They didn't build prisons for us.
They didn’t even need chains to hold us.
No whips, no shackles, no iron gates.
no cuffs, no angry soldiers.
Just a book, a pulpit, and a crowd whose hearts had been taught to tremble.
A crowd staring like goats at market day.
No need to kill the body when you can rent the mind cheaply and forever.
We turned our backs on the fires of our ancestors,
and lit candles in cathedrals built with our own pockets.
Our sacred drums fell silent,
only to be replaced by church bells singing over stolen land.
They handed us a polished cross ,
smiled like angels,
and walked away with our gold in their handbags.
They sang hymns to us
and marched off with our diamonds in their pockets.
Every ship that docked at our shores,
didn't just bring guns and goods,
It brought a pastor with a holy smile,
ready to preach obedience in the name of love.
Every time another diamond disappeared,
a sermon told us to be patient
because asking questions is a sin,
because heaven is better than diamonds.
Religion became a magic trick,
became the art of making suffering look beautiful,
poverty look noble,
and questions a sin.
So we buried our curiosity six feet deep like an unwanted pet,
planted faith on top,
and watered it with fear every Sunday morning.
A pale Messiah with ocean eyes was introduced to us,
and we washed our own gods off the walls,
calling our gods “fetishes”, evil
like we suddenly hated our own reflection
We prayed to the same name that kept our backs bent,
and called it deliverance.
Meanwhile, nations elsewhere develop on the back of science,
pillars of structure,
armies of strategy.
Farming and factories.
But we…
We pray and fast when the soil screams for food,
give offerings and tithes instead of tools,
twirled joyfully in church dances
while the soil beneath our feet screamed from hunger,
while our farms turn to dust
And the West — ah, the West!
They look at us now with that distant pity,
not because they struggle to conquer us,
but because they know they already have,
without lifting a sword.
They used the most successful business deal in history:
Religion — a project they don't even pay for anymore
because we became the donors,
the investors,
the workers,
the custodians,
and the prisoners… all rolled neatly into one neat package.
So, I ask my brothers, my sisters…
Do we keep sleeping under the blanket of holy illusion,
or do we open our eyes to the daylight we’ve been trained to fear?
Western religion trimmed the sharp edges of our minds,
turned wise men into clever scammers ,
who feast on the desperation of their flocks,
selling miracle water and holy handkerchiefs
And if truth be told,
this 'blessing" has, in many ways,
taken more than it has given,
It has bruised us far deeper than it blessed us,
a miracle that takes more than it gives.
Just the kind that empties your pockets while you shout "Amen"
EBIKABOWEI KEDIKUMO - writes from Ayakoromo Town, Delta State
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