The Blueprint of Revolution Praxis
African Spirituality
All significant historic forms of black resistance, all collective revolts for black freedom & justice, all successful black movements for change & revolution were initiated from the depth of the human soul, as spiritual co-conspiracies, collaborations between the higher consciousness (Ori) and the divine.
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Art via Pinterest (artist unknown)
Ritual, prayer and the pursuit of the divine is liberation work in practise. This is a co-weaving of wisdom from our histories into the daily ritual of living and the tapestry of our collective yearnings for a liberated future.
Afro-spirituality is the sacred dance of our ancestors, it is the beating heart of faith and hope, it is the radical living blueprint of black resistance work, the practise and commitment to an unwavering belief in the liberatory force of spirit.
“History has revealed to us that the most notable revolts of black people, the liberation work of our diasporic freedom fighters and revolutionary leaders, were all rooted in faith in divine justice, the freedom of a world that did not yet exist. Their leadership was solidified in co-collaboration with their spiritual practise and the power of conjour and collaboration with divine forces.”
From Nzinga, Yaa Asantewaa and Muhumuza the warrior Queens of Africa who lead rebellions against patriarchal, colonial forces to Nat Turner’s Southampton Insurrection, Queen Nannys’ emancipation of the Jamaican Maroons,
Harriet Tubmans’ abolitionist activism and Voodoo priestess Cécile Fatimans’ prophesies that catalysed the Haitian revolution.The revolutionary leadership of our ancestors was rooted in intentional co-conspiracies with spirit. Afro-spiritual principles can be seen as the scaffolding for the legacies of liberation and revolution theology that have guided our prolific leaders from capture to emancipation, from colonised to liberated.
Art: Mami Water Wooden Sculpture (Origins Ghana)
Faith work is spiritual work. By watering the seeds of our cultural faith based traditions, we tend to our gardens of hope, we put revolution into practise. We emancipate our spirit from the capture of colonial-capitalist-modernity.
We allow ourselves the full breadth of our dreams, we create the playground for the physical manifestations of our Afro-futurist longings. Afro-diasporic spiritual traditions should be celebrated as the radical resistance frameworks that they are. As we continue to witness and experience the violence, the progressive dehumanisation of black and brown bodies by oppressive forces, the psychological and spiritual warfare initiated to sever us from our hope, to eradicate and diminish our spirit, to lure us in fear to a life sentence of submission and capture, our collective ancestors continue to wield a rally cry for the reclamation and utility of our ancient tools.
The striping away of our individual spiritual essence, the untethering of our connection to spirit has been a constant and consistent violent force of domination and oppression of the colonial paradigm.
“In this era of world building, we are being called in by divine forces to rehearse our freedoms by utilising the power of our collective consciousness, to conjure the spirits, to collude with the ancestors, to co-envision the just futures we dream of coexisting in.”
Spirituality for indigenous cultures and peoples of the global majority have always been a way for connecting to the earth, to our divinity and to our communities enabled through ritual and sacred practices.
Gathering and sharing amongst communities was always a way to pass the torch down. When we spotlight and uplift our collective insights and experiences we give them validity and we gain the strength and drive to embody them in praxis in our pursuit of change.
Participating in the collective ritual of communion and gathering strengthens the networks that nurture and deepen our roots and the connection and love we have for each other. Harnessing this connection creating nurturing containers that foster love are the seeds for sustaining our collective futures. The ways in which we continue to share individual and traditional knowledge will fuel our liberation.
How can we construct our future from a place of love? By reclaiming our narratives, our medicines our stories and traditions, by sharing our spiritual gifts our ájé with the world. As we continue to decolonise we must remember that this work is rooted in spirit work.
If revolution is a faith based practise, then we are in a time of an Afro-spiritual renaissance. Our ancestral tools are our collective sovereign inheritance. Our rituals are our portals to freedom, the spirits in the unseen whisper the prophecies of a visionary future if only we will tend to them and listen.
