The African Virus

A deadly virus is sweeping sub-Saharan Africa, sapping the energy and will of countless millions of its victims. But unlike HIV/AIDS this virus is man-made, a virus of the mind. It is the virus of Christian fundamentalism.

As you enter Ibadan, Nigeria, 100 km north of Lagos, the first sight is of huge bill-boards. Of the first 30, just seven are promoting commercial products; no fewer than 23 are for churches, prayer meetings, apostles, prophets, crusades and assorted healing ministries. The only visible signs of development are the building sites for new churches and the mansions for their priests and pastors. Many of the churches and prayer centres are vast, holding 8,000 to 10,000 victims at a time – every victim grasping at the faint hope that their prayers and their meagre offerings, their widow’s mites that swell the vast bank balances of the charlatan-priests, might just help them find work, cure a sick child, or find some money to solve the daily problems of survival. But, as any Humanist could tell them, conjuring tricks, prophesies, healing ministries and hysteria will not solve their problems. The solution to Africa’s problems will come only through the efforts of Africans themselves. But while poverty, rampant disease and corrupt government are destroying their bodies, the charismatic, pentecostal apostles and prophets of Christ are destroying their minds – and their will to fight.

I visited Africa in late May and early June with a small group of European and American Humanists for the IHEU and International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation">IHEYO general assemblies, for the launch of the African Humanist Alliance in Uganda, and to celebrate the life of the great Nigerian humanist, Tai Solarin. Many of us left depressed by the almost insurmountable scale of the problems we had seen. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, with most of its people living in grinding poverty, ruled over by an uncaring, oil-rich elite. When corruption permeates every level of society, it is difficult to see where to begin. But all of us left Africa determined to help. And it is not all bad news.

The Ugandan Humanist Association, ably chaired by Deo Ssekitooleko, now has seven active branches and is gaining daily in strength. Campaigns by Leo Igwe and Yemi Johnson in Nigeria against witch burnings and ritual killings are having an effect. The Centre for Inquiry in Ibadan, with its office and library of Humanism and freethought literature, provides the vital centre for the Nigerian Humanist Movement. The Mayflower School, despite its problems, is a shining example of educational excellence in a desert of superstition.

We in the west, for whom too often Humanism is an easy philosophical option, can do much to help nurture and support our struggling fellow Humanists in Africa. The African Humanist Alliance brings together Humanists groups and individuals from 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. I ask everyone to support this important new initiative in any way you can. Please don’t think that just because each of us personally can do little it is not worth the effort. A little money really does go a long way in Africa – and a few books, magazines and a little encouragement even further. Please do what you can to help.

Vatican 1, Europe 0

Everyone, it seemed, had cause to celebrate the June agreement on the new European Constitution. Tony Blair had seen off the federalists of old Europe, France and Germany, while the French had seen off God; at their request, any reference to Europe’s ‘Christian heritage’ has been removed from the preamble to the Constitution. The new European states are celebrating because the rush to a federal superstate has been halted, while the federalists are celebrating because the outlines of a federal Europe can now be clearly discerned – with or without Britain.

Yet it is clear that the real winner in the constitutional battle has been the Vatican. Having worked assiduously behind the scenes for years, their efforts have finally paid off. Yes, the Pope complained that the Constitution had dropped God from the preamble, but failed to mention that Article 51 remains intact. From now on the church will have unrestricted access to the institutions of the European Union, to the Commission, to the judiciary, and to member governments.

Europe’s Humanist and Secular organizations must now work to monitor these contacts, to ensure that every abuse is exposed and that wherever possible the more than 100 million Europeans with no religious affiliation are accorded equal treatment with the religious. IHEU will be supporting the efforts of the European Humanist Federation, the National Secular Society in the UK, and the Fédération Nationale de la Libre Pensée in France, who are leading the resistance.

An Indian flame has died

I first met Dr Indumati Parikh at the 14th World Humanist Congress in Mumbai in January 1999. Already in her 80s, this woman was a human dynamo, the organizer of the Congress; the founder and leader of Streehitakarini, an extraordinary women’s self-help organization; the mainspring of the Indian Radical Humanist Association; founder of the Centre for the Study of Social Change; and inspiration of the vast, but still unfinished shell of the M.N. Roy Human Development Campus. After 1999, I came to know Dr Parikh better as I became involved in a human development project in the slums of Mumbai, modelled on Streehitakarini (see p. 15). Latterly increasingly frail in body, but with her mind still razor sharp, Dr Parikh remained the undisputed leader of the organization until her end – which came suddenly on 17 June 2004, following a short illness. Her commitment and her single-minded sense of purpose have been an inspiration to me as to many others in India and elsewhere. We shall miss her greatly.

Roy Brown

IHEU President