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It unifies and helps a people stay its cause for the common good. Tragically, however, a large proportion of Africans, including those in the Diaspora, no longer practice their own religions.
Centuries ago white men (Europeans and Arabs) invaded Africa, and in order to remove any vestiges of resistance to foreign occupation, among other reasons, they embarked on a systematic campaign to force Africans to discard their own religion and convert to the religions of the occupiers (Christianity and Islam). The Muslim Arabs were very aggressive in their quest whereas the Christian Europeans were more subtle. However, upon realising that the African masses resisted conversion to alien religions, the occupiers decided to use African leaders to influence the masses. Many of these leaders embraced these religions for two reasons: political expediency and economic necessity. Subsequent generations followed the alien religions that their forefathers had adopted.Even today the Europeans and Arabs are still at it: telling Africans that their own religion is evil and that they should discard it and embrace theirs.
Since indigenous religion embodies everything that a society is, the conversion of Africans has happened at a tremendous cost to them. By discarding their religion, they were accepting the myth that as Africans they were inherently evil, sinful and wicked; and, conversely, by embracing the white people’s religions they were in a way acknowledging that white people by nature are righteous, pious and superior. Having converted the Africans to their religions, it therefore became easier for white people to manipulate, divide, weaken and exploit them. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ was a Jew, in other words, a white man; and indeed paintings and other images depict him as such. So when Africans recognise him as the Son of God, it is only natural and logical that they should visualise His Father in the image of a white man. Inevitably it should also occur to them either consciously or sub-consciously that those of Jesus’ race should be closer to God than they are (again, pure simple logic), thus giving rise to an inferiority complex that goes real deep.
The religious conversion of Africans has resulted in an intense self-hatred that has also mutated into an equally intense hatred for fellow Africans, hence the so-called pull-him-down syndrome; an uncontrollable desire to please or, put differently, not to displease white people (as they are God’s children, African Christians wouldn’t wish to invite His wrath); and a desire to adopt the mannerisms and image of white people (check out African women with their hair extensions and wigs, though Michael Jackson is the best example as he has also changed the colour of his skin). This diseased state of mind is known as colonial mental slavery; and the afflicted known as the mentally enslaved or euro-clones.
These psychological shackles are the reason why some Africans would rather believe Western leaders who are known to have lied to their own people in order to invade weaker countries for reasons still unknown, instead of believing their own African leaders on Zimbabwe. They are the reason why some Africans are exasperated that African leaders refuse to criticise Robert Mugabe as directed by Western leaders. They are the reason why some Africans cannot appreciate the relentless propaganda waged by Western leaders and media to vilify Mugabe for what he is. They are the reason why some Africans believe that no African leader who is not endorsed by the West can do any good, or his intentions noble.
NEPAD, the much-touted economic development initiative for Africa is closely associated with the renaissance of the continent. However, for Africa to revitalise itself, it is crucial that its inhabitants should first emancipate themselves from psychological shackles so that they can regain their lost pride, racial worth and identity. Liberation can only come from abandoning alien religions and embracing our own African religion.
As it is all about ancestral worship, religion is defined along racial lines, and for this reason, Africans can never be Christians. Those that regard themselves as Christians are merely deluding themselves. Therefore liberation is not such an onerous task as it may appear.
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