MANIFESTO

OUR NOTIONS INTO IDEAS, OUR RULES INTO LAWS AND CUSTOMS INTO TRADITION SHOULD BE BASED ON THE FOUNDATION THAT EACH GENERATION IN IT’S TIME BECOMES THE CUSTODIAN AND GUIDING LIGHT RATHER THAN THE ABSOLUTE OWNER OF OUR RESOURCES THESE FUTURE GENERATIONS HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO PASS THIS INHERITANCE AND LEGACY ON TO FUTURE GENERATIONS, ALL BUILDING ON A STRUCTURE SET BY THE OLDONES FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT YET ARRIVED.

TODAY WE STRIVE TO ESTABLISH LEGITIMACY AND RESPECT AS AN ACCEPTED COMPONET OF OUR CULTURES AND WAYS IN THESE LANDS THAT ASPIRE TO FORM A GLOBAL REALITY. COMMUNITY IS WHAT MAKES THE DIVERSE GROUPS FOUND UNDER THE CRIOLLOS FOUNDATION UMBRELA.

HUMAN DIGNITY THE REALM WHERE MANIFESTAION OF “THE PEOPLES” SEEKING TO BE ESTABLISHED WITH THE RESPECT OF LAW AND ACCEPTED IN MAINSTREAM CIVILIZATION AS “THE PEOPLES”, HOLDING SACRED AND SELF EVIDENT THE FAITHS ALOWING THEM TO MEET DISADVANTGE AND OVERCOME ITS TYRANY BY THE VIRTUES OF MAN AND THE ASPIRATIONS OF HUMAN CONNECTIONS FROM THE SEEN TO THE UNSEEN REALITIES EACH ARE ADHERENT TO IN A MANNER GIVING CREDIT TO THERE OWN ANSECTORS.

RIGHT TO WORSHIP THIS IS THE ABILTY FOR THE PEOPLES TO WORSHIP AND GIVE VENERATION TO THE FORCES THEY DEEM QUALIFIED TO LEAD THEM BY INSPIRATION AND TO DELIVER RESOLVE FROM AGENDAS THEY SUFFER OR ARE BEING PURSECUTED FROM.

OUR FOUR PILLARS EXIST AS PART OF THE STRUCTURE OF OUR FOUNDATION, THEY ARE IN PLACE AS GUIDING POST AND LIGHT BECONS FOR OUR TRADTIONS / RELIGIONS.

1. BLACK PILLAR= THE RIGHT TO WORSHIP AS OUR FOREFATHERS AND TO ESTABLISH PLACES OF WORSHIP OUTSIDE OF OUR HOMES,THIS PILLAR IS ONE OF UNIVERSAL RESPECT FOR ALL PEOPLES AND RELIGIONS AND THE ABILTY FOR THE PEOPLES TO CHOSE WITHOUT THREATS OF HARM TO LIFE OR PROPERTY.

2. RED PILLAR=ADVOCACY FOR “THE PEOPLES” AND THEIR RIGHTS TO WORSHIP ON A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE GIVEN THE SAME RESPECT RECEIVED BY RELIGIONS AND FAITHS ESTABLISHED AS SELF EVIDENT MAJOR SPIRITUAL SYSTEM FOR A PEOPLE BY THE GOVERMENTS AND POLITICAL BORDERS THEY ARE FOUND IN.

3. WHITE PILLAR=ADVOCATING THE RIGHTS TO DO MARRIGES AND PROVIDE FUNERAL SERVICES AND FINAL RESTING PLACES UNDER THE RUELS OF THE RESPECTIVE RELIGIONS/TRADITIONS,ALSO TO ESTABLISH CEMETERY GROUNDS AND TO HAVE FULL BODY BURIAL AT SEA UNDER INTERNATIONAL MARITIME LAWS.

4. YELLOW PILLAR=THE ABILITY TO SCHOOL OUR CHILDEREN AND TO OPEN ACADEMIC COLLAGES WHERE WE EXPRESS OUR SPIRITUAL REALITIES IN ACCREDITED PLACES OF STUDY UNDER THE LAWS OF THESE LANDS AND THE GOVERMENTS ESTABLISHED.

MUTUAL AID CRIOLLOS FOUNATION,INC IS A NOT FOR PROFIT DELAWARE DOMESTIC CORPORATION, SEEKING IRS 501[C]3 TAX STATUS.

