African Sacred Cosmology

This bespoke lecture was delivered at Westminster City Hall to the Westminster Multifaith network on the 25th of July 2024.

It presents 6 unifying tenets that codify and provide a framework for African sacred cosmologies and their associated spiritual practices from antiquity to the present; on the continent and in the Diaspora. They evidence a shared cultural continuity and unity amongst African-descended communities across time and space and highlight  the foundational ideologies that inform African Cosmological systems.

These tenets include -

• The Supreme creative force: the origins of existence and creation
• Forces of Nature: the Elemental energies that exist within Nature and maintain an interactive dynamic with humans
• Personhood and Ancestorhood:  what constitutes a person, their purpose and role in life and as departed members of a lineage
• Divination: Means of perceiving divine correspondences for guidance
• Libation: African-derived prayer or invocation forms
• Ritual & Ceremonies: Means of divine veneration and communication