Transcription
If you run across Africa, there is no shortage of organizations which are designed to debilitate Africans through NOS's. USID right now they are busy dropping food in Sudan and Somalia. UK aid, Danida, Gis, there is no shortage of them. Andwami was right again. The colonialist comes under different guises. This is the journey to one Africa. Thank you very much.
Uh let me say how glad I am to have been invited to share my thoughts with you. First of all, I'm not a theologian. And I know you are accomplished theologians, but I feel confident because I'm sufficiently curious to talk about God. And therefore I believe that my thoughts, some of which you may not agree with and must not indeed agree with speak to the same God. I've written a paper which will be distributed. It's more disciplined than what I will present in a neglectic fashion.
But I'm acutely aware that I've been asked to talk about problems beeviling Africa. But before I say that, lest it be that it is only Africa that has problems, it is not true. As I speak only yesterday, in the United States of America, there is a state of emergency in the state of Texas. So there are problems in the United States. As I speak to you now, there is a war in Ukraine. So there are problems in Europe. As I speak to you now, there are tribal problems in Nagonabak amongst theis and Armenians. So there are problems in that part of the world because there is the tendency to assume in popular media that problems are only in Africa completely untrue and let therefore my presentation be understood in that context. We are speaking about Africa because we are in Africa and because we are focusing on the continent of Africa. When I came in the devotion also said that there are diseases in Africa. True, but there are diseases everywhere. So let it be understood in that context.
That said, and you being theologians of the Christian extraction, let it also be understood before I make my contribution that Christianity is a very young religion is a post Christrist religion. And I invite those who are present here to read the book that I love written by Desmond Lo. God is not a Christian and I believe that God is not a Christian. Christianity from my theology is a human construct created after Christ was assumed into heaven. controversial. That is the standpoint from which I come. I profess Christianity but I read all holy books. I read the Hindu Gita and I'm familiar with Hindu mythology. I read the Mahabharata. I hope all of you have read the Mahabarata because the writers of the Mahabarata say that he who has not and she who has not read the Mahabarata has read nothing. And I agree with him. The Hindu Mahabarata was written 5,000 years before Christianity and is 11 times longer than the Christian Bible. And when I talk about the Christian Bible, I mean the Bible that includes the 12 dutch canonolical books, sometimes referred to as the Apocrypha. And when I watch the Hindu Mahabarata, I begin to see theology because the characters in that book attend a school under a tree, a banyan tree, and they are being taught theology. I urge you to read in the mahabarat.
When I talk about theology, I'm also talking about theology before Christianity. And many of you will have read the works of Socrates, the works of Plato, the works of Aristotle from whom St. Thomas Aquinas borrows very heavily. And that theology is also important because it is a theology that talked about God's not God. That theology informed modernday Christian theology and you are familiar with it as students of theology. When I talk about theology, I'm also talking about African theology. And those of you who are Africans will be familiar with the theology of Arun Miller among the Euroba peoples perhaps not documented but that is also theology. Those of you and many of you are students of comparison, comparative religion, we must also be familiar with Islamic theology. So there is not one theology, there are theologies and if one comes from that standpoint, one must therefore be very humble.
I'm one who presently very slow to talk about denominations, Catholic church, Anglican church, SDA church, Methodist church. Today when you tell me I'm an Anglican, I resist it. Although I was baptized in that church and that to me represents an enlightenment. I feel I'm becoming closer to God when I run away from organized denominations because organized denominations bottle God and confine him to a very small space to which he does not belong. And the danger of theology therefore is that in my Anglican church sometimes I hear the priest saying we are going to learn about Anglicanism. And I said is that about God that Anglicanism. We are going to learn about Roman Catholicism. Is that about God or Roman Catholicism? We are going to learn about SDA. Is that about God or SDASism? And many of us are caught in that whirlpool.
Today I dare say that one of the greatest problems that bedevils bedevils Africa is religion. It is one of the things that debilitates Africa. Africa now finds ourself in a space where many believe wrongly in my view that all our problems will be solved through prayer and fasting wrong. The divine instruction as I understand it was go ye and subdue the earth and by the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat. There is no shortage in Kenya. Even those of you who came from outside who have seen many crusades in billboards in Nairobi, Kenya and when you travel across Africa, there is no shortage of individuals going by different names, prophet, prophetes. And yet those of you who are students of theology will be told that the age of prophethood ended. Some say with John the Baptist, some say with Micah, but they are prophetess and prophets. There is no shortage of apostles running around Africa producing rabbits out of hearts in the name of fake miracles. There is no shortage of them. That is part of the African problem. But we do not want to confront it. Particularly you theologians, you do not want to confront it. There is now a theology in Africa of making people feel good without making them good. That is wrong theology. It is unbiblical and is dangerous to Africa. Cuz the Bible that I read does not say it.
