The African Hypocrites

By

Sam Abbd Israel

samabbdisrael@msn.com

With whom does the greatest danger for the whole human future lies? Is it not with the good and just – with those who say and feel in their hearts: ‘we already know what is good and just, we possess It too, woe to those who are still searching for It’.[n]

In any evaluation of the socio-economic and political problems of Africa, it will be a grievous omission not to accord a place of central importance to religion or the belief systems in general. Any anthropologist versed in the business of culture in primitive societies cannot miss the ever-palpable electrifying religious fervour displayed by Africans in the worship of their various gods. Another remarkable observation the anthropologist will make is the paramount position of honour given to foreign religions like Islam and Christianity, the two religions in vogue all over Africa now. Altogether, these two faiths between them attract about ninety per cent of the population while the indigenous beliefs merely record less than five percent. The remaining five per cent might belong to the nonconformist group who tend to be eclectic in their attitude to religion.

Another spectacular observation the expert will not miss is the ratio of houses of worship to the population. The number of churches and mosques that dot every street with esoteric celestial names they bear cannot go unnoticed. Same with the several sign boards erected at every street junctions to help worshippers locate the mosque or church where a celebrated Imam or Pastor/Founder/Overseer is holding court. The national daily newspapers also carry their fair share of advertisement for the registration of new religious organisation as prescribed by law and of more than ample coverage of religious news and activities/events.

The anthropologist cannot fail to notice the large number of devotees that throng daily to these assemblies in search of salvation from poverty, disease and deprivation of all kinds. If the expert is from the western world, the size of the multitudes of devotees will be remarkable because of the large number of empty pews and closed down churches for lack of patronage in Europe. The questions hanging in the air are: what is the secret behind this type of religious devotion, faithfulness and fundamentalism? Have these fundamentalist beliefs contributed anything to the development or under-development of Africa? Can the salvation of Africans from total ruin and humiliation depend on this kind of superficial religious engagements? 

The Genesis

To fully understand the basis of this kind of religious passion among Africans it is necessary to step back in time. Before the arrival of Arab and European slave traders in the 15^th century, it is noted that Africa was not particularly devoid of beliefs in a deity or deities. Africans like other races in the world had knowledge of the spirit world and the physical world. Africans had understanding about the forces that govern and dictate the affairs of all life. They respected and revered these forces and they illustrated this adequately in the cultural organisation of their societies. Members of a society put very high premium on those activities either social or personal that enable them to demonstrate publicly or privately their devotion, worship and respect for these forces. In fact, children were named after favourable deities and time was measured with reference to the annual festival earmarked for each of the gods or deities known to a community.

The sense of appreciation of the forces that govern life shown by Africans is replicated in every society on earth. The Indians, the Chinese, the Vikings, the Celts, the Native Americans, and the Native Australians all have a special place for the worship of the forces of life. The global commonality of belief seems to have more to do with the similarity in the nature of mankind and of the environment under which all human beings live. These two common denominators – human nature and environment - accounted for the fact that every human race in the world designated special names, peculiar to their language, for the forces of life. It is on record that every society of the world at one time or another in history recognised the sun, moon, weather, wind, fire, water/river/sea, forest, stones, mountains, iron, etc. as probable residential places for the forces of life[ii]. Peoples of the world, therefore, placed adequate attention to the worship of the spirits or deities resident in these natural phenomena.

To worship, in philosophical sense, is a way of showing gratitude to the forces that were kind in creating life, in providing sustenance, security and good health, and in ensuring procreation and growth. Worship is simply a practical means and acts of saying thank you to the revered divine force or forces that make life possible. The total package of a people’s appreciation of the forces of life, the nature and type of ceremonies organised for their celebrations, and the taboos, prescriptions, and laws established for rewarding good devotees and for punishing defaulters are what sociologist and anthropologist named as culture or religion. It therefore follows that societies derive the sense of religion from the highest level of thought and reasoning. It is a known fact that the thinkers of every society cannot help but to ponder, to reflect, and to inquire into the nature of beings and life. This mental exercise is normal and it is a necessary natural development because of the innate nature of mankind.

Science has revealed that each human being possesses an elaborate faculty of senses, which are breath-taking in their depth and capabilities. The sense organs are designed to be active automatically. They are programmed to zoom in, on and out of the environment, as these sense organs collect information in the vicinity with minimum (most times with none at all) conscious prodding from mankind. The brain, the central processing organ of the senses, along with the perpetual activities of the sense organs that collect the stimuli and data also assemble and combine all the information collected in an attempt to make a holistic sense of them. There is nothing special about this mental and sensory exercises except every human being still has a choice on whether to use the sensory faculties or not. Each person also has a choice on how far he/she wants to go in exploring the full capacity of the senses. It is important to mention that laziness, carelessness and sloppiness can account for the inability of some Homo sapiens to use the senses but it does not follow that they are naturally incapable.         

It is the outcome of the articulated information collected by the senses and worked upon by the thinkers in the society that eventually become the received knowledge of life and these are the intellectual materials used for the development of a belief system. The recognised beliefs in every society include among others, a belief in a superior power above that of human being; a belief in the forces outside and within humans that have powers to stimulate and influence the processes of procreation, growth and death; a belief in the power of the sun, moon, stars, fire, water, metals, wood, etc. This catalogue of beliefs is common to every human society in the world because they are the product of the senses and experiences. Therefore, the type and kind of worship, the social organisation of worship, and the cultural artefacts of worship must necessarily depend on the depth of knowledge or on the level of intellectual development of a society.

Regardless of the sophistication of organisation of worship, the common denominator is that every religion flows from an intellectual appreciation of the immense power, force or energy that translates to life; and that surrounds and influences the behaviour and life of mankind and other creations. If this argument is true, why then does any racial group in the world feels that their own intellectual appreciation of the forces, power, and energy of life is superior to those of Africans or other racial groups?

Unfortunately, it is this supremacist attitude in the matters of belief and religion that informed the energetic zealot incursion of the Arabs and Europeans into Africa. The missionaries deluded themselves that they had a higher authority than the peoples of Africa in the area of religious knowledge; particularly a better understanding about the name of the force of life but more importantly the shortest route to its abode. They quickly labelled the African beliefs as pagan worship and the Arab called them infidels. The religious zealots in the company of pirates, slave merchants and mercenaries therefore took it as a sacred duty to convert the pagans and infidels of Africa. Is it true that bird of the same feathers flock together? Just imagine the holy fathers in the company of murderers pretending to be doing the work of God. Would it not have been more beneficial if charity started at home? Why should the holy fathers not work the miracle of conversion on the hoodlums they were dining and wining with during this holy travels before they ventured into the jungles of Africa?  

