of spirit & Black liberation

Africa World Now Project

Amadou Hampâté Bâ, quoting his teacher Tierno Bokar, suggest that “writing is one thing and knowledge is another. Writing is the photograph of knowledge but is not knowledge itself” [A. Hampâté Bâ, The Living Tradition, General History of Africa Vol. 1: 166].

According to Hampâté Bâ, “the world’s earliest archives or libraires were the brains of men [and I must add women] …
The written word is not without thought. The written word without being refined through action and interaction which is articulated through nommo is without power. Without nommo – the African conceptualization of the energy within the spoken word, the power that carries an energy that produces all life and influences everything is the principle upon which the world of meaning is built – power is debased [Nommo, Encyclopedia of African Religion, 2009].

According to Hampâté Bâ, “In African traditions … the spoken word had, beyond its fundamental moral value, a sacred character associated with its divine origin ... an exceptional conductor of magic, grand vector of 'ethereal' forces, it was not to be treated lightly.

Contrary to what some may think, African oral tradition is not limited to stories and legends or even to mythological and historical tales, and the ‘griot’ – what Bâ calls a wandering minstrel/poet as conceptualized by the French – is far from being its one and only qualified guardian and transmitter.

What does all of this point to … for what purpose … and to what ends does this introductory exploration provide our current engagement that you will hear next … how does it connect?

The simplicity of the answer is found in understanding its complexity.

The simple answer is that it provides a frame within which we can identify and extract the multiple points where spirit and Black resistance converge, whether it is evident as the spark of the Haitian Revolution or found interwoven in the vibrations of John Coltrane’s Love Supreme … deeper levels of spirit and Black resistance all always converging.

While the complexity is found in our willingness to map its evolution and stand in its genealogy as it is sparked across space and time, evolving itself as it propels African/a peoples to intrinsically seek liberation …

It is this space in between space, it is of spirit and Black liberation … one of the many places we can explore and utilize this ancient the praxis of nommo.

AWNP’s Tasneem Siddiqui recently sat down with Youssef Carter to discuss the interconnectedness of West African Sufi Islam and Black resistance … the embodiment of ancient ways of being articulated in forms of knowledge that 1st make sense of the conditions within which African/a peoples find themselves; and 2nd to struggle against the those conditions when moved out of balance.

Dr. Youssef Carter is an Assistant Professor and Kenan Rifai Fellow in Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill.

Dr. Youssef Carter holds BS from North Carolina A&T, an MA from North Carolina Central University and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California-Berkeley and is an expert in Sufism and Islam in West Africa and the United States. His book in progress, “The Vast Oceans: Remembering God and Self on the Mustafawi Sufi Path,” examines the discourses and practices of a transatlantic Sufi spiritual network through detailed ethnographic work.

Our show was produced today in solidarity with the native/indigenous, African, and Afro-descended communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana; Ayiti; and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all people.

Listen Intently. Think deeply. Act accordingly.

Enjoy the program.

Image: M-Eating, Sufi - Artist: https://marianeibrahim.com/artists/36-maimouna-guerresi/biography/