Tears from Heaven

Tears from Heaven is a true life story (names of persons and places have been changed though) that is set in a typical African village in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The events span through a period of about twenty years. This book portrays the hydra-headed effects of ignorance in rural African society. Several unscientific practices such as belief in witchcraft being the cause of all evils, communing with the dead, and attributing misfortunes in ones life to an enemy are evident. These are taken to such extremes that families have been torn apart, marriages broken, and peoples lives threatened. Churches are not left out too. Preachers capitalise on this ignorance and the tendency to attribute things to the supernatural to defraud their unsuspecting members. They deceive their members by claiming to hear from God, while they actually do not, pretending to have solution to all problems and performing rituals in the name of casting out evil spirits, among other things. Tears from Heaven portrays God literally crying in heaven as a result of preachers abusing his name for selfish interests. He (God) also cries seeing the pain people go through and the injustice they suffer from self-inflicted or society-inflicted harm based on false cultural beliefs. Contrary to popular belief, these inhuman practices are still held on to in many places, and reading through this book will expose this can of worms that many thought was hitherto closed or even dead. As the traditional ruler of my community, I am best positioned to tell the story because I have first-hand experience, having spent a greater part of my life with the people. It will make an interesting reading for those interested in African philosophy and culture. More so, it is set in the troubled oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It also points to the fact that there are some things that science has not changed and may unfortunately not be able to change. Tears from Heaven