TRIBAL GODS OF AFRICA - ETHNICITY, RACISM, TRIBALISM AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: Revised Edition 2019

By Professor Yusufu Turaki and Ambassador Monday O Ogbe

I have known Dr. Yusufu Turaki for the past 27 and he is the right person to write this Book on ethic, racial and tribal problem of Africa's ethnicity, racism and tribalism from the perspectives of social ethics, Christian social thought and Biblical moral and ethical principles. The Author approaches his subject from di

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midas Touch GEMS
• Release date: Jun 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088175231

Book preview

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TRIBAL GODS OF AFRICA

Yusufu Turaki Foundation and Otakada.org Publishing

ETHNICITY, RACISM, TRIBALISM AND

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST

Revised Edition 2019

Yusufu Turaki

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge with thanks the encouragement and challenge to write this Book which I received from Dr. Tokumboh Adeyemo, the General Secretary of the Association of the Evangelicals of Africa (AEA) and Rev. Stephen Bamoleke Ruvamwabo, the Coordinator of Peace and Justice Department of AEA. Furthermore, I am grateful to the Department of Peace and Justice of AEA for giving a grant to Publish this Book.

Rev. Elias N. Lamle and Miss Funmi Durojaye have mad very valuable contributions to the publishing and printing of this Book.

DEDICATION

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FOREWORD

This Book is dedicated to all lovers of Peace and Justice and Peaceful Coexistence among ethic, racial and tribal groups in Africa.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I have known Dr. Yusufu Turaki for the past 27 and he is the right person to write this Book on ethic, racial and tribal problem of Africa’s ethnicity, racism and tribalism from the perspectives of social ethics, Christian social thought and Biblical moral and ethical principles. The Author approaches his subject from different angles: social sciences, African traditional and cultural background, colonial legacy, moral definitions of man, the state, the ethnic group or race or tribe, and Biblical narratives data. These are valuable sources of examining and addressing the issues of ethnicity, racism and tribalism.

Throughout this Book, the Author stresses the centrality of morality and ethics of leadership, the State and that of ethnic groups. It is on account of this that the Book develops and formulates moral and ethical values and principles from African traditional and cultural background and also from Biblical data and Christian social thought. The major and unique contributions of the Book to the study of morality and ethics are in these areas.

For peace, justice and peaceful coexistence among ethic groups in Africa to be found, morality and ethics must have to transcend or transform ethic, racial and tribal values and interests. This Book shows how this can be done.

This Book traces, defines develops and formulates moral and ethical values and principles from African traditional and cultural background which have profound influence upon contemporary African scene and conditions. This Book is a valuable source for African traditional moral laws and how these affect ethnic, racial and tribal morality and ethics and even the nature of African leadership.

The Colonial legacy with its conspicuous structures of inequality aggravates ethnics, racial and tribal issues. Ethnicity, racism and tribalism have posed great problems to correcting socio-political problems of Africa since independence. It important that a new conception of the role and function of the State and the place and position ordained by God. The Author was able to define at length negative social values of the colonial legacy and how they can be corrected were outlined.

This Book draws our attention to the definition of man and his place within African states. The treatment of man by his fellow man calls to question the issues of human rights, freedom, dignity and identity. Man is defined not in terms of his ethnic identity but in terms of his universal nature and identity: the brotherhood and solidarity of the human family. This book shows man creates false identify and with it he introduces divisions, hostility and barriers. The corrupt and fallen nature of man gives him a license for works wickedness under the guise of racism and tribalism.

The Author develops and formulates new moral and ethical value and principles from Christ’s redemption on the cross. The Cross of Christ becomes the basis of new morality and ethics. The ethic of Christ which is universal in principle addresses ethnic, racial and tribal values. The Book shows how a new messianic community becomes of foundation of a new humanity in Christ. In contrast, Kinship morality and ethics are based upon ancestry, blood relations and blood community. The Author shows how the Ethic and the Gospel of Christ address kinship morality and ethics.

