When Dr. Chike Akua steps right into a room — or cracks open a web page — he brings with him 1000’s of years of ancestral knowledge. In his groundbreaking e-book, The African Origins of Our Religion: Pan-African Ideas of Religious Unity, he doesn’t simply invite us to rethink our religious historical past — he challenges us to recollect it.
This isn’t some summary mental train. It’s a cultural reclamation. It’s about tracing the fingerprints of historical African knowledge — knowledge that predates the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah by centuries — on at this time’s sacred texts and religious programs. And it’s private.
From the Nile to the pulpit
Dr. Akua, a former minister turned Pan-African scholar, was first struck by the parallels between Christian teachings and the religious traditions of historical Kemet (Egypt). Phrases like Wahimi Misu — an African idea of rebirth — echo eerily via New Testomony phrases like “born once more.” That’s not a coincidence. It’s origin.
The knowledge literature of the Nile Valley instructed us centuries in the past what Proverbs would later echo: Who you roll with shapes your destiny, and your phrases can kill or heal. Within the Ebook of Ani, we’re warned: “An individual may be ruined by his or her tongue.” The Bible follows with: “Dying and life are within the energy of the tongue.”
These aren’t religious cousins. These are ancestral hand-me-downs. And Dr. Akua is pulling them out the closet with satisfaction.
Reclaiming with out rebuking
Let’s be clear: this e-book just isn’t an assault on Christianity, Islam, or any religion system. “This isn’t to negate your religion,” Dr. Akua emphasizes. “It’s about realizing the total story.” His analogy? Asking Black of us to disconnect from Africa whereas practising Christianity is like asking a baker to take away the flour from a cake. You’ll be able to’t. It’s baked in.
That concern some have round finding out African spirituality? Dr. Akua meets it head-on: “God has not given us a spirit of concern, however of energy, love, and a sound thoughts” — a quote from 2 Timothy 1:7 within the Bible. If reality is supposed to set us free, then realizing the place our traditions come from isn’t just empowering — it’s essential.
Worship that strikes the spirit — and the physique
Ever surprise why the Black church hits totally different? That soul-stirring shout? That back-and-forth with the preacher? That’s Africa — dwell and unfiltered. Dr. Akua attracts the road from catching the spirit in at this time’s sanctuary straight again to the “dancing ka” of historical Kemet. He even factors out the glyphs etched into temple partitions exhibiting individuals with arms raised — what we now name reward and worship.
And our reverence for ancestors? That’s not some spooky sidebar — it’s scriptural. From Abraham and Isaac to the “nice cloud of witnesses,” the Bible itself affirms what African custom has all the time taught: Our individuals don’t disappear once they move — they remodel.
10 commandments of pan-African unity
In a world obsessive about variations, Dr. Akua affords ten ideas to unify us spiritually. Amongst them: dwell what you imagine, respect the religion of others, know your faith’s historical past, and acknowledge when your religion has been used as a instrument of oppression.
He doesn’t pull punches. Europeans, he says, studied African spirituality and used it — via missionaries, retailers, and mercenaries — to subdue and colonize. If we don’t know that historical past, we threat persevering with that cycle underneath a distinct identify.
‘Many paths, one summit’
Dr. Akua’s deepest realization is each humble and highly effective: “There are various paths to the highest of Mount Kilimanjaro, however just one summit.” Your religion path is legitimate — however that doesn’t make another person’s invalid. In a world that weaponizes faith, that is the form of reality that heals.
A blueprint for religious liberation
Past the theology, The African Origins of Our Religion is a guide. A sensible information. A mirror. Dr. Akua affords day by day practices — quiet time, meditation, intuitive listening, nature walks — to reawaken our religious energy. He requires seminaries to embrace this scholarship and for households to make use of the e-book as a dialog starter throughout generations.
At its core, that is greater than a learn. It’s a return. A return to a sacred code of ethics grounded in Ma’at — reality, justice, righteousness. A return to operational unity, the place we worth individuals not by their denomination, however by their deeds.
As a result of religion, as Dr. Akua reminds us, was all the time meant to liberate us — not chain us.
🔗 Associated hyperlinks on rolling out:
Get your copy at ReadingRevolution.org – click on “Books by Dr. Akua” and scroll to The African Origins of Our Religion.
