If My Soul Vacates My Flesh
I’m thinking about Ramarley Graham, the teenager who was murdered by the New York Pork Department (NYPD) a few weeks ago. His funeral is happening at the same time as Whitney Houston’s as I write this. I don’t want to be insensitive. Death is a difficult thing to deal with, though it is one of Life’s apparent guarantees. The center of what I’m feeling right now is that the mass media broadcasting of funerals is very odd to me. I have never watched a televised funeral and I don’t plan to. In my mind, it taints the sacredness of the affair. It also draws into my view, the contrasting value we as a society place on human lives, which should be understood as equal. Ramarley Graham has been perpetually in my thoughts since I first learned of his killing. I am Ramarley Graham. I am every youth of color who was murdered by the state.
On Twitter, I read a post which stated that Whitney’s funeral was an opportunity for the world to get exposed to the love of Christ. This prompted me to think of my own Death. What kind of ceremony would I have to commemorate my transition beyond this physical frame? As an African of the Americas, I constantly struggle to know of Traditional African Spirituality/Religion. The world of Vodun/Santeria is somewhat shrouded in mystery, and as I didn’t grow up around Orisha worship, my interactions with it are sparse and often feel estranged. It always calls to me, though. When I look into Kemetic Systems, there are missing pieces and variations that tend to bring me more questions than answers. Perhaps, that’s the point.
I’ve felt this for a while, but it’s become more firm in my mind recently; the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam will play no formal role in my Return Home. I’m learning more about the colonization of Africa previous to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and I’m finding that, with a few East African exceptions, the Abrahamic religions are foreign to African people and were generally brought to us with the sword. Therefore, at the grand finale on my physical trip through this galaxy, I want some Akan, Yoruba, Zulu et c. energy in the space where my Life is memorialized. I want to keep it Original.
