January 24, (THEWILL) – Veteran actor, Bob-Manuel Udokwu recently argued that African deities are not demons.
According to him, the deities are powerful and that is why the Westerners scamper to return them after many decades of carting them away.
He made this argument in an interview with BBC Igbo where he explained how modern religion has led to the disintegration of African culture.
He stated that the infiltration of modern religion demonised the existence of herbalists who in time past were often consulted to cure various ailments like diarrhoea, insanity, and malaria.
In his words; “As white people came to our land, they took away artefacts, deities, insignia, and other valuables. If you look up the news, you find that they’re returning them because these statues are tormenting them.”
“The white people brought modern Christianity but included the part where we’re being made to pray in the name of some of their saints and adherents who have died. These are dead people we never got to know. If you pray in the name of white saints, make sure you include those of your home country, he said.
“If your father is dead, know that he has joined the saints and ancestors that would do intercessory prayers for you wherever God is. It doesn’t amount to worshipping deities and even worshipping African deities is nothing bad.”
Udokwu enjoined Africans, especially the easterners to properly sieve traditions and customs and preserve the acceptable ones. He added that these traditions and customs should not all be disposed of in a bid to comply with modern religion.
He said, “There are some customs that are not acceptable. Let’s stop those. And some have indeed ceased to exist. Let’s not dispose of both the baby and the bathwater.
“Before the whites came, we had herbalists, who treated various ailments. All of them were categorised as native doctors and spiritualists. The whites came and made us believe that native doctors are bad omen. Today, where are those traditionalists who cured insanity, iba, diarrhoea before white people came? Open your eyes.”
The 54-year-old thespian noted that he is educated and as much as he agrees that sick people should use the hospital, let Caesar be given what belongs to him and God be given his too.
Breaking kola is no different from the Holy Communion we take in church, he asserted.
“The white people who told us these things are demonic are taking back their words because our deities they stole are tormenting them”, he
