Secular Sankofa: Black Humanist Voices from the Association of Black Humanists

"Faith is like water to a fish. You're in it. It's your everything. It's your community, your family, your school, your food. It is your oxygen." — Jenna Lee Anderson

Jenna Lee Anderson is a neuroheart alchemist and psychology practitioner who helps people transform trauma and grief into clarity and self-knowledge. Raised Catholic and now non-religious, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to the question of what happens to the body and brain when someone leaves faith behind.

In this conversation with hosts Clive Aruede and Lola Tinubu, Jenna traces her journey from a devastating childhood loss to a life lived on her own terms. When her younger brother died suddenly on her sixth birthday, Jenna was left emotionally alone with only God to make sense of it. She came to believe she was being punished, spending decades trying to get back into God's good books for a crime she could not name.

Jenna explains why leaving religion is not a decision but a grieving process. Why the nervous system fights back when you ask it to abandon the beliefs that kept you safe. Why anger at religion often signals unresolved trauma underneath. And why the kindest thing humanists can do for those still in faith is refuse to shame them.

⚠️ Content note: This episode discusses childhood bereavement, emotional neglect, religious trauma, and grief.

🎙️ In this episode

• How the sudden death of Jenna's brother on her sixth birthday shaped a lifetime of belief
• Why a grieving child concluded God hated her, and nobody corrected her
• Neuroheart alchemy explained: turning heavy experiences into clarity and peace
• Why the brain physically resists leaving faith, and what that resistance feels like
• Separating faith and belief from doctrine and dogma
• Leaving religion as a breakup, complete with mourning, loneliness, and doubt
• What Jenna says to people who want to leave but cannot, especially in Black nations
• Why anger at religion often points to grief that has not been processed
• The weaponisation of Christianity against Black people and the trauma it left behind
• Why street preachers get a dopamine hit, and why kindness beats mockery

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review.

Stay connected:
🌍 Meetup • 👍 Facebook • 📸 Instagram • 🕊️ Twitter • ▶️ YouTube • 🎵 TikTok

Learn more at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live | [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

Host Clive Aruede sits down with microbiologist and former recording artist Tavian Oladapo for a wide-ranging conversation on faith, science, and deep time. Tavian traces his journey from devout Nigerian upbringing to godlessness, sparked by a teenage deep-dive into scripture, and explains why evolutionary biology deserves a bigger place in the classroom. The pair dig into ancient African humanist ethics, ghost populations in the human genome, the case against de-extinction, and why malaria remains the scientific breakthrough Tavian wants most in his lifetime.

Key Topics

• Tavian's path from music industry to microbiology, and away from religion
• Why schools underteach evolutionary biology
• Fossils that changed how Tavian sees prehistoric life
• The ethics of de-extinction
• The odds of life on other planets
• Humanist ethical traditions in pre-colonial Africa
• What ancient DNA reveals about human origins
• The evolutionary arms race between malaria and its hosts

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"We're stewards of all of this information, and it's our responsibility — not anyone else's — to own our own conclusions." — S.I. Martin

S.I. Martin is a British historian, author, and teacher specialising in Black British history and literature. He is the author of Incomparable World and Britain's Slave Trade, and founded the 500 Years of Black London walks.

Host Audrey Simmons talks to S.I. Martin about owning the archive rather than outsourcing it, why Black history should start from the bottom up, and why he believes it's time to "drop religion like a hot brick." The conversation ranges from Christian nationalism and the erosion of rights to the pull of African spirituality among the younger generation.

🎙️ In this episode

• Why archival ownership matters — examining evidence and drawing our own conclusions
• Starting Black history from the bottom up, not with kings and prophets
• Whether a distinct African-based humanism is needed
• Why religion is now a luxury "we can't afford"
• Christian nationalism, Farage, the Robinsons, and the erosion of rights
• The pull of African spirituality as "our nonsense"
• Mubarak Bala, online unbelief, and what gives Steve hope

🔗 Further reading

• Mubarak Bala's imprisonment for blasphemy: BBC News
• S.I. Martin: simartin.org.uk

🔗 Referenced and further reading

• S.I. Martin's website and 500 Years of Black London walks: simartin.org.uk
• Incomparable World, S.I. Martin   
  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320879/incomparable-world-by-martin-s-i/9780241482704
• Britain's Slave Trade, S.I. Martin
  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Britains-Slave-Trade-Channel-History/dp/0752272519— available via major booksellers
• Mubarak Bala's imprisonment for blasphemy: BBC News
• QueenErin The 1st: https://www.queenerinthe1st.com/

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"Religion provides spaces for people to come together and feel welcomed. If we're humanists and want to find a space where we can do that, I think the answer is cultural spaces." — Alex Williams

Alex Williams is a poet, teacher, playwright, jazz singer, and LGBT advocate. Performing as Tiger Jazz and hosting The Dial Up open mic in Watford, Alex creates cultural spaces where people can gather, celebrate creativity, and build community without requiring shared religious belief.