The Bible that I read is specific and unequivoc. When I read the book of first kings and I read the story of the prophet Elijah and his confrontation with Ahab and Jezebel, he says, "Bring forth the 400 prophets of Bal and the 450 prophets who are prophets of Asher and let them come to Mount Carmel that we may know if God is God, let him be worshiped. And if Bal is God, let him be woripped. No two ways, choose. And a choice is made. That is the Bible that I read and I don't think it has changed. Even if you have the American or the NIV or the King James, that one has never changed. So there is no equivocation in the Bible. It's about choice.
The other Bible that I read is to be found in Joshua 24 and you'll be familiar with it. the last meeting between Joshua and the elders of Israel before he passes on at Sheckchim says remember before we crossed before I called Abraham and Nahor from his father Terra they worshiped other gods and he narrates what he did to them and how he came into the land of the Amorites. And he tells them, "Choose you now whether you want to worship the gods that your fathers worship before they cross the Jordan or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. As for me and my house I shall serve the Lord." No equivocation, clarity, choices being made. I read that the Bible that I read also tells me in Matthews 24:24 that in the last day there'll be many Christs. They'll come and they are coming now. Many of them they shall work wonders and that they would even lead the very elect but for divine intervention. That Bible I read and I suspect you also read the same Bible. The Bible that I read in Paul's second letter to Timothy 3 also tells me that in the last day they shall be a form of Christianity. Your people will be lovers of themselves and they would cheat everybody just like Janice and Jamress did to Moses in the desert. I read that Bible. I also read another Bible verse in the Bible Romans 1:30. that shall people shall be lovers of themselves and they will have committed all sins and they manufacture new sins like LGBTQ. Nowadays I go to church and pastors are equivocating. My own church I saw in England the clergy coming complete with a dog collar apologizing for people who are engaged in LGBTQ saying that God loves them. Yes, he does. But God does not love sin. And the last time I checked and the Bible has not been revised. One of the reasons why Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was because they engaged in those.
So when you ask me to talk about the role of theology and the problems being Africa, I'm situating my presentation in those biblical verses which are clear and unequivoc like all peoples face numerous problems and human beings face numerous problems. We seldom forget but we must never forget that this continent and our people were enslaved. We must never forget that. You must never forget that 18 million Africans were taken from the eastern part of Africa into the Arab world and men were castrated. You must never forget that because the effect of it is with us today. We must never forget that over 12 million Africans were taken and taken to the Caribbean, taken to Europe and America. We must never forget that. We must never forget that in southern Africa the appetite regime was underritten through verses from the Bible by the Dutch reformed church. We must never forget that upon a theology based in the Bible fact. We must never forget that the Roman Catholic Church was involved in slavery and they have apologized for it. We must never forget that the church of England was involved in slavery and they have apologized for it using the Bible. theology. Slaves obey your masters like you obey Christ. In the Bible, not revised. You go and read it. There is a vice like that. So when we talk about theology and African problems, we must remember that the effects of slavery are alive and with us today.
When slavery was gone, it is Christians again. William Wilbur Force and I can through history see him standing in the House of Commons saying that slavery should be abolished but that Africans should not be freed even when slavery is abolished and slave trade after slavery colonization came. And as I speak to you, Europeans sat in Bali in 1884 and 1885 and divided Africa into spheres of influence. Africa was a hunting ground divided amongst the British, the Italians, the Dutch, the French, the Belgians, the Germans. And today we are in this assembly. I'm using English language which was imposed on us. And those of you who come from English-speaking countries, you referred to as Anglophone. Those of you come from French-speaking countries, you are referred to as Luc as franophone. And those from Portuguese are referred to as lucophone. Soon they'll be sopon. We don't speak Yoruba. I'm not speaking Yoruba. I'm not speaking Kiswahili. There is no Kiswahili interpreter here. There are only French and Portuguese and English. Part of the African problem. We are confused.
