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    Secularism: A Pastoral Challenge among the Contemporary African Youth
    (Tangaza University College/Duquesne University, 2011) Okumu, Peter Ochieng’
    “Africans are notoriously religious.” 1 These were the words of Professor John S. Mbiti in his celebrated book, “African Religions and Philosophy”, the book which was first published in 1969 and its first edition reprinted thirteen times. But the question is: As we talk today in the 21 st century, can we still affirm this idea that Africans are notoriously religious as professor Mbiti claimed it to be? We are living in a different reality and a different cultural context where values and ideologies are being borrowed and shared, and the claim that Africans are notoriously religious seems to be losing ground in Africa due to the wave of secularism that probably began in the west, and is hovering all over the world. African traditional religiosity seems to have been overtaken by modern secularism. So, in-spite of the Mbiti‟s claim that Africans are notoriously religious, we have to affirm on the contrary that secularism is spreading fast in Africa, especially among the African youth, mostly in our African towns and cities. Secularism is a reality that is taking roots among the masses in Africa, especially among the African youth. This also seem to be against the common belief that Africa and secular values and ideologies are non-concomitant notions, just as professor Mbiti tried to extol in his book African Religions and Philosophy. Even though towards the end of this book, Mbiti mentioned that Africa is caught up in a world revolution which affects all the spheres of life, 2 and here we might deduce that religious aspect is also part of this revolution, probably from being „notoriously religious‟, to secular, or probably on the extreme, to atheistic beliefs. But professor Mbiti himself never explicitly mentioned anything like that in his book, so we are just left alone to make some intelligent guesses. The reason for my great concern on the African youth is because of the fact that, youth-stage is a transitional stage, a stage from childhood to adulthood. There is a common saying that the youth are the future leaders, or in other words, the leaders of tomorrow. Youth-stage is the time when the young people have a lot of energy and potentials, and the ideas that they hold at this stage in life are likely to accompany them and affect their entire lives. So when we look at the young people today, we can predict the type of the society that we will be having tomorrow. If secularism is spreading among the African youth today, then the future of our society will be likely to be secularistic, and the good religious beliefs and morals which we have held in Africa for years will just be a history to tell. I have realised that very few people have attempted doing research on areas related the topic of my research, “Secularism as a Pastoral Challenge Among the Contemporary African Youth”. I have to admit that after doing extensive search, I found only one research-work done at bachelor‟s level entitled “Secularism in Africa”, but I have failed to lay my hands at any work done either at Master‟s level or beyond that relate to the topic of my research (Secularism: A Pastoral Challenge Among the Contemporary African Youth). Probably my work will serve as a proper foundation for those who would wish to do an extensive research-work on the same field in future. I think that the limited number of the research-works done in the field of secularism in Africa can be attributed to the belief advocated by professor Mbiti that Africans are notoriously religious. The truth on the ground on the other hand indicates that the African society is steadily turning from being religious as many think, to secular and to secularism, and that reality in itself has compelled me to do my research on this field despite the fact that very few people have done extensive academic research-works on the same (this topic).