Why I Am a Christian I

Why am I a Christian and not something else or nothing at all? For me, being a Christian is believing in God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His word, the Bible. It goes beyond merely living a good life to accepting my shortcomings and believing that the Lord Jesus alone can help me overcome. This means relying on Him to help me figure out life so l can share my findings with others.

In this first essay, I won’t focus on theology or address dogma to explain why I am still a Christian; Instead, I will focus on those who, like myself, were born into the church, rose in its ranks, yet abandoned it. I will explore their reasons for leaving and attempt to highlight the flaws in their arguments. Through this, I aim to show you why I remain a Christian.

I must say, I find the arguments for leaving flawed. I say this not because I have all the answers myself, but because I see Christ as the answer they seek but not the answer they want. 

Many people began with Christ, were more zealous for Him than I am, yet have left the faith. Joshua Maponga left, though trained in theology and having preached to many; Avhram left too. A few friends and family members have left, never to return. Some left because Christianity couldn’t answer their questions, or if it did, the answers were unsatisfactory; others left because they saw it as a white man's religion. Still, others found solace elsewhere and solutions in shrines or the sciences. I must say, I find the arguments for leaving flawed. I say this not because I have all the answers myself, but because I see Christ as the answer they seek but not the answer they want. 

Christianity Is a White Man’s Religion Argument

The first argument I will explore goes that Africans had their form of religion or spirituality before the white colonialists came and imposed their Christianity on us. They gave our ancestors the Bible, told them to close their eyes, and when they opened them, they had taken our gold. This claim has gained traction, especially among those who see themselves as the last air-benders of African culture. Those pushing this narrative say Christianity is alien to us.

To say that Christianity is a white man’s religion is to imply two things: first, that Christianity originated with white colonialists and second, traditional religion (fetishism) is the true religion of the black man/woman. Both claims are false.

Growing up, I thought Christ was white until a Renaissance priest told me otherwise. He said Jesus was a Middle Eastern man, more black than white. I believed him. What I didn’t know at the time was that he opposed anything Christian. I heard him say, “Why worship the god of the white man? Why follow their religion and abandon the true religion of your ancestors?”

To him and others like him, Africans are lost unless they return to the gods of their fathers and worship at the same shrines as they once did. One day, I asked him, “Weren’t you the one who told me Jesus was not white and more black? How is Christianity now a white man’s religion?” He mumbled a few words without an answer so that while he was right about Christ’s human origin, he was wrong about the origin of Christianity, perhaps, deliberately.

Those who think of Christianity as white and therefore alien to Africa deceive themselves. Are the Ethiopians who made it their official religion in antiquity not Africans? Were the Eastern Orthodox churches scattered across Africa before colonialism not African churches? What about the Coptic Bible, which is older than the King James Bible, is it not an African artefact? What of St. Augustine and other black church fathers—are they not Africans? 

Christianity flourished in Africa–in Eritrea, Alexandria, and Carthage–long before the British empire or before the White missionaries came. Claiming Christianity belongs to whites is like claiming that the French colonies in Africa belong to France because they speak French or that Africa itself belongs to the Portuguese explorer Prince Henry for being the first European to explore it. It's lazy thinking. 

Now, to tell us that the only true religion for Africans is that old, crude fetishism and that we should all return to it is nothing but what Julian Baggini calls “a slavish, unthinking devotion to the past.” What they call African traditional religion is the same paganism known to all in the ancient world. It is indeed traditional and indigenous, but not uniquely African. It was practiced by all in the ancient world so don’t make it seem like shrines and fetishism originated with our ancestors. They didn’t.

It is a bigger lie, then, to tell us that unless Africans return to the gods of the past, they will not know their true identity.

Throughout history, ancestors elsewhere believed in gods, worshiped at shrines, and practiced idolatry. Ask the Babylonians, the Aztecs and the Greeks during Alexander's time if they weren’t offering sacrifices to gods. Polytheism (paganism) dominated the ancient world, and our ancestors who indulged in it were not doing anything new or uniquely African; their worship then was merely a reflection of their time. I will explore this further in another essay. It is a bigger lie, then, to tell us that unless Africans return to the gods of the past, they will not know their true identity.

Saying that fetishism is African is like saying monarchy is African just because in other parts of the world, kings and queens have given up their thrones for democracy while in many African cities and villages, chieftains are still being paraded in palanquins across the street. The point here is, the fact that we can still see pockets of ancient practices in Africa doesn't make it African. Also, I think the term "African traditional religion" is very deceptive. I'd prefer we say "traditional religions in Africa" or "religious traditions in Africa" rather than "African traditional religion." The latter term is leading many of our people into serious error, the error that these traditional practices originated with our ancestors. I say it again, they didn't.

I noticed that those making such claims are angry with colonialism and slavery and white dominance in Africa. Now, if you are angry with the colonial past, so am I. If you are appalled by slavery, so am I. However, it’s important not to conflate Christianity with the historical events of transatlantic slavery, nor should we attribute the inception of colonialism to Christ himself. Slavery existed long before Christianity began, and there was slavery in Africa before the white missionaries; Africans were enslaving each other before any foreign missionary set foot on its shores.

Christianity is not a cult where defectors are killed, so if you think it’s time to explore ancient practices beyond Christ, that’s your choice. But don't cast Him into a camp He does not belong to—the white man camp—to appeal to black consciousness. If your anger over colonialism and slavery drives you to reject anything white, start with your English language, clothes, cars, and materialism, but not Christianity. Give them up, live in mud houses and huts, drink from rivers, and forsake your fridges and ACs, but don’t ever bundle Christ into it. Because, of all the things the white man  invented, Christ was not one of them.

Of all the things the white man  invented, Christ was not one of them.

If you go to those making this disingenuous claim and tell them that writing and universities originated in the West because the West popularised the pen and pencil in Africa, they would vehemently deny it. They would point to ancient African empires like Timbuktu and Ghana, and Egypt as centers of learning. But when you point them to Christianity in Nubia and Alexandria, they dismiss it, arguing that Christianity is still 'White' because western missionaries popularised it in Africa. Isn't this hypocrisy?

Suppose that it is true that Christianity originated with the whites or that Jesus was a white man’s god, does that make it a false religion? No. Not necessarily. The truth and falsity of anything is race-neutral; a white man can lie and deceive, and so can a black man, and also, both whites and blacks can tell the truth and defend it. So to say that Christianity is a white man’s religion and therefore evil is naive. If you are presented with the light bulb and lantern or yokuyo and asked to choose, will you say I choose the yokuyo over the light bulb because the light bulb came from the West and the yokuyo came from our ancestors? No. You will choose based on common sense and merit. I think religion should be chosen in the same manner– merit. Period.

So why am I still a Christian, though African? Because Christianity is as African as it is European or Asian; it is not a white man’s religion. It is a religion that knows no race except the one true human race, established to teach all of humanity—the white and the black—the right way of worship. It has more merit than the ancient fetish practices that some are defecting to.

Now, to all those who always pull the ancestor card to criticize Christianity, my answer is simple: I have had many ancestors, pagans and Christians alike. Therefore, l will choose my religion not out of blind loyalty to the past or based what an ancestor did or did not do, but based on its merit.

Footnote:

Baggini, Julian. How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy. Granta Publications, 2018.