Womanist Affairs

Our Sung Sheroe is Dr. Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, an honorary Sister of Color whose research helped to inspire me to develop WomanistAffairs.com,  dedicated to the world’s Women of  Color–to give us voice.

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Ph.D.  is a professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Women’s Spirituality program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS),  in San Francisco.  Dr. Birnbaum took her dissertation in Behaviorist Psychology, a far cry from where her studies take her now.  She has been a political figure since the 60’s and 70’s when she encouraged her students at San Francsico State to oppose the war in Vietnam. Her Berkeley involvement with the civil rights movement was intense and highly visual.  For this she was summarily relieved of her teaching duties.  Lucia challenged education designed to uphold the hegemony of some cultural groups, for which she was slapped on the wrist.  Going in search of her own roots through this temporary crises of spirit, Dr. Birnbaum went to her motherland, Italy.

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri she caught only a thumbnail glimpse of her culture. She says, “going in search of my own roots  I went to Italy in 1969, where I found five million workers in the streets with the feminist movement whose banners declared c’e’ rivoluzione senza liberazione della donna; non c’e’ liberazione della donna senza rivoluzione (There is no revolution without women’s liberation; there is no women’s liberaion without revolution.)” As an independent scholar after 1969, Dr. Birbaum commenced regular patterns of visits to Italy for research.

She questioned why the Italian feminists were so grounded, spiritually and politically?  She explains in her own words, “The question became a hundred questions when I discovered that the Sicilian birthplaces of my grandmothers,  my grandfathers, and my father were located near archaeological sites of the primordial goddess and sanctuaries of black madonnas, and that these were places of intense beliefs and politics. From these explorations came her book, Liberazione della donna—-Feminism in Italy. Much later, she wrote Black Madonnas; that reveals much of her research throughout Italy and how she uncovers the black madonna that lies in the collective unconscious of the peoples of the Mediterranean, France, Spain and ultimately in different manifestations on every continent.  She talks about how the black madonna is revered by these cultures for miraculous works, supernatural salvation during crises and has been held in the hearts of people who seek justice, balance, nonviolence, equality, peace and harmony for their lives.  She identifies many celebrations in these cultures dedicated to the black madonna and much more.

Lucia is also a highly acclaimed author of other important books. They are;  Dark Mother: origins and godmothers,(2001) which has been translated into Italian by the feminist press, Media Mediterranean as La Madre O-Scura 2004 and by the continuing anthology of womanist-feminist writings in spirituality, She is Everywhere ! whose first volume she gathered in 2005, volume two has been published in January 2009 gathered by Annette Williams, Karen Villanueva;  Black Madonnas: feminism, religion & politics in Italy, African Black Mother of Everyone: African origins and African migration paths in Europe. Her work in progress is the Future has an Ancient Heart: transformational legacy of African migration paths, emphasing Italy, France, and Spain, whose publication is projected for alte 2009.

Dr. Birnbaum now teaches a course entitled–The Future Has an Ancient Heart: transformational legacy of african migrations in Europe, Cases of Italy, France and Spain, at CIIS. One of the most outstanding points of this course is the discussion on geneticists who through DNA have offered evidence that all humans are descendents of a black mother of Africa–Lucy. (named so due the Beetles song that was playing when she was discovered in Africa) Following the lead of Chiekh Anta Diop (noted African historian, linguist and scholar) Dr. Birnbaum offers up Africa as the birthplace of the world. Submitted as a handout in the course is a Cavalli-Sforza (geneticist) map of african migrations throughout the world.  Birnbaum uses ancient texts, obscure writings and contemporary research from African Americans and other world renown scholars that support her controversial theories.

She  has worked for civil rights and the women’s movement since the early 60’s and now travels (with her husband Dr. Wallace Birnbaum–her photographer) when she isn’t teaching to continue her research or receive well earned awards. Lucia has received numerous awards, notably initiation into the international African-American Hall of Fame in 1996, Premio Internazionale di Saggistica 1998 at Salerno, Founding Mother of the Women’s Spirituality Program of CIIS in 2003, certificates of Scholarly Advancement by Chiekh Anta Diop international conference at Philadelphia by the Ankh Institute, capped by the Menaibuc award in 2008: Gran Protectrice des Nations Negres. She has participated in many international conferences notably subsequently published papers in 2005 Luxemberg conference on matriarchies of Heide Gottner Abendroth. The 2008 book, with her chapter, marks the initiation of serious scholarship on the African origins of Europe. Les Africains et leurs descendants en Europe avant le XXe siecle. She was a member of the Gift Economy delegation to the World Social Forum at Nairobi, Africa in 2007.

Dr. Lucia Birnbaum ceaselessly works to research her belief that each of us has a collective unconscious memory of a “dark mother” whose energy represents Love,  justice, peace, harmony and the fearless struggle towards equality that has evaded many cultures since the patriarchal transition that began around 2000 B.C.E.  She continues to research and present findings about Africans as the First People, who impacted all races coming after them, as their ancient ancestors. In her book African Mother, she expresses a firm belief in her research hypothesis. “My hypothesis is that primordial and continuing migrations from Africa, as well as return migrations of ultimately African Semites from West Asia into the region Greeks called Europe, left a cellular and or cultural memory that has persisted in descendants of African migrants everywhere on earth.”

