I Am Africa, Bassa No Gospel Shall Bury Me

I AM AFRICA, I AM BASSA - NO GOSPEL SHALL BURY ME By Dr. Syrulwa SomahThis is not a book-it is a resurrection.For over a century, they told us that to be saved, we had to be buried. That to be Christian, we had to stop being Bassa. That to be educated, we had to forget our names, our drums, our masks, and our ancestors.They gave us a gospel that buried us.Dr. Syrulwa Somah declares: NO MORE.I AM AFRICA, I AM BASSA is the cry of one who refused the grave. It is the story of every Bassa man and woman who was told their culture was evil, their language backward, their spirit demonic. It is an answer to a century of mental colonization.In this powerful and fearless work, Dr. Somah does what no Liberian scholar has dared before: - He strips away the missionary gospel to reveal the wisdom of his ancestors.- He shows that the Bassa people knew God before the missionaries arrived. That we had morality, justice, science, and spirituality. That the poro and sande were our universities. That the drum was our bible. That the kolanut was our communion.- He proves that you can be Bassa and be saved. You can be African and be holy. You do not have to kill your mother to love your father.This book is for: - The Bassa child ashamed to speak Bassa.- The Bassa elder afraid to pour libation because a pastor called it witchcraft.- The African scholar tired of reading Africa through European eyes.- Every Liberian who knows, deep down, that we lost something when we accepted a gospel that asked us to hate ourselves.This book is not against God. It is against the gospel that buried Africa to build Europe. It is not against the church. It is against the church that demanded we bury our identity to be baptized.Dr. Syrulwa Somah writes with fire, with scholarship, and with tears. This is history, anthropology, theology, and autobiography in one. It is academic, but it bleeds. It is traditional and revolutionary.If you have ever wondered who you are after being told who to be, you need to read this book.No gospel shall bury me. I am Africa. I am Bassa. And I have risen.