Why do Africans look down on their own intelligence, their own inventions, their own historical recognitions? What we disparagingly call primitive African religions today were the expression of search, perception of recognition done by the African psyche. That psyche still lives and works today in the subconscious of the so-called modern African. He has been made to believe, however, that there is something inherenrtly wrong in an inner world view that came up with the concept of an Amadioha or a Shango. And yet these perceptions at that time represented leaps in consciousness and expressed a willingness to independently break new ground spiritually, mentally, physically and technologically.

They expressed a desire to dare to understand and interpret nature through the agency of their own eyes and indigenous preceptions. They document an understanding of the inherent calling and duty to “explore” the world, to “dissect” nature, to search for patterns and laws, to align intellect with intuition, to look for the next boundary of civilization, to advance themselves, their world and their world view forward – in little steps or quantum leaps – from one recognition to the other, on their own, indigenously, self-driven and self-motivated. Just for the heck of it. Just for the fact of being alive and possessing the faculty of thought and of intuitive perception. They were Explorers, they were Inventors.

Quite apart from the fact that Shango or Amadioha really exist (but that is the subject of another discussion), this instinctive attitude and inherent inclination in the earlier Africans found expression in all walks of life. Be it in the field of what we now call religion, but which at that time was integrated science; be it in what is today called the arts, but which at that time was living culture; be it in architecture which for them was just common sense; be it in early technological advanes and dynamics; in well thought-out and varied political systems; in the arrangement of soceity; in military equipment and strategy; in the philosophy behind the structure and implementation of justice codes; in the orderliness in the fields of commerce, finance and markets; and in the practical relationship with physical nature to ensure survival.

Everywhere we see evidence not just of independent thought and not just of WILLING thought, but also of progressive and evolutionary thinking and applied recognitions. Africa was a continent of ambitious explorers who found joy in breaking boundaries, a place of restless thinkers, and of innovators and inventors.

If today there exists inside of you any of the indolence or lethargy that now impedes the re-awakening of thie Original African in you…, UPROOT IT! Go within your own soul and destroy it! Become an abstract and creative and hungry thinker and DOER again. Become again someone who can – yes – study, replicate, preserve and respect the past…, but who can then leave it behind in the past, if necessary, and strive forward in search of the next Amadioha! The next bolt of thunder that will ignite the next leap, the next JUMP of Africa into the future, independently, indigenously – without boarding one migrant boat, without receiving one aid package, without self-destructing.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.