#Diaspora African Union

[union-catalog]

🇺🇲

Hubert Harrison (1883–1927) was a prominent West Indian-American intellectual, writer, and activist, widely recognized for his significant contributions to African American thought and civil rights during the early 20th century. Born in Saint Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Harrison immigrated to the United States, where he became a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance and an influential voice in the African American community.

Harrison was often referred to as the "Black Socrates" for his philosophical insights and critical analysis of social and racial issues. His writings and speeches reflected deep intellectual engagement with the complexities of race, class, and identity, as well as a strong commitment to social justice and equality. He was a passionate advocate for Pan-Africanism and self-determination, emphasizing the importance of unity among people of African descent worldwide.

In addition to his philosophical and political activism, Harrison was a prolific writer, contributing to various newspapers and magazines, where he expressed his views on racism, labour rights, and the African American experience. He founded the Liberty League, aimed at promoting civil rights and activism among Black Americans.

Harrison's legacy is significant in the realms of African American literature, politics, and social thought. His blend of intellectual rigour, activism, and cultural critique earned him a lasting place in the history of social justice movements, making him a key figure in the fight for racial equality and empowerment in America. 🇻🇮

[wyrd-wyrm]

My Honest Review of ‘Slavic Witchcraft; Old world Conjuring Spells and Folklore’ , By Natasha Helvin

Before I start, I am not here to question Natasha’s heritage or place in the Caribbean African diaspora spirituality’s. If you have comments on that, that’s up to you. I neither have the background or place to discuss that.

My review is also on my Goodreads,

Review

Natasha Helvin, as described in her own words, is an occultist, hereditary witch, and priestess of Voodoo. Born in the Soviet Union and later moving away at 18. She claims to have learned from her mother and grandparents, the traditions of old world Slavic paganism.

All this and yet, she cannot source anything she says, save a very unfounded “Just trust me.”

The book is separated into 10 chapters, the first two and introduction focusing on ‘The traditions,’ and other folklore information as well as history. The later 8 sections are all about Spells and spell work, and superstition.

Introduction; Sorcery as a Living Tradition.

Slavic Witchcraft was published in 2019, deep into the popularization and hype of witchcraft and paganism in the 21st century. And yet, Natasha chooses to open her book with a Cautionary Note, which warns the reader that what is inside is ‘taboo’ and ‘forbidden.’ Which is what initially made me raise an eyebrow at what I was reading.

The majority of this section was just discussing her childhood, and experiences to solidify her position as the teacher in this book. Nothing too unusual, and nothing of note. I won’t comment on someone’s life experiences as a point of note. But it’s hard to see the point in bringing it up, when it just loops over itself, as if to philosophize on it rather then make a point. Nostalgia is a valid place to write from, even in Spirituality and Nonfiction, but there are ways to go about it, to make a point. As an example; Braiding Sweetgrass, By Robin Wall K. She makes many points of talking about her life, that ultimately ends with her informing the reader of a life lesson. In Slavic Witchcraft, this just becomes a loop, that is hard to read.

1, Pagan Christianity or Christian Paganism

This Chapter highlights the most glaring issue in the entire book. There are NO SOURCES. Throughout this chapter Natasha Heavily references historical events and real life situations that do have the history to back them up. The Indoctrination into Orthodox Christianity, and the way they amalgamated pagan practices into their religion, are true historical facts. The way paganism out beat Christianity in Russia multiple times, are facts. However, the author refuses to use references and build a bibliography which makes everything she says feel less credible.

Here I will also address the 4 Elements. This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time I bring it up in a Spirituality book review.

Where is your information on the four elements as the building blocks of the universe coming from. It’s not a universal idea? Multiple other cultures have elements ranging from 3-5 or six. I would love genuinely a reference from where Natasha has the Ancient Slavs using these elements as a structure of their beliefs.

2, Slavic Magic Power and Sorcery

There’s a lot of things in this section that just require the reader to trust that Natasha is telling the truth without any resources to reference. Once again a lot of this book would have benefited from sources but because there are none, you just have to trust her.

An example is the Sorcerers Song. She dedicates quite a bit of this chapter to ‘folklore’ and often references this thing called the sorceresses/sorcerers song. The song in question is the dying sorcerers last words, before they transfer magic to someone else. A lot of the stuff in here is very fantastical, and there is a level of difficulty in understanding what is just fun storytelling on the authors part and what is to be believed as fact.

Here she also contradicts herself on the facts of who can and cannot be a witch.

What a witch is according to folklore, where the unfortunate use of a Romani slur is used, in a sentence that is just a repetition of really old racism. How can you write the sentence that describes witches as “ugly iron toothed and (racial stereotypes)” without also clarifying that these are all descriptions from a post orthodox and heavily antagonistic mindset?

These chapters really clarified for me that this book is not about Slavic paganism as a religion but rather, Ms Helvins Experience as a pagan with a post Christian Russian heritage. Everything is still very Christian. Which isn’t bad and not wrong, most folk magics we see today come from a Christian background because that is the most common religion of all our ancestors. This book isn’t a reconstruction of Slavic paganism, or Slavic pagan as a broad term regardless. It’s Natasha’s paganism.

The rest of the book focuses on Spells, which are for the most part fine.

I have personal issues with her opening comments on All people were made by god as man and woman and our true desires are to find our other halves. Okay, no.

I have issues with the amount of times she references everything and everyone around us as “manipulatable” that all things fall under our whims. Which is morally uncomfortable. I don’t think our ancestors who worked alongside animals and plants always saw them as lower, as seen in, still Alive and well, Indigenous American beliefs.

