This is the News Analysis segment of the Voice of Biafra International Broadcast.

For March 30, 2002.

You have heard the news; now, the analysis…

This is Easter weekend. Our news analysis will therefore center on spirituality. Biafra is not a stranger to Spirituality.

Let us first state here that the Spirituality of Biafra is based on origins—“in the beginning…”

“In the beginning, God…” God is in the beginning. God is before the beginning. God is through it all. God is in the end. God is after the end. God is in fact the beginning, the middle, the end, and everything before, and everything after, and everything in-between. How do you name this God? We can know God by the name, “Chi,” or by any other name, for that matter, including “God.” Even Scientists have their own terms for God. But the Biafran culture realizes that this God cannot be named because we cannot find a name that will befit or encompass or define or adequately describe God. There is no name proper enough to capture the unfathomable essence of God. This is a basic tenet of Biafra Spirituality.

“…God created…” Every culture on earth has a lore dealing with the original creation of all things by God—by whatever name.  Biafra is no exception. But our ancient ones understood that “creation” is not the proper word for what God has done, for what God does. God does not “create”—God “becomes.” God is “be-ing.” “I AM”—a constant state of “being-ness,” is what God is. It is in God becoming, that the so-called creation happens; it is in God “be-ing” that the so-called “created-ness” becomes manifest. Hence, all “creation” is in fact God being, God becoming. This is the basic tenet of Biafra Spirituality.

“…in God’s image…” God is God. God has no image. An image is a picture, or copy or facsimile of the original. An “image” implies another, though less substantive, reproduction of the original. God has no way to be less than God; God cannot be other than God. God is all that God is, nothing less, nothing more. God becomes all that God is, nothing more, nothing less. “God is One.” Thus, God is becoming One God; God is being One God. This is another way of stating the basic tenet of Biafra Spirituality.

“…Ye are God…”  Yes, indeed, you are God. Everything is God. All things are God, the same God. And that’s because God makes it so. Another way to put it is that God is you, God is all things, God is everything, God is the same God—One. Our ancestors who understood this quite well showed reverence for all things dead or living, for all persons—man, woman, or child—everybody, in recognition, acknowledgement and acceptance that God is all there is, no matter what it is that we see, and no matter how you might see it different. Our forefathers and mothers never revered anything or any human for the sake of the thing itself or the person himself or herself, but for the fact that it is God becoming that thing or that person.

“…God changes not…” God is God. This could not change. How could that change, and what would God change into, other than God? God in being God can and will become all that God can be; there is no constraint. God being God cannot be limited by imagination, because God has no boundaries and no limitations. God has no constraints and no walls—no ceilings and no bottom.

“…God is Love…”  Love derives from the fact that God is One with all things and all persons which God is becoming as God. Love is the result of One—God being One, God being all things and all persons, being One, God. Our ancestors understood this quite well.

What are the implications of Biafra Spirituality? Biafra Spirituality implies that the primary and only state and status of everybody and everything is God—God being God, and by God’s doing. This, by the way, is also the meaning and basis of Love. This is the knowledge of Truth that brings freedom.

All other attributes are secondary appellations and attachments and arrangements. This includes the “naming” of things and the naming of persons, for example; and the inevitable local and community acculturation.

Note that Spirituality is not about religion, and does not address religion either. Religion is a secondary acquisition and acculturation, a framework for interpretation of existence, akin to, but utilizing different methodology than, Science. Spirituality addresses the primal status of not just humanity, but of all things seen and unseen, known and unknown to human senses and sensitivities, believed or not, proven or unproven; that primal status is God.

As we continue the process of Biafra actualization to consummation, it is appropriate to explain and restate that Biafra is imbued with the spirituality of Biafran tradition and culture, which our ancestors exemplified and practiced in their own ways, in their own times. For this reason, Biafra could not escape spiritual underpinnings and moorings. This being the Easter season, this subject is quite apropos.

Biafra is a nation founded and existing on spiritual principles. We want to make sure that nobody confuses religion or religiosity with spirituality. Spirituality allows for religiosity and religious adherences, and also, agnosticism, while the reverse is not necessarily the case.

