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Faith & Doubt

African voices. Honest questions.
Thoughtful Christian answers.

In conversation with Joshua Maponga

Twenty conversations about God, African identity, freedom, justice and hope. Read each question, hear the person’s statement, and consider the answer.

The question headings are Bisrat’s responses to the sourced statements below, rather than quotations attributed to the speakers. These voices hold different convictions; inclusion does not imply agreement with our answers.

Question 01 of 20 · Identity

Must I leave my African skin at the door to follow Christ?

Joshua Maponga

Zimbabwean author and public speaker

“a Jewish white identity”

In his 2021 interview, Maponga uses this phrase to criticise the identity he believes Christianity imposes. This is a short excerpt from his answer about spirituality and religion. [1]

The answer

Following Jesus does not require becoming European, despising your language or treating your people as spiritually inferior. Jesus was a first-century Jewish man, not the white European figure familiar from some religious art. The Bible locates him within Israel’s story, but it does not make Jewish ethnicity a requirement for salvation. Paul explicitly rejects imposing that requirement on Gentile believers. A white image of Jesus and the living Jesus are different objects of investigation.

Maponga’s objection matters because Christian institutions have sometimes attached the gospel to cultural contempt. The response should begin with repentance wherever that happened. Clothing, instruments, African names, languages and family belonging should not be condemned simply because they are African. Yet cultural affirmation cannot decide every spiritual claim. European traditions and African traditions alike need examination wherever they make claims about worship, revelation or salvation. No culture becomes infallible through being ours.

The Christian invitation is to belong to Christ as an African. That belonging also challenges every people’s loyalties: no nation, ancestor, race or civilisation can take God’s place. Revelation portrays redeemed people from many peoples and languages, not humanity made culturally uniform. Ask exactly what a church is demanding: trust in Jesus, or imitation of someone else’s culture? Rejecting racial domination is compatible with examining Jesus’ claims seriously.

Read in Scripture: Acts 15:7–19 · Galatians 3:26–29 · Revelation 7:9–10

Question 02 of 20 · Spirituality

If the truth lives within me, who can tell me when I am wrong?

Joshua Maponga

Zimbabwean author and public speaker

“Spirituality focuses on the internal connection with your identity”

Maponga’s interview contrasts an inward spiritual connection with the identity he associates with institutional Christianity. [1]

The answer

Self-knowledge is valuable. Knowing your story, acknowledging wounds and refusing an imposed inferiority can restore dignity. Christianity does not require living as a stranger to yourself. But an inward connection is not automatically a dependable revelation about God. Two sincere people can look within and reach incompatible conclusions. Feeling deeply convinced does not tell us which conclusion is true, and a powerful experience does not identify its source by itself.

The Bible treats conscience as important but capable of being distorted. The human heart can recognise genuine wrong and can also excuse what benefits it. This is why Christian spirituality joins inward honesty to something beyond inward feeling: God’s self-disclosure, the teaching of Jesus and examination within an accountable community. That community must itself be tested; a leader’s confidence is no more infallible than a follower’s intuition.

A helpful test is to ask what could correct the belief. Does it survive contrary evidence, careful reading and the testimony of people outside our circle? Does the practice encourage truthfulness and responsibility, or make its teacher impossible to question? Christian faith centres on a claim that something happened outside our private consciousness: Jesus lived, died and rose. His resurrection requires investigation, rather than being established by a feeling. Personal meaning matters, but meaning and truth must remain distinguishable.

Read in Scripture: Jeremiah 17:9–10 · Romans 2:14–16 · 1 John 4:1–3 · 1 Corinthians 15:14–19

Question 03 of 20 · Religion and money

When the preacher is hungry, can the truth still speak freely?

Joshua Maponga

Zimbabwean author and public speaker

“hunger is a bad doctrine”

Maponga’s interview warns that material dependence can compromise a pastor’s message. [1]

The answer

Financial pressure can tempt a religious leader to flatter donors, avoid difficult truths or promise blessings that keep money flowing. Maponga’s warning identifies a real danger. Yet a poor pastor is not automatically dishonest, and a wealthy pastor is not automatically trustworthy. The moral issue is whether money controls the message and whether people are being manipulated. Neither hunger nor prosperity proves a doctrine.

The New Testament permits material support for ministry while forbidding greed and exploitation. Paul could receive gifts and could also work with his hands. These examples resist two opposite mistakes: treating every supported minister as corrupt, and treating a minister’s demands as immune from scrutiny. A congregation should know how its resources are used. Promises of guaranteed wealth, threats attached to giving and payments for access to God contradict grace.

