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

From Devout Christian to Online Community Leader: Laura's Journey to Non-Religious Black Identity

• Humanise Live • Season 1 • Episode 2

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 “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

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:

Learn more about our work and community at abhumanists.org

🎙️ This podcast is produced by Humanise Live.
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🎶 Music: Icy by Jeff Kaale

Audrey Simmons:

Welcome to the Secular Sankofa, the Association of Black Humanists podcast, where we speak boldly, think freely, and live consciously. In this space, we will have real conversations about race, belief, power, and liberation. From a black and godless point of view. My name is Audrey Simmons, and I'm your host for today. And I'm joined by Lola Tenubu. And we are Association of Black Humanists. Now, here at Secular Sankofa, we like to start our podcast with a cleansing libation. Now, as some of you may know, this is a call and response. So feel free to join in from wherever you are. When I say umbuntu, your response should be because of you, we are here. I pour libation in acknowledgement of the great migration out of Africa. Umbuntu, because of you, we are here. I pour libation in acknowledgement of our forefathers, our ancestors. Their DNA runs through our bodies. Their knowledge and their trauma is still within us today. Because of you, we are here. I pour libation on all of the sentient life and acknowledge that they too are the caretakers of this land. I acknowledge that they give us life and balance the universe to make it complete. Umbuntu, because of you, we are here. Apollo-bation for the motherland Africa and all that she has ever been through. Her land is rich and her people are strong. They have endured much strife but are still here fighting, growing, living. Umbuntu, because of you, we are here. I pour libation and all that we have been, all that we are, and all that we will be in the future. Because of you, we are here. Lola.

Lola Tinubu:

We have today with us a phenomenon woman of substance. She is a free thinker, a pharmacist by profession. She formed a group for young women called Non-Religious Black London Girlies. She created a TikTok post in mid-July 2025 about wanting more agnostic atheists Black friends. It received a lot of traction, leading her to form a Discord community which now has over 400 members in the space of a month. She posted on Twitter about creating this space for Black agnostic atheist women, and this led to a widespread online backlash and attack from believers. But on a positive note, the post also attracted a lot of support. It's a big honor to have you here today, Laura. Thank you so much, Laura. I really appreciate it.

Audrey Simmons:

I just want to, before we get into the deep part of this discussion, I just wondered if you could just tell us a bit about your background, your heritage, your religious background, just things like that.

Laura Iteman:

Okay, so I'm Nigerian, two Nigerian parents, obviously, and more specifically, I'm from the Islam tribe within Adult State in Nigeria, and I'm a pastor's kid, so this is probably their worst nightmare. Yeah, so essentially that's my background. I grew up in the church, that's all I've ever known. My dad became a pastor, I would say, when I was around 12. We grew up in the Redeemed Christian Church of God organization, which is a very popular branch of church in Nigeria. So that's my religious background. And just to clarify, people be wondering like her accent. I'm actually from up north. More specifically, Bolton, which is outside of Manchester. I moved to London last year, so that's my background.

Lola Tinubu:

Redeem is huge worldwide. I think if I'm not okay, I'm not sure, but I think within the Pentecostal movement, I think Redeem is number one. Almost every school in Nigeria is taken up, he's spread throughout Africa, and he's followed Africans wherever they've gone around the world.

Laura Iteman:

Yeah. Sorry to interrupt you there. Um, even Pastor Debbie, who's the founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, like you said, is worldwide. And part of the mission statement is that every mile, I think it is, I don't want to don't quote me to that, but there's something about every mile, five minutes away, there needs to be an RCCG church planted that people can go to. So a lot of people, when they go out of Nigeria, they kind of expect to see that there's an RCCG. And there'll always joke that within the church where it's like there'll be an RCCG wherever you are. Doesn't matter what part of England, even in the most obscure areas, there'll be an RCCG there. And if not, give it to two years, there will be a church planted there. So there's a very big emphasis on spreading that Pentecostal message, a big emphasis on the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, doing miracles, speaking in tongues, the hollering and stuff like that. That's a very like a big thing within the church. And growing up in that church, you see a lot of things, but you don't realize, okay, does this make sense? And I think that might be part of your next question.

