AFRICAN ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION; THE WAY FORWARD AND THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

In this paper an attempt will be made at evaluating the current economic state and situation of the Africa continent, the current structural adjustment economic policies, the international community involvement and the role of the church today in solving the economic problem of Africa. A strategic approach will also be made at evolving pragmatic solutions to the many problems identified. The place of the church in the economic emancipation of Africa will also be carved and a new theologically sound approach to holistic ministry and total empowerment of the people established.

AN OVERVIEW

African continent is a unique continent endowed with many resources and at a very strategic place in the global geography potentially suited for global economical leadership. Despite the many potentials of Africa, the continent continues to crawl at the bottom of the ladder of global economy and also continue to rely on the mercy of the left over from other countries not potentially naturally resourced like her. The multifaceted woes of Africa seem too stubborn for the various economic reforms experimented on her from various quarters. In solving Africa problem Africa approach must be adopted and a holistic examination of the problem must first be undertaken. The hydra headed nature of Africa woes is below identified as observed by this writer.

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENCE

The situation of Africa today can be understood better from the history of global civilization. Africa is part of the global historical evolution that has transformed many nations and people across the globe. It will therefore take an independent and critically objective mind to be able to analyze and understand the reasons why Africa who were at the forefront of the global civilization is still lagging behind the civilization which she one time spearheaded. Is there anything of relevance in the African past and global history in general that can serve as clue to the Africa many economic woes today? Is there any problem with the way African read their history? Where is the historical disconnection between Africa and the developed world? Can there be a reconnection today, and can African reassert her position in the process of global civilization?

Africa must be able to learn from her past if any meaningful development will be achieved. Africa seem detached from her historical past and root and this is the principal reason for her economical woes and theological humiliation. The economies that are growing today are all economies attached to the root of the people. A practical example of a flourishing economy is the Asia economy. Asia economy is growing not just because it is operating an open market economy alone but also strongly because of its social-historical consciousness of its identity. Africa economy is an amoebic economy because our pursuit of the economic reforms is detached from the social- historical identity of the African people. We have failed to unpack the good universal economic principle in African terms to fit into the Africa socio-cultural situation. We need a forum for a true Africa economic identity that will take cognizance of the Africa unique socio-historical background. There must be a continuous dialogue with our historical past.

African has read history from without instead from within. We have something in common with the Latin American because we both read history from without instead of from within. Of late an attempt is being made to re write African historical past just as the Latin America is also advocating for the re-writing of their history. We have not recognized for a long time that not only was our continent colonized but also was the deliberate and well-calculated attempt at colonization of our history and identity as a people. People from outside the Africa continent undertook most African historical projects. Till today our educational system continue to reflect our colonial masters’ mentality and cultural identity. Unfortunately we still continue to learn in foreign languages while our mother tongues continue to be relegated. There is no way you can use somebody’s language without using his philosophy. Most teachers who are teaching today learnt more of America and European geography and history better than the Africa history and geography. Of what relevance is glacier formation to someone from Sahara Africa who was taught little or nothing about deforestation and a forestation? The colonial masters of Africa did everything to completely detach Africa from her root. Social-cultural-historical colonization to me is worse than the depletion of our natural resources and slavery by the colonial masters. The impact of our detachment from our historical root on our identity and economy is far more than any other impact emanating from colonization. The problem of neo-colonialism persists till today because of the above-mentioned factors.

Apart from the fact that we read our history with colonial goggle we also tend to read it with a lot of sentiments and as a result we are not able to make objective and balanced assessment of our past. We have over concentrated on blaming only the outsiders for all our failure without carefully reflecting on our own many short fallings, which even contributed to our being exploited by the outsiders. It will be epistemologically fraudulent to deny the fact that there are internal factors in our history that have contributed to our failure as a people. Unless we come to term with our own failures we will not be able to significantly forge ahead in solving our many problems.

AFRICAN SECRECY AND METAPHYSICS

Africa is blessed with a very rich cultural heritage unequal in the overall global cultural theater. Africa sees life in its holistic form compared with the western defragmented concept of life. Philosophically speaking, Africa concept of life, which recognizes the place of metaphysics, makes Africa’s epistemology more holistic than the western ideology of truncated epistemology, which limits realities only within the confines of rationalism. African’s recognition of the supernatural realities is a plus to her way of thinking and observing.

