In Part I of “Being Spirit,” we introduced various notions of spirit and established the framework for the subsequent sections of this article. Part II focused on melanin as an energetic medium through which the spirit expresses itself. In this third and final edition of “Being Spirit,” we will examine African concepts of spirit that provide a foundation for understanding spirit as a universal force essential not just to the restoration of our well-being, but to our humanness.
As Ancestor Dr. Derek Ifatade Wilson once declared about Ubuntu, “We need other people to know how we blossom in the presence of others. Those who believe in you help you to find faith in yourself, urge you to have great thoughts, accept you as who you are, and profoundly form your humanity. The formation and implementation of good relationships is highly valued because good relationships are believed to be helpful in the building of a strong community and in increasing the well-being of people.”
African Concepts of Spirit
This next section will explore African cosmologies with respect to “being spirit.” You will find that these cosmologies align with the spirit associated with melanin, as previously discussed.
In Igbo cosmology, there is a single creator, which manifests as the source inherent in all visible realities.
This life-giving spirit is grounded in an appositional balance of polarities, such as sky and earth or the principles of the masculine and the feminine. It is relevant to note that balance is a cosmological imperative, “for the Igbo, death, including drought, disease, famine, and suffering results from cosmological imbalance” (Wesley, p. 7). This balance is a salient point in relation to Dr. Ann Brown’s assertion that melanin mediates the reciprocal resonance between the earth and the thinking of melanated people, thereby facilitating an energetically balanced ecosystem.
The Oromo cosmology recognizes Waaqa as the supreme being (spirit), a single source of divine energy from which all life emanates.
Similar to the Igbo, the Oromo believe that Waaqa’s spiritual essence or divine force, Ayyaana, indwells all material things. Given that melanin mediates the visible and invisible realms, the notion of the omnipresent inherence of spirit in all things would correspond to melanin’s existence within all living organisms, nature, and in Earth’s orbit, as previously discussed.
Bantu Kongo cosmology also recognizes a cosmic force, the supreme source of all things (spirit), inherent to all things.
Interestingly, the Bantu Kongo cosmology assumes a cyclical flow of energy between the visible and invisible realms of life. Given our discussion of melanin in the previous section, one might argue that this cyclical flow of energy between visible and invisible realms is mediated by melanin.
These are just three examples, but the common thread is clear: most African cosmologies espouse the notion of a Supreme, eternal, primordial essence.
Muhammad (2024) notes that, “This Divine Force does not stand over creation from the outside but sustains creation from the inside. The Supreme Force underlies and inheres within everything” (p. 18). He further explains that, in contrast to the Western worldview, where matter and spirit stand in opposition, the African worldview holds that they are harmonious. Hence, the African ideal as cited by Nobles (2019) says that, “if it exists, it most assuredly is spirit” (p.8).
The fundamental notion that all things, animate and inanimate, come from a single divine eternal essence, and that this essence inheres in all that exists, was an existential bedrock for the original people of the Earth.
There was also a conscious, fluent, and balanced interchange between the visible and invisible realms. They existed as both matter and spirit; therefore, their spiritness was in balance with their humanness.
This Ubuntu or connectedness perspective explains why the original people developed a view of themselves as a holonic element within a universal ecosystem of life, in which harmony and balance remain imperative.
Therefore, rooted in the understanding of their oneness and the sanctity of spirit, the original people were attuned to the universe. They were aligned and in rhythm with nature; they had an intricate knowledge of the astrological bodies and could read the stars. The original people knew the medicinal properties of plants, herbs, fruits, and trees, and their mastery of the sciences was far superior to what exists today.
This advanced, higher-vibrational existence arose from their understanding of the self as spirit, interconnected with the Supreme primordial spirit, which interpenetrates all things. To know oneself in this way is to know all things, including the Supreme Being or source of all creation.
The well-being of African ascendant people mandates a return to spirit, the essence of who we “be”, as an existential imperative lifted in the words of the African proverb that says, “If we want to know the end, look at the beginning.”
Explore these concepts of Spirit further in the full text version and in the references below. Join me in person to continue this conversation at the 57th Annual International Convention of the Association of Black Psychologists, The Illumination: Freeing the African Spirit, July 29-August 1 in Baltimore, Maryland.
References
Bynum, E. B., King, R. D., Brown, A. C., & Moore, T. O. (2005). Why darkness matters: The power of melanin in the brain. Global Black Classic Press.
Gustafson, C. (2017). Bruce Lipton, PhD: The jump from cell culture to consciousness. Integrative Medicine (Encinitas), 16(6), 44-50
Michael Bernard Beckwith, (2023, April 5th), The Science of Spirituality with Bruce Lipton [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWbKAm4Ktdk&t=464s
Miller, L., Wickramaratne, P., Hao, X., McClintock, C. H., Pan, L., Svob, C., & Weissman, M. M. (2021). Altruism and “love of neighbor” offer neuroanatomical protection against depression. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 315, Article 111326
Moore, T. O. (1995). The science of melanin: Dispelling the myths. Venture Books/Beckham House Publishers.
Muhammad, J. 2006. Closing the Gap: Inner views of the heart, mind, & spirit of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Final Call Publishing Co., Chicago
Muhammad, W. (2024). Allah and the Sacred Science of the Black God in African Traditional Religion. Unpublished manuscript.
NASA, we are experiencing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme and unusual weather events such as droughts, tornadoes, flooding, heat, and wildfires (https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/extreme-weather/)
Nobles W. W., Mkhize N. (2020). Charge and the challenge of illuminating the spirit (Skh Djr): The question of paradigm, episteme, and terminology for therapy and treatment. Alternation, 27(1), 6–39.
Nobles, W.W. (2025). Divine Energy Made Manifest (DEMM): “Footprints in the Air”. Psych Discourse, 1(1), 1-10. https://www.psychdiscourse.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DEMM-Footprints-in-the-Air-.pdf
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Taylor, S (2020) An introduction to panspiritism: an alternative to materialism and panpsychism. Zygon: journal of religion and science.
The Weekend University, (2019, June 30th), Spiritual Science – Dr Steve Taylor, PhD [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucPpz0lI6ew
TransAtlantic Productions. (2025, April 4). Dr. Ann Brown Reveals the Secrets of Melanin, Earth’s Electromagnetic Energy & Ancient Wisdom. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmZDQcpVrBs
