2014/2015
Vol. 10

Religion of My Family

c. 1939–1942; Oba, Anambra State, Nigeria

My mom always tells us a story about how unfortunate she is not to have any grandparents. Both my great-grandfather and great-grandmother died before she was even born.

In 1939, Christianity had just reached the southeast of my country, Nigeria. One morning, as he was going to his farm, my great-grandfather met the missionaries who were spreading the gospel. He was so fortunate that morning to hear the missionary preaching about Christ. He waited patiently to listen to the gospel, and afterwards gave his life to Jesus Christ. Later that week he was baptized by the missionary that confirmed him to be called a Christian. Little did he know that what he did was going to cost him his life.

About two months after my great-grandfather had accepted Jesus, things started changing between him and his brothers and his kinsmen. They were annoyed and hated the fact that he had given his life to Christ; his kinsmen rejected him, because it was an abomination to them to accept another religion. Throughout this period my great-grandfather waxed strong and continued fellowshipping with the Christians.

One Sunday evening, after returning from church service, my great-grandfather sat down with his brother — drinking and eating. However, unknown to him, his own portion of drink had been poisoned by his brothers, who had sworn they would rather see him dead than see him as a Christian. He drank it, and later died on that Sunday night and was confirmed to have died from poison.

Afterward, great-grandmother raised her two kids without her husband. The boy turned out to be my grandfather, and my mom never stopped thinking how great it would have been for every child to have the love of grandparents.

Since then, southeast Nigeria has changed greatly; people now have more freedom of speech and freedom to practice Christianity without being judged.

Diuto Mozie; North Carolina, USA

This copyrighted story may be copied for limited classroom use or reprinted in an article about The Grannie Annie.

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