Africa: A Marxian Analysis

 Introduction

1. State and class in pre-colonial West Africa

2. Tribalism, colonialism and capitalism

3. Religion, racism and class

4. Sharia in Nigeria: a class analysis

5. The poverty of education in Ghana

6. South Africa in the twentieth century

Africa: A Marxian Analysis – worldsocialism.org/spgb

His Excellency

Dear Comrades

  I was shocked a few weeks ago when I read the utterances by a Mr. Steve Franke (said to work for a global group) in a local daily. He attributes President Mugabe’s socio-economic catastrophe to his Marxism. I wonder if anyone on Earth could be farther from Marxism than Mr. Mugabe: Mr. Trump is much better because he acquired his wealth outside of government office. Our own Mr. Excellency abused Marxism (equality/fairness) to win public support.

  If you have access to the likes of Mr. Franke kindly put the following questions: Did not Marx say (if socialism is implemented) the state will wither away? While 99 percent of us (Zimbabweans) are literally starving is not His Excellency building a too large army and police force? Marxism? Add state-of-the-art military academies (and we are not under threat from anyone), new parliament, new capital city etc.

  While we starve Mr. Mugabe was among the poor before going into public office, but his cabinet are Christian, did not Marx criticize religion? In fact, what I can say is that Marx overrated influential people’s morals and compassion. And while Christ and other religionists were dreamers, mysticists (selfish and arrogant) Marx was the best in terms of ethics, they (gullibly) believe they will join their god in the (imaginary) paradise. Although they now disown each other, law, politics, religion originate together, in a bid to make order to society; tragically the cunning and powerful abused power selfishly. Hence proponents of just, fair and ethical ideals like Marx were condemned while proponents of bigotry/dictatorship like Christ (read, e.g. Matthew 10:34-42 and Luke 9:59-60) are eulogised. An Almighty Dad (if he has the power; love and mercy he is said to have) would never subject his son to barbaric torture.

  Instead of facing reality (like Marx), mysticists waste time and resources wrestling an imaginary monster. Thus the very real monsters abusing power (the bully bigots exploiting and torturing 99 percent of the population) are ignored. Really, some churches are very well organised, help their members in need but, pathetically, if you are going in the wrong direction, you will never get to your destination, however graceful your pace may be.

  Bigots wishfully think they can lock reality out of the front door. I am one of the many made destitute when our cruel and selfish leaders forfeited our savings (now I am unemployable due to age. Ironically, His Excellency wants to work beyond 2020, even if he is 25 years older than me, old enough to be my father. But ever since robbing us in 2008/9 they are bombarding us with propaganda ‘Empowerment! Zim asset’ instead of doing some good to us. They defrauded/robbed in 2008/9, once more they are squandering millions of US dollars telling us how good His Excellency is and how much good is in store for us come 2018.

  A week ago: people were tortured and chased by armed police from demonstrating against the bond notes, but the Herald newspaper came out with ‘people ignore the planned demo…’ Yes, locking reality out of the front door, but they forget we live in the situation, although we have no access to the internet and we cannot afford phones, which can access Facebook, Google etc. Yes, religious propagandists are safer because with their acumen to articulate and encourage the suspension of logic, hallucinate and infatuate congregants.

GODWIN HATITYE, Harare, Zimbabwe

Disciple of Evil (2)

Rows of sick people queue up one afternoon in downtown Lagos. There are people with crutches, mothers with crying babies, a couple of wheelchair-bound people and several with bad coughs. This is not a hospital; it’s a sports center. And they are not waiting to see a doctor; they are here to see a preacher.

 T.B. Joshua is one of Nigeria’s most controversial clergymen. Besides claiming to have a direct line to God, this 52-year-old has been performing so-called “healing miracles” for 20 years. He has his own TV shows, two million Facebook fans, sold-out events and branded merchandise. The latest estimates put his wealth at about $150 million. His church has branches all over the world, from the U.K. to Australia. He often goes on what he calls “Miracle Crusades” to other nations.

“He exploits the naïveté or desperation of his followers with no accountability,” says Pradip Thomas, a scholar at the University of Queensland and co-editor of the book Global and Local Televangelism. A dozen people died last year when one of his event venues collapsed. Joshua has not been held legally accountable for the incident…but surely it was another message from God to him?

Joshua is certainly not the only millionaire priest in Nigeria.

The first Pentecostal missions arrived in Nigeria in 1910. By 1970, there were an estimated 300,000 converts, and by the turn of the century, 30 to 40 million, according to Ruth Marshall, professor at the University of Toronto’s Departments for the Study of Religion and Political Science and author of Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. According to the World Christian Database, some 12 percent of Africans are Pentecostals.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/millionaire-god-payroll-080000251.html

Disciple of Evil (1)

Deya is a 63-year-old, Bentley-driving preacher. The self-styled “Archbishop”, who claims to perform healing miracles at his services across the UK, has raised millions in donations and tax breaks since his charity opened in 1997. The charitable status of his church has already been investigated twice, and he has been fighting extradition to Kenya for years. Allegations against Deya initially surfaced in the Kenyan media in 2004 and he has been wanted by Kenyan authorities since his arrest in the UK in 2006 to face allegations of child-trafficking. Police in Kenya allege that Deya’s “miracle babies” are part of an international baby-snatching ring, connected to disappearances from hospitals in Nairobi.

Kenyan police allege that several children were sold to Deya by women living in slums in Nairobi. According to Radik Malinskow, who works for child-trafficking charity HAART in Kenya, poverty has a large part to play.

“Some of those woman have several children to feed and often they find it difficult to accommodate a new child,” he told IRIN. “The poverty in the slums is very high. Women find it very difficult to cope with the lack of economical resources and some of them have to survive on one or two dollars a day.”

Gilbert Deya Ministries describes itself as a Christian charity that aims to spread the word of God. Its website, which presents Deya as a visionary ordained by God, refutes the “negative publicity” surrounding Deya’s “miracles” stating: “the truth remains he has never been found guilty by the court of law in the UK”. In his 2003 book “Curses of Sexual Sins”, Deya declares AIDS a curse, calls homosexuality an “abomination”, suggests infertility may be caused by “generation curses”, and tells the reader he can help them with “miracle babies”. Despite the controversy surrounding the child-trafficking allegations and Deya’s possible extradition, his ministries have raised more than £10 million ($12.98 million) in the UK over the past decade, some of it public money from British charity Gift Aid tax breaks.

Gilbert Deya Ministries, which is based in London, has a number of churches across the UK, as well as a branch in Belgium. Publications by Deya and his church say there are also branches in India, Zimbabwe, and the United States. Deya has published books, maintains an extensive social media presence, and at one point ran a TV channel carried by Sky. Billboards for his tour in August this year in Manchester, UK, promised “unusual miracles”.

In 2014, Deya’s ministries had an annual income of more than £864,000 (some $1.4 million at the time). About 90 percent of this came from donations. An analysis of the ministries’ accounts on the Charity Commission website reveals “a cocktail of bad accounting”, according to Joe Saxton from nfpSynergy, a consultancy firm for charities. Typically, 70 percent of a charity’s spending is on “charitable activities”, and about one or two percent on governance costs. But, according to Gilbert Deya Ministry’s own accounts, it spent nothing on “charitable activities”, and its governance costs for 2014 were around 30 percent of its income. “An awful lot of questions have come out of the accounts,” said Saxton. “There are strange patterns of expenditure like writing off bad debts, and things that I can’t think of a logical explanation for.”

