What happened to the African religion?

Fokumlah Nchungong writes that Africans have become universal clowns for their exaggeration of foreign religious practices

It is not surprising to observe that foreign religions have destroyed our collective reasoning.   Africa and Africans have remained the dumping ground for imported ideologies and dogmatic belief systems, writes Fokumlah Nchungong.  

Isn’t it strange that the cradle of humanity and ideological developments in all aspects of our existentialism has been deprived of its religious autonomy?

While growing up, I couldn’t question the morality of these belief systems because I was indoctrinated by my parents into Christianity. Providence placed most of us in different houses of worship. We have no choices.  Getting baptized, Sunday schools, Mosques, Missionary schools, Temples, Synagogues, Shrines…; were just but normal for us.  We could never question any of those places because our parents gave us no options. Fair enough, most of us grew up with a settling moral value and we are now quite productive in the society. I just have a problem transferring those allegorical doctrines to my offspring.

But wait a minute, what happened?  If Africa is the home to the first homo-sapiens, were they not supposed to be the custodians of all religions?  Of course and certainly, they understood the essence of divinity in an advanced spiritual lineage with the so-called God which was nature in its purest form. The Sun, animals, aves, water, wind, plants, soil, air etc had attributes in understanding the “ALMIGHTY”

Now the problem is- how come we are the only continent that doesn’t practice its own religion on a global scale?

From Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Baha’i, Sikhism, Mohammedans, Scientology, …  Do we still even have to question the origin of most of the ritualistic practices they perform when worshiping God/spirit? Apparently not.  It is the same ritualistic processes being recycled constantly to feed the agenda of the “Gods words” in a chosen religious banner.  All religions practically originate from the societies’ method of understanding divinity/supernatural.  It’s not strange that it’s being practiced differently in every corner of the Earth.  It is absolutely difficult for me to associate myself with any of them when they all resonate like a business strategy which is always looking for new converts to buy the ideology.

Over 400,000 African Mohammedans travel on pilgrimage to Mecca every year.  The Vatican and Jerusalem annually receive over 300, 000 Africans on holy voyages.  India and China are also flooded yearly but Africans visiting their gurus and shrines for religious gratifications.  Talk to me about religious tourism and the financial benefits being generated.  The big question is, who is traveling to Africa for religious pilgrimages?

Yes, we have been praying to their Gods for way too long. In my experience growing up as a Christian follower,  the pastors and priests in various denominations were already dishonest enough for my taste, but our present-day charlatans called prophets, apostles, men of God; preaching in the name of prosperity gospels are becoming cancerogenic to the African State of Mind.

How many African problems have been solved since we started praying?  Have prayers ever given us good leadership and governance? Is there no Christian able to feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes? Why are we helpless and dependent on grants and crumbs, constantly taking extravagant amounts of loans from others while indebting our countries for generations to come? Manna never fell from the skies as some prayer warriors will claim they can move mountains. Why can’t these religious leaders not pray to be presidents of countries themselves or are such prayers out of reach to be miracles?

Africa has been experiencing every negative societal trend from slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, famine, religious wars (killing each because of foreign religions), natural disasters and so on.  Have prayers ever solved any of these crises?

Ethics, morality with structural accountability fostered developments in organized countries. I seldom find religious institutions scattered on every street corner here, as is the case in most African countries. The exaggeration of these practices has literally transformed us Africans into universal clowns. We are trying so hard to aggrandize the dogmas more than those that came with the doctrines. From the African man trying to preach the gospel of Jesus to a European in the streets of London, to an African man trying to convert an Arab atheist into Islam, the theatrically healing of sick people in churches and/or reviving a dead body to life in congregations.  Our minds are being perverted beyond repair. Sadly, we are still caught up in the Stockholm syndrome. It’s not startling to me that I usually only get stopped by Africans here in Stockholm to be preached the “word of God”.

We need to rethink.  These religions all try to teach or preach love but segregate the love based on dogmatic inclinations.  It’s mind-blowing to absorb the notion of “One Bible”, but we are now counting over 4000 different denominations, interpreting the “One Bible” differently while galvanizing fragile and desperate believers to follow their respective agendas. This is just an organized cacophony. It is wrong.

No country on Earth has ever developed based on prayers. Hard work is the only way.  I will never introduce my children to any religious practices. Love for all- is what I can offer. I don’t need any man to tell me how to express it. It is instinctive.

Nchungong is a Cameroonian-born writer residing in Sweden.  He is the author of a trilogy of e-books that discusses bi-racial relationship in Sweden