Africanisation is acclimatisation of DEREKH religion to the cultural reality of Sub-Saharan Africa and tailoring the DEREKH African ministry to address that reality. All DEREKH denominations have a home culture embedded in them, and AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH must have African culture in it.

1) HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

DEEREKH faith was first brought to Sub Saharan Africa, outside Ethiopia, by the Portuguese in their expeditions to the West African Coast starting from about 1440 CE. The Portuguese brought the Roman Catholic Church which was universal in Western Europe at the time.  Their visit to Africa was not primarily about religion and was much more about economics because they started trade as well as slave trade. They were mostly not welcome in West Africa north of the equator and therefore established themselves in Atlantic islands off the coast of Africa like Cape Verde, Madeira and Sao Tome. They established very big sugarcane farms in these Islands and needed black slave labour to work on these farms. They were also exporting slaves to Western Europe, and later to South America. The Portuguese came to the mainland mostly to look for slaves, but slave trade brought them into conflict with many local kings.

Portuguese big success in introducing Roman Catholic Christianity was in the Kingdom of Kongo where they arrived in about 1483 CE.  The King of Kongo at the time was Manikongo (King) Nzinga Nkuyu. Portions of the old Kongo Kingdom falls in present day Angola, DRC and Congo Brazzaville. They baptised Manikongo and his family to become Roman Catholics. Nkuyu was given a Portuguese name of Joao which was the name of the King of Portugal at the time.  The Kongolese however immediately Africanised Derekh (Christianity) by mixing it with African Traditional Religion.  They renamed everything in Kikongo local language so that the Holy Mikra (Bible) was called Nkanda Usiu.  Manikongo Nkuyu died in 1506 CE and was replaced by his son, Afonso Nzinga Mbemba, who ruled 1506 to 1543 CE.

Before the arrival of Roman Catholic Derekh by way of Portugal, Kongo had Traditional African Religion (ATR) which was the same in all other Bantu tribes. The Kongo people joined Derekh faith but retained ATR as well, and Kongo became half Derekh and half ATR. They created their own holidays by synchronising Roman Catholic holidays with their traditional holidays. In this way, they relegated key Roman Catholic holidays like Easter and Christmas to obscurity, and instead marked holidays like Epiphany.  

Kongolese people were very good artists long before the arrival of Europeans, and upon taking on Roman Catholicism, they created new religious art in stone and bronze that had elements of both Roman Catholic and ATR. A Kongolese cross, for example, had additions to it that arise out of preexisting ATR artwork. Many of these artworks were later shipped to Europe and are now in European museums.

There were no bishops and the Manikongo was the head of the church assisted by a few Portuguese priests who are reported to  have been engaged more in adultery with Bakongo women than in Christian work. An article in EBSCO Research by Nobert Brockman, titled: Christianity is Established in the Kingdom of Congo’ said;

“King Afonso of Kongo was poorly served by Portuguese missionaries because they were clandestine and violated clerical celibacy.”

Slave trade was also given much more importance by the Portuguese so that Christianity became a side show or a smoke screen. The Bakongo moved on with Roman Catholicism nevertheless and gave it a distinctly African look.  Brockman further notes; –

“Bakongo Catholicism was thoroughly Africanised with traditional religious categories and cosmology incorporated into the creed and Christian teaching.“

In his book, BLACK CHRISTIANS AND WHITE MISSIONARIES, 1959, Richard Grey wrote; –

“Events in the Kongo demonstrated that an indigenous African Christianity was possible though the greed of Western slave traders doomed it to failure.” “Christianity in Africa is distinguished by a temperate, prolonged dialogue in which the understanding of orthodoxy is modified, developed, and enriched.“

The expectation of the world in 1960 was that Sub Saharan Africa would shed colonial impositions and missionary Derekh (Christianity) straitjackets, as Bakongo people had done so effectively in the past, and reassert itself so that its brand of Derekh would be different to Western Christianity. This did not happen, and instead, the African person collapsed psychologically, and worked to remain in eternal Western colonialism, and cultural slavery. He also did not understand that Western Derekh, the Roman Catholic Church in particular, is deeply immersed in Greek and Roman cultural heritage and world view. African capitulation is not only in Derekh religion, but is in every aspect of his life. Over 60 years post-colonial period, African educated elites and African governments worked hard to remain under European cultural slavery because they believed that they cannot reach God or the Hamashiach without European mediumship and prophecy and this was absurd.

