Towards a New Enlightenment

On 17 January 2007, the Cameroon Freethought Association (CAFTA) organized the first major conference in French speaking Africa. The theme of the event was Secular Humanism and Freethought: Towards a New Enlightenment for Africa. The conference was held at the Hotel de Deputes in Yaounde Cameroon. Over 40 participants who came from Liberia, Nigeria, France, Britain and the United States were in attendance.

The conference featured stimulating presentations by humanist/freethought leaders, scholars and activists. Alex Mbom, Mouchili Njimon, Martin Mbille, Bontologie Boujeka spoke on the freethought situation in Cameroon and the threats posed by evangelical Christianity and militant Islam. In principle, Cameroon is a secular state but in practice it is not, no thanks to the encroachment and contamination of the public and political space by religious groups.

In my paper Towards A New Enlightenment for Africa, I stressed the need for Africans to dispel the forces of the Dark Ages by embracing the values and ideals of reason, science and freethought. I pointed out that the old Enlightenment was European. It happened at a time Africa was going through slavery, colonialism and forced conversion. But today the 21st century presents the African continent with a historic opportunity to achieve a New Enlightenment and to realize a civilization with a global dimension. Enlightenment is a matter of choice, it will not be imposed on Africa. So, it is left for Africans to choose to undergo to process of Enlightenment or to remain in a Dark Age.

The Search for Truth

In her thoughtful speech ‘To Tell the Truth’, Bobbie Kirkhart addressed the question ‘Why are we here?’ According to Ms Kirkhart the mission of freethinkers unlike that of the western missionaries, is not to bring the truth to Africa, because ‘there is truth everywhere’ and ‘the truth belongs to everybody.’ ‘We are here (in Africa) in search of the truth.’ Throughout her presentation she made it clear that the truth-seeking spirit is the Enlightenment spirit. And Josh Kutchinsky of the British Humanist Association tried to demonstrate this by lighting a candle and re-echoing the message that Humanists are in Africa to cause light not darkness! Josh discussed secularism in Europe. Europe is the world’s most secular continent, but within the European continent secularism is perceived differently. He explained how the histories and experiences of different European countries shaped their understanding, interpretation and institutionalization of secularism.

Losing Faith in Faith

Dan Barker, former Fundamentalist minister and co- president of Freedom From Religion Foundation narrated his journey from being a devout soul winner to becoming one of the most prominent American Freethinkers. He stated how the fallacies, inconsistencies and harm of the christian doctrine caused him to abandon Christianity and embrace freedom from religion. He documented his story, thoughts and experiences in his excellent book: Losing Faith in Faith. Dan’s experiences would be helpful to Africans most of whom grow up to realize the falsehood and harmful nature of their family religion but do not have the courage to call it quits. And to experience a New Enlightenment, many Africans need to embark on this journey of Losing Faith in Faith.

Norm Allen discussed the activities of the Center for Inquiry and the African Americans for Humanism (AAH). Allen noted that African Americans are deeply religious people, but still the ideals of Humanism and freethought have shaped their history, thought and struggles as seen in the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement. The mission of the AAH is to provide a sense of community to all freethinking people in the black community. AAH also supports humanist groups on the African continent. The presentation generated a lot of questions, critical comments and very lively discussions. Some local participants expressed interest and optimism about the future of the freethought movement in the country. News about the conference was carried by the local radio and television. Humanist books and freethought literature from IHEU, French Freethinkers, Centre d’Action Laique, British Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry and Freedom From Religion Foundation were distributed at the event.

Lapses

Due to lapses in management, the conference which was originally slated to last for three days ended up as a single-day event. Still, the members of CAFTA should be congratulated for keeping this date with history. Lastly I would like to thank Bobbie Kirkhart, Josh Kutchinsky and Ginette Ashkenenazy, Dan Barker/FFRF, and Norm Allen/CFI whose moral, material, financial and logistical support made this one day conference a reality.

Leo Igwe is an IHEU Growth and Development Representative in Africa.