The Timbuktu Syllabus part 9

Cultural Defeat

How Euro-Christianity meets Tradition divided Black SA
It is no secret that The Cradle of Mankind began in Africa.

It is also no secret that all races, be it white or Asians, originated from the African.

So if in Genesis it stands that, "So God created mankind in his own image"

Which race would that be if not of the first people?
Whether through creation or evolution, the African species is the only original species on the face of this earth.

Every other race came from Africa.

And if creation holds any truths, then God only created Africans.
Therefore, both White God and White Jesus are nothing more than a Santa Claus story.

The Bantu people have always believed in a Supreme God.

Their Expansion reached SA between around 300AD.

That is, black people brought God to South Africa around the same era Jesus was born in
Original European religions were cult pagan religions.

The Vikings' Norse Rituals practiced human sacrifice.

The Romans worshipped a variety of gods in miscellaneous cults.

And the Greek practice
Polytheism, worshipping Olympian gods.
Through it all, we, the Bantu people of Africa believed in one true God.

We knew God before the Europeans.

Spirituality was always a part of us.

And ancestors, those that lived before us, served as a portal between us and God.

African Guardian Angels.
The confusion began when settlers arrived.

But first, a look at Christianity.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" 2nd Commandment.

This commandment refused the image of Christ be displayed.

So no paintings nor images of him were made for over 200 years.
The earliest picture of Jesus Christ dates back to 235AD found in Syria.

Showing him as a beardless man.

However, as time went on, the image and idea of Jesus met new modification.

Jesus, who spent his foundation years in Africa, was also intellectually raised by Africans.
Christianity in Africa existed long before the Europeans militarised it for colonial conquest.

In 333AD, Ethiopia recognised Christianity as a state religion.

47 years before Europe (Roman Nicene)

Ethopia also claims one of the oldest Christian church in the world(400AD)
See, the Europeans, starting from Christopher Columbus, used Christianity as a weapon to Colonise, Conquer and Convert.

Opposition, like Muslims were enslaved.

It was easier to subordinate and dominate people through religion.

And that's what Euro-Christianity was used for.
By the time the missionaries came to South Africa, Euro-Christianity brought a whole new confusion.

Best echoed by one of the first British sent (to SA) missionary-traveller David Livingstone's Edinburgh statue...

where he holds a bible in one hand, and an axe on the other.
The statue serves resemblance the impact of Euro-Christianity in SA

Through the bible(education), they taught. Build hospitals and schools. Translated languages into written words. And cradled black liberators

However, through the axe, Euro-christianity divided the black nation
"The demand for European clothing is steadily increasing.

At public meetings and other public gatherings, it is considered a sign of inferiority to appear dressed in clothes other than those of European manufacture"

- Charles Bell 1879, Lesotho.

Not only did the missions...
Christianise, but also stigmatize cultural life, and create out of the black society a materialistic people.

Commerce was introduced. A defeat to the traditional way of life.

Imagine confiscating a herdsmen's cattle, land and crop. Then giving him a doctor's stethoscope.
The missionaries then vilified everything African.

There came a direct relationship between Christianity and Class.

A Christianised black elite came to be, known as the "Amazemtiti". The Westernized, Anglicised, Suit and Tied black man.

"Izifundiswa" the learned ones.
Those that defied Euro-Christianisation, became known as "Amaqaba", the uncivilised ones.

Amaqaba were those that resisted.

Everything associated with them was vilified. Their traditional medicine, beliefs, language, wisdom, drums and dance.

"All witchcraft" it was labelled.
As Siyabonga Hadebe puts it...

The Amazemtiti received land privileges through the missionaries.

Those that owned land during the liberation struggle fell under this class. A black bourgeoisie.

Others renounced their native names for Christian ones, Alfred, Nelson, Chris,etc
Siyabonga adds, "others renounced surnames.

Ndlovu became Oliphant, Mthimkhulu became Grootboom, January, Mathew"

Amazemtiti also received academic privileges. They got access to black elite universities like mission associated Fort Hare.

The ANC was founded by this class
This very class became disgruntled when the Union was formed in 1910 between the Boeres and English, leaving them out.

After sending a petition to the queen of England, which was rejected, they formed the ANC.

ANC in its approach, has always been submissive to the crown.
Amazemtiti principles influence this.

We find ourselves as a former colony of the British, entangled in the commonwealth because we still submit to the Crown.

Why isn't USA not part of the Commonwealth since they too are a former Brit Colony?

