In light of the devastating effect that AIDS is having on the continent of Africa, it is unconscionable that Pope Benedict XVI should condemn the use of condoms as a way to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. In a recent visit to the continent where 22 million people are living with the disease, Pope Benedict XVI stated that, “condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse”. This begs the question, “How many more of Africa’s sons and daughters must suffer and die before this hood wearing demon places human life ahead of religious dogma?” Indeed, contraception is not the panacea that would put an end to this scourge, but it will do much to curb the alarming rate of infection.

More than the obvious effect of illness and death is the impact that this epidemic is having on every facet of African life, particularly in the Sub-Sahara region. Education, industry, agriculture, transport, human resources and economies in general are reeling under this epidemic. . According to a 2007 conservative estimate, 17 million have died and another 25 million is expected to follow. In the past year, it is estimated that more than 15 million children under 18 have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. Many of these emaciated children are caring for younger family members still in diapers, when they can barely care for themselves. Like the billions of dollars in bailout money we are hearing so much about these days, the number of deaths and infection from AIDS and HIV in Africa is staggering. It is increasingly evident that HIV and AIDS continue to devastate Africa much like the trade in black flesh from which Africa and her children throughout the Diaspora have not yet recovered. With the ongoing loss of such valuable human resources, it will be a long time before Africa can emerge from this crisis, if ever. It was European greed that precipitated the underdevelopment of Africa; now religious zealousness continues the onslaught.

For hundreds of years the Catholic Church has played a leading role in softening up Africans for European exploitation. Stripped of their ancestral beliefs and convinced that they were the children of a lesser God; they embraced a European version of Christianity and worshipped an alien God much to their detriment. In 2000 it was reported that there were over 360 million Christians in Africa with Pope Benedict XVI as their supreme leader. In the capital of Cameroon it was reported that thousands of flag-waving faithful stood shoulder-to-shoulder in red dirt fields and jammed downtown streets for a glimpse of the pontiff's motorcade. Given the history of the Catholic Church in Africa, one can only pity the poor bastards who fail to take lessons from history, whether past or contemporary.

Although the faithful may argue otherwise, African Christians were always the bastard children of a European God, Pope Benedict makes that clear in more ways than one. Evidently, God’s favoured children are of a lighter hue living in the lap of luxury throughout Europe, North America and in Africa itself. They know neither pain nor hunger. In fact, suffering of any kind is alien to their nature. While the bible tells us that the meek will inherit the earth, the Catholic church will see to it that blacks are left with nothing to inherit, when it is done under developing Africa.

mdegale@hotmail.com