Skepticism in Africa

[Edited for formating and promoted by mole333]

Skepticism in Africa

Leo Igwe

The word skepticism comes from the Greek word ‘skepticos’ which means inquiry. Skeptics are inquirers. And the skeptical outlook is governed by reason, science, curiosity and critical thinking. It is opposed to dogmatism, irrationalism, blind faith, gullibility and superstition. The skeptical temper has inspired distinct trends in human thought, history and philosophy- the renaissance, reformation and Enlightenment.

In countries across the world, the state of skepticism is not the same. Some countries are more skeptical than others.

Last year, I visited three West African countries - Senegal, the Gambia and Sierra Leone to meet with scientists and skeptics and to ascertain the state of skepticism.

In Senegal, the traditional life is still mired in myths, superstition and taboos.

In some communities, people do not go to market on Wednesdays or cut their hairs on Saturdays. They believe that such actions would lead to death and misfortune- these beliefs have gone unchallenged for centuries.

In the Gambia I met with teachers and leaders of the science club at the University of the Gambia. We discussed the prevalence of superstition in the country and how we can tackle it. The students told me how seers and marabus exploit poor ignorant folks by manipulating commonsensical knowledge and data. One of the most common superstitious beliefs in the Gambia is witchcraft. That is the belief that people can harm others through spiritual, occultic and supernatural means. Witches are said to cause diseases, accidents and death. The students said they were brought up to fear owls.

An owl is believed to be a witch with the power to kill or harm human beings.

So children are told to kill it wherever they see it.
While in the Gambia I met a witchdoctor selling charms in the ferry. Through an interpreter I understood that the charms were an antidote to poison and snake bites.

Some people mostly women bought some charms from him. But I told people in the Ferry that they should not patronize all peddlers of such paranormal wares unless they can prove or demonstrate the efficacy of their claims. People believe that juju and charms can protect them from gunshots, infertility, business failure, premature death and diseases. Even with all the charms and amulets Africans use, the continent is still ravaged by hunger, poverty, famine and preventable diseases.

I was in Sierra Leone. Since after the war, the country has witnessed a proliferation of irrational beliefs and paranormal claims. Alternative medicine men are promoting their dubious therapies. While christian evangelists are organizing crusades promising the people salvation, miracles and breakthroughs ‘in Jesus Name’. In fact paranormalists are having a field day as the people grapple with the task of reconstructing and rehabilitating their nation.

There is no place this is more evident than in the country’s only university. I visited the science department at the Fourah Bay College and met with Mr Okoni-Williams of the Department of Biological Sciences. This fellow teaches genetics and evolution, but he said that ‘as a born again Christian’ he ‘believes in the Bible and the creation’.

He went on to lecture us on how the teachings of the Bible were superior to those of the sciences. One of the tragedies of the scientific enterprise in Africa is that trained scientists denigrate science and instead celebrate and profess pseudo science.
Africa needs scientists like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould and others to promote public appreciation and understanding of the scientific outlook. Africa needs critical minds to awaken it from superstitious slumber.

In Senegal, the Gambia and Sierra Leone, there were palpable evidence of how religious hogwash and paranormal claims are undermining the growth and development of the region. Superstition systematically robs Africans of the good they would have achieved and enjoyed by thinking critically and scientifically, and by basing their lives, thoughts, actions and decisions on facts and evidence. In Senegal I met many people begging in the name of Allah. The beggars were not asking Allah for help. Instead they were asking commuters and passers-by to give them alms so that Allah would bless them in return.

If really Allah can bless anyone who gives alms to the poor why can’t he/she bless them directly so that they could get off the streets and save the resources of people most of whom are living on less than one dollar a day? But I know that when it comes to matters concerning God/Allah or religion most Africans are not ready to think or apply their common sense and critical faculty. They always want to be ‘faithfuls’ Hence Africa has become a continent where most people are not only filled with faith but are fooled in the name of faith.

While I was in the Gambia I bought the October edition of the New African. It had a bumper supplement on Nigeria’s Deeper Life Church, founded 30 years ago by a mathematician and former university lecturer, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi. In an interview published in the magazine, Kumuyi claimed to have healed many people through his prayers.“ The blind had their eyes opened. A boy, who had no bone in one leg, had his bone recreated by God there and then. Another boy had a rotten hip, they brought him there and while we prayed God repaired every thing there and then.”

Kumuyi further claimed to have performed other miracles, signs and wonders in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Sierra Leone etc. But if Kumuyi really believes that his prayers can recreate bones why didn’t he visit the Amputees Camp in Grafton while he was in Sierra Leone and prayed so that God would recreate the bones of these people whose hands and legs were chopped off by rebels during the war? They are really the people that need the miracle of bone recreation and repair. But Kumuyi did not and -I am sure- would never try to put his God to the test by visiting Grafton.

This is just a clear pointer to the dismal state of skepticism in Africa. The black continent needs a viable skeptics movement to challenge, confront and expose these fraudsters parading themselves as faith healers and witchdoctors. Without proactive skeptics groups, mass exploitation, gullibility, nincoompopery and general underdevelopment will continue to reign on the continent of Africa.

Leo Igwe is the director of the Center for Inquiry, Nigeria

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