Occasionally, I receive unsolicited e-mail messages that I find valuable. But seldom do I receive a message that at once infuriates and propels me to pull up a blank Microsoft Word document to hash out a riposte.

But first, a salient question:

Why was it the European that enslaved the African and not the other way around?

Here is my proposition.

(But before that, a quick foreword: I have deliberately chosen to simplify and generalize here; this isn’t intended to be a doctoral thesis. I realize, for example, that there are way more people on earth than the European and the African. Nonetheless, I feel confident that it is in order for me to take the risks of simplification and generalization here.)

So on to my proposition.

Let’s go back to any arbitrary time in the history of mankind… Shall we say, the middle ages? On any arbitrary day in the middle ages, we will find it to be true that the European was more inquisitive than the African. The European observed natural phenomena, and, intrigued by them, wondered why things were the way they were? He formulated hypotheses, tested them, and validated or repudiated them. Either way, he learned something each time he went through that cycle, and accumulated (and documented), over time an increasing body of knowledge.

The African on the other hand ascribed almost everything to the supernatural. He ascribed the rain and the sun to gods. If he had a bountiful harvest, the gods must have been pleased with his sacrifice of goat’s blood and yams from earlier in the year. If he had a poor harvest, the gods were undoubtedly aggrieved, and needed to be appeased. The forests had their gods, and so did the rivers, all animals, sickness and health, poverty and wealth, and gravity. (I doubt that someone actually thought to ascribe that last one to a god, though).

But what happens once you ascribe all observable phenomena to the supernatural? You slowly asphyxiate your natural imperative to inquire and investigate. You gradually become incapable of asking, as Newton did, why the apple (or banana, to be stereotypical) fell down, and not up. You, over time, lose all ability to engage your intellect… to wrap your mind around your living environment. When you see your brother’s ailment as a curse from the gods rather than as the manifestation of some physiological imbalance, your approach to searching for a solution leads to an altogether futile endeavor.

But back to the European.

So, the European came to Africa with his astronomical wizardry (and by astronomical, I mean, “of, or relating to astronomy”), navigational genius, and his rifle. He summarily herded the African back to his homeland to slave away in farms and fields. (I know, I know, the matter was way more complex; that doesn’t matter here).

What matters though, is that the European gave the African a new religion, pointing out the sheer backwardness of paganism. This new religion wore a cloak woven of the highest grade virtue. In comparison to the black, barbaric religion of the African, the new religion was the dazzling epitome of all things white and right. Indeed, the European came to Africa with the Bible, and said to the African, “Close your eyes, let us pray.” On “Amen,” the African had the European’s Bible, and the European had the African’s land—and, dare I say, the African, himself.

Even though almost all African “nations” had “gained” “independence” by the 1960s (in other words, the European has “returned” Africa to the African—at least, apparently), the African has not, till date, returned the Bible to its owner.

Boy, has the African clung to that Bible.

But more than just clinging to the Bible, in fact, the African has so infused the European’s religion with his own brand of eccentricities, that even if he were to return the Bible, its owners would neither recognize nor accept it.
 
(By the way, I have another hypothesis about why it was the European that enslaved the African and not the other way around, but I am not going to go there. Suffice it to say though that by engaging the European with a harsher living environment than the African, nature assured the European of certain advantages… But, like I said, I am not going to go there… That is almost entirely a separate issue.)

***

So back to the reason of this write-up: that e-mail I got from my buddy, Kunle. In it, an organization called “restore-Nigeria” (do a Google search for them, if you like, I refuse to boost their search rankings by linking to them) seems to think that all of Nigeria’s woes come from one single incident: Nigeria’s hosting of the Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977. According to them,

FESTAC ’77 took place in Nigeria some thirty years ago but the negative spiritual impact unleashed on our nation still haunts us today.

Here’s their smoking gun… an irrefutable, deductively-valid inference, if there ever was one:

FESTAC ‘77 took place from 15 January – 12 February 1977. The 10th year after that (1987) was meant to be an election year in the second republic but the election never took place. Instead, we had a coup d’etat. We suffered the same fate in 1997. Coincidentally, we have a major election coming up in 2007. These facts highlight the need for us to seek God’s mercy on our nation.

And here’s their call-to-action… their prescription for Nigeria’s redemption:

To cleanse our nation of the sin of idolatry that we committed in FESTAC ’77 and restore us to the true path of ‘Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress’, we need a national call for repentance. All Nigerians need to fast and pray to God for forgiveness and restoration.

And their rationale… the clincher:

God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah , a city whose sin was exceedingly grave, for the lives of only ten righteous people (Genesis 18: 32). He indeed spared Nineveh , a wicked city, when its people repented of their evil ways (Jonah 3: 10). God is able, and will surely restore our nation if we cry unto him in genuine repentance.

These numbskulls (I really hate ad hominem attacks, but feel I am entitled to at least this one) continue to perpetuate the disabling worldview of their forefathers by ascribing the social, political, and economic anomalies of a country, Nigeria, to the supernatural.

I will not waste your time recounting Nigeria’s problem (every Nigerian that is 3 years or older can tell you what they are). I just wish these neo-middle-age Africans would wake up and see Nigeria’s problems for what they are. I’ll tell you what Nigeria’s problems are not though… They are NOT God’s continuing backlash at us for FESTAC ’77, thirty years later.

C. E. Oyibo, out.