In the end, this book isn’t for beginners, it’s not for Slavic pagans, it’s for Natasha. And that’s fine.

[argyrocratie]

"When I first went to Jamaica in 2012 as a graduate student studying the environmental politics of the Maroons, an Afro-Indigenous community who freed themselves from enslavement in the 18th century and established an autonomous society in the mountainous interior of the island, Chinese overseas development policy seemed irrelevant to my work. Yet as my field research progressed over the following eight years, first as a doctoral student in African diaspora studies and then as a post-doctoral researcher, the impact of Chinese infrastructural development and extractive industry on the Jamaican people and environment became increasingly apparent.

The timing of my field work overlapped with an unprecedented surge in Chinese economic and diplomatic engagement with Jamaica and the Caribbean as a whole.

(...)

It is beyond the scope of this article to detail the political economic dynamics and immense social impact of debt in Jamaica over the last 40 years.4 Suffice it to say that the island became a byword for structural adjustment during this period, with every new loan from the World Bank, or default on payments thereof, coming with International Monetary Fund-mandated austerity.

Health and education were notable casualties of this socio-economic assault. By the start of my field research, Jamaican child mortality had almost doubled over the span of a single decade while completion of primary school dropped from 97% to 73% in the same period. This despite the fact that Jamaica had already repaid more money than it had been lent, with continuing debt servicing accounting for a 106% debt-to-GDP ratio according to the latest World Bank figures.

All this is only a small snapshot of the catastrophic outcomes of debt wielded as a tool of neocolonialism.

With the island’s status as one of the most indebted countries on the planet, Chinese infrastructural development was received with fanfare from Jamaican elites, a possible economic lifeline out of the debt trap.

(...)

Jamaican elites may appreciate that they can pay back debts with land, and that China does not directly require broad policy changes like the structural adjustment conditions of IMF and World Bank loans.

However, even with the above and the fact that the Jamaican debt to China is small compared to that claimed by Western IFIs and private firms, Jamaican politicians are growing increasingly wary of the costs of doing business with China. In November 2019, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that Jamaica would no longer borrow from China, a scant seven months after formally joining the BRI.

As usual, most Jamaicans are not privy to the inter-governmental discussions and deals driving these decisions, but their government’s newfound reticence in engaging with China reflects deeper concerns among BRI partners that the initiative is a debt trap.

(...)

Almost two decades of Chinese loans and infrastructure-led development have left Jamaican workers and farmers as precarious and dispossessed as ever. The hard-fought and generational struggle for Jamaican workers’ power (trade unions were instrumental to Jamaica’s independence struggle) has been curtailed and rolled back by China’s transposed sovereignty.

Furthermore, Chinese mining interests appear poised to pick up where their Western counterparts left off in terms of irreversible ecological destruction and threats to indigenous survival. Certainly, Jamaica cannot bear another 50 years of capitalist exploitation and extractive industry.

If there is any hope in turning this dire situation into revolutionary momentum, it will be in Jamaicans making common cause with the Chinese laborers imported to the country. According to China Labor Watch, Chinese workers on overseas BRI projects are often subject to “deceptive job ads, passport retention, wage withholding, physical violence and lack of contracts” to the extent of constituting forced labor and human trafficking.

In fact, at least one Chinese worker in Jamaica has already blown the whistle on such conditions. Unfortunately, as of the time of writing this article, there appears to be no organized effort to make solidaristic alliances among Jamaican workers, Chinese workers, and Maroons. The Maroons are organized as an indigenous community seeking land and sovereign rights, rather than workers seeking class emancipation, and remain locked in a fractious political battle with the Jamaican state toward those ends.

Furthermore, the cultural and language barriers between Jamaicans and imported Chinese workers are significant. Yet both countries have rich revolutionary traditions. If Jamaican labor militancy and Maroon struggle were able to reconcile and align their interests, while cultivating strategic allies among the heavily exploited Chinese workers, a powerful relationship of international solidarity from below could be forged."

...

[madamlaydebug]

“The African universe is conceived as a unified spiritual totality. We talk about the universe as "cosmos" and we mean that all the beings within it are organically interrelated and interdependent. The western materialized universe does not produce cosmos. Essence of African cosmos is spiritual reality. This is your fundamental nature, your primal essence. But realities are not conceived as being in an irreconcilable opposition, as is in the West, and the spirit is not separated from matter. Both the spiritual and the material being are necessary to bring about a meaningful reality. While the spiritual being gives strength and energy to the matter, the material being gives shapes to the spirit. Enlightenment and the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge depend largely upon the ability to grasp the spirit in matter. This crucial difference between European and African helps explain the specifics of Afro-Diasporic spirituality. ”

“The way to determine the structure of the Western worldview is that of power, control, and destruction. Realities are divided into pairs of opposite parts. Conventionally, one of them becomes valued, while the opposite is understood as devoid of value. One is "good" and the other is "bad". It becomes then necessary (valued behavior) to attempt to destroy one (the “evil”), while the other ascends to supremacy. The human response to the universe, for example, is separated into 'Reason' and 'Emotion'. 'Reason' then becomes the valued aspect of humanity. It must be used to control or deny “emotion” so that we can be properly human. (The African concept is quite different) In her,spirit and emotion are the essence of humanity. ) Other opposite pairs, in the European view, are “knowledge/opinion”, “objective/subjective”, “science/religion”, mind/body, “male/female”, “male/boy”, “white/white/white”, and so on. ”