It is not possible in this forward to say all that is need to be said. However, it is important to state that we have a very valuable Book on addressing the issues of ethnicity, racism and tribalism in Africa. I recommend this Book very highly to church leaders, theologians, teachers and those interested in social ethics and theology. This Book is through, comprehensive and informative.

No one who is concerned about the issues of ethnicity, racism and tribalism in Africa can afford to ignore this valuable Book. This Book is timely and revevant to contemporary Africa.

I am very grateful to the commission on Ethics, Peace and Justice of AEA for publishing this very important Book for the African Evangelical Community. I trust that this Book will become a useful tool in addressing the issues of ethnicity, racism and tribalism in Africa. Shallom!

Dr. Tokunboh Adeyemo

General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA)

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ABOUT YUSUFU TURAKI FOUNDATION AND OTAKADA.ORG DIGITAL PUBLISHING

Yusufu Turaki is a Professor of Theology and Social Ethics. He teaches Theology and Social Ethics at the Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS) since 1980. He studied Theology at Igbaja Theological Seminary, Nigeria (Th.B.); Theology and Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA (MATS); and Social Ethics at Boston University, USA (Ph.D.). He was a Research Scholar with the Research Enablement Program sponsored by the PEW Charitable Trusts and administered by the Overseas Ministry Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, USA and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School, Yale University, USA. He is currently the Regional Director of the International Bible Society Nigeria. He is married to Deborah and they have four children: Nyela, Yimi, Iyakachi and Ladi.

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This book is published and distributed in partnership with Yusufu Turaki Foundation and Otakada.org

Yusufu Turaki Foundation is an organization owned by the author Professor Yusufu Turaki in Jos, Plateau, Nigeria. Otakada.org is a digital and paperback publishing and distribution of Christian confused contents company based in USA and Nigeria.

