If Germany was made to pay reparations to Europe, Britain must likewise pay reparations to Benin, and so must other nations that stole from the continent. This is because reparations are an essential part of Western Law, which is founded on the Mosaic Law and the Gospel of Christ.

Africa has historically been a place of deliverance in God’s plan and purposes for humanity. Africans must arise and begin to live up to their hugely significant, even decisive, role in global transformation. One person at a time, Africans will have to begin to build a continent that will be a place of intellectual, social, political, spiritual and economic refuge for the rest of humanity.

Therefore, in relating with other ethnicities and people groups, Christians should emulate Nathanael, who left his comfort zone under the shade of a fig tree and took the bold step of going to see and interact with Christ. He walked away from the shade, which was representative of the covering and comfort of his long-held beliefs about people from Nazareth, and stepped out to encounter Christ personally.

About 3,500 years ago, at a time it was unheard of for women to dream of owning landed property in the nation of Israel, some women dared to ask to be allowed to inherit their late father’s land. In response, God commanded that the requests of the women be granted in their entirety. It was a strange command given to a people long used to the subservience of women and their exclusion from matters of enduring and transgenerational economic importance.

The introduction of Christianity to Africa did not come from pristine, unsullied angels. Human beings, mostly of European origin, with entrenched pre-conceived notions, biases and convictions were used as vessels to convey the message of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ to Africans. In many instances, these missionaries mingled their perception and personal opinion with Scripture and imposed doctrinal piety on the hybrid.

In many ways, as Africans, we hold up an image of Western nations as being close to heaven. Therefore, we fall into the trap of copying a world system rife with as much imperfections as can be found in any system built by man. However, the mandate on every African Christian is to work towards a recreation of the Garden of Eden in his community. With due respect for the achievements of the United States and other Western nations, no place in this world today is anything close to the Garden of Eden.

Karl Marx described religion as the opium of the masses, an illusion of happiness, the soul of a soulless nation and the heart of a heartless people. Perhaps, nothing lends more credibility to this statement than when Africans disobey the Biblical injunction to “Watch and Pray,” (Matthew 26:41) and instead pray and pray, or pray and complain, or just complain.

I attended a fascinating conference on African development in Washington D.C. many years ago. During the plenary session, one of the keynote speakers, a learned African-American clergy of repute, made some comments that prompted a heated response from some attendees. At his turn to speak, the gentleman began by making it clear to the audience that no amount of intellectual exercise or financial aid can redeem the situation of people of African descent world over. “We are a people under a curse,” he said with deep conviction, pausing to stare at the response of his audience at such a revelation.