Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The Enlightenment intellectuals emphasized universal ethical norms that transcend the narrow confines of race, colour, sex, religion, ethnicity, nationality and birth status. The values of the Enlightenment illuminated Europe and brought the Western World tremendous progress and advancement. The Enlightenment inspired the democratic, scientific and technological revolutions at the root of contemporary western civilization and development.

So, for Europe, the 18th Century "Age of Light" was a true Enlightenment. But for Africa, it was not. Because, while Europe was glowing with the light of reason and science, Africa was groaning under the burden of European slavery, tyranny and imperialism. It could be rightly said that the European Enlightenment caused darkness in Africa. It dislodged Christian theocracy and expelled to the black continent the forces of unreason and superstition.

European Christian missionaries invaded Africa in search of "believers" in what they self styled a civilizing mission (La mission civilatrice) - and European merchants thronged the continent in search of raw materials to feed the industrial revolution. In actual fact, what Europe rejected and abandoned to get `enlightened' was forced and foisted on Africans as a civilizing or enlightening matrix.

As if that was not enough, as Christian crusaders were ravaging the continent, Arab jihadists were fighting, raiding, enslaving and killing their way to enlighten Africans on the basis of Islam and the Arab culture.

So, in the past centuries, the black continent has been plagued by the false `alien' enlightenment missions of Christianity and Islam. Africa has been both the clash and flash points of these dark age forces and mentalities. These militant, racist and fanatical creeds exploit women, sanctity ignorance and sacrifice human welfare and happiness in pursuance of the will of mythical gods and their earthly instruments.

The real tragedy is not that Europeans and Arabs infiltrated and darkened the continent with their cultural myths and superstitions. After all, Africa has its own traditional myths and taboos, which have also undermined the process of African Enlightenment and emancipation. Rather the real tragedy is that Africans have at the end of the day - blindly embraced these alien dogmas and misconceptions at the expense of social peace, intellectual growth, moral progress, truth and originality.

Today, most Africans want to order their lives and organize their societies based on Christian and Islamic norms, not on the basis of human rights, human values, rational thoughts and commonsense knowledge. And this has led to a lot of confusion, stagnation, division and conflict. For two decades, the Islamic government of Khartoum waged a vicious war on the Christians and animists in the South who rejected Sharia Law. And the crisis in Darfur has lingered partly because the Sudanese government has refused to make necessary concessions. In Algeria, Islamic militants massacred over a hundred thousand people in protest over the cancellation of an election, which an Islamic party was set to win.

In Egypt, Islamic militant groups have been terrorizing the country in their quest to impose an Islamic Social order, And Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, has been without a central government for 15 years due to clan and sectarian fighting for the control of the state by Islamic militants and warlords. In Uganda, Joseph Kono, and his Lord's Resistance Army have been fighting to remove the government of Yoweri Museveni and enthrone a government based on the Ten Commandments.

In Nigeria, thousands of people have lost their lives in various religious riots and clashes since independence. Muslim fundamentalists have foisted sharia law on the Islamic majority states in the North. Throughout the continent, religious fanatics are prosecuting an inquisition. They oppose the legalization of abortion and gay marriage, the abolition of the death penalty, female genital mutilation and child marriage, among other cultural undesirables. All these are clear pointers to the fact that the African continent is in a Dark Age. So, early in this 21st century, Africa is in dire need of a New Enlightenment - which is a rediscovery of the ideals of the old Enlightenment but this time with a global emphasis and application. The New Enlightenment entails the promotion of universal ethical norms, universal education, universal human right and the secularization and humanization of all societies.

We need to critically examine religious creeds and dogmas and challenge their totalitarian and intolerant tendencies. We need to promote free thought, freedom of expression, search for truth and educational reform. We need to combat superstition and irrationalism. The New Enlightenment project requires that no race or region be left out. That no place or people be left in the dark. And that the entire human race glow with the illuminating matrices reason, science, critical thinking and free inquiry. I am deeply persuaded that it is only on the basis of the New Enlightenment that Africa can experience a genuine renaissance and realize a civilization with a global dimension.

* Igwe is Director, Centre for Inquiry, in Nigeria