My Beauty Best Teacher

Joshua Hammer in the NYTimes:

Image of Vodun dervishes courtesy of fortunecity

Vodun practitioners worship a pantheon of gods and lesser deities that inhabit objects ranging from stones to waterfalls. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors dwell among them, and they employ talismans, or “fetishes” like dried animal parts, for spiritual and physical rejuvenation as well as for protection against spells cast by malevolent sorcerers. “Le vodun is Africa. It is the faith of our ancestors,” I was told by Dagbo Hounon Houna II, the spiritual chief of vodun in Benin, where 20 percent of the population, or a million people, practice pure vodun and another 40 percent embrace a form that incorporates Christian iconography.

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In Black Looks Emmnauel Iduma's 'Thoughts on Boko Haram':

Consider the danger of infinite silence.

They come to us in the name of God, for evil has taken the guise of virtue. They say they are speaking a collective language, premised on restating the religious utopia created by their prophet. Their prophet. Clearly, their God and their prophet are imagined. Evil has taken the guise of virtue.

I realize that, in the final analysis, what Boko Haram wants is to silence our freedom. They want to introduce a regime of creative stagnation. I understand that creativity begins at the threshold of freedom. Let me explain....[more]

From Chika For Africa:

Igbo Ukwu pot courtesy of Chika for Africa

Fifty years after Independence, Africans have refused to deconstruct and reconstruct the foundations of its colonially bequeathed knowledge. There is no one for Africans to blame, but themselves. The blame goes to African intellectuals who would rather write in ways that would please the West. To African medical doctors who despise indigenous medicine and healing systems, opting completely for Western medical knowledge – the origins of acupuncture, yoga and other acclaimed Eastern medical practices notwithstanding. To African historians bent on analyzing and presenting African history to their students from the Euro-American point of view. To African graduate students unconcerned with applying themselves to objective and critical studies and research on African issues. To African parents who refuse to speak their native languages to their wards, constricting their children’s world, their thoughts and their expressions to the limited vocabulary of the English language. To African religious leaders who have not espoused Africans to love themselves as Africans, before loving their European and American neighbors, just as the Holy book admonishes. Yes, all Africans are to blame for the situation of Africa today. Not one person is exempt, not one.

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Charles Onyango-Obbo writing in Naked Chiefs:

The Big Man in Burundi is a former rebel leader, Pierre Nkurunziza. He is another contradictory figure. An election cheat and tormentor of his opponents, Nkurunziza has managed to bring a modicum of stability to Burundi. In a move you can’t begrudge him, he shamed many bigger, richer, and stable African countries when he sent troops from his poor nation to the African Union’s Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), at a time when only Uganda had the stomach (or was mad enough) to do so.

As the US diplomatic cables leaked to the whistleblower website Wikileaks revealed, Nkurunziza calculated that plunging into Somalia fray would give his little ignored country huge diplomatic oomph. He has reaped benefits beyond his wildest dreams. Nkurunziza is a complex bloke. He is obsessed with the avocado fruit. He spends a lot of time in the village digging with peasants and growing avocado. He waxes grand about how Burundi can become an important world player in making avocado oil. Diplomats who go to see him in the capital Bujumbura (and a lot of them do these days that he is a kingmaker in Somalia) often find themselves driven to the bushes where he is digging. And to get his attention, they have to roll up their shirtsleeves, pick a hoe, and join him in tilling the land.

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Sokari Ekine writing in Pambazuka:

...I believe the majority of the country is behind not just the strikes but the Occupy Nigeria movement which seeks to seriously challenge the status quo and once and for all end the rule by kleptocracy. However there are other small but extremely powerful interest groups working for and against the government: Boko Haram and whoever is behind them; Jonathan and possibly some of the ex-Niger Delta militants; Senators and Governors who fear loss of their power and wealth; the trade union movement particularly the oil workers - how trustworthy are they? – the independent oil marketers or cabal. And of course there is the religious factor, the cozy relationship between an all-powerful state and a powerful highly influential set of religious institutions. Nigeria is about oil and nothing but oil...

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Over at Sugabelly No. 3 in The 10 People You Meet in Nigeria' series - The Ajepako Pastor ( religiosium hungrius ) :

General Characteristics: Instantly identifiable by his 'jump-up' trousers, over long tie, and 'I swear to God' shoes, the Ajepako pastor always has a battered Bible in hand and is covered in sweat from jumping up and down to get the gospel across and call down Holy Ghost Fire on the never-ending swarm of ‘enemies’ that every Nigerian Christian is guaranteed to have.

