IHEU President’s Visit to Africa

By Leo Igwe

From November 25 to December 9, 2002, the President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Mr. Levi Fragell, made a high-profile visit to the African continent. The trip, the first of its kind by an IHEU President, took him to Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

Ghana

On Monday, 25 November, Mr. Levi Fragell, President of IHEU, was received at Ghana’s Katoka International Airport by myself, as the IHEU Growth and Development Representative in Sub-Saharan Africa, and two other young Ghanaian Humanists, George Arkoh and Addo Agyei. George and Addo head a youth Humanist group in Ghana.

In a talk delivered at the first port of call, the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, in Legon, Levi Fragell spoke on IHEU and the need for organized Humanism. IHEU, he said, is the umbrella group representing over 3 million non-religious humanists, atheists, agnostics and ethical culturalists around the world. He stressed the need for non-religious individuals in Ghana, and across Africa as a whole, to organize themselves and work together to promote Humanism and contribute to the growth and development of their society. Welcoming the IHEU President to the University, the Director of the Institute, Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh, said the message of Humanism would be of immense benefit to Ghanaians, particularly in the battle against superstition and intolerance. She decried the state of education in Ghana, which she said was on the verge of losing its tradition of freethought, and expressed hope that Humanism could help restore this.

Nigeria

The Nigerian leg of the tour began with a visit to the headquarters of the influential weekly magazine TELL, where Levi Fragell emphasized the role of the media as a potent tool for socio-political development. The IHEU President called on media outfits to rise to the challenge of defending human rights – particularly freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression – that were increasingly coming under threat due to religious fundamentalism. Fragell was in Nigeria four weeks after Muslims and Christians clashed in the city of Kaduna leaving over 250 people dead (see box). The IHEU President condemned the fatwa issued against This Day journalist Isioma Daniel, and the death sentence passed on Amina Lawal. He said the world Humanist body would campaign to support Daniel and Lawal as it has done in the case of Taslima Nasrin of Bangladesh.

In Ibadan, Levi Fragell visited the Educare Trust, a non-governmental organization dedicated to youth development, which campaigns against drug abuse and smoking, and promotes AIDS awareness. Fragell commended the management of the Educare Trust for its worthwhile programmes, particularly its anti-smoking campaign, which he said is much needed in Africa, and in other parts of the Third World today. Fragell also visited the African Heritage Research Library (AHRL), some 10 km outside Ibadan. The AHRL is the first rural- community-based African studies research library in Africa. Fragell was shown round the library by its Director and Founder, Dr. Bayo Adebowale, accompanied by the Chief Librarian, Mrs. Funua Olade, and other members of the library staff.

Welcoming the IHEU President, Dr. Adebowale said he was delighted to have a Humanist leader of Levi Fragell’s stature visit the library. He pointed out that the library and the Humanist Movement have something in common – the belief in human potential. He expressed the hope that both institutions would work together to promote this objective. Speaking at the library, the IHEU President praised Dr. Adebowale for his courage, thoughtfulness and foresight in founding a library in a typical rural community without electricity or good roads. The library, he said, epitomizes a key Humanist value – that of enlightenment.

Education continued as the theme with a visit to the unique secular Mayflower School at Ikenne in Ogun State, where Fragell addressed a gathering of 3000 students (see box). He urged the students to embrace the Humanist values of peace, tolerance and compassion, as opposed to the fundamentalist gospel of hatred, intolerance and violence. The following day, Fragell spoke to university lecturers, students and fellow Humanists at a meeting of the Nigerian Humanist Movement at the nation’s premier university, the University of Ibadan. In my welcoming address as Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, I thanked the IHEU President for creating time to visit and meet with African Humanists. African Humanist individuals and groups are looking forward to an effective working relationship with the world Humanist body. The IHEU President was asked to convey to the Executive Committee the desire of African Humanists that the IHEU sponsor a regional congress in Africa in 2004, and a world congress in 2008. In his remarks, Fragell said he was delighted to be in Nigeria, and to meet with Nigerian Humanists. He reiterated the readiness of the world Humanist body to work and contribute to the growth and development of Humanism in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole.

The IHEU President’s final visit in Nigeria was to the headquarters of the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) in Ibadan. The ARFH works to initiate, promote and implement community-based sexual and reproductive health and family planning programmes through training, technical assistance, programme development, evaluation and operational research. The President of the ARFH, Prof. Ladipo, described the organization’s reproductive health programmes and services in schools and market places across the country. But he pointed out that in order to receive grants from the United States Government the organization had been obliged to sign an undertaking that it would not support or carry out abortions. In his remarks, the IHEU President said that the world Humanist body supports family planning and other reproductive health programmes in Asia. He said it was shocking that the Bush administration had adopted the misguided agenda of the Christian Right to block not only abortion but other reproductive health programmes in the Third World, where such services are so badly needed.

