THE RACE FOR AFRICA

Author: Loren Davis
January 02, 2005

Copyright 2005 Loren Davis

In 1988, my wife and I went to Africa and have been working there ever since.
When we first arrived there, we had little money and lived meagerly in harsh,
brutal conditions our first ten years. From August 2000 to November 2005,
through our generous partners, God has enabled us to build 132 churches in
unreached villages deep in the interior of Africa, evangelizing them and providing them with competent Bible-believing pastors. We have also preached 36
major crusades in Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya where hundreds of thousands have attended and have come to Christ.
By living so close to the people for so long, we have learned to love and
appreciate them. Some of the most intelligent people I have ever met are
African. Even the primitive people in the bush are very smart. I would say
they are bush smart. Outsiders could never endure and survive in similar conditions. We have seen their sufferings first hand and have heard them tell the
stories about their lives. Most of their lives are hard, but they desire to succeed and to make something better for their families and themselves.
Their great faith and yearning to succeed has made them vulnerable though
to every shrewd scheme brought in to exploit them. Not only have we lived
among the different tribes for many years, we have read much of the history
of Africa, from slavery to colonial times, to now. We are now seeing a bigger
outside threat coming to Africa, perhaps greater than has ever even happened
in the past. No doubt about it—there is a race for Africa.
THE RACE FOR SLAVES
So many nations were involved in the slave trade. After living in Africa for
many years, I have come to appreciate that Africans are people with the
same desires and hurts like every other race and nation of the world. What
the slave nations did not factor in when they took these people is that they
were stealing human beings, not unlike any other people, except for their
primitiveness and being illiterate as to the ways of modern man. When the
Arab slave traders forcibly took these Africans, families and societies were
torn apart. Children were taken crying from their mothers; husbands and
wives were separated. Grandparents were left to die bitter, unbearable deaths.
Friends were separated forever. Who can measure the broken hearts and hor-
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rors of these people ripped from their loved ones, brutally treated, and taken
to lands they did not know?
I have seen the slave market places in Dar es Salaam and Pangani, Tanzania. Many of the captured Africans had thick ankle shackles and chains attached to them. They were force marched from the interior great distances
through dangerous disease-ridden jungles to the coast of the Indian Ocean in
order to be sold. Those who weren’t strong enough for the walk would die
along the way, left to be eaten by the beasts and buzzards. After being sold in
the slave markets, they were put on the slave ships, a strange and terrifying
experience. They didn’t know where they were going. They suffered sea sickness, had no toilet facilities, and were not considered regarding hygiene, medicines for malaria, dysentery, typhoid, or their personal needs. They pined for
their families that they would never see again. These horrors were unimaginable.
Celeste and I visited Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. We
saw the small cramped pits, about four feet high, where slaves were chained
together like cattle going to market. The stench must have been unbearable.
They were laid on concrete with no pads and no blankets. The physical and
mental sufferings were immeasurable. Then they were sold on blocks like
cattle. Can you imagine the humiliation? The people were nothing but a commodity. If they died, the traders just captured other Africans.
Nations all over the earth raced to Africa because they were economically
motivated to obtain free labor and enhance their personal wealth and quality
of life. Slave trade prospered largely through the cooperation of African chiefs
who sold their enemies, neighboring tribes, and those they did not care for to
the Arab slave traders for money or goods.
THE RACE FOR COLONIZATION OF AFRICA
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n the 1800s, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Spain,
the Dutch and Oman among others, raced for Africa coveting its land,
wealth and cheap labor. They believed they needed to do this to maintain the
affluent lifestyle of their homelands.
Their governments appropriated lands to their citizens who were sent to
tame Africa. What they didn’t realize, or didn’t care about, was although it
looked like this land didn’t belong to anybody, African villages are very structured. Every inhabited part of Africa was communal property of each tribe.
The tribal chiefs and elders allocated land to its people. The land did belong
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to these people even if there was no paper work stored in some courthouse.
But like buzzards, the colonizing nations coveted the land, wealth, and people
(labor force) of the Dark Continent.
