5 Major Reasons Religion Is the No.1 Cause of Poverty in Africa | Rev Walter Mwambazi | TEDxLusaka

[Music] it was karl marx who say that religion is the opium of the poor religion has been historically used as a means to systematically oppress suppress and take control of resources by the elite from the poor and please don't confuse it with spirituality now as a reverend i'll focus on christianity but islam and traditional beliefs do certainly take their own share here i am a reverend okay and why would i speak so critically of religion well let me tell you a few things about myself first i'm a born again christian i'm spirit-filled i'm tongue-speaking i'm charismatic evangelical so that gives you an idea where i stand 23 years been saved 17 of those years a minister of the gospel sat under some of the most amazing human beings but also sun under some very interesting people i learned something very interesting in that period i learned that a number of people within religious institutions aren't really about shepherding grounding discipling and releasing but more about manipulation control and selfish gain but i think the biggest lesson that i learned is just how religion and i really use that word religion shackles people to personalities and institutions i learned a very bitter truth and here's that truth religion is the number one tool for mind control from the elite for the ordinary now there are three distinct ways that sorry five distinct ways that this happens now before i do so i have to give some credit to something most people especially for me as a christian know jesus christ that's who we follow what is amazing is that jesus christ was perhaps one of the most anti-religious people i ever came across in fact jesus out his life on earth preached the kingdom not institutions he was so anti-religious that in matthew chapter 23 in the bible you get an entire scathing attack against the religious leaders of the day so scathing that it literally sealed this fate death by crucifixion so let's ask ourselves this question exactly how has the ruling class used religion to oppress and suppress so let's walk you through five key ways that i've learned the first one is that they've used it as a means of control okay so religion has been used throughout history to ensure that the elite can take control of the simple and they've done this in three very specific ways the first is to push the concept of matador and what's that that's basically the idea that you go out there and you do all you can including dying if possible for the purposes of your religious agenda what's so interesting is that this is done for leaders but the saddest part though is that some people are so fervent about this that they go as far as blowing up people as we know very well through the antics of boko haram and al-shabab the second method is the suffering model okay pie in the sky life will be good for you when you get in the kingdom of the hereafter so suffer suffer suffer the more you suffer the holier you are the irony as always is that it's the disciples that suffer the third one is that money is evil and there's two really badly misquoted scriptures that are used to exacerbate this the first one and you all know it it is easier for a rich for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god and the second one just as badly misquoted the love of money is the root of all evil ladies and gentlemen those two statements have done more harm towards wealth creation and the concept of health and of wealth in africa global finance magazine 2020 figures of the 20th poorest countries in the world 16 are in africa 16. i me just think about that ask any african we pray the most we fast the most we're the most fervent religious people i know and yet all the poverty so does that mean prayer doesn't work of course it does all i need to do is point you to countries that are religious but very rich the usa israel united arab emirates bahrain so if there are countries that are rich yet there are people that are poor like us something is wrong anyway let's get back to our list shall we at number four or is it number two let's go with number two because that was number one so number two is the justification of kingdoms and empires there's a reason ladies and gentlemen why in chess you have castles you have king queen and a bishop in the night you see there is no greater person that can justify political control than a religious person and so throughout history religion has justified the elite they call them the noble they call them the blue blood and if you bring it close to home they are called the anointed third is slavery and it's one of the darkest chapters in the history of mankind i mean for a period a group of people came forced religious christianity on another group and then captured and enslaved them shipped them across the atlantic as slaves and to justify all this they say the bible justifies this slaves in fact black people are inferior and white people are superior and it took centuries before abolitionists and and and human rights activists came round to fight this revulsive behavior but that's not before the toll had been done and here's the big deal this whole entire scene of slavery set the tone for the fourth factor colonialism i'll be honest with every one of us here colonialism was the back end of christianity see when the missionaries were sent over those that sent the missionaries had an agenda they called it the three c's civilize christianize commercialize so they came over but here's something very interesting as they began to do their work they brought a very powerful meme an image of the white jesus blonde hair blue eyes guy looked just like the