Dear Kym,
This is to thank you for featuring an aspect of African Spirituality on the Sunday Morning Live programme on 25th October 2020. As you know, the request by Nsofwa (Kangwa) came out of the blue, which gave us all a short window to collectively bring the feature to your audience.
I commend your team for the efficiency with which it was handled. All three of the ‘ground’ team (if that’s the name) were fantastic! Nsofwa, having made the initial contact was amazing throughout. The content has been generally well-received by those who saw the programme. However, there are some points of clarification I would like to address that would better represent African Spirituality that I feel were overshadowed by the programme’s emphasis.
This is also intended to suggest that a longer feature be considered for future programming that would not only diversify the current content of faith-based systems in the media generally, but also promote African Spirituality in a way that is more fully representative.
When approached to take part in the programme, we agreed mostly due to the fact that we have a recent on-going petition that was thought to be the lead ‘news feature’ around which the segment could be based. At the end of my interview I reminded Nsofwa that this was missing from her questions, but was reassured it would be picked up by Iola (Williams).
Sadly, though Iola informed me that she spoke about it in her interview, it was edited out. It’s not clear why but you can imagine our disappointment. The ‘news feature’ was therefore centred on the Black Lives Matter movement.
This emphasis understandably serves the contemporary fervour but it is not the best representation of why Africans on the continent and in the diaspora (UK, included) are ‘returning’ to their indigenous practices. I accept too that the programming was persuaded by the currency of Black History Month but this is precisely why I strongly feel that in order to avoid further marginalisation of Africans (‘Black Lives’) we are given the opportunity to contribute a better representation of the diversity of African Indigenous and Diasporic Spiritual systems (for the more encompassing perspective).
The programme emphasised Ifa – which is only one aspect of the varied systems that comprise African Spirituality, and which I was clear to mention when asked about it. Your Sunday Morning Live Programme regularly features other, well-known faith-based systems (or religions) and as such is the perfect place to demonstrate inclusiveness of such practices.
As vast as the continent of Africa is, and within which many groups of people reside, there is a unique and existing traditional belief system. Add to these the retentions in the diaspora and you can appreciate just how vast and varied these practices are. That said, they all have certain commonalities that the segment naturally could not accommodate, given its brevity.
One of these is the veneration of Ancestors, which I was pleased to see included in the Black Panther addition. Importantly, you would not only diversify the programme’s content to be more inclusive, but its audience too.
This is the clip of the programme for BBC:
(The rise of African Spirituality UK)
I invited as many of my family and friends personally and via social media to tune into your programme. Many did – for the full hour as they awaited that segment. Most, like myself, had never seen the programme before and commented that they wished the feature had been much longer.
I know that the predominance of Ifa – popularised by celebrities like Beyonce through her styling as Osun (goddess of the river) enabled the programme to draw conclusions about its growth. Unfortunately, the emphasis has led to those whose practice of African spirituality but not Ifa, to feel excluded. Interestingly, the opportunity exists to show parallels with Osun and other ‘deities’ across other traditions – Hathor, Aphrodite, Venus, Rati, Parvati, Lakshmi, Freyja and so on.
Also, the editing of Dr Chan’s contribution unwittingly contradicted his expertise. Ifa is one of the oldest traditions on the continent, which has a phenomenal body of academic literature pertaining to the cosmology of the Yoruba, ethics and moral codes that guide adherents to live their best life, in harmony with nature and one another.
Odu Ifa is an ancient philosophical corpus that would easily fit into a ‘set of beliefs’ or ‘doctrine’ if such terminologies were necessary to align it with other world traditional spiritual systems. Dr Chan’s points contradict this fact. I can only surmise that this had something to do with how the editors chose to contextualise this section, which ended with the misguidance that African Spirituality and/or Ifa does not have ‘organisation’ or ‘doctrines.’ This is somewhat poorly represented and I’m sure was not the intention. However, this is the area many I’ve shared the clip with find contentious, for obvious reasons. And it is precisely this reason the petition needed to be included, because African Spirituality is not aiming to be ‘organised’ with a recognisable ‘doctrine’ as some other faith-based practices. It is a way of life for Africans just as Hinduism is a way of life for Hindus.
The distinction is that the disruption caused by slavery and colonialism has resulted in the continued marginalisation and demonisation of these practices, whereby there is wholesale ignorance about them. In the diaspora they were outlawed during the slavery and colonial periods, and these acts remain, notably in areas like Jamaica and Guyana among others.
The petition highlights some of these issues, which is why it is an oversight to have edited it so entirely from the overall content. It is my belief that until we are prepared to have a more conscientious interpretation of African Spirituality, as opposed to a limited segment during Black History Month, which will come and go just as the Black Lives Matter Movement, such practices will continue to be marginalised and excluded. Given the fact, however, that the practice is one of the fastest growing faith-based systems globally, your programme has the potential to help influence these changes that reflect diversity in a way that would bring better harmony and understanding among our human family.
Thanks again for the opportunity to share some aspects of African Spirituality on Sunday Morning Live, and in advance for your consideration of the points above.
Dr Michelle Yaa Asantewa
Organiser Annual Osun River Ritual
CADISS
