The Inconvenient Truths (Part 1)

This is not about Al Gore’s campaign on global warming. This is about the truth that we as Africans are not comfortable bringing up or discussing. It’s the no-go are in our society. It’s the unquestionable, unspeakable aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, the truth is the truth. It never changes. It never dies. In order for us to liberate ourselves we must embrace the truth that we have been avoiding; the truth about what we really feel; the truth about who we really are; the truth about what we really think. The truth about who or what we really love. And only the truth is capable of setting a people/person free from the baggage and deceits carried over from generations to generations.

This is about how our enslavers and colonizers (and subsequently neocolonialists who have been taught the trade via the divide and conquer strategy) wants us to forget who we were so we will not know what we still can be. John Henrik Clarke says “When you want to lose a people from history, you first destroy their self-confidence and historical memory. This is the basis of our dilemma”. I know it will sound like a broken record to some ears but we must understand the place of these historical events in context of our lives.

The problem with us is that we feel responsible for protecting and preserving the structures that was used to conquer and exploit us. One of the structures systematically used was religion, another is democracy. We were presented an image of God after having being stripped of our original spirituality by connoting what we had as archaic, barbaric, uncivilized, voodoo, black magic, lifeless, evil, savage, etc. But let’s look at an example of a situation where a thief breaks in with weapons to overpower the occupants of a house (which is in effect what colonization is) to rob your family of all your resources (which he has been ‘eyeing’ and lusting after) and afterwards rapes the women of the house in the presence of the male (who are powerless in the face of weapons). The thief then holds the family hostage and after a few years some members of the family will start to feel empathy towards the thieves (capture-bonding or Stockholm syndrome). Say the thieves now compile a book of prayers and give to their victims. Would the victims receive it? Yes, because the thieves have weapons which has instigated fear in their minds. Should they receive any such from them? No, but under the situation they are compelled. If afterwards the thieves feel comfortable enough that the people can be released from captivity and not feel angst towards them due to the spell of the book which states forgiveness and love towards your enemies/captors, should the victims pray that the spell be broken? Yes, but the damage to the psyche will make them develop positive feelings towards their captors and even sometimes will defend them (and all their structures) with their very lives. That’s a lot of messing with the minds of the victims over several years. The victims have forgotten ‘the horrible things done to them because they now pray to a God through the words ‘in a book’ who admonishes forgive and forget and move on with the time.

Well, I once asked a colleague of mine who is now a Jesus-confessor with every sentence when exactly she became ‘serious’ and how much of the history of the religion she knows. It was clear that she was like the average African youth (who I also was till I queried and search for more answers by looking to the past) who has no knowledge of any history but just mouth words from a book as taught to them from the home and the school. As is with the average youth (privileged to attend University), you are mostly concerned with your looks and friends, study to pass and then get a job. The next thing then will be settling down and in order to get someone ‘decent and God-fearing’, everyone looked to the religious houses (church or mosque) in our hypocritical way. There you have to show commitment by being a worker and pay tithes regularly so that the leader can recommend to a single person in the singles fellowship. Then the individual gets married and children are born and also tutored in the ‘ways of the Lord’. That’s as far as the journey goes for most religious folks (roughly about 80% fall into this category). A few handfuls go to theological colleges where they are ‘taught’ or ‘indoctrinated’ (you have to learn all the stories and write exams to pass like in a school to qualify to practice or be ordained. Afterwards, they stand and preach to those other 80% and bamboozle them with the knowledge learnt which the majority are not aware of. In that college, they are not taught or reminded WHO THEY OR THEIR ANCESTORS WERE. Mind you it’s still the same thieves who have so organized the religion to ensure compliance for every adherents so that they continue to feel secured that the descendants of the victims do not start to ask any questions of how things happened in the past and how the events has affected them and their ‘image of God (a very strong centre in every human which is like an anchor of the soul).


I quote Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing “The most disastrous aspect of colonization which you are the most reluctant to release from your mind is their colonization of the image of God.”

