The Looking Glass

Using an image from one of my classmates, two-way reflection glasses tell, in a way, the kind of way Western culture has been learning about Africa and Afro-culture. Two-way reflection glasses are an interrogation tool used in prisons and other places where prisoners are held. The observer is kept in the dark while the observed can only see him/herself back again, as the glass on that side acts as a mirror. Possibility for any kind of relationship is obliterated.
I have been thinking about relationship and knowledge a lot lately. In my American Religious History class, which has a primary purpose to foster ecumenical dialogue through education, Islam has NOT been mentioned at all (and looking at the syllabus, I doubt it will…but don’t worry, I’ll change that ☺). Judaism got a whole 90 minutes. Of course, there is a lot to cover in just one semester. But it is important to look at how we choose what to include and exclude.
In learning about how Western Anthropology has completely ignored Islam’s long-standing presence and impact in Africa (before and beyond the neatly bound dates and places Islam is said to have entered and existed in Africa), I am realizing how important Islam and Africa are to our history- MY history, everyone’s history. Whether you grew up a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Pagan, Hindu, Buddhist, Earth-centered, Agnostic, WHATEVER, whether you and your people were colonized by Christianity, or whether you have long Christian roots, Islam is part of your history.
There was so much interaction and cultural sharing in the time of Al-Andalus (and also since then and before then), it is impossible to distinguish any single origin for any group. This doesn’t mean we say that and go on with how we have been teaching history. I want to KNOW my Islamic influences! My Jewish influences, etc. etc.
For example, Islam has a very multi-sensory practice of literacy. (By the way, pages (which then opened space for the evolution of books) were actually invented by Muslims, if I remember correctly, and yet Africa is often discounted because of their supposed history as an “illiterate” continent.)
Ok, back to Islamic literacy. Literacy was not evaluated by whether or not an individual could read symbols on a page. No, Islam’s literacy was much more holistic than that. It didn’t just stop at the eye. It was a whole body thing, and a community thing. Communities would grow in knowledge through the way people learned to read. Because there weren’t enough books and pages for people, literature/ prayers/ poems, etc were often called/ read/ sung out loud and people would repeat it. Reading became a collective act for unifying in sound, rhythm, pitch, and meaning taken part by a community.
This was so pervasive that when African slaves were brought over to the Americas, slaves often found others from similar tribes or regions because of the exact way they would pray- the exact tone and rhythm of their spoken words. This influenced the religious expression of the slaves, and this is an important part for any course dealing with “American Religious History.” End point. ☺
In my Unitarian Universalist History class, we are learning about the extensive dialogues and debates people undertook in the, oh gosh, 16th C.?? Anyway, the time of the Reformation and huge religious fervor in Europe and in the U.S. As a U.S. citizen, I was amazed at how committed people were to dialogue even when the dialogue appears (to me, at least) to be incredibly brutal and harsh. People went to great pains to communicate with people they completely disagreed with! (U.S. culture doesn’t appreciate this openness to dialogue, I think, as much as Europe does. We get offended too easily, equating our own personal identity with what we think and what words we say).
Anyway, one particular relationship we were reading about was between a Jew and an Arian Christian. What I love about their story is their commitment to relationship. In the Arian’s criticizing of the Jew’s religion, he was also exposing how much he knew about Judaism (and vise versa). Even in the harsh disagreements, there was a real respect and tolerance for difference that I sorely long for today.
But today, we more often get a two-way looking glass instead of table and tea and conversation, and ignorance founds our relationships (or lack there of). This leads, I think to a culture that idealizes and demonizes things/ people/ cultures. I think idealization and demonization are the same thing, when one considers their impact in the world. They both put someone or culture on a pedestal (the pedestal could be a throne or a burning stake) and the person/ culture is no longer fully human. Once this happens, once there is no access to the imperfections, struggles, pains and joys that bond us on a deep and spiritual level, the possibility for impact is lost, or at least diminished. Once impact is lost, how can we ground our work for justice? How can we truly fight for justice and liberation when we no longer feel connected to the people we are fighting for (and ourselves)?