₦airaland Forum

When you place side by side, the open embrace, acceptance and way of practice of religion – especially Christianity and Islam - by Africans with the corresponding under-development, hopelessness and despair that permeate the continent; you should be left with two choices in whatever conclusion you envisage making. These choices are it is either the religions, which we have been made to forcefully embrace is ineffective or their relevance in the life and affairs of Africans has been over flogged. It is therefore right to say some form of crime has/is being committed against humanity, with African descent at the greater receiving end. This is because the African traditional religion which was genuinely original and a good fit to the nature of Africans was so bad-mouthed to the extent of being substituted for some organized religions that are completely alien to the true cause of Africanism. My opinion on this is a topic for an entirely different day.

One unique feature that stays non-detachable from the understanding of the cultural wirings of Africa is that ‘’she’’ genuinely owns primitiveness. Times without number, various scientific findings and researches have successfully linked certain age-long events, happenings and behaviors to the continent which also give credence to the highly-traditional nature of Africa. Every African born on the African soil knows their root and knows how to trace it. It is almost impossible to see an African man or woman totally detached from some African cultural practices. For instance, it is not all impossible to come across a Catholic nun seeking fortifications with concoctions made of purely traditional leaves and roots. You can equally see a strong Imam making incantations learnable with the help of a trusted and tested ‘babalawo’.

So I find it quite easy to come to terms with the obvious reality that Africans’ acceptance of these organized religions is a direct opposite of what they truly are. More concerning is it that I brought this opinionated piece of mine to among other reasons, try to seek answers to some questions like: What do these religions really say about how they should be practiced? As a staunch religious bigot, what are my gains - earthly and celestially? What should be my limitations in the course of my religious practice? What are my sacrosanct duties, obligations and expected privileges, provided I do not fail in my discharge of those duties? How far can I go in the defense of these tenets? While answers to these questions should be readily provided for in the Bible and the Koran, simple reasoning can still be applied to do some justice.

Numerously defined by different scholars depending on their environment and leanings, the Wikipedia, a renowned encyclopedia also posits that it lacks an agreed definition as various scholars fail to beautify the term with a generally-acceptable definition. However, web.pdx.edu puts it simply as ‘’a set of beliefs that is passionately held by a group of people that is reflected in a world view and in expected beliefs and actions (which are often ritualized)’’.

Since these religions were founded by individuals who were not Africans, the peculiarity and perhaps, true inborn nature of Africans would naturally make it easy for them to be wrongly practiced, poorly-duplicated, bastardized and flawed.
Africans are not good at replicating foreign cultures with perfection and completeness. They have tried it with democracy that started from Greek. What have their leaders brought back with it? Failure. In lieu of elections which democracy is known for, they have chosen selection. This is also aptly playing out in the way they do with name bearing. They do not totally throw away their original African tradition when answering biblical names, which they only do for nominal sake, though. The efficacy attributed to names was what made a Nigerian human rights activist and Afro-musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, in recognition of his African root, change his name from Ransom to Anikulapo.

By African context, ALL prayers said in accordance with guidelines and acceptable tenets of any of the two foreign religions MUST be answered hook, line and sinker. This is irrespective of the fact that not only would such requests fall within the operational capacity of the government of the day, it may also be a core function of any responsible and responsive government. As basic as good road network, potable water system, stable electricity supply, conducive business environment constitute the smallest dividends of the citizenry to cry for, failures to meet them become a luxury for African citizens. Through religiosity which they know they are not sincere about, they push its delivery to God to sort out. This type of false entitlement is inherently an African thing and of a sad truth, it will remain so.

An average religious man would rather wait for an imaginary heavenly breakthrough in his business, study, marriage or job while equally spending precious man-hours in a church or mosque. Taking realistic decisions and constantly measuring them against results is tantamount to chasing a wild goose, to him. He thinks succeeding in this way is not as assuring as fervently following the orders of his religious preachers. Sit him down and ask what drives him in pursuing all of those inordinate desires, his response "i want to receive divine blessings that will make me shame his ‘invisible’ enemies". He wants to increase his worldly accumulations. He wants to marry more wives. He wants to drive expensive cars. He just wants to humiliate his fellow man. Everything is geared towards Self-aggrandizement and Nothing is geared towards the real intent of ‘’Religionizing’’.

