Religion Embedded in Languages

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Religion is the ‘opium of the people.’ This is attributed to Karl Marx, the German philosopher who died in exile in England. I’m using it reluctantly because I’ve never read any of his books. I’m aware of the quote because it has been rehashed a million times.

What I know about religion leads me to one conclusion. Religion and language are siblings, children of the same parents. Indeed, religion is the mother and father. In ancient times, in what is now known as Canada, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, people and the gods understood each other. They spoke the same language. That was fundamental because religion is basically praying to dead people, for example Islam, Judaism, Christianity or Buddhism.

Religion travels, carried by men with guns, looking for slaves and gold. Once it lands, religion becomes the emperor, the conqueror or Her Royal Majesty.

Language is inextricably linked to religion, like teeth and the tongue. Therefore, when men with guns and foreign flags land in Africa, they put religion on the table to be consumed by force.

This leads to the sad situation where in a Roman Catholic Church in Africa, a white man in purple robes stands at the pulpit and reads Italian and Latin texts to Africans who speak Zulu, Sesotho or Xhosa. They don’t understand a word he’s saying.

Nigeria had a civil war because or forced Islam.  The country has Muslims who were born speaking Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. They chant Arabic texts they don’t understand, three times a day. Which ancestors are you talking to if you speak different languages? It is sad. It’s criminal. Religion is a lie, to steal the land and make owners slaves.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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