Image courtesy of Suga Belly

Forget flashy cars, and private jets, the Ajepako Pastor’s message is one of righteous suffering. The rich are evil, the poor are good, and never mind that you’re dying of malaria, one day God go make you bigger. The only thing the Ajepako Pastor has in common with his more successful and well fed cousin (The Ajebutter Pastor) is their unified belief that miracles happen on the daily. Got a new job? It’s a miracle! Marriage proposal? It’s a miracle! Broke your leg? Don't worry, that’s a miracle too.

Niyi Osundare in NaijaBlog:

In the past five years or so, I have been reconsidering my long-held opinion about the relation between leadership and followership. Time there was when I laid all the blame on leadership. Now I’m beginning to say that the followership should also take their fate in their own hands. This is what I see most of the time, for example, in the plays of Femi Osofisan, one of our top writers. Play after play after play; the leaders are there doing things. But the address is to the people. Why must you continue to be ridden like a donkey? Why can’t you, too, get up in the saddle? Nigerians are too docile, too forgiving of bad leadership.

Why are they this way? A number of reasons. The first one is religion. The kind of religion we have in Nigeria is one that puts you to sleep, and after that, puts you to death. It’s not the kind of religion that’s after social justice; it’s not the kind of religion that is after the welfare of the people and the independence of their existence.

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From iReports:

image courtesy of iReports

The trio of Nigrian literary icons; Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark have called for a stop to the spread of violence across the country, warning that the country cannot afford another civil war at this time in history.A statement jointly signed by the trio and entitled “LET NOT THIS FIRE SPREAD!!! An Appeal to the Nigerian Nation Community”, reads in full:“The fears we have all secretly nursed are coming to realisation. The nightmare we have hugged to our individual breasts, voicing them only in family privacy, or within trusted caucuses of friends and colleagues – lest they become instances of materialising evil thoughts – has finally burst through into our social, physical environment. Rumblings and veiled threats have given way to eruption, and the first cracks in the wall of patience and forbearance can no longer be wished away. BOKO HARAM is very likely celebrating its first tactical victory: provoking retaliation in some parts of the nation...[continue reading]

Al Jazeera reports on the unfolding religious conflict in Nigeria:

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Its about time...Nigerians Should Now Ignore the Church

Temie Giwa writing in NigeriansTalk:

Image of Temi Giwa

...it is not religious in a way that suggests that Boko Haram targets Christians and other religions and excludes Muslims from their terrorism. This war is meant to determine the future of Islam in the Nigerian context. All religions must go through this phase of reformation and self-determination, and Islam, while young, is no different. This struggle traditionally kills more faithfuls of the particular religion than outsiders. While Boko Haram and their terror campaign are irrevocably religious, we cannot ignore the fact that the group has killed more Muslim than Christians so far.

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From Al Jazeera:

Nigeria has experienced one of its worst days of violence in two years. Churches, mosques, banks and police stations were attacked as multiple bomb blasts rocked the city of Damaturu, killing at least 69 people, with some reports putting the number as high as 150. There were also separate bombings in the town of Maiduguri, where at least four people were killed.

And Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram group, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, has warned that more are planned.

These attacks have fuelled an already steep sectarian divide in Africa's most populous country, but who are Boko Haram and what motivates their violence? How big a threat do they pose to the country's stability and why have they decided to escalate their violence now?...[continue reading]

Leo Igwe writes:

Whenever I try to apply logic, critical reasoning and scientific temper to issues during public debates, I am often accused of not thinking like an African. I am always told that I think like a white man or that I have a western mentality. As if critical thinking or the scientific outlook is for westerners alone or that critical thinking can only be exercised by people from a particular race or region. No, this is not the case.Surprisingly, nobody has ever stepped forward to tell me how an ‘African’ thinks. For me it is either this ‘African mode of thought’ is one which nobody knows about or is one that does not exist or qualify to be called a thinking pattern. Nobody has tried to let me know if Africans think at all. Because this misguided view that one is unAfrican or western in outlook is often employed to block or suppress critical reasoning or inquiry particularly when it is used to challenge traditions, positions and opinions informed by blind faith or dogma.

