“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”  Bishop Desmond Tutu quotes (African Spiritual leader and Novelist) 

If there is anything that bothers me about the major world religions, it is the penchant of their adherents to pray with their eyes closed. I don’t get it, it baffles me, and it astounds me! Why pray with your eyes closed? I remember back in the day, father scolded me severely many times for opening my eyes while prayers were ongoing in church. The problem is how did he see me? He said he was watching! Father also had his eyes opened? I figured out quickly he should perhaps scold himself first. Who says adults should have a pass on this nonsense tradition, whose source and logic is dubious?

Think about it, does it make sense? Does it make sense to close your eyes when speaking to someone? If prayer is a way of communicating with God as they want us to believe, and if God is your father, and if He is everywhere, then why close your eyes? Won’t your earthly father regard it as an insult if you close your eyes while having a conversation with him or making a request? No wonder our prayers are not answered in Nigeria. On top of shouting on God (Moslems do it with that their morning wail that interject my precious morning sleep, and the Evangelical Christians with that their panic attack inducing prayer vigils and deliverance), we then add pepper to injury by closing our eyes! Why will God answer? Will you answer a child that yell at you and then close his eyes while conversing with you? 

I happen to be of Christian birth, so I am more informed to speak on the position of Christianity on this matter. Hence, my Islamic brothers will forgive me if this comes across as lopsided. Well let us examine the Holy Bible. Various passages foremost among which is one that said plainly: “Watch and pray…” (Mat 26:41), points to the fact that prayer should come with opened eyes.  How can you pray and watch the same time with your eyes closed? The other prayer passage says something along the line of “Pray without Ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Well, I don’t think the Bible is prescribing that we go about blind and eyes closed, without ceasing!

By all measures, I think this eyes closing is a carry over from the Judaism era and European adaptation. Problem with we Africans is that we hardly try to have a mind of our own. Why will my father scold an African son who sees no good in closing his eyes while praying? While pouring libation to the spirits of our forefathers, it is our tradition to speak politely and open eyes. We don’t close eyes and yell. That is abominable, and not worthy of emulation. Even the Europeans that brought Christianity to Africa don’t yell on God. Go to the Church of England (Anglican), Catholic Church, the Methodist or even the Traditional Baptists, solemnity usually mark their prayers. They don’t yell at God!

Okay, I give it to you that these folks actually close their eyes tighter than Africans do. But don’t mistake this action for mere symbolism. European closed their eyes for practical reasons and I can prove it. The expectation while closing their eyes is to give the Clergy an opportunity to sip wine and be drunk! Don’t ask me how I know this, but just visit any European Church. The breath of their Clergies after church services is hardly alcohol free. That makes you wonder what he’d been consuming while the service was ongoing. Well, he gets to do the drinking and do little preaching. The little preaching in turn ensures his church members can do more productive work with their quality time, than spending ridiculous hours in “the House of God” that amounts to zero productivity as far as the Gross Domestic Product of the nation is concerned. When shall we learn?

The laity in the European church of course are not unaware of this fact, but knowing how beneficial to the larger economy a drunk pastor, and an eyes closing congregation is, they are willing (or unwilling) accomplices in this monumental tradition of purely adaptive consequence. If only we can get all those our jerry curling haired pastors drunk, if only church services in our country can be shorter in duration, if only we can start opening eyes when we pray to see the atrocity of the fire spitting preacher- if only. Just imagine how many scientific innovations, entrepreneurial ideas and earth shaking inventions that can be made in the gazillion hours Nigerians spend in their churches and mosques.

Of course, many of my “good” Islamic brothers even pray more than the Christians do. Five times they say! Well, do the calculations. Assuming ninety percent of Nigerians are religious of the Christian or Islamic hue; this comes out to be 126 million people. Assuming we spend ten percent of our day praying, that comes out to be 110 376 000 000 (111 billion) man hours a year of going about with our eyes closed! We are indeed a nation of the blind. No one moves while being blind folded. That is why we are stuck in this perennial rot of underdevelopment.

