The People’s Opium

If there is one country that bore the full brunt of colonialism, that country is the Republic of Zimbabwe. Its people were relegated to second class citizens, massacred more than a few times and sent off to fight under the imperialist banner in the first and second world wars and all this without mentioning the unilateral declaration of independence of a white Rhodesia, the cost of the war for the establishment of the current Zimbabwe or even the land grabbing by white settlers during the colonial years.Not to excuse President Robert Mugabe’s mismanagement of that country’s economy or his general political thuggish-ness but in some ways, Zimbabwe’s current problems are the legacy of a traumatic colonial past.This is why I found the decision by authorities in Zimbabwe to deport three refugees [one Rwandan and two Congolese] puzzling. The three refugees were worshipers of the dark lord, Lucifer [you may know him as Satan], and were hoping to spread their belief in God’s principal antagonist [think Lex Lothar, the Joker or any other super villain] to others.As soon as they tried to get their church officially registered, Zimbabwe put them on the short list for expulsion. Zimbabwe may be an independent African nation but it is still under the spell of the religious beliefs of its old colonial masters.The deportation of these refugees is in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the principle of voluntary return of refugees. In summary, Zimbabwe was willing to trample all over the refugees’ rights because they chose the wrong religion. I’m sure even the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth would have disapproved of such high handedness.The religious front at home was no less interesting with the internal disputes of the Pentecostal church [ADEPR] making the news. The former Head of ADEPR, Pastor Samuel Usabyimana, was clinging onto power like a Syrian dictator forcing the Church’s board to appeal to the Rwanda Governance Board for regime change.In summary, the Pastor was accused of genocide ideology, corruption, arbitrary dismissal of pastors, taking holidays worth 3 million Francs and favouritism. The Pastor, naturally, denied all of this. The Rwanda Governance Board chose to have him fired because he lacked ‘the requirements’ to represent the church.No mention of what exactly these requirements are was made but I’m going to go ahead and speculate that requirement number one is ‘be elected for a given term by your church’. Requirement number two? ‘Don’t be accused of every negative buzzword in this country’.Our dear feuding friends at ADEPR do not have a monopoly on intra-religious squabbling. In April, Rwanda’s Islamic leaders were at war with each other prompting the dismissal of Sheikhs and Imams as well as a graveside fist fight that was serious enough for the Police to arrest five of the brawlers. There is so much to say about religious people fighting at a burial but since there is a real risk of fatwas, I’ll leave the story at that. Who needs the hustle?Internationally, violent protests hit some Islamic countries due to outrage at badly produced YouTube mini-movie ‘Innocence of Muslims’. People have died, and property has been destroyed ostensibly because many Muslims were offended. The reasons for the riots are probably more complex than that, a political move by Islamic extremists trying to gain relevance after the Arab Spring or even a means to distract people by governments who have failed to uplift the standards of living of their citizens are possible reasons. Nonetheless, it is still inexcusable to kill and destroy because you are offended [or even manipulated].Karl Marx, the German troublemaker and ideological father of socialism, wrote a lot that can be disagreed with but he may have been spot on when he wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. With all the irrationality going on in God/Allah’s name, it’s not hard to believe that more than a few people have gotten high on their own product.