Pre-colonial African Gods imagined by African Gay artist. Some history of the suppression of African indigenous religion by contemporary Christians. Supp. Sect. Korean Shamanism.
Besides being of interest as an artist project and to show that there is a global effort to discover the indigenous religious past, this post shows the ever ongoing danger of Christianity.
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Do not overlook the article about the suppression of pagans in Africa at the end of this post.
The Gods of Future Past by Jim Chuchu.
From the article, THE GODS OF FUTURE-PAST – JIM CHUCHU {ARTIST TO WATCH}.
Mysterious. Moody. Magical. The other-worldly work of Kenyan-based artist Jim Chuchu is both culturally-powerful and intriguing. In his series titled “Pagans,” he takes us back in time in search of his ancestors’ past. We got the chance to ask him a few questions about his work:
What’s the story behind Pagans?
“Pagans was the result of my curiosity about pre-colonial mysticism in Africa.
There has been a widespread erasure of pre-colonial religious practice in Africa,
and labeling of all such practice as backward. Most other cultures have a very
vivid bank of imagery and stories about their religious icons – like the statue of
Buddha, omnipresent in every spa even here, or the appearance of Norse gods
in popular film. It’s very difficult to find such imagery or literature about African
pre-Christian and pre-Islam deities.Thus, Pagans was an exercise in reconstructing portraits of these erased-to-oblivion
deities by imagining future-past anonymous African deities and forgotten religious
rites.
This is the direct link. Saving things at the Internet archive is really important.
https://nakid.online/2014/12/02/the-gods-of-future-past-jim-chuchu-artist-to-watch/
This is another article about him, “The African god that made it into Art & Queer Culture: Jim Chuchu's images hark back to a pre-Christian Africa, but he has to deal with contemporary bigotry too.”
Some of his art was exhibited in Senegal, but the art gallery was vandalized.
“Several photographs from this series were featured in Dak’Art, the 11th Biennial of Contemporary African Art as part of the exhibition ‘Precarious Imaging: Visibility and Media Surrounding African Queerness’” explains our book. “The show was one of the first on the continent to focus on homosexuality.
Mounted in Senegal, a country where homosexuality is illegal, the exhibition was closed after the Raw Material Gallery that hosted it was vandalized and pressured by Muslim fundamentalist organizations.”
This is a short article about the attack.
https://africanah.org/censoring-dakart/
The Smithsonian has had his art in the National Museum of African Art.
https://africa.si.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/jim-chuchus-invocations/
This is his website.
Some of his images are at this site.
https://www.superselected.com/images-pagans-2014-by-jim-chuchu/
A short biographical entry for him.
https://africanah.org/jim-chuchu/
You can download an academic paper about his work at this URL
This video is in English, with Spanish subtitles.
The relentless drive of Christains to suppress paganism and indigenous religions.
The article title is: “Worshipping other people’s godsKenyan filmmaker Jim Chuchu explores the struggle between indigenous cultural practice and Pentecostal Christianity.
https://africasacountry.com/2022/02/worshipping-other-peoples-gods
Except with Ethiopia, Christianity came to Africa with the slavers and the colonial oppressors.
The African Christians are out to get other religions. They were able to suppress an indigenous religious practice and Jim Chuchu made a fictional film about suppression of Utapishi.
From the article:
When Pastor Wanyota and the National Council of Churches in Kiunga Diocese that he represents succeed at outlawing Utapishi—an annual cleansing and healing ceremony practiced by the people of Kiunga since the early 1500s—a specter of despair haunts the screen in Tapi! (2020). The film is a speculative documentary short film directed by Jim Chuchu of The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary collective living and working in Nairobi, Kenya. The film fictionalizes the erasure of Utapishi in favor of [neo]colonial-modernity pervading contemporary Kenya under the veil of Pentecostal Christianity.
And
Although not captured in the Witchcraft Act at the time, prophecy and oath-taking, or the suspicion about it, were severely punished as they had the potential of mobilizing community resistances against colonial rule. Indigenous cultural practices on the whole were reduced to “witchcraft” and punished indiscriminately because of the threats colonial officials imagined they posed. It should be noted that the “witch” did not embody a gendered character similar to medieval Europe’s witches, but rather functioned as a euphemism for recalcitrant colonial subjects. Thus, punishments ranging from executions to deportations operated in wide excesses of the law, speaking to the absolute nature of colonialism’s hysteria.
Jim Chuchu and the Nest Collective which he is a part, did a video with a fictional story about a Utapishi practicioner fighting back against Christians trying to suppress him.
This link goes to the Nest Collective item on it, but the video isn’t available anymore.
This is a link to a review of his movie about the repression of the healing ritual.
https://norient.com/kamwangi-njue/no-life-living-dead
This is a preview trailer on Facebook.
Suppression in Korea
This is not a unique thing about indigenous religions being suppressed by Christians. Besides the obliteration of European religions in the past, Christians have gone after religions in the 20th century elsewhere. I give the following example to show that the Christians are inherently a danger to indigenous religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_shamanism
From the Wikipedia entry:
In the mid-20th century, persecution of mudang continued under the Marxist government of North Korea and through the New Community Movement in South Korea. More positive appraisal of the mudang occurred in South Korea from the late 1970s onward, especially as practitioners were associated with the minjung pro-democracy movement and came to be regarded as a source of Korean cultural identity.
This is from the Wikipedia entry for the New Community Movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saemaul_Undong
During the late 1960s and 1970s when the policy started being implemented under the regime of President Park, local traditions and beliefs were suppressed, akin to the Cultural Revolution in communist China which happened at the same time. The movement Misin tapa undong ("to defeat the worship of gods"), also described as "movement to destroy superstition") reached its peak during the Saemaul Undong period. Old zelkova trees that had stood at village entrances and have traditionally served as guardian figures were cut down in order to erase "superstition".[9] Practitioners of Korean shamanism were harassed, essentially destroying centuries old Korean traditions.[10]
This is the Wikipedia entryfor the anti-Shamanism movement in Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-shamanism_movement_in_Korea
Waves of the anti-shamanism movement started in the 1890s with the rise of influence of Protestant preachers in Korea,[1] culminating during the New Community Movement of the 20th century, in South Korea. These movements destroyed most of the indigenous cults and shrines of folk religion, which were largely replaced by Christianity.[3]
The relentless enemy of indigenous religion is Christianity.
interesting. It takes tremendous effort to rebuild lost cultures. Kudos.