By David Adenekan
IT IS noteworthy to say that the writer of this article is a Christian and Moslem by names, David and Abdul Wasiu, respectively.
As birth names, my father gave me Abdul Wasiu through a revelation by the Alfas from the Holy Quran and my mother gave me David through the divine inclination from the Holy Bible by a Pastor from Christ Apostolic Church.
However, my father as a great observer of Yorùbá tradition and custom had invoked the spirit of his ancestors to declare my unique identity name from the realm of Yorùbá ancestral spirit as Adéyínká.
He did that the very day I came to this world by whispering it into my ears.
It is pertinent to say that the expediency of a woman imported David into my birth certificate as official name.
This was unknown to the big Adenekan family until in my secondary school days when friends from my school started coming to our family house to ask for a young boy who is called David Adénẹ́kàn by name in school.
Yes, members of Adénẹ́kàn family questioned the audacity of my mother to import David as my official name; the rest was history.
My closeness to my mother, and as her first child made me to make Christianity as my choice of ways to communicate with Elédùmarè.
Over the years, my indept knowledge through study, research and traveling have made me to have a better understanding of religion as a strong element of culture and tradition.
Did Judaism, Christianity and Islam not evolve from the originality of Abrahamic tradition and custom?
Abrahamic religions, which include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, share many customs and traditions, including the practice of 8 days circumcision for every male child after birth.
Also, all three religions worship a single God, though they may refer to God by different names, the concept of monotheism.
As vague or absurd as it may be in the ears of worshippers of Christianity and Islam in Africa, both religions are tacitly aliens to our own spirit being called Ìsẹ̀se (tradition and custom) and to make either of both religions as the only way you can communicate with Elédùmarè and enter the Kingdom of God after death is called religion ethnocentrism and cannot be accepted.
Suffice it to say that, the grandiose behaviors of some of the worshippers of foreign religions will no longer be accepted in a digital age of information technology when taking into cognizance, its adverse effects on our psychology, social, political and economic development in Africa.
One of the biggest problems in Africa is religiosity as against our spirit beings (tradition and culture).
Historically, the very early missionaries came to Africa under the pretense of Christianity to colonize us.
They took undue advantage of our level of hospitality to bastardize and balkanize our social and value system to take our strong men and women, including young children as slaves.
The kemetic religion is what we Yorùbá as a people called Ìsẹ̀se (our spirit beings at the beginning of the world).
These different spirit beings are represented by deities in Yorùbá traditional religion.
Hmmm, Ìsẹ̀se làgbà (this is interpreted as our spirit being called Elédùmarè is supreme). Ló bá tán!
They are deities like Ọ̀rúnmìlà baba àgbọnnìrègún (the Ifa oracle called god of divination), Ọbàtálá, (called the creator of head), Ògún lákáayé Ọṣìn imọlẹ̀, ò lómi ń lé fi ẹ̀jẹ̀ wẹ̀, ò ní aṣọ nílé fi mọ̀rìwò bo ara (called the god of iron), Èṣù láàlú ògiri òkò, Èṣù má ṣe mí ọmọ ẹlòmíràn ni kó o ṣe (called the devil), and so on.
In Yorùbá traditional religion, these deities are our intermediaries to Elédùmarè, Ọba tí ó ju ọba lọ (the King of all kings).
Please, do your research. The missionaries worked hand in hand with the home office to exploit the resources of the people.
Who says there was no gain for the so called european missionaries in building schools and hospitals in the remote areas.
Most of the resources they took from Africa like palm kernel, cocoa, timber, gold, diamond, ore, tin, crude oil and uranium and others were taken from the remote areas.
Who tells you we need their kind of education and hospital? Yes, we already had our own educational methods and trado medicines.
Have you forgotten the Egyptian civilization long before the periods of slavery and colonization?
Again, do your research. Mathematics, writings, signs, figures, mammoth and Egyptian pyramid were part of the Egyptian civilization.
Who says we need their so called western education that have denied us the development of our native knowledge that would have been the best in modern history?
Why do we have to learn medicine or engineering in foreign language and develop another people’s language? Why not in our own mother’s tongues?
Yes, our education or medicine would have evolved in a unique way, and stop promoting another people’s idea or concept for their own economic gains.
What do you think would have been the great economic gains if we were allowed to think to be the people to develop Ifá oracle as analogue knowledge to develop Google?
Hmm, a great wealth and job opportunities for our people.
Yes, it was through the activities of the missionaries that the home office in London came to plunder and pillage our resources. They enslaved and colonized us.
Do we even need anybody to come and preach to us which god we should serve when we already have our own unique way of communicating with our God?
Yes, the bane of Africa under development are slavery, religion colonialism and imperialism. GBAM!
In traditional Africa, is your ancestor a Christian or a Muslim? Truth be told.
At this juncture, it is imperative to say that I believe in the divine words of God in the Holy Bible, particularly in the old testament. Why?
I have compared and contrasted some of the lines in the book of Psalms and Proverbs and I have discovered that the meaning of the words are exactly the same I found in Yoruba traditional religion.
A classic example is in the Book of Psalms 92:12 that says; “You shall flourish like palm tree.” This is interpreted in Yorùbá traditional religion (incantation) as “yíyọ ni márìwò ọ̀pẹ ma ń yọ ju ọ̀pẹ lọ, wà á yọ ju ọ̀tá.”
Do you also know that immunization or vaccination evolved from Yorùbá traditional religion (Ìsẹ̀se). It is called gbẹ́rẹ́ or àjẹsára (incision).
It is also worthy to note that, Google is an analogue of Ifá. There are 256 odù ifá, similarly, there are 256 binaries. Please, do your research.
It is quite unfortunate that we are not adding great value to our originality (our unique spirit being).
Yes, “we are selling our birthright on a mess of porridge.”
It is without mincing words that I assert that religious colonialism has turned the continent of Africa to almost a desolate place.
People who cannot think for themselves but allow the propagating of a foreign religion to dictate their ways of life.
Yes, when a people lose their spiritual originality, they will jettison their value system.
Hmmm! “Religion is an opium” – Karl Marx.
David Adenekan writes from Chicago, Illinois; he Is the Editor of Shekinah Magazine and an astute media analyst.
Opinions expressed by individual columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of policies of the website’s management.
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