OUR SPIRITUALITY WAS OUR SHIELD: WHY RELIGION WAS USED TO BREAK US
OUR SPIRITUALITY WAS OUR SHIELD: WHY RELIGION WAS USED TO BREAK US
Before the cross and the Bible came with the colonizer, Africa already knew God.
Our ancestors did not need to be taught about the Divine. They lived with Him. They called Him by many names — Chukwu, Olodumare, Nyame, Nzambi, Leza — the Supreme Creator who dwells above, while the ancestors, the guardians of the bloodline, walked beside us.
Our spirituality was not contained in a book. It was in our blood, in our land, in our drums, in our shrines, and in the whispered libations poured at dawn.
And that is exactly what the colonial powers feared.
- WHY THEY FEARED OUR SPIRITUALITY
European missionaries and colonial administrators documented this fear themselves. They encountered a spiritual system they could not easily break.
In Yorubaland, the Ifá system — now recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of human heritage — contained 256 odus of profound cosmology, medicine, and philosophy.
In Igboland, Odinani taught that every person has a Chi, a direct spark of the Creator, and that the ancestors (Ndi Ichie) actively protect their descendants.
Among the Kongo, the Bakongo, the Akan, and the Zulu, the living and the dead were never completely separated. A community protected by its ancestors is a community that cannot easily be mentally enslaved. You cannot make a man bow to a foreign master when his own grandfather’s spirit stands behind him.
A German missionary in 1892 wrote from what is now Cameroon: “The Negro’s belief in his ancestors is stronger than his belief in our God. As long as he pours palm wine to the dead, he will never truly submit.”
Their power was limited because our ancestral resonance was too strong.
- THE WEAPON OF MENTAL SUBMISSION
They realized they could not defeat us physically and spiritually at the same time. So they changed their strategy.
As noted in the famous 1883 letter attributed to King Leopold II of Belgium to missionaries in the Congo, the instruction was clear: “Teach the niggers to forget their ancestors, to forget their gods… Use the Bible to make them submissive.” While the authenticity of every word is debated by historians, the colonial policy it describes is a well-documented fact.
The colonial schools and missions did three things:
- Demonized our heritage: They called our shrines “fetish,” our priests “witch doctors,” and our ancestors “demons.” What was once sacred became shameful.
- Severed the bloodline: They taught us that our ancestors were in hell, burning, because they did not know Jesus. How can you be protected by someone you now believe is burning in hell? The spiritual cord was cut.
- Replaced protection with dependence: Our spirituality taught self-power and community power. Colonial religion taught that salvation only comes from outside — from a white savior, a foreign God, and a distant heaven. You must wait, you must suffer, you must obey.
It was not just evangelism. It was psychological warfare. A man disconnected from his ancestors is a man without an army.
- AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY IS NOT DIABOLIC — IT IS OUR HERITAGE
Let us be clear: African spirituality is not diabolic. That is the lie they sold us to make us abandon it.
It is not juju for evil. It is our science, our medicine, our law, our history, and our connection to the Creator through those who came before us.
It kept our people alive for thousands of years before the first slave ship arrived. It preserved kingdoms like Mali, Songhay, Great Zimbabwe, and Benin. It is a heritage of balance, of respect for nature, and of community over individualism.
To honor our ancestors is not to reject God. In our understanding, to honor the ancestors IS to honor God, because they are closer to Him than we are.
To awaken as Africans today, we must restore what was broken:
We must learn to pour libation again.
We must learn our true names.
We must stop calling our own power darkness.
Our ancestors are still with us. Our Almighty God has never left us. But they can only protect a child who remembers them.
Our spirituality was never lost. It was buried. It is time to dig it up.
What do you think — has religion made us more free, or more submissive? Let’s discuss respectfully below.
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