missionaries i mean and i'll be honest with you it was powerful it worked to make matters worse they took our names and said ah these are pagan demonic names you better get christian names what's interesting you all know is that the christian names were nothing but english names or french names or portuguese names they were really not christian as if that wasn't enough ethnic groups they divided us by the color of our scheme at the top of the food chain where the whites and then followed the indians and then followed the coloreds and right at the bottom where the blacks but you see the worst was yet to come which is my fifth point white supremacy you know what is sad is that white supremacy was it had its greatest advocate in religious christianity it was religious christianity that pushed the concept an idea that whites are actually supreme and superior to blacks truth is that religious christianity was used as a trojan horse to hide this very evil seed and of course don't forget the linguistic terms like white is good black is bad white listed blacklisted white market black market throw in a good chunk of slavery appetite jim crolls really justified again by the bible and then this was enforced by the use of lynching killing disenfranchisement of black people inferior education inferior opportunities and what that god did was essentially kept the black people enslaved through conditioning and bear in mind this took centuries the seed that was further sown which is so evil also was the use of linguistics language words i apologize in advance because this is dead but i have to use this word one good example of the use of words caricature terminologies is the word the word and all its related terms was used to further enforce the idea of the inferiority of a black man you can actually take some some time and go visit the ferris state university jim crow museum of racist memorabilia and actually learn for yourself just how harmful it was the irony ladies and gentlemen is that these very terms have become the reality today and so therefore lies the proof in what i've just said blacks actually now believe they're so cursed and so inferior that the only way they can measure up is by looking like the very oppressor that brought them down and skin bleaching is a good example another one is the use of the word which you know mean white man or big boss and those by the way are terms used for fellow blacks that are seen to be progressing let me illustrate with a real example i have a friend of mine who got a very good contract recently a deal where he was going to distribute a particular product across a chain and so he put together a deal prepared some presentation got all his details went and pitched unfortunately in spite of meeting all the conditionalities his deal was turned down he had some insight so what did he do he called his partners in south africa who were white by the way hahaha and have them come over and then they pitched with him nowhere in sight i think you know what happened let's just say that he has the deal now his deal and his business is everywhere but here's the part that's really sobering the people he spoke to and pitched were indigenous african blacks like you and me today we have seen that many africans are now at a stage because of all this conditioning i've said that we're just about to exchange for another new kid on the block the chinese so what are we doing what's the solution how do we come out of all this well my solutions are not going to be fun but this is ted ideas worth spreading so number one we need to unshackle ourselves from the mental chains of religious dogma and mind control which is really what religion is about freedom of the truth must be a substitute further we must stop following rules and regulations rituals and get to the liberty of the truth furthermore we must dis you know there's so much distance in religious ceremonies and and procedures worsened by mediators with selfish motives we need to eliminate that distance we need to get to a place where we know the creator and person and know the truth in him and when that happens it leads to an epiphany of clarity of purpose and destiny listen it's spirituality centered within that's the key not really just a dissented without around institutions and people but here's my big thing we need a mindset change and no no it's not just a phrase because mindset change or paradigm that's a big thing nowadays but no no no no i'm talking about a serious reprogramming lastly we need empowerment and that empowerment comes from empowering education something that's really about releasing people into destiny not keeping them subservient to an institution forever and ever till kingdom come i'm gonna end with this saying that you all know it says give a man fish and you feed him for a day but teach the man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime but you know something i want us to be disruptive completely forget about teaching the man to fish here's the deal empower the man to own the lake and you feed him for generations after him ladies and gentlemen africans must learn the empowering truth and will no longer be in severe bondage of religion and its impoverishing hold but instead we'll see wealth for all citizens of this very rich continent i thank you [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 432,288

Rating: 4.8532424 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Africa, Development, History, Poverty, Religion

Id: DfBzEAieaAM

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Imalreadygone21]

I thought Crusty Nelson said “Paying an honest, full Tithe” was the only way to “Break the cycle of Poverty” on that continent. Was he wrong?