The Good Book enjoins:
“love your neighbor as yourself.” However, in his fascinating work, “Of
Water and the Spirit,” Malidoma Patrice Some draws these conclusions from his
horrendous experience of fifteen years is a Jesuit mission/concentration camp:
“Religious colonialism tortures the soul. It creates an
atmosphere of fear, uncertainty, and general suspicion. The worst thing is that
it uses the local people to enforce itself. Our teachers were Black, from the
tribe, yet they were our worst enemies. The question I often asked myself in
later years, when I thought about how Black nationals are leading our country,
is whether a person schooled in an atmosphere of such abuse can actually lead
with compassion, justice, and wisdom. My experience was not uncommon. Today, Africa’s
leaders are mostly people who were educated in this manner. Is it surprising
that there is so much instability in so many African countries” (p. 95).
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