Page 57 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine June 2018

WHAT IS A BLOOD SACRIFICE WHAT THE HISTORY AND CULTURE
Essentially, a blood sacrifice is the process of killing TELLS US OF THESE PRACTICES IN
an animal and spilling its blood as part of a ritual. The JAMAICA
animal’s blood may be spilled on an altar, in a In fact, the Spiritual practices of our Ancestors are
container or as required by the ritual. Many African neither evil nor demonic in comparison to any other
peoples believe in the use of offerings and blood religious practices. If one was to look very coldly and
sacrifice to elevate their prayers to the spiritual powers dispassionately at our original Afrikan Spiritual
and the ancestors. practices, then look at those imposed on us by the
colonisers, one would be very hard pressed to not
Even among the above four very different practices, recognize that of all the evils committed against
Jewish, Yoruba, Islamic and Christian the reason for humanity in general, most were in the name of, and
this kind of sacrifice is the same - to establish commu- with the support of, the religions of the colonisers.
nication with the Divine as a means of fixing The presence of altars and evidence of offering blood
problems. sacrifice does not necessarily indicate a connection to
Islam endorses the idea of getting closer to Allah the ‘devil’ or ‘satan’. That would be like saying you
through animal sacrifice in commemoration of the found a car tyre that belongs to a Toyota Corolla. The
Abrahamic tradition (Eid Al-Adha Sacrifice). For fact is, it could belong to many different types of car.
Judaism, it is so that the sins of a person are symbol-
ically transferred to the chicken (Kaparot Sacrifice). This is a remnant of colonial racism which still
Christianity does it in a symbolic way, using bread and indicates a very deep distrust and more so, a fear and
wine that is partaken of believers as a means of Holy hatred of any of the manifestations of African Spiritual
Communion. The wine represents the blood and the practices.
bread represents the body being sacrificed, the
Eucharist. For Yorubaland it is done to appease the Christianity has been in existence for just over 2000
orishas who are? and enlist their aid in addressing years, whereas recorded history of West Africa goes
human problems. All four whether symbolically or back to a period greater than 6000 year before that, to
otherwise, offer blood and a body as sacrifice. 4000BCE, hence African Spiritual practices such as
Ifa, Kromanti, Vodun and many others have been in
existence for a significantly longer period of time.
From this perspective Christianity is simply one of

Four Sacrifice offerings, four different methods: (left to right) Jewish sacrifice; Yoruba sacrifice; Islamic sacrifice; Christian
sacrifice.

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