A survivor of an Islamist atrocity has called for prayer and forgiveness in the midst of Christian persecution.
Manga is using his testimony to lead others closer to God after surviving a beheading attempt by Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist jihadist organisation.
“I grew up in a family where Christianity was a top priority,” Manga told The Tablet. He was working as a teacher in Nigeria at the time of the attack. “But I never saw it as an intimate relationship with God.”
On 2 October 2012, 30 armed Boko Haram militants attacked Manga and his family. After locking his mother Amina in the wardrobe, the men “took us outside the house compound and asked if we would deny our [Christian] faith and convert to Islam”.
Upon saying no, Manga’s father and brother were beheaded with a serrated knife before his eyes.
“I began to pray my last prayers. I thought, ‘If I deny Christ and they kill me, what do I tell Christ when I face him?’”
Manga described that when the knife was on his neck, he “prayed for their mercy too”, constantly reminding himself of the Lord’s Prayer: “I knew that to obtain mercy from God, I had to forgive them too.”
He recalled that “the hand of God” was on his neck: “The knife was still there, but the pain wasn’t. God took upon himself the pain.”
After being left for dead, Manga was taken to hospital for surgery, during which he was clinically recorded dead after bleeding for five hours: “But God restored my life for a purpose. The impossibility of man is God’s possibility.”
Manga and his mother escaped, but in 2017 Amina was abducted by Boko Haram. After five weeks, negotiators managed to arrange her release.
“I feel like my whole purpose of enjoying a second chance of life, which not everyone gets, is to make [God] famous and I will gladly do that with the whole of my heart,” Manga said.
He also said that his scar is not something he is ashamed of, but that he prays for people to have the curiosity to ask him so that he can preach about Jesus.
Manga now works with Open Doors, a charity dedicated to supporting persecuted Christians that risk their lives in the name of Jesus.
“Consistent prayer is so important”, he said, “and to work with existing platforms like Open Doors to raise support and advocacy. We should trust in God and forgive. Because for me, I forgave when the knife was on my neck. Let us forgive each other, be there for each other, and put our hope and trust in God. I want to show people how God is glorified in the midst of persecution.”
The latest Persecuted and Forgotten report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said that the “epicentre of militant Islamist violence has shifted from the Middle East to Africa”.
It recorded a spike in persecution in Africa amid a global increase in religious intolerance in the period 2022-24.
“In 60 per cent of countries surveyed, human rights violations against Christians had increased since the last Persecuted and Forgotten? report,” ACN said.
Catholic bishops in Africa have warned that Christians have been driven from large parts of the continent after attacks by armed militias.
“Mass migration of Christian communities, triggered by militant Islamist attacks, has destabilised and disenfranchised them, raising questions about the long-term survival of the Church in key regions,” the report added.
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