Page 186 - A People Called Afrika
P. 186
A PEOPLE CALLED AFRIKA
tecture, the concept of wholeness, restoration and spirituality.
You certainly cannot talk about ancient Afrikan architecture
without talking about the pyramids of Egypt and they certainly
are a topic of interest for many Afrikologists. For instance,
the primary purpose of the great pyramids was as a place for
spiritual initiation. It was in the sacred confines of the great
pyramids that initiates would undergo the process of attaining
real illumination. The pyramids were chosen because they are
an outer symbolism of man’s inner quest. The spirituality of
ancient Egypt was concerned with initiates seeking the Divine
within themselves. Unfortunately, over time, the spiritual initi-
ates who guarded the secrets of realization, lost influence and
gradually, the pyramids became used for different purposes
including as burial places for Egyptian royals. This is why, it is
said, it is hard to find evidence of these early spiritual practices.
In today’s society, it is not strange to travel across a country
in Afrika and to see scars in granite rock faces, evidence of
modern construction practices. As hills are eaten away, more
and more stone structures emerge. This, accompanied by in-
creased sand harvesting in rivers and along coastlines and the
use of cement in construction, results in ecological disasters.
How is it that this is a problem now and it was not a problem
in earlier times? Afrikan communities built their structures,
which now have been called primitive or low class by ‘mod-
ern’ Afrikans, from materials that were found around them.
They built into rock faces, using these as natural fortifications
or enhancements, they used mud and cow dung or pitch for
mortar to bind rocks or soil together, instead of cement which
is now being banned from usage especially near the ocean or
waterways because of its toxicity to nature. The result of Af-
rikan construction was that there was little or no cannibalism
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