Religion in Africa

Religion has always been a controversial topic in America since forever and many tend not to talk much about it. However, after reading this article about Africa not having a set religious belief I was somewhat surprised about the information I learned. With this in mind, according to Frank Martins Aresa, the root causes of Africa's religious, ethnic and economic problems lie in deprecation of its relatively peaceful indigenous religion that has no drive to dominate others and should have been geared to meet modern political and economic challenges. That was a bit much for me to swallow in one piece because I do not fully believe that religion is the base for all the problems in Africa. In addition, I am now trying to understand how this could even be so since Africans when transported over during the early years of slave trade tried to keep their identity and culture engrained through their religious beliefs, regional languages, and dialects. Now, I can see how “the only officially recognized religion in most African countries is either from Europe, Asia or the Persian Gulf” (2012) since many empires conquered parts of Africa throughout history.

Also, in my opinion, as an African American, I would not know how I could live my life without religion. I do believe one cannot base economic and ethnic problems on religion, because then many human beings would question their god or gods and ask questions such as why did god do this or make these people “better”? Thus, I do have to agree when the article statement that “religion contributes significantly to our outlook in life” giving someone purpose and meaning out of their life if they believe in religion. So, I ask you (or anyone reading this blog) is there any other way to solve the problems in Africa? 

Article: http://www.modernghana.com/news/375074/50/only-africa-ignores-its-religious-actualization-fo.html