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Journeying with the Ancestors:
Articles, Essays, Interviews And Commentary on African Diaspora Religion and Culture  

Mystery of the Absent Queen Mothers As
Co-RULERS in African Traditional Religious Society


Pictured: Proselytizing Male converting female to Christianity.
Above: African village Queen Mother Priestess being “converted” to Christianity, by a “modern day” Igbo evangelists. The queen is being asked to “repent” of her “evil pagan ways.”

These and other western inspired Christian propaganda films are massively produced and aggressively promoted all throughout Africa. Their main theme imposes the “all powerful God of the West,” pitted against the ancient “weak” Gods, traditions, wisdom and culture of Africa.

The actors are scripted to denounce, trivialized and discredit African traditional religions in general and the sacerdotal power of African priesthoods in particular.

The overall message being conveyed, is that economic, intellectual and cultural freedom can only be obtained by denouncing the “old primitive superstitions” and culture of ones Ancestors, and by embracing the “new” and “civilized” Jesus of the West.

Unfortunately, the Christian propaganda campaign is winning, as millions of disaffected African youth, seduced by a constant media stream of European cultural imagery celebrating the illusion of “wealth, vanity, happiness & freedom,” they are easily lured and desperate to escape their humiliating poverty (imposed through the IMF and puppet dictators), eager to embrace what they believe is their only way out.


In contemporary times, thousands of African women born with their ancestral spirits are murdered in villages and towns; often accused of being “witches.”

Thousands too are enslaved and their deities commandeered by village priests. This destructive trend although encouraged and exacerbated during Arab/European colonialism, has its most ancient roots in ancient Africa; stemming from the never examined history and events surrounding the rise of African patriarchy and the subsequent dismantlement of the matriarchal sacerdotal systems which continued well into the 1900s.

With the exception of Benin, no African nation claims the indigenous religions of their ancestors as their national faith. This might be because they are ancestrally rooted in these ancient matriarchal religious systems, where the mother’s authority is spiritually as opposed to politically mandated by the Gods and ancestors.

Photo: taken from Igbo movie “Evil Shadow”. A Victor Mmahi O. Production. Courtesy of First Kingdom Gate LTD.



Volume 2 of the Mami Wata Book.

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Volume 2 of the Mami Wata Book.

SYNOPSIS/EXCERPTS FROM BOOK:
Mami Wata: Africa's Ancient God/dess Unveiled

Reclaiming the Ancient Vodoun Heritage of the Diaspora. Vol 1& II.

By Mama Zogbé
(Chief Hounon-Amengansie)

"Contrary to abolitionist’s writings, many Africans enslaved in America were not Christians, but were practitioners of various African ancestral and ritual experiential highly complex systems of worship, that have their ancient ancestral roots in the matriarchal cultures first established by African women thousands of years ago. Presently, nearly all of the ancient black god/desses and their symbolisms, were painted over in European and other ethnic faces, that black women and men no longer recognize their own ancient mothers ,nor the spiritual and ecclesiastical legacy bequeathed to them.”

“Mami Wata as an ancient African deity of Isis, and the divine manifestation of the feminine principal, is the master of all magical, divinatory, prophetic, philosophical and religious systems in ancient Africa. There is no indigenous spiritual system that currently exist in Africa that is separate from Mami Wata.”

“Unlike her European counterpart, Black women were not originally born under the yoke of patriarchy. During ancient times, all of Africa was matriarchal; achieving high levels of civilization. The religious systems imposed on black women (and men) today, are merely a corrupted version stemming from the overthrow of the spiritual and political kingdoms that their ancient mothers built and established throughout the entire ancient world. As the birthright of the African people,its logos (divine truths) were subsequently disseminated as their gift to the entire world.”

“Conversely, under African patriarchy, her temples were usurped, her priestesses were chased from the land or subjugated, and her original logos (spiritual truths) were hopelessly corrupted. In ancient Egypt, her images were destroyed and replaced with colossal monuments erected to the great pharaohs celebrating the rise of patriarchy and its aggressive military expansions. In her place, diminutive statues were erected depicting the queen mothers (Mama-Isis/Sibyls) as minor figures. A deliberate act of sacrilege to symbolized her final subjugation; and meant as an insult celebrating her global spiritual decline."

“In the Diaspora's fight to reclaim their ancient Egyptian ancestral history against the Eurocentric whitewash, the majority have failed to critically examine the social, political and spiritual significance of those ancient monuments, in order to understand why Africa, boasting the most powerful kingdom on Earth, was left vulnerable to her less developed enemies. In spite of this patriarchal backlash against her, the great queen mothers did not back down. They continued to fight and many did prevail ,as they and millions of their votaries fled into Mycenae, Ionia (now called Greece), Asia Minor (southwest Turkey), Syria, Israel and Jordan. It was there where they rebuilt their great spiritual temples and continued to reign as the primary seat of sacerdotal power for Africa and the ancient world.”

