Rebels On The Prowl: WAR AGAINST RELIGIOUS INTIMIDATION

Desperation has wreaked much havoc in our world, especially in Africa where ‘religion is the opium of the people’ (Karl Marx). Nowhere else is this truer than in our dear country Nigeria. Religious zeal in the absence of scholastic intellectual knowledge has driven people to great lengths just to get God’s stamp of approval. For some, it makes them detest and seek to exterminate, by every means possible, everyone who doesn’t share their religious persuasion. For others, their religious leaders have become cult heroes, demigods whose word is law and whose force brooks no opposition.

          You’ll be surprised how educated adults with their thinking faculties intact would willingly bring themselves under bondage. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Papacy, for example, held sway over much of Europe’s religious and even political consciousness. It got to a point where the Pope even abrogated to himself the power to forgive sins—something which we all know is the sole prerogative of God. As the sole representative of God on earth, the Pope was supposedly the intermediary between God and man. Therefore, whatever God would do on earth had to be his to execute. He was the voice of man to God and the voice of God to man. Pope Leo X (1513-1521) made a habit of selling indulgences for sin (which meant that they could pay for forgiveness with their money). The funny story was told of a man who had intercepted a chest of gold being taken to the Pope. When he was found out later and placed before the jury, he presented his papers proving that he had purchased his forgiveness for that sin ever before committing it. Thus, he was free from judgment because God, thru the Pope, had forgiven him!

          In presenting this piece I am delightfully aware that I could be stepping on many toes and touching some of them ol’ sacred cows of religion, but so did Martin Luther on October 31, 1517 when he nailed his ‘ninety-five theses’ on the door of the Roman Catholic Church at Wittenberg, Germany. He was excommunicated within four years, but so was the power of the Papacy also cut at the elbow. It’s such a shame that many of these points Luther raised almost half a millennium ago are still here with us, refined and embellished but still there anyway. We still confess our sins to our church leaders in order to have forgiveness, as well as giving our all to them as God’s representatives to us, and obeying them completely as God’s mouthpiece in order to inherit the blessings of God.

          Let’s move to the moslems for a while too. I’m sure everyone who has sense in Nigeria knows that the Northeast and North-central here have become a very large slaughterhouse in Nigeria. So also is a large area of Syria and Iraq right now. This senseless religious war is becoming an eyesore, scores are being reported dead time and again. It’s now so rampant that we have become so calloused to their plight; no more feeling of sympathy for the people who are suffering. We expect the people being affected to ‘get up and move on’ in much the same way as we over here in the South recover after being dealt fatal blows at the hands of ritualists, armed robbers, assassins, and even men of the armed forces. Christians are being killed in the North as well as moslems who don’t share the same mode of Islam as these fundamentalists.

          I say it with all sincerity and compassion that Shari’a is one of the worst evils the world has ever known. I know contemporary Islam has more or less whittled down the relevance of Shari’a as an outdated barbaric tradition, but not for Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Middle East, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Shabbab in Somalia, and their ilk around the world. People are being maimed and killed like animals daily while minors are being abducted and married off as wives to shameless paedophilic men old enough to be their fathers. In the Sudanese region was a woman who was severely persecuted and nearly killed for proclaiming herself a Christian. In Bangladesh young ladies are being excoriated and punished for wearing the hijab in a manner the moslem authorities deem ‘inappropriate’. I love what a Bangladeshi lady said about this culture.  She said that it doesn’t matter whether or nor she even wears the hijab, and she’s free to dress in style because Islam is a thing of the heart and people should be free to exercise their fundamental human rights.

 I think that injunction applies very much to Christendom, because in many churches even adults are forced to follow some mode of dressing or the other; where failure to attend church service is tantamount to signing up for hell; where money is given to the pastor or whoever is in charge to help members beseech God to do something for them; where people are made to fast and perform penance to be forgiven of sin or receive blessing from God; where certain foods are forbidden because they defile the body. These traditions have absolutely no effect on (in)discipline; they only serve to salve the conscience and puff up self-righteousness.

Traditional religions will not be left out. I cannot imagine, for the life of me, why someone would carve an image out of wood or iron and then proceed to bow down before it as his god. If this isn’t madness, then I don’t know what is. Others worship the spirits of their dead parents and ancestors, feeding them all manner of foodstuff that should have served a better purpose with the living than the dead. Certain festivals must be kept, certain marks must be made on specific spots on the body, certain tribes must [not] be married from, certain rivers and hills must be crossed, and so on. The word of the chief priest is law, even when he’s making no sense at all. All because of RELIGION!

Let me tell you something now: You are the architect of your own success or failure once you’ve reached the age of accountability, barring extraterrestrial interference and unforeseen circumstances. You don’t have to obey the dictates of any custom, tradition or religion that doesn’t suit your purposes or sit well with you. The cure for religion is enlightenment. Let intelligence and conscience come before your religion. Religion is okay when it fortifies the conscience to fear God, do good and eschew evil, not when it stifles creativity and hampers productivity. In the end, every man is selfish and no religion can tame that wild beast; go ask your politicians who all subscribe to one religion and/or another. Take back your life and live it to the fullest. You only have so long to live, so maximize the moment.

Rebels On The Prowl: IT BEGINS AT HOME

Rebellion begins at home. I know you’re better used to seeing ‘charity’ in the place of ‘rebellion’, but we all know that it all begins at home—charity or chicanery—so why don’t we set about building a new character from home? Every religion truly believes that children should obey their parents, at least that’s the part we hear emphasized. Every religion also believes parents should learn to understand their children and see themselves as stewards grooming them rather than owners mastering them. Why, then, is this knowledge not reflected in child upbringing? If respect is reciprocal and children are supposed to show respect to parents, does it not follow, therefore, that parents, being more matured and experienced, should lead the way and then watch the children follow suit? Whatever happened to leading by example?