Lola Tinubu:

So no, before that, I want to ask, okay, now we know about your parents. I wasn't expecting that. A pastor's daughter. How about your friends? I just recently turned 26.

Laura Iteman:

So obviously, growing up, obviously, being a majority like white area, it was already a little bit difficult with friendships. So primary school, you have your like mixed. I had I was around people who were also Asians, so very multicultural, very multi-faith type of environment. Even in my primary school, it was a thing where we do celebrate Diwali, would celebrate Eid, celebrate Christmas. Every single culture had their day, which was good. I think it definitely made me a more well-rounded person at such a young age. Anyways, secondary school, very like Christian school, like I said, very white environment again. So I made my close friend, I'm still friends with today. She was maybe in year nine, she was the person that I would say was my friend, and that was it. I was like, we are gonna be best friends now for life, and we still are, but anyway, she wasn't quite religious, same as me, grew up in a Christian household, but not very devout. It was when I became 17, I became devout, went to university, and I also got involved in a youth church with other devout people, and that's when okay, I meet a lot of people on the same path as me, and I'm like, oh, this is fantastic. Like, we're all like on fire for Jesus Christ, as the term goes. And obviously, doing uni was when I had my deconstruction was at the end of uni, I had my deconstruction phase, and friendship started to get a bit complicated because of the deconstruction process and being friends with people who are very religious. But I still have the two people who are my close friends, even from secondary school, are still my close friends now, despite beliefs, because we're on the same personal belief level, that makes sense.

Audrey Simmons:

And how are your parents dealing with all of this?

Laura Iteman:

My parents, not very well, if I'm being really honest. I'm somewhat obviously, if you've my TikToks, I'm very like expressive. So the issue I have is when I was a Christian, I was very expressive about that. Yeah, I would always tell people like, like, I love Jesus so much. Yes, he saved my life. And obviously, deconstructed and not being a Christian anymore. It's the same thing. Where I'm also I also have that inclination to tell people about where I'm at right now, my belief system, especially being a black woman. It's even also of a taboo almost. So I'm like, let me also talk about this experience about being a non-religious black woman, even though I guess in the general UK sense, most people are not very religious, anyways. But I think like you guys understand being a minority in a minority, it's a whole different world for someone who maybe is white British, they may just be like, Oh, you don't believe in God? I don't care. I don't believe in God either. But whereas there's a real stigma attached with being a black woman, especially in as a Nigerian in the African community, about being non-religious. So my family at the moment, they don't understand it. They're very much like, why have you what is going on? Have you prayed about it? Let's seek counsel, and it's no, that's not gonna work. I've not I've been able, I'm not but I can I can't unsee what I've seen now. And of course, them being a like my parents being pastors, it's a whole different level of pressure for them. Because, like I said, why I mentioned the passionate thing was because I was living at home, obviously before I came to London, and they could know they noticed that I didn't want to go to church anymore. They noticed I wasn't excited, they didn't do my quiet time, which would be like a personal Bible study that they encourage you to do. I didn't want to get I was asking questions, but they're like, where's this coming from? I'd be like, but one girl like exist, and they'll be like, You've been a Christian this whole time. Why are you asking these questions? So I didn't really hide it very well. I feel like I should have, but I can't pretend to be something that I'm not, unfortunately. Yeah, in a nutshell, they I think even now they're a little bit better in accepting that, okay. Like, I think their version of coping is God is working on her and she will eventually see the light. And I'm like, okay, I can you can have that point of view, I guess. But I do believe like it's definitely a burden for them because they're thinking I'm going to hell essentially in their eyes. So it's a bit of a battle of asserting my own uh boundaries of my personal beliefs and them respecting it, which I don't know whether they've will fully ever, if I'm being really honest. Yeah.

