Negotiating Christianity…A Lithuania case study for Africa

A Country of Cathedrals, Monasteries and Convents

The Pensive Christ...a symbol of distress, agony and injustice

Vilnius, capital of Lithuania is one place I was looking forward to visiting not because of any recommendation I read on trip advisor or as a favourite holiday destination, but simply because I found out that one of my favourite people in the world…a certain Mr Zydrunas Savickas (four times world strongest man) could be found at his gym in Vilnius and as I packed my suitcase, I prepared for a likelihood of having a workout with “Big Z” at his gym as I have been told this is possible. After Barrack Obama and Lebron James, Savickas is one person I am desperate to meet one on one, so imagine my excitement.

Getting to Lithuania however, I was amazed at the amount of massive churches, monasteries, convents and cathedrals scattered across the major cities.

 I was attending a conference on social entrepreneurship as part of an Erasmus project, but I couldn’t ignore the magnitude of these churches. Some look like they’ve been around for a long time, some probably a few hundreds of years ago and I began to wonder if Lithuania is that religious to the point that there is a massive church in every corner…a bit like Nigeria, hence my sudden interest.

However, the purpose of this blog stem from the moment I entered into one of these churches in Druskininkai built within a monastery and whilst admiring the beautiful church, I noticed a few pagan emblems and symbols side by side the Roman catholic symbols.

Above the crucifix, was the all-seeing eye which many Nigerian Christians I know interpret as the symbol of the Illuminati or something sinister. 

I for sure know that the all-seeing eye is a pagan symbol originally meant to signify the presence of God as a constant watchful caretaker. But why are pagan symbols blatantly displayed alongside modern Catholic décor I asked and this led to an history lesson from the local priest who gave a quick explanation about the syncretism of pagan worship, Eastern orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism in what has now become a hybrid Christian identity of modern Lithuania.

Syncretism at it's finest

Doing a bit of reading, I realised that in fact, Lithuania was the very last Pagan country in Europe to be converted to Christianity and it was not a walk in the park at all, as Lithuanians resisted the new religion and even after their founding fathers did accept Christianity in some form, they carried on practising their indigenous pagan worship openly side by side the new one.

It was Pope Innocent IV that declared Lithuania as a Christian state under the jurisdiction of Rome in 1251 but despite their king Mindaugas being baptised, he carried on worshiping his pagan gods and according to the study, Lithuanians stood firmly behind their ancestral religion and lost their status as officially a Christian state for a long time.

Vytatus the Great church

They would later eventually become a Roman Catholic state under Pope Urban VI in 1389 after years of hard  work by two of their founding fathers Jogaila and Vytautas and some of these churches I visited are built in the memory of these two gentlemen.

But just as Lithuanians refused to quit their ancestral practices centuries ago, it appears old habits die hard, because few kilometres to the monastery is a religious grove where adherents come to pray and make supplication to God, except this is not a church. 

It is a cyclical dome with some symbols…not Christian, but it is a prayer sanctuary and on one side you had an angel with water flowing from a tap and this water is holy water depending on your faith, but the idea is for you to pray to the angel or via the angel, then collect some water and have quiet times in the hilly picturesque grove with beautiful trees creating a perfect ambience.

It was a beautiful experience. It reminded me of Osun Osogbo sacred grove in Osun State, southwest Nigeria, with the sacred image of Osun in the background and the water which is supposed to have healing powers for those who believe, except the water from Drunskininkai is from a tap attached to the angel and seemed safer to drink in comparison to the free-flowing river of Osun where people have been known to swim in and bath in during their prayer sessions.

The figurine of Osun at the Osun grove

What I find striking in all of this, is Lithuania’s unapologetic nature of holding firm to her ancestry even though it embraced the new age religion of Christianity. I also find it fascinating that it even syncretised it to the new religion and preserved her ancient symbols whilst embracing the new one and did it all on her own terms.

 History has it that Lithuania used the promises of conversion to tease the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox brands of Christianity and used same promise to broker deals amongst these two groups and their allies before eventually choosing to go with the Catholics.

So why did Christianity come to Africa and swallow up the culture and religion? Why did the Yorubas not defend Orisa worship or syncretise Obatala, Osun and Ogun to Peter, Moses and Elijah or as arch-angels too like Gabriel and Michael.

Why did the African gods suddenly become the “fallen angels” of Lucifer? Why did Esu…the messenger of Eledumare suddenly become interpreted as Satan? Why is the narrative of Christian history in Africa overshadowed by colonisation and slavery? Why such disrespect to our own ancestral religion.