They said they came to civilize and modernize the Dark Continent, but
they themselves became the savages, committing genocide against many tribes,
as they stole their lands and dispossessed them.
Most colonization efforts used the state church’s missionaries to pacify
the natives and open the door for the political takeover of the African’s homeland. This was a massive abuse of Christianity. I am sure not all of the state’s
missionaries intentionally were working with their governments to bring in
colonization, but intentional or not, they were used by their governments,
and they facilitated it. When the state church missionaries came, and the colonists followed them, they always came bearing gifts and making great promises of a better life to the natives. But their gifts were only bait used to seduce
them so they could take over their land, their lives, then rule over them. This
caused the African people to lose their independence, self-rule, and freedom.
Like slavery, colonization was so successful because many chieftains cooperated with the wealthy foreigners who came. They sold the land and freedom of their people for their own personal benefits. The basic problem of
Africa is that many of its leaders care about their own welfare and wealth, and
really don’t care about their own people.
The colonizers brought with them their magistrates, police and their own
administrators then worked with native collaborators to implement their colonial ambitions. Often the colonist governors even charged a hut tax that
poor natives couldn’t afford to pay. Imagine, foreigners coming in, taking
your land, and then charging you tax on your hut. There were severe penalties
and imprisonment if the natives didn’t comply with the foreigners laws.
At the same time, this broke the relationship between the different tribes
and brought enmity among tribes who had gotten along in the past. The
colonists would categorize some tribes as superior and some as inferior. They
would give preferential treatment and better jobs to one tribe over the other.
This stirred up enmity among the tribes towards each other. After colonization was driven out, this practice left the seeds that brought about events like
the Rwandan genocide where over ten thousand people were killed every day
for one hundred days. In the end, one million were slaughtered.
The history of the genocide in Rwanda shows that some Catholic bishops stirred up the Hutus against the Tutsis. Many Tutsis fled to the Catholic
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churches for sanctuary, but often the priests and nuns called in the Hutu
militias to slaughter them. The Catholic churches became the main killing
stations, although there were some protestant pastors who also participated
in this genocide. (See Google: Rwanda genocide/Catholic priests) The government forces of Rwanda also helped enforce the genocide.
Scenarios like the Rwandan genocide, in one degree or another, have left
most of African societies crippled since colonization, and they have never
stabilized. Unfortunately, many African leaders have emulated their colonial
masters, and still have kept their people down and without freedom to improve their lives.
THE CATHOLICS RACE FOR AFRICA
My wife and I have worked in Africa for many years in Tanzania, Kenya,
Sudan, Zanzibar, Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. We have not
only been conducting major crusades to win the masses to Christ, but are
building churches deep in the bush where no Gospel church has ever been.
We have been astonished to see large Catholic compounds deep in the
bush in so many places. The Catholic church owns much land and yields
much power over governments throughout Africa.
THE PAGANIZED GOSPEL OF MONEY HAS RACED TO AFRICA
My wife and I have been appalled at what we have seen in the African
church, particularly the Pentecostal Church. Much of what we have
seen is not the Holy Spirit or God. Many preachers and teachers from America
and Europe have come to Africa preaching the gospel of money. Because of the
great poverty in Africa, this gospel has really attracted the Africans, particularly the pastors.
Many of these visiting preachers have intimidated the Africans declaring
that they are prophets. They have intimated to the African Christians that if
they don’t obey them and give them the big offerings they demanded, a curse
would come on them. The Africans are naturally superstitious, coming from
backgrounds steeped in witchcraft and sorcery, and are very vulnerable to this
type of manipulation. In offerings taken by these Western prophets, many Africans have given almost everything they had. The Africans have been told that
if you obey the prophet, and give all you have, God will make you rich. As a
result, many visiting preachers plunder the Africans in Christ’s name, and
leave the African church and believers faith in shambles. These preachers are
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nothing but neo-colonists, plundering Africa in the name of Jesus.
