[ By: Charles Onyango-Obbo ]
The Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who attempted to blow up an American aeroplane with a bomb built into his underwear, was somewhat unAfrican.

Though so-called Sub-Saharan Africa has its fair share of terrorists, AbdulMutallab is one of the very few who has offered himself up as a suicide bomber. From the days of the slave trade, life has been so grim in Africa that we seem to have developed a strong keep-alive ethos that makes suicide unfashionable.

So how do we explain AbdulMutallab? One of the best attempts to shed light on why this young Nigerian, born into a rich middle class family and having received a very good education, became a would-be suicide bomber can be found on the Zeleza Post. The Zeleza Post is a high-minded blog on African affairs founded by Malawian historian, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, who is touted as the next big African intellectual.

A December 28 posting on the blog by Nigerian Pius Adesanni blames the AbdulMutallab phenomenon the lazy and parasitic “Feudo-Caliphal establishment in northern Nigeria,” which mass produces poverty and stokes radical Islam in order to maintain power.

However, it is not only Islamic extremism that is being pushed in Nigeria. Nigeria is also the epicentre of Christian extremism in Africa.

My favourite is the “Ministry of Sacrifice” led by Prophetess Felicia Okafor, which is dedicated to finishing the work that Adam and Eve left undone in the Garden of Eden. Members of the Ministry prayed naked, and husbands and wives were barred from having sex with one another. Instead, the church appointed a “brother” or “sister” for them. A female member of the Ministry found to be having sexual relations with her legitimate husband was considered to have committed adultery! By any standard of religious extremism, that was going way too far. Prophetess Okafor was busted after her flock couldn’t take it any more and squealed to the police.

What is happening in Nigeria is taking place all over Africa. Not only are Islamic and Christian fundamentalism on the rise, but also traditionalist extremism. In Uganda, for example, child sacrifice has hit an alarming high. Ironically, it is fuelled not by poverty, but by development and prosperity. A security official told the BBC that as Ugandans grow wealthier, they resort more and more to witchcraft to secure their wealth and to build on it…

In common, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism are growing because there is no competing secular cause. Public policy debate is dying in Africa, and what we have is homophobic fury in many countries. Political discourse has been replaced by ethnic hate rants.

We don’t need a great secular idea. Even an Africa-wide youth rebellion, demanding the right for young people to love, get high on marijuana, and party all night will unite the older folks to set them on the right path.

In the past, we united against imperialism, then against the IMF and World Bank. The biggest of them all was HIV-Aids. These issues were always much bigger than religion and superstition. Now the HIV-Aids has receded somewhat.

We need a new enemy; maybe a disease as fiery as HIV-Aids that will marginalise the merchants of religious extremism. If not, we should prepare for more AbdulMutallabs and child sacrifices.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

————————————————————————————————————————————————-