My first dialogue with Zarathustra

1. I was in a trance in the year of the alien Lord 2017, in the second week of the tenth month, all alone in a faraway land of the lighter-skin people, over whom now rules a lumpen idiot and his crowd of bleating sheep.

2. The idiot would tweet in the middle of the night in his flight of fantasy, and his crowd would line up behind him in praise of him, and even in genuflection of him. To say the least, I was disgusted with all that.......

3. And suddenly, there appeared before my very eyeballs a pure black personage whose dreadlocks snaketh in serpentine formulations upwards high into the sky, and mixeth with the misty clouds in the great firmament.

4. He was bare-chested with curly hair, and a nose that was too flat, and lips that were too thick.

5. His countenance was as the forefathers described the devil himself. But to me, he was a great counselor, mentor and teacher. For I knew Zarathustra, the Lord of the fire temple who occasionally appeared to me to give me counsel upon which I stand to write prolifically for my people.

6. “Hail Sarfo the Black” cried Zarathustra in a deep baritone voice. “ All hail my Lord Zarathustra!” I responded in a feeble voice and hugged him tightly, inhaling his great masculine scent without trepidation.

7. And gazing upon me condescendingly with his brown fiery eyes, Zarathustra spake these words unto I, Sarfo the Black, son of my father Kwasi Adjei, Kuraagu, Yaa Abayewa.....And of my mother Akua Sarpomaa, my mother’s mother Yaa Mansah, and my mother’s father Kwaku Duah Panin.

8. Zarathustra sayeth unto me: “Thy people are in the dark; show them thou the light, or thou art damned if thou spake not. Why contemplateth thou the matter of a fool and his kingdom, or the fate of a people whose ancestors saw the light and builded up treasures for their comfort and benefit?

9. Aren’t thou thyself a sojourner in their great country? For behold, for just a little time, times and a half time, there appeareth darkness herein, but the sun followeth soon thereafter after the spell of this palpable darkness. Thou wasteth thine time if thou contemplateh now upon their present darkness as if it shall dwell upon their land forever!

10. Instead, look ye to the fate of thine own people who dwelleth in the comfort zone of their eternal ignorance. See what they have done to themselves, and to their minds? How perceiveth they the selfish prophets of the land and their greedy acolytes, the so-called apostles and ministers of the word, their town-criers and dog whistlers? Their nincompoops and lobotomies? Their play-actors and false declaimers?

11. Must they trust, believe, and have faith in all these charlatans, Thespians and mountebanks of the land and call their simple faith an act of superb righteousness?

12. When they empty their skulls of all reason and logic, and throweth they away their wisdom and knowledge, must they count their patent gullibility and vulnerability as their unflinching loyalty and devotion to God? Or their wretched faith and simple belief as their patriotism to country? Or their naivety as their only lot in their miserable lives?

13. Tell ye me who destroyeth the thinking of thy people and the brain fiber of thy citizens? Is it the insipid culture that broaches no question? Or the fake religions that forbid all thinking? Or the useless school system that denieth science and instructeth in gibberish and things non-essential to life?

14. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Sarfo the Black, Sage of your People, man of lore and law, leader, thinker, teacher, speaker, author, thou excellent amanuensis and the wisest among thy race, the god thy people hath chosen to worship is the god created for the benefit of their greedy prophets, pastors and ministers. He is no God, except the god of their own exploitation and final annihilation!”

15. Then sayeth I unto Zarathustra in genuine consternation and humble protestation, “Art thou not also a prophet of God? And if thou spake thus of his prophets and servants, doth thou not stand in coequal self-condemnation? Speak thou no evil upon God’s anointed or else thou shalt be accursed amongst his creation.”

16. Then Zarathustra casteth his fiery eyes upon mine countenance in great trepidation and declareth in a quiet, sonorous voice:

17 “There is no God, and there can be no prophet of God, nor his anointed ministers nor servants. None that claimeth to be God’s prophet or spokesman or servant spake truly, except as their own greed and selfishness and lust directeth them to speak! There is no God.”

18. “There is no God?’ quoth I in a loud voice, “There is no God?! From the immemorial millennia, humankind hath builded the megaliths: the pyramids, the gargantuan temples, and the gargoyles of holy places....Humankind hath made huge sacrifices of beasts and men, gone to war to obliterate their fellow men with glee, enslaved one another and burned, crucified, stoned and impaled others, all in behalf of their mighty gods; and so how could you Zarathustra, wisest in thine own eyes, stand here before me and intone to me that there is no God?”

19. Then did Zarathustra smile condescendingly albeit contemptuously at me. He then declareth in a solemn voice:

“ There is no God; or rather god is whatever or whoever he is in the eyes and minds of his worshippers; and if a thing is whatever or whoever it is in the eyes and minds of whoever perceiveth of it, then it doth not exist, or rather it is a mere phantom of the imagination, and a fantasy of thought.