While holding on to beliefs and outlooks informed by superstition and primordial thinking is often glorified as African. Even in this 21st century, reason and science are still perceived as western, and not African values. I have yet to understand how we came about this mistaken idea. Hence, it is often portrayed as if the African does not reason and dare not reason or that the African does not think or cannot think critically. It seems thinking like an African means suspension of thought, logic or common sense. Thinking like an African means not thinking at all- thoughtlessness or thinking in spiritual, occult or magical ways.For instance, whenever I try to challenge or question the irrational and absurd claims of witchcraft, juju and charms, and other ritualistic and religious nonsense that dominate the mental space of Africans, I am often reminded that my mentality is western. And you know what, whenever in the course of a public debate, somebody alleges that a position is western, it means that it is unacceptable though it may be reasonable or may have a superior argument. Is that not unfortunate?

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Jack Hamilton writing in Inpec:

Image courtesy of Inpec

The state of Nigeria is facing its largest crisis in over a decade. As the ferocity and popularity of the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram rises, the very unity of the state is being challenged. This collection of photos assesses the reasons why the group is becoming increasingly attractive to the disaffected population in the north despite their gruesome tactics.

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Barbara Ehrenreich debunks 'Positive Thinking' a belief not dissimilar to 'Prosperity Gospel':via Saving Africa

Sylvia Ofili writes in the Guardian (Nigeria):

Oh yes, the Nigerian Senate who have so much time on their hands, decided to pass a bill stating that gays shall not be allowed to get married and if they dare do, they shall get fourteen years in jail. Let us face the truth. There are no gay couples applying for marriage certificates in that country. How would they do that? There are no provisions for such a marriage in our system, therefore, this bill is totally redundant. It is like telling me that I am banned from eating eba in my kitchen when I had none in the first place. If eba was available and waiting for me in my kitchen, then that’s another story. But I don’t even have garri or hot water. In fact, I don’t even have a bowl to make the eba in, so what exactly would be the point of such a ban? It’s as simple as that. I can’t be the only one that sees how unnecessary this bill is. A total waste of time and resources. But hey, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

I am surprised about the excitement this bill has caused in our people. People are almost foaming at the mouths because of this useless bill. I wish our Senate could be equally engaged in other serious matters. For example, Boko Haram. Every month, a new bomb and yet, our senators are laughing over homosexual jokes on TV. I would have expected some kind of crack down by now. Or is it only in the Niger Delta that the military enjoys operating? And what do they plan to do about the religious violence in the north? Or is this show of solidarity against homosexuals going to stop the burning of churches over there? Will this be the very act that will unite Christianity and Islam in the north? And if that is so, will it not be strange that it is only in our hatred we can unite and not in love?

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For further context read Nigeria’s ‘anti-gay bill’ is another backward step
and Leo Igwe's Gay Marriage and African Politics

Religion as an opiate of the masses can be viewed live in Nigeria's 'churches':
Nigerian Fake Pastors and Church Business Exposed from Maku Zikya on Vimeo.

Salisu Suleiman writes:

As Nigerians join the rest of the world in congregating for Hajj, our ironic preoccupation with religion comes out once again. A few years ago, a survey showed Nigeria to be the most religious country in the world, with 90 percent of the population believing in God, praying regularly and affirming their readiness to die for their beliefs. The survey, "What the World Thinks of God" also showed Nigeria coming tops as a praying nation at 95 percent, compared to 67 percent in the US.

Our brand of Christianity has assumed a uniquely Nigerian character: loud, colorful, vigorous and patently overdone. At a time when many are fleeing churches in droves and church attendance are at record lows, the business of worshiping Christ is a trillion naira concern in Nigeria – and growing. Apart from controlling public vaults, the easiest way to own a private jet in Nigeria is probably to talk-smooth on a church podium...[continue reading]

Wangari Maathai writes in Open Democracy:

Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence, apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today. To the disempowered, it seems much easier or even more acceptable to leave one's life in the hands of third parties (governments, aid agencies, and even God) than to try to alleviate one's circumstances through one's own effort...[continue reading]

Ebenezer Obadare writes:

The interior expressions of religion on the continent are even more insidious and most clearly evident in an intellectual surrender that sees its current crises as the making of a divine being, one who will, as soon as current earthly arrangements are brought to their imminent end, sort things out and compensate the long suffering faithful. Religion, therefore, has effectively become Africa's shadow state, enhancing its dubious social agency, even as the authority and legitimacy of the state rapidly diminishes...To prescribe an increased role for faith as a panacea to all this is to conflate the problem with the solution. It is to forget that if the state in Africa has failed, the solution must lie in rebuilding it; in short, in human, as opposed to divine, agency. State failure in Africa being a human creation, only human ingenuity, not a Creator, can solve it.