by Vodunsi Akinyele Umoja
In his role as pioneer of the revival of Afrikan tradition, spirituality, and identity, Medahochi Kofi Zannu was a genius who has been responsible for the development of a perspective that has the potential of restoring dignity and integrity to Afrikans in America and worldwide and restoring our civilization and World. Medahochi was a visionary and gifted thinker. Let me recount some of his significant contributions.
Medahochi taught us that We must spiritualize our nationalism and nationalize our spirituality. He argued that without a spiritual foundation, our political actions are imitations of our Euro-American oppressors. He also asserted that without political and economic power, our spiritual power is limited, thus, believers should be engaged in changing our social reality, particularly integrating ritual with activism and institution-building.
Medahochi was one of the first Afrikans born in North America to emphasize the study of Fa (Ifa, Afa, etc.) and Kpoli (Ori). In this, the understanding of one’s destiny and the spiritual components of our personality were taken to greater heights in our recovery of our Afrikanity and humanity. Medahochi’s knowledge of Du (Odu) served as an example to a new generation of diviners and practioneers.
For over 30 years Medahochi advocated that New Afrikans in America, descendants of Ancestors enslaved in North America, speak our own special truth and assert our contribution to global Afrikan personality, culture and civilization. Just as Afrikans in Haiti, Cuba, and Brazil have presented significant additions to the unified diversity of Afrikan spirituality, Medahochi believed that the experiences of New Afrikans in North America could be focused to channel our energy and empower us as a people.
Medahochi challenged the re-tribalizing of Afrikan traditionalists. He encouraged the mutual respect by us all of our Ancestral traditions from Afrika. Medahochi insisted that Afrikans in the Americas are a composite of the various Afrikan cultural and language groups which contributed to the Middle Passage. Medahochi taught us that We have an inheritance to all of these traditions and should appreciate and learn from all of them.
Medahochi was most insistent that learning an Afrikan language is essential to re-claiming our Afrikan minds and recovering our personality. Medahochi reminded us that We are still enslaved as long as We can only communicate with each other in the language of our oppressors. Medahochi argued not only that Afrikans in the western hemisphere re-claim our native tongue, but that Afrikans worldwide establish global Afrikan unity.
These and other lessons were part of Medahochi’s legacy to us, and to the World. Let us, his children, build upon the foundation and example he has set to implement his ideas and rebuild our World.
Asante Sana
Uhuru kwa Taifa ya Afrika katika America
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