Test the teaching before judging the lifestyle alone. Does the preacher explain Scripture in context? Can members ask questions without retaliation? Are the vulnerable cared for, and are finances accountable? Supporting an honest minister need not become purchasing spiritual favour. If a leader has deceived people, forgiveness does not remove the need for restitution and appropriate consequences. The Christian answer to spiritual profiteering is accountable service under Christ, who cannot be bought by the rich or withheld from the poor.

Read in Scripture: Acts 20:33–35 · 1 Corinthians 9:7–18 · 1 Peter 5:2–3 · 1 Timothy 6:5–10

Question 04 of 20 · Freedom

If we are not all Christian, why must belief be forced upon us?

Ntsiki Mazwai

South African poet, musician and public commentator

“We are not all Christian!”

Mazwai wrote this in an April 2019 post protesting what she described as Christian oppression; the post is reproduced by TshisaLIVE. [2]

The answer

Her statement is plainly true: Africans do not share one religious commitment. A Christian majority, a religious family or a powerful institution has no licence to manufacture faith through intimidation. People should be able to question, decline participation and explain their convictions without humiliation. The freedom Christians seek for their own worship must extend to neighbours who reject their beliefs.

Christianity makes truth claims and calls people to repentance, but persuasion differs from compulsion. Jesus’ followers are told to offer a reason with gentleness and respect. A confession extracted by fear is not the trusting response the gospel seeks. Families and churches should distinguish teaching their convictions from punishing honest uncertainty. Public authority should protect neighbours impartially, rather than treating religious disagreement as evidence of lesser citizenship.

Freedom of conscience does not mean that every belief is true or that no one may criticise another belief. It creates room for that discussion to happen honestly. Mazwai’s objection therefore challenges Christian conduct without automatically disproving Christ. Christians can apologise for coercive behaviour, oppose it consistently and still explain why they believe Jesus is Lord. The reader’s next question can be specific: what evidence supports his claims, and what response does he ask for? That conversation should remain open even when agreement does not follow.

Read in Scripture: 1 Peter 3:15–16 · Matthew 22:39 · John 18:36 · Romans 14:1–12

Question 05 of 20 · Faith in public life

When the calendar carries a cross, whose freedom does it honour?

Ntsiki Mazwai

South African poet, musician and public commentator

“Why must we have Christian public holidays when we are not all Christian?”

This is Mazwai’s own question, posted on 28 April 2019. Our heading explores the concern about public recognition and religious equality. [2]

The answer

A public holiday can reflect historical practice without requiring every citizen to worship. Yet the question of whose traditions receive recognition is legitimate, particularly where some communities feel invisible. Christians should hear that concern instead of assuming that anyone questioning a holiday is hostile to all Christians. A country’s calendar is a civic arrangement; it is not a proof that the religion it commemorates is true.

One can distinguish permission to celebrate, public recognition and compulsory religious observance. These are different questions. A Christian may reasonably value time to mark Christ’s birth or resurrection while defending a neighbour’s freedom to attach no religious meaning to the day. Decisions about a shared calendar should consider fairness, practical consequences and the voices of different communities. The gospel does not depend on Christians controlling the calendar.

Jesus’ resurrection would remain a claim to examine even if Easter ceased to be a public holiday. Equally, an official holiday cannot substitute for understanding that claim. Christianity asks for allegiance to Christ rather than cultural prestige. Christians should therefore argue about public arrangements without spiritual threats and without equating their own civic preferences with God’s commands. A more honest conversation asks what arrangement enables people of different convictions to live together fairly, while leaving them free to debate the truth of those convictions.

Read in Scripture: Romans 14:5–6 · Matthew 22:15–22 · Colossians 2:16–17 · 1 Peter 3:15–16

Question 06 of 20 · God and religious labels

If God is not a Christian, what does it mean to know him through Christ?

P. L. O. Lumumba

Kenyan lawyer and public intellectual

“God is not a Christian”

Lumumba made this statement in an ACTEA theological address in 2023, quoted in The Final Call’s report. He was challenging human constructions of Christianity. [3]

The answer

God is not a member of a denomination, an ethnic community or a religious club. Christians do not believe the Creator began to exist when the word ‘Christian’ appeared. In that sense, Lumumba’s statement can expose a narrow picture of God. The Christian claim is that the eternal God makes himself known through Jesus Christ, and people who follow Christ receive their name from him.