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Table of Contents

TRIBAL GODS OF AFRICA1

ETHNICITY, RACISM, TRIBALISM AND1

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST1

Revised Edition 20191

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS2

DEDICATION3

FOREWORD4

ABOUT THE AUTHOR6

ABOUT YUSUFU TURAKI FOUNDATION AND OTAKADA.ORG DIGITAL PUBLISHING7

CHAPTER ONE11

INTRODUCTION11

A.Ethnic Group (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)15

B.Race (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)16

C.Tribe (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)16

D.Ethics and Morality (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)17

E.Approach (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary)18

CHAPTER TWO20

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN SCENE CONDITION20

A.Africa’s Perspectives from Social Science20

B.Ethnic/Racial/Tribal Moral and Ethical Values and Practices29

C.Contemporary Socio-Political Issues of Africa34

CHAPTER THREE39

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND39

A.Roots and Foundations of African Morality and Ethics40

B.Kinship System and Social Organization45

C.African Moral Laws48

CHAPTER FOUR62

AFRICAN COLONIAL BACKGROUND62

A.Theories About Race62

BColonialism and Christian Missions64

C.Establishment of Colonial Social Order66

B.Modernisation and African Culture69

Modernisation70

CHAPTER FIVE76

MAN AS A MORAL BEING AND GIFT OF GOD76

A.Divine Basis of Human Dignity.77

CHAPTER SIX89

BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE89

A.Case For Jesus Christ and Biblical Data89

C.Messianic Community108

D.Messianic Moral and Spiritual Laws109

CHAPTER SEVEN111

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH111

1.The Church Commissioned111

What then is the role of the Church and believers in the world today?112

2Ministry of Reconciliation, Peace and Justice113

CHAPTER EIGHT115

THE ROLE OF THE STATE115

CHAPTER NINE122

CONCLUSION122

REFERENCES124

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

An African once gave a stern warning to a Christian missionary from Europe in the early 1990s, saying, do nothing to arouse the anger of Tribal Gods. For if you did, they could destroy both you and the entire humanity.’’ As a child growing up in Africa, I have come across several of such warning not to disturb the peace and tranquility of Africa. But as one looks at the contemporary Africa scene and its condition, one may ask, Is this a prophetic fulfillment of such warnings?" What one sees around today is the prevailing destructions of Africans as a people, their humanity, society/communities and states. These are quite alarming, frightening and this pogrom increase in intensity and magnitude every passing day. Can this be the manifestation of wrath of ‘Tribal Gods of Africa’ or of something else? Whether this assertion is true or not, the question is, ‘by what means can this obnoxious phenomenon in Africa be explained and resolved’? ‘What lies beneath ethnic, racial, tribal and cultural tensions, violence and conflicts in Africa’? Are there some hidden, wicked, perennial and intransigent forces at work in Africa?

The disintegration of African state, societies and social values and the dehumanization of man in Africa call to question ‘African leadership’. African leadership has failed to stop the dearth and stem the tide of social crisis and chaos. It has also failed to grand man a stable government. There is some thing, which is fundamentally wrong with leadership in Africa. African leadership has of itself suffered terribly under the cruel hands of ethnocentrism, racism and tribalism.

African leadership is important in the face of Africa’s contemporary problems. It stands and stares at them hopelessly and helplessly. The lack of moral will and ethical strength by leadership in Africa has been identified as the most serious issue and problem facing Africa today. This problem has its roots in African ethnicity, racism and tribalism.

In spite of the fact that Africans are indeed a religious people and have even embraced universal, such as, Christianity, Islam, and western modernity in addition to their own tradition religions and cultural values, yet the visions of man and freedom as contained in these traditions have left man mostly in chains in Africa. The visions of humanity and its potentials for good, human fulfillment and human freedom are cherished values which seem to have elude Africa for centuries. Arab and European slave-raiding and slave-trade and their subsequent colonization of Africa and the inter-tribal and racial wars are historical testimonies of human sufferings in Africa. New forms of human suffering, degradation and humanization have engulfed modern Africa. We se these in many socio-political and economic problems, corrupt and inept leadership and devastating ethnic, racial and tribal tensions, violence and conflicts.

How can we both explain and solve the problems of modern Africa? In modern times, Europeans brought Christianity and modernity to Africa, while the Arabs, Islam and its culture. Religious, culture, political and economic theories and models have been introduced and applied to African but the contemporary scene and condition of Africa look hopeless and helpless. The prognosis is very bad! The real issue is not that of having the right religion or culture, or having the correct political or economic system, but that Africa’s problem is the issue of morality and ethics. It is the behaviour, attitude and practices of Africans themselves which bring to ruin their societies, states and their humanity. Africa’s contemporary problems are deeply rooted and grounded in morality and ethics. And both of which have their sources and foundations in ethnicity, racism and tribalism.

Just at hand, the 1990s have witnessed brutal and destructive ethic and tribal tensions, violence and conflicts in many parts of Africa. The most recent and worst cases are those of the Hutu and the Tutsi in Central Africa (Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire) and the war torn Liberia and Somalia. There is a catalogue of such and similar cases in recent past in Africa.

Cases of ethnic/racial/tribal tensions, violence and conflicts abound everywhere on the continent of Africa, occurring mostly after political independence; Sudan (Race and Religion); Ethiopia (Ethnic); the Congo crisis (Ethnic); South Africa (Race and Politics); Zimbabwe (Race and Politics); Namibia (Race and Politics); Morocco (Ethnic); Senegal (Ethnic); Somalia (Ethnic/Clans); Chad (Ethnic); Niger (Ethnic); Uganda (Ethnic); Liberia (Ethnic); and Sierra Leone (Ethnic). The above cases reflect the political state of affair of each country but what really lied beneath were ethnic/racial/tribal and culture tensions and conflicts.

The whole world and even Africans themselves are asking, ‘How could ethnic/ racial/tribal/ group with a