I am opening this thread as a tribute and to remember the many Great Pagan Leaders and Ancestors , who through Bravery, Knowledge and Astute Perseverance, SKill and Leadership, have fought for the Religions of their Respective Tribes, across the World.

They were the ones who first took the initiatives to lead their respective people into freedom and emancipation. They are the true sons and daughters of their soil and of their land and a tribute to human resiliance.

Let us Nigerians learn a lesson from them and let us too take the INITIATIVE .

Feel free to share your Pagan Heroes as well. There is no shortage.



We shall start with:

[size=16pt] ELIJAH MASINDE [/size] (of the Bukusu tribe, Luhya Ethnic Group)




Elijah Masinde (also spelt Elija Masinde) (1910-12 (?)—1987) was a Luhya-Bukusu freedom-fighter.


Masinde wa Nameme okhwa Mwasame started out as a footballer, who captained a football team from Kimilili. He also played for Kenyan national team in the Gossage Cup against Uganda in 1930. By the early 1940s, he had risen to the rank of a junior elder within his community in Kimilili area, and became increasingly anti-colonial .

In 1944, he led a number of localised defiance campaigns against the colonial authorities, and was imprisoned many times as a result. At one time he was kept in Mathare Mental Hospital and in Lamu.

Elijah Masinde, was the founder and the leader of [size=16pt]Dini ya Musambwa religion[/size]. This was basically the Old Luhya Religion, more institutionalized and put together and strengthened, after the Colonists tried to eradicate it.

He was an ardent opponent of colonial regimes of Kenya. He also opposed and condemned the post independence regimes of Kenyatta and Moi for betraying the African people's cause. He accused Kenyatta of land grabbing, ethnicity, rampant corruption and other malpractices. Of Moi, he accused him of perpetuating what Kenyatta had initiated and introducing neo exploitation of the fellow Africans. He died in 1987 at the age of 75. Mr. Masinde, one of the last Luyia prophets, founded Musambwa the anti colonial religion in 1936. He led the Bukusu, the Tachoni, the Kabras, the Teso, the Pokot, the Turkana and some Nandis to object to over taxation, racism and forced labor. Fearing his influence the British arrested him in 1944 and had him detained till 1961.

IMAGINE HE SPENT 17 YEARS IN JAIL FOR A CAUSE!

Upon Kenya’s independence, Masinde was very critical of the dictatorial government of Jomo Kenyatta. He was against the land grabbing, tribalism, and abuse of the non Kikuyu rights by the Kenyatta regime agents and the state. Kenyatta had no option but to detain him for almost 15 years. In 1978 Kenyatta died; Moi took power. To please the unhappy population then he had to release some key opponents of the Kenyatta regime. Amongst those released included Elijah Masinde. But Masinde was still not happy with the Moi regime which perpetuated corruption, impunity abuse of the basic human rights. In Moi, Elijah Masinde saw a dictator who had to be stopped or deny the people of Kenya the freedom they had won from the British Imperialists. Moi soon sensed the threat posed by Masinde. He set his state agents against Masinde. One day on his way from Webuye to Kitale, he was arrested by the agents. He was taken through a court of law unprocedurely and send to Mathare Mental Hospital and later taken to Prison. Dini ya Musambwa was also banned. But still Elijah Masinde remained defiant even while in prison. It is believed the oppressive Moi regime might have poisoned him, just like they did with Hezekiah Oyugi and Tito Adungosi and others, before releasing him in 1987. Elijah Masinde died the very same year. Elijah Masinde’s Dini ya Musambwa had his followers amongst the Bukusu and Tachoni. He later had converts among the Isukha, Kabras, Bagisu, Nandi, Pokot, Tugen, Turkana, Sebei, Sabaot, Bagwere, and many others. In Bungoma the following locations were highly Musambwa: Lwakhakha, Kuywa, Ndivisi, Webuye, Kongoli, Kapchai, Kibisi, Kibingei, Kimilili Kimalewa and Kamukuywa.