Oh I forgot that we are now under grace according to the New Testament. The sins of the thieves and the victims (please what was the sin of the victims described here?) have been blotted by the blood of the lamb (but I thought blood sacrifice is voodoo?). How many children of Afrika know that the first slave ship that took away their ancestors was named ‘Jesus’? And which the Pope in Rome at the time gave his blessings to (yes, the Pope anointed the weapons used for the destruction and prayed that the thieves would succeed in their exploit).

So, you can forget me and pack me alongside conspiracy theorist in forging and twisting these stories. Even though I read some of the ‘his’-stories, you reckon I do not have the capacity to piece information together and draw conclusions for and in myself. Yes, for I am just a descendant of Ham (According to the Hebrew Bible, Ham was one of the sons of Noah and the father of Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan, who are interpreted as having populated Africa and adjoining parts of Asia - wikipedia), accursed of God for seeing the nakedness of his father, Noah, who drank himself to stupor and got naked in his tent. Who was to blame for Noah’s drunkenness? Yes, you got that right; Ham is the man to blame. And not just blame, cursed. No, that’s not harsh; it was a show of love. Were we also created in the image of God? I doubt so. Maybe we were an afterthought after all the firmaments, waters, animals, plant and other races were created (my bad Adam and Eve surely are those other races, so how did we emerge?) We must have evolved out of the other races to serve them. What sort of education have we received and still receiving that has ensured we do not reason our existence over many decades and centuries of docility and subjugation. Yes, the testament now made a generalization to make us one people. The education we received was and still is called ‘indoctrination’ but not awakening. For no Afrikan will continue to toe the same path that has not yielded any positive dividend for self and kind except for material gains which is here today gone tomorrow. And you know what, if I suddenly wind up dead perhaps after publishing this write-up, some religious zombies will quickly arrive at the conclusion (this is the kind of hypothesis and theories that we are capable of, sort of like saying “’God’ killed Abacha”) that the Almighty God was the one who smote me for blasphemy. Yet they will not reason that that same God has not being able to smite dead corrupt leaders and colonizers who wreck the lives of generations after generations physically and spiritually (in essence). Of course, we can’t see how these things are all linked. We are not used to piecing puzzle parts together. That’s not what we are capable of, for we are lazy and unable to think, or can we? We have been preoccupied with food (most of which comes from other lands seeing that we were discouraged from tilling our lands to provide food crops but rather cash crops for the benefit of those who pillaged our lands.) We refuse to question how money (cash) came about to destabilize the barter system of trade which met the needs of the time. We refused to question how the monstrous greed developed uncontrollably among us. We just pray daily for these things to go away and for God to bless us abundantly (e.g. it’s my year of triple blessings).

I believe in the end of the world not as a literal event but an end to ignorance, deception and lies so much that every gimmick aimed at further preventing the light from shining is frustrated. Prophet Bob Marley it was who said “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time”.

That slavery and rape was endorsed by the bible is not something to be denied but it shows the intent of the men who created/compiled it at the time, men whom we were told spoke for (heard directly from) ‘God’ - the God that despised a race since the creation of the book even though the people existed long before the book and thrived beautifully. That God is definitely not a just nor holy God. No he is an angry, jealous, vindictive and a bias/prejudiced/unfair (all attributes taken from the bible) God who will sit back and watch a set of his creation (does this sound like man?) destroy another and laugh in derision?? Is he King Leopold II of Belgium, a Roman Catholic, who derived joy in watching the agony of fathers who watched as their children’s hands were cut off because they could not meet up with their daily quota of rubber? Yes, this God was called upon by these Congolese in the 19th century but he couldn’t save them from the atrocities of the Christian King who ruled and subdued them with a hard hand. I’m sure they were stiff-necked like the Egyptians who suffered all manner of evils from the hand of the Jewish ‘God’.  They surely deserved what came upon them. How cruel??

It’s about time we learn our true story not ‘his’-story for a people devoid of their past are like a tree without roots, soon dried up and trampled under feet. But the God of our ancestors will not allow us to come to earth in vain. Ase!

