Singing in Chains While Calling It Worship

Manipulated minds won’t get this. They never do. To them, anyone who questions the system is either “demonic,” “lost,” or in urgent need of extra prayer sessions, preferably three times a day. Morning, lunch, and night. Because apparently poverty responds best to noise.

Let’s start with a history lesson that never makes it into Sunday sermons. Slaves were allowed to go to church on Sundays, but they were not allowed water breaks during the week. Worship was permitted. Rest was not. Salvation for the soul, exhaustion for the body. That alone should tell you everything about how religion was deployed. Not to liberate, but to pacify. Not to awaken, but to sedate.

Christianity did not land in Africa in its original form. It went through a long journey of mutation. It started in Israel as a family, a way of life rooted in community and shared responsibility. It moved to Rome, where it became a religion, structured, regulated, and institutionalized. From Rome it went to England, where it was refined into politics, used to justify empire, conquest, and domination. By the time it finally arrived in Africa, it had completed its evolution and showed up as a business.

And like every good business, it needed raw materials. Africa supplied the people. Poverty supplied the desperation. Colonialism supplied the structure. Capitalism supplied the greed.

In Africa, faith became an industry. Hope became a product. Miracles became marketing strategies. We sell anointing oil, holy water, special prayers, prophetic directions, and premium access to God. Entry is free, but staying hopeful costs money. The poorer the congregation, the bigger the promises. The louder the “Amen,” the emptier the pockets.

Colonialism did not just steal land and minerals. It stole confidence, self-belief, and the ability to think independently. Religion helped finish the job. It trained Africans to obey, not question. To wait, not build. To kneel, not innovate. To believe that suffering is holy and poverty is a spiritual test.

We pray a lot. Oh, we pray a lot. So much prayer that there is barely time left to work. Evening prayers. Lunch prayers. Night prayers. All-night prayers. When exactly are people supposed to develop skills, start businesses, invent solutions, or build wealth? Or has poverty been rebranded as divine destiny?

We are kept in a permanent state of “transit.” Always waiting. Waiting for breakthroughs. Waiting for miracles. Waiting for God’s time. While we wait, capitalism keeps moving. The world keeps innovating. Other nations keep building. We keep fasting.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth that rarely gets applause. God is not interested in religious routines. He is interested in character, action, and responsibility. Repentance without transformation is theatre. Prayer without effort is noise. Faith without works, the Bible itself says it, is useless.

Religion, when abused, becomes the most efficient tool for mental slavery. The biggest chains today are not physical. They are mental. And Africa has mastered the art of defending those chains in the name of faith.

Let’s be brutally honest. If you were born into a Muslim family, you would likely defend Islam with passion. Born Christian? Same energy. That alone proves that much of what we believe is conditioning, not revelation. Religion shapes the mind before reason is even allowed to enter the room.

Africa’s poverty is not only political. It is not only economic. It is also psychological and spiritual, engineered through centuries of colonial control and maintained through religious manipulation. Many of the people who actually built things on this continent were not the loudest in church. They were disciplined. Creative. Consistent. They worked. They failed. They learned. They tried again.

Look around. Churches are full of people waiting for miracles. Businesses, workshops, and offices are full of people creating value. One group is taught to wait for heaven. The other is busy building something on earth. Their confidence is not built on sermons but on results.

Let’s stop insulting intelligence with spiritual gymnastics. You cannot pray for a car to take you to work without driving it. You drive, then you pray for safety. God will not eat for you. You must eat and ask for protection. God will not build the business for you. Faith is not a substitute for effort.

Faith and hard work must walk together. One without the other is a scam.

There has been a lot, a lot, of manipulation in the name of Christianity 😂. African society, especially those ready to learn, relearn, and unlearn, must wake up. Religion has damaged our thinking. Deeply. A reawakening is overdue.

God is not threatened by critical thinking. Only systems built on control are.

Think. Work. Pray. Sometimes in that order.

And maybe, just maybe, Africa will finally stop singing in chains and start breaking them.