To mark the new begining, they made a big sacrifice. They slaughtered sheep and supplicated to Wele Khakaba, (God of the Providence). Wele Khakaba was at times called Mukhobe or Malaba. They worshipped other Luhya Gods/Forces of Nature such as Nyasae, Were, etc. Masinde went all over Luyialand and Bugishu restoring all the shrines and sacred places of the nation of Muntu the founder of the Luyia Nation. Some of the shrines were in caves and others hills and/or mountains. Mount Elgon remained the Mountain of Wele Mkhobe (Supreme Creator God). As the colonialists introduced forced labor in combination with racism, oppression and abusive laws the more the people believed in Elijah Masinde. He questioned the Protestants and Catholics how they could claim their God was a true God when he was according to them the chief supporter of the oppressive colonial system. He asked the people to defy and if necessary act contrary to the teaching of these churches. He defied the church and encouraged the people to practice polygamy. This he did with full knowledge that he needed the numbers in order to fight the British. (Remember the Bukusu had fought with the British in 1895 at Lumboka and Chetambe). Masinde knew the British colonialists won because they divided the anti imperialists forces like the Nandi, the Kisii, the Kakilelwa and the Pokot. Hence Elijah had embarked on the unification purpose via Dini ya Musambwa. The colonialists became ruthless and hostile to the followers of Dini ya Musambwa and more so the members of the tribes mentioned above. This forced them to quit the churches and join Musambwa which had been emboldened and daring in its opposition to the white man. Some propaganda by the British that Musambwa were devil worshippers only worsened the situation. Musambwa followers were taught that the white man was the devil for he specialized only in exploitation, oppression and abuse of peoples rights. Dini Ya Musambwa believed in Wele Khakaba and the departed ancestors. This made sense to them than colonial impregnated Christianity that the missionaries preached. At Webuye, then Broderick Falls, Elijah Masinde led his adherent believers to sacrificing over twenty bulls and thirty or so goats and sheep and declared that it was time for the white man to leave the land of Africans or he was going to be forced out. The colonial regime agents saw this as a declaration of war against the imperial regime. Masinde sensing the danger, he went underground. The colonialists looked for him every where.


The entrance to the bunker in Sulwe village, where Dini Ya Msambwa leader Elijah Masinde hid from colonialists for three years. A time , longer than Saddam Hussein hid from US forces!

But to no avail. But after a year or so the agents found Masinde hidden in a bunker in Zakayo Lukorito’s farm in Kamukuywa near Chesamisi. Chief Namutala gave orders to the police to have Elijah Masinde flogged. As he was led away and driven in an open police land-rover, flanked both sides by the colonial police men, throngs of his followers stood by the road from Chesamisi to Kimilili wailing for their hero. Elijah waved all the way, and assured them of his return. Masinde was released in 1961. Kenya was moving very first towards independence. At that time, Elijah Masinde also returned from his visit to Bugisu. He had gone to confer with his Musambwa flock and Omuyinga, the Bagisu ruler/king, and other Kombololo (County) Chiefs especially Wanambwa. But Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote after being tipped off of Masinde’s presence in his country ordered his arrest. Masinde had noted the abuse of power in Obote’s Uganda. He naturally questioned it. Obote’s regime was agitated. Upon release from jail in Uganda, he was escorted to the Kenya border. He looked for “Sihuna” from the shrubs, uprooted it, and dragged it along. It gathered rubbish behind him. Then he told those around and accompanying him “that he had gathered Obote’s power together that would soon end.” He travelled peacefully to his home in Maeni, Kimilili. He predicted the overthrowing of Obote’s government for the oppression against the people of Uganda. And sure enough Obote was to be ousted by Idi Amin Dada in 1971. That fulfilled Elijah Masinde’s prediction. Prior to this stage, the Kenyan leaders had dismissed him and called him names just as they did in 1948 before the colonialists subsequently arrested and detained him in Lamu. Everywhere Elijah Masinde appeared; political leaders and some of the elders in the community avoided him. They described him as religious maniac. Suddenly he was restricted to Maeni village only and not allowed to meet with people from other villages. Some leaders outside the community did not heed this government requirement. Notably Jaramogi Oginga Odinga maintained his close contact with him. After all, he had not liked Kenyatta since he came out of detention. Eventually Elijah was arrested and charged. He was jailed for a bundle of these petty misdeeds at Kamiti maximum security prison. He was then later transferred to Mathare Mental Hospital in Nairobi where he stayed without treatment.