"Today, in contemporary times, millions of Black women continue to suffer from a generational spiritual malaise, largely because they have lost contact with their divine mother. Millions of Black men too suffer an unspoken spiritual emptiness, because they were originally nurtured under the yoke of the Divine African Mother, of whom they have forgotten, and their ancient fathers ultimately rejected in favor of the one dimensional force of cultural patriarchy.“

“This spiritual alienation might explain one of the major reasons why Black men do not understand what they believe to be the "defiant and rebellious" nature of Black women. The reason might be explained because her primal spirit (just as his) was born free, under a matriarchal yoke, which understood and lived the divine concept of spiritual complementariness. That (matriarchy) was the natural (in contrast to the politically and culturally imposed) order of the African world for thousands of years, is never questioned by Africentric scholars, and Blacks who have rediscovered their spiritual roots. “

“They espouse arguments for an “African World View” assuming the raise of African patriarchy in Africa to be a natural consequence of cultural and moral "evolution." However, what they and others have failed to recognize in their indictment of their oppressors, is that the ancient soul of the Divine African Mother was already deeply enraged even before the advent of Arab/Euro-colonialism and slavery. These Africentric scholars never, considered the possibility that Her anger and subsequent “punishment” might have been directed toward them, and not necessarily at a foreign power."

“It is under present day patriarchal Africa that the mother religions have been almost completely shunned and forgotten. Abandoned and condemned, because they were the sacerdotal power of the matriarchs, now replaced with patriarchal corruptions. Thousands of African women are routinely burned, ostracized, and killed; accused of being “witches because they carry the powerful spirit of the old matriarchal logos. This is evidenced, (with the recent exception of Benin), that , no African nation claims an indigenous African spiritual system as their national religion." All have aggressively embraced the virulent patriarchal religions of their present and past conquerors.”

"Today, in the Diaspora's attempt at reclaiming what was lost, stolen and strayed from them by others, few have bothered to critically examine the internal devastating wars between the matriarchs and patriarchs, and what was ultimately taken from within Africa from her original matriarchal rulers. Perhaps, it could be argued that the Diaspora and Africa is suffering from an ancient curse brought upon them due to the “sins” of their most ancient ancestors. It is possible too that until the Divine African Mami God/dess whose curse African people might still be living under today, is fully restored-reestablished, no African will ever be spiritually or universally free.”

“As many in the Diaspora reclaim their spiritual heritage in the traditional religions of Africa, it is critical to carefully examine current patriarchal social and cultural structures of its present pantheons, and its religious customs, which are arguably designed to continue to oppress the souls of black men and women who carry the divine seed of their ancient mothers. It is through her that the spirit is inherited, and it is united with her that liberty will prevail."

"Mami Wata: Africa's Ancient God/dess Unveiled," is an attempt to unearth, document and examine the role of the African priestesses of the Mami Watas in establishing the ancient religious systems in both the Vodoun of West Africa, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. It also attempts to offer a more multidimensional character to African Traditional Religions first established under the African matriarchs."

Screen Caption: King of My Village. There may be two men in the photo.


Many in the Diaspora seeking to reconnect with their African religious roots, are presented with a cultural Africa wholly different from its ancient beginnings, where the system of divine complementariness existed between the sexes.

The cultural village systems which exist today, consists of a body of male elders, governed by a sole “political” king, claiming “paternal“ divine kingship. This exclusive male cultural-political system is viewed as the ideal cultural model depicting" African Traditional Culture” at its best.

Unfortunately, many in the Diaspora anxious to shed their Eurocentric cultural shackles', tend to blindly adopt and incorporate this model into their religious practices, never questioning its legitimacy.

Few ever question the illogical premise of the current conditions of women priestesses in Africa to its ancient past, or even pose the question of what happened to the Queen Mothers? And, if she is present, why is she seated lower than the king, or presented among a line of passive “wives” or “concubines?”

To many women in the Diaspora, they have come to question and view this religious patriarchal cultural model as merely exchanging one form of oppression for another.

In truth, sacred kingships were a later development in African culture. The divine kings of ancient Mesopotamia, Kemet (Egypt) and Ethiopia were considered gods because they could claim direct blood descent from one or more of the seven Nagas represented as the Serpent Mother.

During Egypt’s pre-dynastic matriarchal period, for more than 4,000 years, the Pharaonic orders and sacred kingships could only derived their divine legitimacy and political authority by claiming direct descent from a queen Mother.

The sacred name of the line of great Abyssinian (Ethiopian) kings began with “Arwe” which meant “The Serpent Mother. It was she who crowned him, and his reign was only temporary.

The Divine Spirit would often choose another male to challenge and dethrone the current king, so that he could be crowned.

The politico-spiritual conflicts which engendered the power struggles between the matriarchs and the emerging patriarchs, cumulating in the “great war and rift” between the Gods, in Africa has never been seriously examined.

This is largely due to it being overshadowed by centuries of colonialism, and its devastating aftermath. And by the infusion of an even more ancient and petulant patriarchal system imposed by Africa’s conquerors.

What is most important for the Diaspora to obtain from this history is their ancestral and moral obligation to critically examine as oppose to romanticize, Africa’s patriarchal history prior to Arab/Euro-colonialism.

It is crucial that the Diaspora not make the mistake of importing these same systems of division-oppression upon women in the Diaspora who are much more astute and determined to answer the call of their spirits and ancestors through sacerdotal roles so long deemed the exclusive domain of males. History and the Gods are saying it just isn’t so.


Photo: taken from Igbo movie “Evil Shadow”. A Victor Mmahi O. Production. Courtesy of First Kingdom Gate LTD.

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