The Prayer Africa Urgently Needs

The Prayer Africa Urgently Needs

By ‘Sola Fagorusi

… Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

Depending on what part of the continent you live in, it is appropriate and tempting to be so detached from the reality. The pangs of hunger bites considerably hard in places like Somalia where the warlords are having it fine and rough in one breath. John Burnett paints a riveting picture of this in Where Soldiers Fear to Tread. About a month ago, I sat in company of about 140 African youths in the belly of an auditorium in Nairobi. Drawn from about 30 African countries, we deliberated on Silencing the Guns: Strengthening Governance in Resolving Conflicts in Africa at the behest of the African Union Commission and the African Union Youth Division. By the time the three days event was over, it was apparent to all that the continent was haemorrhaging on a number of fronts.  

From West Africa comes the most labouring concern of the moment. Expectedly, our colleagues from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were exempted from the meeting for obvious reasons. The Ebola Virus Diseases is the biggest issue on the continent with Liberia being the worst hit thus far. Nigeria recorded eight deaths out of the 20 cases that were reported. Sierra Leone has lost 1,200 people out of the reported 3,410 cases it has had thus far. Ebola victims deserve our prayers more than ever given the dimension of the disease. It seems to go by the all or nothing law – once one has the disease, death seems almost inevitable. Bible scholars will readily have their attention drawn to 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” With Marburg fever case being thrown up in Uganda already, the answer to what we need to do may lie in the verses above. The bible is complete afterall; and the intelligence of men offered by God may need to do more than vaccine trails to put this new plague at bay. A combo of faith and work holds the solution. Happenings thus far show that this is the biggest outbreak of the two-week killer virus since its first incidence in 1976.

It is a different but sad story as well in Juba; Africa’s newest capital and the capital of South Sudan in East Africa where guns and machetes are finding use in the capital and a number of cities there. The country seems to be spending more on guns and ammunitions than in offering peace education. The decent into famine will happen faster by the time the humanitarian aid is withdrawn in South Sudan. The new country has witnessed heavy fighting between the forces of President Salva Kiir and rebels loyal to his former deputy, Riek Machar all for the control of the country’s soul. Until the peace deal is struck in Addis Ababa, the country will continue to need prayers and material supports for men, children and women burdened with the responsibility of staying alive. For others like them in war-torn nations, 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 rings regularly -  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. The region also has concerns bothering on Al-Shabaab’s activities in Somalia which the world has also rudely seen extended briefly to Kenya’s capital during the West-Gate Mall attack in the last quarter of 2013; an incidence that led to the death of about 60 people. Somalia, Al-Shabaab’s base is even worse for this especially since it is just coming out of a civil war that lasted about a decade and half. East Africa; the horn of Africa and the other predominantly Anglophone axis on the continent needs our prayers. If Christians take literally to the belief that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal in form then perhaps victory will be nearer than we think.

For almost one-third of the Syrian population in North Africa, who are either refugees outside the country or homeless inside Syria, the 7th of March annual World Day of Prayer will mean a lot to the Christian, and even Muslim population there. After all, most wars do not discriminate between religions; even when the war actors do, the guns and bombs cannot make such distinction. Our challenges on the continent can no longer wait for an annual prayer session; voices have to rise daily to the heavens.  From the Arab Spring crisis which began with the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi to the present deterioration in the region following the birth of ISIS, the Middle East comprising of the African nation of Syria needs all the help it can garner. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has its eyes set on very clear goals; the most prominent being to enthrone an Islamic theocratic system. There is a growing counselling need for children who have been traumatized by violence in this region and prayers to have the heart of men turn from evil and do good.’ There is no other time that the Christianity has come under assault like it presently is but beyond that; it is also about how unstable life has become on the continent. Al-Nusra Front and Ansar al-Sharia are two other groups in the North African region that makes the continent in dire need of urgent solution.

Back to the West African region, beyond the fear of Ebola Viral Disease, a virus deadlier than HIV, Boko Haram has also dealt a huge blow on the psyche of Nigerians (especially in the northern region) and with more than 200 girls missing for six months and several Christians and non-Christians killed, the voices of the righteous need to rise up to heaven more. This much is what Christians in peaceful communities owe others where pandemonium and fear exists so that the words of Isaiah 32:18 (My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest) come to pass. The destiny of Africa is tied together; an incidence in one country portends a possibility in another. God bless Africa.

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‘Sola Fagorusi is a freelance writer and social entrepreneur. He blogs at www.kadunaboy.com and tweets @SolaFagro

WHAT IS WRONG WITH BEING BLACK?

 Celebrating our heritage, confronting our challenges…

In the recent times, there has been a lot of interest in the Black race with people asking questions on why the Black race appears to be without the grace and beauty that other races have. Why does it seem that the Black race is “cursed”; political unrest, economic problems, poverty, crime, poor health care, natural disasters and the list goes on and on. Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo courageously attempts in this book to deepen our understanding, unearthing questions and providing answers to correct and heal past wounds.

