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U. Radebe: Welcoming Remarks to Summit 2022, Session IVc
Written by Imboni Dr. Uzwi-Lezwe Radebe, chair, IAPD-Africa; founder and leader, The Revelation Spiritual Home, South Africa
Friday, August 12, 2022
Address to Summit 2022 and Leadership Conference,
Seoul, Korea, August 11-15, 2022
Distinguished spiritual and religious leaders, ladies and gentlemen,
I am truly honored and privileged to welcome you this afternoon at this august gathering of eminent spiritual and religious leaders from all over Africa.
I would like to start by commending True Mother, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon for her concern for Africa’s spiritual and material wellbeing. Because of her deep love for Africa, she has invited us all here.
I congratulate all of you for accepting to come here in Seoul in order to support this noble cause for the sake of our wonderful continent. I am very happy to assure you that True Mother, the Mother of Peace, is deeply grateful for your support.
As we know, our continent is the mother continent, it is the birthplace of civilization. Yet, as True Mother put it, “The African continent has seen the most hardships in all of history.” We have gone through slavery and colonization and even neo-colonization. However, we never completely lost our most cherished asset, which is spirituality. UPF co-founder wants to capitalize on this.
True Mother continued, “Though they were treated as less than human, going through indescribable suffering, I was aware that there were righteous people and prophets who still clung on to God, asking for God’s compassion.” Thanks to uMfihlakalo, our Creator, and our good ancestors, the flame of spirituality kept burning, giving hope in hopeless situations. Many spiritual groups and movements have sprung in different parts of the continent and, despite many persecutions and rejections, have flourished. I think of people like al-Tijani, Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba in West Africa, Simon Kimbangu and Simon Toco in Central Africa, Engenas Lekganyane, Isaiah Shembe, Anna Makhetha Mantsopa, and Elliot Kenan Kamwana in Southern Africa, just to name a few. I am sure you know even many more! They suffered prejudices, but never gave up fighting for the spiritual revival of our continent. We are all here today, thanks to their bravery.
It is worth nothing that even before Christianity and Islam, our ancestors knew uMfihlakalo, our Creator, and did their best to follow His mandate. There was such a harmony between the traditional rulers and the Imboni or spiritual leader. The Imboni served as the mediator between the Creator, the ancestors and the king and his subjects. Each ruler clearly knew that to rule properly his kingdom, he needed the help of the Creator through Imboni or spiritual leader. One of the main actions of the colonial rule was to separate the spiritual leader from the ruler by discrediting the first. The efforts were to separate the people from their spiritual heritage and roots.
Today, they talk of separation between church and state. Spirituality is pervasive. It permeates every aspect of our life. Spirituality is beyond religion as we know it today. While religion today seems too formal and concerned only with a certain aspect of one’s life, spirituality is a way of life, and it can never be separated from the public sphere. In spirituality, everything is sacred. Spirituality informs everything in traditional African society, including politics, arts and culture, religion, economics, health, eating, work, dress, marriage, and death.
I would like us today, throughout our deliberations, to confirm what the Mother of Peace said in 2020: “I went to Africa and met many righteous people. There, I spoke about God’s providence and revealed I was God’s only begotten daughter. They all welcomed me. In particular, many religious leaders welcomed me.” This is the time to show to the world that we are such righteous people from Africa that our Creator and Heavenly Parent can count on.
Our continent is currently at the crossroads. As spiritual and religious leaders, we better work together to save this continent and thus contribute to building a Heavenly Unified World of Peace or go our separate ways and perish as fools. It is about time we speak with one voice, respecting one another, to build a bright and shiny continent for our children and all the future generations. The ball is in our court.
“Let us make the African continent the place that originally was created by the Creator, God, where healthy and beautiful people live. Today you became one with the Only Begotten Daughter, True Mother. Is that so? We are one human family that attends Heavenly Parent,” True Mother said at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on December 7, 2019.