The crowd that carried the Great Luhya Seers body upon his death.

Upon Kenya's independence, Masinde was detained by the government of Jomo Kenyatta for almost 15 years. He had been accused of fomenting religious hatred. He was released by the government of Daniel arap Moi in 1978, Moi also arrested him following his clashes with traffic policemen in Webuye and Kitale. Elija Masinde remained defiant and always questioned post independence Kenya government especially on the issue of land distribution and citizen rights. He died in 1987, a neglected freedom fighter.


Before his death, Masinde pointed out to his elder son the spot where he wanted to be buried - he wanted a huge sycamore tree uprooted to make way for his grave. The family decided to bury him elsewhere, though, but were thwarted when a spot they chose for his grave turned out to be a hidden grave. They took this to be an omen and proceeded to bury him in the spot where the sycamore tree had been.
He left a widow, Sarah Nanyama Masinde. She was still alive in November 2007 and was then reportedly 105 years old.



Prime Minister Raila Odinga (left) with the eldest widow of Mr Elijah Masinde, founder of the Dini Ya Msambwa sect, during the commemoration of the freedom hero’s death. 24 years after his death.



Raila said Masinde is a national hero who deserves recognition as provided for in the Constitution. He directed that a mausoleum be built at Masinde’s grave and his house also be made a museum. “We should not forget our freedom fighters who were our defenders or else we shall also be forgotten,” he said. The Humble Mausoleum is pictured above.

[size=16pt]JULIAN THE APOSTATE[/size], Last Pagan Emperor of Rome




Julian , also known as Julian the Apostate , as well as Julian the Philosopher , was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer.

He was unanimously declared as Augustus (Emperor) by his soldiers and this sparked a brief civil war.

He was a brave warrior and won many glorious battles and even embarked on a millitary campaign against the Sassanid Persians, and he was later to die on the battlefield. after suffering a mortal wound.

As is well known, by the time he was born, Rome was already christianizing rapidly and his predecessors had already converted to christianity.

Being a Philosopher and thinker, he realised the Evils of christinity (even though being born in a christian background), and he decided to overthrow christianity and return the Empire back to its Pagan roots.

Julian was a man of unusually complex character: he was "the military commander, the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters". He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and it was his desire to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to save it from dissolution.
He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the cost of Christianity. His rejection of Christianity in favour of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be called Julian the Apostate by the church.

He was the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty, the empire's first Christian dynasty.


[size=16pt]EARLY LIFE[/size] :

At an early age, Julian and his half-brother Gallus were excluded from public life, were strictly guarded in their youth, and given a Christian education.

He became a lector, a minor office in the Christian church, and his later writings show a detailed knowledge of the Bible, likely acquired in his early life. (Looking back on his life in 362, Julian wrote, in his thirty-first year, that he had spent twenty years in the way of Christianity and twelve in the true way, i.e., the way of Helios (Pagan Sun God).

Initially growing up in Bithynia, raised by his maternal grandmother, at the age of seven he was under the guardianship of Eusebius of Nicomedia, the semi-Arian Christian Bishop of Nicomedia, and taught by Mardonius, a Gothic eunuch, whom Julian wrote warmly of later.

While in Athens, Julian became acquainted with two men who later became both bishops and saints: Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Grea

He was therefore well versed in the bible, and realised that the bible was full of base lies and evil and emotional blackmail and lacked Spirituality and worship of the Divine forces.

Julian decided to get initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which he would later try to restore. (A Pagan cult of the Gods, Demeter & Persephone).


[size=16pt]Clash with the Antiochenes and Restoration of Pagan Temples & Shrines[/size]


After five months of dealings at the capital, Julian left Constantinople in May and moved to Antioch, arriving in mid-July and staying there for nine months before launching his fateful campaign against Persia in March 363. Antioch was a city favored by splendid temples along with a famous oracle of Apollo in nearby Daphne, which may have been cause for him choosing to reside there.

His arrival on 18 July was well received by the Antiochenes, though it coincided with the celebration of the Adonia, a festival which marked the death of Adonis, so there was wailing and moaning in the streets—not a good omen for an arrival.

