(The text has been edited for clarity)

I.T.G.H.:

Hi Mr Kiatezua L. Luyaluka, I have a special question for you: Do you know about a Black spiritual practice in the United States called Hoodoo? How linked may it be to Kongo cosmography?

Dr Luyaluka

Hi

What do you mean by Kongo cosmography ? The Kongo cosmogram, i.e., the Kôngo cross, is to be found in Haitian Vodou. But, not fully.

I.T.G.H

Ok, I mean the cosmogram. Thank you.

Do you know how it is related to Haitian Vodou? Are the historical links identifiable?

Of course, the historical link must be the Kôngo presence in Haiti, as it’s not found in Dahomeian Vodun.

Dr Luyaluka

The notion of the cosmogram was brought by the Kôngo people to Haiti, but only the cross sign. Not the full teaching, the full philosophy behind it.

I think you don’t find the full teachings thereof elsewhere in Africa, because it is related to the divine practice of African traditional religion (ATR).

Now, the divine practice of ATR, i.e., the practice of the knowledge of how to become back an Osiris, a Child of God, is found only among the Bantus, especially the Kôngo people.

In the diaspora the Blacks brought the reminiscence of what could help them in the context of war against the enslaving culture they were involved in. In that context they most needed the human practice of ATR, this implies healing and martial spiritualy-based technologies.

I.T.G.H

Ok, thank you. Now, why they didn’t develop the full teaching? Is it due to closed religious secrecy or because at their level this was the only thing they particularly had?

I’ll explain my question. Here, in Cuba more of Orisha (Ifa) practices were lost, because the religious level of the people trafficked from Africa was not that high. Could that be the reason behind the partiality of Kongo teachings in Haitian Vodou?

Dr Luyaluka

Since the time of ancient Egypt, the divine mystery (divine secret illuminating teachings) were hidden from the foreigners. For this reason, the Grecian students spent unusually many years in Egypt studying human mystery in the hope of being admitted to study the divine mystery, but to no avail.

Divine mystery (which is an exact science) is the greatest asset of the Black that the Kongo kept and continued the Egyptian tradition of not teaching it to foreigners.

This explains why you don’t see this highest articulation of ATR elsewhere.

I.T.G.H

Ok, now please could you give me historical links (not scope and/or meaning) between Kongo Cosmogram and Egyptian mystery?

And thank you, of course for the explanation!

Dr Luyaluka

The cross is only a summarized form of the spiral. The spiral results into a circle when seen atop. When one join the four points (top, bottom, left, and right) of the circle one gets a cross, the cosmogram.

This spiral has been first revealed to Djehuty (Thot) in a vision as a summary of human’s trip from heaven to earth and back. Thus, it became the summary of all the teachings of divine mystery.

I.T.G.H

Ok, that’s a mystic teaching that I appreciate really much. What I’m looking for is the historical link between both mysticisms, the Egyptian and the Kôngo; that means, when and how the primary culture of Kôngo were in contact with the Egyptian, and how they separated in two distinguishable cultures.

Dr Luyaluka

I can’t give you that, being not a historian. But I can establish the correlation of both through their common congruence with the kemetic cosmological argument, a natural systematic theology.

All the histories written around this contact are speculations. I prefer to rely on solid scholarship.

I.T.G.H

I’ll explain why I’m suspicious about this. Being objects of universal value (God, reality, etc.), they could be reached separately by two or more given cultures by their own.

That means, being God, or the divinity, a thing separate from the Egyptian teaching of it, it could be reached by Kongo people by themselves, and even the Greeks by themselves.

In each case distorting more or less the knowledge due to their own circunstances. But not necessarily passing the teaching from ones to others.

That’s why I look always for a historical link that can support the affirmation, rather than the scope of the teaching itself.

Dr Luyaluka

Being a general revelation, i.e., revelation of God in nature, yes that could be; it could be reached separately.

However, how could Westerners find this truth of the spiritual nature of reality when they start from the opposite supposition that reality is material?

How could they find this truth about the transcendance of the Supreme Being, his/her not knowing any limitation, when they start by confusing the Most High and the Creator whose temporal universe is a limited perspective of reality?

So we have an epistemological setting that is indispensable for one to look in the direction of divine mystery. Africa has been so far that one setting.

Now, the global history of Africa proves a connection of Kemet and south-Saharan Africa (Diop, Obenga, Assante, etc). Within that context, the religious congruence of the teachings of both cultures (Kemet and Kôngo) should be naturally interpreted as religious continuity.

I.T.G.H

This makes a lot of sense, thank you. Where could I find that historical continuity? Wow!

Dr Luyaluka

You have to read those three authors:

1. Cheikh Anta Diop

2. Théophile Obenga

3. Mokefi Kete Asante

You can also seek the records of the colloquium of Cairo organized by the UNESCO (a chapter of UN) in 1974.

I.T.G.H

Thank you, a lot. really thank you.

Dr Luyaluka

Welcome.