“For the African, on the other hand, the universe is made of complementary pairs. These "pairs" are forces or principles of reality that are interdependent and necessary for each other, in a unified system. The Divine Essence, for example, is feminine and masculine and therefore capable of reproduction. Do it in the form of male and female twins who then form pairs to continue the process. Harmony is the determining factor in African worldview. The goal is to discover the harmonious point of interaction, so that interferences are neutralized, allowing constructive energy to flow and be received. In the African worldview, human and divine are not inevitably separated, as is in Western theology, where the divine is defined as the denial of all that is human. (It takes a "miracle" for them to interact. ) In Africa the human is divine and the demonstration of this union is the culmination of religious experience, as the spirits manifest themselves in us (spiritual possession). For African,the sacred and the unholy are close and can be experienced as oneness. All this is due to the multidimensional nature of the African universe. Phenomena and events are understood on so many different levels at once. The African universe is alive and rich It is filled with countless possibilities. It's a phenomenal universe. ”

Marimba Ani aka Mrs Marimba Richards

“Let the Circle be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora”

“The African universe is conceived as a unified spiritual totality. We speak of the universe as ‘cosmos’ and we mean that all being within it is organically interrelated and interdependent. The western materialized universe does not yield cosmos. The essence of the African cosmos is spiritual reality. That is its fundamental nature, its primary essence. But realities are not conceived of as being in an irreconcilable opposition, as they are in the West, and spirit is not separate from matter. Both spiritual and material being are necessary in order for there to be a meaningful reality. While spiritual being gives force and energy to matter, material being gives form to spirit. Enlightenment, and the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge depend to a significant degree on being able to apprehend spirit in matter. This crucial difference in European and African helps to explain the specialness of African-Diasporic spirituality.”

“The mode of determining structure of the western world view is that of power, control and destruction. Realities are split into pairs of opposing parts. Conventionally, one of these becomes valued, while its converse is understood as lacking value. One is ‘good’ and the other is ‘bad.’ It then becomes necessary (valued behavior) to attempt to destroy one (the ‘bad’), while the other ascends to supremacy. The human response to the universe, for instance, is separated into ‘Reason’ and ‘Emotion.’ ‘Reason’ then becomes the valued aspect of humanity. It must be used to control or deny ‘emotion’ in order for us to be properly human. (The African conception is quite different. In it spirit and emotion are the essence of humanness.) Other opposing pairs, in the European view, are ‘knowledge/opinion,’ ‘objective/subjective,’ ‘science/religion,’ mind/body,’ male/female,’ ‘man/boy,’ ‘white/black,’ and so forth.”

“To the African, on the other hand, the universe is made up of complementary pairs. These ‘pairs’ are forces, or principles of reality that are interdependent and necessary to each other, in a unified system. The Divine Essence, for instance, is both female and male and therefore able to reproduce itself. It does so in the form of male and female twins that then pair in order to continue the process. The determining mode of the African world-view is harmony. The goal is that of discovering the point of harmonious interaction, so that interferences become neutralized, allowing constructive energy to flow and to be received. In the African world-view the human and the divine are not hopelessly separated, as they are in western theology, where the divine is defined as being the negation of all that is human. (It requires a ‘miracle’ for them to interact.) In Africa the human is divine and the demonstration of this joining is the height of religious experience, as the spirits manifest themselves in us (spirit possession). To the African, the sacred and the profane are close and can be experienced as unity. All of this is so because of the multi-dimensional nature of the African universe. Phenomena and events are understood on many different levels at once. The African universe is alive and rich. It is filled with myriad possibilities. It is a phenomenal universe.”

Marimba Ani aka Dona Marimba Richards

“Let The Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora”

[theworldsownoptimist]

I found it interesting that Morgan's two guesses about Louis' past are a military defector or a communist sympathiser. I'm no expert, but from what I understand, it makes sense for him to make those specific assumptions based on the historical context. The story Louis gives is flimsy and he wouldn't assume a black man was a waylaid journalist like himself, so of course he looks for an alternative explanation.

The idea that he might be an American soldier is self-explanatory: there were roughly 120,000 Black American soldiers serving overseas during WW2 and plenty of reasons to go AWOL. As an aside, the story Louis gives about looking for his fictional wife isn't totally implausible. A small number of African American women (less than 1000 I think?) served in the American Nurse Corps after they were allowed to enlist in 1941. Whether any went missing in Romania is a different matter.

As for being "a red", over the course of the previous decade a number of African Americans immigrated to or visited the Soviet Union, drawn by the opportunity to escape racial segregation or find work. Among them were well known figures like Langston Hughes (visited in 1932) and Paul Robeson (visited in 1934), people who Morgan would likely be aware of. Whilst there were also white American immigrants to the USSR and communist sympathies were by no means limited to Black Americans, I do think race plays a role in leading him to that conclusion.

This is a bit of a reach, but I see some broader significance in the two scenarios he lays out. His advice to Louis is to go back to the army if he went AWOL and to avail himself of any illusions he has about the Soviet Union. Essentially, he should admit to his betrayal and give up on the dream of a better life elsewhere. Both reinforce the sentiment expressed by Daciana and Louis himself i.e give up and go home, there's nothing out here worth searching for.

The comment Morgane makes about returning being "a paradise compared to Uncle Joseph's utopia" feels especially relevant given Louis' characterisation of Claudia's quest as a search for God. This author notes that African American writers arriving in the Soviet Union often framed it as a quasi religious experience.

Louis is turned in a marriage ceremony that's also part baptism, which promises an escape from the rigid racial hierarchies of his homeland. After decades of disillusionment, Morgan's advice nicely reflects his state of mind. There is no paradise left to strive for so why bother looking?

source of the extract: African Diaspora 1 (2008) 53-85, Journeys of Hope: African Diaspora and the Soviet Society by Maxim Matusevich

[elbiotipo]

Varied worlds of Campoestela:

This time they are outside from the Esteloplatense Confederation (you can call it Space Argentina). Some of them are from the wider 'human space', others not.

