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The Universal Zulu Nation also teaches a doctrine that is closely related to Abraham doctrines.
We’ve examined Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as Abrahamic faiths that influenced the basis of modern culture. African culture is a none racist experience that welcomes all people. To experience African culture accurately anyone who declares it must bear its roots. These so-called roots are 1: the necessary mentality, 2: understanding the essence while respecting its significance and 3: practicing some of its central components. The goal is to maintain the traditional awareness and overturn the venomous brainwashing that has been perpetuated by the media, law enforcement, corporate institutions and political rhetoric. As I’ve said earlier, these so-called African roots include: the essential mentality of the people, the cultural lifestyle, and the traditions. Although first, we must understand the history to respect its significance.
REBRANDING THE AFRICAN IMAGE & CULTURE?
I will not waste much time describing the meaning of Afrocentrism. That is because I believe people of African descent come from several schools of thought. If you go to an area with people of the Caribbean, European Africans, and Afro Americans, you will notice what I am saying. Most black people want to correct our misrepresentation in the mainstream educational system, but we also have different mentalities amongst ourselves. We do not want to study slavery alone. We do not want to continue with systematic racism. Many Afro-descendants from different schools of thought condemn police brutality and the systemic issue of financial deprivation among black people.
Then again, based on the sway of philosophies in the part of the world we come from, we may disagree on critical African values which are obsolete. How do we teach everyone to appreciate our culture collectively when some do not even want their skin color? We have dark-skinned black women who whiten their skin until they become light skinned. Some black men date white women specifically so that their children are mixed rather than black. We have some black men who do not associate with Africans. They use words like “black” to denote that they are not Africans.
Christianity, Islam, & Judaism in Hip Hop Kulture?
Black people have suffered from so much racism that some have developed intolerance to their race. You will find many black women who permed their hair in the 1900s to the 1990s. Today, many of them spend thousands on weave and wigs made of Indian or Caucasian hair. They also spend thousands on fake eyelashes, makeup and other body enhancements that make them appear as white women. From the days of slavery until the 1990s, many black women sort marriage. They wanted to take care of their husband and raise a traditional family with children.
In the 2000s we see a split in the black community. Afro-Americans believe they are more civilized than Africans and Africans think that the Caribbean people have lost their African card. Afro-Europeans assume they have committed themselves to their African culture far more than the Caribbean or the African American. Black men from different backgrounds do not get along. We often fall victim to black on black crimes. Many black women from the Caribbean, Europe, the United States and Africa have adopted the women’s movement since the first decade of this century. Even in Africa, the urban society has moved away from its core African essence.
Hip Hop in a World of Dogmas
More and more Africans have eased away from their Abrahamic teachings even though I must add that Muslims are far more resilient in their religion than Christians. This generation of Africans views their values as a burden that was imposed on them by illiterate ancestors. We have all allowed our traditional forms of art to fizzle off with the older generation. The new cohort has embraced smartphones, computers, and the internet. They often stowaway to Europe but when they reach North Africa, racist Arabs sells them into slavery. Those who venture to cross the Mediterranean on overloaded boats capsize and drown. The Europeans do not welcome those who arrive at their border.
In this confusion between who is more civilized, educated, or financially stable, and who are not, you have the Afrocentric. These are the second and third generation of Africans and Caribbean people in the various diaspora who have embraced secularism, homosexuality, and feminism. They also portray some aspects of African heritage. They may visit Africa or the Caribbean Islands to teach indigenous people their mentality. Is Afrocentrism all about growing dreadlocks and afro, eating vegetarian, or wearing African clothing and jewelry? I’m not sure! I see it as a unifying dynamic between people from the African diaspora and the community of descendants of former slaves.
Many of us share the collective experience of racism or apartheid. As a result, the twenty-first century of Afrocentrism is a new edition of the African experience. Some of us embrace Hip-Hop and speak broken English called “Ebonics.” Many will be vegetarians and eat organic food. You will find an African influenced cuisine, fashion sense, economy, or political mentality. Everywhere will support the civil rights movement. However, as we lose the core essence of African culture, many do not want to invest in Africa. We all continue to give in to feminism, non-sexualization, women’s improvement, or Western education, as we strive to maintain some correlation with our African heritage.
CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, JUDAISM & TRADITIONAL AFRICAN RELIGIONS
As with all cultures associated with monotheism [the belief in One Almighty God], Abraham introduced the idea of a Supreme Being. According to the sources, he is a man who God called. Then God gave him some supernatural powers. The Torah, Koran, and Bible all agree that God promised that he would “father many nations.” Abraham is the first Jew and the founder of Judaism. His son Isaac fathered twin sons whom he named Jacob and Esau. The twins carried on the tradition of their God [Yahweh] and their grandfather [Abraham]. That is the summary of the two main religions which Africans inherited as a result of slavery. Islam came through the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and Christianity through the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade.
According to the dogma, Jacob and Esau were always rivals. They also became the fathers of two different peoples who are the Jews and the Persians. Through a VERY cunning deception, Jacob robbed Esau of his blessing. His father Isaac granted him the supernatural powers which he inherited from his father, Abraham. Jacob had twelve sons who each fathered enough offspring to form a tribe. Esau also fathered a nation that makes up a part of the Persians. Abraham’s bloodline is the majority in the Middle East that includes Arabs and Jews. An angel renamed Jacob to Israel.
According to the teachings, the prophet Moses would be the first to unite the people after he redeems them from slavery in Egypt. He produced the Ten Commandments which are the first set of laws that the people used to follow their religion. Those Ten Commandments are the blueprint of our modern constitutions in the Western-dominated parts of the world. However, before the Arabs and Europeans, slavers introduced Abraham’s monotheism to Africa we were polytheists. Many ancient African cultures even worshipped their ancestors as they passed their tradition from generation to generation. However, once Africans became Muslims and Christians, we incorporated the Arab and European systems with our traditional religion. In some households, Africans, Caribbean or African Americans frowned on established African beliefs until Afrocentrism. Now the black man’s loyalty to his slave master’s religion competes with his obligation to his ancestor’s religion.
A WORLD OF DOGMAS
When Jesus Christ came, he attempted to redefine the Jewish faith and invite none Jews into it. However, Jewish authorities rejected Jesus and put him to death. In his death, Christianity evolved as an offshoot of Judaism. Nonetheless, the significant difference is Jesus Christ, and a New Testament Bible was added to the Jewish Torah [Holy Scriptures] which is also the Old Testament in the bible. The Prophet Mohamed [peace and blessing to his name] came centuries later also wielding the Jewish Torah as the Holy Scripture which comprises of the majority of the doctrine in the Holy Qur’an. During slavery and the spread of Islam, Africans came in contact with these faiths.
They became a part of our core belief system. The majority of all black people are Christians, Muslims or black Jews. That is how creeds like the Nation of Islam and Nation of Gods and Earths exist. They linked to Islam. We have the Rastafarians who come from Christianity. The Universal Zulu Nation teaches a doctrine that is closely related to Abrahamic principles. In all of these core beliefs, the critical aspect is that they acknowledge one God above all. In describing the various belief systems that form the religious core of Africa, we now go into the Afrocentric belief. That is the traditional African connection, the Voodoo, Juju, and the conventional African lifestyle that existed before. *
