by Marie-Therese Belisle Nweke

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

I must point out here that Christ’s message and beliefs were in Africa, viz. in Ethiopia, and long preceded the arrival of the so-called Christian missionaries, who claimed they came ostensibly to Africa to teach Africans about Christ.

The cave paintings in Ethiopia of various scenes illustrating the birth of Christ, his life, mission, death, resurrection and ascension are over 2,000 years old, long before Europeans knew anything about Christ. It was an Ethiopian eunuch in the court of Queen Candace of Ethiopia who brought Christ’s message to Ethiopia. The story of his conversion by the apostle Philip is recorded in the Book of Acts.

Moreover, and this is even more significant, all of Africa’s traditional religions believe in an overall powerful creator who is God. There may be lesser beings, who though powerful, are all under God and do His bidding. In the Abrahamic religions they are angels, prophets and saints. Traditional African religions routinely abhor and denounce covetousness, avarice, lying, cheating, stealing, murder and suicide. Africans living in traditional societies who committed suicide were denied a proper burial and their assets could not be inherited, but were destroyed. Death by suicide was considered an abomination.  Until the law was changed a few years ago, in most European states, those who committed suicide were denied a Christian burial, and their assets were confiscated by the state.

In African traditional societies, incest, adultery and fornication were considered abhorrent, particularly since polygamy was permitted. Polygamy is still practiced today by those who wish to do so. Honoring parents and elders was compulsory and one had a duty to look after parents in their old age. This is still the norm today.

Due to the fact that homosexuality was unknown throughout Africa south of the Sahara – the only place in the world where it did not exist – there was no word for this activity in the languages of traditional African societies. Linguists will tell you that when a word does not exist to describe an activity, it means the activity is unknown. 

In other words, the arrival of Christian missionaries to Africa added nothing of ethical value to Africans, since Africans had a good many virtues, beliefs and practices that were not dissimilar from those of Christianity, or even the other two Abrahamic religions, which are Judaism and Islam.