancestors and even up today, many of them still do. The purpose of paying homage to your parents or grandparents instead of any other known or unknown deity was because you knew of them personally and no one had to tell you to believe in someone you never knew or saw. 

Nana Baakan's Response: 
Yes, I agree that the Ancestors were most important to the indigenous people from all over the world before the advent of institutionalized religious practices. I believe that it changed when the elite, in their desire for power and control, began to create systems that would be meted out to the masses and protocols to go with them. With that process they were able to convince the masses that following these protocols would put them in more favor with the Creator and their Ancestors. In some instances, nowadays, you will find diasporic Africans making a separation between the Ancestors and the deities, pointing out that the deities are more powerful and should not be mixed into the same ceremonies as the Deities. Having a long history in Traditional African Spirituality, I found that to be confusing because the Ancestors are most close to us through our blood lines, etc. But even with that, certain Ancestors were more highly esteemed than others, as it were, and there again, your personal Ancestors were taken a notch down. I am sure that the initial intention before all this, was for each human being to be responsible to themselves and their community and thereby having the motivation to leave behind a legacy that could be remembered and revered.

In Ghana, there is a strong emphasis on the Ancestors and no apparent separation, however those who manifest the deities are still considered the "elite" of the clan. And again, many rituals and protocols surround the ceremonies with a convincing narrative that it is for the protection of the worshippers"or followers.

Mansa Musa: "Man never created the spirit, but they created all religions and all religions have their own dogma or teaching based on control of the minds of the followers. Once my brothers and sisters remove the spiritual aspect out of that confine and start erecting building to house their meetings and for commerce, then it becomes more like a religion. Once men set themselves up as the head of any organization with the authority to dispense reward or punishment to a member, then it is practicing a religion." 

Nana Baakan's Response: 
You see, this is very, very prevalent among the Traditional African Priests and Priestesses. Many of them make money off folks, some, in dubious rituals and props. Others are victims of the institutions that were presented to them, and the protocols that were said to be appropriate for all Priests and Priestesses to follow. In doing so, you would gain favor from the Deitties as well as heal the folks who come to you for help, mental, physical or spiritual.

What I have found, is that the "elite", who by not teaching the masses of their own inner powers and abilities to access the spirit world, but telling them they need/must come through them; has provided fertile ground for exploitation across the board. Many people in these traditions are slaves to it, paying and praying for release, support, upliftment from entities outside of them and not truly given knowledge of how to access it from within.

Mansa Musa: "So based on what you describe in the following paragraph, if such activities are now been practiced, they are indeed practicing a form of religion as far as I am concerned." 

Nana Baakan's Response:
This statement, along with your article hit me like a ton of bricks. Why? Because I have been in communion with Spirit, rather intently of late. The entire time that I have spent involved in Traditional African Spirituality, I have made a huge point of denying that it is a religion. I have gone through great pains to "call it something else." But what else can it be?

Mansa Musa: Slavery on the African Continent: .........."before you were shipped to the west, you were free people and when you were sold, and then you become a slave." 

Nana Baakan's Response:
Here I must say that slavery was indeed practiced on the continent. Maybe not everywhere, but surely on the West Coast where most of our Ancestors came from. Because it was familiar to them, I believe they did not see any wrong in it. It certainly "may not" have been as brutal or lengthy as in the Western Hemisphere, but after reading about the Golden Stool, how it was acquired and the circumstances surrounding those days in Ghana... I am not too sure. Surely there were many influences around the people at the time, but then, if today, someone would try to convince you, to buy someone else, I am sure you would think twice of it. To blame it on others, even the Bible, to me takes away man's complicity in it. Slavery is wrong, no matter how you slice it. You do not even see that practiced in the animal kingdom, as far as I know, so what would behoove a human being to do so?

Your point about the Bible sanction of it, is very poignant. I would think that many folks would rather put their head in the sand about that one. But history tells it. Even in Islam, slavery was considered lawful, Prophet Muhammad came along to regulate it, not to destroy it. In the Talmud, you can read of the many hateful statements made about anyone who was not of the "Chosen People" and what their lot in life should be as a result. If we move away from the bastardized three world religions, we still must be aware of the incursion that happen among the indigenous folks and then beg to question.... is this about religion? or is it about man's inhumanity to man?