The above was the genesis of the foreign religion to Africa. The holy men and the unholy men came to Africa rampaged, raped, and robbed the people of their traditional faith and also dispossessed them of their ancestral lands. Each party of adventurers pretended it did not know what the other party was up to. The missionary claimed he was only concerned with the saving of souls. The merchant and the pirates said they were only concerned with trade and profit. In the middle of these two groups was the mediating State that was concerned with the expansion of dominion and empire. The Imperial State was therefore keen on appropriating as much land as possible by force and by trickery.

As soon as the party landed on the foreign soil of Africa, they tricked the sovereign of the land to sign treaty ceding his royal power to the Crowns of Europe. In the case of the Arabs, they also came to trade in salt, spices and slaves and wherever they found themselves they warmed their way into the heart of the local powers. They taught the royalties of the land a new religion or a new way of life. However, the ultimate goal of this sharing is the seizure of political power. This they accomplished, as soon as the climate was suitable, by a Jihad war of conquest to convert the recalcitrant infidels by the sword to this peaceful way of life. This is quite ironical, to think that the only means of proselytising the message of peace is by bloody ‘holy wars’.

Now after over two centuries of the teaching of the unnatural philosophy of the Arabs and Europeans on issues that pertain to the forces of life, the whole of Africa is now under the spell of these two races. Between them, they have completely dominated the spiritual horizon of the continent. Unfortunately, the result of the interactions of Africans with Islam and Christianity seem to have robbed Africans of their souls. Africans are now fond of worshipping foreign gods but without their souls. The consequence is a lifestyle that is full of holy pretensions but in real sense, it is a lifestyle piloted by deception. When the art of worshipping any acknowledged force or power in a society is done without the soul it becomes a false worship and the only fruit it can produce in the life of the worshipper is decadence or perversion. What the anthropologist we mentioned in the opening paragraph saw is the full blown of the seed of decadence sown on African soils. The superficial fervour, devotion, and fundamentalism of the worshippers are false because their souls from the time of their forefathers had been stolen.

The African worshippers of foreign gods are soulless and they are moronic opportunists. As their fathers and forefathers before them did in order to survive the atrocities of the bloody marauders, the sons and daughters in our present age have continued with the same shameless practices. Of course, the African ancestors made a large profit by their pretended conversion to Islam and Christianity. Through this lie their offspring became models of success and achievement in their society. The children of such early converts were the privileged Africans sent overseas to study and to learn the white man’s ways. These children came back to Africa with fancy dresses and fancy certificates. They became the leaders of their communities over and above the traditional hierarchy in the community. They obtained these honourable positions without any genuine conviction in the white man’s beliefs. These early converts who joined the missionaries and the merchant mercenaries were the dregs and the never-do-wells of the African societies. They merely saw the whole design of converting to the foreign faith as an opportunity for an accelerated social elevation. The unpalatable result of these fraudulent dalliances by the dregs of Africa with representatives of the foreign gods is evident today all over Africa.

Consequent to this historical development, the offspring of the dregs of Africa have become the civic and political leaders. This type of development is a perversion of natural order and it has relegated Africa to the sick bay of the world ever since. Whenever the weak of any society dominate the civic and the political institutions there is no other way that society can go but down. We can easily trace the inertia that has bedevilled Africa in the last one hundred years to this development. It is a complete negation of natural laws.

Historically, it is on record that most African societies resisted these foreign teachings; and that they fought hard to uphold their native knowledge and beliefs of the forces that govern life[iii]. There is no doubt that the foreign missionaries were cleverer. These missionaries understood that the only approach to break down the resistance of Africans was to lure the weak and the vulnerable class of Africans into their cults. This strategy enabled them to entice the vagabonds and the never-do-wells into the religious cults. They taught them to read and write the foreign languages and they set them up as models in their communities. The local boys made good accompanied the white masters everywhere in their pillaging and robbing missions. They also served as the official interpreters between their local superiors and the foreign superiors. It did not take too long before every who-is-who in the communities began to queue up to have their children registered in the white man’s church or the Arabic mosque and schools.

The clever Africans of that age saw this development as a stepping-stone to material success and political fortune. It is obvious that these Africans never believed in the mumbo-jumbo philosophy of drinking blood and eating flesh as part of the prescriptions for obtaining salvation from sins. None of them could have understood the concept of sin and how they have inherited sin from a mythological couple called Adam and Eve. Nevertheless, the bright ones saw it as an opportunity to improve their social status and they grabbed it with their two hands but never with their souls. Now the children of the clever ancestors have continued with this tradition of canny deception. Socially, they worship in churches and mosques but privately they worship the ancestral deities. Openly, they profess Christianity or Islam but in the depth of their souls, they believe only in the power of their ancestral deities. This is the genesis of the socio-economic and political ailments that is gradually tearing Africa apart.

Contrary to the experts, the problem of Africa is not of failure of the social, political and economic institutions, it is of the decadence in the souls of Africans. The age-long pretences among Africans have become a way of life. The lying spirit cultivated as a survival strategy many years ago have become stabilised as a conventional wisdom in every community. Every professing African Christian or Muslim has perfected the art of lying and worse, lying with his/her soul. A soul that lies is definitely a dead soul.

For example, every Christian in Africa is eager to claim a born-again status. He/she is ready to narrate a cock and bull story of when and where the celestial experience of conversion and rebirth happened. Since these men and women have no basic understanding of the meaning of the concept of being born again, their deceitful declarations can therefore not yield any beneficial fruit of perfection but of perversion. It is obvious that if there was only one truly born again Christian in Africa, the story of Africa would have been different today.

From the statistics quoted above, it means that the souls of almost ninety per cent of Africans are dead. And unless the Creator of life revives these souls back to life, Africa is dead. The Daily Telegraph of Monday July 10 2000 titled its leader comment, The Dying Continent. It is one of the many common characterisations of Africa in the western media that depicts Africa as a third rated continent. This type of description means that Africa has simply shifted from being The Dark Continent of the 18^th century to The Dying Continent of the millennium. Unfortunately, it is not HIV/Aids that is killing Africa as the comment in the Daily Telegraph mentioned; it is the decadence of the African soul that is responsible for the death of Africa. It is the inability of Africans to be truthful or the loss of the instinctive sense to know what truth is that is killing Africa. The absence of the spirit of truth and the lack of courage to tell the foreign harlots with the religion of decadence to get out of the continent; to stop seducing our peoples with bread and butter; and to desist from continuing to steal our souls are the spiritual viruses killing Africa. The Aids virus and other viruses are mere symptoms of a deeper terminal ailment.

