The African Union (AU) should stop discriminating against humanists, atheists, agnostics, and other belief minorities in the region. This observation has been made following a regional forum that is holding in Kigali this month. The event officially excludes representatives from the humanist community. The African Union is organizing with the KAICIID dialogue center a general assembly for its Interfaith Dialogue Forum(IFDF). The theme is: Faith in Harvest: Sowing Seeds of Climate Resilience. The program will also feature the election of the AU IFDF steering committee. Unfortunately, humanists will not be participating in this event. Humanists will not be attending because the humanist community has not been invited.
It is important to note that the AU is the African Union, not a religious union. The regional body exists for all Africans, including Africans from minority faith and belief traditions. So the AU should not discriminate on grounds of religious belief or nonbelief. It should not exclude minority groups in its programs. The AU should endeavor to be inclusive and not demonstrate bias against belief minorities. While many Africans profess religion or faith in God, millions of Africans identify as nonreligious or as religiously unaffiliated. They describe themselves as atheists, humanists, agnostics, or simply as nones. Millions of nonreligious Africans suffer religious oppression and persecution. They are targets of abuse, violence, and conflict. A regional program that fosters interfaith dialogue must include humanists and other minority belief groups.
Leo Igwe is a board member of Humanists International, UK
Leo Igwe
Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria
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