Out of Africa


After receiving dozens of e-mails over the years that a long-lost relative has left me millions of dollars – the notorious Nigerian Scam – I have received an e-mail from Nigeria about a book on coincidences.

At first, I was wondering if this was a new and clever approach to entice me to send my bank account numbers to an unknown person, but Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth is not only is sincere, but has a book out that takes a unique approach to synchronicity. In essence, Augustine connects Western philosophers, scientists, celebrities, etc. with African counterparts. His web site promoting the book, however, lacks examples. So, Augustine sent me one. Here it is. You be the judge.
***

Saint Augustine of Hippo(354-430A.D), an Algerian, has been described
as the greatest thinker to have come out of Africa.

Whereas Fela Anikulapo-Kut, a Nigerian, has been described as the
greatest musician to have come out of Africa.

One of the names given to Fela by his Fans is Augustine because of his
protruding head.In the Yoruba Language a protruding head is known as OGO
anglicized to AUGUR and so the name AUGUSTINE.

Fela was born in 1938 the year the Augustinian monks came to settle in
Nigeria precisely in Jos where the Augustinian Seminary and
the Augustinian Monastery are located.

Saint Augustine and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti both have been described as
womanizers and philosophers. Saint Augustine was a priest and Fela a chief priest.

Saint Augustine’s mother, Saint Monica, has been described as the patron
saint of mothers and Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, has been described as an icon of the struggle of Nigerian women and the mother of Africa.
***
Those of us with an interest in reincarnation might see these connections as synchronicity AND possible examples of reincarnation. At the very least, it shows we are all connected.
– Rob

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10 Responses to Out of Africa

  1. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Hey Teapot. He sent Rob another synchro, so we'll see. Interesting hook, though. Will check out youtube.

  2. teapotshappen says:

    Yay, I love Fela Kuti's music! Don't think the coincidences listed above are all that strong though, and if that's the best example he has … well, I'll stick to my Nigerian mp3s and leave the book to others! 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykpwr8K3M4

  3. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    I enjoyed that film. I'll have to go over to IMDB and look him up.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Very nice post. One of my best friends was Fela Kuti's saxophone player back in Nigeria. He's from the Congo and played the witch doctor in the film adaptation of Michael Chrichton's Congo.

  5. "C" says:

    Seems to me like womanizing and philosophers, go hand and hand! (a good thing IMO)

  6. Toumai says:

    I posted an interesting synchronicity to my blog a couple days ago… which was inspired by your post re: the butterfly crop circle and ties in quite nicely with this post as well.
    https://toumaiocean.blogspot.com/2009/10/paralllel-worlds.html

  7. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Toumai – thanks for the info. Most interesting.& yes, you'd think the scammers would come up with some other country!

  8. Toumai says:

    The word augur is thought by some to be related to ‘augment’, from Old Latin *augeris— meaning to increase. The more popular theory is that it is from avis “bird” (there’s that bird again).

    The second element in the word ‘augur’ coming from ‘garrire’—“to talk”. Note how the word ‘garrire’ is similar to ‘guard’ (related to ‘ward’… and ‘word). Now keep in mind the synchronicity that I found in my copy of Barnhart’s Etymology, where the word ‘guard’ is found on page 333 while the related word ‘word’ is found on page 888).

    Etymology study shows that the letter “V” is related to “U” and also “F”, from earlier “P”(h) and “B” (h). So now one can see how etymoligists link the word ‘avis’ (bird)to ‘augur’. The words “up”, “over”, “ovum” and “off” (note German “auf”) are related Though many words evolving from ‘au’/’av’ are “good” words (like Latin aurum—gold and augment- increace).

    Interesting to note though is that when a second “U” …or "W" as in “awful” (from Old English “egefull”…note the how this sounds like “eggfull”). Of course question words (who, what, where, when, why…) all begin with “W”… so the negativity implication has something to do with things that are questionable… uncertain.

    Note my earlier comments to your post https://ofscarabs.blogspot.com/2009/09/update-on-human-butterfly-crop-circle.html where I point out the many occurrences of “wings” … and of course now the "bird" connection. So note the “w” in wings. Seems the message is to “ward” (guard) and protect… as we know, wings convey more than just flight, wings are walls of protection from wary weather.

    Also is the strange synchronicity which I pointed out and made comments re: https://ofscarabs.blogspot.com/2009/09/brick-of-life.html

  9. Jeff says:

    Very interesting! Makes you wonder where else you might be able to find similarities.

    And you know the one thing I didn't get about those Nigerian scams…why would scammers keep using Nigeria as a location? Long after people were aware of 'Nigerian scams', scammers would keep making attempts using Nigeria as the location. You'd think the scammers would at least pick out some other country to name after a while…you know, just to at least try to make the scam sound different!

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