Ìwákiri: The Afrikan Spiritual Quest ©1999-2024

This book is about the quest of re-becoming and retrieving what we were born to be from an Afrikan perspective. It takes the reader from a beginning overstanding of Afrikan spirituality from an Iṣẹṣẹ (Yorùbá) perspective to an inner knowing intermediate level all on one book. The word Ìwákiri itself tells it all. Ìwá – character. Kiri – to be on a quest. Character quest. It all boils down to our character in our quest.

From the book:

Afrikan Spirit Science and Myth

“The sacred space is wherever the Divine resides. The Divine resides over you; beside you; under you; and IN YOU AS YOU. Never doubt or run away from your divinity. Let no one deny you your divinity. It is the true life vessel. To seek it is noble. To embrace it is the enlightenment. Before you seek answers elsewhere, deliberate within yourself.”

Quote from the author.

The Elements of Myth and Its Purpose within New Afrikan Spirituality

There are four basic themes of myth. They are culturally neutral, and reveal a common strand among all of the world’s indigenous faiths. These four most important themes are:

(1) Creation

(2) Birth/Beginning of the Deities

(3) Rebirth and Renewal (as in stages of Nature)

(4) Death/Afterlife

When dealing with myth within creation, one basically encounters cultural theories of the origin of the world and all therein. Many of these theories have often been corroborated by modern science. Oftentimes, the relative culture will personify otherwise mundane objects of Nature. This goes for all religion. Most indigenous cultures, whether they be of Afrikan, European, or Asian origin, speak of the myth of creation as a point of origins for not only creation, but also of themselves as an ethnic group.

For instance, when the original Blacks of Australia speak of time going back to that original “Dreamtime”, they were speaking of creation within their own historical existence. When the Biblical Hebrews spoke of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden mythology, they were speaking of their own Mesopotamian Basin origins in a metaphoric way.

Myths are stories that narrate the structure and origins of a culture. They reveal the symbols, meanings, and values that make up the foundations of a culture. They are far from the stereotypical “fanciful” ideas that many Westerners deem them as. They deal with the very real and essential concerns of the culture that created them. The list goes on, but the point remains. Potential harm comes about when any of the cultures in question attempt to make their story everyone else’s story.That is when a nationalistic concept becomes imperialistic. Regardless, all people must keep a sense of their origins as many historical facts are intermingled within the myth of creation. Many cultures express creation as acts on several levels of being. A further analysis of such concepts will show that these levels of being actually may refer to levels of the human psyche, and/or steps to elevate the human soul.