When my friend resisted they are being called a perfect Frenchman, I could understand his anger because the colonial project was a dehumanizing and humiliating process and religion and theology were at the heart of it. That is why when the European colonizer we used to be taught in school that the flag followed the cross. I went to Zanziba and a young man was taking me through the dungeons and he showed me there was the school where they taught Africans that they may use them in their labor. There is the church that they touch their spirit that they may be spiritually confused and there is the hostel where they treated them that they may use them as labor had never heard such interpretation. That is why when theology came we were told that in order to be a Christian you must be John or James or Joel. You cannot be Taiw. No, that is not a Christian name. Christian name must be John Joseph. Who said it? Whose theology is it? Who said that in order to be a Christian, you must be John? Who's heard it? That is jist theology. That is racist theology. Because when you want to change a person, you give him their your name. Those of you who have watched roots will know this. Alex Hale is roots. You capture count and in order to dehumanize him, you call him Toby. That is also theology. So African problem is also colonization.
So as we speak now they are Nigerians here, they are Ghanaians here. They are Congalles Democratic Republic of Congo and then there is Congo named after Federin and Drazza called Brazville. I look forward to the day they change Brazville's name. At least they changed Leopold field into kinshas. This is the reality. This is part of the problem. The Democratic Republic of Congo will never know peace because of religion, Roman Catholicism and colonization. These are the problem beeviling Africa. And we never said King Leopold of the Belgians caused 13 million Congalles to be killed. twice the number of the Jews that were killed by Adolf Hitler at Holocaust. But we have forgotten. We Africans have a short memory. But the Jews will never allow you to forget. Never ever. But we Africans have forgotten. Part of the African problem is short memory. Amnesia is part of our problem. And that is why we keep on repeating the same mistakes time and over. Colonization is part of the problem that affects Africa because after colonization ended, we have another thing called neoc colonization. And it is alive and well. That thing called neocolonization is alive and well. And if you doubted whether he's alive and well, I want you to see what is happening in Guinea Konak. I want you to see what is happening in Nij. I want you to see what is happening in Bukina Faso. I want you to see what is happening in Chad. And I want you to see the arrogance of the French president when he says, "My ambassador shall not leave. My bases shall not be removed." At least yesterday he capitulated. The neoc colonial project is alive and well. Did you hear the voice of the church throughout what is happening in Guinea Bisau? No. The church is silent. The church is complicit. So when you talk about theology and what it can do sometimes courtesy of theology because you want to be good, you don't raise your voices. The last time I checked, John the Baptist voice was alive and well in the wilderness. Where is the voice of the church amidst all this? Africa's problem is also neocolonization is the from slavery to colonization to neoc colonization which is an ongoing project and Ghana'sqing kuruma was right in 1965 when he said the last stage of colonization is neocolonization and is alive and well and we see it Today I tell Africans because of neocolonization I'll come to what I think theology can do.
Today in Africa here in Nairobi Kenya if you want to buy something from a supermarket you go to caro which is French. You want to buy fuel, you go to total energies or rubies which is French. You want to have your pizza which is made by Kentucky Fried Chicken which is American, you had it carried have it carried by Globo which is Spanish. If you want to have security, you have it by G4S which is British. If you want your home guarded is guarded by KK which is GD world from Quebec. If you want to have chicken is Kaki fried chicken. If you want your airports manage Swiss port from Switzerland. That is the state of Africa consuming what we do not produce and producing what we do not consume. Just look at it. That is it. And when you are in that state, you are a slave. When you are in that state, you are dehumanized. When you are in that state, you are not behaving as if you are made in the image of God.
If you run across Africa, there is no shortage of organizations which are designed to debilitate Africans through NOS's. USID right now they are busy dropping food in Sudan and Somalia. UK aid, Danida, Gis, there is no shortage of them. Andwami was right again. The colonialist comes under different guises, but they kill your spirit to survive. So Africa is bedeled by all these things and until the scale falls from our eyes and the works melt from our ears, we will not go anywhere. So what can you do amidst all these things? What can religion do? What can theological schools do? Can they do anything that is useful? Can they change people's lives? Can they empower people?