Over the last 60 years, 30 or more American denominations have moved to SSA and have succeeded in taking away almost half of all preexisting Derekhs, and the main reason is the lack of intellectual maturity among Africans. They don’t want to learn the most basic lesson that freedom and independence demands SELF RELIANCE, and that Religion is also Culture, and that African culture cannot be the same as European or American culture. And this means simply that Africa must have its own brand of DEREKH religion, according to our culture and our own interpretation of scripture.

In DEREKH religion, salvation is by grace alone, not by heeding and correctly implementing scripture, so Greek theology and European /American religious colonialism adds nothing to our standing with God or the Ha-Mashiach. We don’t need Greek/ European / American theology, facilitation or assistance to be able to walk on the PAVED PATH, The Way of the LORD because God has forgiven us in advance anything that we may do wrong out of our ignorance. God is only interested in our INTENTION and FAITHFULNESS to Him, not in our knowledge of religious details.

2) WESTERN CHRISTIANITY IS WEAK

In the hands of Greeks, Romans, and Europeans, Derekh drifted away from its intended purpose and course, or the Way of the LORD, and eventually, lost direction. It concentrated too much in teaching scripture, philosophy, and encouraged people to read the Holy Mikra so that they can heed it.  Christianity is not however about what is written or scripture, rather it is about what is heeded or implemented. Even though the Mikra is about 1,800 pages long, its key teachings which constitute The Way of the LORD, can be summarised in just ten pages. DEREKH has drifted to paganism, with people who call themselves Derekhs, even pastors, or bishops, believing in nothing, and heeding nothing.  In this spiritual vacuum, Derekh has become a Political Party, a Non-Governmental Organisation, an Assembly of Hypocrites, a Tribe, and for some, a Business Venture. Very few Africans care about religion because all seems to go on well without it.  They only remember Derekh in death when they demand Derekh burial rites and crosses on their tomb stones. Crosses on the grave is a pagan practice, but Africans are intent on copying anything foreign.

3) AFRICAN REALITY

European and American DEREKH denominations are scrambling to dominate SSA, but they have failed, in part because they do not understand, and therefore do not address, African reality. The white man thinks whatever works for them will work for other people, but this is just cultural arrogance.  This is the same arrogance and disrespect that we have recently seen in the international political arena where Europeans and Americans are working to dictate African Culture through the United Nations in New York. They are moving us back to indirect slavery whereby we no longer have a culture of our own and have to follow and heed their culture. They are positioning themselves as our gods, to whom we must bow and prostate.

Western hegemony is however greatly facilitated, or even created, by African psychological immaturity, even capitulation, because the African, especially the educated African, wants to identify himself with Europeanism. He despises his own culture as primitive. African governments have signed on to UN resolutions that are designed to humiliate African culture and traditions. Europeans are posing as our fathers who have both rights and obligations to teach us good manners and how to live in this world, but this is what they have failed to do for over 140 years of colonialism.

AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH mission will be mostly on character refinement, but the African person is the most difficult human being to refine. People in Asia who are not in Christianity are three times more refined spiritually than African Christians, so Christianity has so far added very little or nothing to Africa on the matter of human character. This is however the irony because the core purpose of Derekh faith, from Mt Sinai to Mt Zion, is to refine our character and heed God’s commands, not just attend Sunday Holy Mass. Over the last 60 years SSA has been in the middle of a major crisis of character covering several areas including; –

• Poor integrity, unreliability, undependability
• Poor or negative personal psychology
• Excessive selfishness that is detrimental to us
• Mutual hatred among African tribes and clans
• Envy, ill will, mutual disrespect as black people
• Witchcraft and sorcery, relying on witches and diviners despite being Derekhs
• Difficult hearts and lack of compassion, condescending attitudes
• Childish greed, squander, profligacy, and dishonesty
• Sloth, laziness and lack of economic aggression, especially among black men
• Bodily desires, addiction to adultery, non-specialisation in adultery
• Satanism by way of homosexuality and gender equality movements
• Poor intellectual capability despite massive investment in education over 60 years
• Addiction to copying foreign culture and lack of internal creativity
• Egotism, vanity, and divinity of political leaders
• Political chaos fuelled partly by greed, egotism, impunity
• Fake political elections, government brutality, disrespect for human rights

Africanisation of DEREKH is therefore meant to deal boldly and head-on with this spiritual-psychological crisis of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Way of the LORD does not go through this level of murkiness and, instead, demands self-cleansing by way of both spiritual atonement and psychological makeover. It is time for Africa to lead itself through the ongoing turbulence of a dark consciousness.

4) REBIRTH OF AFRICAN DEREKH

AFRICAN DEREKH needs to be greatly reimagined and reformed but, this reform must not be the responsibility of the Europeans. European Derekh itself has no spiritual credibility to lead a Reformation of the scale that African Derekh now needs to return to its purpose, or The Way of the LORD. We thank the Europeans, and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, for their efforts, bravery and financial facilitation of evangelising SSA for over 300 years but it is time for Africa to take full responsibility for its own life, including its spiritual life.

Europeans and Americans must therefore recognise and respect our resolution for self-governance in matters of Derekh faith. They must now go back home and give space to Africans themselves to wrestle with the challenge of the INTERNAL REVIVAL of AFRICAN DEREKH. The Reformation intended by AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH is not a change of name but a monumental spiritual revival and a war of faith. Nothing that we intend to do is coming from outside scripture, but it will still be titanic change because, over the centuries, Greek, Roman and European Derekh had drifted away from scripture in the philosophy, initially, of Hellenization and Romanisation, but more recently, Western Derekh has caved in to accommodate, or make peace, with a new round of European paganism. For us, however, scripture cannot be reinterpreted, and applies unchanged to the end of time.

What we will do is to reassert scripture and put a lot of emphasis on matters within the Holy Mikra that European Derekh has never addressed. There will also be a change of emphasis from Prayer and Shabbat Holy Mass to Internal Spiritualisation defined by inner reconstruction, permanent virtue, integrity, universal ethics, humility, and purposeful abstention from sin.  

5) CULTURAL COLONIALISM

Derekh was brought to SSA mostly by the Roman Catholic Church 1450 to 1850 CE, and was later joined by Protestant churches of Western Europe of Lutheran and Anglican in the 1850 to 1920 period. In the last 80 years, over 30 North American denominations have also come to SSA to compete with the Roman Catholic Church. Arabs brought Islam to Sub Saharan Africa from 1,000 CE, several centuries before Christianity. In the last 200 years, Africa has therefore been a theatre of cultural war with foreigners fighting among themselves for control of African spirituality and culture. Most educated Africans don’t realise that Western Christianity is an agent of Western culture.

“In Africa south of the Sahara most of the growth in Christianity began as a result of mission initiatives by Western Christians; Roman Catholic, Protestant and especially in the 20th century adherents to Western-origin Christian bodies that do not fit into this old dichotomy. These Western-initiated churches were, however, very often tied to Western culture. The Greek missions to African outposts followed Greek-speaking settlers, as with the missions to America and Australia, and still provide cultural links to Greece and the Greek patriarchy in Egypt.” Wikipedia Encyclopaedia, 2023

Dozens of American small institutional churches are in Africa not to evangelise Africa because the Roman Catholic Church had long done that. They are here to colonise, or gain soft power, or influence, over Africa. They are looking for prestige and cultural domination of Africa by creating a platform where they can dictate African culture through their denominations. They are a soft colonial force disguised as religion. For most Africans this sounds small because African young people are already scrambling to copy Western culture of their own will, so cultural colonialism is nothing to worry about. This is a centuries old weakness of the black man, and is intellectual rather than spiritual. Africans are cowardly, and have no pride in themselves and so easily capitulates and surrenders to foreigners. I can say Africa is constantly on retreat, progressively abandoning its own culture and opting therefore for cultural slavery.

