Hetep (Peace)
I know most of you have heard the famous 1970s Cultural Hit anthem by James Brown, “Say it loud. I’m BLACK and I’m PROUD!” Well, I deemed it time to change this popular mantra and declare that I’m KAMITIC AND I’m PROUD! I decided to write this post in response to the misrepresentation some have due to the growing usage of the popular Kamitic term “Hetep” which means “Peace”. Understand it is not my intention to belittle anyone or group but to clearly distinguish from my perspective what is and who is Kamitic (Kemetic, Khemetic, etc.) versus individuals that are at present caught up in the moment, so that true seekers don’t get the wrong idea.
First, being Kamitic is not a fad, something that is popular or the “in thing” right now. I mean it is great that people want to decorate their body, home, etc. with ancient Egyptian motifs and all but, this is not what being Kamitic is about.
To understand what Kamitic is and is not we have to understand how it all began. According to my research, when Central and West Africans were taken to the Americas. Each of these ethnic groups brought with them a fragment of their cultural spiritual traditions. Those taken to Cuba used their African cultural heritage combined with Amerindian and Spanish influence to create the rich Afro-Latino traditions known as Lucumi (Santeria), Palo Mayombe and Abacua; in Puerto Rico similar Afro-Latino influences were used to create Santisimo and Santeria; similar influences combined with the French gave rise of course to Vodun in Haiti and Las 21 Divisiones in Dominican Republic (Las 21 Divisiones/Los Misterios also known as Dominican Vudu); while developing in Trinidad and Tobago there was Shango Baptiste; and last but not least in Brazil, Candomble, Macuumba and Umbanda. (Not to mention the other Afro-traditions that exist throughout the Caribbean and South America). All of these powerful and beautiful Afro – spiritual traditions were birthed out of a Spirit of Resistance, but in North America due to the fact that the taskmasters were Protestant, the Africans were unable to create such a tradition. This however didn’t mean that they didn’t try. Instead, the first Africans that stepped on the North American shores (in Jamestown, VA) came from Kongo – Angolan region and they brought with them the infamous Kongo Cross.
The Kongo Cross (also known as the Yowa and Dikenga), which was the spiritual and philosophical foundation of the Kongo culture, is what the first Africans in North America used to build their own spiritual tradition of resistance. That’s right, contrary to popular belief, early African Americans did not lose all of their culture – this is a myth. Our ancestors in North America like many other enslaved African descendants managed to preserve their very own African cosmology. What was lost was the philosophical and theological understanding of our culture. 400 years of slavery can’t erase or undo what has been practiced since Ancient Egypt.
Now through this sacred cosmogram early African Americans were able to preserve and create new traditions based upon their African heritage and new American experience, like an informal initiation system reflective of the sun’s movement and the famed ring shout.
Europeans observing the odd behavior and practices, which consisted of early African Americans envisioning their world from a different perspective than their oppressors, labelled it hoodoo and voodoo as a means of demonizing all African beliefs, practices, traditions and cultures. (It should be noted that hoodoo is believed to be derived from the Spanish term judio pronounced hoo-dee-oh meaning Jewish. It is theorized that the term was used first by the Spanish merchants to identify those Africans who refused to accept the European ethnocentric view of the world that everything wasn’t Christian was primitive and evil).
Anyway, this new perspective that early Africans in America held is what author Theophus H. Smith called a Conjuring Culture. This Conjuring Culture, which was birthed from the Kongo Cross became the philosophical base for the American Christian church that we see today. Most of the African aspects such as speaking – in – tongues, dancing (shouting), struck by the spirit, prophesizing, etc. – are all African elements that never existed in the Church prior to the genocide of the Amerindians and enslavement of Africans. All of these elements are now widely accepted in all charismatic churches throughout the world without any knowledge that it stems from African spirituality. This cultural appropriation exists because as Churchill said, “History is written by the victors”.
