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(1/20)
Personal Black History Thread (or "More insights in why I abandoned a cushy corporate career"
). How an African God led me to discoveries about complex family slavery history and boosted my motivation to start @TwinDrums & @WagaduChronicle !
Personal Black History Thread (or "More insights in why I abandoned a cushy corporate career"). How an African God led me to discoveries about complex family slavery history and boosted my motivation to start @TwinDrums & @WagaduChronicle !
(2/20)In the Ghanaian household I grew up in, even if somewhat westernised (Christianised/Anglised) African languages and old tales were constantly heard and my grandma even called the Christian God Ataa Naa Nyongmo "Father-Grandmother God" (Our ancestral bi-gendered top-deity).
(3/20) When a few years ago I came across the rich pantheon on the Yoruba people in Nigeria, Shango, the god of thunder and fire, surprised me. I was pretty sure I knew about him and I thought he was a Ga (my people), rather than a Yoruba/Nigerian god.
(4/20)Asking my family and researching I confirmed that our main Ga gods are Ataa Naa Nyongmo the Supreme,Dantu, The Timekeeper, Sakumo The Guardian, Naa Koole The Huntress, Gua The Blacksmith, Naa Ede Oyeadu of Childbirth & mighty Nai of The Sea.. So why did I know about Shango?
(5/20) For the record, you can call this mythology only if you do the same with Christianity, since they are still worshiped by many Gas (Often as in "Ataa Naa Nyongmo = Christian God, Other gods = pagan angels"... at least until the recent spread of fundamentalist US churches)
(6/20) Luckily, as in many African families, history is highly cherished and by asking the right questions and a bit of research I was able to get as far as to the 1700s... to modern day Nigeria and Brazil.
(7/20) The Yoruba are powerful, well-known people in West-Africa. Like ancient Greece, they were fragmented in city states and kingdoms but united by a sophisticated culture and a complex pantheon, the Orisha, to which Shango belongs, sometimes in coexistence with Islam.
(8/20) During the triangular trade, many Yorubas got taken to the Americas to toil as slaves.
(9/20) I learned about some slaves who lived in Sao Paolo, and some who were involved in the massive Malê revolt of Muslim slaves in Brazil - this rebellion, inspired by Haiti's black revolution, is said to have contributed, 15 years later, to Brazil's abolition of slavery...
(10/20)...in 1836, after the failed rebellion, before abolition happened, these families said "I am out of here" and somehow managed to free themselves and board a British ship, the SS Salisbury, to go straight back to the Motherland...
(11/20)... they landed in James Town, now in the heart of Accra, Ghana, and they were warmly welcome by the local Ga people who gave them land. Since the newcomers often said "Tá bom" - "OK" in Portuguese - they became known as the Tabon clan and soon intermarried with the Gas.
(12/20) My Grandma is a Tabon. Her ancestral home is now a museum of Brazilian/Ghanaian friendship and the head of the clan is a member of Ga aristocracy. This story of slavery and liberation is my history.
(13/20)This is our banner which recalls Brazil's colours (green and yellow), our Muslim ancestors (the moon & star) and the Yoruba heritage (the ancient phrase which was thought to be mad-up sounds, recently identified as old Yoruba).
(14/20) During slavery, my Afro-Brazilian ancestors had not forgotten about their pre-Muslim original Yoruba pantheon and they asked Shango to protect them through the voyage back to Africa. When they disembarked they built him a shrine.
(15/20) The Tabon Shango turned into a "private" deity of protection and liberation for my family, worshiped on top of the main Ga gods. After almost 200 years we still have a shrine in Accra and a priestess that takes care of it. That's why I thought he was a Ga god! 
(16/20) This journey led me to meet the Brazilian ambassador and an Afro-Brazilian who told me about his devotion to Shango and the Orisha gods and the cultural/political significance for Brazilian black liberation. I felt proud and inspired, Shango was still doing his thing 
(17/20)Some time later, I was chatting with a Nigerian Yoruba to whom I was going to enthusiastically tell about my connection to Shango just before he revealed that "as a Christian" he DESPISED Shango & all "those demons". Pure devotion or internalised racism? 
I felt sad.
I felt sad.
(18/20) I thought alot about the power of history and how neocolonialism and racism are still actively dismantling our cultures. A long conversation with my grandma before she passed away cleared my mind: I want to try to do my best to fight obscurantism and celebrate who we are.
(19/20) So when as a game designer I found a solid system design for a new game, I took this riskier and more laborious path of Wagadu's untested aesthetics. Looks like the stubbornness that led my ancestors to defy slavery and worship a half-remembered black god is still in me
(20/20) Wow, thank you for reading all the way!
And if you're following @WagaduChronicle THANK YOU for being part of this journey!
PS Black Lives Still Matter.
And if you're following @WagaduChronicle THANK YOU for being part of this journey!
PS Black Lives Still Matter.