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for
the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in
vain. (Exodus 20:7)
The African pastors have learned about the gospel of money from these Western Prophets, and many of them now call themselves prophets and apostles. They
have learned to plunder their poor people mercilessly like their western counterparts. Particularly in the cities, it is not uncommon to find pastors living in
mansions and driving luxury cars, while their people grovel in poverty. What a
despicable, heartless thing. People come to church to find hope and deliverance,
only to jump from the frying pan into the fire. There is only a small percentage
of preachers in Africa preaching about Jesus, His offer of salvation through
grace, keeping God’s commandments, or about heaven and hell. These GET
RICH QUICK churches are drawing the biggest crowds in Africa, just like in
America. They are preying on people’s desperation and greed.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him
twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. (Matt hew 23:15)
THE TRUE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS RACING FOR AFRICA
Thank God there are true missionaries and pastors in Africa who have not
compromised the Gospel and are doing everything they can to get people
saved, while teaching the Word of God, and helping believers live victorious
lives in Christ.
RICK WARREN’S PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH’S RACE FOR AFRICA
Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven Church have come to Africa like a
storm. It is amazing that almost every denomination is buying into
this agenda, virtually without question. Even the governments and presidents
of Africa are welcoming Rick Warren as if he was the long-awaited savior. He
is promising to bring millions of dollars to help churches and to help the
nations socially and economically.
This Purpose Driven movement is an ecumenical, sociopolitical movement, where the church and state are uniting again. Why are churches and
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state governments so interested in his program? No question he has money.
Governments and churches are all interested in that. Take Rwanda for example. Rick Warren says he is going to make Rwanda the first Purpose Driven
Nation. If that is the case, and he is the head of the Purpose Driven nation,
doesn’t that mean that he, a foreigner, will be running Rwanda? His organization says that all the churches in Rwanda are now Purpose Driven churches.
So in essence, doesn’t that translate that Rick Warren is now the bishop of
Christianity in Rwanda.
Rick Warren is bringing in great numbers of people from Saddleback
church to administrate his program of transforming churches into centers
for feeding the poor, nursing and education. That is exactly how colonization
started in the beginning. It always followed the cross, then brought in administrators to run things. Any way you look at it, this is neo-colonization, with a
foreigner running the country. First of all, he is changing the purpose of the
church from a place to preach the Gospel, into primarily a social institution. I
predict, that by joining the government with the church in Rwanda, the separation of church and state is over. The state will now be calling the shots for
the church. Religious freedom will end. When the church and state were united,
it brought in the Dark Ages. Rick Warren is reuniting church and state. Rwanda,
he has declared, is just a prototype of what he says he wants to do in all of
Africa. Believe me, he has already taken over much of Africa, in the guise of
his Purpose Driven Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
AIDS
Not only does Africa have material needs, but it is also being ravaged by
the deadly plague of AIDS. In Kenya alone, 800 are dying every day of
AIDS, HIV.
WHAT CAUSES AIDS? It is a scientific fact that AIDS is spread by
fornication, adultery, and homosexuality. The source of HIV is sin! Of course
the consequence of these sins often comes on innocent children and women,
and also those who are infected by tainted blood that has the HIV virus in it.
What is astonishing and irrational is that the world is looking for a cure
for HIV without dealing with the cause. I thank God for what science is
doing to try to find a cure, but their efforts are flawed. They are looking for a
cure that will enable mankind to continue in sexual sins with impunity.
This is the epitome of humanism and the New Age, man trying to save
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man without Christ and God’s commandments. I thank God for what man
can do, but man cannot save himself without Christ and obeying His Word. It
never has worked, and never will. Humanitarian aid, science and money without Christ and the Bible, by themselves will not save Africa.
JESUS IS THE ONLY ANSWER
TO CHANGE THE BEHAVIOR OF PEOPLE
AIDS MONEY NOT GETTING TO PEOPLE
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t is astonishing what we are seeing in Africa. Untold millions of dollars are
being given to cure AIDS, but from what we are seeing, the common people
are just not getting it. I’m sure much is going into research which is understandable, but an inordinate percentage is being eaten up in administrative
fees. Many are getting rich off of the suffering of the people of Africa. Hospitals are packed with HIV victims, with little medicine to treat them. My wife
and I have often wondered where all the money is going that has been given
for AIDS. Only the very rich can get proper medicines in Africa, and the
medicines they get do not bring a real cure; it just eases the pain and prolongs
life a little while.
