Visiting professor Mayowa Ogedengbe presented a traditional African prayer honoring the dead last week as a prelude to a panel discussion entitled "Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora." The panel was part of a week-long commemoration of MAAFA -- a Kiswahili word used to represent the African Holocaust. A panel of five speakers gathered in the multi-purpose room of W.E.B. DuBois College House in order to raise consciousness of African spirituality and openly discuss the spiritual dynamics surrounding the African people. Engineering senior Cardell Orrin, one of the organizers of the week, explained that the main goal of MAAFA is to commemorate the African ancestors who suffered through the tragedies of the past. "The whole week has gone very well," Orrin said. "I think that in the spirituality forum we were able to get a diverse group of opinions together to open our minds to various spiritualities of the Diaspora." Temple University Afrocentricity Professor Ken Dossar focused his discussion on how art, music, food and dance are carriers of religious tradition. "There are two major names of African traditional religions in America -- one is the Yoruba, and the other is the Bantu," Dossar explained. "My object in doing this program is to be able to play music and talk about cultures from which this music emerged." The Rev. Rayford Emmons, a priest at the St. Agatha and St. James Church in Philadelphia, spoke next. He is one of the six black priests ordained in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Emmons explained that there is a large percentage of blacks in the Roman Catholic Church, contrary to popular belief. "When you have that many black people in an institution, you have Africanisms happening," Emmons said. "When you watch TV, you would never know unless you visit California that Los Angeles has a large Chinese population." Emmons added that by watching television, one would never know that there are blacks in New Orleans. "A lot of times, we watch the movies and you would hardly think that black people were anything else but hoodlums, maybe policemen and maids," he said. "But the fact is that when you go to various areas of the world and you go to the various institutions in which we are present, you find that we have a dominating and pervasive cultural influence and ideological influence." Rashee Hughes, a graduate of Adelphi University who majored in African Studies, then read part of his research on the "Nation of Gods and Earths." Ogedengbe refuted the notion of the separation between church and state. Everything people say or do has cultural origin, he added. "Religion is a cultural integrate," he added. Jeremiah Shabazz, a Philadelphia native who converted to Islam in 1943, spoke firmly about white oppression of blacks, concentrating on how whites have influenced every aspect of black culture. Between 1964 and 1975, Shabazz helped build the largest, most progressive Nation of Islam temple in the entire nation. "I can't understand why everybody is dancing around the black/white question," Shabazz said. "Everything is black and white whether we want to see it that way or not." College senior Kimani Toussaint said he agreed with Shabazz's controversial remarks. "Just like with a lot of other problems with American society, the whole issue of racism is swept under the rug and seen as if it is an individual problem rather than an institutional problem," Toussaint explained. Orrin said he feels that each person deals with the effects of the MAAFA differently. "I think the MAAFA evokes different emotions in whoever you talk to about it," he said. Engineering senior Diallo Crenshaw said the spirituality forum was "very interesting." "It was fascinating to hear different perspectives on religion," Crenshaw said. College junior Tarina Charleston said she thought the forum showed the convergence of people's varying religious beliefs. "[It] show[s] that they are all trying to reach the same thing -- peace," Charleston said. Toussaint said he believes the forum and other MAAFA events have accomplished the intended goal -- to "raise consciousness concerning African spirituality." "It is important to remember that the struggle continues," Toussaint said.
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