"Spiritual Shackles" is an episodic story about love gained and love lost. About history and history denied. About social complacency and social revolution. About blind faith and faith challenged. "Shackles" combines these ingredients into a suspenseful "gumbo" that will shake the ground beneath your feet.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
African American History and Storytelling At Its Finest,
By
This review is from: Spiritual Shackles (Hardcover)
Author O. Ajamu Jumal penned a wonderful story filled with African American history from slavery to the present, that is filled with pertinent facts concerning the progression, successes and failures of our people.
Pasadena, California is the setting of Spiritual Shackles where African Americans migrated to from southern states in order to work for white people and make a better living for their families. In particular, Mother Vye and the abandoned children she cared for (with the exception of Stoney), were the thrust that drove the story. The five children whose lives Mama Vye had such a great impact were Narva, Jadi, Lionel, Rondell and Stoney who also lived in the beautiful house on Palisade Court. Each era in history was represented in Spiritual Shackles, from the music, to the style of dress, as well as the awareness raised during that time. The Nation of Islam, Marcus Garvey, Muhammad Ali, Pentecostalism, and African Folklore interweaved through the pages of the book, most in intricate detail that painted a wonderful picture of the church fires, race riots, Malcolm X and Alex Haley's appearances, and the strange pink tea. Spiritual Shackles is an African American history lesson that details the lives of the children that Mama Vye helped raise, as they grew up and found themselves on the paths each of their lives would take them. I recommend Spiritual Shackles to anyone who loves reading about African American history and enjoys African Folklore. O. Ajamu Jumal is the griot extraordinaire. Reviewed by Sharel E. Gordon-Love APOOO BookClub
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shades of a Different God,
By OOSA Online Book Club "O.O.S.A. Gets It Read!" (World Wide Web, USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)
This review is from: Spiritual Shackles (Hardcover)
Spiritual Shackles is a story of the bias in religious systems exposed when confronted with alternative beliefs, culture, mores, and symbolism especially as it results in diminishing "religious certainties." It is an intriguing interweave of characters which is decapitated, eviscerated, and fractured as we identify too close with ideology and logically have to examine the "complexion" of our convictions while reviewing a history that may not be as previous told or accepted.
Okeyo A. Jumal produced a good expository work that challenges the reader yet does not allow a neutral stance. The tempo of his work has ebbs and tides of an erratic sea! The ending seemed out of sync with rest of the book. It appeared to have been too many loose ends to tie up and too little time to do it. The journey to the destination was too convoluted. The character Jadi, is the story. Let her be! Reviewed by: Gail
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spiritual illumination,
This review is from: Spiritual Shackles (Hardcover)
I enjoyed reading Spiritual Shackles from page one to the very end of page 501. Jumal transcends time and space to immerse the reader in a kaleidoscope of history. My five senses were reeling from the five spirits and the host of other souls that come alive to greet the reader, sending you on a most wonderful trip not soon forgotten. The storyline, depth, nature and the history allows the reader to understand how our lifeways are fused at the hip in our collective struggle to free our minds. So one should sit back and relax with a cup of tea (pink) and enjoy this beautifully written book.
Our journey in this life is defined by our ability to rise above the strange culture that has estranged us from our spirituality. Okeyo A. Jumal in his book Spiritual Shackles has meld the past, present and future of the African Diaspora. History as orally written by this griot comes alive to take the reader where the five senses of the metaphysical reveal the revelation of the seven seals that the bible allegorically speaks, clairvoyance and seership being the other two that make up the seven, thus revealing our desire to grasp our history of self. To cipher the knowledge of the journey in this odyssey one must be a palm tree as the character Mama Vye states and not an oak. You must be able to bend with the ever changing directional wind as the five main spirits joyously and painfully seek out to reclaim their redemption to Know Thyself. To travel in this time machine one must know the definition of the word catharsis, which is a technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed memories to consciousness. Repression can be compared to hypnotically induced amnesia, where individuals and groups of people are directed to forget specific information, then instructed to forget they have forgotten. Jumal's Mama Vye and Baba Zumbi use the powerful amulet necklaces to retrieve these memories, undoing and correcting the con in the manipulation thereby restoring the confidence which enlighten the reader to the sin of lies so that one can sincerely know of the painful and joyous truths in our history. One truly knows a griot has evolved to an oracle of illumination, so much so that Gnostic Sage should be bestowed upon Jumal. When you no longer are watching the lives unfold before you, because you have stepped off the time machine into the matrix of the history unfolding before your eyes...seership comes to mind. "We steal what a man (culture) has, then murders him to conceal the crime." Jumal eloquently returns the culture that has been stolen from the African Diaspora, so that the physical and mental genocide cannot be concealed any longer. I cried, laughed and loved essentially because of the metempsychosis or transmigration of my soul into the lives of the spirits of those souls who unveil a part of our history, so that I might free my mind from some of the shackles of deception.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
It was that time when Mondays die and Tuesdays are born, deep into the moonless black of a spring night, the air cleansed by cool breezes when the day was younger. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
large white sails, field nigga, breaking rack, evil ships, dat ball, mason walls, pajama suit, pink tea Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mama Vye, Pastor Mac, Baba Zumbi, Palisade Court, Spiritual Shackles, Vernon Avenue, Lady Vye, Elijah Muhammad, Sweet Tasadena Tart, Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles, Nation of Islam, New York, Jackie Robinson, Mother Johnson, Ruth Johnson, San Francisco, Zion Hill, Dorothy Mae, Church of God, Tulsa Jim, Muhammad Ali, Reverend Wells, Bush Negroes, Emmett Till New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
It was that time when Mondays die and Tuesdays are born, deep into the moonless black of a spring night, the air cleansed by cool breezes when the day was younger. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
large white sails, field nigga, breaking rack, evil ships, dat ball, mason walls, pajama suit, pink tea Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mama Vye, Pastor Mac, Baba Zumbi, Palisade Court, Spiritual Shackles, Vernon Avenue, Lady Vye, Elijah Muhammad, Sweet Tasadena Tart, Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles, Nation of Islam, New York, Jackie Robinson, Mother Johnson, Ruth Johnson, San Francisco, Zion Hill, Dorothy Mae, Church of God, Tulsa Jim, Muhammad Ali, Reverend Wells, Bush Negroes, Emmett Till New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 13
books:
See all 13 books this book cites
- Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth by John G. Jackson on page 110, and page 383
- Introduction to African Civilizations by John G. Jackson on page 116, and page 383
- Remember When by Allen, Churchill on page 205
- Man, God, And Civilization by J. Hampden Jackson on page 383
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison on page 381
See all 13 books this book cites
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