This episode is about building humanist spaces that welcome the whole person, not just the rational mind. About recognizing that people leaving religion need places to gather on a Sunday that don't require a ticket or a degree in philosophy. And about how creativity can bridge the gap between religious community and secular freedom.

🎙️ In this episode

• Why cultural spaces, not just debate forums, are essential for humanist community
• The Dial Up: creating the friendliest open mic in Watford through active inclusion
• How open mics celebrate LGBT History Month and Black History Month as humanist events
• AI's risks to human connection, creativity, and critical thinking
• The Watford Humanists Arts and Music Festival (WHAM) 
• Why Black humanists face unique challenges leaving religion within tight-knit families
• How religious language and rituals stay with us even after we stop believing
• Rewriting the Lord's Prayer as a secular tribute to his earthly father
• Books, performance, and creative work as archival records of human imagination

🎙️ Alex Williams performs

• "What's a Humanist?"
• "The Scientific Mind"
• "The Happy Humanist"
• "My Father" 

🔗 Connect with Alex Williams at: thedialup.blogspot.com

📚 Alex's Books

• Secular Verses — poetry exploring the world from a humanist perspective
• Black Iris — poetry collection from two years living in Jordan
• His Hidden Wings — LGBT coming-of-age novel for young adults
• Wendy the Whale — children's book about humans living in harmony with nature

All available via thedialup.blogspot.com or Amazon.

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"My strength comes from knowing myself. I'm not living life at random." 

Christopher Ejugbo is a Nigerian-born humanist and risk management professional. Raised Catholic and once an altar boy, Christopher now lives a life grounded in reason and self-knowledge rather than faith.

In this deeply personal conversation with host Lola Tinubu, Christopher shares his journey from Catholic Nigeria to finding freedom in the former Soviet Union, and finally drawing a permanent line with religion in the UK. But this episode goes beyond deconstruction. Christopher reveals the practical tools he uses to navigate life without prayer: SWOT analysis for decisions, accepting mortality without fear, and building meaning through self-examination.

This is about what replaces faith when you let it go. About recognizing that churches offer community, not answers. About understanding why religion thrives where social services fail. And about discovering that strength comes from knowing yourself.

🎙️ In this episode

• From altar boy in Nigeria to living religion-free in the former Soviet Union
• How UK Pentecostal churches recruit lonely international students
• The moment Christopher stopped going back to church
• Replacing prayer with life skills: analysis and self-knowledge
• Why people stay in church for entertainment rather than belief
• How missing social services drive religious dependence in Nigeria
• Finding liberation to enjoy religion as culture without believing

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"Any ideology... that values an idea more than human life must be condemned." Dr Leo Igwe

A sober, urgent conversation with Nigerian human rights activist Dr Leo Igwe on the real cost of unbelief in Nigeria and across the Global South. Joining hosts Clive Areude and Audrey Simmons, Leo reflects on his journey from the Catholic seminary to humanism, the violence driven by witchcraft accusations and blasphemy laws, and why fear, not faith, continues to shape religious identity at home and in the diaspora.

This episode confronts the murders, imprisonments, and silencing that follow when belief is enforced, and asks what responsibility non-believers have to speak, organise, and build alternatives that protect human life.

🎙️ In this episode

• Leo’s path from seminary training to humanism through philosophy and critical inquiry
• Witchcraft accusations in Nigeria and how they lead to abuse, exile, and killings
•  Why many Nigerians identify as religious out of fear rather than conviction
• The murder of Deborah Samuel and the dangers of blasphemy accusations
•  The imprisonment of Mubarak Bala and what his case reveals about state power and religion
• Online activism as both protection and personal risk for Black non-believers
• Why silence enables violence, and why humanists must respond collectively
• The need to invest in leadership, services, and visible action, not just words

🔗 Referred cases and further reading

• Human Rights Watch on the murder of Deborah Samuel: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/16/student-nigeria-murdered-over-blasphemy-allegation
• BBC News on the imprisonment of Mubarak Bala:
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62zpk4nnxdo
• Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW):
   https://advocacyforallegedwitches.org
• Humanists International – Freedom of Thought Report:
  https://humanists.international/what-we-do/freedom-of-thought-report/

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

***Content warning*** This episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, coercive control, and addiction. Please take care while listening.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis England & Wales (24/7) via their support page: https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-help/want-to-talk/

In this episode of Secular Sankofa, we sit down with Dionne Simpson, a Black British author, speaker, and survivor. Dionne traces a life shaped by racial isolation, church-centred control, and a pattern of strategic grooming that led to a devastating disclosure at fifteen, followed by disbelief and ostracism from both family and faith leadership.