The Bible can be disempowering and the Bible can also be empowering. You know, several years ago when my child was young and wanted to be baptized, I went for preparation. She had not attained the age of majority. She was one and my provice at All Saints Cathedral asked me whether I believed in child baptism. I said I don't. It is not biblical. There is nowhere in the Bible where anybody was baptized as a child. And if it was biblical, Christ would have been baptized as a child. Then he said, why do you bring your child? I say because I know you people. When my child comes here as an adult, you'll ask her why were you not baptized? So she got baptized. But I said it has no biblical basis completely. This is man-made. Then they say but they used to dedicate the children. I say that was Jewish tradition. Christianity has roots in Judaism but is not Judaism. So the Bible can be misinterpreted.
Another time I'm invited to speak to politicians here in Kenya. And when they have read they say that all leadership comes from God. I said no it's not true. There are so many crooks in leadership in Africa and elsewhere. They could not possibly be coming from God. Then they say but it's biblical. I said the book of Romans was written by Paul in the year 1577 to 158 AD57 AD58 when he was going to Rome on trial and some of the things are not inspired. They were informed by the politics of the day. He was softing the rulers in Rome but it did not help him. When he arrived there was arrested, detained and he was executed. So it is not true that all these things are inspired. And if you read Rome and the book of Romans historically, you'll see that there are things that are Paul's own opinion. And you who are theologians may debate about it. I'm giving you this because I'm now coming to the theology of it.
You may now know that there is a committee that is doing the rounds in Kenya which is collecting views about religion and how religion should be regulated because of an incident called Shakahola. I appeared before them and during my presentation I made this statement and the chairman almost jumped out of his seat. I said that the nyin creed was a political settlement. He said that is heretical. He must have said that from his body language. And I said it was political. Then I say he said the person said why? When in 3:24 AD they invited the 100 or so many bishops in Nika only 80 attended. You e theologians know and how the nyin creed then came about that the spirit proceeds from the father and the son was a battle between Arian and Athanasius and Athanius won the day. And even now I told him in the Eastern Orthodox the fil is removed and you don't say the spirit rem proceeds from the son. It says proceed from the father only. It was a political settlement. Then he said but why are you saying this? I told him because I'm a Christian of Berea. The Christian of Berea questions and Paul is him who says in Acts of the Apostle that why he liked the Bereans when the gospel has been preached to them. They went home and asked we heard you saying all these things. We are factchecking you. We are factchecking you because we now have a theology in Africa particularly and in the world where preachers of the gospel are busy writing little explanatory books about the Bible and their congregation reads those books rather than the Bible. The joy of many preachers today is that I've written 20 books read my books and they don't say buy my books. They say donate. Deception. Just be right. Say buy my books. And if you ask people whether they have read the Bible, many have not. I did a challenge. I'll not do it here because some of you will fail. I told in a congregation, I want you to recite to me the Lord's Prayer without referring to any book. out of 10 only two. Then I said, I want you to tell me the ten commandments in the order in which they were given. Only two. Only two. But say what the pastor said in his book about the last days. They can memorize everything. in the last days. Matthew 24:24, there shall be many Christs, and they shall mislead many, even the very elect.
So the question is with all these problems facing Africa, education, health, bad governance and all these things. In Africa, we have some of the lowest quality politicians. African countries say that they are democratic. They are kakistocratic. And kakistocracy is a government of the very worst. You are led by your very worst. That is kakistocracy. If you combine that with kleptocracy, which is a government of thieves, then you can see why Africa continued to punch below our weight in all areas. We continue to do so. So that many Africans have now surrendered. What they are remaining with is prayer and fasting. Africans pray for what they can work for. That is not the divine instruction. Paul was still making tents. We must continue working. Faith and works. We have converted God into an operator of a lottery and a casino where upon tithing then you will get more. You say tithe and you'll get more. That is why you have all these dangerous things that are now emerging even in Christianity. Extremism. We have had Shakola where people died here in Nairobi. I hope you've been in you've been told about 300 dead and some are still being counted. In the olden days, not too long ago when I was a young boy, you had the Reverend Jim Jones of Guyana outside of Africa, the branch devidians in Texas in Waco. And many of these fellows are running riot.
