By Ogova Ondego
The Sunday Nation Newspaper, September 24, 2000

1(a) Having read David Mail­lu”s After 4.30 and Un­fit for Human Con­sumption, one would
readily dismiss him as an author unfit to pen a religious book. But that would, perhaps, not stop him from completing his Bible on African religion.

1(b) “That everything has remained at the oral stage has made people to erroneously conclude that Africa has no religion,” says Maillu. It is with this in mind that he spearheaded writing KA The Holy Book of Neter (The Soul of  God) the African, Bible. “My (our) aim is not to undermine any religion but to show the world that Africans, wherever they may be, have a unifying religion,” he says. “In some Afri­can languages, KA  means soul while NETER refers to God.

1(c) Maillu says that African religion has no concept of hell or paradise. “God put us in this world to do the best we can. What he does with us after death is his/her/its own
business.

1(d) “The God humanity serves is one, and the way people worship him/her/it is just their own version or interpretation. We (Africans) can work with anyone whose practice is based on the African concept of God.”

1(e) Maillu says the manuscript was compiled after thorough research with university dons. He plans to have the book published in several African languages. Having written close to 60 publications and numerous unpublished works, Maillu has in the recent past written scholarly books like African Indigenous Political Ideology, and Our Kind of Polygamy. He has also written a 1,120 page novel, Broken

1(f) Drum. He is a man of many hats – a novelist, a scholar, a politi­cian, a musician, a painter, an essayist and now, a theologian! Maillu isthe Chairman of the special Executive Working Committee – the authors and compilers of the African Holy book. Comparing his book with Prof. John Mbiti”s African Reli­gions and Philosophy, Maillu says the latter is a scholarly view of African religion while his is the “Law On African Religion.” The book gives guidelines on all aspects of African cuture, for example, on parent­ing, sex, marriage, drinking, friendship, and loyalty. On sex Maillu says: “Sex is divine and there is nothing immoral about it. In my After, 4.30, no one has ever showed me what falsehood I presented other than pretending it is offensive. Can there be life without sex?”