Subject: Re: African values (Was: On interracial relationships, or anything)
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:32:05 GMT

Alina Holgate (holgate@deakin.edu.au) wrote:

(( massive cuts ))

You made a lot of points which ordinarily I'd respond to,
but my time is limited, unfortunately.

: I still want an answer to the slavery and witchcraft questions.

On slavery, I forget what it was.  If it was that it existed,
I do not disagree, although I suspect the word "slave" would
be doing double duty.  African did not have the chattel 
slavery, moreover race-based, of the West.  There was a thread
on this group once before "Did the Bible condone slavery?"
for "slavery" supposedly was spoken of in the Bible.  But
the term seemed to have been used interchangeably with
"bond-servant", which probably more accurately describes the
condition of a Joseph, say, who rose from "slave" to become
one of pharaoh's ministers.  "Slavery" in Africa was of the
same sort, with redemptive possibility.  Definitely it could
better be described as "domestic servitude" or "indentured
servitude" rather than the abomination of the chattel slavery
of the West.

On the witchcraft question, Sesotho respondent is very
naive if he thinks it does not exist.  That 100 blind
men agree that there is no such thing as sight, does not
prove the non-existence of the latter.  So as a matter
of pure logic, his childhood "experiments" are unavailing.
All are capable of witchcraft, some more than others, 
and all are susceptible to witchcraft, some more than
others.  The principles are known almost to a science.  For
example,subliminal advertising is a form of witchcraft--
they are messages that slip past the defenses of the
conscious mind and register directly at the level of
the subconscious-- he use and deployment of which requires 
neither spiritual cultivation nor wisdom -- it's like 
mixing chemicals in a laboratory, the effects are that 
predictable, albeit variable -- but some understanding 
is required.  Those with the spiritual cultivation of 
a priest may be immune to witchcraft, and those with 
non-functioning psychic "antennae" also may be immune, 
or at least less susceptible.  To varying degrees,
priests of course have the cultivation, wisdom, and
knowledge to undo the effects of witchcraft, and to
provide protection.  I'll say no more, but there are 
all kinds of books on the subject these days.  There
are two caveats: One, those who know don't tell, and 
those who tell don't know :).  And two, those who attain
to spiritual cultivation, and therefore have the most
power, potentially, to use witchcraft, also have the 
wisdom not to do so.

"What goes around, comes around." -- African saying


	 

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