It will alarm the so-called religious fundamentalists to hear that this writer at this junction in the world history will be asking Africans to beat a path back to their native gods, to their indigenous philosophy of life and to embrace the age-long knowledge of the forces of life as articulated and understood by their ancestors. There is much truth in the African philosophy with respect to the spiritual and physical worlds. Every African must go back to his/her ancestral root, using the knowledge of inquiry gained from the western philosophy, to revive the spirit of life and truth in Africa. The interaction of Africans with the rest of the world and with the body of universal ideas that emanated from every part of the known world should help Africans who wish to revisit their roots to sift out truth from lie. This writer does not recommend a wholesale embrace of all the practices in Africa with respect to the worship of deities. Like in all religions, Africans interested in this project should recognise, identify and excise the excesses of priests, shamans, medicine men and women and witch-doctors in all the taboos and ceremonies currently in place.

The seeker should recognise that the so-called spiritual leaders of every age and of every religion are lovers of power. They are fond of making powerful unsubstantiated pronouncements in the name of the deity in order to maintain a deadly stranglehold of power over the people. Every thinking human being ought to realise by now that the corruption found in all religious organisations across the world is an endemic problem common to all institutions of priests. The priests of all ages are enemies of freedom and equal rights since they love to play god or at least claim the title of the representative of god on earth. As the Representative of God, they expect to occupy the highest table in the assembly of the faithful, to live in the biggest palaces, to take the largest part of the sacrificial beneficence, to have the best wine, and to wear the tallest hat and the most ornamental garment. With a false pretence to humility, they treacherously claim the leadership position in every society as their divine right. In their ambition to dominate and to oppress the people, they lie in the name of god thereby putting heavy burden on the people as they ceaselessly call for sacrifices to propitiate unfounded sins against the gods. This spiritual sickness is not peculiar to African witch-doctors or priests alone it is a universal disease common to all religious institutions.

This writer is aware that he has to make a conscious effort at this stage not to lead the reader on a deadly path. God forbid, I am not in any way recommending a revival of any religion but a revival of the knowledge of the meaning of life as each race in the world discovered it. As mentioned above, the appreciation of the force of life is an intellectual and spiritual exercise; it does not come to the idle mind but only to those who are deliberately seeking and searching for knowledge. When the seed of the desire to seek for the truth of life enters the mind of any human being, it is the first sign of a contact with the spiritual world. It is the call from the deep of life and only the spiritual ones can hear the call. Until a person hears the call, the issue that pertains to life will forever remain at the physical level of existence – eat, drink, sex, having good time, seeking honour and power, pursuing money and profits, etc.

The advise that Africans should go back to their roots in the search for the meaning of life should not be taken as condoning bloody sacrifices, internecine, secret cults, and other kinds of native political intelligence developed by lovers of power to discriminate against the sexes, strangers, and the weak and vulnerable members of society. These are the excesses of the religious leaders of primitive communities. Therefore, Africans going back to their roots must use the instrument of scientific investigations to sift out the great truths from the great lies. The secret rituals, the taboos, the superstitions of their communities should be recognised as symbols of a deeper meaning of life. What do they stand for, when were they instituted and by who? These elaborate cultural ceremonies and festivals, somehow, hide the meaning of the truth of life. It is the task of every seeker to sniff them out. A true seeker cannot be bounded by fear and superstition. In the search for the true meaning of life, every taboo must be investigated and every ritual must be considered under the light of common sense. No single stone of tradition can be left unturned by a true seeker.                                                                        

Carrying Coal to Newcastle

The idea that informed the invasion of Africa by the Europeans and Arabs to peddle their kind of meaning of life is like carrying coal to Newcastle. During the industrial age of Britain when Newcastle was the city of coal, it was seen as a stupid thing for anybody travelling to Newcastle to have among his/her luggage a sack of coal. The cost of carrying the coal and the inconveniences would have made such an enterprise very expensive. For Europeans and Arabs to condemn outright the age long wisdom and philosophy of life of the Africans as irrelevant and ungodly was a testimony to bigotry, self-pride, disrespect of others and arrogance. After more than two centuries, everyone can see that these holy enterprises have led to a total collapse of the moral and ethical principles that had earlier enabled the various ethnic groups in Africa to survive in spite of the inhospitable climatic conditions. It is disheartening that the present generation of Africans who inherited these quack foreign beliefs of the most incomprehensible meaning of life are yet to understand why these foreign teachings are not effective in the context of African development and emancipation.

This writer argued in a pamphlet titled, The Ungodly Religious Nation that, ‘The moral and philosophical values of a nation are the springboard and the powerhouse of change and progress’. When the beliefs of a people or a nation are unnatural to human existence, the only fruit those beliefs can produce is that of decadence and death. These foreign beliefs have not brought life to Africa; they are killing Africa. The potency of any philosophy is its ability to deliver on all fronts of human endeavours. The philosophy should be able to answer all the knotty questions about relationships between god and man; between man and man; and between man and its environment. If a people flounder as is happening in Africa today, the best place to check for explanations is in the entrenched philosophy and the operational principles of faith and beliefs. In most cases, the problem has something to do with an inapplicable philosophy of life. This type of philosophy would have failed woefully to answer all the questions of the meaning of life to the satisfaction of all.

One of the greatest ironies of the foreign beliefs that are doing the rounds in Africa today is that they all took their journeys from Africa, at least in the present cosmic age of our universe. The ancient Egyptian history is not a myth, it surely happened. The few artefacts of that generation excavated and studied by archaeologists have helped to throw some light on the immense depth of the achievement and knowledge of that civilisation. It should be remembered that Christianity took its beginning from the Jews while Islam was from the Arabs. The Jews and Arabs also claim a common progeny to Abraham. The Judaic Torah (Old Testament in the Bible) has a beautiful story of the sojourns of Abraham in Africa as well as that of Joseph, the son of Jacob and the great grandson of Abraham. The Torah narrated with relish and garnish how Joseph landed in Egypt and how his father and siblings followed him to the land of Egypt to share in his political and economic achievements. Further down this historical journey was the story of Moses, the one credited as the founder of Judaism. It is remarkable to note that his humble beginning started in the courts of Pharaoh in Egypt. What do all these stories tell us about the children of Abraham? Are we to believe that the immense civilisation of Egypt  - its beliefs and its cultures – never rubbed on Abraham and his children? Are we to believe that throughout their sojourns in Egypt, Abraham and his descendants did not imbibe anything good or bad from the culturally superior people of Egypt?                 

The truth is embedded in the historical fact that the worship of a monotheist god was a well-established religion in Egypt during the reign of Amenophis IV or Akhenaten (1353–1335 BC). Some scholars have argued that Akhenaten was indeed Moses who was exiled in 1361 BC from the palace after a short reign.  However, Dr Karl Abraham in Imago argued that when Moses came back to seize the throne from the incumbent Pharaoh Ramesees, he failed but he managed to persuade a band of Hebrews to follow him into the desert to start a new religion[iv]. Without dwelling too much on the truth or untruth of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt, it is suffice to suggest that we cannot be sure of the true ramifications of these stories. Could it be true that Egypt expelled Moses for a treasonable felony? Could he have planned to usurp the Pharaoh on the throne of Egypt? These are intriguing questions and should call for a thorough reflection and for a review of the legends passed down as history of the ‘chosen people’.