Opening our eyes while praying will require us to love our neighbors, regardless of religion, tribe, and language; it will elevate justice and fairness as central doctrines of our national dogma. Instead of professing love for an unseen God, we will love our country, fellow mankind, and unborn children. Opening our eyes while praying will see us put the interest of our country first before material gains, bribes and scam proceeds. Instead of donating dirty monies to the “poor” and “houses of God”, we will put our intelligence to work with our eyes opened. Keeping our eyes opened will see us insisting that our politicians work for us, instead of lining their pockets with filthy, stolen wealth. It will see us standing up for our rights, eyes opened, even if the fraudster is our benefactor or tribesman. Opening our eyes will see us vanquishing the last forces of imperial colonialism, the economic sabotage masquerading as foreign aid and monetary policies that is stripping us of our heritage in broad day light.

Shine your eyes well, well my people!

P.S: Whoever told the Super Eagles that praying with heads bowed and eyes closed will lead to automatic victory? Perhaps, those defenders should have taken that one minute of wasted prayer to study Agogo and Essien. What a bunch of jokers!

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle7334=encodeURIComponent(“Africans S...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 05.02.2008 15:02

britroyal1  Villager

# 2 The title and preface of this article led me to believe that you were going to speak out against religious hypocrisy or complacency amongst us due to religion, little did I know that you were entering into a needless tirade of things you seem to know little about. First of all, closing ones eyes is not a preequisite for effective prayer. In Judaism (which is the precursor to the Christian religion), people do pray with their eyes open. The reason why some Christians close their eyes is that while your eyes are open, you could be easily distracted by the things around you and not focus on prayer. If one is able to pray effectively while opening his/her eyes, there is nothing wrong with that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that one MUST pray with eyes open. Furthermore you quoted "Watch and Pray" way out of context. Jesus used that term to his disciples who were asleep at the garden of getsemane on the eve of his crucifixtion rather than praying. He told them to watch and pray lest they "fall into temptation". The temptation to flee when chaos comes. Thats what he meant. It had nothing to do with opening eyes while praying. Finally you mentioned how rather than praying, we should love one another and serve our country and each other rather than being fraudulent. Your admonition here is right but I would point out to you that religion does not impede these, on the contrary it aids it. Paul asked how man could claim to love the God he couldn't see while failing to love man whom he sees. The bible clearly teaches that people should be at peace with their fellow man in addition to being at peace with God. Thus someone who claims to love God or serve him cannot be fraudulent to his fellow man otherwise he is denying the faith he espouses. The Islamic and other major faiths have similar dogmas You are heading in the right direction with your missive but you chose a poor example to make your point. I would advise that you be better informed about religion before you use it as a basis to make arguments one way or the other. Warmest regards Posted by britroyal1| 05.02.2008 16:34

vikiviko  JJC

# 3 Praying with eyes closed has been a culture with us here. There is nothing primitive about it, though the Europeansdo not practice ie. American Churches pray with eyes closed. Praying with both closed is sign of reverence to the almigthy Posted by vikiviko| 06.02.2008 05:40

salstep  Villager

# 4 P.S: Whoever told the Super Eagles that praying with heads bowed and eyes closed will lead to automatic victory? Perhaps, those defenders should have taken that one minute of wasted prayer to study Agogo and Essien. What a bunch of jokers! I have always wondered about the point of praying for victory in a sports event. How does God decide when both sides believe in him? U are right my brother. Sometimes nigerians loose their sense od direction when religion comes into play. Posted by salstep| 06.02.2008 07:17

Gentle Angel  Villager

# 5 Very simplistic article due to the author hinging it on a literal explanation of the title. So many things are wrong in this write up not the least of which is the idea that europeans only close their eyes when praying so that the priest can help himself to communal wine. I wonder how many churches this author has been in to come to this conclusion? And what of those that also close their eyes when praying at home, maybe the author could come up with another gem of a warped idea? Would have made a better piece if the closing eyes bit had taken up less space as a metaphor with the underdevelopment of Africa being the major fulcrum. Posted by Gentle Angel| 06.02.2008 07:28

draftman  Villager

# 6 Right on brother Micheal, we've been brainwash in these religion doctrine, that we will do anything they (the religion giver) to us to do like robot. Since some of you believe in this english-king james written book called "bible" and it doesn't say close your why do it, this is just another invention of your christian missionary masters. Even the muslim does not close their eyes. Please do not quote any bible verse to me, as I don't believe in some englishman's belief-just another white lie. How can you believe in a book that was written by a human who has a motive to pump themselve up by race, and non of it can be proving, that most of the bible folk are white face, even your jesus face is white, god must not have created black people, and we suppose to be the first human created-hummmmmmmmmmm Wake up my people and OPEN YOUR EYES- bible=another white lies.:mad: Posted by draftman| 06.02.2008 12:00