Lola Tinubu:

Sorry, it's a long-winded answer, but no, everything you are saying is absolutely interesting, fascinating, and I'm sure that there are black, young black people like yourself going through exactly the same thing, and I hope that they get to hear you and get to know more about you, and then have that confidence that have the support to have the confidence that you have. I want to, I know you you said that you are 26. At what point? I think what I want to get to the bottom of is first, when did it happen? When did you make that decision? What happened?

Laura Iteman:

Okay, yeah. So this was like I said, I think this was my final year of university. And this was COVID and had happened. Well, it was just before COVID, but the process really fully took on during COVID. So before COVID, ironically, I wanted to learn how to defend the faith, like my Christian faith, really well. So I said, oh, let me get into like books, and I can't remember the book, but there was a book about how why there's evidence that the Bible is real. And I got into a study of like Christian theology called apologetics, um, where people like get taught how to argue their faith on a their Christian faith on a theological level. And I was in like involved in listening to all the podcasts, watching those of YouTube on apologetics, trying to gun all the knowledge. I was okay, I can now like if someone asked me that why do you believe I can now say, okay, apart from my own personal feelings, I can give them the theological kind of arguments, which in hindsight makes me laugh because the arguments are a bit weak. But besides the point, at the time I thought that was wow, that was good. And obviously, from there, I actually I think this was yeah, just still just before the COVID pandemic, I'd actually gone through something quite traumatic in my own personal life, and it really made me think, wait a minute, why am I going? Why have I gone through this when I've been praying? I've been reading my Bible. And I know for a lot of people, when they go through bad things, it draws them closer to their faith because they're like they seek comfort. But for me, it did the opposite. I was like, I do not understand it. I am actually bitter. Everyone's talking to me, but I'm bitter. I don't understand why I've been through this when I've done everything right, I've saved myself a marriage, I've avoided drinking, I've avoided partying, I've avoided clubbing, I've done all these things in uni like to be like the pious Christian young woman. And this has still happened to me. So what is the point? And aside from like kind of going through that in general, of like taking therapy and like going through that situation, I it did actually lead me in COVID time to really think about my faith. And I was like, Do I really believe everything that this Bible is telling me? And it triggered another thing where this is a very bit of a niche because people may not know about it, but um, so there's something called near death experiences as well, where people have said that they died essentially, and they've had these experiences. And a lot of them I've watched, I had watched religious non-death near death experiences before in the past, and they're all very dramatic. I did put it on my TikTok, but I remember my parents, like when we were young, they sat us down and made us into uh Nadeaf experience, and the person was saying this or Michael Jackson doing a meanwalk in hell. I don't know why I believed it, but uh yes, and there'll be all the religious non-death near death experiences I'd listen to were very, very dramatic. And I listened, so I was like, let me listen to ones that are not dramatic. I listened to one lady was like, Oh, I went on the other side, and God was like, It's all about love, and religion doesn't matter. I was like, I'm clicking off this. What does she mean religion doesn't matter? Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. I was like, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, and then I was like, But then my criticity still slipped in. I like watching more of people who were not affiliated with any sort of religion saying, Oh, I experienced this love and this awful light and whatnot, and it really was a fantastic experience. God, all I had was there's not your time yet. I went back and I was like, okay, this doesn't make sense. How are they not Christian? They're saying they experience love and light. I don't understand. And granted, there's no like scientific evidence for the NDEs, but it was something that made me like it got the ball rolling essentially. And I told them, I was like, Mom, these people are saying that they've experienced love and light, but they're not Christian. What's going on? And she's oh, maybe it's an intermediate stage where they haven't fully, you know, gone to the other side, and God, maybe God's given another chance. I was like, Yeah, but the person didn't come back and say, Jesus said you're gonna go to hell if you don't. I don't understand why he wouldn't tell them that if that was the case. And then she said, Stop listening to those kind of things. Essentially she's like, stop listening to those things, focus on the Bible and focus on what you know. And I was like, probably, I don't know. Then I then things started, then minus the native effect spirits. I started thinking, to be fair, I've been taught that God is omniscient, omnipotent, all-loving. And I was like, to be fair, it makes more sense if this was true that you know he would forgive everybody versus you go into hell when not everybody has the same chance of going to heaven, anyways. I was like, I told my mum and dad, and I was like, but to be fair though, we're Nigerian, but if you were born maybe 100 miles up north, then you would be Muslim. So do you have the same chance statistically, anyways? Do you have the same chance of going to Christian heaven as people who are born in countries that you know are not Christian and could even be persecuted for not being like Muslim, for example? I don't see how the probability of us going to this heaven is the same. It doesn't make sense. Like, why would if God was loving, he would have considered that? And that's when the whole thing started to unravel. And I did so much research into the Bible, the amount of times that the text has been changed, taken out, chopped and changed. I said, Oh, how come no one told me this? And it just like I said, it started me on the process of starting to realize a lot of what I've been taught does not make sense. And currently, where I'm at, I consider myself personally an agnostic theist. So I'm aware that, okay, I still think I believe in a God, but I don't know if that's true. And I have no necessarily, I understand and acknowledge that okay, I have no evidence for that. But there's a level of being open to all sorts of opinions in that bracket, essentially, or being agnostic, atheist. I understand both perspectives, essentially. So yeah, that's the where how I got to where I am today. So there's a lot to pick on there.