The biggest problem facing latter-day religionists is their inability to reflect on and to separate truth from falsehood and to distinguish legendary myth from historical reality. They have a remarkable gullibility to swallow every story recorded in the Torah or other ‘holy books’ literally. The idea of taking these stories as symbols or keys to a larger and deeper truth is not an option any believer is allowed to countenance. They cannot contemplate the fact that these legendary stories initially started their journeys as oral history passed from generation to generation before their committal into written history. In addition, they cannot accept that in the tradition of all oral history, innocent modification or improvement of facts, deliberate exaggeration of details and a conscious or unconscious deletion of embarrassing events are the norms rather than the exception.

The religionist cannot accept that the writer of these ‘holy stories’ were researchers who listened to several different versions of the legend or oral history, assembled and collated them into logical forms. Each succeeding generation also had opportunities to review the selected stories to suit the mood of the time, to modify the syntax, and to take away or dot the i’s and cross the t’s. It is also absurd when one realises that the religionists have failed to accept that all writers have their grand motives or personal biases and that the writers of ‘holy books’ cannot be an exception.

The Torah was a collection of books written solely to unite the multi-tribe descendants of Abraham. The writing of the Law and the stories of other landmarks in the history of the Jews became powerful tools serving both as precedent and guiding maps to navigate the complex terrain of human nature and of governance. The legendary story of the escapades of Moses in and out of Egypt served this purpose very well and had helped to unite, somehow, the different incompatible parties and bands of the tribes of Abraham[v].

Now, if the core philosophy of the faith that legend credited to Moses derives its origin from Egypt and if Judaism like a well-nourished plant has branched out into Christianity and Islam, why should any African prefer this heavily slanted philosophy of the Jews and Arabs to the original philosophy brewed on the African soils? It is high time Africans begin to unwrap the dressings around the cake if they intend to enjoy a good meal of the cake. It is common for the uninitiated in the cake eating business to take the sweet outer dressings of the cake as the real thing inadvertently leaving the actual cake untouched. We must begin to see the packaged philosophy of life brought to Africa with all the legendary dressings for what they are. They are not the real things; they are mere empty vessels, even though they are making the loudest noises all over Africa but because they are false they cannot bear any fruitful result. Africans must learn to put aside the superficial claims of the faiths and focus their attention on the nature of fruits these superficial philosophies have borne in the length and breadth of Africa. A popular adage says, ‘the taste of the pudding is in the eating’ but if the diner of the pudding is dinning on the dressings without knowing the difference, he/she needs help from an experience pudding diner to focus on the pudding and leave out the dressings.

Africa at this stage needs divine help to make her people to come to a clear understanding of what is really missing in the continent. It is not the lack of faith in God or an inadequate worship of the foreign gods that is the problem. Africans from the north to the south and the east to the west have demonstrated super-human devotion to the cults of these foreign gods. No visitor to Africa can fail to notice the highest priority Africans give to issues that pertain to the foreign gods. Africans have never joked with their hourly prayers; the daily worships; the unfailing weekly attendance in mosque and church; the yearly pilgrimage to ‘holy lands’; and the servicing of the various rituals demanded by the Priests and Imams. Yet, the quality of life in Africa is below that of every other race in the world. In order to distract Africans from facing the grinding spiritual and material poverty, the puppeteers urged Africans to offer more prayers and to look forward to the crowns already prepared ready for them in the Hereafter. The logic is simple, as a confirmed irredeemable wretched of the earth each devoted African will automatically become a king or prince in heaven.

Africans need a powerful helping hand to snap them out of the hypnotic state of foolishness where the puppeteers of our world have confined them for so long. Africans need to understand that the con artists of politics, economics and religions have mesmerised them for too long and that their services as the mule of the world is now an essential foundation of the present civilisation. The various fake and obnoxious philosophies transferred to Africa have succeeded in conditioning Africans to the servant positions carved for them in the world. These philosophies have succeeded in killing in the Africans the natural instinct found in all humankind for the fight against enslavement and oppression. Africans have since become comfortable with fighting among themselves for crumbs from the opulent tables of their priests and imams. It is common today to hear a latter-day African priest pointing to material properties in his possession, like the ownership of a limousine, a mansion and large designer wardrobes, as a confirmation that he has a direct private electronic mail service to the throne of heaven.

Africans as a race need a helping hand in the area of true knowledge to make them recognise and accept the truth that they cannot find freedom and true emancipation in the kind of religious exuberance they have devoted their lives these past centuries. All the foreign religions doing the rounds in Africa are only offering a fake superficial knowledge of the meaning of life. Since what they are offering is unnatural to the psyche of the Africans, the knowledge transferred has failed to produce any form of perfection in the race. As a killer philosophy, the only fruit it is capable of producing is decadence and death. These have become the lot of every African since they tricked our forefathers to permit these perverted philosophies a space on the African soil.

Dear fellow Africans, nature encrypted the truth of the meaning of life within every human soul just as it encrypted the physical properties of the body in the genetic materials within the cells. Training the mind to grasp the meaning of the material observable knowledge of the universe is the first step towards unlocking the key that will awaken the soul. The mind must be primed open with information collected by the senses. Each African must put his/her senses to good use by inquiring, studying, and learning to understand the origin and nature of every phenomenon around us. We must learn to separate the sentiments and legends from the reality and truth.

In our world, we must recognise there are many great exaggerations, great hyperboles, and great legends but most of them are born of the seed of great lies. These lies were designed to promote the supremacist beliefs of some races and to establish a total dominance, albeit by divine decrees as contained in the ‘holy books’, over other hapless races of the world. The socio-economic and political arrangements of our world are proofs that, so far, this cruel but brilliant selfish design has worked wonderfully well. Unfortunately, there is nothing godly or holy about the designs, if anything at all, it is ungodly because it builds its operating value on the hatred of others and on self-interest. Notwithstanding the debilitating effect of the philosophy on the majority of the peoples of the world, it has helped the descendants of the designers to achieve political and economic domination of the world. This is the purpose of the whole philosophy and this is the result flowing out from the religious designs.

If Africans who lay claim to the status of a born-again or of an alim cannot see why our world is in the mess it is today, then it needs not surprise anyone why they have failed to understand that unless the dangerous philosophy underpinning the civilisation of our world is completely overhauled, we can never realise freedom and peace. It is this inability to appreciate the fundamental errors in the design of the political organisations and institutions of the world that have led the ‘experts’ to continue to offer palliative solutions for the cure of the spiritual disorder in the world.

