Chatterbox: Why the cruelty

The story of the horrendous murder of little Shawn and his nanny Phiona appeared in the media last Sunday. The killers strangled the maid, then set on the poor angel and plucked out his eyes before stabbing and finishing him off.

You see, I have always argued quite seriously and passionately that when our maker, the Almighty, was crafting the black species of mankind, He accidently left out a gene that completes our transformation as a race to qualify as humans.

Yes, I know it sounds absurd apparently, quite racial a statement, but the evidence is around us but we have decided to just ignore it. One dominant piece of news on our bulletins is the senseless brutality meted out on our young souls.

If it’s not a mother throwing down her two-day old child into a pit latrine, then it’s a father “sacrificing” his baby girl in order to get rich.

If it’s not a five-year old being burnt by cooking oil poured on him by the step-mother, then it’s a seven-year-old who has for the last two years been kept in the chicken house with the chicken apparently as a punishment for his “stubbornness!” It’s one horror story after another.

You find a boarding school, with not triple decker beds, but quadruple decker beds all cramped up in a small area with no sense of dignity of life.

You ask why the head teacher of that school could go that route and they will tell you, “he is trying to maximise” as much profit as possible he can get from school fees!

You wonder what kind of parent would take their angel to such a school and you will be told that, abantu bakowu literally meaning…people already gave up on life!

It’s a very dire situation. A society that is slowly losing its morality and in the process plucking out eyes of our future leaders. But what has led to such societal decay? The answer is the Church. It’s the loss of focus by the church that has led to this problem. The church has always done a fundamental job in society and that is to guide it to sanity.

Look at who abolished slave trade, it was the church. Look at who brought modernity and advancement in African society, it was the church.

Look at who stated vaccinating our children from deadly diseases like small pox, it was the church.

One might argue that the same church has been responsible for all the misery in the world, which is somewhat true. However, I believe the good in the church outweighs the bad.

The sensible leaders of nations have the church in most of their decisions. Now what has the African church of today done for our society?

Well, apart from stealing from and introducing all kinds of religion on them, it has done zilch for them. What we have are church leaders masquerading as pseudo politicians of sorts. What we have are church leaders involved in wife stealing. What we have are church leaders robbing the folk every given Sunday. What we have are church leaders that are…bakoowu!

The church has a somewhat God ordained authority and hold on society, especially African society. When the Cardinal speaks, everyone will take note and obey…okay, that was in the olden days, not today. But you understand where I’m heading, right? Now when that same Cardinal speaks, cynicism, contempt is all his audience receives.