Thank you American Atheists for the opportunity to address this convention, my first time doing so and hopefully not the last. I speak here not in my capacity as a board member of Humanists International but as a concerned atheist committed to seeing the flourishing of freethought around the globe. I speak here as a fellow human being determined to slowly undo whatever obstructs the free exercise of reason, the rights and liberties of non-believers, and the realization of a more secular world.

When I founded the Humanist Association of Nigeria in the 1990s, American Atheists was among the organisations that I contacted. Most of what I read about atheism and freethought mainly concerned what organisations like yours were doing: promoting the separation of church and state and equal rights for believers and non-believers. For many years I corresponded with the leaders of American Atheists and I received your magazines and read about your activities, including the challenges you faced trying to grow and organise atheism here in the US.

So make no mistake about it: what you do here in America, here at the American Atheists, inspires many people across the globe, including atheists who live in places like Sudan, Malaysia and, Egypt where atheism and humanism dare not mention their name.

While we may be continents apart, our destinies are shared. Christian nationalism is not only a threat to democracy and human rights here in the US but also in Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. Many African countries face additional threats from traditional religious superstitions, Islamic nationalism, and separatism. That is why atheists need to rethink and reenvision how they organise around the globe, bearing in that atheism is not American. Humanism is not Western. The exercise of freethought is universal. The yearning for freedom without favour and equality without exception is global.

The world is undergoing rapid change. And as the world is changing, so must the way atheism is organised. The world has become more interconnected than at any other time in history. And as the world interconnects, so must the way we build freethought communities. Today more than ever, we must commit to promoting atheism without borders and secularism beyond borders.

As you are aware, two years from now, American Atheists will be hosting the World Humanist Congress. This international event brings together atheists, humanists, rationalists, secularists and, other non-religious persons from different parts of the world. The Congress provides an opportunity for non-theistic people to meet, socialise, discuss, and debate issues of common interest and concern. I am looking forward to that event and I believe that you are looking forward to it, too. As we convene here and warm up to congregate in Washington, D.C. in two years, let me share my hopes for the future and my thoughts on and visions for a new direction for the atheist and humanist movement.

When our forebears met in 1952 and founded the International Humanist and Ethical Union, now Humanists International, they knew that the values of church/mosque-state separation, the civil liberties of non-theists, and the freedom of religion and from religion would only grow and flourish on Earth if the non-religious constituency connected and networked beyond national borders. They knew that for atheism and humanism to flourish in their fullness, their outlook must be global and become transnationally effective. They knew that in the face of global inequalities, resources must be shared. They knew that freethinkers must be creative and innovative in organising. They knew that atheists must cooperate for their shared vision of shared prosperity to be realised.

But seven decades and two years after that meeting, the atheist/humanist movement has largely been consigned to one part of the world, the West, while religion rages with force and ferocity across the globe. Non-theism has not become a transnational effective alternative to dogmatic religion and supernaturalism as envisaged by our founders. And one of the regions where the atheist/humanist movement has fallen short of its promises is my continent, Africa.

Religion persists in Africa, not because Africans are hardwired to be religious, not because Africans are notoriously religious. No, not at all. Religion persists not because there is something uniquely fulfilling in the Christian or Islamic faith. Religion is widespread in Africa because an effective alternative to these religions is missing; because the atheist and humanist movement has failed to organise and address the needs of the non-religious constituency in the region.

Faiths that Western and Eastern religious imperialists introduced to much of Africa centuries ago still have the adherence of the majority of the population because the atheist and humanist movement has been unable to match the power, influence, and funding of the Euro-American evangelicals and their Arab, Middle Eastern Islamic counterparts. Based on my experiences over the years, I am offering a pact for a global rebirth of the atheist/humanist movement. This pact provides a pathway to a better and more exciting future, allowing us to use what is right with our organisation to fix what is wrong with the movement. It is based on the ideas that we can do more and we can do better, that we are in this together, and that no matter how we choose to describe or identify as non-religious, we are one family and one community. 

