Fake debate, real issue.
Innocent Forteh
Some of you may have seen the following assertions (paraphrased) on social media “while Chinese kids learn to produce cheap toys, African kids learn to pray” and “China produces thousands of engineers yearly while Africa produces millions of pastors”!
These are just a couple of the many “wake-up” calls (among others), I have been bombarded with recently, by generally well-meaning friends and family, seeking to inform (and possibly convert) their African brothers and sisters to the “realities” and possible reasons for our stagnation as a continent!
I submit that these assertions are loaded with unproven conclusions as well as contributing to the fake debate of science versus religion/faith. This paper will look at the facts only. What better way to start such a journey than to remind everyone to seek truth always in all ways.
“You shall know the truth, and the TRUTH shall set you FREE”! ~ Jesus Christ
Some of the unproven conclusions in the debate of the origin of Africa’s stagnation I have heard include:
- Africans are either too superstitious or too religious and this is hampering their development;
- Africans have adopted the spirituality of others while ignoring theirs;
- Africans are religious because of poverty and they pray hoping to be delivered from poverty instead of working hard.
I have not only heard but equally seen these assertions in various forms both from my African as well as non-African connections. Firstly, these over-generalizations are mainly baseless and do not represent the facts. The Pew Research Center in 2010 listed the top 10 countries with the largest Christian populations. Only 3 African countries (Nigeria -6, D.R. Congo- 8 and Ethiopia-10) are on this list and they are nowhere near the top. The USA comes first, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, China and Germany ("10 Countries with the Largest Christian Populations, 2010 and 2050", 2015)! While projections show that five African countries will make up the top 10 countries with the largest Christian populations by 2050, the numbers are relative small compared to the bigger picture. The Council on Foreign relations reports, “China is on track, to have the world’s largest population of Christians by 2030” (McPherson, 2018). These numbers clearly show that Africa (if we add up all the African countries in the top 10) is not more “Christian” than either the Americas or even Asia for that matter.
It can be argued that the perception of a super religious continent is because of more churches (in different colors, shapes and sizes) in Africa getting on the bandwagon of technological innovation as well as more affordable media to publicize their activities. Even though I would love this to be true, Africans (in the context of Christianity), are not more spiritual than other races, the facts just do not add up! I am still to find a research that confirms the contrary. That aside, critically speaking, is the spirituality of Africa negatively affecting its development as a continent? Look at the facts, the USA tops the Christianity charts and China is taking huge leaps towards that direction too. If Christianity was a problem, we should have seen the economies of these countries winding down but the opposite seems to be true. It is a fallacy therefore, to believe, just because someone prays, they cannot work hard to change their economic situation.
Have Africans damaged their chances to thrive by adopting the culture and spirituality of other races? This is an argument I hear frequently which I believe is more emotional than factual. Logic tells us that the only constant in life is change. We buy new cars for greater efficiency, change our kids schools to augment their chances and even immigrate to improve our stakes yet we want to turn a blind eye to cultures that have limited us for ages! I once asked my grandmother the purpose of a certain traditional rite, which involved octogenarians like her sitting out in the cold (half-naked) to mourn a dead husband. She considered my question and with a sigh explained there was no base for this “revered” tradition order than to repeat what was done to them. Some of those old women will of course get sick and die, because of this baseless tradition. I proceeded to ask her I she will be willing to change it and she murmured something in the lines of she would like to.
Not all traditions are profitable and it is naive to think we have some superior tradition that cannot be changed when it is clearly dangerous. Think about how many twins and albinos have been murdered in places like Cameroon, Nigeria, and Tanzania in the name of tradition!
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things…
But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless”.
~ Apostle Paul
“…the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
~ Prophet Isaiah
No, Africans are not “missing out” on anything because they dumped some immoral and in certain cases dangerous cultural practices. Keeping up with some of those, actually serve to hinder their ability to advance in a context where God has provided light to all who choose to see. Granted, not everything in African cultures is negative in the same way that not everything from other competing cultures is negative. In the new global village Africans need to consider and encourage beliefs and practices that help them advance (in all manners) as a people rather than hold-on to things that stall their advancement and set them on a course of collision with the challenges of the current paradigm. It is also a fallacy to conclude that an African Christian has rejected his/her African culture to pursue the European/American’s culture. This is false. Firstly, because, Christianity did not originate either in Europe or America! It is ignorance of the facts that leads many to continue to hold this false view.
Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to earth as a Jew (in Israel) and led disciples who were all Jews. They (the disciples), were directly responsible for spreading Christianity in obedience to their master who preached salvation from sin through belief in His work. Jesus preached a universal message to a local audience and his disciples carried this message of salvation, through the power of the Holy Spirit, literally to the ends of the earth including Europe, the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. The advent of Christianity influenced Europe positively with historians documenting the better care for the sick and the opening of centers of learning because of the same. Professor of sociology Dr. Alvin Schmidt explains that “…almost everything for which the Roman world had stood for, was challenged by the teachings of Jesus” (How Christianity Changed the World, Schmidt, p. 44). In addition to this, Dr. James Kennedy mentions that, “Life was expendable prior to Christianity’s influence… abortion was rampant, it was it was common for infirm babies or unwanted little ones to be taken out into the forest or the mountainside, to be consumed by wild animals or to starve… They often abandoned female babies because women were considered inferior” (What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?, pp. 9–11). These cultural practices were considered okay by the highly religious but non-Christian Roman world. While those practices sound deeply immoral, we should not forget that they were done in the name of culture. Christianity, one can conclude then, brought humans back to their senses!