Since these puerile solutions have failed to bring any relief, they turn the attention of the gullible masses to look to the Beyond for answers to socio-economic and political problems. The con artists in religion, politics and economics of every shade and colour keep advising the marginalized people of the sick world to swallow a high dosage of the pill of endurance, patience and hope for the glory of Hereafter. These treacherous people who lay claims to being the good and the just openly condemn the world as a sinful and wicked place. In the same breadth that they urge their naïve followers to prepare for the paradise that is above their reach these spiritual and political leaders in turn keep busy with the business of collecting and hoarding all the best things of the world for themselves.           

Tools of Bondage

Since the unholy contact of the continent of Africa with Europeans and Arabs occurred over five hundred years ago, the people of Africa have been in bondage. It is true the bondage of slavery was physical and visible but the psychological bondage that is much more stronger and deadlier is invisible to the larger population. It is therefore very easy for African apologists to discountenance the impact of the psychological bondage as untrue since it is not a physically provable phenomenon. The greatest weapon of bondage or of freedom, interestingly, is our beliefs or philosophies. A philosophy robed in lies and fears is a potent tool for holding a people in perpetual bondage. On the reverse, a philosophy couched in truth and love has the tendency to promote freedom that can help a people to attain their true potentials in life as designed by nature. However, it is very sad that the African religious fundamentalists, even the supposedly educated among them, are yet to see religion as a kind of philosophy, albeit a dangerous type.     

Religion is a dangerous philosophy because unlike true philosophy it forbids dialogue and reflection. It is averse to any form of alternate hypothetical propositions on truth. It has the habit of claiming exclusive right to a final and absolute truth. Whereas philosophy thrives best under a climate of freedom of expression that accords due respect to alternative thesis on any version of discovered or revealed truth, religion, on the other hand, only encourages a dogmatic and a robotic followership of the tradition of belief as laid down by its founding fathers. This rigid faith in tradition inadvertently breeds fanaticism that thrives on narrow-mindedness in respect of all issues that pertain to the meaning of life. As it were, religion has succeeded in drawing a tight blanket on the senses of followers and has forestalled the reception of other forbidden versions of truth.

As mentioned earlier, every writer has a grand motive for setting himself on the arduous task of writing. The motive could be one or a combination of any of the following: money, patriotism, honour, prestige, power, love, hate, vanity, etc. The love for a people of common heritage could inspire a writer to write beautiful prose, poem, eulogy and hymn to unite them around a common cause in the progress of the society. Similarly, the awareness of the role of peace and harmony as a social capital can inspire a political analyst to devote his life to the search for the elixir theory of political ideas and practices of organisation and institutions that will enhance the administration of a geographical space.

For the politically conscious and power grabbers, religion is the first among equals of political tools that have been identified as capable of establishing a perfect control over a society that would raise little or no resistance from the people under governance. For religion has the unique advantage of establishing a rigid regime of fear of the gods, of formalising a catalogue of taboos and superstitions, and of institutionalising social processes for spiritual and physical reward and punishment. Religion is the most powerful of all acknowledged political tools because the institution of priesthood that accompanies it ensures that every vision and policy directive is spiced up as a divine revelation from heaven. Woe betides any member of the conclave who questions the priest on the truth or otherwise of the blatantly obvious self-serving revelations. In-the-Name-of-God or thus-says-the-Lord has the power to silence all common sense dissenters.

As a part of the instrument of political governance and psychological dominance of a people or peoples, the two common foreign religions in Africa have some valuable concepts that the practitioners have since assimilated as absolute truth. The concepts of ‘holy book’, ‘holy land’, ‘chosen people’ and ‘original sin’ are powerful tools of bondage to which every African religious practitioner has willingly submitted. The psychology of religion dictates that as a political tool, its creators must ensure that the belief systems and its theology are not built on knowledge of provable phenomena.

Religion flourishes better when the historical accounts of its beginning are dressed in beautifully constructed but non-provable legends. The procedure of accepting anybody into the cult of any belief is the willingness of the novice to accept unconditionally the key concepts of the faith even before he/she has time to understand what they mean. Also, seriously recommended and demanded, is total obedience and absolute loyalty both to the members of the priesthood and to the key concepts of faith. When a convert expresses doubt on the truth or otherwise of the concepts he/she is gently counselled to exercise more faith in the promises outlined in those holy books. If the convert’s doubt persisted he/she may face open excommunication or covert isolation from the group of faithful.

To accept unconditionally the concepts and precepts that accompany holy book, holy land, and chosen people automatically put a burden of an unalloyed reverence for the people so chosen, for the book they wrote and for the land where they live. Karen Armstrong argues in A History of God, that “The myth of a Chosen People and a divine election has often inspired a narrow, tribal theology from the time of the Deuteronomist right up to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim fundamentalism that is unhappily rife in our own day”[vi]. The chosen people would logically become the epitome of holiness and purity. They automatically become physically untouchable for fear of reprisal from the jealous god.

If a religious practitioner of any of the two foreign religions in Africa is well groomed on these concepts he/she eventually accepts in a psychological sense, a subservient role to the chosen people in the worship of the gods and accepts a second or third best position of rewards from the gods. He naturally aspires to visit the holy land because that is the only place to meet god so that some of the holiness of the land can rub on him/her. The believers place the chosen people who made the first contact with the gods on a pedestal above human level and accordingly unreserved respects are accorded them at all times. The books that emanated from the chosen people can never be challenged as anything else but holy. Woe betides anyone on planet earth who raises doubt on the authenticity of the claims of these books as true and unadulterated words of God.

It will be difficult for those who have no knowledge about how the mind of mankind works to understand the psychological impact these concepts would have on the total world view of practitioners who subscribe to either Islam or Christianity. To underpin this assertion, let social researchers who have the means carry out an opinion survey among Africans on the unending Middle East crisis to evaluate their knowledge of the crisis and to identify who is right or wrong among the combating parties.

Without any doubt, the findings would show a partisan appraisal that would be based solely on religious affiliation. The Christians will readily take the side of the Jews because they see Israel as the land of the chosen people as decreed by Yahweh while Muslims will not flinch for a second as they would give their support to the Palestinians solely because they are Muslim brethren. For each of the two groups, the historical and contemporary pros and cons of the issues at stake shall be of no serious consequence in their judgement of the case.

This is a dangerous stuff, when ‘educated’ people refuse to use their intelligence as soon as an issue has a religious undertone. This is an example of the depth of intellectual decadence which these concepts can take a practitioner. It was John Stuart Mill who said, ‘He who lets the world, or his own portion of it choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation’[vii]. Africans, from the north to the south and from the east to the west, have indeed allowed the religious world to choose their plan of life for them. Under this unwholesome bizarre atmosphere, can Africans at this moment in history deny that their status is in any way better than that of the apes?