Hilav: A pleasant world of blue seas and archipaelagos, at the junction of several trade routes. Initially settled by Alevis from Turkey, their influence can still be seen in the local culture and architecture, but is now probably one of the most cosmopolitan worlds of human space, with bustling universities and markets. The orbital ring around Hilav glitters with the constant docking and undocking of ships, and is a reminder every time you look at the sky of just where you are.

Fraternité: A tropical world with low-lying lands and extensive river systems, terraformed with African flora and fauna. The Republic of Fraternité is one of the newest members of the Ubuntu Union, and is located in a privileged new aetheric route leading to Concordia. The cities of Fraternité are booming with cranes and construction robots, even as it tries to retain its traditional forestry genemodding art it is still known for.

Iaotol: Homeworld of the ibis-like Syuted, a dry world with rivers fed by melting glaciers. The canyon cities of Syuted are where you would find the sometimes uncanny displays of traditional Syuted "magic", including sentient gemstones and talking corpses whose secrets are tightly kept. The newer cities in the desert fed by hydroponics are where most of the population lives nowadays.

Ruleta: A million-years old ancient ring-shaped orbital, it has an overall steppe oceanic climate and geography, but it's unclear if that was the original configuration of its builders. Countless cultures have risen and fallen here, many still live in mountain chains or open spaces within the orbital. The current human inmigrants, perhaps because of nominative determinism, are known by their lavish casinos by the seas.

Berekti: A world under an ice age, with karstic caverns sheltering pockets of vegetation from the glaciers. Originally inhabited only by Oriental Orthodox monks from Ethiopia and a small spaceport town with EXCELLENT cafés, in the past few decades it has recieved some attention by extreme sports fans who come to enjoy the rugged geography.

Smaragaid: A carefully terraformed world of forested islands each with their own unique dialects and cultures, it was colonized by Irish culture revivalists who took the rather extreme step of completely banning English and related languages from the planet. Despite the trade opportunities, it remains a rather closed world, only accessible to chosen confidants who have to be vouched as trusted by local councils and families.

Utveh: Homeworld of the snake-like Feisans. While having a variety of climates, Feisans do prefer to live in the many floating 'mangroove' forests that spread over the tropical seas of this world. The basic political unit in Utveh is precisely the Floating Forest, and they have translated this to their expansion into space, preferring to live in independent orbitals. Their orbital constellations are often close to human worlds, coexisting or competing with them.

Saudade: Part of the Brazilian diaspora, this world of beautiful granite formations and flowered valleys experienced such political inestability that it turned into an absolute monarchy. Over the centuries, a constitutional regime emerged, but the dramas and turns of the Realeza are known all over human space, despite the thriving communist movement who's fucking sick of them.

Nueva Valparaíso: A remote, lightly populated world above the galactic plane. Rumors of strange elements on its stormy seas have brought several prospectors, but few settlements besides some remote floating platforms loosely aligned with the Cruzur. It always rains in Nueva Valparaíso, even if it's just a drizzle, hiding the spectacular views of the Campoestela.

Saesfi: A dry world with a thin atmosphere, with lush lowlands with unique ecosystems separated by lifeless mesa-like continents. Homeworld of the Saihisi, a cactus-like species. Saihisi mostly live in connected genets, and one driving factor for their spacebound exploration was to avoid damaging the fragile enviroments of Saesfi. They have settled in all sorts of "gardens" across the stars, but some embrace a more individual existence.

San Marco: Capital of the Serenissima Unione and a major trade center, San Marco is a warm world of low-lying seas, stromatolites and coral reefs, with colorful iridiscent fauna. Because of its beautiful sunsets and islands, it's considered one of the most romantic worlds in human space, at least according to the tourist board. There is a replica of Venezia in one of the atolls, but over time it has adquired a more tropical flair.

Concordia: If there is a true center of Campoestela, it's Concordia. Located in the crossroads of the main three aetheric currents, every space traveller eventually ends up here. A dyson sphere made of swarms of habitats of diamond-like carbon, it has been inhabited over millions of years, in fact, many cultures long extinct are still found here. From the modern city-ports to the ancient palaces and the edenic habitat gardens, Concordia is a sharp contrast of itself: a bustling, modern trade center with a yet not-wholly understood history stretching into the night of time.

Gagarin ("Little Terra"): An O'Neill Cylinder in Concordia, built under the auspices of the Terran Council to represent humanity in the galactic center. Over time, it has become an overbuilt city with people from all over human space and beyond. You can find virtually everything and everybody in the streets of Little Terra with every organization and culture represented somewhere. Many other habitats have been built around it, giving a bit of a ramshackle appearance. However, it retains its political and economic importance.

[asanee44]

LOVE & ATTRACTION SPELLS IN AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY

African spirituality includes a set of beliefs, practices, and rituals that have been passed down within African societies and throughout the African diaspora. It is a holistic approach to life, emphasizing living in harmony with man, nature, and the cosmos. African spirituality also includes using spells and charms to bring about desired outcomes, such as love and attraction, among many other things. 

Spellwork has long been an integral part of African spirituality. Many traditional African rituals are used to invoke powerful forces for protection, healing, prosperity, and manifestation. And the practice of using magical rituals and spells to attract love, affection, romance, and friendships is part of this dynamic. For the most part, these types of rituals are considered integral parts of a devotee’s life. 

