At the end of last year, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate impressed the Russian public and the entire Orthodox world with its decision to launch an offensive in Africa. Here is an excerpt from that decision:
«…To establish the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa as part of the North African and South African Dioceses….To include the following countries in the pastoral responsibility of the North African Diocese…: Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, State of Eritrea, Republic of Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Republic of Seychelles, Central African Republic, Republic of Cameroon, Republic of Chad, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Republic of Niger, State of Libya, Republic of Tunisia, Algerian People’s Democratic Republic, Kingdom of Morocco, Republic of Cape Verde, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Republic of Senegal, Republic of Gambia, Republic of Mali, Burkina Faso, Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Liberia, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of Ghana, Togolese Republic, Republic of Benin…… To include in the pastoral jurisdiction of the Diocese of South Africa the following countries Republic of South Africa, Kingdom of Lesotho, Kingdom of Eswatini, Republic of Namibia, Republic of Botswana, Republic of Zimbabwe, Republic of Mozambique, Republic of Angola, Republic of Zambia, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Mauritius, Union of the Comoros, United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Uganda, Republic of Rwanda, Republic of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Republic of Gabon, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe».
In principle, there is nothing surprising about the desire of a global religion to preach to all the peoples of the world — Muslims do the same through Da’wah. The problem is that it is not only the Orthodox Church that has included all of Africa in its canonical territory, but specifically the RUSSIAN Orthodox Church. This again raises the question — where does Orthodox end and Russian begin, or vice versa?
The Roman Catholic Church, for example, does not face such a question in its mission. This is because it is not Italian, but Roman, with Rome being considered the center of world Catholicism. Nor has it arisen in Orthodoxy or with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, which positions itself as universal, that is, global. Until now, Orthodox Africa has been under its care through the Alexandrian Patriarchate, which looks up to it. However, after the Ecumenical Patriarchate supported the Orthodox Ukrainians in their desire to have their own Ukrainian Church, independent of the Russian Church, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to take revenge and start a «crusade» in Africa.
This, of course, seems rather grotesque. It would have made sense for Kirill to declare himself the Ecumenical Patriarch. But no, he does not want to give up his status as Patriarch of the Russian Church. So what is Africa’s relationship to this? Apparently, in recent years it has been chosen as one of the areas of expansion of the «Russian world» by the Wagner Group and political technologists close to Prigozhin. Another grotesque phenomenon of this kind was the recent appearance of the former Kremlin architect of domestic policy, Vladislav Surkov. This time, the man, whose real surname is Dudayev, decided to act as a preacher of the gospel not to anyone, but to… Artificial intelligence. Of course, they are going through a tough time now — a hangover after their vacation, and on top of that, Surkov has long had a reputation as a lover of white powder, and one can start to say all sorts of things after inhaling it. But so far this has not been made public, and now speculations on how to make Artificial Intelligence orthodox are presented as serious lectures.
So, Africa and AI as new objects of colonization by the «Russian world». In previous episodes they tried to do the same with Ukraine and the Christian part of the West, which they wanted to bring over to their side. Most likely, this time they will have a similar «success».