Immanuel Kant: Philosopher of Ogboni

A philosopher of Ògbóni is a person whose ideas are correlative with those of the various Yoruba origin esoteric fraternities which are variants of  Ògbóni or its other form,  Òṣùgbò  even though such a person is not known to be a member of Ògbóni or Òṣùgbò and does not even mention these groups in their work.

An Ògbóni philosopher, on the other hand, is a member of Ògbóni  or Òṣùgbò who presents a body of ideas giving insight into Ògbóni values. 

I developed those characterizations in the course of constructing  a new school of Ògbóni, the Universal Ògbóni Philosophy and Spirituality, as I describe in "Developing Universal Ògbóni Philosophy and Spirituality: My Journey".

In my earlier writings, I have identified Wole Soyinka and Babatunde Lawal, two scholars, along with Soyinka being an imaginative writer in poetry, drama and fiction, who are philosophers of Ògbóni, inspired by and projecting Ògbóni, directly and indirectly.

 

I have also described Susanne Wenger, Margaret Thompson Drewal, her teacher Kolawole Ositola and Awo
Mark  Casillas as Ògbóni philosophers, thinkers who demonstrate knowledge of Ògbóni values from within their

membership of Ògbóni or Òṣùgbò.

 

Through Ògbóni, Yoruba thought, within which Ògbóni is centred, even as Ògbóni has become pan-Nigerian and diasporic, takes it's place among global efforts to build upon humanity's relationship with nature, the great mother without whom earthly existence, the only one incontrovertibly known by all humanity, would not exist.

 

I have written on Babatunde Lawal as a philosopher of Ògbóni. More essays are forthcoming on other philosophers of Ògbóni and on Ògbóni philosophers.

 

I now add the glorious work of the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant to the list of philosophers of Ògbóni.

 

Kant knew nothing of Ògbóni and possibly had little factual information about Africa.

 

But his ideas resonate with those of the far sighted people from Yorubaland who bound themselves in loyalty to Earth as children of one mother, a fraternity enduring.

 

For Ògbóni thought, Earth is the template of the most glorious possibilities. 

 

Wherever the human being may travel in thought, imagination or spirit, begins with Earth, the enabler of embodied human existence. 

 

Thus, in Yoruba philosophy, from which Ògbóni derives, the material universe and human existence, spirit and matter, are interrelated.

 

For Kant, the Earth and the material cosmos surrounding it, the universe of stars and planets within which Earth exists as one within the dance of cosmos as humans walk it's surface in their littleness, yet able to gaze upon this cosmic wonder, the Earth, shaped by myriad organisms invisible without a microscope and countless worlds in outer space which cannot be seen without a telescope, and the mind that perceives and interprets these wonders, are  the most glorious experiences that all  humans have access to.

 

Thus, I welcome the master of  Königsberg, Kant's home city, where he spent most of his life, into the ranks of philosophers of Ògbóni.

 

I demonstrate Kant as a prime celebrator of the  glory of the material cosmos, in  my essay "Poetry, Spirituality, Philosophy : The Multifaceted Thought of Immanuel Kant: A Very, Very Short Illustrated Introduction".

 

The German master would not have agreed with Ògbóni, however, that Earth is alive and conscious, thereby inspiring worship.

 

He would argue that there is no compelling reason to agree that the Earth is conscious, a sublime intelligence, views at the heart of Ògbóni fraternity in veneration of Iyan Nla, the Mighty, Venerable Female One, as she is known in Yoruba thought.

 

But the sublime thinker would agree that even if the idea of  Ile, Earth, as an intelligence who can speak to us is beyond what can be proven by the limitations of reason as conventionally understood, the glory of Earth and the wonders of the human mind that perceives those glories are to be appreciated in attributing supreme value to our home, the Earth, in relation to her cosmic home.

 

From physical glory to terrestrial intelligence, from terrestrial wonder to cosmic glories and intelligence, the Königsberg master would travel with they who created Ògbóni and those  who have sustained the fraternity across the centuries, those who see Ile, Earth, the Great Mother, as united with Olodumare, the One Beyond Space and Time, issuing in Odu, the constellation of all possibilities, terrestrial and cosmic, known, unknown and unknowable.

 

What is humanity, our German brother would agree, if not that one who travels  through his imagination beyond what the senses can see, who projects possibilities beyond what he can prove, who moves in mind between yesterday, today and tomorrow, from his location in time and space?

 

Yes, Kant was there in spirit with our common ancestors, the Ògbóni elders, when they planted this great fraternity.

 

That originator of modern Western philosophy was not yet born, but the constellation of consciousness that eventually became  Immanuel Kant was alive and well and was with our common ancestors on that great day.

 

After all, does all human thought not emerge from the seeds planted in Africa, from where humanity radiated across the Earth?

 

Gazing at the immense bowl of the sky from within the expanse of Olduvai Gorge where the oldest bones of our human ancestors were discovered by their descendants, those long departed progenitors whose spirit yet lives on  would have wondered about the cosmic magnificence in which the human being is like a  fly across the face of space, coming and going as Earth remains.

 

Thus was born the sensitivity that the Ògbóni thinkers gave shape to as Ògbóni in veneration of Ile, our cosmic home, as well as the sensitivity demonstrated by the  Königsberg master in saluting the starry heavens above and the moral law within, the law of fraternity amongst humanity.

 

Welcome, brother. You have always been with us. Only now, we see you clearly, fellow of the fraternity of Earth, ològbóni.