Is Afrika Cursed?

When in Nairobi in 1999, a book by the title “Is Afrika Cursed?” was one of two recommended to me by a group of Christian business leaders hosting my visit. Their intent was to give me a glimpse of the entrenched spiritual realities taking root across sub-Saharan Afrika.

Each of these books was authored by seasoned Afrikan believing leaders.  Having read and reviewed each, their messages represented a profound and enduring impact on my big-picture view of what the Lord’s intentions have been for what has been this long-term, subtle spiritual and political strategic unfolding in that part of the world.  It uncovers the dire need of an awakening with intentional responses to what Scripture profoundly point to, as “the time of trouble,” now manifesting globally. Initial responses might challenge why Afrika has been so long thought of as “the dark continent,” yet the substance is deeper still 

Along with “Is Africa Cursed” by Tokunboh Adeyemo, the message shared with me was balanced in title by the other book: “Hope for Africa” by George Kinoti. My 1999 hosts and the messages of these books highlight the reality that sub-Saharan Black Afrika has been facing in post-colonial times in penetrating the darkness. Understanding the long-standing and pervasive infrastructure of witchcraft, the realities recognize that the soft-underbelly of colonial Afrika was it being rife with corruption. Recognizing this reality, despite glimmers of hope, the response driven by a Western-style upgrade fix tends to overlook the core and deeper spiritual issues still at work.

The Fruit from Long-Standing Roots
So it has been, that fruit from the roots of that same stronghold, for the most part, have manifested with even greater opportunity with the shift toward governmental independence. Compounding tribal mayhem and dictatorial opportunists, it has fostered alliances between totalitarian incursions and radical Muslim movements. Sadly the response has included the compromising efforts from within far too many believing Christian circles whose blind response has been to ignore or at best yield to these efforts, by trying to play it safe.

Within roughly a handful of years following our initial efforts in Afrika in 1999, we were working in a number of sub-Saharan nations. The message of my Nairobi hosts and the two books they recommended became even more real when in 2006, in getting on a flight out of Zimbabwe, we realized we were the only white faces aboard, with the rest being not Black, but Chinese.

China’s One Belt One Road program has sought to provide infrastructure and commercial development … in most cases with pricing far below what any viable competitor could offer … in order to establish financially-obligating relationships that provide access to the rich resources found in regions such as in sub-Saharan Afrika. Not unlike pre-colonial Afrika, the hidden, but well-placed core-curses and covenants continue to manifest the same fruit: the corruption and payoffs to key gatekeepers.

The Emerging Big-Picture
In today’s post-Covid world, these matters of addressing the core-curses and covenants have become strategic issues bearing on realities now being faced globally. Within the last decade, having served in strategic-development capacities for a unique group of modern-day Josephs (Josephinas) and Daniels (Danielles) in key Caribbean locations, I know personally that the efforts of Chinese contractors have already deeply penetrated both the governmental and business sectors even within the Western Hemisphere.

However, during the early 2000s, in the work we were doing in sub-Saharan Afrika, I asked the Lord for a glimpse from His throne-room of these troubling dynamics. What I received was beyond what I was expecting.

What I began discerning was a mobilization underway directed by the Spirit of God … of an alliance between those shaped and molded by the persecutions of Asia and those who, with the courage in facing the realities of the core issues behind the oppression and corruption of sub-Saharan Afrika, would be melded into a mighty counter-balance amassing to birth the restoration of all God’s promises to Israel.
“In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be set free!’” Isa 49:8

However, that is not going to happen without facing and annulling, head-on, the core curses and covenants that were manifesting in the corruption of Colonial Afrika.

Nevertheless, God has never been caught napping or behind the power curve. Over the course of history, understanding the times incorporates not only matters that comprise troubling times, but the solutions in addressing the darkness that come from viewing things from God’s throne-room perspective …. and the perspective of the strategic response of those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Understanding Troubled Times
Regardless of the core curses and associated covenants that have been operating, God’s intent during times of trouble has always been in bringing the needed change for His people. He simply has chosen forerunners, in the leaders He has prepared and equipped to incisively deal with these core curses and associated covenants.

One of the most dramatic times in Scripture of such change is reflected in the life and mantle of David. Initially, with his encounter with Goliath, the cause was spiritually deep and external … accentuated by the encroaching activities of God’s enemies. However, as things developed, prior to the time of bringing together all the factions of Israel, the focus of the issue bled into the internal, being tied to the shortfall of leadership that had been holding Israel back from God’s plan.

