"Discipline of the mind is the basic ingredient of genuine morality and therefore is a spiritual strength" HIM Haile Selassie I
"He who is ruled by his appetite belongs to the enemy."- Ptah Hotep
People who have adjusted to and prize a life of sex are more easily and willingly exploited sexually in whatever way sexual predators wish to use them. There are few limits to what the human body and mind are capable of. People are easily, and often willing, prey. As this article will clearly show, European media have already revealed the extent to which the human body can be maniputaed beyond its natural limits to service sexual organs as well as a multitude of other devices. And, serving as the primary models of what to almost everyone exept them is new, Europeans themselves have demonstrated how virtually any object, animal or human can be used in their game of sexual exploitation. People who have adjusted to and prize a life of sex are easy prey for those determined to turn the world into their personal orgy. There is no doubt that a human mind singularly focused on sexual conquest can be effective and destructive as one obsessively bent on violence or consumption. And where their is no order, no moral or ethical guidelines based on the laws and conditions of the Universe, no conception of right and wrong as long as it makes me feel good and I am powerful enough to uncontestedly declare that it does not harm those minds and bodies I exploit, the unbridled pursuit of sexual pleasure can become the majority of individual's all in all.
If the drives are permitted to rule the self, the person becomes only a physical pleasue-seeker. He is concerned only about what brings physical pleasure: food, sex, physical relaxation. If the drives are given free rein, they will drive the entire community to seek only pleasure. Fear can come to rule and the person is constantly nervous or anxious in his persistent drive to avoid pain. - Na'im Akbar
Europeans are psychologically driven by the pursuit of individual pleasure. And sex is seen as the cheapest and most gratifying means of controlling and reaching this constant, and constantly elusive, end. Because of this, they are the ultimate pleasure seekers. These are constantly agitated, restless people, seeking an unattainable fulfillment. And the sexual mindfield is full of traps and explosive devices.
Afrikans follow suit only to caught and fragmented by the perverted and extreme sexual way of others. By embracing the logic that what is normal for one people is normal for all people, because they have come to accept the validity of other people's words over their own traditions, many Afrikans rush toward a European difference. They cannot see that following European culture opens them up to an alien and self-alienating way. In the European cultural context, difference in sexual practice is a fundamental measure of one's inferiority or superiority as a human being. For the more unusual and perverted ones sexual practices are, the more progressive or advanced (i.e., superior) that individual is taken to be.
Virtually every major recognizable Afrikan scholar addressing the problem of our youth list this progression or advancement into sexual excess as one of the most corrupting ones today. Delores P. Aldridge speaks of sexism as working with racism, capitaism and Judeo-Christianity as the "ideological institutions" serving to systemaically undermine any possibility of stable, positive relationships between Afrikan men and women. Na'im Akbar shares her opinion saying that sexism, materialism, Christianity, as a force insuring a perception of the inferiority and danger of women, and "an assumption of inevitable conflict between the sexes" are inextricably tied in the assault on peace and purpose for couples. Maulana Karega's four "connections" consist of the more catchy "cash," "flesh," "force" and "dependency" "connections" that undermine male/female relationships. Racism is also given in both Akbar's and Karenga's analyses.
(As a quick point of clarification, we will use the "/" instead of the "-" between male and female when speaking of intimate relationships. A number of our respected scholars have already chosen to do this because the former generally indicates complimentarity and the later contrast and / or antagonism. Unless otherwise indicated in my text, the "male/female" relationships discussed in this reasoning are complementary, as in traditional Afrikan relationships. And the "male-female" statements indicate antagonistic or contrasting interpersonal relationships, as in historic European relationships.)
Although not the only one, sexism, or sexual exploitation, is considered a constant factor by each of these scholars. It is understood not only as a force serving to undermine the potential of women within and outside of relationships with men, but it also serves to make women the objects of men's sexual advances. Sexism makes sexual expoitaion civilized. It makes it normal and, therefore, natural. Karenga's statement that (1) women have less capital in money driven culture where everything has a price and can be bought, (2) sex is the most important cultural entertainment priority, (3) women have less muscle mass and are therefore disproportionately more susceptible to being forcibly "taken" by a man and (4) the dependency all of these create, pulls the implications of sexism together.
No matter the difference in the emphasis and terminology used by these schlolars, each recognizes the extrodinary importance the exercise of power holds for the self-esteem of both males and females in intimate, interpersonal Western relationships. Each recognizes that the drive to control is so great in European culture that in intimate relationships there must be one who dominates and one who is dominated. Power gives meaning and form to virtually every relationship in Western cultural context. These facts are even more pressing among Afrikans in a society that teaches them to view themselves as powerless power seekers.
