This article shows that atheists experience hate and intolerance, physical and psychological mistreatments. This piece argues that the apparent invisibility of atheism in Africa is linked to these experiences. In other words atheists are treated in ways that compel them to hide their atheism.
Many atheists recounted how they were sometimes forced to keep quiet during conversations or compelled to suppress their own ideas because such views and opinions could be deemed offensive. While these atheists live in societies that claim to value freedom of religion or belief, freedom of thought and expression, such freedoms are not extended to them. Atheists who live in Muslim dominated communities are worse off. Their situation is more dangerous because, under sharia law, it is a capital offence to renounce or criticize Islam; atheism is haram.
Compared to their counterparts in western societies, atheists in Africa are in a more vulnerable condition. They are more prone to being abused or victimized with impunity. Family and community structures are more effective than state institutions when it comes to issues concerning religious belief and unbelief. Living in societies without functional social support systems, atheists rely mainly on their families and friends, not on the state, when they are in need. So atheists in Africa are cautious not to jeopardize the limited options that they have or could access when they are critically in need of help.
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