Lola Tinubu:

Yeah, thank you. You started this group called, I don't think I it's non-religious, black, it's a very long name, I know. Yeah, non-religious black London girlies. Yes. I want to go there, I want to ask you because you know, we are called Association of Black Humanists. I don't want to put words in your mouth, I want to hear it directly from you. Why black?

Laura Iteman:

Why black? Oh, yeah, this is a very good one. I think I'm yeah, I made some about this. So, why black? Because I know you guys will get this too, but I have found once again, like I said earlier, the general British population, like white British population that I've interacted with, a lot of majority of them say I don't believe in a God. Um they're indifferent to the existence of a god. I know I think the country, the last census, I think it was 50% say they don't believe in anything. I believe something like that. Essentially, that's the case. However, as a black person in my community, the majority of people will side-eye you if you say you don't believe in a god. They'll say they'll look at you like you're the devil. And it's obviously to do with a lot of factors, in my opinion. We have obviously gone through as like Nigel, like colonization, um, there's effects of slavery, and there's a lot of issues like poverty and everything that kind of make this kind of monster that I would call religion in a lot of black people's lives where they cannot unsee uh life without it, essentially. And because of this attachment to religion in the black community, it's a whole different experience for those who say they don't believe because a lot of people will they'll hide it and they won't tell people like I don't believe because they know that it's going to cause a rift, whether it's in their family, in their social lives, amongst other black people. So they some people like even in my Discord, a lot of people talk about pretending to be religious just to fit in with their friends, and I don't think that's an experience that people who are like say white British have, or and obviously that's their own community, but I don't have much to say about like alien community. I'm sure they have their own similar issues in regards to a lot of people in that community being Muslim. I'm sure it's similar, but my take is that a lot of black people in the UK are coming from a Christian background, and there is the intersection because a lot of us are in Pentecostal purchases as well, and a lot of times that comes with its own headaches and other doctrines as well, are very unique to a lot of uh to the black British population as well. So that is why it is exclusively for black people and more obviously more exclusive for black women as a safe space for talk about issues regarding women as well. Yes. So that is why black, in my opinion.

Lola Tinubu:

Yes, I think we can relate to that, and the reason that I brought that up is because we have this commonality, also because we get attacked, especially online, that why are you calling yourself association of black humanists? How will you feel? How will it sound association of white humanists? And then over the years, we were having to keep explaining ourselves that this is not about this is about us needing to come together to tackle the issues that we have, and that it is important to have that name black so that other black people who are going through this they know that they are not alone. And you may find that you are having to explain yourself in the future. We've had to put our foot down to say this is about us, we need this space, please back off.