As might be expected, each scholars is able to see the forest the trees grow in. Each recognizes that forest, like societies, are conscious, living organisms. In doing so, they have no choice but to conclude that forest, like societies, originated from a seed that grew into the tree that produced the seeds from which all other trees in the forest grew and grow. There is a mother tree. And there is a common root system. It is instructive to further note that, in some forests, like pine forests, the trees are so thick and their droppings so acidic that no other vegetation can take root or survive there, except in a weakened, dependent state. This analogy speciffically applies to European culture and its society, no matter their crocodile tears and emotional protestations to the contrary and their claims to multiculturalism.
The overriding influence of cultural context no less applies to the sexual priorities and related problems besieging the Afrikan couples who live in this New Europe. In the final analysis,
it is of eaqual importance to realize that any criticism of Black male/female relationships is at the same time and in equal measure a criticism of U.S. society which has shaped us to fit and function "properly" in it. For social conditions create both social consciousness and social conduct and failure to recognize this can lead one to see racial defects where social ones are more real and relevant...It is this final contention that serves as a key point of departure for any serious analysis of Black male/female relationships clearly reveal their social rather than genetic or purely personal basis. Thus, to understand the negatives of our relationships we must understand the negative characterictics of society which have shaped them. - Karenga
A student once told me that sex, not money, rules the world. He argued that the power to grant or withould sex was a more significant factor in regulating interpersonal relationships, intimate and otherwise, than control over the distribution of monetary resources. Although his argument is debateble, what is not debateble is the obsession / preoccupation with sex and money in the capitalistic societies throughout the world. To fully grasp this fact, we must take a moment to explain the capitalistic system through Afrikan eyes.
These articles will make a very complex subject transparent. It challenges the reader to re-define sex and create a holistic sex that reflects an African culture. Sex is a culture's non-verbal communication. The Chinese, Japanese and caucasians have different sex rituals and ceremonies because their cultures are different. Sex has to be consistent with a culture's norms (value system). Sex transmits and translates culture. Many words of a culture's language, as well as it's rituals and ceremonies, can not be translated from one culture to another. The same can be said for a culture's sex rituals and ceremonies. Nature fixes boundaries between races and cultures that cannot be crossed. For example, if a lion (African) is made to perform a monkey's (caucasian) sex rituals and ceremonies that does not make the lion a monkey. The lion would be performing out of its nature and performing a sexuality created by the monkey's mind. The lion would be sexually out of its nature, out of its mind and culture. Sex speaks to a culture's value system. A caucasian sexuality speaks to a caucasian reality. It makes sense to them and them only. It is a foreign language that can not be holistically translated.
Caucasians have colonized the concepts of sex and sexuality. They have attempted to universalize and globalize sex via movies and psychology. Nature will not and cannot allow sex to be universalized or globalized. Sex is unique to a people's culture - it is not multicultural. For example, in nature there are many different types of grains (barley, wheat, rye, etc) and not one universal strain. At one time caucasians used one strain of cotton seed on southern cotton plantations. The boll weevil insect favored that type of cotton and attacked and basically destroyed the cotton industry. Nature will not allow univeralization of seed. The caucasians use military logic to universalize plants, people, and sex. This is against nature.
Caucasians are colonizing sex and attempting to program their sexuality into Africans. Caucasian sexuality practiced by Africans puts the African in conflict with African culture and nature. It makes the African an enemy of their own culture. The caucasians are trying to change a lion's nature to that of a monkey. And this makes the African mentally ill and a sexual Uncle Tom. The purpose of African sex is to serve MAAT (truth, Justice, harmony, balance, etc.) African culture believes that the sex organs have two functions which are reproduction (ejaculation, conception) and regeneration (injaculation, orgasm without climax). African culture also believs that each act of sexual intercourse creates either a child, a spirit child or a thought. African sex is a spiritual activity and a way to serve God and usually a prayer is said before the act of sex or a ritual and or ceremony is done to spiritualize the activity. Caucasian sex is based upon their lust, violence and gods alien to Africans.
Caucasian sex may seem perverted, freaky and abnormal to Africans. However, these articles will detail its natural progression and history and its confinement within caucasian culture. It will show that the confusion over its normalcy among caucasians is ours not theirs and that caucasians are united in their effort to turn the world into their sexually perverted playground.
The caucasian woman may seems like she is exploited and abused. However, she is a co-partner in sustaining, creating and recreating their sexuality. She is not running away from their sex rituals and ceremonies by moving their sex to another form. In their sex mythology sex is ruled by the planet Mars who is called the troublemaker, warmonger and rules the zidiac sign of Aries. Mars is the planet of war, cruelty, violence and agressive sex which is symbolized by the color red. Hence, the caucasian woman wears red lipstck, fingernails polish, ruby red underwear and wears thongs (military underwear of Greeks). Ruby is a derivative of the word rape, rapture, reptile (penis), ruthless, etc. However sick or abnormal an African may view caucasian sexuality - it is sicker than that. The caucasian woman has created a sexuality that keeps her man interested in her despite the fact that the caucasian man "believes a dog is his best friend." And, the caucasian male has created a sexuality that keeps his woman interested in him despite the fact that she belives "diamonds (power) are a girl's best friend." It will be pointed out that these and many more sexul icons that glue the caucasian male and female together in thier sexulity. A female wolf, elephant or rat is just as dangerous as a male. The caucasian woman is just as sexually sick and sexually happy as her mate.