It also worth noting, that this positive supernatural dimension to realities, in some other ways negatively affected Africa people, and contributed to her slow pace of civilization. Africa cannot be denied her place in the history of global civilization. There are scientific historical evidences proofing the fact that Africa was at the forefront of civilization. That the Greek civilization is traceable to Egypt is an undeniable fact. Africa failure to open up her many technological inventions robbed her of her position in the history of global civilization. African science and technology was shrouded in metaphysical secrecy to prevent the larger society from abusing the many inventions. The spiritual authority doubled as the main custodian of the Africa wisdom and science and will not allow those outside of the cult to have access to the secret of the many discoveries. This to a very large extent is true of Egyptian civilization. Many aspects of our culture still need to be demystified to allow the new generation see the scientific rational behind many of our beliefs and practices. There are many of our taboos that have hygienic, scientific and environmental basis but which are only coded in metaphysical secrecy. Some of these taboos would have appealed to more people if explained scientifically. How true is the belief that the beating of drums disturbs the gods during the Ga Homowo festival? Is it however wrong for the society to set apart certain period of the year for solitude and reflection? How true is the belief that the gods will be annoyed with the fisherman who goes fishing on Tuesday in Ga-Adangme area of Ghana? Is it however wrong for the society to regulate how the natural resources are used and also promote the culture of rest? Our ability to ask question is a major pre-requisite to learning and discovering more. We need to ask serious question regarding our culture and practices that is the only way we can progress. We need not be afraid of question; it only helps in strengthening our position. The new generation of African is so detach from their root that they will need to be re introduced to their culture. As a result of the metaphysical mask around most of our cultural practices, the culture is becoming non- attractive to the new generation African. It is high time we engage the new generation in meaningful dialogue with the culture in order to help them own it. The only way to ensure our culture does not go into oblivion is to make it relevant to today’s situation and help the new generation proudly own it. No culture can be kept absolutely in its original form because society is not static but dynamic. Our culture must be allowed to engage with other cultures and by so doing undergo positive reformation without necessarily losing the original identity.

The intuitive and celebrative aspect of Africa culture is something very unique with us, and a good starting point to promote our culture even beyond our borders. The secrecy associated with many of our cultural beliefs should be discarded and the culture should be presented to the new generation in a more appealing manner. Our culture can become more attractive and creative if it is allowed to engage in interaction and conversation with other cultures. The aim of the cultural inquiry and cross-cultural conversation should be to seek a clearer and deeper understanding of a particular culture in relation to the rest of the world and quality of human life. If African culture is rightly packaged, it will not only become more acceptable to the new generation African but can also be exported globally.

AFRICAN “TRICKLE DOWN” ECONOMIC POLICY

The signal of economic woes is more visible in the economic path most African nations are charting. One great area African government should look at in solving African economic woes is that of the kind of economic policies they are adopting. There must be a radical departure from the traditional trickle down economy we are currently operating to a bubble up economic system. The trickle down economy is driven by the public sector whereas the bubble up economy is driven by the private sector. It is scientifically proven today that economy driven by the public sector do not perform relatively well and do not chalk any great or significant success. As trickle down economy keeps going down the bubble up economy keeps growing up. Unfortunately in Africa most nations operate the trickle down economy where more than 60% of the work force is employed by the government. Money flows down mainly from the top {government} to the down instead of the capital being generated from the grass root through the private sector development strategy to the top. The government has never being a good businessperson. Most economic waste is traceable to the inefficient public sector, bulk of which must be radically absorbed by a new efficient emerging private sector. Not until Africa is ready to depart from the trickle down economy we cannot really overcome our economic woes. Asian economy is a good example of an economy being driven by strong private sector initiative. Our private sector initiative is largely paper work, and it is now high time we rise up to the task of significantly developing our private sector. In a functional private sector driven economy, more than 65% of the national workforce should be engaged by the private sector while not more than 30% should be engaged by the public sector. The role of the government should be strictly providing for the private sector, the enabling environment to profitably do business. This radical economic reform policy is a pre-requisite to the African economic breakthrough.

THE CHURCH; A CATALYST OF ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION

This aspect of the paper is the most critical dimension to the discussion on the emancipation of the African community from economic woes we are faced with .A radical attempt will be made at looking at the unfortunate ways through which the Church has contributed to the economic woes of the African people and the theologically sound ways of the Church reversing the negative trend. We must be bold as people of God to admit our mistakes and shift our paradigm if necessary. In as much as we can not brush over the many ways the Church has contributed significantly to the socio-economic development of the African continent in terms of poverty alleviation and especially man power development and health we must also look at how we have falter in some other respects.