The important question is therefore what Jesus reveals, rather than which label we assign to God. The New Testament presents Jesus as more than one teacher among interchangeable teachers: the Son who reveals the Father, reconciles sinners and shares divine glory. These claims need interpretation and examination. Merely saying that God exceeds denominations does not establish that the claims are false; saying them confidently does not establish that they are true.

Distinguish the Christian name, the historical development of institutions and the identity of Christ. Churches can acquire customs, power structures and errors long after Jesus. Those developments should be scrutinised against the texts that bear witness to him. Christianity’s centre is not the infallibility of every Christian institution. It is the person and work of Jesus. An honest response to Lumumba therefore rejects making God a tribal mascot and asks whether Christ really is the decisive revelation of the God whom no institution owns.

Read in Scripture: Acts 11:26 · John 1:1–18 · John 14:6–11 · Colossians 1:15–20

Question 07 of 20 · Scripture and power

If the hunter told the story, can we trust the Bible he brought?

Chinua Achebe

Nigerian novelist and essayist

“the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”

In his 1994 Paris Review interview, Achebe invokes a proverb about whose perspective history preserves. Our question applies that concern to the use of Scripture under colonial power. [4]

The answer

Achebe’s warning exposes a danger: powerful people can narrate events so that their own violence appears noble and another people’s suffering disappears. Christians should therefore ask whose voices were excluded when the Bible was presented in colonial settings. A preacher’s account of conquest is not automatically the Bible’s account of justice. Recovering the testimony of the harmed is necessary for judging the messenger’s conduct honestly.

However, the identity of a later messenger does not determine whether an earlier text is true. The biblical writings did not originate with modern European colonial governments. Their claims must be examined through their own historical setting, literary context and transmission. Ask what a passage actually says, how an interpreter used it and what evidence supports its central claims. Textual preservation, historical reliability and divine inspiration are related questions, but proving one does not automatically prove all three.

The Bible itself records the failures of kings, priests and apostles rather than making its human leaders uniformly heroic. It judges exploitation and brings every people under God’s judgment. Those features do not settle every objection, but they complicate treating it simply as a conqueror’s self-justification. Read a Gospel directly, compare the interpretation you inherited with the text and investigate Jesus’ death and resurrection. Hear the people the hunter silenced, while allowing Scripture to challenge the hunter, the listener and the church that carried it.

Read in Scripture: Amos 5:10–15 · Luke 1:1–4 · Acts 17:11 · 1 Corinthians 15:1–19

Question 08 of 20 · Human dignity

If I can no longer serve my community, have I become an enemy of God?

Ibrahim Traoré

Burkinabè military leader

“A being who is not useful to their community is an enemy of God.”

English translation of an excerpt from Traoré’s 4 September 2026 address. The government report presents it within a call to reject resignation and contribute to communal development. [5]

The answer

Serving our community matters, and religious language should not excuse indifference to suffering. But taken as a universal measure of a person’s standing with God, usefulness is inadequate. A baby, a person with profound disabilities or an older person unable to work does not become God’s enemy through dependence. Christian dignity rests on being made in God’s image, not on a productivity test. Human worth survives the loss of strength, earnings and public influence.

Christianity does distinguish unwillingness to help from inability to help. Someone capable of serving can be challenged about selfish neglect, while someone in need should receive care. The community must not place the entire burden on the vulnerable person to prove their value. Its own faithfulness is tested by whether it protects people who cannot repay it. Matthew 25 turns our attention toward the hungry, sick and imprisoned.

Nor can we earn reconciliation with God by accumulating useful achievements. The gospel announces grace for sinners through Christ; good works follow that gift rather than purchase it. A productive citizen can still be cruel or dishonest, and an incapacitated believer can still belong fully to Christ. Traoré’s call to social responsibility can therefore be heard alongside a necessary Christian qualification: serve wholeheartedly, but do not make usefulness the foundation of anyone’s dignity or salvation.

Read in Scripture: Genesis 1:27 · Matthew 25:31–46 · Ephesians 2:8–10 · 1 Corinthians 12:22–26

Question 09 of 20 · Creation and responsibility

Can we praise creation’s Maker while leaving his earth wounded?

