WHEN WILL MISSION SCHOOLS ALLOW OUR SHRINES? THE REAL TEST OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

I am an African Traditionalist, and I have a simple and honest question in the midst of all the heated debates about religious freedom in Christian and Islamic mission schools: Which of these faith-based schools would admit me if I openly declare that I will build my shrine on campus, perform my rituals, and appear in my traditional regalia every day instead of wearing their uniform?

Let us be sincere, none of them will.

Not a single Christian school.

Not a single Islamic school. So, where is that constitutional right we talk about every day? It's a shame to fight for foreign cultures while our own can't be openly practised in these schools even the schools that the government has built.

In my shrine, I do not offer human sacrifice. But as part of my traditional worship, I slaughter fowls, pour the blood on the gods, and place the feathers on the three sacred pots that represent my deities. This is my faith. This is my identity. Yet I cannot even dream of practising it openly in any mission school in Ghana without facing immediate expulsion, stigma, or hostility.

So when I listen to the loud arguments about religious rights, minority protections, and freedom of worship in mission schools, I am shocked. Since this whole brouhaha began, no one has spoken for African Traditional Religion—the first religion of this land. All the attention is on Muslims versus Christians, as if we do not exist, as if our gods are irrelevant, as if our ways are an embarrassment.

Why are we fighting over foreign religions while completely neglecting the faith that was here long before the arrival of Christianity and Islam?

Why are we tearing each other apart defending what our ancestors never knew, yet we treat our own traditions as taboo?

This culture of superiority—where everything African is inferior and everything foreign is supreme—is at the heart of our slow progress. We defend foreign languages, foreign religions, foreign identities, and foreign norms, but despise our own heritage.

Let us stop pretending. This debate is not about constitutional rights.

It is not about equality.

It is not about coexistence. It is a silent but fierce war of religious supremacy.

If a Muslim student insists that Christian schools must allow hijab, prayer sessions, worship spaces, and religious symbols, then why can’t I insist on building my shrine, performing my rituals, and dressing in my full traditional regalia? Why can’t I be exempted from wearing the school uniform if others want exemptions based on their faith?

If mission schools truly believe in religious tolerance, then let them allow African Traditionalists to practice fully and openly on campus. The day any Christian or Islamic school permits a traditional shrine on its compound is the day I will believe that religious freedom and coexistence are real in this country. Until then, we are all pretending.

Let us have an honest conversation as a nation.

Let us stop the selective tolerance.

Let us stop the hypocrisy.

Let us either respect all religions equally — including our own — or stop pretending that we do.