One of the finest thinkers of African Religion is – ironically – the Tanzanian Catholic priest from Musoma, Laurenti Magesa. His magnum opus, greatest scholarly work, is 'African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life'.
Magesa makes a systematic presentation of the religion of the African people, the beliefs, practices and contemporary forms. It is a religion that touches the life of the individual and community from the womb to the tomb and the after-life.
As a former student of Magesa, keenly aware of his deep knowledge of and passion for African Religion, I am puzzled by his decision to remain a Catholic priest. It is astounding that Magesa is still a Christian despite his broad knowledge, intense convictions and trenchant and outspoken criticism of that religion.
I understand Magesa was denied a professorship and his licence to teach in Catholic institutions withdrawn by the Vatican in the Roman church’s notorious tyrannical suppression of independent thought.
Magesa’s most radical demand is that African Religion should be treated as a world religion like the others. He takes great exception to the fact that Christianity has repressed the religion of the African people.
That stance is heretical from the Christian point of view. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. To openly advocate equality of African Religion to Christianity is to deny the supremacy of Jesus.
Yet for a religion that pretends to stand for truth and justice, the breathtaking hypocrisy of Christianity in fighting African Religion beggars belief.
Right from the colonial days, Christianity has sought to destroy the faith of the African people in the process of proselytising them to a version of the religion of Jesus that would facilitate Western imperialism.
African beliefs and practices have been systematically demonised and denigrated by Christian priests. No force is singly responsible for destruction of the African soul and undermining of the continent’s development as Euro-American Christianity.
Religion is the deepest expression of a people’s understanding of their world. It defines who they are in relation to everything around them. To destroy a religion and impose on a people an alien worldview is the ultimate oppression.
Upon realising the resilience of African Religion despite the sustained onslaught of Christianity, priests and theologians shamefully sought to appropriate African practices and incorporate them into church worship.
The Christian term for that robbery of African life ways is inculturation. Christianity zealously encourages the incorporation of selected practices of African Religion to make the teachings of Jesus look African.
It is a diabolical scheme to hoodwink Africans who find Christianity foreign to their beliefs and thought patterns. It is a disgusting form of spiritual colonialism.
There is nothing authentic about inculturation. African spirituality is mutilated and manipulated to reflect Christian beliefs that are totally alien to it.
Much of the adaptation is shallow, consisting of mere forms like dress, songs or even proverbs without the pithy, life-affirming substance embodied by these symbols of African Religion.
A Christian bishop or priest who is made an African “elder” or quotes a community’s proverbs to explain Christian teaching or wears religious vestments fashioned after African attire is a shameful impostor, cursed by the Ancestors.
Inculturation reinforces the spiritual arrogance of Euro-American Christianity as the superior religion to all the others.
The emancipation of African Religion from such odious spiritual theft and corruption is urgent. African Religion must be treated in equal terms as all world religions, as Magesa believes and teaches.
Christianity should be ashamed of its sins against African Religion, desist from robbery of African beliefs and practices, and stick to its Euro-American agenda.