The statistics say that the non-religious constituency is nonexistent in most African countries. Why? Because in these places, blasphemy and apostasy laws exist and force millions of atheists and humanists to live in closets and pretend to be religious. Millions cannot express their non-belief in the Christian or Islamic god due to fear of being attacked, persecuted, imprisoned, or even murdered with impunity. I offer you a pact that will help us confront this disturbing trend and ensure that the next 70 years of atheism will not be like the last. This pact, which enables the connection and representation of the known and the unknown atheists, the visible and the invisible atheists, and the recognised and the forgotten members of the global atheist/humanist community, rests on four pillars: education, leadership, cooperation, and community, 

The atheist/humanist movement values education and has in its ranks distinguished scientists, philosophers, and other intellectuals. Unfortunately, the educational facility has been underutilised. Those who are non-religious or are indifferent to religion seek knowledge and nourishment for an ethical and responsible life. We must commit to delivering an effective educational program that satisfies this need.

For too long we have operated on the assumption that those who come on board and join the movement know enough and understand enough about who we are, how to be, and how to belong locally and internationally. This way of operating has yielded limited results. It has not worked for the movement in Africa and the global south. It has not made us internationally effective. We can no longer continue to operate on the assumption that everyone is educated or knowledgeable enough to be and to belong. Joining the movement should include a process of education about the movement, including information about what we do, how we live, where we live, the challenges we face in various places, and how we are grappling with these challenges beyond the concerns and interests of our local groups. We need to put in place mechanisms for continuous international education and reeducation.

Part of education entails doing away with those crude stereotypes of people from other races and regions, abandoning those prejudices and misrepresentations that have hampered our ability to galvanise energies, seize opportunities, and organise atheists and humanists in other parts of the world. At the moment, we know very little about ourselves and others, and because we know very little, we are less involved and less engaged. So we have to commit to establishing and strengthening departments that address local and international educational needs.

This pact also urges the atheist movement to invest in leadership training programs because there are many problems around the world today that, to be solved, require the kind of leadership that humanists, atheists, and secularists can provide. We can no longer continue to operate as a global organisation and community without having in place resources to train our future leaders. We need to establish and run faculties that train and graduate spokespersons and representatives every year. The atheist and humanist movement needs an international program that equips aspiring leaders with communication, conflict resolution, team building, and problem-solving skills, as well as other competencies that they need to be effective representatives. The issues that atheists face in the world today are complex and sometimes life-threatening. They require expertise and the atheist movement cannot continue to rely on ad-hoc, self-appointed, and self-taught leaders to handle these issues.

For too long, we have operated on the assumption that anyone who says ‘I am a humanist leader’ is a humanist leader. In many cases, an email or postal correspondence makes one a leader to be entrusted with local and international roles and responsibilities. We need to review this approach and put in place mechanisms that will attract our best and brightest to lead. Unfortunately, what we have at the moment is not working. In Africa, most young people are unemployed or underemployed. They are looking for paid employment, not volunteer jobs and opportunities. Most young people cannot volunteer. It is the same with the elderly. Most of them retire into poverty and bankruptcy. Tired and demoralised, they cannot offer free services. So we cannot sustainably grow based on ad-hoc leadership and volunteerism. 

We need a strategy to incentivise leadership that aligns with the needs and realities in Africa and the global south. We need a training institute where aspiring leaders from different parts of the world can come together, learn together, and train together. This leadership school will deliver its programs online, offline, or in a hybrid form. Part of this leadership mechanism includes mobilising resources to sponsor, support, and manage aspiring leaders. I am working with Kevin Jagoe and the education department of the American Humanist Association to put together an international leadership course that meets the needs of our time. And today I urge you to support this initiative and help give the atheist movement the leadership that it deserves.

There is very little cooperation in the humanist/atheist movement. And it hurts. As a global minority, atheists must collaborate to maximise their limited resources, grow, and become a force to be reckoned with. If we understand each other and have programs where our leaders learn and train together, then we can work together more efficiently. Our organisations can more effectively collaborate. There is very little cooperation in the global atheist movement because there is limited understanding. Because we know very little about one another, we do very little with one another. Because there is little cooperation, the global atheist/humanist movement has yet to live up to its full potential.

