African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 715 - 19: East Africa’s "Political Assets

"In 1886, under the heavy-handed suppression of the Religious Culture Administration Bureau, 57 illegal mission organizations were dismantled, over four thousand illegal doctrine texts destroyed, and 23 individuals from 7 foreign illegal entities were arrested. Overall, the country has been effective in safeguarding the legitimate rights of religions, maintaining social stability, and further consolidating the stability of social ideology." John Mendel, the director of the Religious Culture Administration Bureau, reported last year's work.

"The populace's thinking is ignorant and easily swayed by those with ulterior motives, but at the same time, we cannot simply eradicate the spiritual reliance that religious culture provides to the lower classes. It's critical to harmlessly process religious thoughts. We must support those that comply with the laws and the fundamental moral values of society and align with East Africa's ideology of loyalty and patriotism. Everything else is a target for crackdown." Ernst emphasized.

East Africa's suppression of religious forces has a long history. However, according to the official explanation of East Africa, it's naturally to combat "cults" and illegal religious organizations.

Yet the vitality of religion is tenacious, like chives—after being cut, they grow back. Hence, there needs to be a crackdown at intervals.

"The education department repeatedly orders that no one should reach towards our East African 'future.' No one under the age of seventeen should receive religious intervention. This is a crucial foundation of religious freedom in East Africa. At the same time, we must establish correct ideological and moral values for East African children, enabling them to discern right from wrong."

East Africa has always been quite feudal and conservative, naturally intolerant of miscellaneous thoughts "poisoning" its youth. This is also a significant task of implementing compulsory education.

"As of now, 1,308 churches have been built nationwide, along with 143 Taoist temples."

You heard it right, East Africa has opened up to the cultural heritage of Taoism, preventing any single religion from monopolizing the landscape. After all, having only one religion would be concerning—what if it leads to a conflict between the papacy and royal authority seen in Medieval Europe? This is a method of division and balance.

Like in the ancient Far East Empire, a balance between Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism was established. East Africa is currently in a similar situation, with Catholicism, Protestantism, and Taoism forming a tripartite confrontation.

However, the differential treatment between them is quite evident, with significant numerical disparities, which plays an important role in stabilizing the populace.

Of course, regardless of religion, all textbooks are defined and written by the East African authorities.

These officially-backed religions are strictly limited to certain areas and cannot actively preach to believers. They can only attract followers through their means.

Meanwhile, the development of religion in East Africa is trending towards the integration of religious and royal power, largely learning from Japan, where the Japanese emperor's existence is closely linked to the spiritual belief of all Japanese citizens.

This "advanced" thinking mode, which consolidates royal authority, naturally deserves the study of the Heixinggen royal family, albeit not as maddened and overt as Japan's.

These crooked and heretical practices are closely related to the ruling foundation of the Heixinggen royal family, as this era does not particularly emphasize "materialism" thinking.

"In summary, secularization is the trend of the times. However, even under the wave of secularization, there are always people who need spiritual sustenance. We cannot deny the existence of this spiritual support. The government needs more ambiguous concepts to maintain social stability."

Without giving some people an outlet for their thoughts, extreme behaviors could easily arise. Of course, excessive spiritual control can also trigger extreme reactions. Therefore, the ruling class must balance the two, keeping the folk beliefs in East Africa within a reasonable range.

John Mendel: "In the recent years of religious and cultural control, we've clearly noticed that external religious forces have increased their infiltration into East Africa. Before 1880, only three such cases were recorded over ten years, but in 1886 alone, we found thirteen cases involving seven religious organizations. These activities mainly occurred in open coastal cities."

Currently, for many religious forces, East Africa is absolutely a blue ocean because religion in East Africa is effectively a puppet backed by the Heixinggen royal family and the East African government, disconnected from mainstream international religious forces.

This naturally incites dissatisfaction from some entities. However, it is impossible to make East Africa open its doors unless violent means are used to destroy the consolidated national defense that East Africa has built over decades.

If hard tactics don't work, they naturally resort to soft approaches. Developing proxy believers through open coastal cities is the mainstream strategy, but they encounter the formidable Religious Culture Administration Bureau of East Africa. Both openly and covertly, they've had multiple confrontations, all resulting in victories for East Africa's official organizations.

"These foreign forces must be strictly suppressed, especially Judaism, Arabian religions, and the Roman church. This is not the Middle Ages. The rise of nation-states is the trend. The only path for East Africa is national integration, eliminating internal differences to better concentrate power for competing with other countries." Ernst stated.

Ernst emphasizes these three because they are the least likely to integrate, stemming from fundamentalism levels older than East Africa's feudal autocracy, reluctant to adapt even in the transition from slave societies to modern times.

Of course, from past lives, we see changes in the Arabian religion. However, these changes were collectively obliterated by Western societies. The Arabian regions, with no path to industrialization, all turned to revivalist movements.

Of course, this matter is currently not East Africa's concern. The world order group, led by Britain and France, are the main drivers. There's no conflict between East Africa and France, but it's a different story with England.

However, with the current stability of the East African nation, external forces can no longer erase the existence of the East African state, could bring about the downfall of the East African government, or cause the nation to split, but the cultural system that East Africa has built over decades is now impossible to overthrow. This is one of the reasons for East Africa's increasing openness in the international community.

Simply put, no matter how much East Africa is messed up, the remnants will still carry the East African essence. As long as the East African people are not entirely wiped out, someone will always think of reviving this vast empire.

This is akin to the Emperor Shi of the Far East Empire completing the spiritual reshaping of the Huaxia nation through unification, similar to how East Africa, despite its non-high development level, forcibly entered the ranks of the great powers due to its sheer size.

East Africa's national shaping has many flaws, but overall, it has been completed. Future tasks are simply to repair these flaws, and once fully integrated, East Africa will be wholly mature.

In fact, East Africa has completed the construction of "Spiritual Rome," establishing an unprecedented great empire in African history. Even if it fragments in the future, it will mimic Europe's situation with every part claiming Roman legitimacy, using it to seek the "political and cultural legacy" left by the East African Empire.

The Franco-German hegemony dispute, Tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Greece all have their "Rome" plans because Rome was an unprecedented grand empire in European history, and the establishment and expansion of East Africa is a kind of reproduction of ancient Rome.

Unless a country appears that can unify the entire African continent, the historical achievements East Africa has made on the continent will forever remain unsurpassed.

This is the political influence East Africa has unconsciously achieved, forming the African political and cultural hegemony built gradually since the Heixinggen royal family's landing in East Africa.