Pan-Afrikan Spirituality?

In Afrikan spiritual circles in the US, especially among Afrikan Americans, there is a longstanding conversation/debate regarding “mixing” traditions or even branches of traditions. 

The argument “against” is that each tradition or branch is a world unto itself that takes a lifetime or more to explore and master. To this point folks will often cite the proverb “a dog has 4 legs, but can only walk 1 path at a time. 

The argument “for” is that as Afrikans of the diaspora, we are a convergence of blood lines and peoples. Folks often argue further that Afrikan peoples have engaged in “cultural exchange” from time immemorial and that all of the traditions that we practice have resulted from such mixing and transformation over time. 

In my opinion, this debate grows from questions of identity and validity. These questions are uniquely acute among descendants of captive Afrikans attempting to reconnect with our heritage. For me it's a trap. I push back against the dichotomy. Both arguments are true imo. I offer that we may be asking and answering the wrong question. To be frank, I don’t believe we are at a level of collective fluency with any of these traditions for it to matter much which side we fall on. 

A more fitting question I think is one of “study” rather than “practice”. Is it good for us to study across traditions? For me the answer is a resounding yes. I think it's important for us to be students of multiple Afrikan traditions. Studying broadly across tradition does not mean our study should be restricted to the surface (i.e. deity names, songs, prayers, discrete practices etc.) though. The more surface the study, the more diverse and voluminous the information. Aint nobody got time for all that! Rather, to get the most bang for our buck, let’s study our stuff from the inside- out.

This is where cosmology comes in.  We can think of it like concentric circles. The outer layers represent the diverse expressions of our traditions. The inner circle represents the shared cosmology (i.e. the creation of the universe/human being). Study of this inner circle allows us to study across tradition while keeping a tight focus. This approach is beneficial whether you are walking one spiritual path or multiple. Our study across tradition, and from the inside-out, only deepens our understanding and application of our chosen tradition/s. It reveals angles and contours of the tradition that may not be easily evident within the body of the tradition itself.