OWN CORRESPONDENT, Windhoek | Thursday
NAMIBIAS politically influential Council of Churches (CCN) wants to meet President Sam Nujoma after he called Christianity a “foreign philosophy”, the council’s general secretary said on Wednesday.
The CCN’s request comes after a recent meeting between Nujoma and farmers where he also accused 19th century Finnish missionaries to the desert country of “spying” on the local population.
“We have not set a specific date [for the meeting] but we feel that it should happen as soon as possible,” Nangula Kathindi said.
Kathindi said the CCN, which formed a strategic part of the liberation movement during the 1970s and 1980s, did not want to make any public statements in reaction to the President’s remarks without having spoken to him first.
Nujoma told farmers: “Our constitution recognises freedom of worship but I don’t care because it [Christianity] is artificial, it’s a foreign philosophy.”
His remarks were widely quoted in the local media.
Nujoma, who is one of the foremost proponents of the African Union movement spearheaded by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, instead suggested that Namibians go back to their ancestral worship of the cattle god, known as “Kalunga ya Nangombe.”
Relations between the Namibian churches of largely Roman Catholic and Lutheran persuasions and the Namibian government have become increasingly strained over the last few months, with Nujoma repeatedly attacking Namibia’s small gay and lesbian community.
The Namibian churches has come out in support of equal rights for all. – AFP