The Charity Commission’s website reveal that Gilbert Deya Ministries was late filing its accounts two years in a row. For 2012, the charity provided the regulator with its accounts 453 days late. The previous year, the accounts were 152 days late. Alongside this, the “charitable activities” expenditure, compared to its governance and legal costs, has dropped significantly. Its most recent accounts, in 2014, declare that it spent £0 on “charitable activities” in that year. In August, the Charity Commission announced the latest investigation into Deya’s operations, referring to issues related to “safeguarding” – a term used in connection with protection of children – whilst also raising concerns over the charity “selling olive oil to which it attributed healing qualities”. It also said the trustees “have failed to report serious incidents to the commission and to provide adequate responses to the questions raised”. Deya remains one of six trustees of the charity in the UK. Whilst the controversy surrounding Gilbert Deya Ministries persists, the charity continues to grow. Official land documents obtained by IRIN reveal that the charity made more than £3.8 million ($4.95 million) from the recent sale of its property in Peckham, London. It has since moved its headquarters to a Greater London suburb, Sutton. Posts on the Gilbert Deya Ministries Facebook page claim that the charity also purchased 3.54 hectares of land in Sutton, on which Deya says he aims to build a hotel and a petrol station.

Deya’s wife has been in and out of court and prison in Kenya on child-trafficking charges. Mary Deya was initially arrested in 2005. In 2007, she was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing a child and one year for obtaining a false birth certificate. She was convicted in a second case in 2011. In 2014, Kenya’s high court upheld her conviction, and, finally, in 2015, Mary Deya dropped a further appeal and continued to serve her time.

Attempts to extradite Deya to Kenya to face child-trafficking charges appear to have stalled. The Kenyan authorities requested his extradition in 2007. Deya appealed, stating that the extradition would breach his human rights and suggesting that his connection to Raila Odinga, the previous prime minister of Kenya, meant he could face torture back in his native country. Although he lost the appeal, the Home Office has never followed through with the extradition. In 2014, Kenyan media reported that one sticking point was that the UK had requested that Deya be held in one of two higher-standard prison facilities. the UK Home Office told Deya’s local MP that it was “considering further representations from Mr. Deya” claiming that his extradition would breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

MP David Lammy, told IRIN.

“Clearly there needs to be a review of how this despicable child trafficker and fraudster has been able to run rings around judicial and regulatory systems for so many years,” he said. “We should never forget that Gilbert Deya’s victims are innocent children who will have to live with his actions for the rest of their lives.”

Fellow African, Why Do You Believe This Hogwash?

From the August issue of the Socialist Standard

Although whoever wrote the Bible wrote it all by rote, they did not write it right. At best it is a history of the Jews, their neighbours and their beliefs, tragically misunderstood, misinterpreted by psychologically defeated, timid, brainwashed and gullible Africans.

The story of Eden, Adam and ensuing events depicts an area and a primitive tribe, like all primitive (ancient) peoples, and primitive geography, who were not aware of the existence of other people and remote regions, and in other cases completely detached from them. Note that the Bible map is confined to the far north Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya), Middle East and a few neighbouring areas. That is why (I stand to be corrected) I have yet to come across in the Bible the fate of London, Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Maputo, Harare, Gaborone, Cape Town, unlike the fate of Jerusalem.

Sadly, religion in Africa is mistaken for morals and yet it is the epitome of arrogance and selfishness, e.g. read the silly talk 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.' No, 'Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead' (Matthew 8:21-22). To admire such in this era calls for the suspension of logic. Why would anyone now and 10,000 km away despise my relatives and friends and emulate/adore an arrogant, primitive egoist who is said to have died more than 2,000 years ago? But to the majority African the ‘second coming’ is real, and hell is real. Despite endless strife in Jerusalem, my ill-learned black apostles sing daily that they will soon join mighty Jesus in Jerusalem (I could send you tons of discs of ‘circus’ like events, mainly being prayers and spiritual healing sessions).

The so-called ‘second coming’ is based on false primitive dreams and hallucinations. The prophecies are mere prognostications based on previous events. Since the events leading to the condemnation of Galileo by Christians the majority of Westerners have come to realise that all phenomena considered mysterious and transcendental, are mathematically, scientifically proved (or disproved) and predictable. Unlike ‘waffling’ prophets (generalising/prognosticating on previous events) scientists can accurately forecast some natural events to the exact minute and place. I recall, e.g. in June 2001 and on 9 December 2002 (here in Zimbabwe a total eclipse of the sun at the exact place and time). Nothing mystical as per the religionists.

And what then happened to the very communicative 'God of Israel', always forewarning on events to come? It is strange that after 'sacrificing his only son' to end sin and strife, there is worse sin and strife; Jerusalem is most certainly not a quiet habitation (Isaiah 9) (Gaborone is, but never known by the Lord). Is he the same kind Lord now sitting quietly in eternal peace in Jerusalem (on Mount Zion) dispensing without forewarning storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, causing great suffering/deaths, which he could prevent (if he wanted as suggested by religion), just to prove his might? As much as he sacrificed his only son to save the world – which was never saved – and to make Israel the greatest nation, which was almost wiped out by Hitler instead. So much for propagating and adhering to primitive dogma based on archaic dreamers submissive to illusions and hallucinations.

Brethren, and some religious zealots elsewhere, do not realise that the unending strife in the Middle East (current changes of leaders aside) now spreading to north Africa, is sustained by adherence to such primitive bigotry, dogma and propagating mythical tribal superiority. .Brothers and sisters, all religion is rubbish. A prayer is a wish! For sure, we cannot live without wishes. However fervent our wishes and prayers, they can never erect an imaginary thing into something tangible. Heaven and Hell never exist.

The socio-political systems adopted by all so-called independent African leaders and governments are based on capitalism as learned in many cases from former colonial masters. Counties have been ‘won back’ soon after hoisting their ‘own flag’ and for decades the masses will celebrate this flapping piece of cloth, realising too late that they have entrenched the same old oppressive robbery. Only the complexion, the individual politicians or the religious diversions will have changed.

GODWIN HATITYE, ZIMBABWE

Kick Christianity and Islam out of Africa

HP: Why do you think it is important to kick Christianity and Islam out of Africa?

Jd Otit (The administrator of World Atheists: Lets Kick Islam and Christianity out of Africa): Africa definitely would be a great place without foreign religion. We might not be able to eradicate the worship of African deities by Africans, however, the worship of African Gods is less problematic than the evils and atrocities associated with these two foreign doctrines Islam and Christianity.

Africa will fare better as one people. Islam and Christianity has divided us; it has torn the fabric of brotherhood that held us together; we see ourselves as Muslims or Christians; we do not recognize what bound us together anymore - our color, our Africaness, our common adversities as a people - we rejoice at the peril of Muslims or Christians because we do not think any more as “African” but rather we label ourselves according to some Middle Eastern idiocy introduced to us through slavery.

My experience of religious Africa is of people who are stupidly passive and numb due to faith and expectations of a greater reward in some paradise. African people have left the fight to “god” - Jewish and Arab Gods are now their escape route, due to fear and cowardice.

HP: Do you think Africa would be more prosperous without religion?

Jd Otit: Africa would prosper greatly without religion. People would not leave situations that require revolutions or human interventions to some invisible sky being, hence manufacturing the slave chains that will hold their next generations in captivity.

Today the people on top are enjoying the disunity and chaos amongst the ordinary people, these are distractions that is working very well for the African elite, “blame the devil, blame yourselves, pray to God , but never blame us, it’s always the devil’s work. “ That is the mantra of the African elite.

HP: Would Africa be less violent without religion?

Jd Otit: Africa would definitely be less violent, there would be less hatred amongst Africans due to different belief system.

HP: We are concerned about over-population in Africa, which has the world’s highest fertility rate.