Julian soon discovered that wealthy merchants were causing food problems, apparently by hoarding food and selling it at high prices. He hoped that the curia would deal with the issue for the situation was headed for a famine. When the curia did nothing, he spoke to the city's leading citizens, trying to persuade them to take action. Thinking that they would do the job, he turned his attention to religious matters.

He tried to resurrect the ancient oracular spring of Castalia at the temple of Apollo at Daphne. After being advised that the bones of 3rd-century bishop Babylas were suppressing the god, he made a public-relations mistake in ordering the removal of the bones from the vicinity of the temple. The result was a massive Christian procession. Shortly after that, when the temple was destroyed by fire, Julian suspected the Christians and ordered stricter investigations than usual. He also shut up the chief Christian church of the city , before the investigations proved that the fire was the result of an accident.


[size=16pt]BELIEFS[/size] :

Julian's personal religion was both Pagan and philosophical; he viewed the traditional myths as allegories, in which the ancient Gods were aspects of a philosophical divinity. The chief surviving sources are his works To King Helios and To the Mother of the Gods, which were written as panegyrics, not theological treatises.

Julian's paganism was highly eccentric and atypical because it was heavily influenced by an esoteric approach to Platonic philosophy sometimes identified as theurgy and also Neoplatonism. Many argue that Julian's philosophical perspective was nothing unusual for a "cultured" pagan of his time, and, at any rate, that Julian's paganism was not limited to philosophy alone, and that he was deeply devoted to the same gods and goddesses as other pagans of his day.

Because of his Neoplatonist background Julian accepted the creation of humanity as described in Plato's Timaeus. he writes, "they who had the power to create one man and one woman only, were able to create many men and women at once...."
His view contrasts with the Christian belief that humanity is derived from the one pair, Adam and Eve. Elsewhere he argues against the single pair origin, indicating his disbelief, noting for example, "how very different in their bodies are the Germans and Scythians from the Libyans and Ethiopians."

The Christian historian Socrates Scholasticus was of the opinion that Julian believed himself to be Alexander the Great "in another body" via transmigration of souls, "in accordance with the teachings of Pythagoras and Plato". Like Pythagoras, Julian was a vegetarian .




[size=16pt]RESTORATION OF PAGANISM AS STATE RELIGION[/size]

After gaining the purple, Julian started a religious reformation of the state, which was intended to restore the lost strength of the Roman state. He supported the restoration of Hellenistic polytheism as the state religion. His laws tended to target wealthy and educated Christians and his aim was not to destroy Christianity but to drive the religion out of "the governing classes of the empire".

He restored pagan temples which had been confiscated since Constantine's time, or simply appropriated by wealthy citizens; he repealed the stipends that Constantine had awarded to Christian bishops, and removed their other privileges, including a right to be consulted on appointments and to act as private courts. He also reversed some favors that had previously been given to Christians. For example, he reversed Constantine's declaration that Majuma, the port of Gaza, was a separate city. Majuma had a large Christian congregation while Gaza was still predominantly pagan.

On 4 February 362, Julian promulgated an edict to guarantee freedom of religion. (SEE THE TOLERANCE OF US PAGANS!) This edict proclaimed that all the religions were equal before the law, and that the Roman Empire had to return to its original religious eclecticism, according to which the Roman state did not impose any religion on its provinces. Practically however, it had as its purpose the restoration of paganism at the expense of Christianity.

Since the persecution of Christians by past Roman Emperors had seemingly only strengthened Christianity, many of Julian's actions were designed to harass and undermine the ability of Christians to organize resistance to the re-establishment of paganism in the empire.
Julian's preference for a non-Christian and non-philosophical view of Iamblichus' theurgy seems to have convinced him that it was right to outlaw the practice of the Christian view of theurgy and demand the suppression of the Christian set of Mysteries.

In his School Edict Julian required that all public teachers be approved by the Emperor; the state paid or supplemented much of their salaries. Ammianus Marcellinus explains this as intending to prevent Christian teachers from using pagan texts (such as the Iliad, which was widely regarded as divinely inspired) that formed the core of classical education: "If they want to learn literature, they have Luke and Mark: Let them go back to their churches and expound on them", the edict says.

LOL you see how HH Emperor Julius exposes the hypocricy of christians. they use our great and superior Pagan texts and then try to backstab us.