Now the Conjuring Culture that was birthed from the Kongo Cross didn’t just create Christian fervor, which emerged and became the famed Azusa Street Revival. It also gave rise to two very powerful underground movements that exist today because of Psalms 68:31, which states:
“Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon
stretch out her hands unto God”.
In the minds of the Africans in Jamaica, the Kongo Cross gave rise to the black Zionism Movement, where Zion became the iconic figure of Ethiopia, which later became Rastafarianism. While during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this verse gave rise to Ethiopianism. Here is where Ethiopia became the iconic figure of return symbolizing freedom. When Dr. Martin L. King Jr. began protesting and marching for civil rights. He was seen as a Black Moses where instead of the biblical Children of Israel being enslaved, it was the Children (Sons and Daughters) of Ethiopia who were enslaved and modern day United States was the biblical Egypt. This is why Martin L. King constantly compared the civil injustices in the United States with the plight of the biblical Hebrews in Egypt.
But, Egypt was also mentioned in this most widely quoted verse, and this inspired many like W.E.B. DuBois to refer to Egypt in the early 1900s, as an iconic figure for sociopolitical movement. Like the spiritual tradition Rastafarianism that was born out of the black Zionism movement (or Back-to-Africa Movement). Kamiticism was born out of the Ethiopianism movement, which was first widely popularized throughout the Afro-diaspora by Ra Un Nefer Amen, the founder of the Ausar Auset Society. Both Rastafarianism and Kamiticism are Afro-spiritual traditions born out of necessity and the spirit of resistance.
Unfortunately, although both Rastafarianism and Kamiticism have accomplished a lot throughout the Afro-Diaspora, they both suffer from similar misinterpretations, misrepresentations and misunderstandings.
For instance, just because you see an individual with dreadlocks, wearing red, black and green colors; smoking marijuana or wearing a Bob Marley shirt doesn’t mean they are a Rastafarian.
Rastafarianism as a movement consists of several branches, all with different beliefs. Above is a photo of one of my favorite poets, the famous Rastafarian dub poet, musician and actor Mutabaruka talking to my favorite television host Anthony Bourdain on the show No Reservation 2008 about Rastafarianism and the whole Ital-lifestyle.
The same can be said about those who are Kamitic. Just because someone wears an ankh or some other Kamitic glyph (or image) tattooed on their body doesn’t make them Kamitic. By the way, nor does wearing Kamitic jewelry, having Kamitic artwork (including images of Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, etc.), saying Kamitic words like “Hetep” or adopting a Kamitic name. While we are at it, learning Kamitic history and practicing a Kamitic inspired religion doesn’t make a person Kamitic either. It helps one to get a better understanding of what it means to be Kamitic but, sorry to step on peoples’ toes. It doesn’t make them Kamitic no more than an egyptologists (lower cased intentionally) translating hieroglyphs is ancient Egyptian, or practicing Taosim makes an individual Chinese, or Shinto makes a person Japanese. These are all forms like cloth weaved by a weaver. Just like clothes don’t make the man, doing these things don’t and will not make an individual more or less Kamitic either.
Because being Kamitic is more than wearing Egyptian jewelry, Kamitic clothing, a Kamitic name, speaking Kamitic, etc. As you have read above, it is not a movement that just started in the 1980s when Afro-centricity became widely popular and grew in the 1970s and 1980s. No. Kamitic is a cultural way of life and like any other cultural way it consists of an indescribable philosophical change. As a result, it could be said that there are several denominations or groups, and anyone who considers themselves Kamitic should be able to tell you how they made the transition. I can only share what happened to me and my experience.
From my perspective, Kamitic spirituality adds the missing philosophical and theological elements that were lost due to the slave experience, which has allowed me the ability to interpret life once again from a holistic perspective (and not from the perspective of the victim or victimizer).