Uganda

In Uganda, several Humanists from the Ugandan Humanist Association (UHASSO) were on hand to receive the IHEU President, including Mr Mwasokwa from Tanzania, who is working on forming a Humanist association for that country. It is hoped that, in the future, the Humanist associations of Uganda and Tanzania can form part of an East African Regional Humanist Network. In a meeting with UHASSO’s Executive Committee, Mr. Paul Wanume, the Projects Coordinator, described the efforts of UHASSO to develop Humanist projects under severe financial constraints. A particular need was for education projects in teacher training colleges, which would sensitize the next generation of teachers to the dangers of corporal punishment and help them recognize the need for and value of secular education. Mr Deo Sekitoleko, the founding chairperson of UHASSO, spoke of the valued support from the Council of Secular Humanism, and from Mr. Norm Allen of the African Americans for Humanism, and requested that IHEU consider organizing an international conference in Uganda in the next couple of years.

There were two special events. The first was a visit to the Bushenyi Humanist Association, 300 km from Kampala, where a new office was opened and a public meeting arranged for local people, resulting in a very lively discussion. Fragell met three young survivors of the horrific mass suicide that had occurred in a cult

church nearby, in which more than 500 burnt themselves to death – a grim reminder of the importance of Humanism. The other special event was the launch of the Freethought Association of Bukalasa Agricultural College; a significant percentage of the students had joined and took part in the function. Fragell gave a talk focusing on the irrationality and dangers of practices such as “speaking in tongues” and faith healing. Among other speakers, Mr. Moses Kulazikulabe spoke of the role that the Dutch Reformed Church had taken in justifying apartheid in South Africa, and Mr. Sekitoleko encouraged students to adopt the lively culture of thought and debate that had characterized the 1950s and 1960s, during Africa’s struggle for independence: too many students now spent time in prayer meetings rather than intellectual discussion. Ugandan Humanists are building a network of groups at schools and colleges and have been able to establish themselves as a real alternative for young people sceptical of religious feuds and superstitions.

At a special luncheon, Levi Fragell met with the Norwegian Ambassador to Uganda, the last event of what had been a busy, valuable and inspiring African tour.

Why IHEU Interest in Africa is Important

IHEU has as part of its mission the encouragement of growth and development of Humanism around the globe. It is therefore imperative that IHEU takes a serious interest in the establishment of Humanism in the African continent. Africa, unlike other continents, does not have a tradition of organized Humanism. Humanism has so far been a private life stance. It is only in the closing decades of the 20th century that Humanist groups started emerging in the continent. There are now Humanist societies in a number of African countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda. But Africa is a deeply religious society, and these Humanist groups operate in a very hostile and antagonistic environment. African Humanists are frequently persecuted or socially ostracized for openly affirming their Humanist identity. Moreover, African Humanist groups generally face enormous organizational challenges. Many of them lack the resources to organize meetings, hold conferences and publish newsletters. IHEU can go a long way in strengthening organized Humanism in Africa by providing Humanist groups with moral, material, financial and logistical assistance. At the start of the 21st century, Africa is set to play a major role in the International Humanist Movement. The world Humanist body must therefore make the development of Humanism in the continent a top priority.

There are a lot of benefits in this for Africa, for her peoples and for humanity at large. Strengthening organized Humanism in the continent will reinforce Humanist fellowship and solidarity among non-religious Africans, many of whom are suffocating in their closets. The liberating message of Humanism can help facilitate the emancipation of many Africans living under oppressive conditions. Humanist philosophy can serve as a powerful tool in combating the religious fundamentalism and ethnic bigotry that are threatening to tear many African countries apart. For instance, in my own country, Nigeria, Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise. Muslim fanatics have foisted Sharia law on 12 out of the 36 states in violation of the country’s secular constitution and basic human rights. They are vigorously scheming and campaigning to Islamicize the country and establish a theocracy. Muslim fundamentalists have opposed, often violently, everything they believe to be anti-Islamic – the introduction of sex education, immunization of children, the campaign against female genital mutilation and the separation of religion and state. Recently, in the northern city of Kaduna, Islamic militants rioted and clashed with Christians over the Miss World Contest being held in the country, massacring hundreds of innocent civilians. Over 8000 Nigerians have lost their lives to religious conflicts since the nation’s independence. For such a complex and diverse country with a volatile ethno-religious mix, Humanism is essential to save the nation from disintegration. Humanism can also serve as a rallying and reconciling force for the warring factions in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Sudan.

