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In defining the term “consciousness” for Afrikan people, the immediate task is to free Afrikan thinking from the meanings and the constraints imposed by training in Western thought and techniques, and especially by the Western episteme and paradigms inherited and used for thinking itself. The Afrikan heritage of black people is replete with elegant, elaborate and extraordinary conceptualisations of human knowing and awareness.
In regard to the notion of consciousness, it is fairly well documented that Afrika conceives of reality and all that is within reality as a mental expression of the divine. The term consciousness as Afrikan people apply it is therefore a construct that represents the ability to know, perceive, understand and to be aware of self in relation to self and all else. All that is consciousness is, in fact revealed in and determined by relationships (i.e., energy in motion).
At the most fundamental level, consciousness is said found in the pulse that gives us life. A heart cell, for example, is unique in that it produces a strong electromagnetic signal that radiates (or relates) out beyond itself. The electromagnetic (EM) field produced by the heart radiates outward some 12 to 15 feet beyond the human body. In effect, every human being is in constant contact or relationship with other human beings and energy vibrating life forms at all times……….to be continued.
