Africa

Tribal roundups in Africa

Hadzabe: East Africa's Last Hunting and Gathering Tribe:

Case 1: Enslaved Prostitution
Through the intermediaries - European priests and "sisters" - Sabina's sister Mele Abande and Salibogo's daughter along with many women have been tricked into prostitution by being taken to Arusha with the promise of work, only to find themselves enslaved in prostitution. FPCN proposes to act on the wishes of the Hadzabe and bring all the held Hadzabe women back to their homeland.

Case 2: Enforced Schooling
There have been times when the military has searched for Hadzabe children hiding in the bush to escape the duty of being schooled. Hadzabe girls often complain about being raped by the teachers in the Endamaga school. This happens even with the Hadzabe mothers. Later the Hadzabe girls are compelled into prostitution. FPCN has previously been successful taking back some of these unlucky girls to their bushhomestead and families. But if caught again, these escapees have to fear severe coporal punishment. This kind of discipline is very common in these schools. When asked, all but a handful of the Hadzabe say that this schooling has a negative effect on them and is of no benefit.

Case 3: Bad Religion
Many times white parsons tried to baptise the Hadzabe and to destroy their traditional beliefs and lifestyle. FPCN tells the Hadzabe that these missionaries are just business men who have often accumulated quite some wealth from their job. The hatred against these strangers grows among the Hadzabe. FPCN stands ready to sanction and assist with the burning out of churches on Hadzaland following a similiar successful explosion that occurred at Sanola [the church there was completely destroyed by local tribespeople].

The schools that are mentioned are of course mission schools where once again children are being abused.
Friends of People Close to Nature (FPCN) is an international NDO (non-developmental organisation) made up of volunteers from all over Europe as well as North America. They are willing to help indigenous people defend themselves from predatorial religions and their missionaries.

The Bayaka Pygmees

Have a lot of the Bayaka converted? Are they Christian because of the missionaries?
Very few. I remember talking to the old French priest - he'd been there about 18 years when I talked to him and in 18 years he had one convert! The problem is they'll sing the songs and that's already pollution, when they start singing those songs. But so far, conversion attempts haven't been very successful.

With the Baptists it might be more, because the Baptists are more extreme and demanding. They got one Bayaka to convert and become a Baptist, so they had him go testify in the village where I live saying,

"Your dead spirit stuff is all bullshit because I know, because I used to dance as this big spirit, and now I know that it's bad to do that and now I just sing songs to God and I'm telling you don't believe in Ejengi, because it's just a man dancing in the Ejengi suit..."

It was horrible, reading stuff like that, that kind of testimony. The Bayaka in my village got very angry and they just chose not to believe him. They just said, "That's bullshit, you're lying to us, we don't believe you."

But the Baptists are going to keep trying to convert people.

What you have is missionaries - that's a really insidious thing. You have these missionaries - they do some good for the Bayaka, but they do bad as well. Baptist missionaries that have come nearby, they don't like the Bayaka to do their traditional dances. They teach them these songs about God and say that they would prefer that they sing these songs about God to the traditional stuff. And then you have the Catholics that have been working there for 30 years now - they're a little easier, they used to be against the traditional stuff and they've kind of loosened up about that, but they also teach these songs to the Bayaka, and that kind of causes a cultural pollution.

From: The Pygmies of the West African Rainforest

The fact that Catholicism has loosened up on "traditional" aspects of other cultures is because the Church now understands that people today have figured out that conversion to Christianity has always involved loss of indigenous ways of life the world over. In the past, Catholicism had even conducted inquisitions in non-Christian lands, burning Native Americans for practising their traditional pre-Christian religious rites. The Catholic Church merely finds that it cannot continue to convert people in this manner in today's world. It has also found that converted people often revolt against the theft of their culture eventually, even if it is many generations down the track.
The more recent (Evangelical) forms of Christianity have not yet come to this realisation, as they are but recent phenomena themselves and have therefore not observed the consequences of their destructive presence and interference.

