God Loves Uganda

So, my African brothers and sisters, why the hell are all of you so religious? Is it that you are all so stupid or you are just not educated enough to understand the extend to which you are being manipulated by church? What ever the case, there is something really crazy about the way all Africans are bonkers about religion and unfortunately this tendency seems to have no end to it. In fact it looks like the situation is getting worse. I watched this amazing documentary the other day called God Loves Uganda and though it wasn’t that of an eye-opener like Guys And Their Dolls, it was gripping enough to make me think and contemplate on the fate my fellow brothers and sisters are facing these days. You see, the problem with Africa on the whole goes way beyond religious insanity and fervour. Nevertheless, I would like to focus on this aspect because it is an ongoing issue that I am really getting fed up with.

So, God Loves Uganda. Would add a question mark to this due to the fact that in my opinion this statement makes no sense whatsoever. In fact the idea that God loves or prefers any country over the other makes no sense. If there was any God whatsoever, why would he waste his time picking out one country over the other? Insane, right? But that’s not the point here. The fact is that there is a wave or should I say “new wave” of missionaries which is flooding the African continent in search of new believers and considering the fact that Africa has historically been a place of massive religious gatherings, helps their goals tremendously. Indeed, Africa has always been a place where people in their vast majority have been superstitious and believed in a range of deities. I distinctly remember the days of black outs in Cameroon and the only places which had electricity were churches and other places of worship. This was so because only churches could afford generators by using donations from believers. The sad thing is that people in Cameroon seemed to be okay with the fact that church as an institution was favoured from an infrastructural standpoint. I think this was the first situation that really got me ticking. Moreover, there hasn’t ever been anybody questioning the fact that the most religious place out there is also the one that we can easily be called a cursed land with no future, but that is another discussion for another day, I guess. Actually, God Loves Uganda is a good example of what I’ve just said. You can easily see this religious vibe through out the movie which can be really sickening at times.

That been said, this post isn’t about the atheist or anti-religion kind of fellow I am. Not at all. What I really want to emphasis on in this post is on the fact that African religious tendency is growing and will surely end up as usual in some kind of drag for the entire African continent, as usual it looks like African people are for the most part into some sort of fanatical believe in an utopian bright future. Like Bob Marley said, “most people think that great god will come from the sky, take away everything and make everybody feel high”. I’m a fan of Bob myself, but it looks like the collective consciousness of Africans has taken this words of wisdom to the letter and are now fulfilling this prediction by putting all their thoughts into the hands of the “almighty”. Crazy, right? Don’t they realise that it is because of this blind believe in a bright future that we’ve got all this tribal, ethnic and religious wars? Don’t they see that it is because of religion that we all have the proliferation of sects and other weird and sickening religious institutions? Don’t they see that it is because of religion that we have people who can’t take their lives in their hands and do something good out of it for once? The list goes on and on, but the worst phenomenon associated with the predominance of religion in the African landscape is that because of religion, people are being robbed of their most vital rights that of freedom.

What I’m talking about is the fact that there is an anti-gay movement growing in Africa these days and though this might be a completely justified thing in most cases (I mean people should be masters of their destinies and should decide for themselves what course their country should take regarding sexuality) there is still no way that it is okay for this reasoning to be pushed by religion and so on. Why? Well, the answer is very simple… We live in the 21st century goddammit and religion, just like the taste in movies, cinema and so on has become something that is personal and should remain so. I mean, it’s not my problem that some guys out there chose to believe in some ancient book written by who knows who about who knows what. I’m a free person and as long as my action don’t intentionally harm anybody, I should be free to do what ever I want. The absurdity of the situation has lead to the fact that now they are going to give life sentences to homosexuals in Uganda!!! Yes, that’s right you’ve heard me. Uganda is one of the first countries out there who is going to punish people involved in homosexual activity with life sentences. The worst thing is about this is that prior to giving life sentences there were talks about giving capital punishments to such offenders. Crazy people!!! All this is portrayed in this thought provoking moving that just like many out there opens up our minds to the flaws of religious believes, which I remind you are all invented, so we should try not to take them too seriously. Instead there should be some focus on “Peace, Love and Unity” because that’s the only notion worth fighting for. It’s not that difficult to set our differences aside, the thing is that we have never really tried to do it.