I put these two pictures below on my Facebook page and ironically my Nigerian/Yoruba friends liked the one I took in Lithuania with Jesus image but berated the one I took in Osogbo next to Sango image and some called it "Devil worship"

The statue of Jesus in Drunskininkai

The figurine of Sango in Osun grove, Nigeria

I left Lithuania with questions of why this and why that. A work out with Savickas was the last thing on my mind as I feel like Africa has been short-changed and it has become imperative to re-address the narratives surrounding African traditional religion. 

The culture of self-hate is rife in Africa when it comes to ancestral cultural practices and I feel intellectual conversation needs to be ignited immediately where we can address the history of Christianity in Africa and how it affects the heritage of Africans.

This is important to set the records straight and hopefully undo some of the harm that such negative miss-interpretation of the culture and religion of a people has done to the psyche of their generation in what is appearing to be a never-ending circle.

Vilnius Cathedral

 Vytatus the great Church in Kaunus

From Nigeria to Niger…the quest for a new frontline

Since the inception of the Buhari led government of Nigeria, the Zambisa forest infamous for being the fortress and hiding place for the terror group Boko Haram has been reported to have been systematically combed and occupied by the Nigerian Army, which meant that the terror group has fled the area and peace has returned to the Northeast of Nigeria.

Varying reports suggest that the battle against Boko Haram in Nigeria has been won and the previously incessant mass killings and bombings in the northeast region have come to an end and no longer would Nigerians deal with videos of Abubakar Shekau, his AK 47 and chewing stick posing in front of heavy military artillery and taunting the authorities and threatening mass killings and striking terror in the hearts of Nigerians.

However, the presence of Boko Haram is “alive and kicking” figuratively in the South-eastern region of neighbouring Niger-Republic, a country who have shared the horrors of Boko Haram with Nigeria since the emergence of the terror group. Boko Haram has been known to shuttle between the borders of Niger-Republic to the south-east and Nigeria to the north-east.

It appears that there is a quest for the terror group to find a new base in Niger-Republic from where it can establish itself and launch terror across the Chad basin and Nigeria on a systematic and sophisticated manner. A “safe-haven” that can serve as their new frontline, since Zambisa has been taken off them, it appears that the town of Bosso is the favoured “hot spot”.

YOUR LIVER WILL REMEMBER

If the colour of your eyes or the colour of your urine is yellow, then my friend you may already be in trouble and not realise it. In fact, you could be walking around with a potentially life-threatening condition and not know it. Basically, if you have yellow urine and yellow eyes, you might want to check your liver.

I feel compelled to do this piece based on my observation of the level of ignorance and non-challans of many of my peers within the Nigerian community in diaspora but also those at home about the real dangers of alcohol abuse and why the urgent need for a lifestyle change could save your life down the line.

When I turned forty, I felt the pressure that it was downhill from then on, so to counter that, I decided to be healthier but not just by doing a couple of push ups here and there or having the odd run from my house to the local ALDI but I wanted to see what was beneath my six foot two inches fourteen stone frame to have a glimpse into what was working and what wasn’t, coupled with the discovery that whenever I got injured either from playing basketball or sparing at the boxing gym, it took me longer to recover or walk properly compared to when I was in my twenties when injuries were simply an inconvenience.

It’s not the body…it’s the engine that counts

Like most people, I too equate muscles with fitness and good health and rightly so, except a muscle-bound body may not necessarily be a fully healthy body. What I’m saying is that there is need for an internal check of the “engine” so to speak and not assume that just because you have a massive bicep and a fifty-inch chest, then it’s okay to gulp down alcohol on a regular basis or drink “opa-eyin” (local herb mixed with local alcohol) indiscriminately without consequences.

You may be slim and trim, with a nice proportionate diet and exercise regime…but alcohol abuse could be slowly destroying your liver without you realising it.

Studies have shown that our internal organs just like our physical body also suffer wear and tear, therefore it is dangerous for anyone close to forty or above forty to continue to abuse his or her liver with indiscriminate alcohol consumption because guess what, few years down the line when you have forgotten all the “fun” you had, your liver will remember.

Yellow eyes? Yellow urine? Do a test!

I see a lot of guys walking around with yellow eyes. I have verbally mentioned the significance of it to some of these friends of mine but it was waved aside in jest. One said to me “I have been urinating yellow for ever and I’m fine”. He looked physically fit as well, tall and lanky but with golden eyeballs. The way I see it, there is only so much your liver can endure and it would be a shame to continue to hammer it until it grinds to a halt.

Alcohol abuse is a common problem in the West but hey, the medical support is available and efficient. My message is for the Africa community, because if women still die at child birth and children still die of malaria, I’m afraid your knackered liver won’t be anyone’s priority therefore it would be advisable to keep it in check while you can.

As it’s Christmas, the tendency to go “haka” or “mortal” as the Geordies would say it is high, but before you go on your bender, take a moment to think about your liver, cos it will remember.