While religion and religiosity and even agnosticism can and do operate on parochial principles, spirituality is based on universal and cosmic principles, principles which encompass, permeate and unite all things—including humanity—seen and unseen, known and unknown to human sensitivities and sensibilities.

Spirituality owes nothing to belief or belief-systems, and is not reliant on doctrination or congregation, nor on adherence. Spirituality does not rely on the state of remembrance or lack thereof, nor does it depend upon practice and allegiance. Spirituality is a primary attribute; it is the universal nature of all things, not to be confused with secondary, tertiary and acquired attributes such as one’s name, for example, one’s country of origin, gender, or one’s religion or belief systems.

So, we repeat: Biafra is a spiritual nation built on a spiritual foundation, a nation where all peoples and things may and shall co-exist regardless of secondary and acquired characteristics and qualities. Biafra is a spiritual nation where citizens can freely practice their chosen religions and agnosticism, side by side, without interference by one another or by the nation itself, and without state sponsorship either. Biafra is not a religious state. Biafra is not an agnostic state. Biafra is a spiritual nation.

What does spirituality mean, for practical purposes?

Spirituality is the quality of one-ness that exists between everything and the Source—the former popularly known as “created-ness,” and the latter, known as God or by many other appellations. Spirituality is the truth that the Source is always becoming, and what the Source is becoming is no other than the Source, explaining the statement, “the Source is becoming only the Source, because there is nothing else to be.” Spirituality is therefore the fact that the Source is one and the same as what it becomes.

Another way of understanding Spirituality is that it is the fact of “being”—the characteristic of “being-ness.” In “being” or “being-ness,” subject and object cannot be resolved but must be one and the same.

Thus, you can begin to understand why we reiterate that Biafra is a spiritual nation, and not, for example, a religious nation. Spirituality implies that the entire universe and all its contents, and all the other things that lie beyond, are the manifestation of BEING, where the One being is also at once the manifestation of the One’s being. In the strictest vernacular, spirituality is the recognition that God becomes what God creates—and God and God’s creation are One and the same.

In this manner, Spirituality establishes and teaches the true identity of humanity. Spirituality explains and teaches the real nature of all things—be they living or inanimate, seen or unseen. All is God. God is all. Furthermore, Spirituality confirms the sole relationship between everything, everybody, and God: one; Oneness. All is God. All is One—God.

God being God, and God being all there is—God being One—does not depend upon what you know or what you choose or are forced to believe. Can you see how and why Spirituality is not concerned about what paradigm you adopt and use to order your world, whether it is religion or science or agnosticism or anything else, for that matter? Nothing can change what God is being.

Biafra is a spiritual nation. Let’s not forget, though even if we forget nothing is changed from God being God. Instead, let us remember the practical implications of spirituality. Consider: if you treated every person with the knowledge and understanding that you are one with him or her, can you not surmise that your relationship with everything would improve? If you go beyond that and think for a moment and recall that he or she is actually God being God, would you not see them in a different light? And just one step further, figure this into the equation: you, too, are what God is becoming as God. And, you are dealing with God becoming God as the so-called “other” person. Recall: one God, same God! Can you begin to imagine what a glorious world “this place” could be?

And why stop at fellow human beings? If you treat everything that you encounter—living and non-living alike—as if it is one with you and you are one with it, can you imagine what a wonderful world that would make? Then, take the ultimate step: know that everything—you, included—is God being God, and now, this really changes everything, doesn’t it?

This is how powerful and wonderful the Spirituality known to, and practiced by, ancient Biafra, is. This is what we Biafrans are called upon to observe, adopt, accept and practice: the Spirituality of Biafra.

We thus leave you with the Spirituality of Biafra, the wisdom and knowledge of our ancestors which set them free, long before native religions were formulated, and foreign religions were introduced. 

We advise: seek you first Spirituality, and all these other things will fall into their rightful place.

This is our special news analysis for the week, influenced by the major news of the time, Easter.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________

God bless and keep Biafra and you, until next week. VOBI broadcast continues. (Audio version part of weekly VOBI broadcast posted on Biafraland website, http://www.biafraland.com : follow Voice of Biafra link.)