Foreword
For many years, I have wrestled with the same questions my brother Kuwana has asked in his book: Why is Africa the way it is? Why is Africa so rich and blessed with natural resources, yet its people live like beggars? Why do the resources of Africa enrich other parts of the world while Africans themselves remain impoverished? It has never made sense to me.
Yet, one thing is clear: the Most High has a definite plan and purpose for Africa. The abundance and blessings scattered across this continent are no accident—they are proof of divine intent. To whom much is given, much is also required.
I have also often pondered why Revelation chapter 11 would allude to Jesus being killed in Egypt—that is, in Africa—and not in Jerusalem. Could it be pointing back to the killing of the Passover Lamb in Egypt on the night of Israel’s deliverance? Or does it point to a deeper mystery?
If it truly points to Jesus being killed in Africa, then what does that mean? It means that the place of His death is also the place of His resurrection reality. And where the reality of His resurrection is manifested, the power of His resurrection is revealed. This means that the harvest resulting from His death will find expression in Africa. This is why Nigeria stands as a “trigger nation” for this harvest, Kenya as the “land of manifestation” of the harvest, and South Africa as the place from which the “sound of the harvest” will go out to the nations of the world. This is a prophetic reality which makes the map of Africa the shape of a Shofar in the hand of God. And while, on the surface, it may not look like any of this is happening in these nations, the spiritual reality is already brewing and will manifest in God’s time.
And how profound is it that by divine providence, the man who carried the cross of Jesus—Simon of Cyrene—was an African? Could this act have been a prophetic indication of the suffering Africans would endure in establishing the will of God in the season we are right now on earth? I believe it was.
The fact that the one who carried Christ’s cross was from Africa is itself a prophetic sign of the struggles Africans have borne, the journey they must walk through, and the blessing attached to that mandate.
Now, let me take you back to the beginning. The subtitle of this book is: “Come out of her and return to the covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” There is a reason for this. While many scholars and African philosophers may reject the idea that Africa must return to the God of the Biblical patriarchs—and may even ask what connection Africa has with Abraham—I will share a few things. These come both from the Scriptures and from personal stories. I do not present them to debate or force opinions, but rather to reveal a biblical pattern: the blessings of Africa are tied to Abraham, through the covenant God made with him, a covenant that includes Africa. For it is written: “Out of Egypt, I called My Son.” And Egypt is in Africa.
How It Began
When it comes to Biblical prophecies or declarations from God, they are often multi-dimensional and multi-layered in their expression. This means that while God may make a prophetic declaration concerning one particular people or nation—as recorded in Scripture—He often ties other peoples and nations into that same declaration.
This is because, while we humans mostly see only what is in front of us or what lies just behind us in our immediate history, God sees from the very beginning of time to the very end. He is the Author of the story of His dealings with all races and peoples of the earth. To truly grasp this story—and how it is woven in layers that require divine wisdom to unpack—we must clothe ourselves in humility.
Here is where I am going with this.
Genesis 15:13–14
“Then the Lord said to Abram: Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also, the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”
This passage opens a scene within God’s story concerning Abram: that his descendants would be taken as slaves into a foreign land for four hundred years.
Fast forward to Genesis 42: famine strikes Canaan, and Jacob—the grandson of Abraham—sends his sons to Egypt to buy grain. By then, Joseph (Jacob’s son) had already been taken to Egypt. After enduring his own process within God’s unfolding story, Joseph had risen to become prime minister of Egypt.
In Genesis 46, Jacob and his entire family relocated to Egypt. There, the prophecy given to Abraham began to unfold: his descendants dwelt in Egypt, eventually as slaves, for four hundred years (technically four hundred and thirty years—the additional thirty being the period God used to prepare Moses for the mandate of deliverance).
But here is the key: when most people hear of Egypt, they think of the physical nation in North Africa. Biblically, however, Egypt is not merely a geographical nation but also a spiritual system—a power with vast influence over humanity.
This perspective leads to a pressing question: which people in known world history were taken from their land in ships, carried into foreign nations, and served as slaves for four hundred years? The answer is Africans.
Egypt Is a System, Not Just a Nation
Egypt, biblically, represents more than a nation—it symbolizes a spiritual system of oppression over the sons of men.
This is why Revelation 11 speaks of Jesus being “killed in Egypt,” even though Scripture tells us He was crucified on a hill in Jerusalem. Egypt, in this sense, is not geographical but spiritual.
