Hekima Review No. 70 May 2025

The call for papers on this issue underscored the paradoxical reality of many Africans, particularly the apparent disconnect between singing believers and sinking citizens. In reality, the continent is far from reaping the dividends of religion. Most African streets have no resemblance to the serenity and beauty of cultic sanctuaries within their respective geographical contexts. The more religion flourishes in Africa, the more the conditions of life seem to worsen. The more religious devotees increase, the more the continent witnesses an increase in conflicts and wars. Although the term “human condition” refers to the state of being of a person or people, encompassing the human experience of love and loss, communality and loneliness, joy and sadness, as well as wondrous and woeful feelings, the tendency to consider it to be synonymous with suffering, woes, and tragic experiences based on the day-to-day existential dynamism of Africans, is not far-fetched.