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It's astounding that people
can believe that Africans, because of their so called witch-doctors--who
were basically physicians and herbalists-- are and were more primitive
philosophically and religiously than other ethnic groups, especially
considering that Europeans and Americans sacrificed thousands of people
because of their fear of witchcraft and the supernatural. It’s also ironic that
the Western world sometimes believes it is more advanced spiritually than
pagan Africa because they are
monotheistic, yet Christianity has its roots in the dark skinned
Mid-East, and the type of Christianity practiced in the Western world
stems from the philosophy of Augustine of Hippo, a North African. Yet
because of the classic Orwellian Doublethink, that type of hypocrisy is
possible--especially concerning ethnicity and religion.
As I have shown in other
chapters, human sacrifice and cannibalism was commonplace among
Europeans.1
Below are
a few quotes that from men who witnessed these sacrifices first hand:
"I was reluctant to pry
into the details of this sacrifice…Let them be as they are and were from
the beginning."
Greek traveler-writer Pausanias describing the tribal ritual of the
Arkadians, a people to the North of Rome, who would kill, dismember
and devour their children.2
"Concerning this
island, I have nothing further to tell…except that its inhabitants are
more savage than the Britons, since they are man-eaters….they
count it an honorable thing, when their fathers die, to devour them, and
openly to have intercourse with their mothers and sisters."
Greek geographer, Strabo, in 7BC on the Celts in Ireland3
"They believe that the
execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or
some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods, but when the supply of
such fails they resort to the execution of the innocent."
Caesar on the Gauls located in France, Caesar, VI, 164
Some common practices among
the white Europeans are hard to imagine. A clan in Ireland inaugurated their
kings by having sex with a horse. Geraldus Cambrenis, at the end of the
12th century, recorded that this tradition was still practiced.5
The Scythians in Russia
used human skulls as drinking cups, and sowed human scalps together as
cloaks. "The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his
bridle-rein," recorded Herodotus. "The greater the number of
such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among
them."6
It wasn't until Christianity
spread throughout dark Europe that these
horrifying practices were quelled and finally ended. Despite the change
witchcraft, pagan rituals, and sorcery still remained very much a part of
European society. Basil Davidson gives the following summary of witchcraft
in medieval Europe:
"Africa, long thought
of by Europeans as a breeding ground for the occult, was more than
matched by Europe, with it won manias for alchemy, astrology and witch
burning. In the 15th Century, superstitious parishioners often danced
among the graves in churchyards in hopes of protecting themselves from
the plague--while the skulls of
plague victims peered quizzically at them. During the same period, Germany
was burning an average of two witches a day.”
Europeans, moreover, were constantly
duped by promises of miraculous transformations and cures. Elixirs of
life, magnets to attract diseases from the body, magic potions and
healing fragments of the, 'true Cross," were common. Even such prominent
intellectuals as Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon searched relentlessly for
the philosopher's stone, the mystical charm of alchemy supposed to
transform dross into gold. Yet despite all their delusions, Europeans
thought of themselves as paragons of dignity and sensibility--while
regarding faraway Africans as frightened primitives and painted witch
doctors."7
Christian Ethiopia, on the
other hand, was much more in tune with modern day western religious
thought than their European counterparts.8
"Eschatology and mysticism," Cambridge historian Iliffe
affirmed, "were less prominent than in European Christianity."
9
Even among the pagan societies, Iliffe recorded that a, "Demand for
constant validation by success made many African skeptical of religious
claims."10
I can just hear people
watching the movie, Shaka Zulu, when a chunk of a traitors arm was cut
off in a witchcraft like ceremony, muttering, "savages," or
"those people are sick,"-referring to the innate nature of
blacks, but when watching, "The
Crucible," about the Salem Witch Trials, proclaiming in
astonishment, "I can't believe those people (referring just to those individuals committing
the acts) are doing that." It reminds me of
a comment Bill Cosby made, which goes something like this: If an old
white drunk falls off a chair, it's just an old drunk falling off the
chair, but if it's a old black drunk falling off the chair, it's the
whole damn race. Massive genocide, inhumane cruelties, and silly
mysticism has gone on in every region, including America, yet when it
occurs in a black nation people often attribute it to the innate nature
of black people, which is of course ridiculous.
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