Wangari Maathai

Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

“We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds”

Maathai’s 2004 Nobel Lecture connects environmental care with human wellbeing, democracy and peace. This short excerpt introduces our question about Christian responsibility. [6]

The answer

Thanking God for creation while carelessly destroying it is an inconsistency Christians should confront. Land, water and living creatures are not merely disposable scenery around the human story. Genesis presents the world as God’s good creation and gives humanity responsibility within it. Stewardship means using resources responsibly, rather than treating ownership or technological power as permission for unlimited damage.

Maathai’s appeal also reminds us that environmental injury reaches people. Polluted water, damaged soil and the loss of trees can threaten food, livelihoods and the wellbeing of communities with little power to protect themselves. Love of neighbour therefore includes attention to how our habits and institutions affect the places others depend on. Practical decisions need sound evidence, careful assessment and recognition of competing needs. A biblical commitment to care does not make every proposed environmental policy automatically wise.

Christianity distinguishes the Creator from creation: caring for the earth does not require worshipping the earth or giving it divine authority. Nor does a promise of future renewal excuse neglect now. Resurrection hope concerns God’s victory over decay, and present obedience should reflect that hope. Begin with the responsibilities within reach: refuse wasteful harm, protect shared resources and support competent work that helps communities flourish. We cannot save ourselves through environmental achievement, but people reconciled to the Creator should take seriously the world entrusted to their care.

Read in Scripture: Genesis 1:26–31 · Genesis 2:15 · Psalm 24:1 · Romans 8:19–23

Question 10 of 20 · Identity and power

If the oppressor entered my mind, how do I learn to see God freely?

Steve Biko

South African Black Consciousness thinker and anti-apartheid leader

“the mind of the oppressed”

In I Write What I Like, Biko identifies the oppressed person’s mind as the oppressor’s most powerful weapon. This short excerpt names the centre of that warning. [7]

The answer

People can be taught to regard themselves as inferior until domination begins to feel natural. Biko’s diagnosis makes it necessary to examine the picture of God transmitted by oppressive institutions. Did the teaching present white authority as sacred? Did it portray African people as incapable of thinking for themselves? Did questioning a leader become equivalent to questioning God? Such claims should be confronted rather than defended as Christian loyalty.

The biblical account of humanity offers a direct challenge to racial hierarchy: all people bear God’s image, and no ethnic group owns access to Christ. But quoting those truths is insufficient if church practice contradicts them. Communities must make room for African scholarship, leadership, languages and honest criticism. Recognising manipulation also means examining our own reactions. A belief does not become true because an oppressor used it, and does not become false for that reason alone. Assess the claim as well as the messenger.

Christian freedom of mind is not the replacement of one unquestionable human authority with another. It includes testing teaching, refusing false claims of superiority and bringing conscience under truth rather than intimidation. Read substantial biblical passages, compare interpretations and ask who benefits from a particular reading. Faithfulness to Jesus can require resisting a preacher or institution that misrepresents him. Intellectual liberation should make examination possible, rather than deciding in advance that every inherited belief must be either preserved or destroyed.

Read in Scripture: Genesis 1:26–27 · Acts 17:11 · Galatians 3:28 · Romans 12:2

Question 11 of 20 · Language and belonging

Must God speak a foreign tongue before my own words count?

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Kenyan novelist and thinker

“Language carries culture”

In ‘The Language of African Literature’ (1985), Ngũgĩ argues that language shapes identity and that colonial domination also operated through the suppression of African languages. [8]

The answer

English does not bring a prayer closer to God than isiXhosa, Kiswahili or Gĩkũyũ. Ngũgĩ’s concern about language matters because people can be taught that their own words are suitable only for ordinary life, while serious thought or divine truth belongs to another people’s language. Christianity gives no ethnic community that monopoly. The message of Christ is intended to be understood by the people who hear it.

Acts 2 describes listeners hearing the proclamation in their own languages. Paul likewise insists that speech in a congregation should communicate intelligibly. These texts challenge a church that confuses unfamiliar language with spiritual depth. Translations, teaching and worship should enable understanding, not create dependence on someone who alone claims access to the meaning. Learning Greek or Hebrew can assist careful study; it does not make those who lack them lesser Christians.

At the same time, every translation requires judgment. Words carry cultural associations, and a familiar term may import a meaning the biblical passage does not intend. Respecting our language therefore includes translating accurately and explaining difficult concepts honestly. No translation, African or European, becomes beyond criticism through cultural loyalty. Christians can treasure their mother tongue, learn other languages and test interpretations against the text. The goal is neither cultural erasure nor linguistic isolation. It is to hear God’s word clearly and respond to Christ as ourselves.

Read in Scripture: Acts 2:5–11 · 1 Corinthians 14:6–19 · Revelation 7:9–10

Question 12 of 20 · Living together

Can we belong to one nation without believing in one God?

Nelson Mandela

South African anti-apartheid leader and former president

“It is not our diversity which divides us”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation reproduces this excerpt from Conversations with Myself, where Mandela discusses ethnicity, religion, culture and democratic belonging. [9]

The answer

People who differ about God can share a country, a neighbourhood and a commitment to each other’s protection. Civic belonging should not require a religious conversion. Christians have reasons within their own faith to defend that shared life: neighbours bear God’s image, and loving them is not conditional on their agreement. Mandela’s emphasis on diversity challenges religious communities to practise respect beyond their own boundaries.

But peaceful coexistence and agreement about ultimate truth are different things. One person may believe Jesus rose bodily; another may deny that event. Both can be protected as citizens, while their claims cannot both be accurate in the same sense. Recognising that disagreement is not itself hatred. It is possible to seek truth, offer an argument and listen carefully without making an opponent into an enemy.

The Christian responsibility is to combine conviction with neighbourly conduct. We should oppose discrimination, refuse racial and religious scapegoating and cooperate on genuine common goods. We should also describe our beliefs honestly rather than pretending differences do not matter. Shared dignity provides the basis for a serious conversation. If someone questions Christ’s claims, answer the question rather than questioning their right to belong. A society can protect the freedom to differ while its members continue investigating what is true.

Read in Scripture: Acts 17:26 · Matthew 22:37–39 · Luke 10:25–37 · 1 Peter 3:15–16

Question 13 of 20 · Liberation and salvation

When a continent breaks its chains, what can heal the heart?

Kwame Nkrumah

Ghanaian independence leader and first president

“Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.”

Nkrumah spoke these words on Ghana’s independence day, 6 March 1957. His speech also called for God’s blessing; our question distinguishes political liberation from reconciliation with God. [10]

The answer

Political liberation is a real good. Nkrumah’s refusal to celebrate one country’s freedom in isolation challenges narrow concern for our own security. Christians should not dismiss independence, dignity or protection from oppression as matters of little importance beside ‘spiritual things’. Human beings live in bodies and communities, and injustice has consequences that require practical action.

Yet the end of foreign rule does not automatically end greed, cruelty or the desire to dominate. A newly independent society still needs honest institutions, accountability and care for those without influence. The Christian diagnosis of sin applies to every race and political camp. That does not make victims and perpetrators equally responsible for a particular wrong; it means that changing the identity of those in power cannot by itself reconcile people to God or guarantee just government.

The gospel announces freedom from guilt and the mastery of sin through Jesus Christ. It calls people to repentance and forms a way of life that includes restitution, truthfulness and love of neighbour. No party, nation or revolutionary leader can take Christ’s place as saviour. This conviction should make Christians less vulnerable to political hero-worship, rather than less committed to justice. Work for the freedom of those still oppressed, test leaders by their conduct and acknowledge the limits of political rescue. A liberated continent remains a continent whose people need grace.

Read in Scripture: Isaiah 1:16–17 · John 8:31–36 · Luke 19:8–10 · Romans 3:22–26

Question 14 of 20 · Community

If I am human through others, who protects me when the group turns cruel?

Desmond Tutu

South African Anglican archbishop and anti-apartheid leader

“we can be human only together”

The Tutu Legacy Foundation reproduces this phrase in its account of his interfaith spirit and understanding of shared humanity. [11]

The answer

Community gives us language, care, memory and the relationships through which we grow. Tutu’s statement challenges the fantasy that people create themselves in isolation. Christianity likewise treats love of neighbour and mutual responsibility as central. The suffering of another person is not simply someone else’s private problem. We owe each other care even when independence would be more convenient.

Yet belonging is not enough to guarantee goodness. A family can conceal abuse, a congregation can protect a predator and a nation can applaud persecution. When community becomes coercive, the individual needs a dignity that the group cannot vote away. Christianity grounds that dignity in God’s image and places every community under moral judgment. Jesus’ warnings about harming the vulnerable apply inside religious communities as well as outside them.

A Christian account of ubuntu should therefore include limits on group authority. Honour elders without making them infallible; support family without concealing violence; value unity without requiring victims to remain silent. Healthy belonging makes room for protection, correction and dissent. The body metaphor in 1 Corinthians emphasises care for members regarded as weaker, rather than their sacrifice for the reputation of the strong. We flourish together when the community serves its people truthfully. When it fails, love may require challenging it, seeking protection and holding its leaders accountable.

Read in Scripture: Genesis 1:27 · 1 Corinthians 12:12–26 · Matthew 18:5–6 · Acts 5:29

Question 15 of 20 · Faith and public justice

When faith leaves injustice untouched, does it become mere superstition?

Julius Nyerere

Tanzanian independence leader and former president

“a set of superstitions”

In ‘Poverty, Christianity and Revolution’ (1971), based on his 1970 Maryknoll address, Nyerere warns against a church that fails to confront social conditions which degrade people. [12]

The answer

A church that blesses the powerful while remaining indifferent to the people they exploit gives a distorted witness. Nyerere’s challenge asks whether religion changes how we treat actual neighbours or merely provides reassuring ceremonies. The prophets condemn worship offered alongside oppression. Christians should therefore examine practices and institutions, not only the sincerity of individual feelings.

The gospel is not identical to a political programme. Its central announcement is reconciliation with God through Christ’s death and resurrection. But that announcement brings moral obligations: those who receive grace must not knowingly profit from another person’s degradation. Practical mercy and opposition to injustice are consequences of Christian obedience, even though neither can purchase salvation. Separating proclamation from conduct empties our witness; replacing Christ with a programme changes the message.

Churches should teach clearly about corruption, discrimination and exploitation while resisting capture by any party. Proposed remedies need evidence and accountability: a policy described as liberating can still harm the people it promises to help. Christians should listen to those affected, support responsible reform and challenge wrongdoing inside their own communities. Nor should they call every disagreement about a remedy indifference to justice. Nyerere’s warning is best answered through a church that both proclaims Christ and practises costly neighbour-love. Worship should form people who face injustice truthfully, rather than provide a shelter from moral responsibility.

Read in Scripture: Amos 5:21–24 · Micah 6:8 · Ephesians 2:8–10 · James 2:14–17

Question 16 of 20 · God and evidence

Are the gods only poems we wrote against the dark?

Wole Soyinka

Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate

“all these religions are just metaphors”

Soyinka says this in his 1997 conversation with Ulli Beier about Yoruba religion and ways of interpreting the unknown. [13]

The answer

Religions do use metaphor. A text can call God a rock without claiming that God is a mineral. Images can communicate dependence, protection and relationship in ways that a technical definition cannot. Soyinka’s interpretation asks a deeper question: whether there is a reality beyond those images, or whether religious language only expresses human attempts to face the unknown. Identifying a metaphor does not settle that question.

Christianity contains poetry and symbolism, but it also makes claims about events. It says Jesus was crucified, buried and raised. Paul explicitly argues that if Christ was not raised, Christian faith fails. The claim therefore resists being reduced entirely to a useful story. A historical event can carry symbolic meaning while remaining something that did or did not happen. Its emotional power cannot establish its occurrence.

The investigation should distinguish three questions: what the language means, whether the described reality exists and what evidence supports the claim. Arguments from the order of the world or moral obligation may contribute to a case for God, but they do not establish every Christian doctrine on their own. The resurrection requires its own examination of testimony and explanations. Christianity invites us to read its poetry intelligently and test its central claims seriously. A moving metaphor can help us see; it cannot substitute for what there is to see.

Read in Scripture: Psalm 18:2 · Luke 1:1–4 · 1 Corinthians 15:12–19 · John 20:24–31

Question 17 of 20 · Poverty and hope

Is heaven a promise of justice, or a lullaby for the hungry?

Fela Kuti

Nigerian Afrobeat musician and critic of religious power

“suffer suffer for earth, enjoy for heaven”

This brief lyric excerpt appears in Fela’s official album notes for Shuffering & Shmiling, which criticises religious passivity and privileged religious leaders. [14]

The answer

Fela’s criticism lands wherever people are told to endure avoidable misery while their leaders profit from their obedience. A promise about heaven can be misused to discourage protest, protect exploitation and make the poor feel guilty for asking for change. Christians should admit that danger. Future hope is not permission to neglect a hungry neighbour or to let a religious leader escape accountability.

The biblical picture of hope includes present responsibility. The prophets condemn exploitation, Jesus cares for bodies as well as souls, and James rejects words of concern that withhold food and clothing. Christian generosity should be practical, and churches should examine the economic relationships within their own communities. At the same time, helping today does not make hope beyond death unnecessary. Some wrongs cannot be repaired within a victim’s lifetime, and every person remains mortal.

Christian hope rests on the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of final judgment and renewal. It is not established by how comforting it feels, nor disproved because comfort can be abused. Ask whether its central claim is true and whether the church’s behaviour reflects it. A faithful response serves the poor now, refuses spiritual profiteering and refuses to call death the final measure of justice. Heaven should strengthen resistance to wrong, rather than put the people suffering from wrong to sleep.

Read in Scripture: Amos 5:11–15 · James 2:14–17 · Luke 6:20–26 · 1 Corinthians 15:20–26

Question 18 of 20 · Dignity and equality

Can a community be free while its women are still in chains?

Thomas Sankara

Burkinabè revolutionary leader and former president

“The revolution cannot triumph without the emancipation of women”

The title and theme of Sankara’s 8 March 1987 speech challenge the exclusion and oppression of women. [15]

The answer

A community cannot claim to honour human dignity while treating women as disposable, voiceless or inherently inferior. Christians should hear Sankara’s challenge as a question about their own conduct. Women and men bear God’s image, and abuse is not excused by marriage, custom or religious office. Calling a pattern ‘traditional’ does not answer whether it is just.

Biblical interpretation needs care because Christians differ about roles in marriage and church leadership. Those disagreements should be stated honestly, with the relevant passages read in context. They cannot erase the obligations shared across those debates: women’s full human dignity, protection from violence, access to learning and accountable treatment. Jesus receives women as disciples, and the resurrection narratives give women a significant place as witnesses. No leader may use a doctrine of authority to demand sinful obedience or conceal exploitation.

Freedom also requires more than formal praise. Are women able to report wrongdoing safely? Are their insights heard? Are perpetrators held responsible? Does a community protect a person in danger instead of protecting its own image? Christian reconciliation must not pressure victims into silence or immediate return to an unsafe situation. The gospel addresses sinners of both sexes with the same need for grace. A Christian answer to Sankara should therefore include rigorous interpretation and concrete action: refuse degradation, confront abuse and build communities in which dignity becomes visible.

Read in Scripture: Genesis 1:27 · Luke 10:38–42 · John 20:11–18 · Ephesians 5:21–33

Question 19 of 20 · Grief and resurrection

When grief teaches us its cruel lessons, can hope speak without lying?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian novelist and essayist

“Grief is a cruel kind of education.”

Adichie wrote this in ‘Notes on Grief’ (2020), following her father’s death. Her account of mourning opens our question about Christian hope; we do not assume she shares the answer. [16]

The answer

Grief cannot be answered faithfully by demanding that the bereaved stop feeling it. Adichie’s description resists easy condolences, and Christians should hear that resistance. Death takes a person we love, rather than merely creating a theological puzzle. Jesus weeps at Lazarus’s grave, and the Psalms give sorrow words without pretending that every painful question has been resolved.

Christian hope is more than the assertion that death must somehow be harmless. It rests on the claim that Jesus has been raised bodily and that those who belong to him will share resurrection life. Paul makes this claim so central that its falsity would undermine the faith itself. Emotional comfort cannot establish the event, and the fact that a belief offers comfort does not disprove it. The testimony and competing explanations deserve careful examination.

This hope must also be stated precisely. Christianity does not promise that everyone’s final destiny is the same, or that a preacher can announce it confidently at every funeral. Jesus speaks of resurrection to life and resurrection to judgment, and the gospel invites us to trust him. In the meantime, love the bereaved concretely: listen, remain present and help with ordinary burdens without forcing a cheerful ending. Grief and faith can coexist. If Christ is risen, hope does not require denying the cruelty of death; it rests on the promise that death will not rule forever.

Read in Scripture: John 11:25–36 · John 5:28–29 · 1 Corinthians 15:12–26 · 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

Question 20 of 20 · Wounded faith and hope

When my life becomes a lament, can faith hear the song?

Miriam Makeba

South African musician and anti-apartheid campaigner

“No! I was singing about my life”

South African History Online reproduces this interview excerpt from Makeba’s response to being described as a political singer. Her lived experience provides the starting point for our question. [17]

The answer

A person’s account of pain should be heard before it becomes a subject for argument. Makeba’s statement reminds us that what an observer labels ‘political’ may be someone else’s daily experience of exclusion, exile or loss. Churches can make the same mistake when they classify a wounded person’s question as rebellion without first listening to what happened.