WE ARE ORGANIZED AS A MUTUAL AID AND ADVOCATING UMBRELLA GROUP FOR AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS AND CRIOLLO/CREOLE SPIRITUAL SYTEMS ESTABISHED DURING THE IMPORTATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLES AS SLAVES INTO THE AMERICAS. WE SEEK TO EDUCATE THE PEOPLES IN “OUR STORIES” AS OPPOSED TO “HIS-STORY”.

WE SEEK TO ESTABLISHED PLACES OF WORSHIP FOR OUR RESPECTIVE RELIGIONS AND TRADITIONS AND TO HAVE ALL CITY,STATES,FEDERAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAWS RESPECT AND ADHERE TO OUR RIGHTS TO WORSHIP AS WE THE PEOPLES SEE FIT FOR OUR OWN CULTURAL PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENT AS ACCEPTED PRIEST AND PRIESTESS, SERVITORS AND ADHERENTS IN PEACE AND HUMILTY COEXISTING IN HARMONY WITH ALL OTHER RELIGIONS SHARING THESE RIGHTS OF WORSHIP.

"THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONE'S DEPENDENCE ON A TRANSCENDENT BEING AND THE TENDENCY TO WORSHIP HIM;" IN THE SECOND, "RELIGION IS THE BODY OF TRUTHS, LAWS AND RITES BY WHICH MAN IS SUBORDINATED TO THE TRANSCENDENT BEING." WE MAY NOTE THAT THE USE OF THE PASSIVE FORM OF THE VERB IN THE SECOND DEFINITION INTRODUCES AN ELEMENT OF INVOLUNTARILY, SUGGESTING THAT MAN MAY BE INSERTED WILLY NILLY WITHIN A RELIGIOUS FRAMEWORK OF EXISTENCE.

NONETHELESS, THE TWO ASPECTS OF THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ARE OBVIOUSLY INTERCONNECTED: IT IS THE SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A GREATER-THAN-ONESELF IN THE COSMIC SCHEME OF THINGS WHICH PREDISPOSES TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE "TRUTHS, LAWS AND RITES" BY WHICH THIS AWARENESS IS MADE MANIFEST IN BEHAVIOURAL TERMS, WHETHER BY CHOICE OR BY SUBMISSION TO SOME EXTERNAL FIAT.

IN OTHER WORDS, THE NOTION OF RELIGION COMPRISES FROM THE OUTSET BOTH A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND A SOCIAL DIMENSION. IT IMPLIES ON THE ONE HAND THE POSSIBILITY OF INDIVIDUAL MENTAL STATES ARISING OUT OF PERSONAL ENCOUNTERS AND CONFRONTATIONS WITH WHAT THE GERMAN RELIGIOUS HISTORIAN RUDOLF OTTO CALLS THE "NOUMINOUS" – THE SUFFUSION OF EXISTENCE AND ITS ENVIRONMENTAL PROPS WITH "AN ATMOSPHERE OF THE AWESOME," THE MYSTERIOUS AND FASCINATING. ON THE OTHER HAND, THIS POSSIBILITY OF A VARIETY OF INDIVIDUAL MYSTICAL STATES, EACH IN ITS OWN WAY CHARGING THE EXTERNAL WORLD WITH MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL ATTRIBUTES, CREATES A PERMANENT NEED FOR SOME KIND OF REGULATORY SYNCRETISM AT THE GROUP LEVEL, AND OUT OF THIS SYNCRETISM EMERGES A SOCIAL ORDER IN WHICH THE VARIETIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE OF THE SACRED ARE TRANSMUTED INTO THE REQUIREMENTS OF EXISTENCE AND SURVIVAL IN A GIVEN ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING.

ACCORDINGLY, WE MAY CHARACTERIZE RELIGION FOR OUR PURPOSES HERE AS A WAY OF LIFE; OR MORE PRECISELY AS A SYSTEM OF BELIEFS AUTHORIZING OR SANCTIONING A GENERALIZED SET OF OBSERVANCES BASED ON THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AN ULTIMATE RELATIONSHIP TO A UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE OR ESSENCE WHICH IS REGARDED AS IMMANENT IN NATURE.

THE MENTAL CONCRETIZATIONS OF THIS UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE ARE OF COURSE THE TRANSCENDENT BEING WHICH WE CALL GOD,THE DEITY.