As a philosophy of human rights, dignity and progress, the Humanist worldview will facilitate the restoration of the humanity, dignity and respectability of Africans, which have suffered much due to the vicissitudes of history – slavery, colonialism and racism – and of course Africans’ own amnesia. As happened in Medieval Europe, the Humanist outlook can help nurture the Renaissance spirit and much needed intellectual awakening, secularization and enlightenment. The visit of the IHEU President to the African continent at this time has helped showcase the region’s Humanist potential and has served as a reminder of promises that have until now been neglected or ignored. But while there is a lot of hope for African Humanism, many challenges remain and much work still needs to be done.

Leo Igwe is IHEU Growth and Development Representative for Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Mayflower School

Located in Ikenne, in southwestern Nigeria, the Mayflower School was founded by the late Nigerian educator and Humanist, Dr. Tai Solarin. Solarin, who died in 1994, was the first Nigerian openly to profess atheism and humanism in a country where almost everyone pretends to be very religious.

The school, named after the ship on which pilgrims sailed from England to the New World in 1620, was the first private secular school in Nigeria. In Nigeria, schools are controlled by religious organizations – mainly Christian and Islamic groups who use them as tools of evangelization and proselytization. But Solarin was a staunch advocate of secular education, and vehemently campaigned against the control and management of schools by religious bodies.

In its early days, the Mayflower Project faced stiff opposition, criticism and scepticism about its future and survival. The Ministry of Education believed that the school would die prematurely, while a Nigerian cleric predicted that the project would not last because it was not founded on belief in God! But Solarin, along with his wife Sheila, succeeded in proving the sceptics wrong. The Mayflower School has been a monumental success. The school started with 70 students in 1956, and in 1997 the number of students rose to 1800. Today, there are over 7500 students in the school’s senior and junior sections combined.

All the students come from religious backgrounds. Sons and daughters of pastors, imams and priests throng the place. Unlike other schools in Nigeria, the curriculum of the Mayflower School is essentially secular. Humanist messages are posted on the school walls. One of them reads: “You can become what you choose to become”. Emphasis is placed on science subjects. The teaching of religion is prohibited. Instead the students receive secular moral instruction.

The Mayflower School is reputed for both moral and academic excellence. The school has produced eminent scholars and distinguished scientists, doctors, engineers and lawyers. The first Nigerian woman engineer was a graduate of the school.

During his visit to Nigeria, Mr. Levi Fragell, President of IHEU, visited the school and spoke at the Students’ Sunday morning gathering. Fragell urged the students to cultivate the habit of tolerance. According to Fragell, tolerance is critical to the growth and development of Nigeria. He told students not to engage in religious violence. He condemned the religious killings in Kaduna, and stressed the need for Nigerian Christians, Muslims, believers and non-believers alike to live together peacefully and harmoniously, enjoining students to take this message home to their families and friends.

IHEU President Holds Up the Candle of Freedom in Nigeria

Sharia and Nigeria

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, with 120 million citizens, 250 languages and Islam in the north and Christianity in the south as the major religions. The country’s slow recovery on the path of freedom and democracy after several years of debilitating military despotism has been severely hampered by the introduction of barbaric Sharia law and the enmity between religious communities that this has engendered: sectarian riots have resulted in the deaths of over 3000 people in the last two years.

The country’s federal constitution is secular, but in the northern Nigerian states, Islamic punishments exist: flogging for consuming alcohol, amputation of limbs for theft and stoning to death for adultery.

Amina Lawal, Miss World and This Day

It is such legislation in the state of Katsina that led to 30-year-old Amina Lawal’s death sentence, after being tried for adultery and for bearing a child outside wedlock. The judge presiding in the Upper Sharia Court, Ahaji Aliyu Abdullahi Katsina, ruled that Amina be publicly executed for adultery. Punishment will be implemented after her seven-month-old baby is weaned. If the federal government does not intervene, Amina will now be buried up to her shoulders and stoned to death. However, the father of the “illegitimate” child has been discharged, for he swore by the Koran that he was not the father of the child and Sharia law does not recognize scientific paternity tests... A worldwide campaign to save Amina’s life and to oppose the brutality of this law is under way.

Amina’s case formed the backdrop to the widespread boycott of the Miss World contest in Nigeria’s capital city, Lagos. Many foreign contestants refused to participate in an event held in a country with such barbaric punishments. Domestically, Islamic fundamentalists opposed the holding of such an event – described as degrading and insulting to women and to their religion – during their holy month of Ramadan.

In developments that astonished the civilized world, an allegedly blasphemous statement referring to the Prophet Mohammad in a piece on the protests in the fashion page of the national newspaper This Day sparked off uncontrolled rioting by angry Islamist thugs, resulting in conflict between Christian and Muslim communities in the city of Kaduna. Over 200 people died, and 30,000 people lost their homes.