Beyond his faceoff with Goliath and prior to the time of Ziklag when David was given the word to pursue and recover all, when everything began to change, David navigated a journey spiritually-speaking that we only get glimmers of in scripture. What he faced conforms to the darkness faced by Enoch, Elijah and Elisha and is captured in David’s most famous psalm: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”

David’s role was vital in the shift in overcoming the darkness to reset things spiritually and in doing to so, to bring the needed focus of direction and unity, leadership-wise, for the community of faith. When David passed the leadership mantle to Solomon, young though he was, Solomon had the foresight to ask for the wisdom to rightly judge God’s people, which greatly pleased the Lord; leading Israel into a time of prosperity and peace that resulted in the surrounding peoples being in awe. God’s word to Solomon when he assumed the mantle from David gives hint to the dynamic that was operating in David when facing the forces of darkness. “If you will live in my presence, as did David your father, doing all I have ordered you to do, keeping my laws and rulings; then I will establish the throne of your kingdom.” 2 Chron 7:17

Living in God’s presence in the face of the darkness wielded by His enemies represents the common ground Moses cried out for following the dividing of the Red Sea.
“If your presence will not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that we have found favor in your sight? Is it not in Your going with us that we are distinct from every other people on the face of the earth?” Ex 33:15

The Cost of Overcoming Age-Old Enemies
God’s accompanying Presence together with clarity on His assignment has been the defining combination operating in God’s game-changers from the days of Noah and Enoch to the council of the apostles when James pointed to the restoration of the Tabernacle of David.

There is no question of the requirement of God’s people to be led in a way that is rightly aligned with what the Lord is doing …. in order to accomplish the assignments in prevailing over God’s enemies. However, it is critical to keep in mind and in balance this coordinated two-step process between the assignments against God’s enemies and the leadership that reflects the judgments needed to align God’s people together … in sync with God’s agendas. Neither David nor Solomon lived perfect lives. However, what they got right was critical in this two-step process of their leadership.

Addressing long-standing roots carries a cost for those paving the way. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago gives great insight into that cost for those anointed as game-changers. He notes the subtlety involved in tackling and removing the roots of what have been age-old curses and covenants. It bears on why the Apostle James indicated there to be a higher standard involved for those in leadership. It is being reflected in today’s revival of the spontaneity of the New Testament Church in meeting from house to house and in the solemnity in the practice of communion.

Solzhenitsyn’s wisdom ties directly to the cost required for the authority needed to address the root-level of these issues of darkness: “But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

So, it has been that the Bible references both these dimensions … pivoting on the higher standard in the requirement of leadership in the face-off and elimination of God’s enemies … as described by “times of trouble.” It explains the extended and humanly-speaking very difficult times of preparation needed from Job to Joseph to David to Daniel to Jeremiah to the leaders of the early Church; unveiling what is be expected to lie ahead in “the conflict of all ages” as being times of trouble on steroids … or “tribulation.”

Additionally, a sharper grasp of the leadership role of judgment provides much wisdom to the times unfolding before us …. and the questions raised by the titles of the two books my Nairobi hosts recommended I acquaint myself with.  

The Leadership Role of Judgment
Jesus had a lot to say about judgment.
“For judgment I have come into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may be made blind.” John 9:39

While it involves a higher personal standard for those called into leadership, Paul extended the importance of Jesus’ words about judgment with his query to the Corinthians asking how we could expect to judge angels if we first didn’t get it right in judging our own communities. It brings to mind the authority and fear of God operating in Peter when Ananias and Sapphira manipulated and compromised as they sought personal gain and recognition in their role as believers.

The message tied to that of Joseph and Daniel reflects the cost and high stakes of the leadership mantle of those select among God’s people who would be God’s ambassadors and points of influence with the leaders in whose societies God’s people find themselves in times of judgment.

During the time of Joseph, his brothers’ failure in dealing with the surrounding people with honor resulted in the loss of the protection they had had from God from the time of Abraham … breaking the covenant of peace that accompanied them in their relationship with the surrounding societies. It also demonstrated the fear of God and accompanying judgment when God is intentionally moving to advance the role of the community of faith in the course of world events.

Similarly, during the days of Jeremiah, the leaders in Jerusalem were blinded to God’s overriding intentions to the degree that they silenced Jeremiah’s prophecies by trapping him in a well … the resistance that triggered their captivity and judgment in Babylon. Daniel and his companions were then strategically placed in the Nebuchadnezzar’s court to be God’s representatives and mouthpiece to the king and his court … in restoring His role for the community of faith in the course of the world events that would follow.

Judgment and the Government of God
All of which uniquely taps the very topic of the government of God and God’s judgment. Historically, Scripture sets apart in defining genuine leaders as the ones specifically chosen to set things in motion regarding the Lord’s order and plan.

So, within the scope of that broached by this post, it may be instructive to review the role held by a particular segment of leaders: the Old Testament judges and the dynamics which their roles modeled … in understanding the unique mandate and authority later wielded by those groomed from Jesus’ inner circle.

Recognizing that with the exception of ones like David, Hezekiah and Solomon, the majority of the kings of Israel and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord … and fell short of their expected assignments … largely because, like King Saul, they were driven by the peoples’ wishes “to be like everyone else” and failed in their roles as judges. God always intended for His people to be distinctively different … rather than like everyone else. Indeed, the issue for leaders then and now is being prepared to address the age-old entrenchments of darkness.