Jd Otit: Africa is not overpopulated, we have more than enough for our needs, Africa is suffering not because of lack of resources to sustain its people, Africa is suffering due to the greed of the top few, Africa is facing hardship due to mismanagement that is encouraged by western powers. Everyone knows the richness within the African continent; sadly exploitation and encouragement of corruption by the West has impoverished the ordinary African. Overpopulation is not what we should be addressing, but rather corruption and confronting those who are benefiting from the African chaos.

Full interview here

Away with superstition

A string of murders that began in 2000 has now left more than 72 albinos in Tanzania dead. These killings are believed to be motivated by the lucrative trade in albino body parts, which some Africans believe possess magical powers.

Tanzania has now been listed by the United Nations as the African nation where albinos are targeted for murder the most. According to long-standing traditions in the country, albinos are believed to be ghosts who are cursed, but whose body parts can ward off bad luck, and bring the owner wealth and success. In response to these killings, in January 2015 Tanzania banned witch doctors.

In East Africa, one child in 3,000 is born albino which rises to one in every 1,400 Tanzanians, compared to one in 20,000 in the United States.  In Tanzania, albino advocacy groups estimate the number of albinos to be somewhere above 100,000 in a population of nearly 50 million people. 

A one-year-old albino boy, abducted from his home in northwestern Tanzania over the weekend, was found murdered on Tuesday with his "arms and legs hacked off," according to the local police chief. This gruesome discovery shows that despite new laws banning the witch doctors who prey upon them, people with albinism are still vulnerable in the East African nation.

In Tanzania the body parts of albinos are prized by witch doctors and their superstitious followers as they are said to bring wealth and luck when used in charms. A complete set of body parts can be sold for as much as $75,000, according to the Red Cross.

This victim, Yohana Bahati, was kidnapped from his family home in the Geita region by an armed gang. Police said his mother, Esther, was struck with a machete as she tried to protect him. "Unfortunately this family resides in a protected forest area," Joseph Konyo, the regional police commander, told Reuters. "It was extremely difficult for the police to immediately arrest the suspected robbers." Two other albino children who were in the house were not taken.

As albino body parts have become more valuable, family members have been tempted to sell their own albino family members to witch doctors for money. "I have found many parents who have been convicted for this," said Josephat Torner, an activist fighting for the rights and safety of albinos in his country. "They sold their children to the killers." Only two months ago, a 4-year-old girl, Pendo Emmanuelle Nundi, was snatched from her home in Mwanza, also in northwestern Tanzania. Fifteen people were initially arrested in connection with her disappearance, including the girl's father.

In August 2012, a report on the risks to albino children in Tanzania was published by Under The Same Sun, an NGO that focuses on the plight of people with albinism. "Myths include the belief that people with albinism never die — they simply vanish," the report stated, adding that many believe, "they are not human, but ghosts, apes, or other sub-human creatures." These superstitions mean that "infanticide and physical attacks causing death and bodily harm are common place in the region," according to the report.

"We have identified that witch doctors are the ones who ask people to bring albino body parts to create magical charms which they claim can get them rich," said Tanzania's Home Affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe when the law was passed. "We will leave no stone unturned until we end these evil acts."

https://news.vice.com/article/another-albino-child-is-murdered-and-mutilated-in-tanzania

End Anti-Blasphemy Laws

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has launched a campaign aimed at abolishing “blasphemy laws” worldwide. The campaign is gaining momentum across Europe and beyond. But there is still no significant support from groups in Africa.

The campaign focuses on getting world leaders to understand that blasphemy laws are incompatible with human rights and democratic values in this 21st century. Campaigners plan to get states to repeal legislations that criminalize “insult to religion”, hurting religious sentiments, or any laws that restrict questions, criticism, or ridicule of religion or religious concepts. Blasphemy laws exist in many states across Africa. They are used as tools to oppress and discriminate against religious minorities. The abolition of blasphemy laws is in the interest of Africa and African emancipation. At the end of the day, blasphemy laws are used to legitimize religious privilege not religious liberty. They are employed to undermine freedom of religion, free press and free speech.

Both Christianity and Islam are foreign religions. These religions promote teachings and doctrines which some people can interpret as insult to indigenous African beliefs or as offensive to traditional African religious sentiments. But no one has called for the prosecution of christian and muslims preachers who ‘defamed’ indigenous African religions. Exercising their freedom of religion and expression, christian missionaries and muslim scholars questioned, criticized, and ridiculed indigenous African religions. Both Christianity and Islam owe their spread and dominance in the region to the blasphemous mission against African traditional beliefs. If there were existing blasphemy laws before the advent of these faiths, there would probably be no Christianity or Islam in Africa or the two faiths would not be as dominant or widespread as they are today. If making mockery of any religion were a crime then most christian and islamic clerics would be in jail. Abolishing blasphemy laws is not just in the interest of non religious or freethinking people but in the interest of religious believers as well.

http://www.spyghana.com/africa-support-end-blasphemy-laws-campaign/

Yes, let us end blasphemy laws in Africa but also let us end capitalism in Africa.

Neither God, Nor Master

THE WORLD SOCIALIST MOVEMENT 

 “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Marx

Charismatic and evangelical African churches and “pastors” have become astonishingly profitable businesses, cashing in from ordinary Africans’ disillusionment with the mainstream churches, politics and traditional institutions. Failures by mainstream churches to find answers to the causes of African angst have pushed people into the hands of more avaricious churches.

Church leaders such as Nigeria’s TB Joshua, founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria, are cleverly exploiting a deep sense of “existential insecurity”, the pervasive, deep-seated and persistent feelings of anxiety or angst, insecurity and vulnerability felt by many ordinary Africans across the continent. He exploits the spiritual poverty and brokenness of people. Day-to-day life for most Africans is a struggle to make sense of a world that has disappointed them in every sense imaginable. How does one raise children, have relationships and earn a living when life is precarious, the future uncertain and where loved ones can be killed on a whim at any moment by authorities, bandits or criminals? Collectively, colonialism, apartheid and African post-independence misrule since World War II have plunged millions of Africans into spiritual poverty.

The continued legacy of the terrifying, destabilising impact of slavery, colonialism and apartheid, which destroyed the “familiar and trusted social benchmarks” that anchored individuals, communities and societies and gave individuals a sense of self-worth. For many Africans, slavery, colonialism and apartheid have induced the “feeling that the self has no foundation” any more. These terror regimes left generations of broken individuals, with a destroyed sense of self. The post-independence chronic poverty, insecurity and persistent and violent threats to individuals, families and communities – persistent threats of genocide, arbitrary official violence and family destruction – under African governments reinforced the angst. Rapid mass industrialisation and technological change to which many African societies reinforced the process of “dislocation” – whether cultural, individual or social, and compounded the African sense of “existential insecurity”.

African political movements and leaders have ruthlessly exploited such “existential insecurities” to enrich themselves, stay in power for life, and brutalise individuals and communities, by creating “bogeymen”, such as the threat that former colonial regimes – the cause of “existential insecurity” – could return. Or they have often climbed the greasy pole by mobilising their “own” ethnic group to support them politically on the basis that “other” ethnic groups are the new post-independence source of potential insecurity or “threat”.

African traditional institutions and leaders have also failed the continent – and have mostly, like their political peers, also exploited the feelings of “existential insecurity” of their “subjects” to enrich themselves and entrench their control over them. Some have achieved this by pushing for a nostalgic return to a mystical African pre-colonial cultural nirvana, based on selective African “traditions, customs and cultures” that often conveniently reinforce their power over their “subjects”. Many African post-independence leaders have used morphed parts of African culture to entrench their rule, oppress their people, attack critics and enrich themselves just as colonial or apartheid powers did.

