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Dignity of African Tradition |
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The essence of what is Human Dignity can be found in the Creation Mythology story—a mythology Ancient African Sages said was revealed to them as actual realities of life.
One of its aspects is that God created two fundamental divisions in the Realm of Being—the “Submerged” (i.e. imperceptible, the Subjective) and the Perceptible (the Objective Realm which contains objects). The Subjective Realm—called the Ocean of Nun--contains no objects; consists of a dual nature of Consciousness/Will and un-manifested undifferentiated Energy/Matter; and gives rise to the Objective Realm. The Ocean of Nun represents Cosmic Consciousness--which is considered to be the body of God (Ashby, African Origins, p543, 519, 115). Since Ancient Africans called the body of God Amen, one name for the Nun is the Amenta (the realm of the God Amen in the Cosmos). This entirely dark Ocean of Nun contains an infinite variety of Potential Possibilities of expression for the world of Reality (i.e. the material planes). When they are expressed as objects, the Objective Realm is present. The Objective Realm’s two main planes of existence are the Noumenal (the metaphysical spirits of things, thoughts, images, and actual spirits) and the Phenomenal (physical energy/matter). Both the Substance of the Noumenal and the Phenomenal realms are present within each human being and, as a result, so is the image of God—meaning man has the same attributes of God—and the same qualities of being—but not in the same quantity.
This belief that one is made in the image of God (Snn NTr; Imago Dei) became the spiritual grounding for the sacredness of life, human dignity and moral responsibility. For these reasons Ancient Africans believed the moral relationship between one person and another ought to be that of the acknowledgement of the dignity bestowed on every person rather than on an appraised dignity, for dignity is not achieved as is said in the Western world. At least a thousand years before the Jewish concept of humans being made in the image of God (Genesis 1, 27), African Sages said the sanctity of life is the central pillar inside each human being. This concept was introduced in the Sebait of Kheti for his son Meritkara in the First Intermediate Period, more specifically in the 9th Dynasty (c. 4042-3633 BCE). Kheti’s comments not only provide the earliest known concept of humans as the images of God, but they also poses them as the children or offspring of God (Karenga, Ma’at, p. 225, 318). These comments evolved into concepts of human dignity and the sanctity of human life so that humans were seen as bearers of Dignity and Divinity -- both characterizing what it means to be human. In other words, in African Tradition Dignity is the absolute reality and significance of ones Selfhood and by being of a spiritual nature it is without degrees. It is the source of good character.
Since God is Love, said Ancient Africans, and since each human is made in the image of God, Dignity is established in each person, including the ungodly, as solid, unchanging, and permanent. To recognize Dignity is to Appreciate it (as indicated by being spiritually elevated). To Appreciate ones Dignity demands the acquisition of African-type moral character. African-type Moral character is fashioned around the spark of the divine presence within each human being. Selfhood Mastery is present when one maintains moral character every time one is being severely tested. When one esteems who one is, based upon ones dignity, and then attaches to ones dignity the tasks one does in life and carries those tasks to completion, one exhibits Self-Respect for the betterment of mankind. Ref: Bailey, Selfhood Mastery. |
