now how do we as africans think that by switching  off the light of knowledge and information  

continuing continuous eating of these rotten eggs  will make their own healthy in my own thing guys  

we may as well just switch on the lights while  we're eating when we notice what is rotten  

that's my message for africa keep the lights on  while you are eating what you don't understand  

all african when you pick up the book  by the way there's a chapter i put there  

for african names of god in the  african space and when you get  

to that chapter you discover that african  traditional religions are all monotheistic

upon all those names they  don't talk of a plural god  

when the white men found an african kneeling under  a tree in prayer they said he is worshiping a tree  

there is no african religion that teaches africans  to worship their forefathers and their ancestors  

ancestors are a historical connecting cable  to the creation that happened before we became  

therefore i am joshua the son of lazarus  

lazarus who is the son of marara marara  who is the son of mapunga mapunga

son of tobera son of morenga from the  great kingdoms of guruswa in ember  

the sons of nangashi were in utopia now  who are the sons of hump in your bible  

the sons of kush the sons of adam the sons  of god now when you understand that our  

relations of our african genealogy is not  worshipping ancestors but recognizing those  

who are here before us connecting us  to the one who made us before we became

then you say in african worship's ancestors  there's no african religion there's no african  

spirituality that teaches you to worship your  forefathers it simply says call on them and  

by the way there's no african prayer that does  not end before you say please tell the one who  

created you to deal with this problem therefore  it's what you call sacred history interpreted  

in european construct when an african calls his  forefathers just like a jew says god of our god  

of isaac god of jacob god of abraham and etc and  african and by the way white people don't know  

the bible well they don't have ancestors they  don't have psalms they don't have totems when  

they say jesus of the tribe of judah they don't  know the other jesus is in so we cannot help them

because even the construct of the text itself  challenges their culture which they don't have

when your brother dies please go and marry the  wife a white man does not know how to do that  

but an african is culture when boys of a  certain age please go and circumcise them  

a white man does not know how to do  that a black man knows how to do that  

now how can you wait for a white man to tell  you what is in the text when the culture  

and the religion of the text is not european  eighty percent of the bible is polygamy the  

white man does not know that he comes down  to the monogamous concept on the i end  

then we start teaching cheating and etc  on the left and create media around that

so let's not waste our time

what we now believe is christianity  in china is european culture

my daughter will not leave this house  until she's putting on a white dress  

because the mother now thinks that a white  wedding is superior to a black wedding or  

a cultural wedding these are the realities we  need to start talking about is africans that  

are we saying what we've accepted as christianity  is christianity or it is actually european culture

can you ask me

and i'll tell you that 60 to 80 percent of  christian practices is european culture a  

man who gives you habs to drink is a witch a man  who aborts your wife and takes the fetus to make  

tablets and give you back to drink is a doctor  and your government says this is a witchcraft act  

it's not witchcraft as a noun is witchcraft  as a question which craft are you using

chapter 19 chapter 18 chapter 20 and 21-22 of  the book of isaiah talk about the slavery of  

the black people being shipped to lands afar and  there are women being stripped and men walking  

with bare buttocks is there then you read all of  it including data from chapter 28. by the time  

you are finishing chapter 20 21 of isaiah then  there is a good news fire for the redeemed of  

the lord shall return they shall come back i will  take your way to your far land but i'll bring you  

back to this land again and etcetera there's no  other nation that was moved in ships and boats

where including jesus people wherever they moved  from and from africa to into america into the  

caribbean into britain and then the same bible  actually goes on to say but i will bring you back  

to your land beautiful prophecies but  because of the eurocentric christianity  

that does not see a black man in the text these  prophecies are never spoken about we are told  

that jesus is coming again how can jesus come  back again before repatriation and reparation  

if these promises will not be fulfilled then the  bible is a lie so is is the gospel according to my  

pong attaching on those issues that actually what  i've just shared with you right now is chapter  

chapter three chapter four yes who are the chosen  nation christianity and islam by nature they are  

bullies of african culture it is expressed in  their intolerance of other people who believe  

differently from who they are so here's a simple  example if a muslim walks into this village the  

first object is to build a mosque and make  everyone in that village a muslim it changes  

your timetable of waking up you wake up at five  changes your fashion how you what changes the way  

you bury your loved ones now you must have to do  everything according to islamic law the same thing  

is true with christianity christianity walks into  a space facing the one to do is a zulu is a closer  

you take off your shirt and put on your beautiful  beads hebrew beads by the way which are jewish you  

put on your hebrew gear which is traditional and  you walk up to church krishna will look at you  

though now there's a bit of tolerance  but the first glance is is unacceptable  

because the god that christianity has does not  have tolerance for culture does not rather i'd  

rather take off that thing i put on your shirt you  put a tie on you put a jacket polish some sweets  

now you look nice because apparently you  must become european first before you can  

become christian in order for god to accept  you he cannot accept you in your authenticity  

he needs first to take you through the culture of  the dominant culture which is a colonial culture  

before you can actually become an acceptable  christian an intelligent conversation needs to  

take place where we say is everything that we are  doing in the christian church christian or some of  

the things norms and rituals that were performing  are actually european culture but now they've been  

couched and packaged as christianity the  way we sing for example the way we dress for  

example the way we eat for example the way we  celebrate our things our holidays our festives  

our passovers and et cetera are these things be  easters are these things biblical christmases yeah  

there's a lot of feathers there's some changes  that are cut issue over the easter weekend i  

mean it's a simple question no i understand how  many days are between friday and sunday if i can  

ask you how many days i've had that question from  a person i used to stay with in durban in 1999.  

