Page 173 - A People Called Afrika

Afrika’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems

sound in architectural terms, distributing stress equally across
the structure. Rectangles, on the other hand, are much easier
to collapse. Circles also offer room for life to grow in safety, if
you consider the arc or curvature of the belly of the woman as
she carries her baby to full term. Arcs are part of circles. Cycles
are processes that ‘travel’ in circles and have beginning points,
which also serve as their end points. Consider time: However
you reckon time, each day begins and ends at the same point.
Consider life: Each life begins from and ends at the same point,
with the Maker. Consider community: The weak (babies) be-
come the strong (adults) to defend the weak (elderly) and later
become the weak (elderly) once more, meaning none is great-
er than the other and all stages of life we all need one another.
Wisdom is keeping this in mind because it will prevent pride
and arrogance from overtaking us when we are in our prime.

Consider the seed: The seed falls to the ground and dies to pro-
duce life, which produces seed, which produces life through
death in the ground or in the one formed from it which gives life
to the body. Consider how animals build: the central chamber
of the termite mound, the weaver bird’s nest, the arc shaped
nests of many birds and reptiles, all structurally sound. There
is a mystery of fullness, wholeness, completion, soundness,
strength and being encompassed (surrounded) by the circle,
which provides comfort, encouragement, boldness, under-
standing and wisdom, particularly to know the Eternal One.

A few years ago, a mechanical engineer Andrew Hoy suggest-
ed that the tabernacle that Moses built was actually circular in
shape as opposed to the commonly held viewpoint that it was
a rectangular tent in a rectangular compound. He said that the
structure was a huge dome, which would have made it better

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