20. For a thing that truly existeth is universally described the same way by the same people perceiving it at the same space and in the same time. They all see the thing that existeth as engaged in the same action in accordance with its true nature, features, characteristics and elements.

21. God is however whatever he is in the minds of each one of his worshippers who will describe him differently from one another if asked to do so. Thus, God does not exist.”

22. At this point, I was full of wrath against Zarathustra and sought to kill him by poisoning him or burning him at the stake, or at least by throwing an improvised electronic device (IED) at him even as the minions, acolytes and devotees of the almighty God are wont to do these days to all those infidels that do not believe in the God Almighty.

23. And as I contemplated the ways and means in which to murder Zarathustra, he continued in a softer more reasoned tone: “Thou art beyond all these, Sarfo the Black, the wisest of thy people.....Thou art beyond all these.”

24. ‘They are all beyond my understanding”, quoth I to Zarathustra, trying to cover up my murderous intent for this personage who had become my friend and teacher, and now my mortal enemy.

25. “But thy people could also agree to create their own God and agree that he is just a bundle of every good deed they could perform under the sun. And if thy people define their God that way, they will vigorously pursue all good deeds and reap the rewards and benefits thereof; and thy nation will become the haven and heaven that ye all crave for.”

26. At this statement, I spoke to Zarathustra thus:” Your conclusion hath neutralized every venom of disappointment and doubt that peaketh up in my mind.”

27. “So thou shalt no longer poison me or burn me at the stake or throw IED at me?” Zarathustra asked.

28. Fear and alarm then gripped me at the omniscience of Zarathustra, and I prostrated before him and asked for his forgiveness. Zarathustra then sayeth unto me, ‘I am no god and have never been one. Therefore, do not worship me as if I am thine omnipotent God.”

29. Then said I unto Zarathustra, “Thou art a god indeed for knowing the mind of man, his every act and ways. Thou art a god indeed, my lord Zarathustra.”

30. Then Zarathustra was indeed appalled with me and chastised me greatly, saying sternly to me, “Is it indeed true that thy people do not grow tired of worshipping everything everywhere every time? Long before ye were born, thine ancestors worshiped everything everywhere every time: Trees, mountains, rocks, the sea, some animals as well as their kings, and even now, they worship the gods brought to them by some lighter skin foreigners.

31. And now thou Sarfo the Black, thou who describeth thyself in flamboyant accolades as the wisest of thine race, thou hath never stopped kissing my feet these five odd minutes, just because I revealed to thee thine murderous intent? And now what am I to do with thee? Art thou sure that ye can become the Teacher and Leader of thine people?”

32. “I have lost all confidence in myself now Lord Zarathustra, but thou art my strength and my salvation: The rock of my wisdom and knowledge. If thou faileth not in your counsel and encouragement of thine servant, I shall indeed be the teacher and leader of my people.

33. Zarathustra then spake these words unto me as if to ridicule my statement: Here you are lying prostrate in contrition of thine evil thoughts; but very soon, even the things thou hath been teaching and writing here will be regarded as holy writ by those that come after thee, and that which thou speaketh out of thine own fertile imagination will be regarded as inspired by God himself, even if written in jest.

34. Remember thou this day of contrition and humility, because it attesteth to thine own fallibility and humanity.

35. Thou art no God, Sarfo the Black; thou art no prophet nor apostle nor spokesman for any God; and thou art not inspired to write any of these words.

36. For remember also that this is exactly what happened to all those sages before thee. Even the nonsense they have written in the past are all viewed as having been inspired by God himself.

37. They spake of a foreign personage that slept with a virgin girl and begat himself, and who besought himself to come down on earth to sacrifice himself on a cross in order to appease himself of his anger against his own creation, wherefore he resurrected from his sacrificial body the third day and returned to the heavens after this sacrificial show-off.

38. They spake of their trust and faith and belief in this personage for their own salvation, and also as a son of David, and now worshippeth him as their God and creator of the universe!

39. They choose not to work nor to think nor even to do right because they believeth that the sacrificial lamb of God who is also God is willing and able to forgive their sins whenever they sin.

40. They believeth that they are saved by grace, with their station assured somewhere in the skies, in a heaven prepared for them by this savior God who never built a house himself on earth; nor even raised a family, nor even held a political office.

41. They believeth that the personage died on the cross for their sins and therefore gave them all the freedom to sin repeatedly without any consequence. This is what your people believe.

42. But thou, Sarfo the Black, I expect better from thee. Jettison all these foolish beliefs. Rather, entertain no smidgen of evil in thine heart. Live faithfully and righteously. If thou knoweth better, then thou must do better.

43. Arise from my feet, gird up thine loincloth, and go speak truth to power.”

44. Thus spake Zarathustra.

Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D., is a general legal practitioner in Austin, Texas, USA. You can email him at [email protected]