Our predicament is universal, and this is what we have stressed from
the very beginning.
The nature of religious zeal that would routinely maim,
kill, or enslave the object of its proselytizing – that sometime euphemism for
brainwashing – rather than let it thrive and contribute to humanity from within
his or her limitations and uncertainties, from within its questions or skepticism, a mental cast that equates the
mere absence of exhibitionist ardour or rigid conformism with impiety and
apostasy, punishable by death or mutilation, is no different, in effect, from
the tyrannical temper of the political dictator of any age.
The challenge is out, and it is couched in anything but the language of
spirituality. It is humiliating, I know, but let us be sufficiently humble as
to admit the truth: this is one scourge that laughs in our faces, mocks the
comfort zone of the rational, the schematic, the contextual, even comparative
habit of mind, defies probability theories and historical precedents. And what
choice of responses do we imagine has been forced on us, the rest of humanity?
The expression, I believe, is – damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. This
phenomenon understands only one language:
Mobilize, or perish!
Wole SOYINKA
Excerpted from recent Overseas Lectures on our common concern, for the
BRING BACK OUR GIRLS Visitation, Jan 13, 2015.
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