The same is true of Babylon. Historically, Babylon was an ancient kingdom in the region now called Iran. Yet Babylon also represents a spiritual system that has influenced the world since the days of the Tower of Babel, where its foundations were laid. “Babel” itself means confusion. Its root was in the land of Shinar, and Shinar was birthed by the spirit of wickedness (see Zechariah 5). From that foundation came the spiritual system of Babylon.
But what is wickedness? Wickedness is any system that subverts the authority of God and robs His people of their liberty.
The Return
It is important that I share this part of my story in the Foreword, not only to bring clarity to what I have already written, but also to connect it to the central call: “Come out of her and return to the covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
There is much that Africans must come out from: the spiritual systems of Egypt and Babylon, the system of greed born from the rebellion of Cain, and every other structure that has used the very hands and resources of Africans to keep Africans in servitude. The season we are in now is about “The Return.” But a return cannot happen without separation—hence the command: “Come out from among them.”
Let me share a few encounters that shaped my understanding of this return.
Badagry – 2014
In September 2014, while still living in Lagos, Nigeria, the Lord instructed me to travel to Badagry, a coastal town near the border of Nigeria and the Benin Republic. I was told to stay there for seven days. Before leaving, He asked me to take with me a stone He had shown me a week prior.
So, I called my friend whose family has a home in Badagry. I had called him to help me find a place where I can stay for seven days. He went ahead and told his parents, and I was invited to come stay with them in their home.
Badagry, as history records, was one of the infamous slave ports where Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas. One of its sites is called The Point of No Return, a grim reminder of those who passed through its arch, never to return home.
Two days after arriving at Badagry, I was accompanied by two guys whom my friend had told to take me around. We went to the site called The Point of No Return. As we got there, the Lord told me to pass through the arch (The Point of No Return), walk into the ocean, bring out the stone from my pocket, and throw it as far as I could into the ocean. He also asked me to declare that everything stolen from Africa through that gateway—people, resources, knowledge, history—must be restored to the continent.
Then came another instruction: to rename the site. I declared that it would no longer be The Point of No Return, but rather “The Point of the Return.”
Only later did I realize that this declaration happened on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year of 2014. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the civil year, according to the teachings of Judaism, and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, as well as the initiation of humanity's role in God's world. The timing was no coincidence.
Mombasa – 2017
In January 2017, shortly after my wedding in Nairobi, which took place on the 1st of that same month, my wife and I traveled to Mombasa for our honeymoon. Yet even this journey carried divine instructions. Mombasa, like Badagry, is a coastal town with a slave port still standing as a witness to history.
There, we were told to set up an altar of thirteen stones, pour clean water over them, and remove one stone to be used later. At the slave port, we carried out a prophetic act similar to what I had done in Badagry.
Ghana – 2019
Two years later, in 2019, the Ghanaian government declared “The Year of Return”, marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans were taken to the Americas. Millions of people of African descent have since been making their way back to the continent, some even reclaiming citizenship.
I do not claim credit for these movements, but I cannot ignore the prophetic link between those symbolic acts in Badagry and Mombasa and what began unfolding in Ghana and beyond. Just as God told Abraham that his descendants would return after 400 years, so too does Africa stand at a prophetic threshold.
The Purpose of the Return
The return is not merely about the restoration of stolen people, resources, and history. More importantly, it is about a return to the covenant—to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Some may ask: what does the slavery of Africans have to do with the slavery of Abraham’s descendants? While they may not be the same according to human timelines, they are the same according to God’s prophetic timelines. According to Deuteronomy 28:68, which nation of people in the history of the world was taken into strange nations in ships? Remember, Egypt and Babylon mean both a place and a system.
Here lies a sober warning: Africans in the diaspora must begin to return to the continent. The global system is closer to collapse than many realize, and nuclear conflict is no longer unthinkable. When the great powers of the earth collide in a nuclear war, where will safety be found? Africa will be the refuge. In fact, there is an old prophecy that speaks of this reality. You can search online for it. It is wisdom to begin returning now, to rebuild and prepare.
But let the return not be with the spirit of conquest, as if to replace the Europeans and continue their exploitative legacy. Return as brothers and sisters, as sons and daughters of the soil, joining hands with those on the continent to restore and build the Motherland.
Imagine, for a moment, an Africa where her scattered children return—not only with wealth and knowledge, but with humility and a heart to build. Imagine an Africa where this return is aligned with the covenant blessings of Deuteronomy 28. That Africa will not just be restored—it will be reborn.
Samuel Irewolede Phillips
Msingi Afrika Magazine, Kenya.