President Jacob Zuma says Zulu culture dictates you can see by the way a woman sits that she wants sex. This is a despicable insult to Zulu culture and all African culture and is typical of the use by many African leaders of invented African “culture” to entrench their rule, whether it be Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe or Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh. Aspects of African “custom” have become irrelevant to the modern and complex problems faced by Africans – and ancient ones, such as “ubuntu” (kindness to others) and “lekgotla” (consulting widely before making decisions) are often discarded by supposedly vocal political supporters of African “culture” who are happy to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

There has been a failure by mainstream churches – of Western origin and indigenous African ones – to provide relevant answers to the causes of African angst. Not surprisingly, many Africans have sought refuge in religious fundamentalism, whether Islam or evangelical, to overcome their angst. Unscrupulous fundamentalist leaders – Christian and Muslim – have exploited this. African evangelical pastors, such as Joshua, has been to understand this pervasive African spiritual poverty and to make money out of it. His net worth in excess of $15 million.

Africans need a new sense of purpose. One way to achieve this is for Africans across the continent to work for the common good, to strive for common ownership and to pursue democratic socialism. A land that has been dry for long will reject water. But small drops of rain will give it moisture, we are the droplets, and we are already witnessing a trickle. In time there will be a flood of us.

From here

Irrational Ebola Theories

The Liberian Council of Churches has blamed Ebola on homosexuality. It’s tragic enough that 10,000 people have contracted Ebola in the region, and that half of them have died. Now, according to a report in Reuters, gay people are literally afraid to walk the streets after religious leaders have blamed the plague on them and newspapers have splashed their photos on the front page.

"Since church ministers declared Ebola was a plague sent by God to punish sodomy in Liberia, the violence toward gays has escalated. They're even asking for the death penalty. We're living in fear," LGBT activist Leroy Ponpon told Reuters over the phone from Monrovia. 

The Liberian Council of Churches released a statement saying "God is angry with Liberia, and that Ebola is a plague."  It went on:

 “Liberians have to pray and seek God's forgiveness over the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexualism, etc.) that continue to penetrate our society. As Christians, we must repent and seek God's forgiveness.”

"Voluntary sodomy" is a crime in Liberia and can lead to a year in jail.

President Ellen Sirleaf called for a three-day period of fasting and prayer back in August, “to seek God’s face to have mercy on us and forgive our sins and heal our land.” Notably, Sirleaf’s call blamed witchcraft, rather than homosexuality, for the spread of the disease.

Oh, those backward Liberians. Oh, those backward Christians. Oh, those backward homophobes. But didn’t Ronald Reagan say that the AIDS epidemic took place because “illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments”?

In early August, Oklahoma conservative Christian radio host Rick Miles appeared to echo the anti-gay Liberian clergymen, pinning the advent of the epidemic on things loathed by American right-wing.

 "This Ebola epidemic can become a global pandemic, and that’s another name for plague," he said. "It may be the great attitude adjustment that I believe is coming. Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion."

Rational explanations for epidemics such as poor basic health-care and lack of medical dethrones their God from the position of Controller-in-Chief. And if God isn’t the one calling the shots in the universe, why bother with religion? So, better a vengeful God, who punishes a nation because some in it are having sex, than no God at all.

The "Blessed" Nigerian Pastors

Exactly how much of Nigeria's $510bn GDP mega-churches make up is difficult to assess, since they are, like the oil sector, largely opaque entities. Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands each year in these popular Pentecostal houses of worship, which are modelled on their counterparts in the United States. Some of the churches can hold more than 200 000 worshippers and, with their attendant business empires, they constitute a significant section of the economy, employing tens of thousands of people and raking in tourist dollars, as well as exporting Christianity globally.

“They don’t submit accounts to anybody,” says Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives. “At least six church leaders have private jets, so they have money. How much? No one really knows.”

As the churches have charity status, they have no obligation to open their books, and certainly don’t have to fill in tax returns. The National Bureau of Statistics declined to comment on how churches fit into their GDP figures, but a source there said they were included as “non-profit”, which falls under “other services” in the latest figures. In 2013, the category contributed 2.5% of GDP, the same as the financial sector.

In 2011, Forbes magazine estimated the fortunes of Nigeria’s five richest pastors. Oyedepo topped the list, with an estimated net worth of $150-million. Oyedepo’s headquarters, “Canaanland”, is a 4 250-hectare campus in Ota, outside the commercial capital Lagos. It comprises a university, two halls of accommodation, restaurants and a church seating 50 000 people, with a total overflow capacity of five times that. A spokesperson said the church has 5 000 branches across Nigeria, and 1 000 more in 63 other countries across five continents. But Oyedepo’s empire also includes two fee-paying universities that he built from scratch, a publishing house for Christian self-help books, and an elite high school. Oyedepo other “blessings” include a Gulfstream V jet and several BMWs. The enterprises on the Canaanland campus, from the shops selling cold sodas and bread, to a woman boiling instant noodles and eggs for breakfast in a lodge, to pop-up book stalls hawking Oyedepo’s prolific literary output, are owned by the church’s estate, which employs their staff on its payroll. The church employed more than 18 000 people in Nigeria alone. Britain’s Charity Commission says it is reviewing potential conflicts of interest in his finances, and last month the Home Office barred him from Britain, though it declined to say why.

He was followed by “Pastor Chris” Oyakhilome of Believers’ LoveWorld Incorporated, also known as the Christ Embassy and popular with executives and politicians, on $30-million to $50-million. Oyakhilome owns magazines, newspapers and 24-hour TV station, and Joshua draws miracle-seekers from all over the world with claims that the holy water he has blessed cures otherwise incurable ailments such as HIV/Aids.

TB Joshua, pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, at the centre of the recent diplomatic storm over the  collapse of its guesthouse last month, killing 115 mostly South African pilgrims, , was thought to have $10-million to $15-million. Before Joshua built his 10 000-seat headquarters at Ikotun-Egbe in outer Lagos, the area was part swamp, part abandoned industrial estate. Now, it is a boom town with shops, hotels, eateries and bars. Joshua also runs a TV station.

A former banker at Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa recalled being approached five years ago by a church that was bringing in $5-million a week from contributions at home or abroad. “They wanted to make some pretty big investments: real estate, shares,” he said. Nigerian churches do often invest large amounts of their congregations’ money in shares and property, at home and abroad, he and another banking source said.

One pastor bought three billion naira ($18-million) worth of shares in the defunct Finbank, which later merged with FCMB, after it was rescued in a bail-out in 2009, a fund manager who handled the deal told Reuters. The pastor used a nominee trust account to keep his name off the books. In 2011, Oyakhilome was investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and charged with laundering $35-million of contributions to his church in foreign bank accounts.

Like US televangelists, these churches preaches the “prosperity gospel” that faith in Jesus Christ lifts people out of poverty, and that message partly explains the explosion of the Pentecostal movement in sub-Saharan Africa, where misfortune and poverty are often seen as having supernatural causes.

From here

South Africa - Will Law Be Influenced By Religion?

As captured in the equality clause of South Africa’s Bill of Rights, “everyone is equal before the law”, wherein “equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms”.

Those rights and freedoms encompass the political, civil, legal, environmental, social, economic and cultural. Simply put, all of our democratic rights and associated freedoms are indivisible.

Unfortunately, it would appear as though Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, alongside many of our politicians and citizens need to be reminded of this basic democratic principle.

Much of the furore and debate that has surfaced over the recent public comments made by the Chief Justice have revolved around his argument that South Africa “can only become a better people if religion could be allowed to influence the laws that govern our daily lives starting with the Constitution …”

More specifically Mogoeng’s contention that a wide range of societal problems such as “maladministration, crime, corruption [and] dishonesty” along with (religiously-infused and defined) personal behaviour/action such as “adultery, fornication [and] divorce” would, “be effectively turned around significantly, if religion were to be factored into the law-making process”, really stirred the pot.

