The Swahili proverb goes: The evil spirit of a man is a man.
Day in, and day out, videos pop up about African congregations worshiping their ‘Almighty Savior’ in churches across the continent. Western videographers – some claim they are Christians too – are increasing their pace on collecting such films. Some do the filming themselves and others are willing to pay to host such films on various websites. Alas, for what?
This video is a recent one.
So, allow me to see through this film. Here you have white men filming a group of Africans worshiping Jesus with makeshift instruments inside an uncompleted brick building without a roof.
How does this really look? You might ask. Some call it creativity. Some even go as far as say this is African ingenuity. Is it? This is what I see: a bunch of Africans wearing clothing and shoes made in China; with men foolishly wearing western suits in the sweltering Sun; dancing and singing away for no apparent reason when there is obviously work to do on that building.
Or one can say that those men happily dancing off their sweat, are just incapable, or lazy to complete the roofing of a building for themselves and for their community; who, at the same time, have completely forgotten how to use natural materials in their own environments to make musical instruments – something they could easily retrieve from their immediate history, and emulate the sheer craftsmanship of their forbears.
But no. They would rather seriously busy themselves with singing praises to a God who continues to oppress them; allowing white men to come and film them like they were animals in a bush. I am sick and tired of this African nonsense.
All I see is a bunch of desperate African men and women, who have forgotten who they are and where they come from – perhaps through no fault of their own – and are busy trying to reach for some help that will never come – God. The poverty they experience, the hunger and the desperation, is not because God has forsaken them, it’s because they have forsaken their Gods.
The problems in Africa are man-made. Africans have brought this upon themselves. First being naive about the West and white people, and second, hopelessly trying to be like these foreigners. The Evil in Africa is man-made, it is in those men, sweating profusely like toads and who think some God is going to pop out of the sky and feed their wives and hungry children.
Traditional African societies didn’t look this depressing. They didn’t look this beat, melancholic and out of touch. Traditional Africa was strong, hardworking, courageous, truthful, fact-based and never trusting of the muzungu! We never had the problems we have today.
We have to examine what Colonialism did to us in Africa, in order that we might yet turn the lives of the next generation around and in the proper direction. I would rather worship the God of the Sea in a mud-house, roofed appropriately with thatch, adequately painted by the Uli.
I would rather continue in the arts and crafts of my forbears, make and play Djembes, Dounous, Atimevus, Fontomfroms, Xylophones, etc., carved by expert drummakers; than stand in the beating heat of the Sun in the name of Jesus Christ doing completely insane things.
God forgive Africa for the way she wastes her talents!
Harsh as your words sound, I find myself agreeing with virtually every sentiment expressed! I guess one needs a particular mind-set to be able to cut through the trivialities that allow such degrading scenes to pass almost unchallenged right under our noses daily. It’s heartening to discern from your writing, that there are such as you who get it; that until we drill down to the genesis of our domination from slavery, through colonialism to the present neo-liberal, neo-colonial hegemony that sits on our people like a metal blanket, we will be unable to attain the dignity of our common humanity in our own eyes, never mind those of others.
Again Fifi Orleans-Lindsay, thank you! You put this so succinctly, yet so powerfully!
Woman Akosua M. Abeka. You don’t let up ha? You are right. I was enjoying the video before you spoiled it for me. But, you are right. You are absolutely and indefatigably correct. Sometimes we need a knock on the back of the head to start thinking. Akosua M. Abeka, you are that knock. At the back of my head. And I have started thinking. My God! Where have I been?
That line of argument is logic though never considered that in my analysis. I also appreciate that, you realise they have talent, Making the argument balance.
What talent Tweneboah Senzu? You mean, drumming and singing? Or am I missing something? Have you seen Drumming and Singing lacking in any African/Black community in Africa or in the Diaspora? Please, let us start being painfully honest. I realize it is a hard thing to do. But we have to do it if we want to change. Africa needs a Psychologist, because right now, she seems incapable of admitting her own mistakes and shortcomings. Let me reiterate, drumming and dancing might be Talent in whatever community those white men filming come from, but it is no talent where I come from. Maybe we need to thank God for it and stop fooling around like madmen in an uncompleted building. Maybe we need to work on it, work harder, and make Africa into something formidable so that men, African men, are not wasting away their energies, in the sweltering sun, for no apparent beneficial reason in crying to a God – who will never come!
Heeeeey Akosua……. Obaaa den den!!! Hmmmmm Yaa Asantewaaa
Wo beye ni den? Onua, true talk.
As an African man, this makes me angry. Thanks Akosua M. Abeka and Fifi Orleans-Lindsay. Someone needs to slap the slumber out of those men for putting that little boy in a long-sleeved shirt and a tie under the sweltering heat of the Sun. God forgive those men for leading their women and children to put up a performance for a couple of white men to film. God forgive us all for standing idly by while this continues to happen day after day. Frankly, I don’t know where to begin. If my grandfather saw me clapping, jumping and screaming my voice out of whack like that, he would have disowned me – literally. It’s a shame. What has African manliness come to?
I have read this article over and over and I’m wondering the benefit of this post. What impact do you expect to get from this article? Honestly, if indeed you are African, then I am disturbed by the influence you have on our continent and on people in general. You may have spoken from the heart and even truthfully but there is a way to speak or write in order to make positive impact. And that begs the question, do you think you have made positive impact or this is just a platform to voice out things you like or dislike? I would just like to let you know that, with the education you seem to have, it will be nice to know that there is a difference between voicing out opinions and voicing out values.
Thank you
The true religion is love.