By King Amoah, Our Ashanti Regional Chief Correspondent.
A stark warning has been issued from the pulpit of the New Jerusalem Chapel at Sokoban Ampayoo in Kumasi where Bishop Dr. John Yaw Adu a respected man of God and the church’s founder, has identified the embrace of Western culture and technology as a contributing factor to the challenges confronting the African continent today.
His pronouncement was delivered during a baptism ceremony on Sunday December 27th that painted a picture of a continent adrift and forsaking its own rich heritage for foreign ideals.
Bishop Adu’s assertion is rooted in a deep concern that Africans are increasingly abandoning their traditional practices which he contended were instrumental in the longevity and well being of their forefathers.
The catalyst for this sobering message was the baptism of eighteen individuals who had sought spiritual and physical healing at the church. These congregants had overcome ailments ranging from madness and kidney issues to strokes, epilepsy, blindness, ulcers, severe headaches, and various forms of spiritual attacks – a testament in Bishop Adu’s view, to the power of faith and perhaps implicitly a more holistic approach to the well being lost in modernization.
A key pillar of Bishop Adu’s critique lies in the realm of diet.
He pointedly linked many of the diseases plaguing Africans to dietary choices arguing that the continent has wrongfully copied the foods that the white eats instead of our own traditional foods.
This he believes is a symptom of a broader cultural malaise, questioning the rationale behind Africa’s persistent imitation of Western culture.
The Bishop further alleged that the Western nations in their pursuit of economic prosperity, have successfully brainwashed Africans to believe in their cultural principles.
He highlighted a perceived irony: while Westerners leverage technology to extract value from African resources they simultaneously discourage Africans from utilizing their own traditional healing methods.
The white man based on technology has discouraged Africans to use its traditional herbs for healing while they use the same herbs to manufacture drugs and impose on the blacks, he stated.
Bishop Adu expressed deep concern over the pervasive negative impacts of the Western culture which he believes are creating a significant troubles for Africans.
Beyond pharmaceuticals he noted that technology has fundamentally altered dietary habits, clothing styles and other societal norms.
The proliferation of canned foods with unknown sources in every corner of Africa was cited as a prime example.
Traditional herbal remedies which was once understood for their efficacy by African ancestors are now often misconstrued as a satanic products though Westerners profit from them through a veil of African ignorance.
The current generation the Bishop lamented is disconnected from the knowledge of organic foods due to the Western cultural influence that hinder and fail to encourage organic farming practices among the black people.
The congregation were visibly taken aback when Bishop Adu revealed a critical observation: the very products that the Westerners sell to Africans often bear dire warnings and complex instructions in languages not widely understood by the target consumers.
Danger- use with care, preservation instructions, cigarette smoking is dangerous to health, see date of expiry among others, he quoted, an inscriptions posing a rhetorical question.
If the Westerners are fairly treating Africans why giving so many instructions on the food we consume and drugs we use and how many Africans understand English language to read through their instructions?
Was this practicable in the time of our forefathers?
While Bishop Adu hastened to clarify that his intention is not to condemn all aspects of Western culture or technology as he acknowledge their vital benefits his ultimate plea is for Africans to go back to their roots and learn from the past to maintain good health towards the revival and development of their economies.
He concluded his impactful deliverance with a Biblical allusion to Isaiah 9:1 going foretelling a time when people will recognize destructive principles and actively move away from them ultimately to pave the way for self discovery and prosperity.
