Flash of the SpiritBy: Robert Farris Thompson This landmark book shows how five African civilizationsYoruba, Kongo, Ejagham, Mande and Cross Riverhave informed and are reflected in the aesthetic, social and metaphysical traditions (music, sculpture, textiles, architecture, religion, idiogrammatic writing) of black people in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, Mexico, Brazil and other places in the New World.