This is because when an individual truly converts and becomes Kamitic. They are spiritually born again because an old part of them dies and another part is born. This moment is symbolized as the transition from Ra Atum (setting sun/death) to the Khepera (sunrise/birth) moment on the Maa Aankh. It is similar to receiving the Holy Ghost because it is truly a change in consciousness. This metamorphosis is called in the Kamitic language “Maa Kheru” pronounced “Maa-Xa-ru.” Maa Kheru literally means “One Who is True of Voice“. Meaning, in other words, you see Divine Truth (or it was revealed to you), so you speak and live it. When this Truth is revealed, it doesn’t have to be something dramatic like the biblical Paul being knocked off his ass (donkey). It is personal and it doesn’t matter if others witness it or not. It is simply revealed to you, thus establishing a rapport between you and the Divine within you.
This is how you begin to discover your truth or maa. It also how you receive Divine Protection because Maa literally means Divine Truth, Divine Balance, and Righteousness and symbolizes the Way to the Divine (symbolized as the vertical yellow line on the Maa Aankh). What this means is that when you begin to connect with the Divine within you. The Spirit will reveal to you your own maa or personal truth to help you balance your life and live righteously. The Spirit will show you what works best for you and what doesn’t work for you, versus you following a bunch of dogmatic do’s and don’ts created for the masses. For instance, some people in this lifetime need to listen to their spirit and abstain from sweets because it is detrimental to their well being. This same restriction however would not apply to everyone and it doesn’t mean that sweets are bad or evil. It just means for this particular individual(s), they would have to avoid sweets because their spirit revealed to them to do so. Sweets for this individual(s) becomes a taboo for them or basically part of their maa (personal truth, personal balance, personal righteousness living or simply their personal way).
This means you become responsible for your own development. Thus you are now held accountable to the Divine, your aakhu (ancestors) and to the people. When you willingly violate the maa (your personal truth) that was revealed to you. You reap the consequences. Understand, this is not God or some other entity punishing you for breaking the Law, and by the way you are not going to be rewarded either. The maa is established to help you to work your own spirit. So when things work, you know what works for you. When things don’t work out, you know what doesn’t work for you, and you know what to do in order to initiate change. As you can see, when you become Kamitic you become aware of how the Divine Laws interact with you, instead of wondering around with no guide.
Understand Kamitic is what Westerners called pagan. The word pagan comes from the Latin word paganus, which means “country folk,” hence indigenous, traditional, folk ethnic religious folk practices, etc.
If you watch Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code starring Tom Hanks, you will see him run around the Vatican pointing at obelisks and calling them pagan. When he goes more in detail, he explains how the Church (the Vatican) placed Christian iconography on top of the obelisks in order to subdue those who followed the Egyptian way of thinking. (Note that followers of the ancient Greek religions were called Hellenes – Hellenic culture, gentile and paganos).
What was the Ancient Egyptian or Kamitic Way of Thinking?
The Da Vinci Code hit on it but it masked it with more conspiracy theories, which led people to go in search of a literal golden grail in France or somewhere in Europe. People missed the point and made this all about Jesus and some bloodline. No. It was all about the pagan way. It (and this) has nothing to do with Jesus per se, it was about Gnostic beliefs.
You see, Kamitic history reveals that the Kamitic people strongly believed that we are all made in the image of the Divine. That Men and Women are Divine polar opposites and counterparts or the manifestation of the Divine on earth. That Women have similar rights as Men because Men are the Causal, while Women are the Effectual. Said another way, Men are the Initiators of Divine Will, while women are the Manifestors or Makers of the Divine Will. I know it is nice and sounds sweet to call a man, “My King” and a woman, “My Queen” but in Kamit they were serious and history reveals that the men and women literally played the part. Men modeled themselves after the king who emulated the Sun, strong, constant, always shining, resilient, powerful, like that of a lion symbolized as Hru. As women modeled themselves after the queen, who emulated the moon, reflective of her king or the sun and would do anything to protect her family, village and nation as lioness like the netchar Oset (Aset, Auset Greek Isis).