This was an attempt to remove some of the power of the Christian schools which at that time and later used ancient Greek literature in their teachings in their effort to present the Christian religion as being superior to paganism. The edict was also a severe financial blow, because it deprived Christian scholars, tutors and teachers of many students.

In his Tolerance Edict of 362, Julian decreed the reopening of pagan temples, the restitution of confiscated temple properties, and the return from exile of dissident Christian bishops. The latter was an instance of tolerance of different religious views, but it may also have been seen as an attempt by Julian to foster schisms and divisions between different Christian sects, since conflict between rival Christian sects was quite fierce.

His care in the institution of a pagan hierarchy in opposition to that of the Christians was due to his wish to create a society in which every aspect of the life of the citizens was to be connected, through layers of intermediate levels, to the consolidated figure of the Emperor — the final provider for all the needs of his people. Within this project, there was no place for a parallel institution, such as the Christian hierarchy or Christian charity.


Emperor Julian ordering the burning of the useless bones of St. John the Baptist, towards which the idolatrous christians pray.

[size=16pt]Charity[/size]

Because Christian charities were open to all, including pagans, it put this aspect of the Roman citizens lives out of the control of the Imperial authority and under that of the Church. He recognised and saw through the base treachery and bribery which the church used to gain converts, by such acts. Thus Julian envisioned the institution of a Roman philanthropic system, and cared for the behaviour and the morality of the pagan priests, in the hope that it would mitigate the reliance of pagans on Christian charity , as he says:

[size=16pt]These impious Galileans(christians) not only feed their own poor, but ours also; welcoming them into their agapae (xtian feast), they attract them, as children are attracted, with cakes.[/size]


[size=16pt]DEATH[/size] :

During the withdrawal, Julian's forces suffered several attacks from Sassanid forces. In one such engagement on 26 June 363, the indecisive Battle of Samarra near Maranga, Julian was wounded when the Sassanid army raided his column. In the haste of pursuing the retreating enemy, Julian chose speed rather than caution, taking only his sword and leaving his coat of mail. He received a wound from a spear that reportedly pierced the lower lobe of his liver, the peritoneum and intestines. The wound was not immediately deadly. Julian was treated by his personal physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, who seems to have made every attempt to treat the wound. This probably included the irrigation of the wound with a dark wine, and a procedure known as gastrorrhaphy, the suturing of the damaged intestine. On the third day a major hemorrhage occurred and the emperor died during the night. As Julian wished, his body was buried outside Tarsus, though it was later removed to Constantinople.

In 364, Libanius stated that Julian was assassinated by a Christian who was one of his own soldiers; this charge is not corroborated by Ammianus Marcellinus or other contemporary historians. John Malalas reports that the supposed assassination was commanded by Basil of Caesarea. Fourteen years later, Libanius said that Julian was killed by an Arab Saracen (Lakhmid) and this may have been confirmed by Julian's doctor Oribasius who, having examined the wound, said that it was from a spear used by a group of Lakhmid auxiliaries in Persian service.

Julian was succeeded by the short-lived Emperor Jovian who reestablished Christianity's privileged position throughout the Empire.

Julians death marked the beginning of the end of Paganism in Rome.


LEGACY :

Libanius says in his epitaph of the deceased emperor (18.304) that "I have mentioned representations (of Julian); many cities have set him beside the images of the gods and honour him as they do the gods. Already a blessing has been besought of him in prayer, and it was not in vain. To such an extent has he literally ascended to the gods and received a share of their power from him themselves."

"Hymn to Proserpine" is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in 1866. The poem is addressed to the goddess Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone.
The epigraph at the beginning of the poem is the phrase Vicisti, Galilaee, Latin for "You have conquered, O Galilean", the apocryphal dying words of the Emperor Julian.

The poem is cast in the form of a lament by a person professing the paganism of classical antiquity and lamenting its passing, and expresses regret at the rise of Christianity.


