Dear Random Notes whoever you are,
It is not fair for you to posit as though you are thinking for us and deciding what we should think about. When we talk about African world view we know what we are talking about. It is you who does not what that means. Every individual has a world view which is subjective and this is past on to those under his/her custody or patronage. With this I mean a world view may be passed on to one's family. However, an individual modifies or adds on what he she received from his her family. This trend takes a wider fulcrum when it comes to community, country,and continent.
We all know that Africa is diverse and that is why I deliberately used JS Mbiti's coined phrase African Religions and Philosophies, meaning there are as many religions in Africa and many philosophies as there are many cultures. Other writers like the late Adeyemo, and the late Tite Tienou, Dr. Richard Gehman and Mugambi have said before that the African is "notoriously religious". That is to say that there is nowhere in an African's life where religion is absent. Chidi Isizo in http://afrikaworld.net/afrel/areopagus.htm Quotes Mbiti saying that Africans are notoriously religious be they exposed to western influences or not. Mbiti is quoted saying that wherever the African is, there is religion. It permiates every aspect of the African life. He carries it to the fields where he is sowing seeds, or harvesting a new crop; he takes it o a beer party or to attend a funeral ceremony. I will cut the entire part and paste it here so that you may understand that Africans had worldviews and religion is part of it.
"Africans are notoriously religious."(3) This assertion can be verified in the lives of most Africans, be they exposed to the Euro-American influences or not. Religion permeates every aspect of the African life.(4) Mbiti expresses this religiosity forcefully:
Wherever the African is, there is his religion: he carries it to the fields where he is sowing seeds or harvesting a new crop; he takes it with him to the beer party or to attend a funeral ceremony; and if he is educated, he takes religion with him to the examination room at school or in the university; if he is a politician he takes it to the house of parliament. Although many African languages do not have a word for religion as such, it nevertheless accompanies the individual from long before his birth to long after his physical death.(5)
J. E. Holloway presents the same point thus:
Wherever the African is, there is his religion: he carries it to the fields where he is sowing seeds or harvesting a new crop; he takes it with him to the beer party or to attend a funeral ceremony; and if he is educated, he takes religion with him to the examination room at school or in the university; if he is a politician he takes it to the house of parliament. Although many African languages do not have a word for religion as such, it nevertheless accompanies the individual from long before his birth to long after his physical death.(5)
J. E. Holloway presents the same point thus:
- Religion was (and remains) a vital part of the lives of most Africans. For some it encompassed their entire existence. It substantiated and explained their place in the universe; their culture, and their relationship to nature at large. Religion among most African ethnic groups was not simply a faith or worship system; it was a way of life, a system of social control, a provider of medicine, and an organizing mechanism.(6)
This describes what we may call a worldview or worldviews.
I also think that you are failing to see what we are seeing when you say that
When the religions take a fundamentalist approach to politics they can hurt a democratic system because fundamentalists are by definition unwilling to compromise.I hope you believe that Democracy is the ideal mode of governance and therefore we have it in Kenya. You presume to say that Electing whomever we may is democratic whether the one elected is corrupt, a drug dealer, or even a tribalist. Religion does not destroy democracy it only shows that although democracy is said to represent the wish of the majority, the majority have many times been wrong and this can be seen in the Kenyan issue. The majority elected the drug dealers in our government, the Majority elected the Post Election Violence perpetrators, the majority would want KENYA to pull out of ICC, the Majority would want Kibaki to continue in office etc.
I do not agree with you that Promoters of religious control of state use dubious arguments and attempt to conflate morality and religion, the two are very independent concepts. You can never separate morality from Religion because doing so would be the real wishful thinking. From Socrates, Pluto, Andante and even Aquinas, morality was thought of from a religious point of view and all these philosophers had a form of religion they ascribed to. When we talk of religion we do not limit ourselves to Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism or Zoarastrianism. Every community on the face of the earth had a belief system. I know you always argue from a humanism or atheist point view but let me inform you that you are living in your world of illusion because there is nothing like atheism. I mean atheism is not a reality, it represents a bunch of people who do not have a purpose of their existence, It is like the four blind men in a dark room looking for a dark cat that is not there. that unless it is a religion.
You also said that Separation of religion from state is a natural evolution of human societies after the missteps in history that religious governments made.This is an unfortunate statement coming from someone respectable like you. What do you mean Natural evolution? Do we have other evolution that are not natural?Which religious governments are you referring to? Separation of religion and state, is not as a result of the so called missteps in History. There is no single state in the world that has succeeded in separating the two. What happens is that when a society decides to abandon their belief system, there remains a space and since there can be no empty space, another form of a belief system occupies the once empty space.
Iran under Ahmadinejad and Afghanistan under the Taliban are not examples of religious governments. Terming them so would mean that even Alkaeda, and Al shabaab are viable governments. The reasom you see most countries failing like the Taliban Afganistan and Somalia, is that secularism in the form of humanism, democracy, capitalism and atheism were slowly introduced taking over the religious faculty in the society's thinking and belief system and when that happens, the members of a society become agitated with doubt, mental conflict and filled with pain because they can not get answers to life's questions like: Why was I born? Why am Here? What am I living for? What does life mean? What is reality?. Where do the dead go to? I s there an end to suffering? Where did the world and Universe come from?
The distraught members of the society who grapple with these questions then in turn become a fertile ground for those who take advantage of the existing gap created by the questions above in the name of "Religious extremist" Like Al Shabaab who present (especially to the youth) a form of religion that molds them into suicide Bombers, and mercenaries who can kill their own people. Read about Elgiver Bwire- A kenyan who became a Muslim (pictured below)and almost killed his mother without Knowing-
news.yahoo.com/photos/grenade-blast-at-pub-in-kenya-s-capital-1319465541-
When we insist that true and correct religious Education must be taught in Schools, we would to arrest the situation otherwise the world will never be a safe place whether we all become humanist or Atheists. We have governments whose leaders embraced religion and they succeeded. Malaysia, Thailand, Libya before the death Of Gadaffi, South Korea and Turkey.
You also said that in the past Christian societies promoted divine rights of Kings, serfdom, the inquisitions and the violent crusades all of which very clearly demonstrate that religions are not the best custodians of state power. This is yet another unfortunate statement from you. I do not think that all those kingdoms in the world including Swaziland, Japan, Thailand,Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nepal, Cambodia, Norway, and the United Kingdom were or are promoted by Christians or Christianity. Christianity has always stood for fair governance of all, justice, peace and freedom from oppression. Any King or Ruler who did not lead according to the above statutes was never honoured. Any King who led well was called King so and so The Great. Where justice prevailed, nations prospered. The crusaders were not Christians but people who called themselves Christians. Imagine if all of them lived like Jesus Christ, would they manufacture bullets and nuclear bombs? If Jesus were to live now, would he have agreed with the USA NATO and the UK to kill Gadaffi and his sons?
Religion should be taught in our public schools by qualified teachers. In Primary schools, pupils should be taught Religious Education covering all the world Religions. At secondary level, students should choose one of these ATR/ IRE/CRE/HRE/ .Islamic sponsored schools sound Islamic Education should be taught and if a Christian wants his/her children to go that Islamic school, he/she must follow the schools policy.i.e take Islamic studies as a compulsory subject. This should also apply to Christian sponsored schools. Schools like Makini, Rusinga and the like whose proprietors may be Christians, are private and therefore whatever policy in regards to the subjects to be studied should be left to the owner and if a parent wants his/her children to study there, then He should follow what the school requires.
Paul
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