Conference Papers
Religion, the State and Medical Services in Africa T
he concept of secularism raises controversy in most parts of Africa. In a continent where people not only worship, but fear God through the religions that they profess, secularism is taken to mean nonbelief in God.
Dr. Joachim Osur
This definition of secularism could not be further from the truth. On the contrary, secularism proclaims mutual respect between religions and the state. It requires noninterference on religious matters by the state and noninterference on state matters, whether through executive, judicial or legislative processes, by religious institutions. Advocates of secularism are increasingly concerned with the way states are handling this relationship. Most modern-day countries are bound to have many religions represented among their people. In Africa, there are people who practice traditional religions. There are countries like Kenya, where 85 percent of citizens are Christian. Even within Christianity, there are various denominations with different ways of perceiving God. In other countries Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists are the majority.
36 | What Secularism Means to Africa
If religion were not separated from the state, a religion with a majority of adherents in a country could easily push its beliefs in legislation, the judiciary and the application of executive powers. There would be laws derived from the Bible, the Quran, or any other code that the majority religion uses. The same laws would be translated to national policies, standards and guidelines. The religious institution with majority control would impose its beliefs on nonadherents. This is not a position a country would want to find itself in; it is recipe for chaos. People not part of the dominant religion would feel discriminated against and disenfranchised. As we have seen before, they may rather die for their own beliefs than join the religion backed by the government. The Sudanese civil wars, which led to the country breaking into two, were partly because of this political–