Allow me to reintroduce myself, I was born and bred in the Catholic church. The doctrine of Catechism is part of my DNA; the Holy Grail engraved in my memory. I am a staunch Christian, I believe. I graduated with a double major in History and International Relations for my first degree. That too influences a large part of my thinking. My religion and my education are at loggerheads as I deliberate on the issue of the rebirth of Africa. Christianity as a religion was used as a tool in the conquest of Africa, a historical landmark that changed the world order in unimaginable proportions.
The advent of colonial rule altered traditional religions in Africa significantly. Colonialists interfered with the African way of worship. Where the modes of worship conflicted with those of the colonialists, restrictions were placed on religious practice. African cultures were seen as primitive and were gradually impoverished through neglect and suppression by colonial hooligans. The Africans succumbed to the colonial perception until African Traditional Religion died a natural death.
The conversion of Africans to follow a monotheistic faith such as Christianity started as far back as AD 300 under the rule of Constantine, the Roman emperor. Christianity was to become a dominant religion during the Roman empire, spreading first in the North of Africa, then the rest of Africa. Polytheism, which was at the core of African faith, was undermined by the spread of Christianity. Islam was also gaining traction and spreading in North Africa and Asia at an alarming rate. This made the Romans edgy as they saw the new religion about to displace them from their still tenuous position.
Many of those converted to Islam were not only those of indigenous beliefs but Christians. This gave rise to the crusades in AD 1096, a series of wars by Christians to win back “their” holy lands from Muslims; such crusades were brutal acts by greedy religious leaders of the West. Later, the Christian missionaries travelled through Africa, working tirelessly to replace – by hook or by crook – both indigenous beliefs and Islam with Christianity. They came to Africa armed with Bibles in one hand and lethal weapons in the other. Christianity thrived under colonialism and, together with Islam, became a dominant religion in Africa.
Colonialism succeeded not only in intruding on the religious beliefs of Africans and replacing them with Christianity but also — as we very well know — both the politics and economics of Africans were hijacked and looted through colonial thuggery.
When Africa gained independence from colonial tyranny, it was political independence and as Africans, we remained largely economically dependent on former colonial ruffians. Scores of years later, there has been no significant change. On the part of religion, there has been no movement to liberate ourselves from undue foreign influences. Africans appear to have completely abandoned their indigenous religions. Although to a limited extent, many practice certain cultural beliefs — these, however, play second fiddle to Christianity and Islam.
What defies logic is the choice of Africans to continue following Christianity in the modern-day, when in fact Jews — whom we would have expected to be Christians since Jesus Christ was a Jew — largely follow Judaism. Of about seven million Jews in Israel, only just more than 2% are Christians. Why do Africans follow Christianity when a significant number of Jews themselves do not follow this religion nor see Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah?
The rebirth of Africa has become even more urgent under growing re-colonisation under the false guise of globalisation. Africans need to reclaim their religion and culture and discard many of those which were imposed on them, by embracing Afrocentricism as the essential elements of the African renaissance as popularised by former South African President Thabo Mbeki a few years ago.
In Mbeki’s words, “An essential and necessary element of the African renaissance is that we all must take it as our task to encourage she [Africa] who carries this leaden weight to rebel, to assert the principality of her humanity — the fact that she, in the first instance, is not a beast of burden, but a human and African being.
“An entire epoch in human history, the epoch of colonialism and white foreign rule, progressed to its ultimate historical burial grounds because, from Morocco and Algeria to Guinea Bissau and Senegal, from Ghana and Nigeria to Tanzania and Kenya, from the Congo and Angola to Zimbabwe and South Africa, the Africans dared to stand up to say the new must be born, whatever the sacrifice we have to make — Africa must be free!”
Looking at colonialism in retrospect, it derailed all the attempts and progress made by Africans for the civilisation of Africa. It is The Observer’s humble opinion that religion is pivotal in any attempt to realise an African Renaissance. The current status quo will ensure that Africa will always be playing catch-up. It is only now that Africans are trying to use Christianity to make an International influence, an endeavour that the Europeans used a century ago. I will be going to church regularly this year, that is what is indoctrinated in me personally – I have not been attending Mass lately. I have to re-birth my ways, what does Africa have to do to achieve rebirth?
Read Food Security: The Question -cAn Article by Leo Muzivoreva, Zimbabwe