Think about that for a moment. Imagine if men saw their woman as the personification of the cosmos and women saw their man as the materialization of potential. Would sex just be a mere act? I think not. Would a man disrespect his woman or just let anyone run all over his woman? Would a woman just disrespect and allow her man to continue to fight to be in a system designed against them both? I think not. Both would see each other as divine counterparts and would make their world (their kingdom and their reality) in their image. Every time they came together, they would be reminded that they were conceiving (physically and spiritually) an ancestor to enter into the physical realm because the aakhu (ancestors and spirit guides) were symbolized as stars in the night sky of the belly of Nyut (Nut). Do you see why “they” had to demonize us and our way of life? Yeah, it sounds romantic, but as you can see it is beyond that because it creates a natural nationalism that is against the machinations of the ego-self (Set or the devil) that are promoted throughout society today.
You see, there are only two emotions that exist in our universe and they are love and fear. The Kamitic way of thinking truly rivals Western thinking because it is based upon the Love of God. It is because of the Love of God we were made in the image of a Perfect Creator. Therefore, everything that exists in our life (both the good and the bad) was put there by divine design to help us to realize our divinity and accomplish our destiny. In other words, make us spiritually stronger. This is the reason when you truly have overcome a destructive habit you feel accomplished, free, relieved, empowered and victorious.
Western thinking however, is based upon the Fear of God, which is that we were made in the image of the Divine but fell due to sin. Consequently, we have to beg and plead eternally for forgiveness in order to be saved. We have to put ourselves in service of others or go to God through some clergy or we will be punished by a vengeful deity that made us flawed in the first place.
Basically Kamitic thinking is where we basically develop a relationship with God by discovering who the Divine is within us. Whereas Western thinking is where we are told who God is and ostracized or punished for not accepting the beliefs of spiritual tyrants. In other words, Western religious thinking focuses upon people become Children of God, whereas Kamitic spiritual thinking is focused on helping an individual become a Man or Woman of God.
So a true Kamitic is not about following a particular person or group but, his or her Divine’s Will and that is what made the Kamitic people of old dangerous. This is why the early Christian Church waged war against the Kamitic and Kushite (ancient Nubian) people. This was later followed by the Islamic jihadists, who drove the Kamitic people to the West of Africa and into the African interior. A true Kamitic descendant in these contemporary times (because that is what we are) is a free thinker that knows how to use all of the faculties of his and her mind (the superconscious/subconscious and conscious). No, we are not super humans and being Kamitic doesn’t mean we don’t have problems. We live in a physical world, which is dynamic and always changing, so we will always have problems because nothing stands still or is for certain. But, we know that the solution to our problems doesn’t rests in our own thinking.
It involves us learning how to access the deeper part of our mind (the superconscious part of our being or the Divine mind). This is the reason all of the Kamitic traditions have a spiritual system or cosmogram that they follow like the Kamitic Paut Neteru (the Kamitic Tree of Life) or the Maa Aankh (the Bantu – Kamitic Cross).
Let me give an example. There is an altercation that occurs and people are up in arms. One group wants strike out in anger. Another group wants to boycott or protest. Religious leaders and fraternal organizations convene and want to do something that show that they are on the peoples’ side but at the same time not want to jeopardize their standing with various parties. Activists of all types want to talk on the radio, podcasts, etc. and keep the energy high so that something is accomplished. These are all good and valiant efforts, which I am not knocking at all but have to be considered and well thought of. But let me tell you how a Kamitic man or woman handles the situation. They talk to the Divine like their ancestors did before them through either meditation or by consulting an oracle.
If you scoff at meditation or the use of an oracle, then you know nothing about being Kamitic. Because the whole basis of the Kamitic spiritual tradition rests on the Story of Osar (Asar, Ausar or Greek Osiris), where the hero of the story, Hru (Hrw, Heru or Horus) defeats his more learned uncle of war, Set (Set-an, Satan, Greek Typhon, the Ego-self) on the battlefield through intuitive (contemplative/meditative) means. The Story of Osar is a metaphor about the human experience. Yes, it is true that during the Council of Nicaea it was decided that the Story of Jesus was modeled after the Story of Osar to distort the Gnostic teachings. Once it is realize that the Christian story like the Story of Osar are not to be taken literal because they are based upon similar metaphorical truths. Life is all about manifesting the Will of God on earth.
