PREACHING A STRESSED SERMON

Here I am seated on my table with my favorite tea in the world listening to Curtis Mayfield's unique style of funk music. My room is pretty clean thus allowing me the opportunity to think clearly and critically. But not with some people within the region I live in Central Nigeria.

I recalled seeing a man in the market sometime this week. He is probably in his late fifties. His head is all covered with grey hair. He had a huge frame probably would weigh around 75kg. This man was going about in the market square shouting as if something bad had happened to him. At first, I thought he was talking to someone across the streets but unknown to me, he was preaching with the Bible in hand.

Religion is a big thing in Africa, people find social security and a sense of meaning in their various religions. Most of the religions practiced in Africa are missionary or evangelistic religions except for African traditional religion.

Now back to the old man preaching in the market. He was proclaiming and propagating his religion which is obviously Christianity. Watching this scene raised a lot of questions in my mind as I  asked why a man his age will consider going about 'preaching'? It then occurred to me that he might be going through some form of stress ranging from environmental, psychological, emotional, 'spiritual' etc. His mates in developed climes have retired or thinking about retiring with some of them looking for places around the world to holiday but not the case with old people in sub-saharan Africa.

There are myriads of problems bedeviling the continent of Africa. One of them is environmental degradation. African worldview have a less regard for the environment as they believe that their ancestors (the living dead in the words of Bolaji Idowu) hang on trees and the forests and that is their abode. So for the African, he dares not change or beautify his environment because he may be doing harm to an ancestor.

For most of Africans, especially Nigerians whom 70% live in rural areas, they use firewood to make their food. Obiviously the source of this firewood are the trees around them. These rural dwellers cut down trees indiscriminately to make firewood and charcoal. It takes time to cut down trees and also making charcoal from them. How different will it be if these rural dwellers will use gas or electricity to power their cooking stove? Here is where the government needs to come in to ease the hardships of people.

What if this old preacher lived in a very clean environment, would he go about preaching? He maybe living in a poor neighborhood as those living there are stressed in many ways thus the reason for them to turn to religion to find succor. Not so with the rich!

There is a lot that needs to be done to make this continent move forward to catch up with the rest of the world that are already recycling waste to get energy and other valuable materials that makes life easier. African worldview needs to be adjusted.