Do not be deceived by other culture's sex such as the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Arabs and Indian (from India) as just as sexually sick as the caucasian. They are not to be imitated or copied. The African culture's MAAT sex is the highest sexuality for Africans. It allows us to reach our highest level of humanity while other's sex causes us to be inhuman (animal like). These articles will over and over again point to the reality of our sexual situation and is a wake up call for us to either acculturate our African sexuality or lose it to the caucasians.
Africa
By: Mutabaruka
Is the bible the Word of God? Most reggae musicians - Rastafarian or otherwise - accept that it is. Like any other Jamaicans, we were all taught to believe that there was no teaching of morality or history outside of the bible. In writing this article, I am aware that it might go against the perception of you, the reader. May you keep an open, searching mind as you continue reading my reasonings.
When Rastafarians began the quest to find Self, the only book that was available to us was the bible and so the totality of what we understood to be true was based primarily on interpretation of this book. Even the idea of Haile Selassie as an afrikan God was justified and validated by the bible. We, as afrikan people brought here from afrika under inhumane conditions, were forced to live - even now - without any kind of identity. This was also justified through the bible by the European invaders and those afrikans who sought to rationalize this enslavement by declaring that this was an Act of God. The influence of this book runs deep. Over the years, Rastafarians declare themselves to be Israelites as referred to in the Old Testament, so that words and phrases such as Zion, Promised Land, the wicked Pharaoh and Jah became part of the language of the Rastafarian movement.
What I am really trying to say here, is that our own religious knowledge goes back no further than the 6,000 year history presented by this bible, (from Genesis to the beginning of this century, according to the bible, is 6,000 years). History and archeological evidence prove Ethiopia and Egypt existed thousands of years beyond that - much, much more than a mere 6,000 years.
Rastafarians have been very influential because of our music and cultural practices. For Rastafarians to move forward in this time, we will have to go beyond the bible, we can no longer continue to justify Haile Selassie’s divinity through the Davidic link. Ethiopia existed thousands of years before Abraham walked out of the Ur of the Chaldees. Even Egypt, which as been demonized by the authors of the Old Testament, existed thousands of years before Israel.
We can not continue to close out other information that is not in line with the bible. The bible is just one set of peoples’ understanding of human behavior and personality. The events recorded in the bible are on the periphery of afrikan knowledge. Stories recorded in the bible have their genesis in other indigenous people’s folk tales. What we are taking as history is other people’s mythology.
Life experienceis a journey and man keeps evolving.
In Ethiopia, whether by design or accident, the Church has not gone beyond the story of Solomon and Sheba to justify Ethiopia’s presence in history. We can clearly see that there was a deliberate attempt to erase the feminine representation of Ethiopia’s personality and this resulted in a rise in a system of patriarchy that was very alien to afrikan culture. One would conclude that Ethiopia’s religious beginning starts with the union of Makeda and Solomon, but the only information received about Makeda is that she worshiped the sun and that she conceived for Solomon. The significance of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon is very important in validating Ethiopia’s link with a Jewish heritage because this is used to substantiate Ethiopia’s true monarchy and lso the Godhead linkage.
A return to the feminine principle is very important in the unraveling of our ancient spirituality. What we have professed has helped us so far, but it’s up to us to now move it further. We can no longer be like Christian fundamentalists - or Islamic fundamentalists for that matter - who are stuck in a history that does not provide them with an understanding of new thoughts and new life styles. We are living in a new era of information - a time when one can travel from London to New York in three hours, when one can click a switch and illuminate a stadium filled with thousands of people, a time when a person committing a crime in one part of the world can be viewed instantaneously in another through modern technology. This is the age of information, but inspiration without information sometimes leads to superstition.
Muta performing at the 2002Sierra Nevada World Music FestivalPhoto by Daniel Frankston
Given what I know now, I refuse to accept this limited view of Ethiopia and its contribution to world spirituality because this view has stagnated our concept of religion in afrika and how we relate to other cultures. I refuse to keep validating my perception of the divinity of Haile Selassie through an Israelite god. Ideas of emperors being gods existed long before the presence of the Israelites in Egypt. We, as Rastafarians, can find the essence of our spirituality in an Ethiopia and Egypt void of Israelite interpretation.
We are the creators of our destiny, we are the shapers of our future and our spirituality must reflect this new faculty of interpretation. We must not be afraid of the deep. Rastafari can only continue if we who profess this faith, understand that afrikan philosophy and afrikan spirituality cannot be bound into any book.
The journey is never-ending and the race is not for the swift. There are many rivers to cross and so much trouble in the world. We will have to wake up and live! Rastafari must continue to rock the boat with a new faculty of interpretation.