Though in today’s time, they tend to get a lot of pushback because of the way some people choose to work with these tools. Sadly, it has become common practice in some circles to use this type of magic in vindictive or harmful ways. But when used properly, attraction spells can be beneficial to individuals and the community at large.

THE PURPOSE OF LOVE & ATTRACTION SPELLS IN AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY

For centuries, African communities have used ancient rituals to invoke the power of the gods and goddesses to find true love and friendships. From traditional love spells designed to bring two people together to attraction spells for finding an ideal mate, attraction spells have resulted in prosperous, healthy unions. 

You see, loneliness and undesired singlehood are considered ills and, sometimes, curses within African societies. Malevolent or benevolent spiritual forces may cause such conditions either on their own or through another individual. In which case, only spiritual intervention can remedy such situations.  

Marriage and childbearing are two of the most important parts of most African communities. Without these two dynamics, society at large would fail to thrive. As such, both of these dynamics are highly desired by the average person of African descent. Likewise, friendships and social connections are core to a thriving society. Even so, in some cases, people deal with both spiritual and physical conditions that can prevent them from enjoying either.

THE POWER OF LOVE SPELLS  

This is when spiritual intervention is necessary. And, oftentimes, a priest or priestess will use spellwork, rituals, or magic to remedy such conditions. The spiritualist will first start by diagnosing the issue through divination. If it is determined to have spiritual roots, they will prescribe a ritual or ceremony to help the person overcome this situation.

These rituals may include a number of tools such as incantations, herbs and oils, soaps, burning candles, and other practices that invoke spirits of love and other deities. Through these rituals, practitioners can call on the spirits to help them manifest their desires for love or healing in their lives.

Love and attraction spells are powerful healing tools. They can be used to attract love, restore and revitalize relationships, and bring joy into people’s lives. By understanding the power of such rituals, we can tap into their potential to bring peace, joy, and harmony into our lives because that is their ultimate purpose. 

Conversely, they are not meant to destroy, harm, or force an unwilling participant into a love relationship or social connection. Though they can also have this effect if used inordinately. This is why they should be used with wisdom and caution.

CAUTIONS WHEN CASTING ATTRACTION SPELLS

Spellwork has been used for centuries, but with the rise of technology, casting attraction spells have become increasingly popular. While these spells can help manifest your desires, specific cautions should be taken when using them. It is essential to understand the dangers associated with using magic spells. It is likewise vital to take ethical considerations into account when using attraction spells. 

As discussed, doing attraction work should be done with the best intentions and the highest regard for all involved. It’s one thing to desire the ideal love in your life. And it’s something completely different to destroy someone’s relationship or force an unwanted connection. In many instances, the latter is not encouraged by those who believe in cosmic balance and harmony. 

Though, some practitioners work with both the right and left hand. This means they will ultimately do whatever work you pay them for – good or ill-intentioned. However, engaging in malevolent spell work can harm your overall well-being. Remember, you invite whatever energy you put out into the universe. As such, if you seek to cause harm when doing magic, that energy will return to you.       

UNDERSTANDING THE RESULTS OF ATTRACTION SPELLS

Attraction spells are a powerful form of magic that can be used to bring someone into your life. However, it’s essential to understand the results when using these spells to anticipate what might happen and how long it will take for the spell to take effect. 

Spellwork can manifest immediately or over a period of time. Typically, you should expect to see some effect from a ritual within 3-6 months. However, it may take years for the work to manifest completely. For instance, you may notice a change in your overall personality or mood within a few weeks of getting a ritual performed. Your attitude may change, or you may feel at peace about your situation.

Thereafter, you might notice people becoming more and more attracted to you. It could be one individual or several people. You may connect with someone immediately, or it could take a few weeks or months. The initial connection may be platonic, and it could take time to build in intensity. But eventually, you will achieve your desired outcome. And in case you are wondering, your spirit will let you know when you meet the right mate or friend.   

SUMMARY

Attraction spells are a powerful tool to help you manifest your deepest desires. Whether you are looking for love, friendship, or something else entirely, attraction spells can help you bring it into your life. With the right combination of ingredients and incantations, these spells can create a powerful energy that will draw the desired person or thing to you. 

By tapping into the power of love and friendship, attraction spells can be used to attract whatever it is that you want in life. Unleash the power of love and friendship today with an attraction ritual, and see what amazing things come your way!

[misspjsuperior]

The splatters from the other page practically begged me to make them into some of Brigid’s freckles.

Brighid/Brig is an ancient Irish goddess associated with fire, among other things, and renowned with many blessings from protection to poetry. The most ancient surviving texts recounting her to this day describe her having two sisters of the same name, Brighid the Smith, associated with metalworks in both weaponry and jewelry, and Brighid the Healer, associated with herbalism and song. This has led to Brighid being hailed as a Triple Goddess in her ancient form. ☘️

Indeed the triplicate of Brigid seems to have transformed along with the Irish diaspora following Catholicism and English oppression. St. Brighid appeared in Ireland under the rule of the Catholic Church, most likely another example of Christianizing pagan figures as seen cross culturally. The Feast of St. Brighid coincides with the ancient Celtic pagan late winter festival of Imbolc on the first of February after all.

