Originally published here.

Religion and work are two issues that are highly connected. When it is to bediscussed within an African context, then it is a crucial relationship where one canhardly be divorced from the other. Religion is observed to be “at the root of Africanculture and is the determining principle of African life. Religion runs through thewhole life and being of a typical African. Indeed for him or her, religion is life andlife, religion.Africans are also hard-workers. They believe in hard-work and regardlaziness as unethical. The Yorubas of Nigeria will say “Ise loogun ise” (which means,work is the medicine that can cure poverty). For the traditional African society, thereis dignity in labour. Anyone who has no job or is lazy or not resourceful is looked onwith disdain within the community.

It could therefore be concluded that Africans are “religious-workers.” Theywork but they carry their religion along with it and right into it. This interplay ofreligion and work is what makes a study of the practice of discrimination in workplaces necessary from an African perspective. Do Africans discriminate at workplaces or situations? If they do, why do they discriminate? Are there certain inherentfactors in religion that make its adherents discriminate? What then are the effects andsolution to such unethical and inhuman practices?

The position of this paper is thatdiscrimination is inherent in most of the religions in Africa and the solution to suchdiscrimination also lies in a better understanding of the essence of these religionsbased on an educated conscience and a strong legal system put in place by thegovernments. The term “work places” in this paper is used for places of employment.

The International Labour Organization Convention III, which deals withdiscrimination in respect of employment and occupation, gave a clear definition anddescription of the concept of discrimination. According to Article 1(a), discriminationincludes “any distraction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour,sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has theeffect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.”

Discrimination therefore is a situation where any human being is denied equalright of opportunity and treatment with his or her fellow humans due to one differenceor the other – in this case as related to employment. The Convention is itself premisedon the fact that “all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right topursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions offreedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity.

In essence spiritualdevelopment ought not to negate or be a hindering factor to the pursuit of one’smaterial well being. They are all issues of human right which are adequately protectedby United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and most localconstitutions of participating nations.

This paper has looked at discrimination in work places in Africa suggestingreasons for such discrimination as the nature of the major religions present on thecontinent, the state of poverty and scarcity of much needed resources and the cultureof impunity that pervades the continent. The reason why religious-baseddiscrimination becomes an issue is because Africans are overtly religious and at thesame time are hard-workers.

This paper has therefore looked within and outside thereligious heritage of Africa to proffer solutions to the problem of discrimination.Within the religious systems, the admonition to love and be one’s brother or sister’skeeper (whoever the brother or sister may be) is to be explored above cultic fraternitythat limits care to covenant members and discriminate against others. It is furthersuggested that interfaith dialogues be engaged in. It has been discovered to fosterunderstanding and mutual tolerance. It also helps in educating consciences. There isalso the proffered solution coming from exploiting the support for human dignity andsocial justice as inherent within religions. Outside religion, building a strong andeffective legal system that supersedes any religious or other sentiments by thegovernment of each nation is another solution. With all these in place, religious-baseddiscrimination in work places will greatly reduce in Africa if not totally eliminated.

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