THE BELIEF IN GOD LOGICALLY SIGNIFIES FAITH IN A DIVINELY-ORDAINED ORDER IN THE WORLD AND FURNISHES A PERMANENT SPIRITUAL MEANING FOR EXISTENCE IN THE SENSE OF AN EXTRA-MUNDANE FOCUS, THE ULTIMATE INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE CONSUMMATION IN WHICH BECOMES THE OBJECT AND THE JUSTIFICATION OF EXISTENCE, AND THEREFORE SALVATION. RELIGION IS THUS ESSENTIALLY A CULTURAL PHENOMENON.

THE PRESCRIPTIONS OF THE DEITY – I.E., THE PERCEIVED CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL SALVATION TRANSLATE INTO A MORAL CODE EXPRESSED AS THE BEHAVIOURAL FORMULATION OF THE OBJECTIVE REQUIREMENTS OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL ORDER, AND JUSTIFIED ON THIS BASIS. VIEWED THIS WAY, RELIGION BECOMES BOTH THE ASPIRATION TO AND THE REALITY OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE COMMUNION WITH THE DEITY, WITH THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE OF EXISTENCE, THE MEANS OF ENSURING CONFORMANCE WITH THIS PRINCIPLE AS INTERPRETED AND CONCEPTUALIZED IN THE PARTICULAR SETTING.

THAT IS TO SAY, IT BECOMES A MECHANISM OF SOCIAL CONTROL OF ENCULTURATION INTO A WAY OF LIFE. IT BECOMES IN EFFECT THE CONSCIOUS MANIPULATION OF THE IDEA OF THE SUPERNATURAL FOR PURELY MUNDANE PURPOSES – INCLUDING SUCH PURPOSES AS OVERT OR SURREPTITIOUS SUPPRESSION OF ONE CULTURE BY ANOTHER. DISMISSING THE EUROPEAN CONCEPTION OF "PRIMITIVE" RELIGION AS THE SPIRITUAL EXPRESSION OF CULTURES WHICH SUPPOSEDLY HAVE NOT YET ACHIEVED A SHARP INTELLECTUAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE PRACTICAL, BETWEEN THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE, WE ASSERT THAT THE AWARENESS OF GOD "IS AND HAS BEEN AT ALL TIMES THE COMMON HERITAGE OF HUMANITY.

" THE SUPREME BEING IS NEITHER UNCERTAIN NOR REMOTE BUT AN INTEGRAL ASPECT OF THEIR COMMUNAL BEING; SUCH THAT "THE REFINEMENT OF PUBLIC MORALITY IN THE LIGHT OF CONTEMPORARY BELIEFS" CANNOT BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT A FRUITFUL DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE AFRICAN TRADITIONALIST AND CRIOLLO THEOLOGICAL HERITAGE AND THE CHRISTIAN BELIEF STRUCTURE WHICH HAS BEEN SUPERIMPOSED ON IT BY RECENT CONTRIBUTION, THIS NECESSARY DIALOGUE NOT ONLY HAS NOT BEEN FRUITFUL TO DATE, BUT IS UNLIKELY EVER TO BE. IT HAS CONSISTED ESSENTIALLY, HE SUGGESTS, IN A MONOLOGUE IN WHICH CHRISTIANITY HAS TALKED DOWN TO TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND HAS ENDED BY SUBVERTING IT.

WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED, THEREFORE, HAS BEEN "THE SYSTEMATIC AND UNCRITICAL DESTRUCTION AND NEGLECT OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION" IN A CONTEST WHICH HE SAYS SHOULD PROPERLY BE SEEN AS A CLASH OF CULTURES, "A CONTEST BETWEEN TWO THEOLOGIES. HUMAN NATURE INSTINCTIVELY SEEKS, ASSERTS, AND CONFESSES ITS AUTHOR, GOD.

IT IS, THEREFORE, NOT ONLY BY REFLECTION ON THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE THAT THE AFRICANS HAVE COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING, AS THE ELDERS HAVE REMARKED, BUT ALSO BY INSTINCT AND INTUITION. HERE IS THE SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPLICATION OF THE IDEA OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT AS THE IMAGE OF ITS CREATOR. PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND LOGICAL PROOFS OF THE SAME, SIMPLY CONFIRM AND CONSOLIDATE THE NATURE FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR KNOWLEDGE AND RECOGNITION OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE CREATOR.