Interestingly, it is worth nothing that those who suffer more in these cultures, that folks are clamoring to preserve, are the most vulnerable, who need protection: children, women and albinos! These are cultures of death that celebrate evil and seek to keep practitioners in a captive state. No, do not be deceived, Christianity has done the greatest good for Africa than Africans can even begin to imagine. Yes some men weaponized (and continue to weaponize) Christianity for their personal benefits but that does not make it bad. Just because an armed robber uses a bread knife to commit murder does not make the knife bad. The problem is the person using the knife to execute their evil desires, not the knife.
Africans should stop thinking of some superior culture in the past and start looking ahead to how they can become a true force to reckon with in the current paradigm and the future.
Are Africans religious because they are poor? The Amish are a deeply religious community that have lived in America for more than 300 years and yet they do not compromise their values even though surrounded by wealth. This is a choice that the community made which has nothing to do with their economic environment. It is true that lack, can cause men to seek God for provision but this generalization reduces the value of Christianity. Jesus came principally to save men from sin and the effects of sin. Poverty can be seen as one of the effects/results of sin. Logic dictates that any doctor, who only focuses on curing symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem, needs to go back to school. The gospel message may have been changed by some peddlers of all kinds of doctrines (including the prosperity gospel preachers), but that does not mean that this is the reason why Jesus died on the cross.
You would have to interview Christians before assuming on their behalf that their principal motive for going to church is to escape the scourge of poverty!
Africans, we need to change our narratives, thought patterns and stop shooting ourselves in the leg. Our problems have nothing to do with Christians and pastors. Christianity may be responsible for many things but it is definitely not responsible for:
- Discrimination in employment or admission to prestigious schools and institutions;
- The lack of execution of contracts for which payment has already been made;
- The uniformed officer collecting a bribe on the street and allowing the offender to go unpunished;
- The guy who decides to break into people’s homes and dispossess them of their hard earned possessions;
- The nurse who is more focused on her nails and chatting with her “friends” on Facebook rather than attending to her patient;
- Leadership's decision to exploit the natural resources of the continent abusively;
- Crazy agreements signed with certain nations that ensure the continent basically remains poor;
- The lawyer who twists things to ensure his client pays more rather than seek justice for him;
- The guy who is thrown in jail because the “big man” has some friends in the government;
- The reckless driver who overtakes in the wrong way at the wrong place and curses other road users. Etc ad nauseam.
Christianity is not responsible for Africa’s stagnation. Look elsewhere!
Let us take a look at where the problem truly lies and give our all to tackle it. It is spelled POOR LEADERSHIP!
Africa’s problems lie squarely on the soldiers of its leaders.
We as a continent have excelled (with the help of some Western countries) in BAD LEADERSHIP. Poor leadership in the church as well as in the nation is responsible for many of the things that we decry and has seriously impacted our ability to thrive. I buy into Maxwell’s quote: “Everything rises and falls on leadership”!
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. ~ King Solomon
Africa’s problem is poor leadership, period. Look around the continent and you can see a wide practice of egocentric and authoritarian leadership (from the homes, to the streets to the palaces) which has led to widespread corruption, poverty, nepotism, violence, loss of life and destruction of property. This is not an environment that is conducive for growth, prosperity and equal opportunity. Most leaders come in as liberators and leave as dictators (authoritarian leaders), who rule by decrees and generally fail to take the opinion of their people into consideration.
They build a personality cult around themselves and if possible would love to be considered as gods! This self-serving egocentric, authoritarian leadership paradigm, which is widely practiced in Africa is ineffective, generally focused on a single individual who wields and centralizes power and authority on themselves. The direct result of this form of leadership is slowness in execution of projects that can benefit the community as only one person or a small group of people, are empowered to make almost all major decisions. As a community, we need to make the conscious decision to change if we must break out of this rot.
Stop accusing religion, we need God on our side actually, and focus on the real issue ie LEADERSHIP.We need more servant leaders as a continent. Servant leadership is a unique leadership paradigm which focuses primarily on the well-being of those being led/served. Unlike authoritarian leaders, the servant leader walks in integrity and intentionally seeks to serve those they lead, with the goal of empowering them to accomplish great things for themselves and the organizations they serve. In order to understand the needs of those being served, servant leaders need to grow in their ability to understand and empathize with them (Spears, 2005). Mahatma Gandhi was an example of a Servant Leader, who was able to put his people first, enabling them to accomplish great things. During his resistance "salt march" against British oppression, he demonstrated a deep commitment to the opinion of each individual he met (Tubbs, 2015) and not just that of his close collaborators.
Folks, Jesus modelled and taught servant leadership. If those in authority (family, spiritual, government or social) truly desire change across the continent, they should consider consulting the one who remains The way, The truth and The life, Jesus of Nazareth.
References
10 Countries With the Largest Christian Populations, 2010 and 2050. (2015, April 02). Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/christians/pf_15-04-02_projectionstables63/
Gandhi the Servant Leader. Retrieved from http://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2015/04/19/gandhi-the-servant-leader/
Kennedy, D. J., & Newcombe, J. (2001). What if Jesus had never been born?: The positive impact of Christianity in history.
Nashville: T. Nelson. McPherson, M. (2018, October 11). Christianity in China. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/christianity-china
Schmidt, A. J. (2004). How christianity changed the world. Grand Rapids (Mich.): Zondervan. Spears, L. C. (2005, August).
The Understanding and Practice of Servant- Leadership [Scholarly project]. In The Understanding and Practice of Servant- Leadership. Retrieved fromhttps://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2005/spears_practice.pdf Tubbs, R. C. (2015, April 19).