While there are certainly many reasons to be seriously concerned about the Chief Justice’s views, whether from a legal, moral or political perspective, much of the ensuing commentary has unfortunately revolved around whether he should have even made his views public. This is a false debate. We cannot pick and choose which rights and freedoms can or cannot be enjoyed and by whom simply because we don’t like them or because of the individual’s institutional standing.

However, there is a more fundamentally worrying aspect of Mogoeng’s utterances that has been largely ignored. As opposed to merely conveying the hope that religion (in particular his own variant) might, at some point, play a more prominent role in shaping the law, Mogoeng explicitly stated that “laws must be enacted to advance and not to narrow the operation of, the right to freedom of religion”.

While a strong case can certainly be made for appropriate laws in countries that presently have little or no constitutional or other legal protection when it comes to the “right of freedom of religion”, the immediate question that arises for those who live in South Africa is why on earth would we need such additional laws?

The right to freedom of religion is already constitutionally protected and unlike a host of other rights and freedoms, such as the right to a range of basic needs/services as well as the right to freedom of expression and access to information, there are no discernable contemporary threats or politically-motivated attempts to undermine this particular right.

Given the lack of an objective basis for Mogoeng’s call - as specifically applied to South Africa - it is then to the subjective that we must turn. In this respect, the only rational explanation is that the Chief Justice desires to see the right to freedom of religion given special legal and political treatment and protection above and beyond that accorded to all other rights and freedoms contained in the Constitution.

On the juridical front such a desire, if practically realised, would clearly be unconstitutional. We live in a democracy in which our constitution clearly delineates that there is no hierarchy of rights and where every right/freedom contained therein may be limited by a law of general application. As the Bill of Rights avers and which Deputy Chief Justice Moseneke specifically reminded us of not long ago, the right to religious freedom is not absolute and its scope may be limited by other rights.

Further though, in his recent comments Mogoeng painted a picture of imminent and dark threats to freedom of religion (in all “pluralistic societies” in Africa), imbuing the associated right with an almost super-natural character. He stated: “Religious freedom is … a bulwark against violent extremism [and] failure to respect and entrench the culture of religious freedom could result in a climate of intolerance and impunity that emboldens those who ferment hatred and violence in our societies.”

Leaving aside the hyperbole and ahistorical bent, such claims, when placed in the context of Mogoeng’s well-publicised views on religion, social relations and his political pedigree, surface a decidedly negative interpretation. In this reading, Mogoeng’s comments are much closer to the discourse of the religious right in the USA.

In the ‘land of the free’, the (Christian) religious right have successfully used the call for expanded freedom of religion, always making sure to accentuate its positive societal attributes, to cover for the championing of laws, social attitudes and political practices that practically encourage and entrench a climate of intolerance, impunity and hatred. Under this cover, there is now an ever-expanding campaign to effectively by-pass whatever jurisprudence that clashes with the values and practices of such self-constructed ‘freedom of religion’.

Anyone, and in the USA there are many, who has tried to remind the religious right that freedom of religion does not trump all the other rights and freedoms in that country’s Bill of Rights, have themselves been accused of intolerance, of attempting to impose ‘a dictatorship of secularism’ and yes, of directly opposing the word and will of God (in this case, the Christian variety). You get the picture.

Back in 2000 the Constitutional Court ruled, in the case of Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education that the right to freedom of religion did not entitle Christian private schools to carry out their biblically-sourced belief in corporal punishment. It was a simple case of applying South Africa’s general law which prohibits corporal punishment in schools on an equal basis. In other words, there are no exceptions on the basis of ‘the right to freedom of religion’.
Mogoeng has publicly stated that he would not allow his religiously-sanctioned homophobia to supersede the constitutional protection of same-sex relationships. However, the point here is not so much about the direct imposition of specific religious beliefs in law but about using freedom of religion to sanction and rationalise a parallel legal and social world that stands above and beyond other rights and freedoms.

Will the present Chief Justice allow his religious fervour, under the cover of advancing the “right to freedom of religion”, to muddy our constitutional and societal waters? We should know soon enough.

By Dr. McKinley, an independent writer, researcher and lecturer as well as political activist.

 from here

Divine inspiration: Mere hallucination/infatuation!

I wish to debate the issue at any possible platform or through any available/affordable media. Perhaps there are other people like my neighbours, the Yirira: abandoned, ignored, neglected by evangelists, politicians and fortune hunters. Despite centuries of the spirit of the ‘saviour’ the Yirira are not even aware of their ‘inspired’ and miracle-performing kinsfolk who were caught in the imperialist net or submitted to the colonising authorities. Reasons why such people remained/remain isolated:

The first lot of venturers to the continent were Christian missionaries, empire and wealth hunters. The area around Chewore (and as most in the Zambezi Valley) is composed of mostly very rugged terrain, arid and non-arable, and with no prospects of minerals there was/is no prospect of Mighty Jesus realising the plight of those in such an area. Let there be found some diamonds, platinum etc in Mbire District – Jesus’ controlling disciples will say – ‘Let there be a super tarmac to Mbire yesterday’. In fact, even protesting EU, US will provide means to relocate the Mbire residents to a more habitable environ (as if there never was one before). And some preacher/prophet will propound that Jesus knew of the Mbire plight long before he was born, it is just that he was waiting for the inspired ‘Man of God’ (the preacher/prophet).

The current equally selfish ruling elite will as usual blame the plight of the Yirira on the ‘negligent racist colonial regime, as if they (current leadership) did not adopt the same cruel, selfish and self-glory-seeking mentality, exaggerating their role in the struggle to overthrow the exploitative colonial system. As if they did not instead adopt it and indeed worsened it; much worse than the colonial leaders: the colonialists had to prove to have some substantial wealth acquired before getting into the legislature; our self-proclaiming ‘messiahs’ from colonial exploiters are exploiting the followers much worse. They use just political clout/rhetoric (hollow promises) then abuse donor and public funds to enrich only the ruling elite and their relatives, loot and share spoils with even (former) colonial exploiters like the Sam Levis, Bill Irvines, Thomas Meikles, Rautenbachs etc, even allocating them diamond fields, platinum fields, gold fields etc.

The best people such as the Yirira can benefit (if minerals are found around their home) is the ‘generosity’ of leadership to relocate them, as if the leadership ‘moulded’ the relocation site. All in all what it now proves is that our leaders were only bitter because the colonialists denied them participating in the splendour (looting from the public and donor coffers, abuse of power) overall, in religion – politics – general system (socio-economic). What has changed is the complexion of leaders, the imperial system is further entrenched in the so-called opposition groups are for the same selfish imperial system socio-economic (just different sides of the same – worthless – Zimbabwe banknotes) vying to abuse the powers that the current are abusing, e.g. did we not have thousands of homeless people in Zim while our president and recent prime minister built/refurbished extra palaces/castles in Borrowdale, Highlands, Pleasure Mountains (Mount Pleasant) apart from already existing plush residencies (private/personal)? And that in 2008 many of us had our funds frozen by RBZ decree, courtesy of Governor Gono, endorsed by central government (during the period of limited withdrawals the elite were allowed to withdraw as much as they wanted), but no redress to the non-elite.

You will find that given the Zim population and the Zim bounty of nature, our poverty is not a result of scarcity of basic necessities. It is the direct result of downright selfishness: please note: despite claims by African leaders and claiming to be revolutionaries, they have all been won back by imperialism. Look at Zim in particular: the same Westminster-type parliament, with the same pomp and glory as king/queen when opening parly after of course the 5-yearly circus called poll (here it is just to endorse the leader to dictate for the next 5 years and be foiled again with campaign rhetoric). How does anyone claim to be a revolutionary when he/she adopts (and worsen) the imperial religion (during the colonial era struggle against Christianity was banned by the fighting cadres, leadership pretended to support the comrades perhaps to impress non-religious China, Russia, DPRK), socioeconomic and the imperial legal system anyway?