CONSEQUENTLY, THE AWARENESS OF GOD IS AND HAS BEEN AT ALL TINES THE COMMON HERITAGE OF HUMANITY.

1. FIRM AND CONSTANT BELIEF IN THE INVISIBLE UNIVERSE OF DIVINE BEINGS, GOOD SPIRITS AND BAD SPIRITS, AND THE SPIRITS OF DEPARTED ANCESTORS.

2. FIRM AND CONSTANT BELIEF IN THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE OF HUMAN BEINGS AND THE NATURAL FORCES AND PHENOMENA.

3. FIRM AND CONSTANT BELIEF IN THE COMMUNION AND INTERACTION OF THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE OF HUMAN BEINGS AND NATURAL FORCES AND PHENOMENA, FLORA AND FAUNA WITH THE INVISIBLE UNIVERSE OF THE DIVINE AND SPIRITUAL BEINGS AND DEPARTED ANCESTORS. FOR THE CRIOLLO AS A CONSEQUENCE, THE INVISIBLE, THE SPIRITUAL AND SACRED ON THE ONE HAND, OPERATE WITH THE VISIBLE, THE TEMPORAL AND SECULAR ON THE OTHER, NOT IN CONFUSION BUT IN CO-OPERATION, NOT IN SEPARATION BUT IN DISTINCTION OF COMPETENCE, NOT IN DIVORCE BUT RATHER IN HARMONY WITH EACH OTHER.

4. BELIEF IN THE SPIRITUAL IMMORTALITY OF THE HUMAN BEING, WITH EACH BEING ENDOWED WITH PERSONAL DIVINE ESSENCE, CHI/ORI/GUARDIAN ANGLE WITH WHOSE CO-OPERATION, ACTION AND INTERACTION, AUSPICES AND GUIDANCE EVERY HUMAN BEING LIVES OUT HIS OR HER DIVINELY ORDAINED COURSE OF LIFE.

5. THE STRONG BELIEF IN SPIRITUAL IMMORTALITY AND REINCARNATION PROVIDED THE NECESSARY PERSONAL AND SOCIAL MOTIVATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO SUBORDINATE ONE'S MORAL LIFE TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF ETHICAL DISCIPLINE AND PUBLIC MORALITY, WHICH OFTEN CAME UNDER DIVINE SANCTIONS.

IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL TERMS, CHI / ORI MAY BE IDENTIFIED AS PERSONAL GUARDIAN SPIRIT OR ANGEL. CHI / ORI IS THE ONTOLOGICAL BASIS OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AND THIS BELIEF IS IN TURN THE GROUND FOR THEIR BELIEF IN REINCARNATION AND RELIGIOUS REVERENCE FOR DESERVING ANCESTORS.

IN THIS CONTEXT THE ELDERS COMMENTED AS FOLLOWS: ”THIS BELIEF OR DESIRE FOR IMMORTALITY IS PART OF THE BACKGROUND TO THE CULT OF THE ANCESTORS THROUGH WHICH THE DEAD SHARE IN LIFE OF THE LIVING.

" THE TRADITIONAL CULT OF MANY AFRICANS/CRIOLLOS IS MARKED BY LIBERTY, VARIETY, RELEVANCE AND COMMUNALITY.

(A) LIBERTY ENSURES THAT THE AFRICAN/CRIOLLO RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS RECOGNIZES AND RESPECTS THE LAWS OF CHI /ORI AND THE REQUIREMENTS OF MAN'S SPIRITUAL PERSONALITY.

(B) VARIETY AS A RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN AFRICAN/CRIOLLO RELIGIOUS PRACTICE TAKES INTO CONSIDERATION PERSONAL AND LOCAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND OTHER NATURAL CONTINGENCIES AND HUMAN EVENTS – SUCH AS WARS, EPIDEMIC, FLOOD, FAMINE, THUNDER, MADNESS, ETC.

(C) RELEVANCE, WHICH IS IDENTIFIED AS "UTILITY", AS A FEATURE OF AFRICAN RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS AND ATTITUDE, SEEKS TO ENSURE FOR THEM THE WORSHIP OF A DIVINITY WHOSE POWERS ARE EFFICACIOUS AND PRODUCTIVE OF POSITIVE AND SALUTARY RESULTS.