Laura Iteman:

Honestly, you have to worry about that because I said what I said. Those who get it will get it, and I think it's very ignorant to come from a point of view of not understanding why we possibly would need this space and just looking at it as oh, you guys are exemplating. Yes, we are, and for a reason, and there's so many intersectional issues with that. When I look at people, when I type in atheists, even the other day I was trying to put together a little icebreaker for like a meeting, and I was trying to type in black atheists, black atheists, and I was struggling. We're not represented publicly on that level, it's not a thing as much as other, you know, I'm gonna go with the dominant culture in this country, but we're just like white people, British people. So, yes, it is gonna be black and it will stay that way. So I agree.

Lola Tinubu:

Absolutely, absolutely. And before Audrey uh it goes on to Audrey, tell us a little bit about the social media side of things when you announced that you created this space for non-religious black women.

Laura Iteman:

Mid-July, I made a random TikTok. I just said, let's see who it reaches. And the reason what even triggered that is because my best friend that was living with here in London, she was moving back up north. So I was like, who are gonna be my friends now? Because I'm gonna make a TikTok, I'm gonna make a call out, hello, hi, who wants to be friends? And like you said, it received traction that I did not expect. And people from all over the world, people from South Africa, in Nigeria, Canada, everyone was like, Oh, where are you guys at? Everyone was meeting and congregating in the comments, and it was such a heartwarming moment for me because I realized, wow, there's actually so many people, so many of us who are hiding. I didn't know a lot of us are just in the shadows like this, and obviously, because a lot of people, because I said to guys, no long-distance friendships, anyone in London, please. So I gathered like a lot of people and I said, Okay, why not just make a group? I don't there's so many people who are here saying they they are they're desperate, they want this. I might as well make the group. So obviously, the Discord happened and put everyone together, everyone's excited, everyone's oh my god, like I didn't know there's so many like different people. I have like different channels in there, there's different intersections, people who are part of the LGBTQ community, because that's something that's really important to me because I know that's even once again another level of identity that causes a lot more harm as well. So there's that, there's different sections in there, different channels for people who are new divergent, people who want to vents, to rant, and uh with the Discord as well. I wanted to make the focus about in-person community because obviously now I'm at the age where I think a lot of my generation, there's a lot of online interaction and we're very much like a bit disconnected. And I'm like, I want real life community, people I can actually do life with in real life. And obviously, not to say that just because someone is not religious, it means that you're going to necessarily get along, but it makes life easy when you have a similar worldview, you are able to live in community together. Where when maybe people have children, they can understand, okay, I'm not taking my child to church. And then the your friends are gonna be like, Why? You're not gonna marry a godly man? Why you're not marrying a godly man? And it's all these kind of other layers to it don't have to come into it. So that was the focus on the Discord. I don't know whether you want me to mention the Twitter, yes, that is the positive side.

Lola Tinubu:

Do you want to touch on the negative attention as well?

Laura Iteman:

