When it comes to Christmas music, I prefer mine sacred and sung by an English university choir. I haven’t really been “into” popular Christmas music or pop stars’ Christmas records (sacred or secular) since I was a kid — with…
Childhood memories of Christmas in Nigeria
Some of the most enduring lessons of life emanate from our parents. As a child who was born and grew up in Jos, in the northern part of Nigeria, one of my childhood memories was the annual visit with my…
3 killed as Methodist violence flares in Nigeria
Three United Methodists were killed Dec. 15 when a United Methodist Church in northeast Nigeria was attacked allegedly by supporters of the breakaway Global Methodist Church. A few days prior to the attack, a dissident organization that has promoted the…
The new battleground for Methodists is in Africa
Hope and jubilation were palpable at the United Methodist General Conference in Spring 2024. Conservative forces that had hammered away at the denomination for more than half a century had decamped, unfortunately taking with them more than 7,600 local congregations,…
People are dying in Africa, but the world doesn’t notice
There’s a perception that numbers matter, and so, the more problems there are in a place, the more interest they arouse. Not so in the case of disasters in Africa in the last year compared to what’s seen of the…
Africa: The gold medal avoidance
The Olympic Games, often celebrated as the epitome of global unity and athletic excellence, have a darker legacy that is rarely discussed — a legacy that traces back to the 1904 St. Louis, Mo., Olympics, marred by overt racism, exploitation…
New USCIRF reports reveal the state of religious freedom in Eritrea and Nigeria
In the last two months, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released two major reports, each of which features an overview of the state of religion in two African countries — Eritrea and Nigeria. The reports reveal the…
UMC bishop back in Zimbabwe after visa detention in Nigeria
United Methodist Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa was safely home in Zimbabwe Aug. 27 after being detained in Nigeria on a visa complaint while visiting to set up the election of a new bishop. The incident marks the latest encounter in…
Gallup report highlights the impact of religion on gender inequality in Africa
Nearly three decades after the Beijing Conference on Women — where concerns about gender inequality were expressed — Africa still has a long way to go in bridging that gap, a new Gallup study has found. The report, Gender Power…