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NewsDay

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From fear of the stranger to solidarity

Opinion & Analysis
People have always felt at home in the family and found security within the clan. Outside the family there were only strangers, even enemies.

People have always felt at home in the family and found security within the clan. Outside the family there were only strangers, even enemies. Gradually they extended the clan and formed larger tribes and nations. But the basic division of “us” and “them”, those close to us by ties of blood and others remote and possibly hostile, remained.

Religion often enhanced this division. Different tribes and nations worshipped different gods and were loyal to different ancestral spirits. In times of war the gods fought on the side of their own people against foreign nations who in turn had the allegiance of their own gods and spiritual powers. “Your enemies are my enemies.”

Even though people now assume that there is only one God, however many religions there may be, they claim that this one God is on their side as their army marches to wipe out their neighbours and country. And their neighbours, threatened by invasion and conquest, pray to the same God, assuming, of course, he is on their side and will smite the invaders. And what does God do? “He sits in the heavens and laughs” (Psalm 2:4), with grim humour, presumably. And waiting for the time to show mercy.

Politicians make a laughing stock of themselves by claiming that the “God of heaven and earth” is backing up their particular little tinpot dictator.

In ancient biblical times it seems the Egyptians had their own set of gods and the Babylonians worshipped yet another gang of divine beings, male and female. So Israel had its “God of Israel”, but with a difference. He was not just the Lord of Israel (this “puny mite”), but the Creator of the Universe (and of any as yet unknown “universes” still to be discovered by us earthlings beyond the galaxies).

He was conceived as the creator of all human beings (not just as a Jewish national god), of all men and women on the face of the earth, without being either male or female himself. (When we call God “he/him” that is merely a matter of grammar and a sign of the limitation of human language).

This gradual recognition that there is only one God of all the tribes and nations on earth (or the transition from poly- to monotheism) is a major event in human history. Uniting the human race as children of one God and Father and making them one family of brothers and sisters is a major task of religion. That is why the great religious communities in the world (Christians, Muslims, the religions of Asia and Africa) must respect and be in dialogue with each other. Wars of religion contradict the very purpose of religious faith.

Even those who in this secular age are sceptical or simply indifferent about religion recognise our common humanity which renders war obsolete and absurd. Our ethical and common moral convictions and their development are not just academic. They have practical consequences.

Another case in point would be the change from polygamy to monogamy, thus giving woman equal worth to that of man. From that point onwards, all people on earth must consider themselves children of one and the same God and Father, his sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters.

This process of accepting our common humanity filled with one Spirit, making us one family, is by no means concluded yet.

There are still plenty of nations that worship themselves by worshipping their own self-made gods. Just listen to our trans- Atlantic neighbours when they claim that America is “God’s own country”. Is that self-importance perhaps the reason why they forever feel compelled to deploy their army in yet another armed conflict or even fully-fledged war?

Do Christians and Muslims consider themselves children of the same God? Do they remember that they are both, together with the Jewish people, descendants of Abraham and, whatever their differences may be otherwise, still worship that one God of their common ancestor, Abraham?

The Islamic State and Boko Haram seem to have forgotten and gone back to the pagan gods which Muhammad wiped out with faith in the one and only Allah, agreeing with Christian universalism.

Africa was and still is split into so many clans and tribes, each honouring different ancestors and ancestral lineages. As long as Africa was sparsely populated and there was plenty of space to settle, this may not have mattered so much, though tribal wars have been a scourge long before the settlers came.

But Africa can no longer afford to regard neighbours as strangers and foreigners as enemies. Christianity and Islam both share with us the good news that there is only one God and we are his children who must live as brothers and sisters. In fact, we have no choice — it is our only chance of survival. Either that, or we will all perish. Surely we do not all want to be “suicide bombers”?

Traditional leaders who still live in the tribal past must be extremely careful with what they say. By dividing their clansmen from the “invading foreigners” they may set off a bomb.

“Ukama” (blood relationship) is very dear to the African people and close to their hearts, but unless we widen the concept and include everyone in our family, clan or nation as a brother or cousin-brother, sister or cousin-sister we set a booby trap, not just for strangers and unwelcome foreigners, but for ourselves as well. If you set your neighbour’s house on fire, you may incinerate your own too.

Last week 700 African men, women and children drowned in the sea that separates poor, destitute Africa from affluent Europe when their wretched, unseaworthy vessel capsized. Who drove those desperate people to risk their lives in crossing the sea that is now an African graveyard?

The extended family used to ensure survival by strong bonds of solidarity. This is no longer enough. The collective egoism of clan, party, sect or tribe does not produce enough to feed the nation or indeed the continent. We need to be tied together by even stronger bonds of solidarity that are embracing everybody and excluding no one. The ethnocentrism that flared up in KwaZulu and Johannesburg will not save anyone.

The selfish greed and hunger for power of the elite drives the majority into misery. Migration is caused by failed states and failing economies. There would not be a stream of migrants down-south nor boatloads of economic refugees heading north if the political class had not betrayed our trust so dismally.