Terror tightened the native\u2019s throat as he clutched his dying son and ran through the hot dust two miles to Africa\u2019s Baragwanath Hospital. Instinctively he knew it was too late and upon arrival had to sadly turn homeward with the baby cold in his arms. The child had died of gastric enteritis and tears dropped in the dirt as the sobbing father carried the lifeless form.<\/p>\n
Vusamazulu Mutwa built the crude coffin and prepared his tiny son\u2019s body for burial. To be buried in an unknown grave or a pauper\u2019s grave is the deepest disgrace that can befall a Bantu anywhere in Africa. But the Bantu has no access to any cemetery unless he belongs to a recognized church and the funeral is presided over by a minister. A well known authority has said, \u201cDetermination to have a proper burial is a strong reason why natives turn to Christianity.\u201d The grief-stricken parents went to their \u201cChristian\u201d pastor, whose church the wife had attended many years; the father had never accepted the faith. When they asked for a funeral the pastor flatly refused, giving no reason for that denial.<\/p>\n
Later Mutwa acidly wrote, \u201cStrangely, the priest knew exactly what he was doing to me when he refused to bury my son, for over the years I had explained to him all the laws and customs of the Bantu. He refused simply because I was not, with the rest of my family, a member of his church.\u201d<\/p>\n
From this tragic experience Vusamazulu Mutwa wrote a scorching essay on \u201cWhy Christianity Has Failed in Africa.\u201d It is part of his bitter book, \u201cAfrica Is My Witness\u201d, which charges, \u201cThe culprits are those petty dictators and sadists who wear their white collars the wrong way round.\u201d All of us in some small or large way have been burned by Pharisaic and rigid religion which demands observance of a legal code without human compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Terror tightened the native\u2019s throat as he clutched his dying son and ran through the hot dust two miles to Africa\u2019s Baragwanath Hospital. Instinctively he knew it was too late and upon arrival had to sadly turn homeward with the baby cold in his arms. The child had died of gastric enteritis and tears dropped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[268,4249,4248],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}