The Nigerian musical artist, Seyi Shay, has affirmed that many traditional hymns were written by slave owners who forced the enslaved people to sing them while undergoing torture.
Seyi revealed this earlier this week in a publication about his History of Instagram, revealing why he stopped attending a church to choose old hymns about new songs.
Also read: Music is my heart. ”He said Shay
According to her, the decision to leave the Church was never about doctrine or conflict.
According to Seyi Shay, enslaved people were forced to sing those hymns written by slave owners while they were subjected to torture.
In his words, “I stopped going to that church. Period.”
“I don't know how or why you would feel blessed and happy singing some of the songs that slave owners wrote and forced them to sing and pass through generations while hitting and torturing your ancestors … It makes no sense.”
Explaining, Seyi recalled how one of the church leaders had told members to stop singing modern songs and only sing hymns and songs based on the Scriptures.
“A leader like Dat in my former church said something like: 'We need to stop singing all these songs from the Gospel of the New Age with praise and worship and sing Hymns again and only songs that are direct writings …” he added.
In a follow -up publication, the singer clarified that not all hymns have this problematic story, but many do. “Not all hymns were written by Oooo's owners! But many of them were. In some cases, they better compensate for their own songs/hymns of praise and worship (based on the scriptures if you prefer),” he said.
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