That's because US is truly free.
The Star of Africa, the biggest diamond on Earth, is still mounted on the sceptre of the British queen.

It is called the Star of Africa, yet it doesn't shine in Africa

These symbols of Africa's might must be returned

But our leaders' anglo principles will never challenge this
Amaqaba were denied Christian land.

They became the pot of cheap labour.

Theirs was associated with poverty, witchcraft, paganism and savagery.

It was a fight between staying true to self and suffer, or Euro-Christianise and enjoy the privileges.

Black started to divide.
1st Seperation: Traditionalists

Spiritually, the healers of South Africa were known in two, The Diviner (Sangoma) and the Herbalist (Inyanga).

Traditionally, these were the healers and prophets of the tribe.

Euro-Christianisation and cultural commercialisation brought...
alienation to this group. It was now associated with paganism and backwardness.

Also, spiritual commercialization led to an influx of fake traditional healers.

"Money is the root of all evil" came to play

The race for class and euro-success, brewed black on black animosity
Tradition was now weaponised by deceitful healers looking to make a living from clients with ill intentions.

Also, unlike Urban Medicine, traditional healers held no documentation.

The frauds added more to the tarnished image of African spirituality.

There was now a blurred...
line between Good and Bad in African medicine.

The idea that Africa was traditionally a dark world is subjective to point of perception.

The British have been hunting and killing each other for witchcraft until 1735.

60 years later, they came here calling Africans witches
Chinese Daoism recognises the world divided into two principles, Yin (dark negative), Yang (Good and positive).

Dark spirituality has been part of every human civilisation on earth.

The only exception is that Africa doesn't use literature. It is practical.

There are no...
spell books hidden elsewhere.

Britain had to pass a law, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 to stop witch hunts. The witch hunt led to hidden dark spirituality.

If the Industrial Revolution didn't urbanise Europe, witch hunts would have continued to this day.

Industrialise= Civilise
The Act of service to the Yin (dark) and Yang (Light) is limitless.

False prophets, fake herbalists, capitalist exploiting Africa, entertainers misleading the youth sexually, can all qualify as (Yin) Dark.

A Pastor.A healing sangoma. An Activist.Can all qualify as Yang (Good)
2nd Seperation

The missionaries didn't come from one specific country, they came from different European countries, bringing different denominations.

Black Christians were now divided between Methodists, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Protestants, Zionists,
Dutch Reformists, Pentecostal, Apostolic, Nazarene, etc.

Black people failed to unite on many social subject based on their Christian denominations.

A whole competition of the best Christian faith broke out.

However, their central nemesis remained the black culturalists.
3rd Division

In the wake of black political nationalism, so came a new version of black Christianism.

Schisms from the mainstream Euro-Christianity broke out.

These were black led and opposed certian rhetoric in regard to Euro Deism.

They accept Jesus as much as they...
accepted God. But didn't accept the rejection of black cultural beliefs, such as ancestors.

One being the Nazareth Baptist Church founded by Isaiah Shembe in 1910.

Another being the ZCC founded by Engenas Lekganyane also in 1910.

These churches met a lot of rejection, both...
by pure Christians and other missionaries for fusing Christianity with Africanism.

A direct evident assualt was experienced by the ZCC breakaway division led by Samuel Mutendi in what is now Zimbabwe.

Mutendi's churches were torched and his followers forced to worship...
in hiding. He was also imprisoned and traditional leaders contributed to the isolation of the church.

Other African led churches came to be later on. Like the IPHC founded by Frederick Modise.

These schisms attracted a new population into Christianity, especially those that...
have been sceptical of Euro-Christianity.

Modern day South Africa records a variety of black religious leaders. Many from foreign countries.

This has also opened an appetite for what some refer to as false prophets for profits.

The millennia prophets have been met with...
a lot of criticism. Whichever way, they too added on the divisions.

On the other hand, since the arrival of Jan Van Riebeeck, most of the Boeres have been organised under one church. The Dutch Reform church.

The first apartheid president, D.F. Malan, was a Minister at the...
Dutch Reform Church.

The oppression of black people was best executed under one religious administration, while black SA was scattered in a variety of denominations and divisions.

I do not write this to condemn force anyone to conform to a new spiritual structure.
I write to allow black SA to understand their spiritual differences so as to counter these divisions.

Black needs unity

So whether you are Religious or Traditional, we remain one.

So long as your purpose of faith is good. For when you're in Good, you're in God.

End of part 9
Part 1-8 https://twitter.com/Nthapeleng__/status/1261945026118025221?s=19
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