I'll touch on everything. So obviously, after the TikTok, I think I got about 200 people in the Discord at that time. And just two weeks in, I'm like, okay, it's August. So it's gonna be August soon, hopefully, because I know we live in England, but the weather should be lovely. And I said, Okay, guys, pick Regents Park, this park, this park. Where do you want to meet up? I want to do a big picnic for everybody. And people picked Regents Park, and this was for the 9th of August, and the turnout was a lot more than I expected. And we had about 30 people, whatever. We're all just sitting in the park. We had two people come up to us saying, Can I just ask what is going on here? What are you guys doing? Which was quite funny. And it was honestly a beautiful time. We everyone brought like something to eat. We shared like I organized like questions, prompts, people to talk about their experiences being on religious. We talked about non-religious stuff, of course, as well, just to get people mingling. And obviously, we ate, we drank, played games, and that was it. And I had a lovely time, it was fantastic. And then obviously the next day I made an innocent tweet saying, I'm proud of myself for organizing this for non-religious black women. And at first, you know, I didn't think of it. I just logged off and did my thing, and then I come back, and then it started with some negative comments. Oh, people were like, Oh, this god forbid, like, how can you say these things? Collection of witches. I said, Okay, that's new. I'll write that down to in my memory bank. Collection of witches. I will use that one for later on. And people were saying, to be honest, it was there was more positive than negative, but the negative, there was some nasty ones about, oh, you guys, I can't believe why would you need this space? I don't get why you need this space. And I think the real issue was people were pretending to not understand why we need this space. I think what they really wanted to say was you shouldn't have this space because the space is not right. Going against God is demonic, it's evil. And yeah, so I was a bit like, okay, this is I didn't even say anything. I didn't mention any particular religion, I didn't come for anybody specifically. And I did make a follow-up tweet saying ironically, that it was only people from one particular religion who were having a lot of negative things to say about this. And people like, what are you guys talking about? I think a lot of people were under the impression that we came together to, I don't know, host like a meeting against people of religious and like starting to maybe make a revolution, a rebellion. I don't know what they thought this was. But, anyways, the positive feedback was way more overwhelming, which I definitely focus on, and it was beautiful. The amount of messages I got of people saying, I'm so glad I didn't know like something like this existed. I'm so glad like I saw you was agnostic. Even I had to get when our fiance like to help me with the Twitter DMs, like replying to people who were like, I want the link. Do you know a group for the men and whatever? And it was like clearly people need this space. Anything it gave me more ammo to keep going. I was like, Don't worry, guys, I'll be back. I'll be back with my second post when my second meetup happens. And I'll say, Me and my collection of witches, we met up and we had a fantastic time. Thank you very much. So, yeah, anyways, and then obviously that made the Discord jump to 400. Although now we're back at like nearly 300 because I had to put a few safety rules. I had to get rid of a few people just to clarify. So, yeah, honestly, it's been fantastic. It's literally coming up to two months now, and seeing people in the chat talk about their experiences and have that ability to have a space is just fantastic. And I think in future we're definitely gonna start expanding a bit more. But for now, I'm just figuring out the foundations of everything. But yeah, honestly, it's been a fantastic journey, unexpected, because eight weeks ago, I was not expecting to be any sort of community leader, but now we're here. But I'm happy to take that on because I can see that a lot of people need this, and a lot of people, just my last point on this. I think the church, as someone who's a Christian, who's who was a Christian, should I say, has a monopoly on community, I think, for a lot of black people. And I even noticed when I was younger, I'd see people coming with them. I can tell their husbands or even them sometimes didn't, but women never really cared about the church activity per se. But you can tell it was a space for them to come together as other black people and just have that community. There knows so and so, auntie, so and so, uncle, so and so who can do this, who can help them out for this. And church was almost like a subscription model to keep that community spirit going. But I think a lot of people who leave religion, it's the community aspect that we suffer with, and some people still stay in there because they're like, There's no alternative. I Have to keep in touch with my community, so I have to keep going. But I think when we see these other spaces and people realize there's alternatives, like I think it will help a lot of people, a lot of people make that transition out of religion, in my opinion. So yeah.

Audrey Simmons:

Well, thank you for that. That was just amazing to hear that journey to hear that story. So you talked about this is just the beginning, and obviously you've only been going for a few months. So just tell us so that we can grow this community for you, so that we can be sort of part of that. Where can people get hold of you? I know we've got the Discord, you just talked about Twitter. How do we contact you?

Laura Iteman:

Um, at the moment, because I the Discord link, just because of the backlash, I said, okay, let me just keep it on a private, need to know basis. So I always say at the moment, if people want to get access, obviously I'll double check. Hopefully, you are a woman identifying person. But on Twitter, it's Laura I underscore TikTok is my it's Laura Unfiltered. But just a disclaimer, everyone, we the rebrand is coming soon, even with the name. And obviously, you'll get on social media, and from there makes it a bit more accessible for other people to get that information. So that is in the works, but for now, it's just you just message me and I'll give you the details on the group, and we'll go from there essentially.