The concept of holy land inadvertently makes every other land on earth unholy. Similarly, the concept of a chosen people makes every one else non-chosen and therefore must be filthy, dirty and sinful. In order to partake of the gains of the holy land, a non-chosen believer who is coming through the back door will endeavour under difficult circumstances and sacrifice to put together all his/her life’s saving and may go begging if necessary, to visit the land where God resides permanently. These believers in so doing will deny their country of the much-needed foreign currencies for essential economic services. The people of the holy land without any sweat at all reap a yearly bounty from the visitors who seek holiness by visitation to holy places.

The psychological damage of accepting one’s place of birth and one’s country as an unholy place and oneself as filth is too gruesome to be contemplated. The degrading impact that the ensuing inferiority complex placed on practitioners cannot be measured. Its evidence can be glimpsed when practitioners pay visit to the embassy of the custodians of holy lands for travel permits. These practitioners start their crawling from the gate of the embassy as a sign of reverence. More grotesque obeisance continues from the airport on landing at the holy land and throughout the period of the visit. How can any African who went through this form of spiritual torture walk tall and straight thereafter as a person created in the image of God. The result of the serious psychological game is visible today in Africa where every African sees, feels and thinks himself/herself inferior to the custodian of the faith, to the missionary of the faith, and to the local and foreign curators of the faith.

This is cruel and it is nothing but a spiritual bondage. In order to resuscitate Africa from its beggarly prostrate dying position, puts a burden on all those who have seen the light of truth to expose the damaging impacts of these tools of bondage. The onus is on every African to wake up from his/her degrading slumber and claim his/her freedom from the cruel and wicked slave masters. It is our conviction that knowing the truth of why we are the way we are will surely set us on the road to freedom. The truth this writer is writing about is like a piercing arrow that on contact with your soul cannot help but to awaken it from its age-long slumber. It is our belief that the power of the universe is focusing all its attention on Africa as a new age on planet earth begins. The Creator of Heaven and Earth is aware of the nature of suffering Africa and its people have gone through in the hands of the rest of the world. It is therefore in line with one of the principal attributes of The Creator, as The Lord of Justice, to challenge and correct all the evils of the past.

This writer has no iota of doubt in his mind that all the dead souls of Africa who felt comfortable with the foreign gods will find it extremely difficult to understand the content of this discourse. The self-appointed fundamentalists of both left and right who have sucked and fed on the ignorance of the people for so long should not be expected to keep quiet. However, they need to be told that they have become vampires that gladly suck on the blood of their brothers and sisters in the name of peace, salvation and the day of judgement. It is now obvious that their zeal and passion for things of heaven are mere ruses to flourish on things of earth. Their mega-million assets curried from the wretched of the earth have shown them up for what they are – lecherous bloodsuckers.

It is because these groups of religious fundamentalists lacked the spirit of love and truth that is why they could look the poor people in the eyes as these bloodsuckers point them in the direction of heaven for solace while feeding on their wretchedness and ignorance. These bloodsuckers make promises of crowns in heaven to the poor when they have built for themselves thrones and crowns of gold on earth. These bloodsuckers continue to frighten the ignorant with the day of judgement in heaven when their lifestyles show that they don’t believe there is anything beyond this earth. These bloodsuckers ceaselessly call on the poor in spirit to trust in God when they, the experts on godly matters, have since stopped believing in God. Sorry mate, you are nothing but a pervert who have succeeded in perverting the truth revealed by those of the past. Your ways are not in anyway different from those called the Hypocrites in one of your holy books.

Mr and Mrs Born-Again Christian and Mallam, Alhaji and Alhaja the Ulema, please look around you and answer these questions, Is Africa not a religious continent? Are the people of Africa not obedient enough to your spiritual prescriptions? What else do you want the Africans to do, short of laying down their lives? By your false teachings you have succeeded in breaking up their spirit. The godly dignity bestowed on all humankind has been cruelly taken away from them. Africans have become so frightened, due to your psychological war on them, that it has become so easy for every charlatan from every part of the world to take them on a merry-go-round that leads to nowhere.

Thanks to you, His/Her Holiness Spiritual Leader, your race has since become a favourable theme for hilarious one-liner jokes among the rest of world. Your people have been called many derogatory names in the past; Africa is now referred to as The Dying Continent. We can hear you again bringing out your list of prescriptions as you mount your pulpits and minarets calling for: More Prayer! More Prayer! More Prayer! Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Fasting! Fasting! Fasting! And Bigger Offering! Bigger Offering! Bigger Offering! And so the people are getting thinner but you, the spiritual leaders are sprouting robust cheekbones and rich glowing luxuriant skins.

Please, Dear Africans, whether you are in the Diaspora or on the continent, open your eyes to see the consequence of the sin of ignorance (this is the true original sin) on your lives. Open your minds to comprehend the result of what fear and gullibility have done to you. Come! Let us put to shame the enemies within and without our shores. Let us call off their bluffs. Let the power of knowledge wake you up to the true reality. The only natural power you have that can frighten off the enemy is the one found in the light of knowledge.

Knowledge is the only spiritual weapon that has the power to challenge the evil slave masters of all colours. It is only knowledge that can set you free since it is capable of offering you a free gift of supernatural courage that will enable you to challenge every evil around your vicinity. It is the contention of this writer that the salvation of Africa can never be found in religion, at least not the kinds of perversions that are being peddled around the continent. The design of these kinds of religion is made to enslave, to pauperise, to dehumanise, to belittle and to impoverish. The result of their five hundred years reign in Africa is obvious to all who are fair-minded. Africa is a shame to the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

The creator of Heaven and Earth and all the hosts of heaven cannot believe that Africa, the cradle of our world, can be reduced to this base indecent level. Africans can no longer recollect the history of the great feats that took place on their continent in the realm of knowledge development and human civilisation. The darkness in the continent has become total. Africans have become like those whose brains and minds were sucked out leaving nothing behind but shells. Africans are now leaving a zombie-like existence allowing themselves to be pushed hither and thither by the army of puppeteers in spiritual, economic and political camps.                   

God of Africa

The exposition made earlier on the process by which religious beliefs is formed made it clear that human intelligence and the stage of development determine the nature and degree of sophistication of any belief system. In addition, it is self-evident from the various religious beliefs that at the centre of every religion are a pantheon of gods. Without being unnecessarily naïve, it should follow that the gods must simply be a creation of the hands of humankind as well. However, that a group created and represented its god with artistic imagery to aid the focus of worshippers should not reduce the potency or importance of the god when compared to those with no physical representations.