Well, back to the heap of bullshit called divine inspiration: the reality is that every parent or leader wants to groom his offspring/followers according to his ideals. The reasons I have given concerning the Yirira cover many people in similar situations (e.g. islands undiscovered by religionists/propagators. I do not know enough about the Koran, but the maker of the environment/universe can never be the selfish pompous, tribalistic, cruel (warmonger, ruthless in Deuteronomy 7:1) despot and erratic – at first the claims to have created a perfect man, later the man is found to be defective and needs circumcision etc, as depicted in the Bible. The story of the resurrection proves the lies: he Jews are not the most stupid people in the universe (perhaps my timid and gullible fellow Zezurus are), i.e. he was sent specifically to save the Jews. If indeed he had resurrected, even the most ardent critic/doubter would have been proved wrong. As it reads (apart from the gullible) we have the story of a king/queen who can be seen by all before death but, when he/she resurrects is seen by the co-called royal ones only! (Blessed are they who believe without seeing.) Gullible! Imaginative!

How effective, how powerful is divinity when a criminal selfish Jacob gets divine blessings which should have gone to honest diligent Esau, fair and infallible god? Should not Jacob have got the same result as Ananias and Saphira? Again, we get a selfish, cruel adulterous king David, instead of being pelted to death, he grandsires ‘The King of the Jews’. Wonderful, infallible divinity! Thus, in the name of primitive humanity, in the desire/wish (a prayer is a wish) for eternal life (Oh! How I wish there were!), people have created rival monsters (imaginary –God and Satan), always at each others throats, no winner but also imagined answers. Hence when primitive dreams/hallucinations are interpreted by Daniel: … primitive mathematicians (a) Seventh Day Adventists come up with 31-08-1844, (b) Jehovah’s Witnesses come up with 1914 as the return of Jesus Christ. We have many people who were teenagers by 1912 still around, among my associates no-one saw or heard of Jesus then. However, if he did not come then that means he is still coming yesterday. As usual, the divine answers are all imaginary (interpreted by chosen seers). In my personal perception/perspective, the reason many shun reality is the false grooming plus respecting wishes. Hence, by suspending logic I cite two orators:

(1) ‘… when you die you cease to exist like the beasts you kill often to feed yourselves, the maker (nature) loves everything it made, equally, no favours to any particular species…’

(2) ‘… if you obey me, because I often talk to the creator, who says I have domain over all other species, you will be resurrected after death and live for ever…’

Of course, orator 2 gets favour most. It is hope/wish versus fact/reality. Despite millions of years of human existence with continuity by offspring, there is no single person, despite highly propagated fables, who was ever resurrected. According to scientific (and reality) explanation of death only wishful thinking and the suspension of logic make people think there ever was/will be any resurrection. If the leading humans were not egoistic (selfish), the most selfish animals in fact, and primitive hallucinations/dreams and their propagation aside, who can confirm to you (humans) that the maker/creator loves you more than the lion, tiger (rats– pests), cattle, moths etc?

Face reality!

GODWIN HATITYE, HARARE, ZIMBABWE

Religion and Conflict in Africa

From the Socialist Standard

Utter disgust with the repetitive global political and economic crises, as well as the complete failure of ‘Marxism-Leninism’ as a political alternative to capitalism, has made many ordinary people in Africa embrace Christianity or Islam.

In Africa the word ‘socialism’ has been associated with single-party political dictatorships and as such remains resented. But this is a matter of Lenin’s misunderstanding the political and intellectual designation of scientific socialism.

Many ordinary people in Africa still believe that the economic underdevelopment of Africa is a product of neo-colonialism, meaning that it is a deliberate political and economic strangulation of Africans by the developed nations.

The legacy of the slave trade has a negative impact upon the racial and political prejudices of Africans. Ideas like gender equality and same-sex marriage seem to be alien from an African cultural and traditional perspective. Thus religions portraying  God as an all-powerful and knowing authority above the conventional political systems do find fertile ground in African communities today.

A glimpse through African political and social history reveals that Christianity and Islam only came to Africa during the period of the slave trade. But this is not to underplay the fact that African diverse tribes had some form of worshipping God or Mwari (Shona word for ‘God).

Islam, or Mohammedanism, was the religion of the slave traders. The European missionaries followed in the wake of European explorers. They built schools and churches and restrained people from practising witchcraft, slave trading, ancestral shrines and so on. Christianity could be said to have had a positive impact on African communities in the sense that it was the missionaries who first brought a formal education to Africa. At the same time Christianity laid a preparation for the colonisation of Africa by European imperialist nations.

Islam originated from an Arabic culture, supposedly by the prophet Mohamed and no-one else. Its teachings are vested in the Koran. Islam is the religion of most Arabs and in Africa, outside the Arabic north, it is also found practised in communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Islam has come to characterise itself as a militant and anti-western type of religion in Africa today. It is a fact that Islamic fundamentalists tend to be politically autonomous and this gives rise to conflicts. Militant Islam as a religion in Africa is enmeshed in terrorism, a political and cultural nostalgia against west European political and economic ideals (democracy and Christian values). The practice of Sharia Law in African countries in which Islam is a major religion is a naked and orchestrated reaction against Christian morals and ethics.

Islam today appears as a political rather than a spiritual Jihad. In Egypt the conservative military generals had to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood of President Morsi because of the spiralling clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians. In Nigeria the Islamic movement called Boko Haram has increased its attacks on Christian communities, oil installations and government institutions.

So-called Islamic insurgents are on the loose in the African countries where Islam is a major form of religion. In this sense Islam as a religion has brought much pain and suffering upon Africans.

Both Islam and Christianity anticipate the end of capitalism as it currently is and its replacement by a hierarchical structure. Whereas to Christians the spiritual revolution is expected to originate in the consciousness of the individual, Muslims believe that it can only be realised through a political Jihad.

It appears strange to Christians in Africa that church attendance has been on the decline in European countries, where the role of the church has been relegated to the pulpit. It is only in the USA where Christianity is a flourishing religion. There Islam is associated with Islamic terrorism and the two are not separated. Indeed, the American support of Israel in its role in the political conflicts in the Middle East seems to be the major factor that has given impetus to the Islamic political Jihad.

KEPHAS MULENGA

Religious Mystery Solved

A religious cult has six characteristics:

●Authoritarian Leadership: Authoritarianism involves the acceptance of an authority figure who exercises excessive control on cult members. As prophet or founder, this leader’s word is ultimate and final.
●Exclusivism:  Cults often believe that they alone have the truth. The cult views itself as the single means of salvation on earth.
●Isolationism: Some cults require members to renounce and break off associations with parents and siblings.
●Opposition to Independent Thinking: Some cultic groups discourage members from thinking independently. The cult leadership, as it were, has already done the thinking, for them; the proper response is merely to submit.
● Fear of Being Excommunicated:  It is not uncommon in cults that people are urged to remain faithful in order to avoid being excommunicated or disbarred, from the group.
● Threats of Satanic Attack: Finally, cults use fear and intimidation to keep members in line. Members may be told that something awful will happen to them should they choose to leave the group.

In Africa, Escapism is a term used by researchers of religion to define a type of Christianity that, because of the current situation on the continent, has a very strong appeal. “Within the safe walls of one’s religion, one can escape the harsh realities of the ‘outside’ world.” It manifests itself in different subtypes (often imported from overseas), like an apocalyptic Christianity or a Gospel of prosperity.” The harsh economic environment makes the Escapism type of Christianity popular.