Among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, where English colonists sent both enslaved Africans and indentured Irish servants to work sugar and other plantations, revered loa of the Voudun pantheon from West Africa were famously hidden within icons of Catholic saints. It is within this particular tradition that Mama Brigitte is found with her flaming red hair, having been married into the Ghede Spirit family to Baron Samedi, syncretized with St. Brighid. Her feast day varies among Vodouisants from coinciding with Imbolc or All Saints Day, which is also when Dia de los Muertos (as a result of the colonial church) is on November 2nd. Still many acknowledge that Mama Brigette came from Ireland. With this consideration of the origins of Samedi’s bride, their union is representative of the legacy of Irish and African history under European colonial exploitations- we Irish descendants practicing paganism today may do well to remember this manifestation of blessed, vibrant, poetic, protective Brighid’s triplicity in solidarity against the exploitations of empires that go on to this day. ❤️‍🔥

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Los Angeles: Join the MLK People's March & Vigil

Monday, January 15

Gather 2 p.m. @ MLK Blvd. & Western Ave

March 3 p.m.

Vigil 5 p.m.

No to U.S./Israeli Genocide in Gaza!

Money for Food, Housing, Jobs, Healthcare & Education - Not for War & Genocide!

Gather 2pm MLK Blvd & Western Ave for March to a Vigil in Africa Town Square to honor fallen warriors from Dr King to Kwazi Nkrumah and the over 30,000 Palestinians, 60% women and children, martyred by US/Israeli monstrous weapons of genocide.

Orgs: Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Black Alliance for Peace, Al-Awda Right to Return Coalition, Martin Luther King Coalition of Greater LA, Union del Barrio, Black Autonomy, Code Pink, Harvard Blvd Block Club, Justice for Palestine - LA, Anakbayan, All African Peoples Revolutionary Party, Black Men Build, Diaspora Pa'lante

[warningsine]

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s army said it foiled a coup attempt early Sunday and arrested the perpetrators, including several foreigners, following attacks on the presidential palace and the residence of a close ally of Congo’s president that left three people dead in the capital, Kinshasa.

At first, local media identified the armed men as Congolese soldiers but then reported they were linked to self-exiled opposition figure Christian Malanga, who later posted a video on Facebook threatening President Felix Tshisekedi.

Malanga was killed at the presidential palace after he resisted arrest by guards, Congolese army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Sylvain Ekenge told The Associated Press.

Tshisekedi was reelected as president in December in a chaotic vote amid calls for a revote from the opposition over what they said was a lack of transparency. The Central African country has witnessed similar trends of disputed elections in the past.

Ekenge said on state television Sunday that the attempted coup d’état was “nipped in the bud by Congolese defense and security forces (and) the situation is under control.” Among the perpetrators were three Americans, including the son of Malanga, Ekenge later told the AP.

This also came amid a crisis gripping Tshisekedi’s ruling party over an election for the parliament’s leadership, which was supposed to be held Saturday but was postponed.

Clashes were reported Sunday between men in military uniform and guards of Vital Kamerhe, a federal legislator and a candidate for speaker of the National Assembly of Congo, at his residence in Kinshasa, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the presidential palace and where some embassies are also located.

Kamerhe’s guards stopped the armed men, Michel Moto Muhima, the politician’s spokesperson said on the X social media platform, adding that two police officers and one of the attackers were killed in the shootout that started around 4:30 a.m.

Footage, seemingly from the area, showed military trucks and heavily armed men parading deserted streets in the neighborhood as the army said the situation has been brought under control.

Meanwhile, the self-exiled Malanga appeared in the live-streamed video at the presidential palace surrounded by several people in military uniform and said: “Felix, you’re out. We are coming for you.”

On his website, the opposition leader’s group — the United Congolese Party (UCP) — is described as “a grassroots platform that unifies the Congolese Diaspora around the world opposing the current Congolese dictatorship.”

Tshisekedi hasn’t so far addressed the public about Sunday’s events.

On Friday, he met with parliamentarians and leaders of the Sacred Union of the Nation ruling coalition in an attempt to resolve the crisis seizing his party, which dominates the national assembly. He said he would not “hesitate to dissolve the National Assembly and send everyone to new elections if these bad practices persist.”

The United States Embassy in Congo issued a security alert Sunday, urging caution after “reports of gunfire.”

[earth-1218designate]

If Union Jack is the best in action then Black Panther is the sexiest Blood Hunt tie-in :

I love watching Black Panther struggle to bite deeply into those sexy ass Wakandan women. That blood, coming from the U.S. leg of the African diaspora means alot whenever I mate and adds to the sensuality of it even if the Shuri panels get a tad incestuous, this issue is pure erotica like any Dracula story should have as it's main feature.

And it just gets better ...

[sunnunderthesun]

Congolese cinema and Patrice Lumumba

It’s no surprise that African cinema, especially Congolese cinema, isn’t a part of the syllabus of film studies at several universities outside Africa, and Patrice Lumumba hasn’t yet found a space in most history and political science textbooks used by the Western-centric education system in many wealthy and developing countries (including mine).

There is only a handful of scholarly work on Congolese cinema available in English, and most of them are focussed on the evangelisation of the Congolese people, in Belgian Congo, by the male missionaries through mobile film screenings using the “cinema van” built by the British before World War Two to spread propaganda among “primitive peoples”.

Gansa Ndombasi addresses the lack of available information about Congolese cinema and lays out its history in his book La cinéma du Congo démocratique (2008).

