Being African is a choice of the spirit (not of the mind)

What does it mean to be African? What does it mean to be an African descendant? That is the question I have tried to answer for many years now. Even though others had already concluded on that one for me. Most people assumed that my color and class came with a fixed identity and that resembled either being black or white. Come to think of it, it is actually quite astonishing that I call myself African, if you would consider the way I was brought up. I don’t have a dark skin, I don’t know any African language, nor do I have a nationality or a cultural upbringing directly from the continent. I grew up in Western Europe where there was very little that could spark some kind of African awareness in me. Nobody would even think of something like that. Not my family, not my friends and certainly not the teachers. So I can say for sure that my African consciousness was woken up from deep within. It started with a future image of myself, to be more precise. 

During my childhood I cherished this ‘fantasy’ picture I had on my mind in where I could see myself on the deck of a ship surrounded by wooden boxes. I wore a long raincoat, my hands were in my pocket and I had this secret smile on my face. Initially, I thought the ship was heading for Australia, probable because I associated that place with ‘far away’ and ‘exotic’. During the eighties you did not really have images of Africa, except the occasional depictions on the news. So even though I had no idea the why and how of that image, I was sure it meant something. It said something profound about my life, that I would take a major step at some point. 

That step came years later, after a long period of ‘incubation’ where the meaning of that picture really sank in. And when it came, it felt so natural to move to Ghana, as if it was an obvious choice. Also the people close to me were not surprised. Some even said I already had one foot in Africa. I realize now how true that is. I had built towards that moment of sailing out, not practically but spiritually. I had fed my intellect with news and research from the continent. I had surrounded myself with African artists and writers. I had endless discussions about the ‘black experience’. But all of that would not be more than just ‘a field of interest’ if I had not followed through. In the ancient African traditions there is a name for these kind of personal revelations and choices. They call it destiny co-existing with free will:

A person is paradoxically free-willed despite being given a destiny from birth. With the possession of free will, the person is morally accountable for his actions. His actions have consequences that extend beyond his own person to his community and environment.[i]

In other words, I could have chosen to stay and live in Western Europe. I would probable have done something nice with my interest in African history and culture. I (still) have the free will to do so, but then again I would have missed the ship that sailed off to my destiny. It would have consequences for myself, for the family and my children. Instead of adding a Ghanaian chapter to our family chronicles, I would have probable continued the Dutch saga in our story. The end result would be the completion of a Western experience. Something that is already happening in some branches of our family.

Fortunately, the African perspective comes with a broader of view of the Self and its journey. Every person is seen as a human being in who other parts of the Self are combined. Scholar Chukwunyere Kamalu has depicted five basic parts that he has found across the ancient cultures: The Destiny Self, the Transcendent Self, the Thinking & Feeling Self, the Ancestral Self and the Dream Self. [ii] In short we could say that the human being is closely related to the spiritual world and that different aspects of this relationship are exposed in these multiple Selves. This understanding makes it possible for us to see our dreams, our destiny and our heritage interrelated to each other. They are pieces of a bigger puzzle. If we complete it during one lifetime we will see our own portrait. 

The different Selves have their own growth and their own moment of manifestation, the ancient teachings tell us. Kamalu explains how the human being completes different cycles of its existence. He calls them rites of passages such as birth, adulthood, marriage, reproduction and death.[iii] The key message to understand here is that life is a journey that will take the spirit of the human being from one experience to another. There is no real death but only a transition, as Kamalu puts it, from one form of existence to another form of existence. We should keep in mind that this is not some kind of psychological model that was invented (or inherited) during the ninetieth and twentieth century when the study of the human mind was blooming in the West. This concept of the multiple Self with the different stages it goes through, has been identified by our ancestors centuries ago. That means that their spiritual awareness was far more alive than it is today.

Photo: Edzenunye Kosi Clarke

I point this out is because it explains to me how my African identity was kept in the dark for so long. Contrary to the general ideas of culture, it was not my European upbringing that disguised my African identity. Rather, it was the priority I had given to the mind. Just like the people around me, I grew up with the idea that I had first and foremost a mind and that everything else was its subject, such as feelings, dreams and ambitions. The spirit was completely ignored, it does not really exist in the Western understanding. Only the mind and the soul are there. And our emotional being should be controlled by the mind. The mind in this context is equal to the brain and the intellect. Every act, impulse or thought comes literally from the same head, that is the notion. [iv] 

All of this may sound strange to African ears, but this explanation of the Self could be the fundamental difference between Western civilization and African civilization. The first one is based on technology, science and rationalism. The second one is based on spirituality, nature and traditions.[v] I have experienced this contrast on a personal level. I would not have known that I have a spirit if my African consciousness had not been woken up. In other words: it is because of my African consciousness that I now know I even have a spirit! Like I already said in the beginning, the spark of my Africaness was very much felt in my inner-world that had little to no recognition in the outer-world. The awareness did not come from my political, cultural or social background. It was not even initiated by my ethnic heritage. My family has also Asian, European and native-American foremothers and fathers. But despite all of these bloodlines, the voices of my African ancestors screamed the loudest. And that is because it came from my spirit. 

My African consciousness is the spirit. What do I mean when I say that? African consciousness for me is not about knowing all the books that talk about the history of ancient cultures, (although it does help to gain some knowledge about where certain perspectives are coming from). Further on, African consciousness for me is also not about having a political ideology into place for nations to grow accordingly. The way I see it, African consciousness is essentially about being aware of the ongoing existence of the spiritual being in this tangible world with close ties to its ancestors and the cosmic universe. It is the awareness that my existence is not only connected to the people that have passed away as Africans, but also to beings in the rest of the world. African consciousness tells me that the oneness we experience could also be shared with people from outside the region, basically with the whole of human race. We all come from the same African mother, right? We all have her DNA in our genes, right?[vi] African consciousness gives me the oldest spiritual understanding of the world and its perspective on the evolution of human kind.

My African consciousness has been a gradual awakening process that started with an image of myself sailing off to a far away, unknown land. Now that I have arrived here, it is time for me to start unpacking those wooden boxes with all the belongings I brought with me. And one by one I will give them a new place in the growing understanding of my existence.

This paper is written for the class of Obádélé Kambon, Foundations of African Thought at the University of Ghana.

---

[i] Kamalu, C. (1998) Person, Divinity and Nature. London: Karnak House, p30

[ii] ,, p52

[iii] ,, p31

[iv] Swaab, D. (2015) We are our brains: From the womb to Alzheimer. Penguin Group

[v] Kamalu, C. (1998) Person, Divinity and Nature. London: Karnak House, p103-106

[vi] Piddington, A. (2002) The real Eve. Discovery Channel