This is a book review of an extensive research work carried out by Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo and published in 2007 by Destiny Image publishers INC. The book written in two parts studied the black person in Australia – among the Aborigines, Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, or North America, where we seem to belong to the bottom of the pile economically, socially, physically, mentally etc.

The first part of the book is titled ‘His glorious past,’ documenting carefully historically and scientifically facts of the Black man’s past. This part was subdivided into five chapters by the author: Man – a masterpiece of creation, the Black Man’s dominion, the great empire builders, the great black personalities and the wealthy continent. The book begins with a biblical account of how glorious mans creation is, how as at the time of creation the life of God was imparted into man, man was blessed and commanded to be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion (Gen 1:28). All humankind therefore appeared fully loaded.

The fall of man, the scattering of all generations and the subsequent confusion of their language introduced various cultures, traditions and confrontations. Researching extensively the black man’s dominion, the author looks at the biblical account of the dispersal of nations in Genesis 9 following it up with Genesis 10 where Nimrod who built the tower of Babel and much of Babylon was a Cushite, an Ethiopian and a black person. He traces the Negroid and Mongoloid races to Ham the son of Noah who is responsible for the Asian civilisation in the Middle East, Africa, the Far East and the New World. These descendants of Ham were shown to have been in unexpected ways the world’s greatest inventors. They were great empire builders Mizram (Egypt) and Cush (Ethiopia). Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo then proceeds further to mention great black personalities with great research skill and careful documentation, providing for us an insight into some significant role our ancestors played in scripture. He mentions Nimrod, lady Keturah (a Cushite) of Genesis 25 the wife of Abraham after Sarah’s death. We also have Ahmose the Black Egyptian who was the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph (Ex 1:8). Others are Zipporah the Ethiopian who married Moses the prophet, Simon of Cyrene, a Black man from Libya who helped carry the cross of Christ, Simeon the Niger and Lucius of Cyrene prophets and teachers in the Church in Antioch (Acts 13:1 – 2).

Finally in part one Pastor Ashimolowo describes the wealth of the continent, because of the wealth of Africa it has been referred to as the “Golden Continent”. There are records of the wealth of Egypt, Ethiopia, Timbuctu and South Africa from as far back as 2000 B.C. to about A.D. 1500. He described Africa at its best; before its fall and decline.

In part two of this insightful book, Pastor Ashimolowo examines conformations and pathologies with an attempt to explain why it seems the Black man is cursed. With each pathology he provides scriptural basis for why the Black man needs to return to his Maker so that time of refreshing could come upon him. He studies the things that have shaped the Black man’s world and his increasing difficulty to break out of the mould. He observes the influence of idolatry and the fact that the first mention of it in the Bible is related to Nimrod a Cushite who led the first revolt against God (Gen 10:8-10). The result is disunity, civil war and unrest, colonization, perversion, unemployment, oppression, defeat, desertification, beggar nations and the list goes on. This is the first conformation.

The second is superstition: a belief founded on irrational feelings especially of fear and marked by credulity. This he writes is not limited to Blacks but is a major influence in the decision-making process within their community. 

The third conformation he writes about is witchcraft, which is practiced in almost all spheres of life in nations where it has been given prominence. This he observes has shaped Black views to the point that there is a practice of inhumanity to fellow humans with young boy soldiers describing how they tear out the heart of their enemies and eat them because of the belief that this gives them more boldness. He observed a deficiency in social and economic advancement among the nations where witchcraft is given such prominence. These conformities lead to various pathologies such as slavery, one of the greatest pathologies confronting the people of colour. Other pathologies are the distorted family values, economic challenges, faulted educational systems, segregation and a self-image problem. Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo concludes this interesting, educative and informative piece by providing a scriptural solution from Romans 12:2. He states categorically that “there is nothing wrong with being Black”. God created Blacks equal to others but circumstances have perpetuated our existence. He however recommends on the basis of the above scripture that transformation of the heart is the only permanent way to take control or life and eternal destiny. He suggests that God is waiting for every black man, woman and child to turn their hearts towards Him, to praise Him for life – past, present and future – and for Jesus. We should take pride in the fact that we truly built the first civilizations: Africans, the Black Egyptians were proficient in Mathematics, Medicine, Engineering and Agriculture. Black Arabs started algebra, conquered Spain and Portugal and carried Mathematics into Europe. He finished this master piece with the following encouraging prophecy “we have a proud heritage; we can rise to that height again – with a proper respect for God and each other.”             

Oluwatosin B. Adekeye

Health Psychologist and Honorary Research Fellow

tosinadetunde2000@yahoo.co.uk