Christianity as a Cottage Industry: Pathfinder of Our Eternal Woes

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

“The Head Pastor of Jesus Blood Ministry at Oblogo in Accra, the Prophet Nana Kwasi Yirenkyi, popularly known as “Jesus One Touch”, is in the grips of the police for allegedly defiling his 10-year-old daughter with whom he lives in Accra” (Ghanaweb March 9, 2010).

“Goaso-based pastor and founder of the Holy Fire Pentecostal Church, Prophet Nana Sefa aka Ogya Nyame, is in the grips of the law for allegedly sexually assaulting female members of his church” (Ghanaweb, March 10, 2010).

I. PROPHETS OF DOOM IN GHANA

Christianity gone berserk in Ghana

Pastors/priests, prophets

Trapped in moral turpitude

Fires in their Hell

Predators crying Halleluiah

To maul innocent womanhood

To haul in ill-gotten wealth

To inhaul depravities of the soul

II. DEMONIZING AFRICAN RELIGIONS

Agents of Euro-Christianity

Ferried their God to Africa

But demonized our NYAME

Euro-Christians have priests/pastors

But demonized ours as “fetish” priests

Euro-Christians have their intermediaries

Jesus, Abraham, Moses, saints

But demonized our intermediaries

Ancestors, Asase Yaa, Akonnedi, Afram

Euro-Christians have their symbols

Of church buildings

But demonized our deity houses

Of pulpits

But demonized our shrines, grooves

Of conversion and baptism

But demonized our rites of passage

Of morality

But demonized our bragoru, dipo

Of the Bible

But demonized our sacred invocations

Of the cross & crucifixion

But demonized our stools & wand

Of Jesus’ blood as wine

But demonized our use blood for rituals

Of Jesus’ body as bread for the soul

But demonized our use of food for rituals

Of the Lord’s prayer

But demonized our libation & invocations

Of hymns

But demonized our ritual songs

Of pianos, guitars

But demonized our drumming & dancing

Of miracles

But demonized our divination & healing

Of heaven and hell

But demonized our asamanso (hereafter)

Of Christmas, Easter

But demonized Odwira, Homowo, Ohum

Euro-Christianity has done it all

Demonized our very souls

III. CHRISTIANITY & PAST SUFFERING

Christianity pathfinder

Pioneered the Atlantic slave trade

That demonized Africans

Intensified warfare

Mobilized ethnic divisions

Christianity pathfinder

Pioneered colonialism

Exploited us

Stole our natural resources

Stifled our political economies

Christianity pathfinder

Pioneered Western education

Defined by Western ideas

Privileged Western history & society

Eroded our cultural integrity

Erected our social benightedness

Christianity pathfinder

Pioneered that God is white

A bearded white man

Jesus and angels are whites

That we worship these whites

So we see them daily

And we defer to them daily

And worship them daily

V. CHRISTIAN COTTAGE INDUSTRY

Christianity privileges the West

Teaches us to hate our names

Kwabena Aba, Araba,

Teach us to love foreign names

John Smith Peter; Paul Liverpool

Pastors/priests, prophets

With armory of dubious tricks

Tricks they call miracles

Miracles that kill, exploit

Exploit tithes and offerings

Clamoring for infidelity, rape

Thievery, predatory, pillaging

Vultures of foreign religion

That prey on us

Perpetuated by the educated elite

Imperial enterprise

Neocolonial garb

Christianity is a cottage industry

Pathfinder of our eternal woes

The Hell in Ghana

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in Pennsylvania with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college in Maryland. In her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com