In SSA, there are several foreign minorities like Europeans, Arabs, and Indians who have been in SSA for over 200 years, but they have all fully retained their home culture and have not emigrated to SSA culture even a bit despite that they are greatly outnumbered. On the contrary, it is the 98% majority black people, who have constantly migrated to foreign culture and, increasingly, SSA culture is permanently in retreat, ceding social space to minority foreign cultures. Many times, in SSA, one foreign culture is fighting another foreign culture for conquest of SSA people. Foreigners are competing among themselves to dominate African people because they have realised SSA does not have internal capacity to lead itself.

AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH must, of necessity, faithfully preach the Holy Mikra, exactly as it is written, but beyond, and in addition to it, it must defend the nation of SSA as well. SSA has a history and has a culture and social philosophy. To the extent that this culture and social philosophy does not contradict scripture, AOD will defend it.  

Spiritual refinement is what is sometimes called ‘Social Capital’ (as opposed to Financial Capital) which means that a society defined by Humility, Love, Trust, Ethics, and Integrity will move ahead faster on all development fronts than the one without them. The European technological and economic supremacy of the last 1,000 years is credited to Christianity which refined European society but also enabled it to work as one nation for the first time in its history. The unity of Europe was created primarily by Roman military conquest but was sustained by Christianity.

AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH must achieve the same outcomes for SSA. The key point being made here however is that Europeans brought DEREKH to SSA, but they also used it as a tool for cultural colonialism, and even economic exploitation. To benefit from DEREKH therefore, SSA must own and manage its own brand of DEREKH, so that it is fully independent, just like our neighbours Ethiopia have done for 1,700 years.

International Survey organisations say by 2023, SSA had about 734 million Christians and this was 68% of its total population of about 1.05 billion people. These are divided into over 40 countries but here we are addressing religion, not politics. Religion belongs to God and is a politically neutral and affirmative force so that it cannot be trivialised or fragmented along state boundary lines. The Roman Catholic Church currently operates in all Sub-Saharan Africa countries except the fully Muslim Horn of Africa and Sahel Countries. AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH must replace it in all African countries, and must operate as one organisation with an Africa-wide governance council.

6) AFRICAN EDUCATION

Over the last 60 years, SSA expanded European education exponentially trying to bridge its big literacy and know-how gap between it and Europe. Education was rightly seen as a key that will open-up and facilitate very backward SSA to move ahead faster. This however did not happen. Education was instead used by Africans to claim a higher social status, and a better standard of living, and to distance themselves from African culture. When you educate an African therefore, you make him a stranger to his own nation. He dissociates himself from it and becomes an enemy of Africa.

Africans accept and quickly join any foreign religion that comes to Africa, but loathe an authentic Spirit Revelation local initiative like AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH.  The point here is that Africans are becoming slaves of European history while their true divine mission ought to be to write their own history. Even in a spiritual entity like Derekh, history is written by initiative, boldness, and a war of faith.  Africans want to live like small children, playing hide and seek, and entrusting their own livelihood to Europeans and this is cowardly.

“Now to what can I compare the people of this day? They are like children sitting in the marketplace.” (Mt 11:16)

Africans pretended to expel Europeans and become independent but have since worked very hard to remain under European guidance and retain their culture and this is absurd. Africa has lost self-respect and needs leadership to return to its bequest as a free nation. It is not in Africa’s interests to share DEREKH with Europeans or other foreigners because religion has to dress in local culture as well to be relevant.