Follow Dionne and explore her work

• Website: https://dionnesimpson.co.uk/
• Store: https://dionne-simpson-books.sumupstore.com/products
• The Sabotaged Girl: https://dionne-simpson-books.sumupstore.com/product/the-sabotaged-girl
• Spiritual Abuse Awareness Online Course: https://dionne-simpson-books.sumupstore.com/product/spiritual-abuse-awareness-online-course
• Forged By Fire (Vol. 1): Crucible of Flame: https://dionne-simpson-books.sumupstore.com/product/forged-by-fire-volume-one-crucible-of-flame
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoraMilajeAcademy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesabotagedgirl
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionnesimpson-author/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dionnesimpson7
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZVCMOiE2sZLOwg2Mqkw0wQ
  
  

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"Live out those principles of universal sisterhood and brotherhood and come together with your fellow human beings in a secular manner to make the world a better place for every single one of us seven billion. We are all of us, brothers and sisters... connected through our humanity and not through some superhuman force." - Akua Rugg

In this powerful conversation, lifelong activist, educator and humanist Akua Rugg reflects on her remarkable journey from Nigeria to Britain — from growing up in a deeply religious household to becoming part of the Race Today Collective, one of the most influential movements in Black British history.

At 79, Akua shares how her early experiences with colonial Christianity, racism, and resistance shaped her lifelong pursuit of justice, equality, and humanist values. She speaks about her work alongside figures such as CLR James and the Black Parents Movement, her memories of the New Cross Fire and the Black People’s Day of Action, and how humanism continues to guide her activism today.

Further Reading & Resources

• History of the Race Today Collective – The Guardian
• Race Today (Wikipedia)
• League of Coloured Peoples (Wikipedia)
  • Stella Thomas (Akua's Aunt)
  • Peter Thomas (Akua's Uncle)
• Black Unity and Freedom Party (Wikipedia)
• The New Cross Fire – Museum of London
• Black People’s Day of Action 1981 – UCL Exhibition

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

 “I’m a pastor’s kid, so this is probably their worst nightmare.” — Laura Iteman

A brave, generous conversation with Laura Iteman, a London based free-thinker and community builder on leaving Pentecostal certainty, naming the stigma non-religious Black women face, and building real-life community from a single TikTok call-out. From the cost of deconstruction to creating Non-Religious Black London Girlies, Laura maps a path that’s honest, careful, and hopeful: keep the culture, drop the dogma, and rebuild the village offline.

🎙️ In this episode

• Laura's roots in the Church and relationship with family & friends
• RCCG scale, culture, and how church becomes “the village”
• Turning points, apologetics, and textual doubt
• Agnostic honesty: holding space for uncertainty without shame
• “Why Black? Why women?” — safety, realism and representation
• From TikTok → Discord → Regent’s Park picnic (why in-person matters)
• The power of community & collaboration
• Dealing with the backlash and setting boundaries

🔗 Connect with Laura

• TikTok: @lauraunfiltered2
• X (Twitter): @lauraI_
• Discord: access available via DM 

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

"We believe in people, not prophets, we believe in freedom, not fear, and we believe in integrity, not doctrine" - Audrey Simmons, Podcast Host

The Secular Sankofa podcast launches as the first-ever platform for Black humanists to reconnect with African identity and heritage through a secular lens. The hosts introduce the Association of Black Humanists, its mission, and vision for creating a space where Black people can explore humanism without religious dogma.

• Opening libation ceremony acknowledges African heritage and collective humanity
• Audrey explains the meaning of "Sankofa" - looking back to reclaim history from a humanist perspective
• Challenge to the colonial narrative that religion is intrinsically African while atheism is Western
• Lola shares ABH's mission of reclaiming Black humanity and advocating for social justice
• Clive describes his journey from devout Catholicism to humanism through scientific inquiry
• Discussion of the political dimension of Black humanism as a path to liberation
• Pan-Africanism as a framework for global Black solidarity while respecting cultural differences
• Preview of future episodes featuring personal stories, Black feminism, LGBTQ+ experiences, and African history
• Invitation to listeners to engage with ABH through social media and in-person meetups

Join us on social media @ABHumanists and attend our meetups including our Pan-African book club. We are the authors of our destiny - we do not wait for miracles, we create change.

Thanks for listening to the Secular Sankofa Podcast, produced by the Association of Black Humanists (ABH). If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate, and review — it helps more people discover Black humanist voices.

Stay connected with us:

• 🌍 Meetup: association-of-black-humanists
• 👍Facebook: @AssociationBlackHumanists
• 📸 Instagram: @abhumanists
• 🕊️ X / Twitter: @abhumanists
• ▶️ YouTube: Association of Black Humanists
• 🎵 TikTok: @assoc_of_black_humanists

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ Podcast produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

.Learn more at www.humanise.live or [email protected]

🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale