Yorubaland’s Future Lies in Peaceful Coexistence, Not Hate — Bashir Lucas Samson Lukman

One night in 2018, I sat with some African Americans who were in Osogbo for the Osun-Osogbo Festival. We were at Aloha Hotel when someone at the table asked, “If you could change the world, what one thing would you do?”

One of them said he would eradicate the White Man, Islam and Christianity from Africa.

I asked him why that would be necessary.

Is religion really the problem of Africa? There are nations that adopted Islam and Christianity just like African countries did, yet they thrived. So, is it a religion problem, an African problem, or a black man’s problem? How come other nations have succeeded despite religion, but when it comes to Africa, religion suddenly becomes the problem?

It is also a fallacy that Africa buys into religion more than others. In England, their traditional religion has gone almost extinct, with Christianity becoming dominant. Arabs practiced idolatry before Islam, and today most of them practice a more pristine form of Islam than the average African man who goes to the mosque on Friday, patronizes a voodoo baba on Saturday, and attends church on Sunday.

Today, we have a group of people in Yorubaland who are not after Christianity but Islam. They, along with some Christians, have been at the neck of Muslims, with some promising that we will not have Islam in Yorubaland in the next 100 years, citing terrorist activities as their justification.

Islam has been in Yorubaland since the 14th century, and there has been peaceful coexistence. To think that Muslims, who constitute half—if not more—of the entire Yoruba population would simply fold their arms while being persecuted is daydreaming.

Anyone who wants a successful and progressive Yorubaland should work towards inclusivity and peaceful coexistence, not dream about abolishing Islam in Yorubaland. If they persist, what they will get is a society where families turn against each other because religion will become a dividing line within the same homes.

Yoruba Muslims cannot be strangers in their fatherland.

Anyone who wants to worship Ogun or Oya, go to church, and read the Bible can do so. Just as the Bashir who wants to go to the mosque and read the Qur’an should be able to do his own in peace.

Yorubas are known for peace and tolerance, but the times are fast changing. If we refuse to maintain the peace and tolerance we have long been known for, it is not Muslims who will become helpless victims.

The future of Yorubaland depends on whether we choose coexistence over exclusion and mutual respect over religious hostility. The path of peace has served us well for centuries. It would be foolish to abandon it now.

Bashir Lucas Samson Lukman