NWANZA  Villager

# 7 I know things has'nt been good in almost all fronts, and whenever our hopes are raised something comes along to defeat it. Nigerians have been pressed very hard recently by events at home, village, business, politics, elections, infrastructure, sex, and now soccer. Many Nigerians are mad right now, and are ready to take it out on religion which is not right. It is okay to pray as long as we like, but at the same time put in 100% effort. Of course, many of my “good” Islamic brothers even pray more than the Christians do. Five times they say! Well, do the calculations. Assuming ninety percent of Nigerians are religious of the Christian or Islamic hue; this comes out to be 126 million people. Assuming we spend ten percent of our day praying, that comes out to be 110 376 000 000 (111 billion) man hours a year of going about with our eyes closed! We are indeed a nation of the blind. No one moves while being blind folded. That is why we are stuck in this perennial rot of underdevelopment. I notice churches and mosques springing up all over the landscape, but curroption also mushroomed to astronomical proportions. May be we should demolish some of these structures to bring down graft & abuse. Personally, something is not right about frequency of prayers not balancing with reward, blessing, cash-in-the-bank, and winnings. Is it because we are asking for too much material things? Opening our eyes while praying will require us to love our neighbors, regardless of religion, tribe, and language; it will elevate justice and fairness as central doctrines of our national dogma. Instead of professing love for an unseen God, we will love our country, fellow mankind, and unborn children. Opening our eyes while praying will see us put the interest of our country first before material gains, bribes and scam proceeds. This is 50% of the solution. Instead of donating dirty monies to the “poor” and “houses of God”, we will put our intelligence to work with our eyes opened. Keeping our eyes opened will see us insisting that our politicians work for us, instead of lining their pockets with filthy, stolen wealth. It will see us standing up for our rights, eyes opened, even if the fraudster is our benefactor or tribesman. Opening our eyes will see us vanquishing the last forces of imperial colonialism, the economic sabotage masquerading as foreign aid and monetary policies that is stripping us of our heritage in broad day light. Shine your eyes well, well my people! Do not offer bad offerings of stolen funds to these churches or mosques, because the devil uses them for bad things. P.S: Whoever told the Super Eagles that praying with heads bowed and eyes closed will lead to automatic victory? Perhaps, those defenders should have taken that one minute of wasted prayer to study Agogo and Essien. What a bunch of jokers! We spend too much time with ghana must go bags and Ghana women. Posted by NWANZA| 06.02.2008 16:23

Palamedes  Villager

# 8 Be wise oh humans! Aren't you your god? Slave for you daily? Pray not to any deity but you. Posted by Palamedes| 06.02.2008 16:42

okwute  Villager

# 9 I have just spent useful time reading trash of an article.Whats the point in taking on subject you are not schooled on? One, praying with his eyes closed is principally to avoid distraction and not just a religious practice afterall quite enough christian role models and reverred pastors has demonstrated that on the telly during their crusades and talkshows that it is not compulsory to pray with one's eyes shut. If the writer has a problem with the nation,nigeria or africa on wasteage of useful man hours ,he shouldnt take it out on christianity or prayer styles because, according to reverend father kukah in one of his interviews ,it is both the proliferation of the churches in nigeria and the prayers of the saints that is still keeping the country together and the disadvantaged/down trodden from unleaching terror on the elitic class and corrupt leaders. Every body has his/her way of communicating and paying homage to his/her maker and that shouldnt be a problem to any body afterall. King David danced naked before God simply to show he was nothing before his maker and God honored him greatly and defended him completely. Take it easy bros Posted by okwute| 16.02.2008 10:21

denker  Villager

# 10 King David danced naked before God simply to show he was nothing before his maker ...chei,...okwute, my dear, do you have a photography or video to clarify dis statement...:confused1 Posted by denker| 16.02.2008 10:47

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