And African theology has always been there in an attempt to interpret religion and Christianity in a manner in which is in conformity with African realities. We had the African independent churches here before independence. They are still there. They are trying to understand Christ because in Christ's mind there are no Jews, no Gentiles, no men, no women. That is the Christian theology. No Jew, no Gentiles. Those of you who are from the Democratic Republic of Congo will know of Don Beatatrice, sometimes known as Kimpavita and her theology. He was trying to make people understand Christ from a congalles environment. If you have not read about Don Beatatric or Kim Pavita, go and read about her. She was burnt on the stakes by the colonialists just like Jeang. Many of you who are from Congo will also remember Simon Kimbang in prison died in 1951 in prison. Kimbang was also trying to come with a theology that responded to African reality. I'm now trying to suggest to you that theology can be useful but theology must be decolonized. If we don't decolonize theology, then we will continue to believe that the theology handed down to us is what is going to solve our problems. and permit me to be a little bit uh unsettling.
You know, when you look at the Anglican church, I understand how it was created. King Henry VIII wanted to annal his marriage with Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Yan Bolin and establish the Church of England and for it St. Thomas Mo was executed. That is not a very good beginning. As we speak now, the head of the Anglican church is the king of England. That is the titular head of the Anglican church established. Now if you want that theology where the head of the Anglican church is my head to solve my African problems, can they solve my African problems? No. When they are now saying that before they give African aid and ask Uganda they must follow LGBTQ. I personally was the victim of a demonstration in South Africa because I had spoken firmly and unequivocally against LGBTQ. When I went to deliver a lecture at Cape Cape Town University, there were demonstrations against me on the 29th of May. But I said that is what I believe in and we must not equivocate. We must not in the name of political correctness now say oh because we want IMF and World Bank to help Africa therefore we must say but God loves everybody. Yes indeed he does but he tells you to do things in a particular way. If we allow aberrations to be mainstreamed then there is no sin. We are going getting into a level where there is no untruth. Everything is right. Everything depends. That is the theology that is now beginning to emerge from Europe and America. He's going to be the dominant theology and he's going to have everything pegged on it. Uganda has had aid cut from it because the Ugandan president has spoken about it.
We are still talking about the problems beeviling Africa. IMF is saying we are inclusive. It is the same people who came here in 19800s and gave us the penal code which had some sex against the order of nature. That was the offense. sex against the order of nature. Now tell me when did nature change? Yeah. Tell me when nature changed. And we must say this whether people are angry or not because if we want to change Africa we must not fear to speak the truth as we know it. Because if you fall for everything, there is a saying, he who abandones his culture and traditions is a slave. There is another saying say conquer yourself that you may be a victor. Africans must make that choice in order for all these problems to begin to disappear. We must re-examine our theology. We must ask ourselves what we are teaching in our theological schools. I know that many theological schools when you still go there, they tell you this is how theology started. It started before Socrates increased. The word theo means god. Then it came from Socrates. It was articulated much better by Plato in the republics. Then it was articulated much better by Aristotle. Then it came to St. Thomas Aquinas. Then it came to Ambrose of Milan. Then it came to Augustine of Hippo. They'll tell you all that. No African is all eurosentric. When you tell them there was a run in, they tell you that was a witch doctor, not a theologian. And we and me whose education is westernfounded, believe it cuz that is your factory setting. So you must unlearn some of these things in theology. You must question when you go to your theological St. Paul's Theological College, United Theological College. Who are the prime writers the book that you say this is the losses locus classical that must be read by all theologians? All eurosentric all. How many theologians here are writing books? How many of you here have done a study on Simon Kimbangu? How many of you here have done a study on Don Beatatrice? Zero. You argue that Don Beatatrice was misled by the devil. You argue that Kim Vita was misled by the devil. Who told you education miseducation of the negro? Kata G Woodson 1933 in the United States.
So brethren, as I conclude, the time is now for theological schools to be the salt in the society, to be the light. Otherwise, you are just but an ivory tower who is separated from the congregation by the pulpit. Sometimes when you are in the pulpit, do you ever imagine how distant you are from your congregation? That the pullpit actually isolates you. Do you ever think that when you wear the gabs they separate you and that that is far? Do you ever imagine and I'm saying this noting that some of you are wearing the dog's collar that the dog's collar if you are not careful separates you from the congregation. If you are not conscious of these things, then there is a problem because the theology that comes must be based in the Bible. Who amongst you is the greatest? He who is last shall be first. Hisology about the bread. You'll ask me questions and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. But I want to conclude with this particular one. Why do you think that Christ fed the 5,000? Christ must have realized that when your body is not nourished, the soul cannot receive information. That is my interpretation. So the body must be fed so that the soul is ready to receive. The theology in which you are engaged must do that. If it does not do that, then it is sterile theology. Thank you very much.