I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, that love hath an end;
Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.
Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh or that weep;
For these give joy and sorrow; but thou, Proserpina, sleep.
Sweet is the treading of wine, and sweet the feet of the dove;
But a goodlier gift is thine than foam of the grapes or love.
Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold,
A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold?
I am sick of singing; the bays burn deep and chafe: I am fain
To rest a little from praise and grievous pleasure and pain.
For the Gods we know not of, who give us our daily breath,
We know they are cruel as love or life, and lovely as death.
O Gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day!
From your wrath is the world released, redeemed from your chains, men say.
New Gods are crowned in the city; their flowers have broken your rods;
They are merciful, clothed with pity, the young compassionate Gods.
But for me their new device is barren, the days are bare;
Things long past over suffice, and men forgotten that were.
Time and the Gods are at strife; ye dwell in the midst thereof,
Draining a little life from the barren breasts of love.
I say to you, cease, take rest; yea, I say to you all, be at peace,
Till the bitter milk of her breast and the barren bosom shall cease.
Wilt thou yet take all, Galilean? but these thou shalt not take,
The laurel, the palms and the pæan, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake;
Breasts more soft than a dove's, that tremble with tenderer breath;
And all the wings of the Loves, and all the joy before death;
All the feet of the hours that sound as a single lyre,
Dropped and deep in the flowers, with strings that flicker like fire.
More than these wilt thou give, things fairer than all these things?
Nay, for a little we live, and life hath mutable wings.
A little while and we die; shall life not thrive as it may?
For no man under the sky lives twice, outliving his day.
And grief is a grievous thing, and a man hath enough of his tears:
Why should he labour, and bring fresh grief to blacken his years?
Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath;
We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death.
Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a day;
But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not May.
Sleep, shall we sleep after all? for the world is not sweet in the end;
For the old faiths loosen and fall, the new years ruin and rend.
Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides;
But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides.
O lips that the live blood faints in, the leavings of racks and rods!
O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted Gods!
Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend,
I kneel not neither adore you, but standing, look to the end.
All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrows are cast
Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past:
Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates,
Waste water washes, and tall ships founder, and deep death waits:
Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings,
And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things,
White-eyed and poisonous-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled,
Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world.
The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away;
In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey;
In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears;
With light of ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years:
With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour;
And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour:
And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be;
And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the roots of the sea:
And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars of the air:
And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and time is made bare.
Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods?
Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?
All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be past;
Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon you at last.
In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the changes of things,
Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget you for kings.
Though the feet of thine high priests tread where thy lords and our forefathers trod,
Though these that were Gods are dead, and thou being dead art a God,
Though before thee the throned Cytherean be fallen, and hidden her head,
Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go down to thee dead.
Of the maiden thy mother men sing as a goddess with grace clad around;
Thou art throned where another was king; where another was queen she is crowned.
Yea, once we had sight of another: but now she is queen, say these.
Not as thine, not as thine was our mother, a blossom of flowering seas,
Clothed round with the world's desire as with raiment, and fair as the foam,
And fleeter than kindled fire, and a goddess, and mother of Rome.
For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours,
Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers,
White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame,
Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name.
For thine came weeping, a slave among slaves, and rejected; but she
Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her foot on the sea.
And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways,
And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of the bays.
Ye are fallen, our lords, by what token? we wise that ye should not fall.
Ye were all so fair that are broken; and one more fair than ye all.
But I turn to her still, having seen she shall surely abide in the end;
Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend.
O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth,
I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth.
In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night where thou art,
Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from the heart,
Where the poppies are sweet as the rose in our world, and the red rose is white,
And the wind falls faint as it blows with the fume of the flowers of the night,
And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of Gods from afar
Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star,
In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun,
Let my soul with their souls find place, and forget what is done and undone.
Thou art more than the Gods who number the days of our temporal breath;
Let these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death.
Therefore now at thy feet I abide for a season in silence. I know
I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep; even so.
For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span;
A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man.
So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep.
For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.

Keep them coming

[size=20pt]Sunni Ali[/size]


Funny huh? After reading up on this man you realize this man was a pagan and a devout one. He never truly believed in islam and regularly sacrificed fruit/vegatebles and animals to pagan gods. He even persacuted muslims causing the north african/arab muslims to flee from timbuktu, returning control of sankore to the black muslim families who previously controlled all of the learning centers before the fall of mali. His son even lost the throne to askia muhamed when he would not declare himself a muslim obviously because of his fathers influences during his life.