Wole Soyinka - Christianity & Islam are Foreign Impositions [Watch Video]

Nigerian acclaimed author, playwright and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who turns 80 in two weeks, speaks to Reuters about the Islamist militant sect Boko Haram, as well as religion.

Soyinka in his Abeokuta home told Tim Cocks that Nigeria is suffering greater carnage at the hands of Boko Haram. He also said their mission is far worse than the Biafra war from 1967 to 1970 which saw lots of bloodshed.

We have never been confronted with butchery on this scale, even during the civil war, he begins.

There were atrocities which were committed, but you never had such a regular, getting to a near predictable level of carnage. I think this is what is terrifying.

Theres no war zone. Theres no battle line. Its everywhere. Not just in the North East for instance, its here, right here where we are sitting.
Its right down in Lagos, even though it has not manifested itself.

On if Boko Haram can make Nigeria split, he stated that, I think ironically its less likely now. For the first time, a sense of belonging is predominating. Its either we stick together now or we break up, and we know it would be not in a pleasant way.

Soyinka also blamed successive governments for allowing religious fanaticism to undermine Nigerias broadly secular constitution, starting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowing some states to declare Sharia law in the early 2000s.

When the spectre of Sharia first came up, for political reasons, this was allowed to hold, instead of the president defending the constitution. he said.

He argued that modern Africa has lots its shape and sees both Christianity and Islam as foreign impositions.

We cannot ignore the negative impact which both have had on African society. They are imperialist forces: intervening, arrogant. Modern Africa has been distorted.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsE0-UvSf0g" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsE0-UvSf0g</a>

Posted: at 3-07-2014 02:36 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

The fact

Posted: at 3-07-2014 03:22 AM (9 years ago) | Newbie

ABEOKUTA Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria is suffering greater carnage at the hands of Islamist group Boko Haram than it did during a secessionist civil war, yet this has ironically made the country's break-up less likely, Nigerian Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka said.

Speaking to Reuters at his home surrounded by rainforest near the southwestern city of Abeokuta, Soyinka said the horrors inflicted by the militants had shown Nigerians across the mostly Muslim north and Christian south that sticking together might be the only way to avoid even greater sectarian slaughter.

The bloodshed was now worse than during the 1967-70 Biafra war when a secessionist attempt by the eastern Igbo people nearly tore Nigeria up into ethnic regions, he added.

"We have never been confronted with butchery on this scale, even during the civil war," Soyinka said in his front room, surrounding by traditional wooden sculptures of Yoruba deities on Tuesday.

"There were atrocities (during Biafra) but we never had such a near predictable level of carnage and this is what is horrifying," said the writer, who was imprisoned for two years in solitary confinement by the military regime during the war on charges of aiding the Biafrans.

Soyinka, a playwright and one of Africa's leading intellectuals who still wears his distinctive white Afro hairstyle, turns 80 in two weeks. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first African writer to receive it.

A million people died during the Biafra war, though mostly through starvation and illness, rather than violence.

Boko Haram's five-year-old struggle to carve out an Islamic state from its bases in the remote northeast has become increasingly bloody, with near daily attacks killing many thousands.

The conflict's growing intensity has led Nigerian commentators to predict it may split the country, 100 years after British colonial rulers cobbled Nigeria together from their northern and southern protectorates. [ID:nL6N0NF3F4]

"I think ironically it's less likely now," Soyinka said. "For the first time, a sense of belonging is predominating. It's either we stick together now or we break up, and we know it would be not in a pleasant way."

GOVERNMENTS LET IN RELIGION

Boko Haram's abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in April drew unprecedented international attention to the insurgency and pledges of aid from Western powers, but violence has worsened.

Boko Haram fighters frequently massacre whole villages, gunning down fleeing residents and burning their homes.

Nigeria, amalgamated by the British in 1914, brought together often historically antagonistic peoples - principally the largely Muslim Fulani, Hausa and Kanuri of the North, and the Yoruba, Igbo and other peoples of the mostly Christian south.

Several regional movements have launched low-level independence campaigns that get little national attention. But Soyinka said fewer people were shrugging off Boko Haram's menace.

"It's almost unthinkable to say: 'well, let's leave them to their devices.' Very few people are thinking that way."

Attacks spreading southwards, including three bombings in the capital since April, showed it was not a just a northern problem.

"The (Boko Haram) forces that would like to see this nation break up are the very forces which will not be satisfied having their enclave," he said. "(We) are confronted with an enemy that will never be satisfied with the space it has."

Soyinka blamed successive governments for allowing religious fanaticism to undermine Nigeria's broadly secular constitution, starting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowing some states to declare Sharia law in the early 2000s.

"When the spectre of Sharia first came up, for political reasons, this was allowed to hold, instead of the president defending the constitution," he said.

Soyinka sees both Christianity and Islam as foreign impositions.

"We cannot ignore the negative impact which both have had on African society," he told Reuters. "They are imperialist forces: intervening, arrogant. Modern Africa has been distorted."

He added that while the leadership of Boko Haram needed to be "decapitated completely", little had been done to present an alternative ideological vision to their "deluded" followers, driven largely by economic destitution and despair.

Posted: at 3-07-2014 03:40 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

True yarn

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Posted: at 3-07-2014 05:01 AM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

ref: for the same political reasons, our present  president was sighted joined in the Ramadan fasting and prayer with the Muslim faithful, hypocrisy of the highest order, today in church, tomorrow in mosque, next day in herbalist den, the other time in oc**lt kingdom,  God is watching!

Posted: at 3-07-2014 06:54 AM (9 years ago) | Upcoming

 

Posted: at 3-07-2014 07:34 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

"Islam' is causing chaos and tragedy ALL ovrr the world.  No one would ever believe that a WHITE WIDOW would be part of the problem. Or that BRITISH BORN, BRED and UNIVERSITY EDUCATED  muslims would also join in the butchery. Now the world is on an even higher STATE OF ALERT!

Nowhere is safe. I wonder how many Moslems will take up the call by ISIS to move to the newly created islamic state - where they can get together and live in PEACE because there will be no more need to rape, kill, maim as they will ALL believe in the same sharia law!

So over to you BK. Any hope of you emigrating to the ISIS state - "land of the free!"

Posted: at 3-07-2014 08:12 AM (9 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Hmmm

Posted: at 3-07-2014 09:43 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

 

Posted: at 3-07-2014 03:05 PM (9 years ago) | Hero

A turkish writer wrote the following 2 hundred years ago "An ape might look human,walk on 2 legs like humans even scratch its head to give the impression of reflection or thinking,but the fact remains that it is an ape. It can ape man but will never be as intelligent as man becase it lacks originality". Food for thought for all Africans that take great pride in calling themselves muslims or christians. When you throw-away what you are (originality) and want to ape what you are not (religion) then you shall forever remain subject to those who own your mind (imported religion) and for them (saudi arabia,rome,etc) you shall kill,maim and destroy youselves in other to please the people you are aping. No country or continent in the world develops by aping foreign religion,from China through India to UAE (Asia). Wonder why Africa that apes everybody else is the least developed continent on the planet??,YEA, i heard your mumbled answer and it starts with an A.

Posted: at 3-07-2014 04:33 PM (9 years ago) | Upcoming