the god above?

"we told the white missionary we had such fables too, but kept them for the entertainment of those yet growing up -- fables of gods and devils and a supreme being above everything. we told him we knew soft minds needed such illusions, bu that when any mind grew among us to adulthood it grew beyond these fables and came to understand that there is indeed a great force in the world, a force spiritual and able to shape the physical universe, but that that force is not something cut off, not something separate from ourselves. it is an energy in us, strongest in our working, breathing, thinking together as one people; weakest when we are scattered, confused, broken into individual, unconnected fragments."

*excerpted from "two thousand seasons" by ayi kwei armah, pg.158