Page 57 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 6

FEATURES
preferred theory appeared to
center around copulation be-
tween the (white) human female
and an ape. This thinking was
embedded into social and cul-
tural thought and practice long
before Charles Darwin’s theory
of evolution was captured in On
the Origin of Species. Darwin’s
theory of evolution was dispar-
aged by those who believed in
the truth of Creation. His theory
suggested that mankind was
the highest product of changes
that began with a ‘big bang’
which triggered the formation of
life and gradually over hundreds
of millions of years eventual-
ly brought forth man from a
line of apes according to the
‘Great Chain of Being’. Hence
the black man was considered
evolutionarily backward and the
white man the absolute pinna-
cle of the evolutionary process.
It has been suggested that
Darwin himself did not put forth
a racist agenda on the basis of
his postulations. Rather, those
who perceived opportunity in
his writings felt they provided
some ‘scientific credence’ to
their evil plots and schemes
including justifying slavery in
America. The European con-
tinued the subjugation of the
colonies of non-whites to their
oppressive rule and out of all
the people colonized, the black
man was deemed the lowest
man because of his color. It
seems a long way to go to
justify greed and political and
economic domination and even
genocide of other races, but
this is exactly what happened
and not only to Afrikans, but
to any land where the Europe-
an – firmly under the grips of
the Whore of Babylon – set his
sights, his guns and his other
devices.
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In February 2020, Justin Welby,
the Archbishop of Canterbury
said to the Church’s national
assembly, "Personally, I am sor-
ry and ashamed. I'm ashamed
of our history and I'm ashamed
of our failure. There is no
doubt when we look at our own
church that we are still deeply
institutionally racist. Let's just
be clear about that. I said it to
the College of Bishops a couple
of years ago and it's true." Keep
in mind that this is the Church
of England i.e. the Anglican
Church, of which the Queen of
England is the Head admitting
to institutionalized racism. The
same Church of England that
sent missionaries to Afrika un-
der the Church Missionary Soci-
ety. These missionaries were
variously accused by Afrikans
of either being complicit in the
oppression of the colonizers,
apathetic concerning its evil ac- general economy of the world
tivities or tools in its sustenance
through the teachings that they
spread urging the Afrikans to
‘turn the other cheek’ or ‘for-
give’ in the face of continued
injustice. It did not help matters
that they were often embedded
with or protected by the colonial
administration, making their
message often seem more like
a poisoned chalice than one of
salvation. It is said that there
were those amongst these
missionaries who withstood
the efforts and policies of the
colonial government and those
who, even while compassionate
to the cause of the Afrikan, still
felt themselves to be far supe-
rior intellectually and culturally
to the Afrikan as to continue to
embed the racist narrative of
the Church. According to schol-
ars, the Church of England was
‘decolonized’ and ‘Afrikanized’
on the continent, not so much
as a matter of choice on the
heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
part of the church, but rather as
a matter of consequence due
to a reduction in funding and
thereby a need to find locals to
fill in the much needed roles in
the ranks of the church in Afri-
ka. Welby’s confession would
seem to support this claim.
The following are various
excerpts taken from different
sections of a paper on Christian
Missions and Colonial Rule
in Africa by Dr. Etim E. Okon
published in the European
Scientific Journal in 2014: “The
Times in an article titled "The
Commercial Value of Africa"
endorsed the commercial mo-
tives of colonialism: The fact is
that up to within the past few
years Africa has hardly been
needed by the rest of the world
except as a slave market. But
her turn has come, and the
need for her cooperation in the
will become greater and great-
er as population increases, as
industry expands, as commerce
develops, as states grow am-
bitious as civilization spreads:
it is discreditable anomaly that
at this advanced stage in the
progress of the race nearly a
whole continent should still be
given over to savagery... (qtd in
Uzoigwe, 1978: 27).
The predetermined objective of
European colonial enterprise
in Africa was also stated point-
blank in the Pall Mall Gazatte of
1899: Nor have we gone to the
equatorial regions from religious
or humanitarian motives... still
less have we sought out the
African in order to endow him
with the vices (and virtues) of
western civilization... the domi-
nating force which has taken us
to Equatorial Africa is the desire
for trade. We are in these
tropical countries for our own
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