The true African traditional religion (ATR) is an exact science. We will not cease to assert this fact because, not only is it demonstrable (thanks to the kemetic cosmological argument), but it matters also for the restoration of the so flouted dignity of the Blacks. This exact science can be practiced at the divine level as well as on a human level. This distinction should be understood to avoid amalgams. This double nature of the practice of ATR has not so far been well perceived.

Divine practice and human practice are two aspects of ATR that by going back in history we even find in ancient Egypt. Initiation in ancient Egypt had two great branches: divine and human. However, human initiation included civil initiation (as a training school for physicians, lawyers, traders, governing, etc.) and martial initiation or the training school for armed corps.

It is therefore very important to distinguish between the two aforementioned practices of ATR as an exact science. In truth, on the strictly divine level, ATR implies four axes in its praxis, the practice of divine science:

The restoration of the humans’ divinity

The high practice of ATR consists in the fact that the initiate learns to become back, thanks to the purification of thought, a child of God which has always been before his personal fall, to become an Osiris. Indeed, the Kemetic cosmological argument, which is the systematic natural theology of ATR, tells us that originally those who seem to be mortals on this temporal level were children of God, the perfect manifestations of the fullness of his divinity. So they were “suns”, Ras. God, the Most High, created endowed his Children with free will. The misuse of free will caused the fall of Children of God and their appearance on this temporal level. Thus, at the highest point the practice of religion seeks to help the fallen children of God that mortals are, to regain their perfect divine nature. And this is done thanks to the purification of thought.
The “Egyptian Book of Dead” teaches us that when he died, Osiris Ani claimed in the beyond the right to be an Osiris. The argument put forward to justify this right is that it has lived a life of purity on this land of mortals. However, the fact that he was already an Osiris, as the name suggests. We then understand the essential teaching of this book: The mortals are Osiris (children of God) potentially, thanks to the purification of thought they will become Osiris in a manifest way. Now, the Bukôngo teaches exactly the same facts. A song from Lêmba, the Kôngo Academy of civil initiation, calls the initiate Mahûngu. However, we know that his purpose of entering the initiation process was to become a Mahûngu by the rigorous purification of thought. We then understand that the term Mahûngu (or Malungila in the priestly academy, the Kimpasi) is the Kôngo equivalent of Osiris.
This approach is exactly the same we find at the heart of the practice of primitive Christianity, Christianity as taught and lived by Jesus and disciples in contrast to the Christianity of missionaries which is its bad representation. Indeed I John 3: 1-3 clearly shows us that we are potentially Children of God. Thanks to purification we can become so in a manifest way. ATR and primitive Christianity therefore pursue the same high objective.

To develop a divine power

The second objective of the African initiate in his practice of divine science was to develop a divine power, that is to say, to develop a power by the purification of his thought. Being the result of the deep purification of thought, such a power (Divine N’kisi) was the result of the succor of the holy ancestors abiding in the water (Mpêmba), the Bakulu ba maza. Being the fruit of the purification of thought, this power can only be used in good purpose, otherwise we lose it.

To perpetuate this acquired power

We are initiated for oneself and for one’s community. The initiate of the divine mystery therefore has to transmit his power to posterity. And the way to do so was by faith in a material object (human n’kisi) as receptacle of the spirits of the ancestors. It is clear that the illuminated ancestors animating the human n’kisi are not the same as those who animate the initiate of the divine mystery, because the person initiated into the human n’kisi does not go through the same rigorous process of purification. Otherwise, this would constitute an obstacle to the human perpetuation of the divine n’kisi. The human n’kisi is therefore animated by the illuminated ancestors who live out of the water (Bakulu Ba nseke).

To protect society against witchcraft.

Since the time of our ancestors, witchcraft has been perceived as a disturbing element in society. The ethnography of Kôngo initiation academies shows us that the purpose of organizing initiation was to counter witchcraft and its misdeeds. The only exception to this general rule was the use of witchcraft as a weapon of war in the martial mystery. We must therefore refrain from making of this exception a general rule, as is unfortunately the case in certain variants of ATR. The way to combat witchcraft in Black society is through divine love and not by means of witchcraft itself.
The human practice of the exact science that constitutes ATR is, strictly speaking, the use of traditional Black/African technology to protect society through the succor of the ancestors of the land (as opposed to water), Bakulu ba nseke. The human practice of ATR is therefore, in its high articulation, the use by the means of faith of powers developed in the divine mystery by the purification of thought.

This is why, unlike the initiate of the divine mystery, on the initiate of the human mystery the requirements imposed are of an ethical order not of holiness. This also explains the fact that the power developed in human initiation can be used in good purpose as in evil. However, the evil use, except as a weapon of war against our enemies, should be prohibited for the spiritual progress of the Black Nation.

Bukôngo, such as we teach it in our Nzil’Alowa academy, is therefore the divine practice of ATR. A school of the elevation of the Blacks by the practice of purification of thought. Our school is different from the Kingûnza. This last Kôngo current of ATR comes mainly from the milieus of Lêmba, while the practice of Bukôngo in Nzil’Alowa is a continuity of the Kimpasi (the Kôngo priestly academy).

We must also emphasize here that the Vodun, the Santeria, the Palo Monte, etc., are human practices of ATR. Anthropologists recognize that voduns (spirits) lived before in the forest. This shows that we are dealing here with the bakulu ba nseke. In addition, it is recognized that the power (aze) developed in this current of ATR is ambivalent, it can be used in good purposes as well as in evil. This nature of aze distinguishes the Vodun from Bukôngo. It is important, for the development of new Voduns (spirit’s receptacles), to restore in the circles of these human currents of the practice of ATR the practice of divine mystery.