Because we know very little about ourselves—about our needs, intentions, and aspirations—and because we sometimes rely on prejudices and stereotypes to relate to one another, we trust very little and we care very little. And with a low level of trust, a robust community cannot be formed. The challenges that atheists and humanists face in other parts of the world seem very distant and are designated as ‘their’ challenges, not ‘ours’. But if we learn to see the problems of other atheists as our problems, their risks and dangers as the risks we all face, then their progress becomes our progress. If we learn to treat each other with love and respect rather than contempt and condescension, we will forge a sense of solidarity that will be the envy of the world.

25 years ago I travelled for my first World Humanist Congress in India. Since then, I have been to many countries in Europe and Asia, and I have been to Australia and New Zealand. I have been to over 15 states here in the US. I did not go to these places because I wanted to go on a holiday. I did not go to these countries because I wanted to use the opportunity to migrate or seek asylum. I travelled to these places because I was driven by a burning desire to understand, connect, and collaborate with people of like minds. I travelled to these places to forge communities of reason, compassion, and critical thinking. That yearning persists as I speak here. That desire burns in the hearts and minds of other atheists and humanists that I have met in the past 28 years, including those in countries where the statistics claim that there are very low percentages of non-believers.

This century beckons on the atheist movement to respond to the yearnings and aspirations of freethinkers and secularists across the world with a renewed sense of hope, vision, and commitment. Let us be that generation that worked and connected atheists in ways that had never before been the case. Let us be that generation that forged a sense of solidarity too often missing, too often ignored, but so much cherished. Based on a commitment to all and responsibility from all, let us work to fulfil that need to belong and to be loved that lurks in the hearts and minds of non-theists across the globe.

There are risks and dangers associated with atheism. It is in addressing these risks that the atheist movement has grown. The risks that atheists face in places like Sudan, Malaysia, Afghanistan, and Indonesia are not dangers that we should flee from but threats that we must confront and face down. They are opportunities that we must seize, to test the power of our ideals and values. Let us answer this call to duty, rally our energies, and realise a more effective global atheist movement. Let us overcome the complacency that has limited the growth and development of freethought and stop making excuses. This is our chance. Our moment is now. Let us provide leadership and forge a sense of fellowship and community that befits an outlook which finds its plenitude in this one life that we have. 

Atheism in the 20th century was judged based on the progress that freethought and secularism made in the West. In this century, it is different and it will be different. Atheism and freethought will be judged based on the progress we make in places like Africa, Papua New Guinea, Bahrain, and the rest of the global south. And this progress can only be realized if atheists do more and do better. And we will!

Further reading on freethought in Nigeria

The price of criticising Islam in northern Nigeria: imprisonment or death, by Emma Park

Secularism in Nigeria: can it succeed? by Leo Igwe

Protecting atheists in Nigeria: the role of ‘safe houses’, by Hank Pellissier

How I lost my religious belief: A personal story from Nigeria, by Suyum Audu

The post A new pact for atheism in the 21st century appeared first on The Freethinker.

Nigeria’s secularism is faltering. Sadly, it holds little hope for Africa’s largest democracy, especially for its minority (ir)religious and belief groups. Section 10 of the nation’s 1999 constitution guarantees the separation of church (mosques, shrines, temples) and state, stipulating that ‘the Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.’ But Nigeria’s secular character has so far been a paper tiger, due to the intense and pervasive mixing of faith and politics at all levels. In everyday governance and policymaking, the influence of religion is overwhelming.

The concept of ‘secularism’ is not mentioned in the constitution. This omission was a deliberate compromise to appease the Islamic establishment, which detests the idea of secularism and has been persistently antagonistic towards the notion of Nigeria as a secular state. This antagonism has increasingly polarised the country politically, because the idea of a secular state is distrusted and misunderstood as meaning an atheist state or a state which is configured to erode the influence and authority of religions.

With hindsight, the omission of secularism from the constitution was an early indication of what lay ahead: a battle for religious supremacy, a superimposition of religion, and a contest of religious politics. Nigeria after independence has been characterised by a fierce struggle by the two main religions, Islam and Christianity, to control and dominate the country’s political and social organisations. Internationally, Christian Nigeria has been backed by the Christian West, and Islamic Nigeria buoyed by the Islamic East. These two foreign faiths were introduced by Westerners and their Arab counterparts, who for centuries used to enslave or colonise Africans. For both Westerners and Arabs, imposing their faith on their African subjects formed a part of their imperialist agenda. 