The filmmakers of the films screened in Belgian Congo – which used to be the personal property of King Leopold ll after the European countries divided the African continent among themselves at the Berlin Conference of 1885 until Belgian government took over the administration of Congo from him in 1908 and turned it into their colony – showed black characters as “so Manichaean and caricatured that local populations could not identify with them”. The films, religious and nationalist in nature, including the imported Hollywood, Bollywood, and East Asian films – shown to the Congolese community between the early 1960s and 1997 were strictly governed by the interests of Mobutu, the then (1965-1991) head of the state who facilitated the West's access to Congo’s resources as he assumed his dictatorship over Zaire, a name he adopted for the nation. Film commentators, who translated the film’s dialogues into the local language and helped the community understand the story of the film they were being shown, existed well into the post-colonial period since the colonial times. The period following the end of Mobutu’s rule was marked by an increase in Revivalists’ religious films and independent films co-produced by the unrepressed Congolese diaspora with countries like France and Belgium. Ndombasi has called this cinematic period “Cinéma Congolaise” when Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo and, unlike the other two male-dominated periods of filmmaking, women began to make documentaries and short films. Recently Macherie Ekwa Bahango made her debut feature film, Maki'La (2018), on the lives of the marginalized street children and violence against women in Congo.

Both French Congo and Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960, but a Congolese feature film wasn’t produced until 1987; the 1980s being the period when NGOs started flocking to Africa. Some of those charitable organisations are accused of trying to establish “market-friendly human rights” and profiteering the resistance of the people in the exploited conflict-plagued continent.

The first Congolese prime minister and a visionary pan-Africanist whose anti-colonial revolution was crucial in freeing Congo from Belgium, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered in 1961 along with two of his colleagues, by the “agents of imperialism and neocolonialism” because the three martyrs “put their faith in the United Nations and because they refused to allow themselves to be used as stooges or puppets for external interests”. During the cold war, Lumumba’s plans to nationalize Congo’s resources to enhance the country’s economic growth was unfavourable to the West, especially because Congo provided the uranium used in the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – an outcome of Einstein’s fateful letter. Lumumba’s assassination committed with full support from the United States and Europe, in his aim to prevent the “economic reconquest” of the resource-rich Congo by the United States, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, he sought the help of Soviet Union when the United Nations refused to aid the Congolese government in “restoring law and order and calm in the interior of the country”. But he was no communist. In his own words (translated into English): In Africa, anybody who is for progress, anyone who is for the people and against the imperialists is a communist, an agent of Moscow! But anyone who approves of the imperialists, who goes out looking for money and pockets it for himself and his family, is an exemplary man; the imperialists will praise him and bless him. That is the truth, my friends.

In the book Lumumba in the arts, Matthias De Groof writes, "In Congolese society, the impression is that Lumumba is the only one who managed to hang on, to survive and to stay in people's memories through the popular and humorous speeches in which people imitate political figures, for example. When a painter portrays Lumumba, he knows that he will sell the painting, which isn't the case for other national figures." Lumumba (2000) is considered to be the first African feature film on him that portrays his life, political stance and assassination, followed by the documentary called Lumumba, la mort d'un prophète in 1990, by Raoul Peck, a Haitian director who had spent his childhood in Zaire. The father of Congolese independence has inspired a number of foreign films, among other forms of art.

To get an idea of how challenging it is to shoot a movie in the Democratic Republic of Congo at present, last week, we got in touch with Congo Rising, a US-based production company who was preparing to make a major film on Patrice Lumumba in 2021. Congo Rising's Margaret Young informed us, It’s a huge challenge! We have a call scheduled with our publicist on Thursday and a call with Roland Lumumba, Patrice Lumumba’s youngest son, on Sunday. Things are definitely NOT nailed down. The project is still alive, but there are lots of questions which must be answered.

As the Congolese people now battle the devastating consequences of the ongoing armed conflict and slavery, it is crucial that we, the common people with a conscience, do everything in our power – boycott the corporate giants getting richer by enabling modern slavery, promote the enormous creative potential of the Congolese people and amplify the unedited version of their resistance against their exploiters – to stop contributing to their sufferings.

[terranautica]

howdy

some notes:

I generally try to identify places + groups

I try to make conscious decisions about tags that respect cultural identities, consider historical context and reject imperialism. I realize this is impossible and messy and doomed to be inconsistent. choices I've made include one Korea, one Ireland, and multiple tags for separatist states, i.e. Scotland, Catalan Countries.

I am currently unsure when or if it makes sense to tag the "bigger" nation in a post about an autonomous region, ex. China and Tibet, Faroe Islands and Denmark. I want to respect widespread independence movements, but also not become bloated with regional tags. Tibet deserves to be free of China but I have to laugh at modern Texas separatism.

Israel does not get a tag. Jewish diaspora, Free Palestine, genocide, USA, or anti imperialism are used.

I am not always sure when to use the indigenous peoples tag. if I am unsure I will probably leave it out.

except the history and prehistory tag, I currently am not tagging things that no longer exist, ex. Soviet Union, Roman Empire. I may instead tag with the most closely related modern state, ex. Russia, Greece

Tags like EU, UK, Africa, Asia, Latin American, Polynesian, etc. are used in posts that refer to many places/groups collectively ex. Lunar New Year in Asia

I try to tag the country/group that an artist/writer/creator belongs to, ex. a post featuring Baldwin tagged with USA, literature, black diaspora

tags are ever-evolving!

country/place tags:

Africa, Albania, Angolia, Argentina, Armenia, Asia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Catalan Countries, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Emirates, Estonia, Ethiopia, EU, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hawai'i, Hungary, Iberia, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, free Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, free Tibet, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Wales, West Papau, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

diaspora + ethnic group + cultural group tags:

Ainu, Apache, Bahá'í, Basque, Black diaspora, Chechen, Choctaw, Chulym, Dakota, Dharumbal, Dolgan, Galician, Gavião, Guarani-Kaiowá, Hui, Igbo, immigrants, Ingorot, Inuit, Ixil, Jewish diaspora, Karakalpak, Kashmir, Kazakh, Ket, Khakas, Lakota, Latin American, Lezgin, Mah Meri, Maka, Makonda, Mari, Mohegan, Ojibwe, Pataxo, Polynesian, Pueblo peoples, Purepecha, Q'eqchi', Rapa Nui, Rohingya, Romani, Rukai, Ryukyuan, Sakapultek, Samburu, Sámi, Selkup, Sioux, Tamil, Tatar, Tigray, Tlingit, Tokalau, Uyghur, Yazidi

culture + other tags:

agriculture, airports, animals and wildlife, architecture, art, body modification, children, clothing and textiles, current events, dance, ecology and environmentalism, festivals and holidays, film and tv, food, geopolitics, history, infrastructure, language, literature, maps, music, myth and legend, my posts, nature, prehistory, postcards and stamps, public transportation, religions and belief systems, solidarity, sports and games, traditions and customs, true spirit of the blog, urban landscape, water and boats, women

ugly tags:

acab, anti capitalism, anti fascism, anti imperialism, anti misogyny, anti xenophobia, genocide

[lboogie1906]

The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in Brazil, the US, and Haiti. The term can be used to refer to the descendants of North Africans who immigrated to other parts of the world. Some scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά (diaspora, literally "scattering") which gained popularity in English about the Jewish diaspora before being applied to other populations. The term has been used in scholarship to refer to more recent emigration from sub-Saharan Africa. The African Union defines the African diaspora as consisting: "of people of native African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union". It constitutive act declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union". African diaspora populations include but are not limited to: African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latin Americans, and Black Canadians – descendants of enslaved West Africans brought to the US, the Caribbean, and South America during the Atlantic slave trade. Afro-Arabs (Afro-Saudis, Afro-Omanis, Afro-Syrians, Afro-Palestinians, Afro-Iraqis, Afro-Jordanians, etc.), Afro-Iranians, Afro-Turks – descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Near East and other parts of Asia during the Indian Ocean slave trade. Siddis – descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan and India). Referred to as the Makrani in Pakistan. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp-IbgiLUOm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[madamlaydebug]

“The African universe is conceived as a unified spiritual totality. We talk about the universe as “cosmos” and we mean that everything within it is organically interrelated and interdependent. The western materialized universe doesn't produce cosmos. The essence of the African cosmos is the spiritual reality. This is your basic nature, your primary essence. But realities are not conceived to be in irreconcilable opposition, as in the West, and spirit is not separated from matter. Both spiritual and material being are necessary for a meaningful reality. While the spiritual being gives strength and energy to matter, the material being forms the spirit. Enlightenment and the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge depend to a significant degree on being able to grasp the spirit in matter. This crucial difference between European and African helps explain the specialty of Afro-Diaspora spirituality. ”

“The way to determine the structure of the Western worldview is that of power, control, and destruction. Realities are divided into pairs of opposing parts. By convention, one of these becomes valued, while the reverse is understood as lack of value. One is "good" and the other is "bad. It then becomes necessary (valued behavior) to try to destroy one (the 'bad'), while the other rises to supreme. The human response to the universe, for example, is separated into "Reason" and "Emotion. ’‘Reason’ then becomes the valued aspect of humanity. It should be used to control or deny "emotion" so that we are properly human. (The African conception is quite different. In him, spirit and emotion are the essence of humanity. ) Other opposite pairs, in European opinion, are "knowledge/opinion", "objective/subjective", "science/religion", mind/body," man/woman," "man/boy," "white/white", and so on. ”

“For Africans, on the other hand, the universe is made of complementary pairs. These "couples" are forces, or principles of reality that are interdependent and necessary for each other, in a unified system. Divine Essence, for example, is both feminine and masculine and is therefore capable of reproducing. He does it in the form of male and female twins who are then joined to continue the process. Harmony is the determining factor in African worldview. The goal is to discover the point of harmonious interaction, so that interference becomes neutralized, allowing constructive energy to flow and be received. In African worldview, the human and the divine are not desperately separated, as they are in Western theology, where the divine is defined as the denial of everything that is human. (It takes a "miracle" for them to interact. ) In Africa the human is divine and the demonstration of this union is the apex of religious experience, as the spirits manifest themselves in us (spiritual possession). For Africans, the holy and the unholy are close and can be experienced as a unity. All this is due to the multidimensional nature of the African universe. Phenomenons and events are understood on several different levels at the same time. The African universe is alive and rich It is filled with a myriad of possibilities. It's a phenomenal universe. ”

Marimba Ani aka Mrs Marimba Richards

"Unbreakable the Circle: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora"

Page 5

Via Hanuas Sepaa Khan Sahu

[kolajmag]

KOLAJ INSTITUTE NEWS

Last Chance to see "Temporal Geolocation: How Place & History Inform Identity in Collage" at Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans

How do we reconcile disparate identities and nurture a whole sense of self? In the exhibition, "Temporal Geolocation," Paula Mans, T. Owens Union, Candace Caston, and Jeanna Penn draw on history and a sense of place to make collage art that speaks to identity. The artwork of Paula Mans is featured here. Based in Paula Mans creates "figurative collages that engage in visual discourse surrounding the (in)visibility and agency of people of African descent. The works subvert notions of power through the Gaze. Rather than being images to be viewed and consumed, the figures that the artist constructs look defiantly out onto the world --engaging, confronting, and challenging the viewer." Mans' artwork speaks to "the ways in which collage is emblematic of identity formation, specifically within the historical context of the physical and cultural formation of the African Diaspora." The exhibition runs through 24 November 2024. The gallery is open Thursday through Saturday from Noon to 6PM. READ MORE

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Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

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