We see now a world writhing with the birth pains of transformation. There seems to be a recognition that among the “subaltern cultures” there has always been an embracing of a dark mother, who was central to their spiritual development.  In her words, “Today the memory of the African Black Mother and her values, seems to be coming into the surface in dominant cultures of the world (this belief has always been present in subaltern cultures).

Dr. Birnbaum embarked upon her studies in ancient culture when she realized that her own country of Italy was an area heavily laden with sanctuaries of the Black Madonna, a region early reached by navigating and migrating Africans from the Atlantic Ocean as well as upriver from the Mediterranean.  The mere suggestion that Africans as early as 50,000 B.C.E.  sailed from their continent to other continents is information hard for some to digest. Considering that this ancient culture not only sailed to European lands, but to the Americas before Lief Erickson or Columbia–is information that shakes the rafters of American education system. (If Ancient Africans sailed, this means that Africans understood navigational maps, could read the heavens and functioned with the sophistication and knowledge of understanding worldwide waterways, tides and the impact of the planets upon the earth)

Birnbaum has continuously found evidence of the presence of signs and after 25,000 B.C.E. of icons of black women divinities–which underscores centuries of African beliefs that cling to Europe. She believes that menhirs and dolmens (large stone edifices) found all over the Mediterranean “may be markers of African migration paths throughout the world. Menhirs are upright stones; dolmens are two vertical menhirs holding up a horizontal menhir–much like the structure of Stonehenge.  These structures, Birnbaum believes were our first religious sanctuaries–created by migrating Africans in the  Sinai 40,000 B.C.E.  “This first religious sanctuary, located in the place Muslims called Har Karkom and Jews and Christians call Mt. Sinai, is the founding place of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.” ……..this is datum supported by Emmanuel Anati, an Italian Archaeologist. Marita Gimbutas, a American Lithuanian archaeologist also recognized the same significance and drew similar conclusions.

The fact that a dark mother has been associated with peace, shelter, safety and security to thousands of people who fled invaders and inquisitors–is determined by the amount of these dark mother figures found on islands and in mountain enclaves where people fled invaders. Archaeological and Anthrolopoligcal finds were preserved both in memory, stone and in artifacts.  This was much longer than cultures more indigenous to the mainlands where aggressive cultures transformed the people through successful invasion. In fact, archaeological evidence by way of  unearthed figures of the dark mother, show that most early ancient culture were peaceful matriarchates–sustained by an ancient belief in the Spiritual Mother.

Dr. Lucia Birnbaum has discovered these dark mother figures and grottoes all over world, from France (Lourdes), to Italy (Sardinia), to Spain resemble those of Zimbabwe and elsewhere on the continent of Africa. Her contention that over the centuries these black madonnas have been systematically whitened by protestant and Catholic clergy makes one understand that there was a deliberate attempt to disconnect people from the African culture which honored the “Dark Mother.”  “Church Fathers by the 5th Century C.E., had destroyed or lightened most icons of the African Black Mother, but most  people in subaltern cultures of Europe persisted in painting her black.”

Lucia’s belief that Europe holds unconsciously the memory of an African dark Mother is supported by the hundreds she has located all over the world. Her books contain many photographs attesting to her discoveries. She follows in the footsteps of J.A. Rogers (African-American writer and researcher) who upon visiting Europe in the 20’s, identified Black Madonnas and dark women divinities everywhere–especially in France, Italy and  Spain. This is “palpable evidence” not included in contemporary education, proving that it was submerged in an attempt to undermine evidence of ancient African cultural. Those who fought to honor it and keep it alive were tortured, burned, killed or maimed because it went against the rising tide of aggressive patriarchal systemic political reorganization. The practice of omission, was mandated religious and political organizations throughout the middle ages in Europe and other locations around the known world. This push realized the total omission of ancient African history, prior to the aggressive and bloody Indo-European invasions of the African matriarchal culture, that ran counter to establishing the patriarchal mindset.  It was necessary to wipe out the psychology of an egalitarian society in favor of higherarchal and dominating culture tenets, designed to degrade women’s position in cultural development.  Thus, the cultures centered in the characteristics of the dark mother, were replaced with those of the Father–which have served us for the last 2000 years.  In 2000 years, the world has gone from a peaceful coexistence, to war, death and destruction, poverty, greed, inequality of goods and services, abuse and acts of inhumanity that challenges the coldest heart not to cringe.

Dr. Birnbaum’s works prove that the French Revolution and The People’s ongoing fight for civil and women’s rights all over the world– have kept the dark mother close in their hearts for centuries as they sought transformation and change.  Birnbaum has gone forward in her research and teachings to return the knowledge to the world, once hidden, that African cultural beliefs were held dear in Europe as in Africa,  and gave people hope for a better world– until after the bloody transition to patriarchate cultures. This hope has been for a return to “Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite with a life style that respects the earth and all its creatures.”  Her work  seeks to identify the story untold and covered up or stolen from us— which relates the foregoing qualities as having been birthed by the ancient African people–our first ancestors and gift to the world. Her work underscores the need to recognize from where we have come, holding the female energy sacred and foundational to our call for world transformation.

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