This is not how religious Europeans think. Religious Americans are too busy to waste their good time in one church or mosque. Religious Arabians are not ridiculously self-centered like we are. Religious Chinese are even afraid of being outnumbered by the ever-increasing irreligious ones. They are becoming more concerned about their technological advancement. The Indians are busy leading the rat rate in world’s medicine and health system. The Jews have grown past what history makes us to know about them. Sadly, Africa is hypocritically ‘’religionizing’’.

damo2014:
When you place side by side, the open embrace, acceptance and way of practice of religion – especially Christianity and Islam - by Africans with the corresponding under-development, hopelessness and despair that permeate the continent; you should be left with two choices in whatever conclusion you envisage making. These choices are it is either the religions, which we have been made to forcefully embrace is ineffective or their relevance in the life and affairs of Africans has been over flogged. It is therefore right to say some form of crime has/is being committed against humanity, with African descent at the greater receiving end. This is because the African traditional religion which was genuinely original and a good fit to the nature of Africans was so bad-mouthed to the extent of being substituted for some organized religions that are completely alien to the true cause of Africanism. My opinion on this is a topic for an entirely different day.

One unique feature that stays non-detachable from the understanding of the cultural wirings of Africa is that ‘’she’’ genuinely owns primitiveness. Times without number, various scientific findings and researches have successfully linked certain age-long events, happenings and behaviors to the continent which also give credence to the highly-traditional nature of Africa. Every African born on the African soil knows their root and knows how to trace it. It is almost impossible to see an African man or woman totally detached from some African cultural practices. For instance, it is not all impossible to come across a Catholic nun seeking fortifications with concoctions made of purely traditional leaves and roots. You can equally see a strong Imam making incantations learnable with the help of a trusted and tested ‘babalawo’.

So I find it quite easy to come to terms with the obvious reality that Africans’ acceptance of these organized religions is a direct opposite of what they truly are. More concerning is it that I brought this opinionated piece of mine to among other reasons, try to seek answers to some questions like: What do these religions really say about how they should be practiced? As a staunch religious bigot, what are my gains - earthly and celestially? What should be my limitations in the course of my religious practice? What are my sacrosanct duties, obligations and expected privileges, provided I do not fail in my discharge of those duties? How far can I go in the defense of these tenets? While answers to these questions should be readily provided for in the Bible and the Koran, simple reasoning can still be applied to do some justice.

Numerously defined by different scholars depending on their environment and leanings, the Wikipedia, a renowned encyclopedia also posits that it lacks an agreed definition as various scholars fail to beautify the term with a generally-acceptable definition. However, web.pdx.edu puts it simply as ‘’a set of beliefs that is passionately held by a group of people that is reflected in a world view and in expected beliefs and actions (which are often ritualized)’’.

Since these religions were founded by individuals who were not Africans, the peculiarity and perhaps, true inborn nature of Africans would naturally make it easy for them to be wrongly practiced, poorly-duplicated, bastardized and flawed.
Africans are not good at replicating foreign cultures with perfection and completeness. They have tried it with democracy that started from Greek. What have their leaders brought back with it? Failure. In lieu of elections which democracy is known for, they have chosen selection. This is also aptly playing out in the way they do with name bearing. They do not totally throw away their original African tradition when answering biblical names, which they only do for nominal sake, though. The efficacy attributed to names was what made a Nigerian human rights activist and Afro-musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, in recognition of his African root, change his name from Ransom to Anikulapo.

By African context, ALL prayers said in accordance with guidelines and acceptable tenets of any of the two foreign religions MUST be answered hook, line and sinker. This is irrespective of the fact that not only would such requests fall within the operational capacity of the government of the day, it may also be a core function of any responsible and responsive government. As basic as good road network, potable water system, stable electricity supply, conducive business environment constitute the smallest dividends of the citizenry to cry for, failures to meet them become a luxury for African citizens. Through religiosity which they know they are not sincere about, they push its delivery to God to sort out. This type of false entitlement is inherently an African thing and of a sad truth, it will remain so.

An average religious man would rather wait for an imaginary heavenly breakthrough in his business, study, marriage or job while equally spending precious man-hours in a church or mosque. Taking realistic decisions and constantly measuring them against results is tantamount to chasing a wild goose, to him. He thinks succeeding in this way is not as assuring as fervently following the orders of his religious preachers. Sit him down and ask what drives him in pursuing all of those inordinate desires, his response "i want to receive divine blessings that will make me shame his ‘invisible’ enemies". He wants to increase his worldly accumulations. He wants to marry more wives. He wants to drive expensive cars. He just wants to humiliate his fellow man. Everything is geared towards Self-aggrandizement and Nothing is geared towards the real intent of ‘’Religionizing’’.

This is not how religious Europeans think. Religious Americans are too busy to waste their good time in one church or mosque. Religious Arabians are not ridiculously self-centered like we are. Religious Chinese are even afraid of being outnumbered by the ever-increasing irreligious ones. They are becoming more concerned about their technological advancement. The Indians are busy leading the rat rate in world’s medicine and health system. The Jews have grown past what history makes us to know about them. Sadly, Africa is hypocritically ‘’religionizing’’.

wow nice write. Up I stay at okota too