          Two great ills perpetuated in the African culture of child discipline are flogging and cursing. They are the most dehumanizing downsides to the training of a growing personality. The thing that baffles me is that even people who hated being flogged as children grow up to continue the practice in their own homes as if it were an African curse. Ask them why and they will say, ‘That is our culture’. I’m gonna say something about that now: Did you know that many of our current cultural practices were also done in the West in centuries past? Why do we lay claim to senseless habits that have been left behind by others? Why is it that the white man who’s not being flogged seems to have enough insight as to keep making giant strides in every field of human endeavour? Why do Africans find it easier to succeed after having had ample time rubbing off with Euro-American culture? What is it about that environment that is so lacking in ours and which we can’t replicate?

          I wonder why parents never stop to think of why they flog their children. Mere watching Fulani herdsmen flog their cattle into submission should give the impression that you’re equating your child’s reasoning faculties to that of a bull or a cow or a goat by the same treatment. Parents could be so cruel and lacking in mercy in the use of punishment. The child made a mistake and is begging for forgiveness, yet you insist on leaving marks of remembrance on his flesh. Why should breaking a plate warrant flogging or loss of a meal, as if you don’t break plates too? Is hunger the right way to teach virtue? In my observation, poverty is one strong reason that parents flog their children. You’re poor, yet you marry and sire six kids, and then blame them for coming into the world. You claim to be working so hard for them, when in fact the kids were not there when you fell in love and married. They are only the direct product of that union, and you’re trying hard to cater for them so that you won’t be perceived as being inadequate and irresponsible in the eyes of the world. Now you vent your frustration on the innocent children and blame them for not being trained well. Meanwhile, you trained them—and made a poor job of it!

          Cursing is another apparent parenting problem. As if the bodily harm the flogging causes isn’t bad enough, you proceed to hurt their souls irreversibly and leave indelible marks of low morale on those tender hearts. I hear parents call their children unprintable names, and yet you claim to be praying for that same child. Which should God listen to: the curses (which are usually more frequent and emotional) or the prayers? You think that your children depend on your blessing for their success, and deep inside you wish for the stubborn ones to come crawling back begging for forgiveness. Do you think the Creator would really leave your children’s fate dependent on your fickle mental state? You’re making a mistake there. Many people—I’m speaking of Africans here, perhaps you inclusive—are failures in life (and even in marriage), yet most people sought and got parental blessing before leaving home to start their own adult lives. So how come they turned out unsuccessful?

          Here’s another fact: Most people who succeed do so against their parents’ wishes and curses. Many parents would have pronounced a gloomy future for a son who chose to play football or a daughter who opted for a career in entertainment. A great many stars have been extinguished by parents’ blind insistence on medicine, law, engineering, accounting and suchlike. This repugnant culture of trying to force our beliefs on our children, even up to what religion they subscribe to, has left many hearts yearning for what they may never get. Some parents want their children to read a course that they themselves love but couldn’t read; others want their children to follow in their steps, even to the very same schools. When they rebel you switch to ‘What you do to me, your children will do to you too’. I heard a mother say that to her daughter, clutching her sagging breasts in her hands and shouting at the top of her voice, adding, ‘…unless you didn’t suck these breasts…’. I asked her later, ‘Does that mean you also did it to your mother?’ She was first speechless and then outraged.

          Parents find it hard to own up to their mistakes, yet they expect perfection from their children. One thing we forget—or never even realize—in this dark continent of ours is that mistakes are the landmarks of originality. Never expect your child, or anyone else for that matter, to do things exactly as you would have done them. If you as a parent, having established yourself in the city for the better part of your active years, choose to retire to the village in your backward archaic sense, do not expect your child to harbour similar sentiments towards your fetish hometown (most villages in Africa ooze with fetish traditions) in the name of ‘remember your roots’. If your child chooses to be detribalized and think more in national and global terms, applaud them for it. They don’t have to marry from your [preferred] tribe. Even if you think they are wrong, there is no learning without the freedom to err. Success is learning from failure and making things work. If cane, castigation, crying and curses are their strongest memories of you, then don’t be surprised if they simply abandon you once they leave your hell of a home and your old age languishes in loneliness and poverty. You caused it and you know it.

          Here’s a word for children too. It is children, not grownups, who obey their parents. At a point in life you should be able to rebel and refuse to take nonsense from your parents anymore. Shame on you if your parents are still flogging you at 16. Hold that cane or whatever it is, stand your ground, and tell them, ‘I’ve taken it this far and I can take it no further!’ Refuse to be treated with disrespect. Let them know that their curses mean nothing because they didn’t create you and they can’t destroy you either. Perform your duties with excellence, speak with dignity, and be polite and sensible enough not to engage them in a shouting march. Silence is a powerful tool; it’s the best answer for a fool. Seize the bull by the horn, take the wheel and steer the vehicle of your life where destiny beckons.

          The only way to dispel fear when love is absent is to rebel. A healthy society begins with a happy family. Fathers, don’t sell your daughters; husbands, don’t buy your wives. Let men treat their wives lovingly. Let women treat their husbands respectfully. Let parents treat their children exemplarily. Let love replace fear in the home. Encourage innovation. Train your children to ask questions when they don’t understand your instructions. Forbid rudeness, either from you or from them. Train them up in the way they should go, and when they are old they will thank you for it. You will be proud of them and they will be proud to have been born through you too.