“Sankofa” is my favorite film about my ancestors. It is an epic film on the enslavement and genocide of Afrikans. In Sankofa, we see slavery through the eyes of rebel slaves. Many slaves were warriors, despite their omission from America’s history books. (For more information, see “American Negro Slave Revolts” by Herbert Aptheker, and many more.)
Sankofa is unique in so many classic ways. It chronicles the blood ties between Afrikans and Native Americans who refused to be passive servants to whites and fled to freedom. They are those who sparked the sheroic spirit of Harriet Tubman. It illustrates the power of history to awaken those in denial about their heritage. It should be mandatory viewing for a few Black neocons who may not, yet, be beyond all spiritual hope. Most strikingly, it reveals the mental and spiritual poison of white religion on Black minds and souls.
It is human nature to fashion physical images of gods. All gods are ideally universal spirits who have no physical bodies. Yet, we are compelled to assign our gods faces, genders, and races. Why are some Afrikans the only people who worship gods who look NOTHING like them? Because white supremacy is an ancient and global reality. A reality that has given them eternal white gods, in the mirror images of their demonic white oppressors.
Why do racist whites who would NEVER worship in churches where there are Black images of Jesus, demand that Afrikans worship in churches where images of Jesus are white like them? Why do they deny that Jerusalem is in Africa? Why do they deny that Jesus looked more like Jimi Hendrix than David Lee Roth? Ancient catholic images of Jesus depict a black skinned Afrikan with an afro. Even today, the Vatican houses images of a very Black Madonna and Christ child.
Mutabaruka is one of the most gifted and beautiful Afrikan men in the universe. He is a legendary roots reggae superstar, dub poet, and a superior actor. He is also one of the heroic and beloved stars of Sankofa. His character, Shango, is an angry and defiant rebel warrior, who adores and protects Black women, relishes bravery, and refuses to be the “happy darkie” that so many racist, revisionist historians romanticize. Shango lives on...in the spirits of Mutabaruka, Malcolm X, Geronimo Ji Jaga, Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Bell Hooks, Sapphire, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, Winnie Mandela, Ramona Africa, The MOVE 9, Mumia Abu Jamal, Derek Bell, and many more.
The most despised and pathetic character in Sankofa is a mulatto overseer named Joe. He is devoutly religious, adores his masters and hates Black women. Joe lives on...in the spirits of O. J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman, Clarence Thomas, Ken Hamblin, Cyrus on MTV’s “The Real World”, Ezola Foster, Courtney Mann, Star Parker, Johnnie Cochran, Larry Elder, Armstrong Williams, Shelby Steele, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and many more.
We all have the DIVINE RIGHT to create our OWN images of GOD. I REFUSE to allow white supremacists to define ANYTHING for me! They especially have NO power over my Afrikan images of my highest power. May your God bless you as mine blesses me...
Lastly, I quote my favorite Mutaburaka song, “The People’s
Court II”:
“Judge 1000 Years presiding. Your honor, we have here
Mr. Religious
Belief and Mr. Denomination...I see where you have been
promising the
Black people. But you are even worse than the politicians.
You promise
them good living long after they die. Yes, you say them
reward is in
heaven. It would appear to me that both of you have been
to heaven
already and have gotten yours. The charges are too numerous
to mention
here. For over 500 years, you have been wanted. It was
you who went to
the Americas and Africa with your doctrine of civilizing
the ‘savages’.
You taught Black people to pray with their eyes closed.
When they
opened them, you had their land and they had the bible.
With the bible
and gun, you robbed, raped, murdered our foreparents
in the name of
Jesus...The first charge is for misleading Black people
into their color
blind blindness.You have Black people worshipping everything
white as
good. White Jesus. White-winged angels. White Christmas.
Even the
songs talk about ‘whiter than snow I long to be...’...so
you trying to tell
me that if my sins are white instead of scarlet, God
will accept my sins?
Michaelangelo’s painting of his uncle, for years Black
people keep
revering this picture as the picture of Christ...all
of your religious
holidays originate in Europe. Everything in heaven is
white? Everything
in hell is black?..You are also charged with misinterpretation.
You have
twisted the bible to suit white supremacy. You have taken
stories and
culture of other books much older than the bible and
made them into
myths. Have you ever read the Egyptian Book of the Dead?
It is because
of you that the DJ’s have no respect for our Black woman.
You have
painted a picture of woman as the originator of sin.
You have made
woman look inferior in all of your religious books. You
have been
preaching a sexist doctrine to our people from Eve til
now. You have
blamed woman for the downfall of the world. You blamed
Delilah for
Sampson’s stupidity. You have even placed sin on sex.
Saying that Mary
was a virgin all her life. With these images, what do
you expect from our
people? You even have the earth as only 6000 years old.
Maybe the
history of Europe is only 6000 years. But Black people
have been here
long long before...They call themselves the Church of
the Latter Day
Saints or Morons, or Mormons as you call them...that
same
denomination has been preaching for years that Black
people cannot
enter heaven...They should never be allowed into a country
that is
predominately Black to preach about God...You have been
collaborating
with the politicians to trick Black people. You have
branded Voodoo and
Yoruba and all Afrikan oriented traditions as "paganism".
Yet, YOU
have people going to church trying to drink the blood
of Jesus and eat his
flesh...It is YOU they should be asking to lead them
not into
temptation..I hereby sentence you both to 1000 years
for swindling
people by way of radio and TV. I also give you 1000 years
for each year
that Black people have been suffering since [Christopher
‘Come-Bust-Us’] Columbus came here..Now, take them away!!!”