Tell the African man that his life's challenges are as a result of an ancestral curse, and he will believe you.  Tell him the reason he is not getting a good job is because his great grandfather was a herbalist involved in all manner of dark practices and the African man will lap it up.

Tell the Blackman the reason Badagry area of Lagos state has not witnessed significant development over time is because it was used as a Portal for slave trade back in the days, the African will believe you. Meanwhile, the whites who took them as slaves, hurt their bodies and souls and disrupted their sociocultural ingenuity, are not thought or considered to  have attracted a curse for so doing.

Tell him the curse that Noah placed on Canaan, the son of Ham after the Flood, fell on Africans and he will buy the narrative from you without any resistance. In fact, he will find a way to trace his lineage to Ham and Canaan to justify this.

Tell the African man that the curse of the law given by the hands of Moses specifically to Israel will come upon him if he doesn't obey the law of tithing and he will celebrate your insights.

You will hear things like go deeper papa"!

In a nutshell, the Blackman magnets and attributes curses everywhere to himself. He internalises these curses and makes them his reality. He believes that Satan's headquarters are domiciled in Africa. He thinks his forefathers served Satan more than any other human "race". 

Who has been lying to the African man?

Dare tell him that he's not under a curse and he will fight you. He will call you all kinds of unprintable names. He will call you ignorant and unspiritual. He will assume you are trying to damage his faith and this is because, deep within him, his faith rests more on the capabilities of the devil than what Christ has done. I can tell you for free; there's an African man reading this piece who is already angry at me... This is how deep-seated the problem is.

The African man calls poverty a curse so that he could blame the devil for it. Across their "ranks and files", including their leaders, they mystify wealth. Hence, their approach to solving the socioeconomic misery that troubles them is basically spiritual or religious. Effectively, this takes some attention away from them and those who are saddled with the responsibility to enable a workable and functional economy.

I cannot forget in a hurry the statement made by the former Speaker of the Nigerian National Assembly when he visited the moribund Ajaokuta steel industry shortly after resuming office. In his words, we have to pray against the demons that have prevented the plant from working for donkey years. Coming from the mouth of a man expected to lead the packs making enabling laws to enhance productivity, I knew we were going no where.

To the average African, this is spirituality or godliness but I beg to differ. This is superstition. When the African man is being superstitious, he believes and prides himself as being spiritual. Meanwhile, what he holds are pure irrational beliefs in supernatural influences. He gives the devil way too much credit. Whatever he cannot understand, he flips on the devil, instead of asking appropriate questions.

Many sick persons have died as a result of dysfunctional health care systems but the blackman blames the devil for this so that he will not have to stretch and take responsibility. Instead of fixing his roads and manage the traffic properly, the African man invents the idea of "ember months" demons and blame them for increased rates of road traffic accident between October and December of every year.

Unfortunately, our religious institutions are aiding and abetting. I beg your pardon; they are actually championing this cause, matter-of-factly. They sell the idea of curses to our people as an explanation to every human predicament. They gather all the curses from distant ancient palestine; add that of our ancestors to them and also threaten people with curses from the "anointed".

Take the narrative of curses away and some pastors will no longer have a message. They set up systems and organisations dedicated to breaking these imaginary curses and they make a "killing" from it.

Time will fail me to continue my lamentations on the superstitious African man and may be I am being pessimistic but I am worried that the church that is supposed to be the light in any given society is the one caging people with the idea of being limited by curses that do not actually relate to the people.

“The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is unclear, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22‭-‬23)

Dear Africans, we seriously need to have a rethink. 
It is a new day! 
It calls for sober reflection…

AUTHOR UNKNOWN