Page 163 - A People Called Afrika

Afrika’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems

in the secret Bantu tongue, which to the ordinary Native has
been dead for ages, and of the continued existence of which
few Europeans are aware. In the following quotations, the read-
er must realise that many obscurities are probably due to the
difficulty of rendering in English the exact shades of meaning.
Mandhlalanga deals as follows with: “The Riddle of Existence”.

“The Itongo(Universal Spirit) is ALL that ever was, is, or
ever shall be, conceivable or inconceivable. The Itongo is
ALL things, all things are of IT; but the sum of all things
is not the Itongo. The Itongo is ALL the power there is,
all power is of it; but all power, perceivable or conceivable,
is not the Itongo. The Itongo is ALL the wisdom there is,
all wisdom is of IT; but all wisdom conceivable is not the
Itongo. ALL substance, ALL power, ALL wisdom is of
IT, and IT is in them and manifest through them, but IT
is also above them and beyond them, eternally unmanifest.
Man who is of the Itongo can never know the Itongo while
he is man. All he can know of IT are certain manifes-
tations which come within the range of his perceptions.

The pupil is generally taught that the manifestations are three
in number. Namely:
1. Universal Mind.
2. Universal Force.
3. Universal Substance or Matter.”

Thoughts on Bowen’s story
What all this means on a personal level is that, there is what
we are not seeing as regards the original Afrikan Spirituali-
ty. For instance, another online article suggests that the Bo-
naabakhulu Basekhem Brotherhood of The Higher Ones of

138