Taken from here

As Marx is often quoted as saying “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.”

Martyrs or propaganda

It's often claimed that 100,000 Christians are killed every year because of their religion. The number comes originally from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the US state of Massachusetts, which publishes such a figure each year in its Status of Global Mission.

Its researchers started by estimating of the number of Christians who died as martyrs between 2000 and 2010 - about one million by their reckoning - and divided that number by 10 to get an annual number, 100,000.

But how do they reach that figure of one million?

When you dig down, you see that the majority died in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than four million are estimated to have been killed in that war between 2000 and 2010, and CSGC counts 900,000 of them - or 20% - as martyrs. Over 10 years, that averages out at 90,000 per year.

So when you hear that 100,000 Christians are dying for their faith, you need to keep in mind that the vast majority - 90,000 - are people who were killed in DR Congo.

This means we can say right away that the internet rumours of Muslims being behind the killing of 100,000 Christian martyrs are nonsense. The DRC is a Christian country. In the civil war, Christians were killing Christians. The civil wars in the DRC were the consequences of a failed state, disintegrated military force so that militias had almost full power because of the weapons they had. They were indiscriminately killing and raping and plundering and it's very difficult to describe any of that killing as creating martyrdom. Surely it's not the case that all actively practising Christians who are killed in a civil war, are killed because of their faith? Vatican reporter and author of The Global War on Christians, John Allen, outlines an example of how someone caught up in the civil war in DR Congo could be martyred.
"A female catechist in Congo, who is having success persuading young people in her area not to sign up with the militias, and she is killed by one of those forces because they don't want to see the sources of recruits dry up. Now is that anti-Christian violence, or isn't it?" he asks.

In earlier estimates of martyrs, CSGC included killings that occurred in the Rwandan genocide. Again this is puzzling. It was not a conflict about religion - it was a case of Hutus killing Tutsis, and both sides were Christian.

"The genocide in Rwanda was based on the systematic killing of an ethnic group in an attempt to completely wipe them out and it had nothing to do with the beliefs or the worship or the people who were killed," says Ian Linden, author of Church and Revolution in Rwanda, and associate professor in the study of religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Ian Linden also makes the point that there were Hutus in Rwanda who wouldn't leave their Tutsi colleagues because of their Christian faith, and who were therefore killed and could be called martyrs.

The truth is two thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today live in dangerous regions. They are often poor. They often belong to ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. And they are often at risk.

A lucrative business

In the remote Congo region of the Uvira highlands many people still believe that sickness, death or accidents do not “just happen” – they are caused by individuals, that must be identified and neutralized. This is done through a tribal justice system based on traditional customs and superstition.


Witchcraft trials are not free, and are an important source of revenue for the tribal chief. Before the dispute can be brought to the court, each party has to pay a mandatory fee of $200 – the price of a cow – whether they can afford it or not. The tribal judges are bribed to hand out false verdicts.

Vincent Lindalo, a local human rights activist, wants to encourage locals to denounce the trials.

"Because they are ignorant of the judicial system and are poor, they believe it is impossible to win a trial against a tribal chief,” says Lindalo. “Many people believe the chief is untouchable, because of his position, or that their ancestors’ wrath will fall on them if they accuse the chief of wrongdoing.”

Africa's anti-atheism

Botswana

The constitution and other laws mandate a secular state and protect freedom of religion or belief. However, there are widespread state privileges for Christianity and routine bias against the nonreligious. Government meetings often begin with a Christian prayer. Even though the constitution prohibits forced religious instruction, forced participation in religious ceremonies, or taking oaths that run counter to an individual's religious beliefs, religious education is part of the curriculum in public schools. This public education emphasizes Christianity but also addresses other religious groups in the country, while excluding humanists and other non-theists. Additionally, the constitution provides that every religious community may establish places for religious instruction at the community's expense.

Cameroon

The constitution mandates a secular state, and the constitution and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief. However, there are widespread government privileges for religion, especially Christianity and Islam, and routine bias against the nonreligious. The government gives an annual subsidy to all private primary and secondary education institutions, including those operated by religious denominations. State-sponsored television station and radio stations broadcast Christian and Islamic religious services on a regular basis, as well as religious ceremonies on national holidays and during national events.

Chad

The constitution provides that the country shall be a secular state. However, some policies favor Islam in practice. A committee composed of members of the High Council for Islamic Affairs (HCIA) and the Directorate of Religious and Traditional Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) organized trips to Mecca for the Hajj (pilgrimage during the 12th month of the Islamic calendar) and Umrah (pilgrimage). The Director of Religious and Traditional Affairs oversees religious matters. The HCIA oversees Islamic religious activities, including the supervision of some Arabic-language schools and higher institutions of learning, and the representation of the country in international Islamic meetings. The HCIA, in coordination with the president, appoints the grand imam, a spiritual leader for Muslims, who oversees each region's high imam and serves as head of the council. In principle, although not consistently in practice, the grand imam has the authority to restrict proselytizing by Islamic groups, regulate the content of mosque sermons, and exert control over activities of Islamic charities. Religious leaders are involved in managing the country's wealth. A representative of the religious community sits on the Revenue Management College, the body that oversees use of Chad’s oil revenues. The seat rotates between Muslim and Christian leaders every four years. While the government is legally obligated to treat all religious groups or denominations equally, some non-Muslims allege that Muslims receive preferential status, particularly concerning use of public lands for building places of worship.

Djibouti

Although the constitution and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief, Islam is the state religion and the president and other government employees, including magistrates, are required to take religious oaths. More than 99% of the population identifies as Sunni Muslim. Citizens officially are considered Muslims if they do not specifically identify with a faith; there are no figures available on the number of atheists in the country. Muslims are required to marry in an Islamic ceremony. Non-Muslims—who are known to include Roman Catholics, Protestants, Copts, and Bahá'ís—must marry in accordance with the rites of the religion with which they are registered. The government allows civil marriage only for non-Muslim foreign residents; so if there were atheist Djibouti who wanted to marry, they would not be able to do so (unless they hid their atheism and registered with a religion). A non-Muslim man may marry a Muslim woman only after converting to Islam. According to the family code, "impediment to a marriage occurs when a Muslim woman marries a non-Muslim." The president is required to take a religious oath at inauguration; other government employees are also required to do so, such as magistrates, the presidents of Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, Chamber of Accounts, and the inspector general of state. While there is no penalty established by law, it remains an official custom written in the Constitution for the president of the country and required by law for others. No legal provision exists for opposite practice.

Equatorial Guinea

While the constitution and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief, a 1992 presidential decree regulates the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. This decree provides official preference for the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Church of Equatorial Guinea. While the decree does not hinder the practice of other religions or beliefs, its preferential effects can be observed in some circumstances; for example, Catholic masses are a normal part of any major ceremonial function, such as the October 12 National Day and June 5 President’s Birthday. In addition, Catholic and Reform church officials are exempt from airport entry and exit taxes.

Eritrea

The 1997 constitution protects freedom of religion or belief. However, the government has yet to implement the constitution, and in practice it does not respect freedom of belief. In the past few years, there has been an increase in serious government violations of religious freedom, including mass arrests, torture and death for members of minority belief groups. In 2002 the government decreed that all religious groups must either register or cease all religious activities. Four religious groups are now registered: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church of Eritrea, Islam, and the Roman Catholic Church. Religious facilities that did not belong to the four officially recognized religious groups were forced to close. The government retains significant control over the four registered religious groups, in most cases controlling their leadership and finances. Many places of worship have closed because of government intimidation and the mass conscription of religious workers and parishioners. The government routinely harasses and detains members of registered and unregistered religious groups, some of whom reportedly died as a result of torture and lack of medical treatment while in detention. By the end of 2011, many estimated that the population of religious prisoners remained at 2,000 to 3,000. Some arrestees reported that they were only released after they signed statements recanting their religious beliefs and agreeing to join an officially registered religion as a condition of their release. The application for an exit visa requires a designation of religious affiliation, and members of unregistered religions or no religion require additional permission from the Office of Religious Affairs, which has been reported to grant permission, deny permission, or arrest applicants on the spot for practicing an unrecognized faith or being non-religious.

