The God We Were Given: The God We Were Given: An African Reckoning with Faith, Freedom, and the Religion We Never Chose

The God We Were Given: An African Reckoning with Faith, Freedom, and the Religion We Never ChoseThis book asks the question that most Africans have been trained never to ask: did you choose what you believe, or was it chosen for you?Written with brutal honesty and dark humor, The God We Were Given traces the full story of religious belief in Africa — from the psychological origins of god-making in prehistoric human cognition, through the colonial machinery that delivered Christianity and Islam to the continent, through the specific costs those traditions have imposed on African bodies, minds, and wallets, and toward an honest account of what freedom from inherited belief actually looks like and what it takes to build something real in its place.This is not a book for the comfortable. It does not flatter its reader, protect their feelings, or pretend that the faith their grandmother gave them deserves less scrutiny than any other claim about how the universe works. It is a book for the person who has been sitting in the pew for years with a question they have never spoken aloud — and who is finally ready to take that question seriously.Part philosophy, part history, part cultural reckoning, and entirely unwilling to look away from what the evidence actually says — The God We Were Given is the book African critical thought has needed and largely been too polite to write.Until now. Read more