Audrey Simmons:

So it's TikTok, it's Twitter, and it's Discord. Yeah. So those are the places that you are. Okay, so that's really good. Um, I'm just sitting here, sorry, I'm a bit amazed and just at all the things that you have said. And I was just thinking about you were talking about colonialism, you were talking about all of those things and about how black people are so immersed in it's almost a political thing. It's almost as if to say that you have to be religious to be part of any community, to be part of anything. And I think that's a really serious thing that we as a black community have to deal with. And I think you brought that out so well to see that it's part of every part of every aspect of a black person's life in a way that it isn't part of the general population. And I think that's where we embed ourselves. That's our roots, that's where we're starting from. So thank you for all of that. I am aware of time, so I am going to try and draw this to a conclusion. But I think what I wanted to say is that we are here as Association of Black Humanists. Consider us your elders and building that association and building those links. Association of Black Humanists, we are on Instagram, we are on Facebook, we're on Twitter, and we are on TikTok as well. A lovely Nolo Vovini on TikTok. So do follow us in in terms of all of those things and those podcasts. There will be more episodes on this, and I hope Lola, you will come back and we will do some more things together. And we are wishing your group every success. I know you're just starting out, but I know that you are gonna do some amazing things, and um, we are really appreciative of your time today and in explaining and letting us into your world.

Laura Iteman:

Thank you so much, Lola and Audrey, for inviting me. This has been a fantastic opportunity. I have been very excited the whole week waiting for this, so I'm glad it's happening and heavy on the elders because I was like, thank god, people who've done this before. And I think obviously this is a perfect opportunity for collaboration in the future. Obviously, we've we've discussed me and Lola, but I'm really grateful that this exists, the associate of black humanists, and you guys have had a foundation here for since 2012. And of course, as someone I've just died two months ago, so I'm going to be in touch, okay, for some guidance. But I'm just so grateful that this exists, and I'm really excited on the opportunities, the kind of things that we can do, obviously together, and just the space in general. Because I think the time is now, and I'm noticing a lot more on TikTok. I do think I follow you guys on Instagram now, but I don't think I follow on TikTok. So I will do that after the episode. But I'm noticing on TikTok, I'm seeing so many black people come out from all over the world saying that, yeah, I'm done with this religion thing. And I'm and I think these are the spaces that are needed to be able to take people in. And obviously, for anyone who's interested in joining the Discord, like you said, Audrey is given the links. But I want to just say to everybody who's questioning, please don't be scared. There are people who are doing it, living a very good life. You guys are beautiful and radiant. So we're well, we're okay. Nothing has happened to us. So honestly, thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, and I love what you guys are doing as well.

Audrey Simmons:

Thank you so much. As Michael Jackson said, you are not alone. Right, good one. We here at Secular Sankhofa and as Association of Black Humanists like to end with an affirmation. So we are really taking on recognizing that we are African, recognizing that we're not abandoning our Africanness, we're not abandoning any of those things when we give up religion. The two can coexist. So for this our affirmation, um, I will start. We are the authors of our destination. We do not wait for miracles, we create change, we reject all ideas that diminish our humanity, whether they come from racism, oppression, or religion. Our history does not limit us, it empowers us. We carry the wisdom of our ancestors and the fire of our future. We are capable, we are creative, we are creative, we are rebuilding, we are rising. Africa and her people, we will thrive not by faith, but by action. We move forward by unity, reason and purpose. As a black humanist, we believe in ourselves and the power of our minds, our hands and solidarity to shape a just, free, and dignified future. This is our affirmation. Thank you both, Laura as my co-host, Laura as our welcomed and honored guest. This has been our Secular Sankofa podcast, bringing it to a beautiful conclusion. And do follow us on TikTok and all of the platforms.

Humanise Live:

Secular Sankofa is produced by Humanize Live for the Association of Black Humanists. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and a review. It helps more people discover us. For more from the Association of Black Humanists, find us on Meetup or at L E B Humanists on all social media platforms. Humanize Live creates world-class podcasts, videos, and events for purpose led individuals and organizations. If you're ready to start your podcast, visit humanize.live to learn more.

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Audrey Simmons

Host
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Clive Aruede

Co-host
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Lola Tinubu

Co-host
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Laura Iteman

Guest

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