Some imagine that God plays economic and mind games and they reason that it is only fair for Africans to have foreign reserves in an IMF bank owned by the US/UK (remember these are the same colonizers who have now repented and have been duly forgiven by their God…life goes on) but it isn’t fair that the US/UK also have ‘foreign’ reserves in Afrikan banks (Oh, Ghadaffi). But of course we are the descendants of Ham, accursed of God and destined to serve other races. If this was not spelt out in a religious book, how will the slaves and the colonized and their descendants have remained ever so docile and obedient? Because it evokes a feeling of righteousness and piety? This is only possible because they have been stripped of dignity, confidence and original spirituality (of which they had a vibrant culture of before the truncation in their evolution). Now we deceive ourselves praying every year for God to help us – the God of our colonizers whose interest is his people (those who created him). Religion gave a false sense of importance to adherents (I have been chosen, you are not). Yet we can see that this is the divide and conquer strategy being put to work. Our piety keeps us docile and unwilling to rise from earth – for we say that is the will of God concerning us. We are quickly reminded of Lucifer, the rebellious angel (depicted dark in colour by the way…hello) who became ‘proud’, envious and jealous of God (tired of the monopoly perhaps….and if you are a student of history, this is exactly the way some slaves felt under their masters and which prompted them to organize an escape or a counter attack to free themselves and their kinds). And guess what God did, he threw Lucifer from heaven to earth among us mere mortals – now, how is that for a loving, caring, fair father, huh? If he couldn’t deal with him in heaven, how were earthly beings supposed to? Does this add up?

How dare you a slave desire or think to become like your master. Then we slot in these set of verses for indoctrination in the New Testament such as: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free (why must some be slaves?). Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.” Ephesians 6:5-9

You can clearly see the approval and justification of the holy bible for slavery. It’s ok because the people being enslaved are lower in intelligence and lazy anyway. Our God is the one who has made us their lords. That’s what is called cognitive dissonance (painting God as fair and loving and telling slaves to pray to that God). Social psychologists refer to cognitive dissonance as the presence of incongruent relations among cognitions (thought and understanding) that frequently results in excessive mental stress and discomfort .Ultimately, individuals who hold two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas and/or values frequently experience cognitive dissonance. [wikipedia]. How about the bible taking a stance against slavery even in the New Testament? God ought to know that his creation deserve dignity since he created them. Or does slavery dignify anyone? How about God outrightly condemning the act? And these scriptures are read to slaves each day to drive the fear into their hearts so they can remain in line. Anyone who rebelled was made an example of by hanging on the tree (cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree….so this fits the bill of many of our ancestors who died that route. They were the real ones who took our shame and despised death so that others will someday have the dignity they rightfully deserve). Yes, there was an organized structure, what we call religion, in place to ensure the perpetuity of this fear in those folks which was duly passed on to our generation and if care is not taken will continue. We have since carried the holy books on our heads, not that I blame us because our psyche was badly damaged. But we have a responsibility to save ourselves from continued harm and subjugation. Chinua Achebe clearly saw the truncation in order and evolution of our cultures and traditions (which we would have reformed by ourselves over the course of time) as he described in his book ‘Things Fall Apart’. And it did and still is falling all over African countries. God Save the Queen!! God should have nothing to do with such queen if God is who we really think he is or have been made to believe. He enumerated how men of low statue were raised over thinking and highly intelligent ones within the community to become marshals and the right hand men of colonialists. This same strategy is what happens in the offices and religious organizations. Those who are seen as ‘too intelligent’ are made to be under the leadership of those who are seen to ALWAYS comply. These ones are satisfied with the title and the benefits which come to them personally from that position. They have no capacity to think for the rest of their people. They are the small minds. Many of our men are now ‘yes-men’ in offices because they are afraid of losing their jobs and the status it provides. Our women are now mainly ‘marketers’ for the different products of the capitalistic-driven system. They hang on tightly to these jobs and will do anything they are told even if means living at odds with their own selves. It is the same fear that causes our leaders to want to ‘do or die’. They fear many things – real and unreal. They fear the people and the people fear them. Not that I have any issue with people who have small minds, I love all people same but there is a purpose why some are highly gifted than others. It is for the purpose of developing others and creatively developing the lands (and the world) and not just for posing or showing off.

(Because of the length of this article it has been broken into two parts). Please read part two (2).