Ethiopia
:
The constitution requires the separation of state and religion; however, under a 2008 law it is a crime to defame religious groups.

The Gambia

Article 25 of the Constitution protects the rights of citizens to follow any religion or belief that they choose. The government has not established a state religion, although the constitution establishes Qadi (Muslim judge trained in the Islamic legal tradition) courts in such places as the chief justice determines. Their jurisdiction applies only to marriage, divorce, and inheritance questions for Muslims where they apply traditional Islamic law. The Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) is an independent body that advises the government on religious issues. Although the government does not have representation on the council, it provided the council with substantial funding. The minister of religious affairs maintains a formal relationship with the council. Government meetings and events typically commenced with two prayers, one Islamic and one Christian. The government funds religious instruction in schools. Public and private schools throughout the country provide Biblical and Qur'anic studies with government support.

Mauritania

The constitution and other laws and policies restrict freedom of religion or belief and the 1991 constitution defines the country as an Islamic republic and recognizes Islam as the sole religion of its citizens and the state. Due to this stance, all non-Muslims are restricted from being citizens of the country, and Mauritanians who leave Islam for another religion or no religion lose their citizenship. In addition, Article 306 of the penal code outlaws apostasy: anyone found guilty of converting from Islam will be given the opportunity to repent within three days and if the person does not repent, the individual will be sentenced to death and the person’s property will be confiscated by the Treasury. Sharia (Islamic law) provides legal principles upon which the law and legal procedures are based. The government and citizenry consider Islam to be the essential cohesive element unifying the country's various ethnic groups. There is a cabinet-level Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Traditional Education. The High Council of Islam, consisting of six imams, advised the government on conformance of legislation to Islamic precepts. The judiciary consists of a single system of courts that uses principles of Sharia in matters concerning the family and modern legal principles in all other matters. The government requires members of the Constitutional Council and the High Council of Magistrates to take an oath of office that includes a promise to God to uphold the law of the land in conformity with Islamic precepts. Both public schools and private Islamic schools include classes on Islam, and attendance at these religious classes is required.

Nigeria

The constitution and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief. The constitution mandates that local, state and federal government “shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.” However, some state governments have a record of abusing freedom of religion or belief. There is significant hostility and violence between religious communities, especially Christians and Muslims, in many parts of the country. Some outbreaks of communal violence have resulted in hundreds of deaths. Yet, a climate of impunity exists, as authorities rarely prosecute and punish those responsible for violent attacks. The constitution provides that states may establish courts based on the common law or customary law systems. Twelve northern states Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Borno, Zamfara, and Gombe—maintained Sharia courts, which adjudicated both criminal and civil matters, along with common law and customary law courts. Non-Muslims had the option to try their cases in the Sharia courts if involved in disputes with Muslims. If non-Muslims did not agree to go to Sharia courts, common law courts would hear their cases. Although the constitution does not explicitly allow Sharia courts to hear criminal cases, they have done so in the past. In Zamfara State, the first state to adopt Sharia, a Sharia court must hear all criminal cases involving Muslims. No laws barred women or any groups from testifying in common law courts or gave less weight to their testimony; however, Sharia courts usually accorded less weight to the testimony of women and non-Muslims. Both federal and state governments regulate mandatory religious instruction in public schools; however, the constitution mandates that students do not receive religious instruction in any religion other than their own. In theory students can request a teacher of their own beliefs to provide alternative instruction, but in practice many schools lack teachers capable of doing so. Although the jurisdiction of Sharia technically does not apply to non-Muslims in civil and criminal proceedings, certain social mores inspired by Sharia, such as the separation of the sexes, affected non- Muslim minorities in the north. Many non-Muslims perceive that they lived under the rule of a Muslim government and often feared reprisals for their religious affiliation. The Hisbah—Sharia enforcement
groups funded by state governments in Bauchi, Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, and Kano—enforce, sometimes violently, some Sharia statutes.

Sudan

The interim constitution and other laws and policies provide for some freedom of religion or belief. However, there are Islamic prohibitions against apostasy, blasphemy, and interfaith marriages. The Interim National Constitution enshrines Islamic law as a source of legislation in the country, and theofficial laws and policies of the government and the ruling National Congress Party favour Islam. Although there is no legal penalty for converting from another religion to Islam, converting from Islam to another religion or belief is punishable by imprisonment or death. Persons convicted of conversion are given the opportunity to recant their conversion before execution. A Muslim man may marry a Christian
or Jewish women, but a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam. The penalty for blasphemy and “defamation” of Islam is up to six months in prison, whipping, and/or a fine.

Zambia

The constitution and other laws and policies protect freedom of religion or belief. However, the government requires Christian instruction in public schools. The classes are conducted in both the Catholic and Protestant traditions and are mandatory for all students through grade seven.

Back to the Dark Ages

The American Family Research Council deserves its hate-group designation.

Many who have followed the human rights crisis for LGBT people in Uganda know that, in 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced into the Ugandan Parliament to supplement laws that already banned homosexuality. The bill, quickly dubbed the “Kill the Gays” bill because of its provision of a death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” also includes severe penalties for other actions and non-actions, including the “failure to disclose the offense” by anyone who might be aware of another person’s same-sex sexuality. Although the bill has not been yet passed, it has attracted harsh international condemnation, and many attacks on LGBT people and activists have been attributed to the public debates surrounding it.

Last month Uganda’s pious President Museveni delivered a speech in which he dedicated his country to God and renounced “the Satanic influence” of “the last 50 years of history.” Museveni called upon the deity to forgive the nation. Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has taken up the challenge of national repentance by promising passage of the “Kill the Gays” legislation as a “Christmas gift” to the people of Uganda.

 Christian conservative leaders in the U.S. are thrilled with what FRC has called an “inspirational moment for the [Ugandan] nation.” FRC President Tony Perkins tweeted a big, warm hug to President Museveni for “leading his nation in repentance” and thus helping to create a “nation prospered by God.” The FRC lavishes praise on Museveni and his government for proclaiming the kind of “faithfulness...that will raise Uganda’s status as a new power in Africa.” Museveni, dictator of Uganda, and aspiring president-for-life, obviously is a favorite of U.S.-based Christian Right leaders. Rick Warren, pastor of California’s Saddleback Church and the author of the bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life , who, in 2008, conferred on Uganda the label of  “purpose-driven nation.” In 2009, after first refusing to condemn the proposed anti-gay legislation, Warren capitulated, after initially saying that he didn’t want to interfere in Ugandan politics.

Apologists for the Christian Right often scold political opponents for misunderstanding the goals of Christian conservatives and especially for misrepresenting the movement as having theocratic ambitions in the U.S. However, messages such as the one sent by FRC, lauding Museveni as he dedicates his nation to their idea of God, illuminate Christian conservative leaders’ intense yearning for theocracy in America and, failing that, in states where American Christian conservatives wield some influence. It seems to clarify where America’s foremost Christian public policy and lobbying organization stands: firmly on the side of punishing lesbians, gay men, men who have sex with men, and women who have sex with women, even at the cost of their very lives.

This is certainly bad news for the people of Uganda. The Family Research Council are heaping approval on Museveni’s bid to defy “the West” on “traditional values,” eliminate “sexual immorality,” and rule Uganda according to biblical law.

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