Western missionaries and Arab or north African jihadists treated traditional beliefs and institutions with contempt, designating other faiths, including local customs and practices, as fetishistic, idolatrous, abhorrent and primitive. After centuries of deploying physical and structural violence against traditional religions, Christianity and Islam have become the dominant faiths, and their privileges well established. Centuries of Christian and Islamic indoctrination have turned Nigeria into a ‘chrislamic’ stronghold: out of a population of around 218 million and counting, roughly half are Muslim and half are Christian (the precise numbers are uncertain and subject to constant fluctuation). Powerful Christian and Muslim authorities perpetuate a tradition of sociopolitical contempt towards other religious and non-religious traditions.

Non-believers are some of those most affected by this religious power game. This category includes Nigerians who identify as atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, sceptics, rationalists, or as religion-free individuals. Until recently those of no religion in Nigeria, who probably constitute about one per cent of the population, were largely invisible. This low number can be explained by the stigma attached to the open and public profession of atheism and irreligiosity, and to a deliberate policy of the suppression of irreligiosity. In general, the religious politics that prevails in Nigeria stifles the rights and liberties of unbelievers. In particular, the religious establishment continues to misrepresent the country’s (ir)religious demographics. For instance, there will be no question about religious affiliation in Nigeria’s 2023 census. So the 2023 census would not highlight the religious or irreligious demographics and the shifts that might have taken place since the last census.

Meanwhile individuals who identify as non-theists, or agnostics, or non-believers in the faith of Christianity and Islam, run the risk of suffering systemic discrimination, exclusion and persecution. As the case of Nigerian humanist Mubarak Bala has demonstrated, those who openly declare their lack of religious belief or dare to question the religious establishment risk being attacked, imprisoned or killed.

The imprisonment of Bala was a huge blow to secularism in Nigeria. It was part of a wider move by the religious and state authorities to clamp down and suppress irreligious expressions and manifestations. Bala’s case is an eloquent testimony to the systematic oppression of non-religious people. Nigerian Muslims are allowed to make statements that disparage non-believers, and to criticise unbelief as a part of their profession of faith: they may exercise their rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression. Unfortunately, in parts of Nigeria like Kano, where Muslims are in the majority, political Islam rules, and Islamic theocrats deny non-believers their basic rights and freedoms with impunity. 

Humanists in Nigeria are still campaigning to overturn Bala’s sentence and get the court to throw out a judgment that criminalises non-religious identities and views. Humanists are mobilising to ensure that religious and belief equality applies in Nigeria. The legal team has lodged an appeal urging the court to review and throw out the judgment. But appeal court processes are usually slow, and even slower if the process, as in this case, challenges the religious status quo. Judgment is expected in 2023 at the earliest.

Amidst this hostile environment, the Humanist Association in Nigeria (HAN), of which I am founder, organised its first naming ceremony in Benue state, central Nigeria, in September. Religious organisations have long had a monopoly over ceremonies and celebrations, including weddings, funerals, and coming of age ceremonies, but humanists are now beginning to change the narrative and to demonstrate that people can celebrate and mark events in their lives without religion. While some non-religious people do not care about celebrating the landmarks in their lives, or do not worry if such ceremonies are conducted in religious ways, many humanists yearn to mark these rites of passage in ways that align with their humanist principles and values.

However, humanists in Nigeria face opposition from families that boycott or threaten to boycott such celebrations. Religious families regard non-religious ceremonies as evil, devilish and satanic. The situation is worse in Muslim-dominated areas, because political Islam leaves no dignified political space for irreligious or ‘Kaffir’ ceremonies under sharia law. The HAN is campaigning to combat religious prejudices and misconceptions about non-religious ceremonies. It is working to dispel the stigma linked to parenting and family living without god.

