Religion THE NIGERIAN/AFRICAN VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY: NEED TO SANITIZE IT

Adeyemi Olajide » THE NIGERIAN/AFRICAN VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY: NEED TO SANITIZE IT

THE NIGERIAN/AFRICAN VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY: NEED TO SANITIZE IT

Here is Garrick Sokari Braide. He can rightly be called the father of Nigerian Pentecostalism. He was born in Obonoma, Niger Delta, in about 1882. His parents were core worshippers of the Ogu deity.

Garrick Sokari Braide was baptized in the Anglican Church in 1910 and later became a "minister" in the church. Dissatisfied with the seemingly "dry" worship of the Anglican Church, Garrick Sokari Braide decided to develop a Christianity that speaks to the religious sentiments and desires of Africans.

Thus, he borrowed a lot of features from African traditional religion, most probably from the Ogu deity. Consequently, he was expelled by the church as a minister. His fans followed him. After his death, his members formed the Christ Army Church, which exists to date.

From Yorubaland came another offshoot of Pentecostalism: the Aladura movement. The Aladura borrowed a lot too from the Yoruba traditional religion. The Aladura movements contributed to giving birth to Yoruba Pentecostalism. The most popular Yoruba Pentecostal churches and pastors you know today sprang from these Aladura movements.

There were also the later American influences that sprang from the Azusa Street Revival of the early 20th century. We treated this extensively here last year and this year.

To date, more versions of Nigerian Pentecostalism are being birthed almost on a daily basis. The common trait in these churches is the desire to make Christianity more attractive to Africans. Indeed, a lot of Africans got attracted to the initiatives.

At the beginning, the mainline churches refused to join until they began to lose their members. In order to checkmate the mass exodus of their members into the Pentecostal churches, the mainline churches followed suit.

Most mainline churches began to borrow from these Pentecostal churches. The more the mainline churches copied from the Pentecostals, the more the Pentecostals added more things to their'soup' to make it taste better.

Today, everyone adds whatever they think can make their own taste better than that of others. While doing this, pastors, priests, evangelists, and so on have done unthinkable things. They seem not to have any barriers! As long as one mentions Christ, he or she is good to go.

The type of Christianity all this has given rise to is what we refer to as the Nigerian version of Christianity, which has spread to many other countries in Africa. Thus, it could also be reffered to as AFRICAN VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY.

Unless the Nigerian/African version is properly sanitized, our religious mentality will continue to grow worse.

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Author: adex3g 3 weeks
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