Africa's black traditional religious beliefs never taught racism. It is white preachers who taught that; we blacks are inferior "drawers of wood" because our ancestor Ham, son of Isaac was condemned by God for laughing at his father's nakedness. So if we wish to end racism, we must correct our religious beliefs.
Do we not know that the Boers of South Africa based their apartheid on their religious belief of superiority preached by their Dutch Reformed Church? Do we know that the "racist" Israel Zionism is justified on the Jewish belief that Jews are God's chosen people who gave them that Palestinian land, or that the Catholic Church has supported the slave trade, as can be evidently seen by a Catholic slave fort at a coast in Ghana?
To be fair, of course, there were white missionaries such as Francois Coillard at Barotseland's Sefula Mission in the 1890s, who opposed racist preaching. But the fact is that whites benefited from the "pacification' of the Africans through religion. That is why Jomo Kenyatta used to say: "Before the whites came, we had the land and they only had the Bible. But after they came, they took our land and we remained only with bibles".
The use of the Bible to preach racism in the past is making our modern preachers embarrassed because they can not just find a convincing way of using the same Bible to preach racial harmony today.
On Tuesday 4th August at 22.30 hours on TBN a Zambian pastor preached that we black Africans are poor because we have failed to follow God's word that "accept the lord first, and all shall be added onto you". Really? I beg to differ. We blacks are in fact more religious than whites! You never heard of a black atheist! We are a most compassionate, spiritual and forgiving people. Go to Europe and find big churches a quarter full with only old people. But they still prosper. Most Zambians of Asian origin worship Islam and not Christianity, and yet they are more economically prosperous than we are! It is true of course, that Christian principles are a good basis for success. But dear pastors, could you please shed some light as to why blacks are poorer than whites?
Another intelligent, but appalling preacher is Hal Lindsey. While the UN Durban Conference is quarreling whether to condemn Israel as a racist State, Lindsey who presents his International Intelligence briefing on TBN (Friday 04 hours) swears for two appalling statements: (i) that those who attempt to challenge or attach the State of Israel shall face the wrath of God because that State was ordained by god (Ezekial 36:1-30) and that nobody shall ever manage to destroy the Jewish State. (ii) Lindsey then says that the USA has prospered economically because it has always supported Israel since its formation in 1948.
Well we know that Jewish thinkers had the most world influence. Jesus Christ's (a Jew) teaching influences modern Christian theory. Another Jew Karl Marx, nearly divided the world into two (capitalism and communism blocks) and so was Jewish philosopher Freud. Albert Einstein, a Jew, controls today's scientific theory. But the same Jews have caused much controversy. Jews are the most influential sect in US foreign policy today. Any wonder the US walked out of the Durban conference in solidarity with Jewish racism! The Jews killed and still reject Jesus. Karl Marx preached atheism.
So are the Jews chosen people? I thought Jesus never preached racism and said, there shall be neither Jew nor gentile. But if they are the chosen ones, so does it mean that God is blessing America for helping Jews to kill Arabs? How then can we expect the Arabs to accept God if we tell them that God is the one who is blessing their Zionist killers? No! America prospered because of exploitation and slavery, not because of supporting Jews. In most cases religion and racism go together. The Arab- led government of Sudan preaches Islam. The black Sudanese of the South preach Christianity. So is the Sudanese civil war, a racial war or a religious war? Are the two Americans arrested who are on trial for preaching Christianity in Afghanistan, on trial because they are hated as Americans, or because of their religion?
Former ArchBishop Tutu wrote a book "No future without forgiveness." The USA and the EU are refusing even to apologize for the slave trade because, according to the British Daily, The independent (4th June), slavery was legal when it was being practiced. Well, racism was legal under the Nazi. So is it justified? Why do westerners twist facts when it comes to Africa? If there can be no future without forgiveness, then there can be no forgiveness without an apology! So the ball is in the court of the western whites to apologize first.
Preachers we appreciate your efforts. But please be aware that just as much as religion can heal racial prejudices, religion can cause racial prejudice. Get deeper in your research.