African Spiritualism

Embracing the multilayered belief systems of the peoples of Africa is an essential aspect of embracing our collective though diversified Africanness.

Umsamo African Institute (UAI) subjects itself to the age-old and current indigenous knowledge and belief systems of the peoples of Africa as well as of those in the African Diaspora.

Our central THESIS on African spiritualism is that long before colonial conquest, Africans believed in gods and deities through which they kept themselves spiritually centered.

One of the key tenets of African Spiritualism is the ongoing quest for wisdom and humility to respect the diversity of one another’s ways of spiritual being.

Secondly, at the heart of African Spiritualism is the overriding notion of sharing and learning from one another. It is about promoting a communal and caring spiritualism in which no one is subjected to oppression, annihilation and isolation simply because of differences in spiritual belief systems.

The UAI will be engaging bearers of indigenous and oral knowledge as well as formally-schooled individuals and like-minded institutions to continuously and rigorously engage with one another to enhance the understanding and acceptance of African Spirituality in Africa and other parts of the world.

In Africa the importance of acknowledging the collective ownership and betterment knowledge is paramount. So is the idea that elders, sages and ordinary members of society also have a pivotal role in protecting and advancing knowledge.

Our quest for African Spiritualism is more than merely calling for a return to roots. Instead it is about critiquing the past, the present and the future with the aim of fostering and supporting the symbolic birth of an astute and dynamic set of belief systems in which African history, thought and heritage are sources of inspiration and not disdain and marginalisation.

African Spiritualism is a strategy or a philosophy for both individuals and Business, which will help in the linking of the Spiritual world with the real world we live and work in. Its base will be the Ancestral Spirits that drives us ALL and the Business itself.

If Africa is the cradle of humanity, all belief systems the world over owe their genesis in one way or another to the richness and diversity of the belief systems of the peoples of Africa going back to countless millennia.