MORNING MEDITATION

“Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika!”(Lord Bless Africa”)

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“Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika!”(Lord Bless Africa!”(Mt.5:43-48).
On the occasion of Cameroon’s National day celebration 2023, the PCC lectionary provides for us a text that requires strength from the Lord to be able to do what it prescribes.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?… And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
What a tall order for a continent that has suffered colonialism, slavery and now neo-colonialism enforced by homebred tyrants who have become the Napoleons replacing Jones in the Animal farm!
In 1897 a Xhosa clergyman by the name Enoch Sontonga composed the hymn, “Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika.” Sontonga did not know that the song would become a pan-African liberation song and that versions of the song would be adopted as the national anthems of five African countries, including Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Some people consider the hymn to be the unofficial African national anthem.
But why so much the importance of the song for the African continent?
All over the continent rights are lost, lives are lost as some people are in the quest to be loved in their own rights. But others snob them with open hate.
Back in this triangle we thought we were the exception in this rat race and an example to be emulated. Then suddenly Pandora’s box was inadvertently opened through the arrogance and the rejection of some by some who think that a supposedly gentleman’s union can only be possible if some people must only play second fiddle.
As if that is not enough, those who say we can only love in fragmentation have turned to shoot themselves in the leg as the fight of brother against brother is sometimes fiercer than the fight against the supposed enemy! So here were are in the stalemate of this quagmire! Then the question may arise: Is it necessary to chase farmer Jones away if the Napoleons by all indicators are positioning themselves as the new Joneses ready to frame up and execute any Snowball who objectively seeks moderation, justice and equity for all animals? The answer is not blowing in the wind; the telltales are evident!
We have tried to hold it together in the anthem: “From Shati, from where the Mungo meanders, From along the banks of Boumba stream, Muster thy sons in union close around thee, Mighty as the Buea Mountain be their team, Instill in them the love of gentle ways…Foster for mother Africa, a loyalty that true shall remain to the last.”
Today’s frustration hinges on the fact that mustering the sons in union close was built on a foundation of falsehood and intentional deception. There is no love lost, because love was never there. The forced marriage of Mbarga and Limunga has never known love because the marriage was not consensual!
In all these, the ascended Lord Jesus Christ is telling us that we must not be seperated before we love each other, neither must we be one and indivisible before we can love each other!
More than that, we must not be friends before we love each other.
We who are called by his name must be the differnce in the midst of this chaos and confusion. If we have to be perfect as our Father in heaven, then we must do something more than the others!
Let us all surrender our egos and allow the Spirit of God to lead us to do the needful! Then before we know it, we would transform our war chariots into ploughing carts.
My friend, to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you is a tough nut to crack; but it is possible. Let the Spirit lead!
Weekend prayer: Heavenly Father, on this day more than any other, we pray that there should be no bloodshed. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.

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