As you can see, part of the reason so many people have converted to a Kamitic path is because they have have broken the mental chains and realized that the “real devil/enemy” is not some entity or person that exists outside of themselves. The “real devil/enemy” is our lower self and who or whatever we give our personal power to. Everything that our Set (Ego-self) tells us to fear for no reason is what we give power to.That’s right, your enemy only has as much power over you as you allow them to. Once you realize your true enemy is what you fear and what you give your power to. You will be FREE. Until that time, the answer to the question as to why does a small minority control the majority. It is because we mentally allow them to do so by buying into their reality and not investing in our own.
Now understand, when I say Ego-self, I am not talking about just being arrogant and braggadocios. I am talking about that part of our being that was hurt when we were younger and now uses that painful experience as a springboard to validate their treatment of others rather it is justified or not. I am talking about the part of our being that grew up believing that money is the root of all evil and that in order to make money you have to toil day and night, and compete and kill off others to survive. It is that old self, that old ego way of thinking that is afraid of some real spiritual work because it knows it has to make some changes. Yes! That part of our being that doesn’t want to change but would prefer. That we sit on our loins and just bellyache, criticize and complain – Yeah, that part of our being. That part of our being that is afraid to do what is right and just, even though it is not popular. That’s your Set, your true enemy.
So those who have truthfully become Kamitic realized that the reason we keep having the same problems and every solution they offer complicates the matter even more so, is because we are using the same thinking that created the problem symbolized as Set. We have to think outside of the box and that means doing something different. That different thing means to go deeper within our superconscious symbolized as KAMTA. This is where all of the great ideas and inventions come from. If you look at the detailed Maa Aankh cosmogram above you can see, there are no new ideas that are coming out of our subconscious because we are just reacting or surviving. This is the part of our being that functions on automatic and out of habit. The new ideas come from the deeper parts of our awareness – the superconscious. This is where we get intuitive ideas and also where our ancestors and spirit guides can give us wise counsel. You will also notice that this is where we get our dreams.
Spiritual culture as you can see is based upon this part of our being – our higher spirit or superconscious. It is not based upon making use of our higher spirit/self. This is the reason in the Story of Osar, Hru was finally able to defeat his uncle Set (that is do something new and improved) through the intercession of Osar. A thorough analysis of Japanese and Chinese history and culture will reveal that the reason they were able to bounce back on the world scene in a relatively short time. Is because both of these countries embraced their folk ways, which consists of delving and tapping into their higher self (the superconscious). This is the reason why all throughout Asia you will find stalls where people can get detailed I-Ching oracle readings and partake in other practices that will help people align themselves with their higher spirit.
Understand. The true Kamitic has realized this and now uses his or her life as a sounding board for perfecting their understanding of the Divine within them and all people.
So, while other men and women are being swayed by half-truths, lies, and the inconsistencies of men through the various airwaves. The true Kamitic, like other traditionalists and the traditionalists of old, are able to discern the truth and navigate through the malarkey. Like a wise general and strike the enemy where he is most vulnerable like all of the great leaders of antiquity have done before them. Don’t be fooled by popular Greek inspired movies that depict the oracles as being either young virgin women or some old hag. These are all distorted images used by Holly-weird to discourage people from embracing the traditional ways that will liberate our soul. The true oracles were bones, shells and yarrow sticks, etc., which were used even in the bible (both the New and Old Testament). It was a practice that the ancient Hebrews learned from….Guess? That’s right…the Kamitic people for all those claiming that we were ancient Hebrews. Our ancestors were not brought here from the East of Africa but the West of Africa, which is where the descendants of the Kamitic people fled to avoid Christian and Islamic onslaught.
That’s right. A true Kamitic or Kamite is revolutionary by nature in mind, body and spirit.
Hope that helps
Hetep (Peace)