However, this new method employed by Catholicism - that of allowing people to rediscover their traditions (dancing, singing, clothes) - is in itself deceptive. In reality, these outward expressions of indigenous people that Churches call "traditions" tend to have originated from the indigenous beliefs of the converted population. Therefore, these are non-Christian religious traditions and not, as the Church likes to call them, merely "cultural" traditions. The dances involved often have poses that call on native Spirits or Gods for rain and other purposes. The dress-code is also of spiritual signifance to these people, as are the songs and the style in which the songs are composed. It is not surprising that Protestant branches thoroughly disapprove of this method of inculturation which the Roman Catholic Church currently uses in order to obtain and retain African converts. Protestant Churches, like the early Catholic Church, often realise that these traditions mark ways that - according to the Christian view - are nothing less than heretic if not "demonic". Therefore Protestant Churches still practise the age-old Christian missionary method of acculturation: forcing non-Christian people to relinquish their native religious cultures and take on Christian ways of life, including such external expressions as song and dress code.

The Catholic missionaries are now trying to undo the loss of (indigenous religious) traditional practises. Yet they still wrongly stress that these cultural expressions are devoid of their pre-Christian religious meaning, and that therefore they are traditions that the converted people should attempt to regain:

So they are actually trying to undo what they did?
Well, a little bit, I don't know how much, but a little bit. They became a bit alarmed at the extent to which the traditions were lost and the Catholic mission were trying to reverse that a little bit, trying to tell the Bayaka that their own traditions were good. I'd like to see some people come that just want to help the Bayaka, not try to change them, just help them carry on with their lives.

From: The Pygmies of the West African Rainforest
The best way to undo (as much as that is possible) what has been done, is for missionaries to leave and take their Churches with them. That is, if the Catholic Church is sincere in wishing to undo the cultural extermination they have perpetrated.

See also: Christian missions in Africa

Imposing Christian morality: funding abstinence-only programs to "prevent" AIDS

Bush has decided that the US government's donations to fight AIDS in Africa will be directed exclusively to Abstinence-Only programmes in schools. They've seen to it that the import of condoms into Uganda has been reduced. By such means, the US government intends to impose Christian morality on Ugandans, that could well lead to many deaths from AIDS.
Uganda: 'Abstinence-Only' Programs Hijack AIDS Success Story - HRW, March 30, 2005

U.S.-Sponsored HIV Strategy Threatens Youth
...
Uganda faces a nationwide condom shortage due to new government restrictions on condom imports. In late 2004, the Health Ministry recalled batches of imported condoms, allegedly due to failed quality control tests. Instead of addressing the shortage, some ministers suggested that Ugandans adopt abstinence as a preferable HIV-prevention strategy.

"Uganda is gradually removing condoms from its HIV/AIDS strategy, and the consequences could be fatal," said Tony Tate, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division and the report’s co-author. "Delaying sex is surely a healthy choice for young Ugandans, but youth have a right to know that there are other effective means of HIV prevention."

The U.S. government has already budgeted approximately U.S. $8 million this year on abstinence-only programs in Uganda as part of President George W. Bush's global AIDS plan. The National Youth Forum, headed by Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni, a vocal proponent of abstinence-only, has received U.S. funding under the plan. The First Lady has lashed out against groups that teach young people about condoms and called for a national "virgin census" to support her abstinence agenda. The Virginia-based Children's AIDS Fund, an organization with close ties to Janet Museveni, was recently approved for a major abstinence-only grant, despite having been deemed "not suitable for funding" by a technical panel of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Abstinence-only programs are a triumph of ideology over public health," said Cohen. "Americans should demand that HIV-prevention programs worldwide stick to science."

In all of this, no one has noticed how Christian sexual morality is far more dubious, not to mention far more harmful, than teaching teenagers about condoms and safe sex. The useless education on abstinence could result in repression manifesting itself in the usual abuse cases due to Christianity's confused morality and an increase in the occurrence of AIDS.
The Fundamental Christian mentality behind Bush's ridiculous plan for Africa, is not going to be any more effective in combating AIDS than other Southern Baptist methods:

Armed with US$250,000 from the Southern Baptish Convention, Dr. John Goodgame, an American missionary in Uganda, launched a most unusual campaign against AIDS. Rather than using the money to provide healthcare or medicine, the money was used to purchase and distribute 100,000 Bibles with sheets pasted onto them giving selected Biblical passages to read. Some of these passages are predictable exhortations against adultery and other such "carnal" pleasures.