The Fatwa and IHEU’s Stance

In the immediate aftermath of riots in a community, it is important to restore calm by reconciling the warring sections of society. However, taking advantage of the relative inaction by the federal government headed by the Christian President Obasanjo, Mahamoud Shinkafi, the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, another northern Nigerian state, issued a fatwa and called on Muslims to kill Isioma Daniel, the London-trained journalist who wrote the newspaper article. Isioma Daniel fled the country to save her own life.

This tense and explosive situation was the immediate context of Levi Fragell’s visit to Nigeria. Addressing a press conference at the Lagos headquarters of the influential weekly magazine Tell, and recalling the salutary role of the press during the period of military dictatorship, Levi Fragell emphasized that the “fatwa issued against journalist Isioma Daniel is malafide, and an assault on human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly the freedom of the press and freedom of expression. To condemn to death any person for the mere utterance or writing of words, however reckless they may be, is unthinkable in today’s world. No religion should enjoy the privilege of special protection or immunity from comment or criticism.” Terming it “another sad indicator of Nigeria’s regress into an Islamic dark age”, Levi Fragell demanded that the federal government intervene to save Nigeria from being irretrievably thrown into the savagery of religious intolerance.

Human Rights not Holy Books

Recalling a 2000 judgment by the Bangladesh Supreme Court which banned all fatwas (Bangladesh is an Islamic country), Levi Fragell said that fatwas have no legitimacy in a modern world, and those seeking to deal rough ‘justice’ in this manner in defiance of civilized law must be punished for incitement to murder. He further called for legislation that draws inspiration from the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights rather than outdated books claiming to have divine provenance, be they the Koran, the Bible or the Vedas. Referring to Amina Lawal’s case, Levi Fragell extended IHEU’s solidarity with her plight and made it clear that the choice of a life partner, or the decision to have a child is a fundamental human right and an intensely personal one, which cannot be abrogated by any religious or political dictat.

IHEU and its member organizations will step forward to help Amina and Isioma, in the same way as they came to the defence of the rights of Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin. The worldwide Humanist community will continue to fight for the strictest separation of religion and state, which is the only way to guarantee freedom of conscience and of expression for all people, irrrespective of their creed.

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Please post this on your websites or circulate it or create a weblink to IHEU’s website at www.iheu.org so that the voice of freedom is better heard.

  Babu Gogineni

A Humanist Project for Africa

Despite their conspicuous lack of presence in the African media, many people in Africa are indeed oriented towards achieving a positive change in the individual and in society. Today we are witnessing profound changes in the minds of Africans. Despite the disconcerting tragedy of African life, over the past several decades there has emerged a growing number of people culturally attached to Africa’s diverse riches and diverse values. In an Africa which is still looking for itself, asphyxiated by indebtedness to international financial institutions, marked by one of the fastest growing poverties on the planet; in an Africa ravaged by wars, affected seriously by the pandemic of AIDS and faced with rapidly changing technology and the third millennium; in an Africa where hope and despair alternate, Humanism can represent a coherent alternative to the situation as it acts with and works for the human.

Africa has no time to wait for a change of heart among its rulers. It is for each African to take charge of the situation and to give society an authentic human direction. It is an immense challenge. Despite this, we are happily seeing Africa organize itself, emerging from its distant image and democratizing itself slowly. And should we not recognize this and give Africa its due? It is Africa which made one of the most dramatic human gestures during the transfer of power in South Africa and its national reconciliation, after painful years of crime and violation of human rights.

It is in this Africa of hope that thousands of women and men are today the architects of an unprecedented historic change, where the African people are implementing the practical realization of a humanized Earth. They are directing themselves forward on the strength of their Humanist ideals, moving towards the consolidation of a universal human nation. To achieve this fully, Africa must, as was done at IHEU’s 14th World Congress in Mumbai, India, develop and affirm ‘Humanism for Human Development and Happiness’. For the majority of Africans, happiness is closely linked to improvement in the quality of life. We must uphold and promote Humanist ideas in a big way, through projects that will respond to the needs and expectations of Africans: education, the raising of consciousness of the masses, family planning, promotion of democracy, the fight against poverty and AIDS. These projects must necessarily integrate teaching of Humanist ideas, respecting the cultural identity of Africans and taking into account their social and economic situation.

Our challenge remains more than ever the bringing together of people of all cultures, origins, backgrounds, contexts and beliefs who will then act voluntarily and organize their activity within a human framework. To take this task to its logical conclusion, thousands of us are needed.

Nestor Ambrose Diatta, Espérance Laïque, Senegal