In the cities, morgues are stacked with bodies piled on top of each other
of those who have died of AIDS everyday. What’s amazing, Africans have
been warned that a promiscuous lifestyle causes HIV, but it has not slowed
down their immoral lifestyles. It is literally suicidal. There seems to be no
survival instincts of self preservation among most Africans. They are no
different morally than their western counterparts. Their behavior is totally
irrational in light of the ominous threat that faces them.
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. (2 Tim 3:7)
ROCK CONCERTS AID FOR AFRICA
One cannot help but notice all the attention that is now being given to
helping Africa with humanitarian aid. Rock musicians are holding concerts trying to save Africa from AIDS. What a paradox, seeing most of them
live and promote a licentious lifestyle which spreads AIDS.
It’s interesting that a huge rock concert in Europe, which was calling for
finding a cure for AIDS in Africa, never raised one dollar from those who
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attended. A major TV network commented that if everyone there just gave a
dollar it would help. It was all talk and no substance. It seems to me that they
just used Africa’s problems as a promotional gimmick to get big international
press.
AFRICA’S FUTURE
Many are calling for the Western nations to cancel the African debt. But
from what I have observed in Africa, corruption is so bad, that even the
massive grants that have been given to build roads, etc. very little has been done.
I stand amazed that all of this aid given to Africa over so many decades, that
the masses of Africa are still so poor and dependant on the outside for survival.
Outsiders see Africans as weak, as children, who can be deceived easily.
Most of Africa has tremendous untapped natural resources. These resources are being coveted by many nations and businesses. Actually, the African is playing the game with the outsider to exploit them, and the outsider is
playing the game with the African to exploit him. But ultimately, the African
always loses this game, which translates losing freedom.
The U.S., Great Britain, and the EU are sending billions to Africa. Why?
Is the motive behind this effort truly humanitarian, and genuine compassion,
or are they coveting the tremendous resources of Africa as their ancestors
did. Could it possibly be that once more they are using gifts to get a foothold
again in Africa?
I heard a president of one of the African nations plead, “Do not send aid
to Africa when we don’t have an emergency. You are breaking our economies.
Our people won’t work.”
Celeste and I were in Goma, Congo, two weeks after the genocide in
Rwanda that slaughtered one million people. We saw one giant cargo plane
after another flying relief in. This was amazing since they were feeding the
fleeing Hutus who were the instigators of the genocide. What we saw was
that although there were many innocent Hutus who were caught up in this,
that many of the fleeing Hutu militia men who were there, were standing in
line, getting relief, and then went back into training planning to return to
Rwanda to finish the job. The local population in Goma, Congo, quit working
and got in the relief lines as well. This totally broke the economy of Goma. I
believe in humanitarian aid when there is a crisis, but when it is continuously
brought in when there is no crisis, it breaks the work ethic of the people, and
they become totally dependent on the outside for their survival. This is the
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foundation for the re-colonization of Africa, which will virtually make the
people no more than slaves and puppets for their foreign masters.
A member of Kenya’s Parliament told his fellow Parliament member that
no economy in the world ever grew out of humanitarian aid. Economies
grow when people work. Some in Africa think that Africa was infected by
AIDS to deplete Africa of the black man, so Africa and its resources can be
taken over. That seems far fetched, but for sure the wealth and land of Africa
are being coveted. Some from other countries have coveted the rich farm
lands of Africa saying that they could produce incredible crops if they had
the soil.
Now like a storm Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven Church are taking
over African churches of every denomination, while at the same time he appears to be joining up with many African government leaders. He has taken
over much of the church of Africa and is greatly influencing Africa’s government leaders. It is amazing that so many denominations and governments are
becoming Purpose Driven without thoroughly inspecting and understanding
what this really means. It appears because he has strong endorsements from
notable preachers that Africa and the world is going along with his Global
P.E.A.C.E. Plan, seemingly without really considering its ramifications. It seems
the assumption is, that since everyone is doing it, and peace is a good thing, it
must be good.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)
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