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