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Monday, October 25, 2010

AFRICANS ARE TRULY SPIRITUAL

I can count among by friends, some "saved" individuals, who can pray from morning till cows come home! I also have on my list, ordained Church Ministers, Pastors, Bishops, Catholic Priests, Opus Dei members, Catholic Nuns, Jehovah's Witnesses, very liberal individuals ( both Christians and Muslims) and Freemasons who follow their craft without minding other peoples businesses. However, I haven't yet met somebody who professes atheism or worse, a devil worshiper! Africans communities have been known through the ages for their strong spiritual beliefs where they worshiped God by way of prayer, meditation and sacrifice in  sacred places such as wetlands, hills and forests. In fact, I don't know of any elderly African who doesn't invoke the name God in daily conversations. Now, due to colonization and influence of  other people, we have generally accepted and converted to Christianity and Islam due to our  deep-rooted spirituality. Evangelicals are also finding wide acceptance  partly due to their chants and pompous style which was common in African cultural rituals. And whereas Christianity has an upper hand in Kenya, the million shilling question is, where do those who claim that 90 % of us are Christians get their data from? Perhaps, this could mistakenly emanate from the fact  that due to our spirituality and the common invocation of the name of God  in our daily lives, others may misconstrue this to mean that we are only thinking of  the "Christian" God. The Western (Christian) God  like the Muslim one is closely interlocked in both cultural and religious ceremonies. That's why it's important to note here that  for the West, Christianity is culture just like Islam is a way of life for Muslims. However, in the case of black Africans who profess Christianity, they still continue with some cultural practices such as marrying  many wives, circumcision ceremonies and widow inheritance which is an anathema to the Western Christian. Therefore, we can safely say that all black Africans are still deeply spiritual but few are true Christians from the Western angle. Due to our prejudices as humans, however, it's likely to see conflicts and disagreements between those who are truly spiritual on one hand and the Christians and Muslims on the other, despite our belief in one supreme God. The higher calling and lesson is for us to find ways to overcome those little prejudices and tolerate one another as we await our last moment here on earth. The Christians, Muslims and those who are deeply spiritual share the belief that there is a reward from the supreme God  when we do whatever is good in our lifetime. Therefore, let's learn to live together in diversity despite our interpretations of where God resides!

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