The Central Mandate of God’s Order
So it was that the core role of both the Old Testament judges and New Testament apostles was to raise the bar in the restoration of God’s order. The judges as well as the apostles were God’s standard-bearers during times of trouble and change … each representing the mix of the leadership required with the governing authority, anointed by God for that time.

The leadership mantle of the Old Testament judges seemed to have been skewed as coming from the ranks of prophets and ones with military prowess, but included unique priestly functions that were a part of the leadership dynamic at the time. Joshua was a military leader and judge, as was Gideon, Jephtha and Samson. Deborah was a prophetess, military leader and judge, Eli a priest and judge, while Samuel was a prophet, priest and judge.

These judges of old with their unusual mix of leadership abilities were chosen and anointed by God with an authority beyond the ordinary, as was their spiritual discernment … not unlike that of Enoch, Elijah and Elisha, being far beyond the ordinary. The subtlety of their leadership was that it was not a position so much as a function that they served … again as standard-bearers and restorers of God’s order as the Lord used them to align the community of God with the purposes of God in their confrontations with the darkness wielded by God’s enemies. All combined, it conforms to the subtle difference between the early church operating as a movement rather than as an institution.

In other words, the first order of their role as judges was in the alignment needed to move God’s people into the position of spiritual authority that God had for His people to have with the world around them. This premise gives unique insight into understanding that with the birth of the Church was the needed standard … that “judgment comes first to the household of faith.”

This assertion conforms to the essential role of the judges in raising the bar in order for God’s people to wield the authority to overcome the darkness operating through God’s enemies. As we come into what Scripture describes as the time of the end, the bar has been raised even higher in dealing with the gloves being taken off of the enemy’s incursions into world affairs.

It points to the importance of the means of tapping God’s holiness and power in order to establish His order for the season now upon us. The role served by Joseph and Daniel offer glimmers of the dimensions and standard of this leadership mantle as the people of God yield to the judgment needed for the next steps in their assignment to overcome the uncovering and confrontation of this darkness.

The Questions for the Season
Posing the right questions precede and provide the framework for giving the right response. The questions for the season opening before us are guided by those posed by my Kenyan hosts: “Is Afrika cursed?” and “Hope for Afrika.” However, they bear on recognizing the reality of the curse and covenants that have infected every corner of the globe … together with God’s people … prompting the need for the authority for the fear of God and judgment needed to break the hidden curses and covenants undermining the mandate of God people.

Isaiah prophetically observed (Isa 28) that God’s people had made a covenant with death and in doing so had made falsehood their refuge, concealing themselves with deception. The depth of these subtle covenants made from within the household of faith is only now starting to be revealed.

In reality, it bears on the chink in the armor of God people over the centuries of wanting to be like everyone else … and resisting the mandate required of being distinctive.

The leadership issue today involves those like the judges of old, who will pay the cost to embrace the authority in the face-off with the darkness wielded by God’s enemies; and not unlike that of Joseph and Daniel who would operate with the undivided hearts needed to impart the fear of God in rulers wielding the authority over nations.

The criterion required represents a standard of an undivided heart, so uniquely lacking in Ananias and Sapphira. As the Psalmist cried out: “Show me your ways O Lord, that I might walk in Your Truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.”

To the point, in a world that tends to look to the West …. or perhaps the perception of success of the Western Church as the standard … the issue  is more, much more … tied to the questions of “Is Afrika Cursed?” and “Hope for Africa.” Instead the issue unveils the need to address the curses and covenants of various ilk hidden in every sector of the Church across the globe, so that the hope for the restoration that the Lord started setting in motion following the fall would begin realistically overcoming the entrenchment of darkness to reveal the hope of His glorious Light.
“Then He led me to the gate and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. His voice was like the sound of great waters and the earth shown with His glory.” Ezek 43:1-2

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Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner of the Joseph-calling and God’s economy message, being an international voice for the higher dimensions of spiritual game-changers and intercessors since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation, the Strategic Intercession Global Network [SIGN] and designer of the God’s Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program and the Jewish Business Secrets YouTube series, Mr. Ruddick’s messages equip leaders and economic community builders with strategy where God’s light is dim in diverse regions around the globe.

He is author of “The Joseph-Daniel Calling;” “Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;” “The Heart of a King;” “Something More;” “Righteous Power in a Corrupt World;” “Leadership by Anointing;” and “Mantle of Fire,” which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders with destinies to impact their communities. They are available in print and e-versions from www.Amazon.com, www.apple.com/ibooks and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts mobilize economic community builders imparting influence and the blessings of God. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to 3838 South Wabash Street, Denver CO 80237 or by credit card at https://strategic-initiatives.org/donate/

2023 Copyright Morris Ruddick — info@strategic-initiatives.org

Since early 1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network (SIGN) has mobilized prophetic intercessors and leaders committed to targeting strategic-level issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For more information go to https://strategic-initiatives.org