The Bible gives grief a voice. The Psalms ask why God seems absent, Jesus weeps at a grave and the prophets name injustice. Honest lament is not the opposite of faith. It is possible to bring confusion, anger and fear to God without pretending that the suffering is acceptable. If religious people caused the wound, the response should include protection and accountability. Forgiveness cannot be used to erase what happened or to demand restored trust before trustworthiness has been demonstrated.

Christian hope does not promise that every loss will be repaired immediately. It centres on Christ’s death and resurrection, and the claim that God will judge wrong and renew creation. Examine that claim at your own pace while receiving the care you need. Read a Gospel, keep your strongest questions in view and seek a community willing to admit failures as well as explain its convictions. Faith can hear the lament when it follows the Christ who receives the weary. The conversation begins with listening and continues toward truth, rather than asking pain to perform a cheerful ending.

Read in Scripture: Psalm 13 · John 11:32–36 · Matthew 11:28–30 · Revelation 21:3–5

Sources, briefly

Short excerpts retain their original context. Translations and reported quotations are identified beside the statement. Source links checked on 10 October 2026.

Joshua Maponga — interview, 4 July 2021 — First-person discussion of identity, spirituality, creation and ministry.
Ntsiki Mazwai — posts of 28 April 2019 — Posts reproduced by TshisaLIVE, 30 April 2019; religious freedom and public holidays.
P. L. O. Lumumba — ACTEA address, 2023 — Quoted in The Final Call, 15 December 2025; theology, colonialism and slavery.
Chinua Achebe — The Art of Fiction, 1994 — Interview with Jerome Brooks, The Paris Review; storytelling and the viewpoint of the colonised.
Ibrahim Traoré — school excellence address, 4 September 2026 — Burkina Faso government report; excerpts translated from French.
Wangari Maathai — Nobel Lecture, 10 December 2004 — Primary lecture; environmental responsibility and the connections between development, democracy and peace.
Steve Biko — I Write What I Like (1978) — Primary writings reproduced online; ‘We Blacks’ and ‘Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity’.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o — The Language of African Literature, 1985 — Primary essay in New Left Review I/150; language, culture and colonial power.
Nelson Mandela — authorised quotation selection — Nelson Mandela Foundation; extracts from Conversations with Myself and Nelson Mandela: By Himself.
Kwame Nkrumah — independence speech, 6 March 1957 — Full primary speech reproduced by AdomOnline; independence, African liberation and responsibility.
Desmond Tutu — interfaith reflections — Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation; ubuntu and cooperation across faiths.
Julius Nyerere — Poverty, Christianity and Revolution, 1971 — Primary address published in New Blackfriars; church responsibility toward poverty and degrading social structures.
Wole Soyinka — conversation with Ulli Beier, 1997 — Isokan Yoruba interview, reproduced by Eleda in 2024; religion and metaphor.
Fela Kuti — Shuffering & Shmiling (1978) — Official catalogue and album notes; one brief lyric excerpt.
Thomas Sankara — women’s liberation speech, 8 March 1987 — English translation of the speech on women’s emancipation.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — Notes on Grief, 10 September 2020 — First-person essay in The New Yorker; grief following her father’s death.
Miriam Makeba — biographical entry — South African History Online reproduces a Times interview excerpt on singing about her own life.

Portrait credits: Joshua Maponga (The Speakers Firm) · Ntsiki Mazwai (Wiki Mzansi) · P. L. O. Lumumba (Global Initiative for the Advancement of Africa) · Ibrahim Traoré (Bamjo226 · CC0) · Steve Biko (Cape Argus · public domain) · Nelson Mandela (Kingkongphoto / celebrity-photos.com · CC BY-SA 2.0) · Desmond Tutu (Benny Gool · public domain) · Wole Soyinka (Frankie Fouganthin · CC BY-SA 4.0) · Fela Kuti (Celluloid Records · public domain) · Thomas Sankara (The Militant / Ernest Harsch · public domain) · Miriam Makeba (Paul Weinberg · CC BY-SA 3.0) · Chinua Achebe (Carlo Bavagnoli · Public domain) · Wangari Maathai (Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0) · Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Niccolò Caranti · CC BY-SA 3.0) · Kwame Nkrumah (The National Archives UK - Flickr account · OGL v1.0) · Julius Nyerere (Rob Mieremet / Anefo · CC0) · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (librairie mollat · CC BY 3.0). Images resized for the page; source pages provide full attribution and licences.