Just Who Are You Listening to?
Some Clarifications and Thoughts on Ancestral Veneration © 2006
by Baba Awotunde Dosunmu Faseyin

At the very root of Afrikan spiritual tradition is the concept and application of Ancestral veneration and worship. Many have given over perverted ideology to what this is and have began to promote this perverted ideology as the “truth” concerning Ancestral veneration when in fact they are lying on the Ancestors! First I would like to say that in Afrikan tradition we do not worship all of our Ancestors. For instance, we do not wish to invoke the spirit of spirits that were treacherous while here on earth and lived bad lives. What we do and want to do is help those spirits transform and “heal” as they go through the various stages of transition. We do this because of our strong belief in atunwa, or reincarnation. We want these spirits to come back “doing the right thing” so that they may rectify their past life or lives.

There are times when these spirits break through to our Orì (consciousness) and give us these off the mark messages and we say that we are getting messages from the Ancestral realm. Well, once again this is incorrect because these types of spirits do not reside in the Ancestral realm. They reside in a place of confusion and chaos and their messages can only reflect where they are. They are not in the Ancestral realm Also, many mistakenly identify these distorted messages as coming from various deities. But we have to know how to train our Orì to detect these things before the turn into disaster.

Since we now know that all Ancestors are not to be venerated we can come to a more controversial point. Many justify the acceptance and “veneration” of so-called white people in their lineage by distorting the concept of Ancestral veneration. They do a just because type of thing. But from the New Afrikan and nationalistic perspective just because they are there does not make cause for them to be venerated or even acknowledged in your lineage! Why? The so-called “white” people are a historical disease that came about as a happenstance. The only reason that they are even in our blood (not all Afrikan people) is because of the Maafa and the resultant miscegenation that followed. Whether through force or “voluntary” miscegenation it is an abomination and has caused countless abominations among our people.

This does not discount the Afrikan of “mixed” race. They are first and foremost Afrikan. But certain problems arise which brings me to the main point of writing this article. Many of the problems that we have relationally within Afrikan communities throughout the globe comes from these unwanted and wayward “white” ancestors that we still carry around! I cannot tell you the countless divinations that have been done by various priests and it revealed, specifically, that the problems in someone’s relationships, friendships, etc. is due to a white or several white ancestors causing disruption.

Let me give you an example. I knew of a couple whereas the brother was a nationalist and the sister was not quite a nationalist. She claimed to sympathize with the nationalistic cause and they were both part of Afrikan spiritual traditions. But when she began to see his Afrikan or “Black” nationalism in action the conflict began. She begin to not only to reject the nationalism but also the nationalist himself! Ifá divination was done and it came out that “her” rejection of the brother was not hers at all but it was a disembodied “white” ancestor that needed to be eliminated from her lineage. This “ancestor” did not want her to be with someone so dedicated to the liberation of his Afrikan people. Certain prescriptions were told to her by her diviner to do to not only stop this from happening but TO ERADICATE THIS VERY “ANCESTOR” FROM HER LINEAGE AND MEMORY! Of course, she did not address the relationship and the relationship did not last long after that.

These were just thoughts based upon Afrikan Ancestral veneration. With these thoughts and examples in mind shouldn’t it behoove us to be careful who or what we listen to? Please direct all criticism and thoughts to awo@newafrikanvodun.com.