EARLY MISSIONS - The early missions must be commended for their immense contribution to the economic growth of Africa. The Church was instrumental in opening up Africa to Western education and by so doing helped in the manpower development of the African continent. The involvement of the mission in the health care delivery in Africa contributed also to the well being and being well of the African people. The church was actively involved in the improvement of the socio-economic condition of many African folk. We must say kudos to the early Christian leaders, who spearheaded the call or campaign for justice for the oppressed and the marginalized in the society. The Church was indeed the prophetic voice for those hurting and the voiceless. It must however be noted that the curriculum of the educational program of the early missions was not holistic enough to bring about a true African educational system. The limitation of this inherited educational system is still part of the African problem today.

AFRICAN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIANS - I must also give credit to the many African Christian scholars who championed the course of setting the record straight regarding the misconception that the concept of God or the divine being is foreign to Africa. The sociological impact of the African Christian Theology had significant positive effects not only on the spiritual emancipation of the African people but also on the economic emancipation. Right self-conception and identity are all needed for lasting economic breakthrough. It is also necessary to note that despite the great strides of the African Christian Scholars on the issue of identity they fail to significantly talk directly on the way Africa can concretely embark on or experience real economic emancipation. We have written severally on the issue of identity and fail to seriously talk about economic problem of Africa. It is high time we learn some good things from the Latin America’s Theology of economic emancipation. We must be prepared as African people to dialogue and be practically and actively involved in solving African many economic woes. The issue of struggling for theological identity is becoming less relevant in the face of the new trends in the global economy and the current place of Africa within the emerging new economic order. As far as the issue of theological identity is concern we have done creditably well, the new focus should be how the church can lead in the crusade for African economic liberation. The voice of the church is not well heard on contemporary issues relating to socio-economic situation of Africa. We have not done enough in practically and concretely relating our theology with real issues affecting our continent. The theology that fails to also deal with economic, environmental, political and social situations is not a balanced theology. As part of the spiritual direction the church is giving, her voice must also be clearly heard on issues like, bad governance, environmental degradation and pollution, indiscipline in the society, street children problem, HIV/AIDS pandemic etc.

FAITH OR FRAUD - The new development in the Christian world today is embarrassingly disturbing especially on the new wave of Faith, Prophetic and Prosperity movement. Most of the self styled prosperity preachers claim they are sent by God to make people rich but ironically they are parading themselves only around the urban centers where most people are relatively economically better and are hardly seen in the really poor rural communities where their “anointing” would have been more useful. These ministers that are carrying special anointing to make people rich rather strangely target the rich and always avoid the poor rural folks. Many of these ministers are fake pastors capitalizing on people’s ignorance and gullibility to rather enrich them and adding to the economic woes of the people. These churches do not have any practical programs of helping the poor in their midst and the communities where they minister to overcome their economic woes. Prosperity is undoubtedly a cardinal theological theme of the gospel but it is not through fraudulent means as it is seen today. Prosperity that is built on the wrong application of the “principle of sowing and reaping” interpreted to imply sowing into the gospel to help maintain a flamboyant living of some self seeking “Bishops” called papa who at the expense of the members are building mansions and buying fleet of cars all in the name of Christ who left all to reach the poor can best be describe as doctrines of demons. This new age antichrists are using priestcrafting and “baptized church lotto” to dupe unsuspecting and gullible members who are also not seriously interested in building real personal relationship with God but are looking for easy short cut avenue to becoming rich. The other menace becoming increasingly popular is the “prophetic prayer” times diabolically fixed around the most productive time for meaningful economical activities. Some untutored “prophets” engage people in prayer session’s morning till evening throughout the week all in the name of seeking for breakthroughs. The idle hands can never be blessed, prayer only work where people respect the principle of diligence and dignity of labor. Those blessed in the Bible were those who took their work very serious and at the same time in a balanced manner believed that God alone can bless the labor of their hands and not the idleness of their hands. To spend all your productive time only in prayers for economic miracle is only to increase your own poverty. Our practices must be in tandem with the truth of the word of God. There is a need to come out with true and balanced theological approach to deal with the socio-economic problems of African people. A theology that only sensitize the people to be craving for wealth will surely produce greedy church people whose true god is mammon. What examples are the African Christian leaders giving their congregation? What message are we preaching? Are the leaders themselves accountable? Are we really practically ministering to the poor in the church talk less of those outside? I seriously sense an urgent need for Revival of Fire in the church today. This current dispensation will give way to a refined dispensation of Berea- like church.

Written By,

Rev Dele Kolade