It is common to read about the efforts made by the worshippers of Yahweh as they put down other belief systems, particularly those with physical representations, as idol worship. No matter what form a god is presented in the belief system of a people, one thing is constant: it is a way of showing reverence to a superior power above human capabilities. This is the central philosophy behind every religion on earth. If indeed it is true that the creation of gods is the handiwork of mankind then the god created should definitely be in the image of the creator. The gods would reflect the personality of the creator. A peace-loving person will create a peace-loving god. Similarly, a war-loving bloody person will create a war-loving and war-supporting bloody god. In the same manner, a jealous person will create a jealous god. Let us linger for a while on the jealous god.

Chambers Concise Dictionary defines jealousy as, ‘suspicious of, upset or angered by rivalry; envious, solicitous, anxiously heedful, mistrustfully vigilant, unable to tolerate unfaithfulness or the thought of it’. This is definitely an abnormal trait of the inability to share one’s possession either material or spiritual with anyone. It makes the abnormal person to be constantly on the lookout for disloyalty or signs of it. This type of abnormality is ascribed to Yahweh, the god through which Christianity evolved. African preachers who lack understanding of the cultural milieu that created this god are fond of quoting this particular trait as a plus sign to a god that brooks no disloyalty. This particular god wants total commitment from its worshippers. Does the trait of this god reflect the personality of its creator? Some of the materials in Exodus that introduced the nature of Moses’ temperament in Egypt and in the wilderness will answer this question[viii]. To be jealous is to have a restrictive sense of love, the kind of love that sets boundary. This kind of love is never all encompassing because it is strictly defined by factors that would ultimately boil down to hate – the endemic and irrational abhorrence of everything outside the boundary of the beloved.

We should not waste too much time on the jealous god, but all those who are concerned about life and what exactly is the truth of life should take some time to reflect deeply on the various forms of religion around them. Where the history of the religion is clear, try to make a comparative study of the personality of the creator of the god and the type of god created. The result of this exercise will give a good insight into the nature and origin of religion. Moreover, it will also reveal how the culture of a people is in turn affected by the personality of the god in vogue. In another sense, it seems the thinkers and philosophers of a society use religion as an instrument for creating or recreating a society in their own image, albeit through a round about strategy. Of course, it will be too obvious and upsetting to the status quo if they spelt out their intentions at the on set. By this covert method, the creators of religions limit antagonism to their grand divine plan of improving a society through spiritual re-engineering.

With this insight in mind, this writer would have invited genuine thinkers and philosophers in Africa to begin today the articulation of ideas for the creation of a truly African God or the revival of the knowledge of ancient gods that served Africa well in the past. Remember, the creation of gods is both an intellectual as well as a spiritual task and it is a job for the enlightened and awakened ones in all societies. However, this writer is again aware that in the creation of awareness for any god, the powers of heaven are always involved. It is this realisation that is now informing this writer to suggest that Africans may not need to create any god after-all, because The God of Africa is already in existence. What we need to do, right now, is to rediscover this special God of Africa. When a society flounders, as we are doing in Africa today, that is the moment the spiritual ones are raised up in order to prevent the eventual disaster that could lead to self-annihilation. It is not the first time this has happened in the history of mankind. The divine process that brings up men and women of astute minds in times of serious calamity on earth to salvage a people is one of the methods by which nature rejuvenates and recreates itself.

So far, we have realised that the jealous god of Judaism and its offspring are very hateful of all others outside their fold. This god because of its inherent hatred of others has readily given support to wars and bloodshed since Moses created it. Going through the history recorded by its worshippers, this god has consistently commanded them to do battle of ethnic cleansing on every one that they met. This god was very keen about creating a perfect race that would be free from all sins and blemishes. Hear the voice of the god, ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’.[ix] This divine intention is clearly similar to Adolf Hitler’s Aryan German project of the twentieth century. Thank heavens, both programmes failed. Thankfully, the worshippers of this god have since got tired of the ceaseless wars urged on them by the priests of Yahweh and they have quietly abandoned this jealous god. Unfortunately for the world, they have again created a new powerful god for themselves - god mammon - a much more liberal and cosmopolitan god for all seasons.

The project of rediscovering the African God should be taken as a serious project by all seekers of truth. It is under this project that Africans can safely rediscover themselves since the agents of the foreign gods stole and bastardised the natural identity of Africans. It is not only the Africans in Diaspora who are suffering from identity crisis; the total population of Africans on the continent are similarly saddled with a similar problem. Identity crisis is a psychological ailment found to be a common problem with children during the period of adolescence. Africa is like an adolescent in the societies of the world that is desperately searching for its own unique identity. For this reason, Africa continues to try out different political ideologies, different friendships, different institutional arrangements, different religious beliefs, different cultures, etc. Yet, we are not at ease with ourselves since all our socio-cultural robes are either borrowed or imposed. We have failed to stabilise on any particular personality. Nothing in Africa is unique to Africans. Everything we do - our governments, our economics, our national policies, our arts and music, our science and technology, etc. - is a copy, a mediocre imitation, of the rest of the world. How long shall this foolishness continue?     

It is necessary to make some things clear before we embark on the project of re-discovering the African God. The African God we intend to discover cannot be a jealous god. It can only be, principally and centrally, The God of impartial love. The reigning jealous god of the world is a tribal god. It was never a universal god of love and mercy, no matter how much its promoters tried to reconstruct its personality. This god hated all humanity except its chosen ones.

At this junction in the world history, every enlightened soul should join me in asking, what has the whole variety of humanity done wrong to offend the sensibilities of this god? What is wrong in worshipping god in a manner a people know how and to the best of their ability? For this innocent devotion, the jealous god was willing to crucify all the human races onto death. For many generations it counselled its chosen people not to associate with any of us. Now that they said its chosen people had rejected this god, at least in their hearts even though the ritual of worship is still being held, this god now turned its attention to Africans as the second or third best choice. According to the palaeoanthropologist, Africa is the oldest race in the world! Therefore, as the oldest race Africa should refuse to accept a third best position to any god.

Let us rediscover The God that created us in its own image. Africa is a continent of love and that is the weakness all the agents of evil has capitalised upon. The God of Africa is definitely a universal God of love that is willing to embrace all mankind as its own. This God has never discriminated against any people under any circumstances. It recognises all the other gods created by every mankind as an essential development in the direction of spiritual growth. It does not penalise any people who, by the dictate of the limit of their intelligence and knowledge, set up all kinds of artistic imagery to assist them in the teaching of the worship of the creator of life. The African God has always been a father/mother to all creations. Its personality is totally devoid of hate, jealousy and other like abnormal emotions.