7) THEOLOGICAL INDEPENDENCE

Facilitating and defending Africa will also demand that AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH be non-political and therefore covers all 42 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa from Cape Town to Juba to Dakar, as one institution.  Each major DEREKH denomination has its own version of the Mikra (Bible) , and AOD must perform its own research and finally write its own version of the Holy Mikra and this mission will require resources that only a united Africa can afford. The current Holy Mikra was translated from Hebrew to Greek by Greeks, Romans translated Greek to Roman, and evangelisation of Europe was conducted using Roman Mikras. Europe used Roman Mikras for about 1,000 years and it was only in 1520 CE that Martin Luther translated Roman Mikra to German and other countries of Europe followed. AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH will also write its own Mikra by translating directly from Hebrew. Other old churches like Syrian Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church and Orthodox Church of Alexandria have very old Mikras of their own, and these will be consulted to ascertain scripture.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo which is1,700 years old is guilty of keeping DEREKH religion for so long without sharing it with its neighbours in East Africa but has recently realised its mistake when it wrote; –

“Because of the advent of European colonialism, upon its neighbouring African Countries and the great monetary support that other religious groups received to convert Africans, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had no other choice but to fight on and preserve all her Christian legacy. Henceforth, she was able to raise her apostolic voice louder among her African brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, the sense of freedom that The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church maintained for centuries, being the torch of freedom to all Africa has enabled Africans to be aware of their (right to) freedom.” Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, 2022

Africans are now finally able to perform for themselves the job that Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo (EOTC) was supposed to perform 1,500 years ago but didn’t. There are however very important lessons for Africans in this statement by EOTC. One lesson is that Africa must end its intellectual docility and lead itself, and it can’t lead itself unless it moves as one people, and one nation, with a single Derekh denomination.

Africa must have the courage and leadership to close all European, American and private churches to welcome AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH with a single mission to deal affirmatively and definitively with tottering African ethics, personal discipline and social character.

AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH will be a member of the World Council of Churches based in Switzerland but will not join Western ecumenical efforts because our doctrine and dogma are very different from those of the Western Church. AOD will also never receive financial assistance of any magnitude from outside Sub-Saharan Africa.

8) DEREKH IS A WAR

Derekh faith is defined by scripture itself as a war, and we intend to fight this war. Isho tells his disciples that whoever has no sword must now sell his robe and buy one.(Lk 22:36) Derekhism will be to come to, and walk on, The Paved Path, The Way of the LORD, or Derekh Ha-Yashar. No one is born a Derekh, no one can become a Derekh in a month or year. Becoming a Derekh will be a titanic battle for any African person, family, community, tribe or the entire nation. AFRICAN DEREKH is therefore launched to be a Frontline, a Path of Bravery, where men and women called by God for His purpose will take up spiritual spears and tread to destiny fired by Emonah (faith) and firm resolve. Derekhism will always be a war, demanding a spiritual spear, to take down spiritual, psychological, and cultural obstacles, by force if necessary (2 Cor 10:3-5)

Praise the LORD, my protector! He trains me for battle and prepares me for war (Ps 144:1)

AFRICAN DEREKH is therefore a Writ for War, and Spiritual Commencement, for the African nation whereby it sets out on a decidedly new, more courageous road, of spiritual upliftment and sacrifice on one hand, but also of intellectual and cultural independency, so that Africa becomes its own master on matters of religion and spirituality.  Men of integrity and courage must rise to take up this chalice which is both a formidable challenge and a lifetime honour.

9) AFRICAN NAMES

Ethiopian Orthodox followers who are in Derekh for 1,700 years, use their local names. When however Europeans arrived to introduce Western Christianity in Sub Saharan Africa, they insisted on using Greek, Roman or European names.  This was however just cultural colonialism through religion. DEREKH religion supports all cultures, languages and names. AFRICAN ORTHODOX DEREKH will accordingly tevilah (baptise) all Africans in African names. AFRICAN DEREKH will scrutinise names of all tribes to identify their meanings and then choose names that ate suitable for spirituality.

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