i i couldn't answer him but what he has  to say mathematically don't be religious  

i get that i get it but i don't understand why  people don't look like when religion walks up  

to you when religion walks up to you blinds  you it must numb your brain from common sense  

so that your simple question like how  many days are between friday and sunday  

you begin to you want to chew your your thing it's  like almost all the knowledge you went to school  

for disappears through the window but maybe  christianity pushes russia i mean sorry faith  

more than rationale so if you're accepted by faith  maybe you don't have to rise but faith is not  

stupid faith is is is knowledge in manifest  faith you need to know what you believe in  

okay you cannot believe in nothing no and  therefore faith is a servant of knowledge  

okay the world perishes not for the lack of  faith the world perishes for lack of knowledge  

knowledge is superior to faith  though churches want to establish  

people who believe but the bible says worship god  with understanding come now let us reason together  

it doesn't says come let us have faith together in  our infancy we accepted everything in our old age  

we question everything so here you are as a young  man with lots of questions theological questions  

biblical questions authority of the bible the  writing about the bible the collection of the  

books the difference between the bible and  scripture and all these things miracles that  

are happening in the bible jesus went him a  bit further to pray by himself the disciples  

were sleeping here and all of a sudden there is  someone who is telling us this is what he said  

but no one was there he said this is the the words  of jesus in red in your bibles but who was there  

to be recording this prayer because the bible says  he was by himself so we must actually believe that  

he prayed by himself but john was inspired to be  given what jesus was praying by himself that's why  

the letters are in red same with matthew same  with luke and same with john you you collect  

all these questions and by the way i went to  a very beautiful school andrews university  

send us professors down to solution campus who  were thorough and and i think the preparation  

was quite fast so we were not gagged in terms of  thinking even some other guys the other day they  

were busy laughing about this whole concept of 28  fundamental beliefs i was in the part of the jatta  

committee the general of adventist theology which  formulated the 28th fundamental beliefs 28 or 27  

then there were 27. but i was there yes so it's  not like i'm coming around with wet behind my ears  

trying to take chances but then you have all these  questions that keep on piling up and in class and  

for the sake of progress you're told don't worry  young man some of these things you'll find them  

as you are moving into the journey then of course  there's a beautiful answer because it pushes your  

attention away from the focus area you have all  these other things to be worrying about homiletics  

hermeneutics how to preach nicely how to position  out your right your knots how to do exegesis and  

i you know all these things and you get excited  in into the into the mechanics of pastoral homily  

and boom you graduate and you start working and  then the young people start walking up to you ask  

some of them even asking the very same questions  that you must be that you should be having answers  

to which were not answered when you are there and  now in old age when i begin to ask those questions  

people take the same mud and throw it on my face  and say you cannot tell us that after 33 years  

you're still asking these questions now it's your  turn to be giving us these answers and i say to  

them it's not about finding answers it's about us  engaging meaningfully on a conversation where for  

the longest of time we have not been prepared  or interested in having those conversations  

uncomfortable as they are sola scriptura sola  scriptura but you know salah scriptura you're  

only dealing with 66 books the ethiopian bible is  18. what is which bible here is my motivation for  

africa africa went to the shop and bought a packet  of apples half the first one the pole was rotten  

throw it away worms in the womb  pick up another one again half  

second bite two the worms are still there  pool spit on the ground the intelligent friend  

standing in the room then looks at this one who  has thrown away two apples says hey i'm fruit  

don't do that switch off the lights let's eat  the apples now that one man is intelligent

because you don't the only problem we  have here is the abundance of light  

that what is showing us the worms  so if we can switch off the light  

we can eat there the apples and even  the worms become part of the protein  

now how do we as africans think that by switching  off the light of knowledge and information  

continuing continuous eating of these rotten eggs  will make their own healthy in my own thing guys  

we may as well just switch on the lights while  we're eating when we notice what is rotten

i think that's what we don't want we  don't want to switch on the lights  

but would that be your message that's my message  for africa keep the lights on while you are eating  

what you don't understand and knowledge  knowledge is expensive yes but if you think  

knowledge is expensive try ignorance you  may find that it is equally more expensive  

the african people the duties on us in this age  of information ignorance is a choice i thank you