“The Black Hand of God” available now on Amazon Kindle!

Peace folks,

Great news! The Black Hand of God is now available for download on Kindle. Check it out and spread the knowledge.

-R.S.

Are Women in the Black Church Today Obsolete?

It’s a popularly-held belief that the role of women in the Black Church has, over many years, diminished significantly from activism to docility. While this argument can be made for all women in organized religion, our (Black) community has been left largely in the dark about the role of Black feminist ideals in shaping Christianity for Blacks here in the U.S. and across the African Diaspora.

Kimpa Vita’s fierce strength and resiliency laid the foundation for the modern day feminist movement. It is not just Black Christian women who are indebted to her, but all women of every creed, color and religion. Her teachings of resistance against the physical and spiritual enslavement of Africans has been echoed in critical uprisings throughout history, most notably the South Carolina “Stono Rebellion” of 1739, and the Congolese slave revolt that led to Haiti’s independence in 1804.

Kimpa Vita is a powerful example of heroism who, by all standards, would be a leading feminist were she alive now. So what do you think she would make of the diminishing leadership of Black women today, both without the Church and beyond?

50 Years Later, Lumumba Endures.

The Atlanta Post has a great piece commemorating Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo. Assassinated 50 years ago this week, Lumumba joins Kimpa Vita as a powerful symbol of resistance and black liberation. Check it out below.

by R. Asmerom

The name Patrice Lumumba rings a bell amongst those who have followed the revolutionary politics that colored post-colonial Africa. Lumumba, the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, was assassinated 50 years ago this month for similar reasons that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated in the 60s; he represented an agent of Black liberation and progress.

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja of The Guardian UK reasons that the multiple assassination attempts on Lumumba were a natural outcry by the United States and Belgium, which wanted to maintain control of Congo’s rich resources in the midst of the Cold War. Lumumba was  an advocate for  self-determination after all and following a long history of rape and pillaging by Belgium, its colonizer, the people of the Congo embraced the man who would lead them away from such a terrifying past.

“For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo’s destiny,” wrote Nzongola-Ntalaja. “When the atrocities related to brutal economic exploitation in Leopold’s Congo Free State resulted in millions of fatalities, the US joined other world powers to force Belgium to take over the country as a regular colony. And it was during the colonial period that the US acquired a strategic stake in the enormous natural wealth of the Congo, following its use of the uranium from Congolese mines to manufacture the first atomic weapons, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.”

Although, today, the focus on Africa has shifted to the corrupt leaders who continue to lead their respective countries into disaster, it was clear in the 60s and 70s who was responsible for putting those corrupt leaders in power. In a scramble to maintain the disunity of Africa, the U.S. and other Western countries orchestrated coups and power plays to buffer their interests in the region. Lumumba died at the young age of 35, only seven months after his country gained independence. His call for unity and his call to nationalize the nation’s Belgian-owned copper, gold and uranium mining industry was a direct threat to the economic interests of outsiders. “The Belgian monarchy and government wished to continue their gluttonous pillage of the rich resources of the Congo even after “independence” was given,” said writer Nana-Adwoa Ofori. “It was their desire to have a “puppet leader” in place so that it would be easy and effortless to squeeze the Congo of all its riches.”

The irony is that the puppet leader that was place into power, Mobutu Sese Seko, went on to exploit the Congo just as Belgium had. The native son came to represent the very worst of corruption and leadership in the continent’s documented history.

Lumumba’s rule was short lived but his life’s experience has resonated with so many Pan-Africanists and visionaries around for the world. Just like other change-seekers including Che Guevera who died at a young age, Lumumba’s spirit  endures. His assassination may not be the most “important,” but his legacy is one of the most important in African history.

TheBlackMarket.com Reviews “The Black Hand of God.”

‘Afternoon Everyone.

Very good news came today in the form of a great new review on The Black Hand of God by TheBlackMarket.com. Check it out:

This tale, told through memories and rambling thoughts of an anguished parent, introduces fallibility, frailty and sheer stubbornness — human aspects which are usually removed from the lives of our fallen religious leaders.  Pushing and fighting against the power and teachings of the Catholic Church, as it began to destroy Kongolese culture, Kimpa Vita relies on her gifts to lead her followers towards God, even as they are pulled from the traditions of the Catholic Church.  The authour does not muddle up Kimpa’s story with flowery language instead allowing the details to lead the reader toward powerful and thought provoking memories.  Basi’s descriptions transport the reader inside the story, leaving you with questions, wonderment and the desire to read and further study, one cannot ask more of a book.

You can read the entire review HERE.

Thanks for your continued support.

-R.S. Basi

First Week Peek Inside “The Black Hand of God.”

A groundbreaking look at the history of Christianity, Black Feminism and the African American Church, The Black Hand of God explores the teachings and convictions of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita – founder of the first Black Christian movement in sub-Saharan Africa. Told through the narrative of a man embarking on his own personal spiritual journey, the book highlights Kimpa Vita’s efforts to free and protect her fellow Africans from physical and spiritual enslavement.

Often referred to as the “African Joan of Arc,” her influence is echoed in critical uprisings throughout history, including the 1739 “Stono Rebellion” in South Carolina, and the Congolese slave revolt that led to Haiti’s independence in 1804. There is no question that without Kimpa Vita, the Black Church as we know it today would not exist.

In the spirit of Black History Month’s impending arrival, I thought I’d give everyone a glimpse into the book’s inaugural chapter. Enjoy.

Converted to a religion in whose name death and slavery were being condoned, the Kongolese saw more and more of their friends and family taken away never to return. While some Church leaders argued that the Bible supported slavery, even those who that did not openly support the trade were controlled by their colonial overlords and did nothing to articulate a conscience against it. Indeed, many churches directly profited from the trade, making their incentive to end the practice minimal.

During those days, a great percentage of the slaves brought to America came from the Kongo. Their perspectives on God, resulting from their experiences, oral history, and beliefs in their kingdom as a collective entity, directed their attitudes in the New World and among their fellow slaves. These first African-Americans necessarily interpreted the Bible very differently from their European captors and Christianity in the New World struggled to reconcile the differences. Still, both slave and master increasingly had a common God and an identical set of religious guidelines, perhaps avoiding even greater adversity.

It is against this background, and the ensuing complex weave of politics, greed, coincidence, misfortune, and human misery, that the story of Kimpa Vita and her sacrifices changed the face of African religion while simultaneously helping shape the destiny of North American culture, religion, and a new nation’s collective persona. It is a story with a specific time but with a timeless context. While the Church belittled her achievements and ignored her pleas for inclusion, the message Kimpa Vita brought invigorated a kingdom, even as it terrified the secular and non-secular power structure. People began to believe that God could reach Africans without speaking through the Church or a monarch.

Great religious texts and ideals will always be interpreted, construed, misinterpreted, and misconstrued for the benefit of a particular cause. There will always be people who use religion as a tool to help themselves and others, but greed and profit at the expense of others remains a constant temptation. The ubiquitous need to belong has so often catalyzed its unfortunate corollary: the need to exclude. In the midst of this confusion, struggling for authority, are those who purport to speak directly for God.