| | thought I would allow you to see the difference in conferring a "title" on someone versus "restoration". We are asking for reconciliation, restoration and reparations. We need to know what those terms mean in the real world.
My US liason, an Afrikan who happens to be a well respected scholar provided this explanation for individuals who are working with me. My life was turned upside down the moment I was restored. I have no regrets but that our people understand the importance of what my restoration and coronation means for us as a people.
Many of you have seen our people return from Afrika with "titles". Some return to Afrika, some don't. Not many actually have duties to go along with those titles, and those that do don't take them seriously.
For instance, if someone is a "Chief" they are one of a few "chiefs" in a particular kingdom. If they return to the US, they are bound by duty to do what they can to help their kingdom in their capacity as Chief. If someone tells you they are chief, ask them how their kingdom is doing...ask them what they have done for their kingdom lately.
Here is the explanation of what happened with me. Understand, I had my reconciliation with my ancestors first, then I was restored. I then repatriated because of the duties I carry as a Princess and member of a Royal House. My next stop...reparations! They owe me BIG time. I even have access to the name I had in the lifetime I was stolen.
==========
TITLES – referred to as “chieftaincy
titles” - are conferred on meritorious and
deserving sons and daughters of a community. These
‘titles’ were mistakenly read (by
Europeans) as “conferment of an honor” and
“power” (and is being very much abused as
such in many communities these days), when in reality
these “chiefs” are actually state
functionaries - people who perform certain public
functions for the community.
For example, a particular “chief’ may be
the guardian of the town or village gates; another may
be entrusted with communal ceremonies and observances,
another, usually a woman in Yoruba communities, would
be the “Iyaloja” – ‘mother of
the market’, the person entrusted with
regulating economic activities of buying and selling
in the markets, etc., and maintaining the physical
structures. Lesser “chiefs” function at
the ward level or clan level.
These chieftaincies, are, as a rule, only recognized
within the kingdoms that confer them, though such
chiefs would be treated with appropriate protocol,
were they to go visiting in other kingdoms. They are
not hereditary.
RESTORATION – is however a much rarer
occurrence, and occurs as a rule only in royal lines,
and in one or two other “chieftaincy”
lines that are hereditary, for example the
“Jomo” among some Yoruba kingdoms.
Restoration is carried out to “restore” a
person (actually his or her lineage) back to the
lineage of those who may again become
“oba” – the ‘king’
– in the affected community, since the position
of “royalty” actually revolves among three
to four families in most Yoruba kingdoms.
This arrangement was to forestall that one family
would become two strong or too powerful, and have too
much of a sway in the community.
Thus a lineage that may have lost its rights to the
obaship – usually through wars, invasion by an
external group, rebellion during the reign of a family
member, or, as in the case of the ceremony for
Princess Adinasse, for a lineage that may have been
separated by the infamous Trans-Atlantic trade, and
therefore lost their right to ascend to throne.
To the best of my knowledge, this would be the first
use of RESTORATION rites to link an African in the
Diaspora with the African lineage they left behind
back in Africa by employing traditional restoration
rites, rather than relying solely on legal documents,
etc.
RESTORATION has the added advantage that a person thus
restored back to his or her royal lineage would also
eventually gain the recognition of the other Yoruba
kingdoms – all other things being equal. |
| | Posted 11/3/2005 8:22 PM - 28 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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