Mansa Musa: "The bases of Spirituality is that everyone was born free and should always remain that way until they are transformed into another dimension. As a human being, you don’t have that right to own what you cannot create, especially when you are also part of that creation. In the spiritual life, the slave owners’ suffered just as much and sometimes even worse than their slaves. Once you take it upon yourself to own something as unique as another human being, then you are saying or playing that you are a God." 

Nana Baakan's Response:
Would you agree then, that our world is in the shambles it is in for this very reason? One day, my seven year old daughter asked me after going to spirituality classes with me. "Mommy, what did African people do to be put into slavery?" Imagine?? The cognitive dissonance reigns supreme in White Supremacy camp and the Black Supremacy camp. Each denying their responsibility for the destruction of civilizations.

Mansa Musa; I know nowadays, many African countries are quickly adopting the Christians and Muslims way of life and also start having the same type of problems like those who they chose to follow. ..........What they don’t understand is that’s another human being who was also created by the same God, that they are now destroying. The only sad difference is that those people chose to worship a different God than theirs......main foundation for most of those crimes against humanity. 

Nana Baakan's Response:
Here I must totally agree with you. I think that you are one who must take this issue up from a certain perspective. And since you are in the position of giving lectures, then you are able to bring this truth to the masses. It is a hard pill to swallow, like I mentioned before, the cognitive dissonance is pervasive on both sides of the aisle. But like I mentioned before... there was slavery in Africa, before the Bible. there were tribal wars, raping and pillaging going on before the Whites and the Arabs. That is why Africans were subjugated in the manner they were. They were already weaken by their differences that were exploited by the invaders.

Mansa Musa: "There is no bias on my part for my African traditions. Africa is and has become just as developed as many other parts of the world. However, from a spiritual point of view, the way the people used to worship prior to the intervention of many other religions is what causing many of the problems today." 

Nana Baakan's Response: 
Indigenous Africans before the Bible did not fight religious wars as we see them today, but they did fight wars over land, power, control, resources and military might. To me, that made them ripe for the picking. It was easy to supplant a spiritual methodology over it and make it appropriate in that manner. There are African people who lived so far back up in the bush, they never saw the likes of Western style slavery, however, among themselves, the power grab of who was better had become prevalent among them. I would like to take you with me on this thought. As indigenous people, who know all was part of Creation, therefore to harm one was to harm all. When it was introduced among them, that some are better than others, then the divide occurred. This is what humanity has done for the thousands, if not millions of years it has inhabited this planet. They then began to Create Gods/Goddess to prove that because of their relationship with these Gods/Goddess they were superior. They created among themselves an elite class of Priests and Priestesses, Chiefs and Queen mothers, leaders, etc. who were to be honored, cherished, followed and worshipped. Again, I point to the separation of the masses into haves and have-nots, powerful and powerless... long before the bible. This is present in African Spiritual Traditions that pre-date the invasion of Biblical teachings.

Your article catapulted me on my journey of understanding and innerstanding myself as I express myself in this reality. I had a shrine house where people came to pay homage to my shrines and ancestors. They brought "gifts" and they asked for help. While I claimed not to be a religion, I too was suffering from cognitive dissonance. I too was in denial that what I was doing was different than my christian/muslim/jewish counterparts. I set myself aside from the others, because I believed that what the indigenous Africans did was good and holy. I looked away from the power grabs, the lust for power, the covetedness, back biting and scandals that went on. I also believed in the punishment that would come by virtue of the Gods disfavor. How is that different? Not at all.

Mansa, you may not even realize that you were poised to place your ideas on my facebook wall as a result of my call out to the Universe. It matters not, that we agree on every issue, or see it in the same light. In fact, our different perspectives on it, is truly a blessing and a gift, one human being to another, and I thank you for allowing that urging to manifest there.

Mansa Musa: "the Bible is just like fire, you can use it to do a lot of good things with it and you can take it to do a lot of evil things also, but the bible is just that, a book, it is neither good nor bad, but the way you chose to use it."

Nana Baakan's Response:

In closing, I would replace Bible with any religion that is used for the purpose of subjugation instead of elevation. Thank you so much Peace & Blessings