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A leading African archbishop has said that an historical tendency to regard Christianity as the “white man’s God,” and the current rise of a “prosperity Gospel” conflating Christianity with material success, both represent obstacles to real evangelisation on the continent.
Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City was speaking August 9 during an evangelisation conference of the Benin City ecclesiastical province.
The cleric expressed anger that Christianity is still perceived in Africa as “the white man’s God” and complained that there are priests who still turn down baptising children bearing African names.
“To become Christian, we had to pick Western names that are saints, and our local names were not allowed. It was as if no Nigerian existed in heaven before the missionaries came,” referring to the time when foreign missionaries deployed to Nigeria, which gave the impression that “no Nigerian existed in heaven before the missionaries came.”
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