In the same vein, I have been joined by a Zimbabwean humanist, Tauya Chinama, to direct another secular program, the Ex-cellence Project. This project provides social and psychological support to non-religious ex-clerics in Africa, including ex-priests, seminarians, novices, pastors, evangelists, apostles, deacons, nuns, monks, sisters, hermits, rabbis and imams. People who exit or are exited from the clergy in Africa, no matter what the religion, suffer stigmatisation. They are treated as outcasts and failures who cannot succeed in life. Ex-clerics find it difficult to integrate socially due to narratives that make them feel inadequate. Here is one story from an ex-Catholic priest, Onyeka Okorie, in Nigeria: 

‘I left the priesthood in 2015. I was warned that I could not marry because any woman who married me would incur the wrath of God. I married my beautiful wife in 2016 without a single hitch anyway. They said my new family was already cursed as we had dared God, and that we would not have a child as a consequence. My wife was pregnant immediately after our marriage. They said she would not have a safe delivery, as God had to make a name for himself by punishing my wife with maternal death at childbirth. Yet my wife gave birth to our first child in 2017, our second in 2019, and our third in 2021. All of this happened without a single health or delivery issue. Now they say that my family has only three girls because God must avenge his transgressors, and therefore we will not have any male issue. What they do not know is that, as a humanist, I strongly believe that all children are equal human beings. To reject a child because it is the ‘wrong’ sex would be a gross violation of the rights of the child. I love my wife and my three beautiful daughters. They all give me joy and fulfilment that cannot be measured or valued. This part of my life story proves that religious superstition is no better than feeble myths, no matter who peddles it. Humanity reigns supreme.’

As this former Catholic priest observes, life is not easy for those who exit a religious profession, especially in a religious country like Nigeria. Ex-clerics need to be psychologically strong to cope with the pressures.

The situation is even worse for those who are driven out of the profession against their will. Former religious workers, including Sunday school teachers or those who are expelled from religious training, are demonised. The religious public sees them as existentially damned and doomed, because they have disobeyed God or have been rejected by Him; as a result, they may suffer psychological trauma. Any existential challenge that they face or encounter is seen by many Nigerians as a form of punishment from God.

In a country where religions exert considerable influence over how the state is governed and how society is organised, it is a challenge for non-religious ex-clerics to live normal lives. It is even more challenging for them to speak publicly about their lack of religion. There are no mechanisms to support and assist them as they try to reintegrate into society.

Hence ex-clerics have to resign themselves to a life of loneliness. They often suffer from mental health issues and sometimes fall into alcoholism. I have been told about some ex-clerics who suffered depression, committed suicide or attempted to do so following the exit or expulsion from their clerical job or training. In the face of such odds, clerics who lose their faith frequently feel unable to leave their profession, even when they have lost their belief.

The Ex-cellence Project exists to fill an important need, namely the provision of psycho-social support to non-religious ex-clerics in Africa. The project has been formed to correct misconceptions about clergy work and training, about exiting and being exited from the clergy, and about life after leaving religion and religious work. To further the aim of this project, a WhatsApp group has been formed which comprises non-religious ex-clerics from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Germany. Virtual events will be held to give members opportunities to share their experiences and struggles living as non-religious ex-clerics in a friendly and welcoming environment. As an ex-cleric from Zimbabwe put it, ‘This initiative will help those who are stuck in religious robes against their conscience due to fear of being judged harshly by the toxic religious environment.’

Organisations like HAN and the Ex-cellence Project are a welcome development in a religiously charged and challenging environment like Nigeria. They indicate that humanism has a future here, and that some hope exists for a secular Nigeria. But these initiatives can only survive if the continual attempts by Christian and Islamic theocrats in Nigeria to overrun the country’s secular constitution and democracy are successfully resisted, and if religious tyranny and totalitarianism are deftly contained.

As it stands, Christian and Islamic theocrats are tightening their grip on the political economy of Nigeria. They have been unrelenting in stifling the rights and liberties of humanists, in eroding the secular character of the Nigerian state, and in suffocating the physical and virtual spaces for non-religious and irreligious constituencies. How far humanists succeed in combating these theocratic tendencies will determine if secularism holds any real hope for unbelievers in one of Africa’s most religious countries.

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The post Secularism in Nigeria: can it succeed? appeared first on The Freethinker.