The rediscovered God of Africa will not demand any blood, either of its own son or of the sons of others before it forgives human mistakes or transgressions. In fact, human sacrifice of any kind shall never be part of the rituals of worship. The only worship the African God shall demand in future will be the establishment of institutions of service to humanity, based on the foundation of the principle of ‘love your neighbour as your self’. These institutions shall be established for the sole purpose of promoting edifying thoughts, words, and practices and for abolishing fear, ignorance and servitude in Africa.

In short, the establishment of a knowledge-based culture and societies will be the minimum requirement that the rediscovered God of Africa will demand from all seekers. The African God has always been a friend and a partner to all mankind because it does not possess any trait of tyranny or despotism. Its divine gift to all seekers and searchers of truth and knowledge will continue to be the spirits of love, truth, humility and liberty. The African God, because it is The God of divine love, does not dwell in any house made by man but in the heart of all seekers of truth and life.

Summary and Conclusion

The above paragraphs will shock, frighten and anger all the dead souls in Africa but the sleeping souls will twitch and come alive. These awakened souls will not throw away the baby with the bath water but they will sit up to reflect on the sense or senselessness of this discourse. This writer has a grand design and shall not hide this from you if you have succeeded in reading this far. Our mission is to reveal the great lies that created the civilization of our world. A lot of the information given above is coded tit bits to sensitise you to think. Unless each of us begins to use our faculties, the great lies of religions, politics and economics that are about to send our continent to sleep will succeed.

Our mission is to seek out the less than five per cent of the African population who have resisted the foreign gods simply by being sincere to their consciences. Each soul knows what is true or false but fear and ignorance can condition a person to defy the quiet advice of the conscience. This five percent of the population must have been greatly troubled by the perversions going-on all over Africa in the name of God and religion. They must have been wondering if there is any supernatural force or power up there and why it has refused to intervene on the blasphemy being perpetrated under its name.

There is no doubt that the fundamentalist of the left and the right of the religious divide have been having a ball all over Africa with their deadly philosophy of peace via holy wars and of salvation through blood and cannibalism. This is the end time of religious lies, deception and duplicity. These deceptive habits must be stopped and expunged from the continent. The task is now in the court of the five per cent nonconformist Africans identified earlier who had refused to bow to the foreign gods or have since repented from their stupidity in case they had bowed to those gods in the past.

However, is it not time for our Muslim warriors and Christian warriors to rethink the sense or the senselessness of the wars they have mercilessly waged on the people of Africa? This short essay is an effort specifically directed at awakening the few thinking Africans, on the need to reappraise the holy theological claims of all the representatives of the foreign gods that are currently doing the rounds in Africa. This appraisal is necessary because of the trail of death and destruction these foreign gods are leaving behind. Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world knows that Africa is dying, that Africa is in decay and that Africa is in ruin. This is the predictable consequence of the unceasing wars of the gods on the African soils and souls.

The innocent souls of Africans with no knowledge of the raison d'être for the wars of the gods have been caught up, carved up and ruined by these holy wars.  Sudan is a classic case where these wars have moved from cold war to hot war, that is, from the spiritual realm to the physical realm. It is a country that has succeeded in keeping all the merchants of weapons of destruction in business as the country maim and kill her people for nothing. Nigeria is vigorously trying, as at this moment, to dive into a similar affray. Similar scenario is repeated in diverse forms in many countries in Africa. The religious leaders and the political leaders are arguing furiously that unless their countries follow a particular religious way, these countries cannot taste or see progress.

Dear African Brothers and Sisters, how long shall this stupidity go on? Is it not high time we began to ask among ourselves, who is right or wrong between these two combating gods? Are the moronic representatives of these gods in our midst speaking about the same god or different gods? If they are speaking about the same god, why then is the fury, the anger, the animosity, the hate, the hot blood, the ill-temper, the bigotry, the arrogance, and the strife between them? However, by the actions, pronouncements and the fruits the representatives of these gods bear, there is enough evidence to suggest that the gods of the different foreign religions are different. Again, by the level of hate among their different representatives, we could also suggest these two gods seem to be sworn eternal enemies of one another. If this is true, is it in the interest of Africans to get involved in the battles of the gods? Would it not be wise for the entire mankind to stand clear and refuse to get involved in a battle we have no knowledge of its origin or the reason behind it?  Why should mankind allow itself to be used as pawns, darts, tools and ammunitions by the warring gods?

This writer hopes he has given nobody any reason whatsoever to doubt his believe and faith in the supernatural. It is necessary for me to state my case at this junction. This writer believes there is one Supreme Power or Force or Energy that governs the affairs of our universe. Nevertheless, he humbly submits that he is not competent to give that supreme Power a name. Like the Chinese Lao Tzu says, ‘The name that can be named is not the constant name’. He also agrees with Lao Tzu that ‘The nameless was the beginning of Heaven and Earth’.[x] The Supreme Power is therefore nameless. On the same note, he agrees with Yeshua (‘Jesus’) who said in the opening prayer he taught his disciples, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name’[xi]. According to this prayer, it suggests that the name of the Supreme One is sacred and that even if it is known, it should not be used carelessly. Furthermore, the physical world and my physical being are enough testimonies to instruct my senses that both are the products of meticulous designs and plans. The writer unconditionally give the credits for these uncountable creations to the Nameless One.

Where we defer with the religionists is in their childish claims that seem to suggest that they know the Nameless One personally to the point of calling it by name or arguing that a particular name is its true name. Again, we have difficulty going along with any of them that fanatically argues that a particular way is the only way that leads to the Supreme One. In my little understanding, the writer tends to see the Supreme One as a kaleidoscope that offers an ‘ever-changing variety of beautiful colours and patterns’ with ‘a delightful diverse and unpredictable sequence of sights, events, etc.’ Meaning, whatever and whichever level or angle any of us is standing to view the Supreme One in action, what we shall see can never give the whole picture of Its essence and majesty. It is on this basis we have argued against the religious combatants in Africa. We also recognise the divine messages given to the world by the men whose names are being quoted as the founders of these two religions but we are equally aware that what goes on in the names of these two gentlemen are nothing but dreadful perversions of the truth they gave to the world.

We don’t intend to stretch this essay beyond this point but we shall take up this discourse in another work under preparation. We want this pamphlet to remain as much as possible, a short essay. To all those who have succeeded in wading through this essay, we say congratulations. This essay cannot help but have a positive impact on your life. This writer is concerned about re-programming the chips of your heart. It is our desire to seek the assistance of heaven to erase the software of hate that religion has written in your heart and to replace it with a brand new software of love that heaven has promised to write for all mankind. It is our hope that when the divine surgery is completed your new heart shall be totally devoid of hate and jealousy. The total essence of your new heart shall be solely and purely to radiate and to share true love with all creations.                                                                                       

Sam Abbd Israel

16^th September 2002

samabbdisrael@msn.com