Can Blair’s synopsis of “politicians should do God’s work” apply in africa?

Recently, the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair called upon politicians to incorporate religion into politics saying that religion is a force for good that can help in bringing people together. While launching the BBC’s “Have Your Say”, new column on faith, Mr. Blair stressed that religion never mattered more to the world than it did now. He also stressed that those who don’t understand the power of religion do not understand the modern world. I wish to concur. I believe that religion can impact greatly on peoples’ behavior including their perception of political ideology and of particular political parties. However, I wish to assert that Blair’s views may not seem to be new to many Africans. You will agree with me that post-colonial Africa was left under the influence of religion; in most countries peoples’ political associations were based on their religious faiths. I also believe that politics based on religion have proved calamitous to our continent because of the divisionism such politics created in our societies. Africans had been divided in blocs based on religious and political affiliations; that is, until very recent, when we [Africans] started to drift away from such politics with the majority of our political parties trying to convince their supporters basing on political ideology and development agendas. Religion-based politics have not done any good to Africa except creating hatred and misunderstanding amongst our societies. In the south-western Ugandan district of Kabale, there are two well known hills, whose antagonism is based on religious politics which usually manifest during elections. Since time immemorial Rugarama, which is largely seen as a Protestant, has never been at peace with Rushoroza, a largely Catholic hill. Rugarama usually supported Protestant candidates while Rushoroza did the reverse. In many cases during elections people that subscribe to these two religions in this region are exchanging bitter words and will never agree; no matter whether a candidate was obviously better than his opponent. Religious-based politics can, therefore, be said to have proved to be disastrous; more especially in Africa where the large majority is illiterate and can be driven by the power of the educated and the rich. In order to justify his reasoning that politics incorporated into religion would actually be for the better, the former British PM put forward figures that show that world’s majority population is affiliated to religious faith and therefore political success must be associated to Godliness. I entirely agree with him. But my worry is that if Africa tries to move in that direction we shall find ourselves having gone back to situations where every political party wants to ally and get associated to a certain religious group and, of course, consequences of such alliances are dire as they may create more rebellions based on religion on our continent. I want to believe that most of Africa’s strongest political parties like the ANC, CCM, Zanu-Pf and others are not rooted in religion but on ideology, basing on people’s secular aspirations; and I think these political parties have done well despite the religious beliefs of their followers. Of course I must mention that many of the political parties whose roots are found in certain religious have failed to succeed with most of them having collapsed. Africa can not forget that most of the dictators we have had have put religion to the fore front of their leadership. The likes of Idi Amin, Juvenal Habyarimana, Mobutu Sese Seko and many others were too religious and dictatorial. For Africa to take up Blair’s advice it would be sowing bitter fruits. phatari@yahoo.co.uk