Zulu culture: “A look from the stars”.
The Centre for Humanist Studies of the Americas (CEHA), with headquarters in Mendoza and activities in Colombia, Panama, Canary Islands, Dominican Republic and Dubai, among other regions, will hold its third Conference on Africa on 24 September, “Zulu Culture, a look from the stars”. Cecilia Umaña is Colombian and has been a researcher at this Study Centre since its foundation three years ago. She dedicated part of this time as a Full Member to studies from the perspective of the Spirituality of this ethnic-linguistic Bantu group. In her lecture, which will be given through the most popular social networks. Umaña will cover historical, geographical and cultural aspects that are little known in our Latin American region.
Also, in 2020 she presented the Tairona culture and continued with the other CEHA researchers (Ana Felisa Rivas Gonzales and Maali Kentake) to investigate the importance of African influence in the spirituality of important regions of the Americas, such as the USA, Brazil, and parts of Colombia, Peru and the Caribbean.
Umaña will address African influence in Australia and the UK, tracing the impact of colonialism and apartheid on Africa. As in previous lectures, sacred sites, pilgrimages and the characteristics of ceremonies performed by shamans of the Zulu culture will also be mentioned. In addition, the psychoactive used and the sacred dances that allowed access to other states of consciousness will be discussed.
Finally, she will talk about death as an inexorable situation and the Zulu cosmovision in which certain deities are appealed to, which those attending the conference will have the opportunity to glimpse. This, in a sort of story that invites you to follow its journey in a dynamic and personal meditation. In this way, the proposal of this CEHA is to “experience”, in part, the “cosmogonic” situation of these African people.
The lecture will be given at the following times:
Mexico 8 a.m., Canada, Miami, Dominican Rep., Venezuela, and Bolivia at 10 a.m., Brazil, Chile, Argentina, 11 a.m., Iceland 14 p.m., Canary Islands 15 p.m., France 16 p.m., Kenya 17 p.m., UAE 18 p.m., India 19:30 p.m., Colombia 9 a.m.
Registration for access to the Conference can be made on CEHA’s website: https://www.cehamericas.org
Press Office, CEHA, 24 September 2023
Cecilia Umaña Cruz, Colombian, became acquainted with humanism in 1977. From a very young age, she has been working with neighborhood communities, schools and universities, ancestral peoples and vulnerable communities with workshops and seminars on the culture of non-violence. She actively participates in the Center for Humanist Studies of the Americas (CEHA), where in 2020 she gave a talk on the Tairona culture and today she presents to you a talk on the Zulu culture.
She is the General Coordinator for Colombia of the World Marches for Peace and Nonviolence 2009-2020, and is currently leading the 3rd March 2024, promoted by the World without Wars and without Violence Foundation, of which she is a full member.
In 2023 she was invited to the Mental Health Pre-Summit in Cartagena, Colombia, where she led the round table “Entrepreneurship. Personal development as a function of social transformation. A thread of peace”. The result was the national promotion of “Communities for mental wellbeing”, a project that will be presented as a synthesis in Bogota at the “World Summit for Mental Health”.