As with our forebears, let us restore the past by making sure we work collaboratively with our political leaders, advising them to go the way of our Creator, and helping them to live and rule based on the principle of living for the sake of others, transcending creed, ethnicity, and race. This is possible. It must be done as a moral imperative. This is the way we can contribute to make spirituality, and putting the purpose of the whole first, a universal commodity in Africa. At the African Union today, the representative from each country is there to serve only the interest of his nation. We need people who can think of Africa as a whole and who practice the principle of living for the sake of others, for the sake of the greater good.
The way to peace and prosperity in Africa is to bring back our Creator as the Heavenly Parent in everything that we do. If we succeed, then Africa can become a haven of sustainable peace, an object of admiration once again. We can become an example to the world. For this, we need to build on our commonalities not on our differences – God knows how different we are!
I pray that we can all listen to this prophetic call of Mother Moon, our True Mother, to put aside our differences and work together to make Africa a God-centered Africa.
Since 2014, I have been observing and studying Mother Moon. Through the various trips made in Korea and in the United States of America, I have come to appreciate the vision and love of Mother Moon for all humankind, especially Africa. I have listened to her many times, both in private as in public settings, both in front of political and religious leaders. She is uncompromising in her beliefs and convictions!
She is giving hope and blessing to us. Africa is rising since she started liberating and blessing us in Senegal, Zimbabwe, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, and Niger. Current and former heads of state, spiritual and religious leaders, traditional leaders, are wholeheartedly welcoming her. She is being welcomed at the African Union and the different regional organizations. As Africans, we need to be proud of her and her achievements in Africa.
True Mother is working hard and tirelessly to revive spirituality all over the world. She says, “While I am alive on the earth, we need to see at least one third of all of humanity, gloriously attending Heavenly Parent in their daily lives. The conclusion is that we can delay no further.”
I had the privilege of welcoming her in June 2019 in South Africa where she prayed for and liberated the youth who fought against oppression, injustice and gave their lives for the sake of my country, South Africa.
On December 7, 2019, I hosted her at the FNB Stadium for a Continental Blessing. She brought the top African dignitaries who took part in a Continental Summit in Niger to South Africa, sealing the new course for Africa. She has launched a movement for a new and shining Africa, an Africa that is God-centered, whose people and children are respected in the world, an Africa of interdependence, mutual prosperity, and universally shared values. I, too, believe in that Africa, and I know that by supporting her, it is possible to build such an Africa!
Today, True Mother is calling us to work together with one voice with the African Union to secure peace and development in our continent. Kindly join me in listening to this call. We need to revive spirituality everywhere where secularism and atheism have gained ground.
At the end of this session, we are expected to adopt and sign a resolution that will be introduced to the African Union. IAPD Africa needs to become an advisory body to the African Union. As spiritual and religious leaders, we need to advise our decision-makers in the conduct of the affairs of the state and help them in the fulfillment of their mission. We need a God-centered Africa for a sustainable peace and development.
My brothers and sisters, I beg you to hold on to your courage and keep in mind the reason we are here today. We are here today to tell governmental organizations that they need to start looking for knowledge, and I want to personally stress that wisdom shouldn’t come from a particular faith or group but rather from spirituality.
The basis is spirituality. Politicians, religious leaders, business owners, leaders of social organizations, and members of all of society should all drink from the spirituality fountain. Everything begins with spirituality.
The path we have been put on is not easy, and there will be times when it will be very difficult. However, we must stick to our decision and stand as one on the platform of IAPD under the flag of UPF, led by True Mother, Mother Moon, and work to knock on the doors of political organizations and say we want to offer them advice. Some might not agree with what we are advocating because they enjoy the instability that is occurring in the world and order is not what they seek.
Once again, thank you for coming to Korea for this important meeting for peace and development of our great continent, and eventually the whole world.
God bless all of us!
Thank you.
To go to the World Summit 2022 Schedule page, click here.