God Bless Africa Movement (GBAM), a pan African movement will host its annual congress in November 2021 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Intercontinental President of the organization, Dr. Amos Gbenro shares the mission of the movement with Christian Benefits below. Excerpts.
Please can we meet you Sir?
My name is Bishop Dr. Amos Gbenro. I am based in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost 20 years with my wife and children. I am a full-time minister of the gospel.
What is God Bless Africa Movement (GBAM) all about?
God Bless Africa Movement is out to solve humanity problem, address African challenges and provide tangible solutions to those challenges. It is also out to address African leadership problem. We have everything in Africa but it appears we have nothing because of our leadership challenge. We aim to find a solution to this challenge to help African leaders do the right things for Africa. We have developmental and empowerment programmes for African women, African youths as the future of Africa, and also for African men. As the pillars, we empower men to stand as fathers that God made them. We campaign against child abuse, women & children trafficking. We also have entrepreneurship programme. We help African economy to meet our expectations. We are out to stop the bleeding of Africa.
Tell us about the plans of the movement to achieve this mission in Africa
As I said earlier, we have both developmental and empowerment programmes to assist African people; that is, African women, African youths and African men. One of our plans is to look into the educational system in Africa. From my observation African degrees are empty. The educational system in Africa is not up to standard. We want to ensure whosoever goes to school becomes a solution provider; that the person solves problems and not to add to problems. We have God Bless Africa Academy where we train students as the future of Africa whose degrees are reliable and useful. We have a national relief plans that include mass farming. It is one of our 14-point agenda. This agenda covers women empowerment, youth empowerment, entrepreneurship development, men empowerment, human trafficking & sexual awareness, promoting peace and prosperity across the African continent, uniting African nations, promoting African culture and diversity, educational empowerment, addressing gender based violence, campaign against child abuse, social development, war against corruption and national relief plans.
Tell us more about your empowerment plans for African women and youths
We have plans to train African women to stand on their feet and make use of their lives profitably. Life is all about making profits. They must make profits from their lives. We have plans to teach them how to become good wives and mothers. In the area of education we have plans to give 80% scholarship to all our students in God Bless Africa Academy. We will give them a quality and accessible education
Share with us GBAM agenda on the promotion of African culture
In our mission statement, we wrote promoting African culture. If we don’t promote African culture we will lose it. We will lose our identity. If we want to sustain our culture, we must promote it. Anywhere we go people must see the African culture in our lifestyle. We should let the African culture be our identity. The beauty of Africa is her culture. We can promote African culture by making use of the products we produce in Africa, by proudly speaking our African languages anywhere in the world and by dressing in the African attires and costumes etc
How will the movement address the usual conflict between culture and religion?
There are diverse opinions on combining culture with religion. I want to state clearly that God Bless Africa Movement is not a religious movement. It is for all Africans irrespective of individual religious beliefs. As long as you are an African, you are welcome to God Bless Africa Movement with your religion. Jesus died for all the people, and not only for a set of people or religion. GBAM is also for all the people. As one of our executive members, Dr. Moses Orogojimo, said, “Jesus came to the world but his Jewish culture never went into extinction. In some countries religion never took culture away from their people. Our problem in Africa is our inability to distinguish spiritual matters from natural living. We are dying of religious ignorance as a result of the error our forebears ignorantly committed when they accepted the gospel from the white missionaries and then condemned the African culture to embrace the white culture. God Bless African Movement aims to correct this error by striking a balance between the African culture and the orthodox religions. Jesus came to offer salvation. Whoever wants salvation comes to him. Culture is natural to the people. We must live a free life in our religious practice. We always focus on religion tenets instead of the reality of the Christian or the Islamic faith.” For instance, wearing beads on your wrists is a mark of beauty, dignity or royalty in African. But if a pastor wears beads on his wrists, it is a problem because people will see the beads on his wrists as a voodoo power. We must change our negative mindset about African culture. We organize GBAM festival every year when we come together to celebrate African diversity and culture. At the festival we share our music, food, art works and other things that tell the story of Africa. We also organize GBAM congress yearly where we hold meetings with delegates to discuss important matters pertaining to our communities and how we can bring solutions to our society.
What are the side effects of negative mindset about African culture?
The side effects are numerous. For instance, in Nigeria, today most children of Nigerian parents, particularly the Yoruba and the Igbo parents rarely or don’t speak their mother languages. This has eroded the Nigerian language culture. When the white came on exploitation to Africa they condemned African culture as primitive. They condemned African beliefs as evil. Sadly, we also joined them in condemning our culture and beliefs till now. But South Africans still preserve and respect their culture to some good extent. As a resident in South Africa, if you don’t speak their language you are in trouble. South Africans value their Zulu language. We Africans need to put our efforts together to revive our African culture and place value on it.
What are the requirements for God Bless Africa movement membership?
First requirement is you must be interested in the development of Africa. If you are a sincere lover of Africa you are welcome as a member to God Bless Africa Movement. You can then visit our website: www.godblessafricamovement.org for your formal registration as a member of God Bless Africa Movement
What are the criteria for beneficiaries of GBAM empowerment programmes?
It starts with registration as a member of God Bless Africa Movement through our website. Once you are a registered member of the movement you are entitled to the benefits of the developmental/empowerment programmes of the organization.
Can we a look at the administrative structure of the movement?
We have key offices in the administrative structure of God Bless Africa Movement in each African country where GBAM situates. We have National Media Director, General Secretary, Executive members and other portfolios. For instance, in GBAM Nigeria, we have Dr. Moses Orogojimo as one of our executive members, Dr. Olajide as National Media director, Dr. Mrs. Doris as General Secretary, Apostle Dr. Victor as another executive member of God Bless Africa Movement (Nigeria).
When will registration for GBAM 2021 Congress in South Africa commence?
The registration for participation at GBAM 2021 congress has already commenced. Interested participants from all over Africa and Africans in the Diaspora can visit our website: www.godblessafricamovement.org for registration. The congress will hold on November 2, 2021 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Anyone who has the opportunity can participate at the congress. The main focus of the congress is to heal the minds of Africans. If our minds are not healed our vision will be blurred. We want to use the congress to correct the negative mindset of Africans about Africa. Until your mindset is free of negativity you are not free. What is in your mind determines your action, and also your future negatively or positively. The congress is opened to everyone irrespective of religion, tribes or nationals.
#GBAM Intercontinental Office: 47, Marula Crescent, Winchester Hills Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact: +2773271187 Nigeria contact: +2348061423260