Link
It is no different from the Vatican's opposition to the use of condoms and contraceptives, especially in Africa, which has caused more people there to die from AIDS. Most of the reasons for population-explosions and the resulting difficulties in Africa is caused by Christian denominations insisting on abstinence and being rigidly against the use of condoms. Besides, it is nothing more than sheer hypocrisy on the part of Christian leaders (often having affairs whilst some of them were supposed to have been celibate) to be lecturing other people on how they should behave.
Some recent cases of such hypocrisy in the news, making it evident that the ones in need of abstinence-only programmes are the clergy:

Nun tried to kill priest after finding him in bed with another woman [Italy] - Daily Mail, 13th September 2006

A jealous nun appeared in court charged with threats to kill and an arson attack on a priest's house - after she caught him in bed with a married woman. Sister Silvia Gomes De Sousa, 39, saw red and set fire to Father Carmelo Mantarro's house after she nabbed him 'in flagrante.' The furious nun - who was also Father Carmelo's cleaner - was also armed with a machete and threatened to kill the priest before being restrained by passers by.
...
The saucy goings on were made even more interesting by father Carmelo's age - he is 70 years old - and is said to have been sleeping with both sister De Sousa and the other woman for several months.
At the court hearing Sister De Sousa also claimed to have had two abortions as a result of having unprotected sex with Father Carmelo and also showed several love letters from him.
She told the hearing: "I just flipped when I came to the house and caught him in bed with another woman who is married.
"We had been together four years and I had even had two abortions because of him."

Affair charge rocks cleric: St. Pat's rector accused of trysts with secretary - New York Daily News, August 10, 2005

The Archdiocese of New York is looking into explosive allegations that a top priest who publicly railed against our "sex-saturated society" had a long-term affair with his married church secretary.

Leading voice of orthodoxy - New York Daily News, August 10, 2005 (on the same incident)

Three years ago, Msgr. Eugene Clark denounced "the campaign of liberal America against celibacy" from the pulpit and called the U.S. "probably the most immoral" country in the Western Hemisphere.
Now the 79-year-old archconservative Catholic cleric stands accused of breaking his own priestly vow of celibacy - and with a married woman, no less.

What can one do to prevent Ugandans (and other Africans and Asians) from dying of AIDS? Stop donating to Christian charities, which are increasing the risk of AIDS and AIDS-related death by preventing knowledge of safe sex and restricting access to condoms. Find real humanitarian charities, ones that are not religious in nature.
See also the many suggestions at Stop the Export of U.S.-Funded Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs including:

Support Ugandan AIDS Activists: AIDS activists in Uganda are protesting the country's deepening condom shortage and expansion of US-funded abstinence-until marriage programs.

Meanwhile, the hypocritical Christian staff of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) working in Africa were rapists:

NCA Raping Has Got To Stop!
Norwegian Magazine publishes letter from ex-NCA employee woman who states that NCA took no action in Africa to stop staff from using prostitues and sexually abusing young indigenous women.

Link

Converted Africa plunged into hellish holy wars

Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda and a number of other African countries are all scenes of religious conflict. However, these conflicts have nothing to do with indigenous African religions, but with foreign religions imposed on the people. Nevertheless, many traditional Africans have been massacred by the unrelenting wars staged by converts to alien religions.

Uganda's militant groups are often aptly named: Uganda Democratic Christian Army (UDCA), the Lord's Resistance Army, (LRA).
The Lord's Resistance Army, headed by Joseph Kony, kidnaps vast numbers of children who are then forced to join its ranks as child soldiers. Though the LRA is predictably intolerant of other Christian sects, it is working to implement its Christian objectives in Uganda and even beyond:

The LRA is fighting for a Christian theocracy. Since March 2002 an agreement between Uganda and Sudan, which allows Uganda to pursue the LRA on Sudanes territory, is in force. Sudan was actively supporting the LRA before. The agreement is prolonged until the end of the year. All in all, 15,000 Ugandan troops are stationed in Sudan. Besides the military pressure, Uganda offers the LRA an amnesty, which is accepted mainly by former child soldiers. Until July, 246 out of the last 1,000 out of originally 3,000 LRA fighters accept the amnesty. From June 2002 to June 2003 the LRA abducts about 8,400 children, which adds up to some 20,000 since the start of the conflict. Due to the conflict 850,000 people have become refugees.
-- Heidelberg Institute on International Conflict Research (Germany), report

Although the Christian militant armies in Sudan and Uganda are highly ruthless, the Moslem militant groups in northern Sudan are equally so.
Sandwiched between these two are the many Sudanese still practising their indigenous African religion, who are continuously coerced into conversion by both sides or murdered when they don't join the religious warfare.