St Francis of Assissi Vs. Sango (god of thunder)

I met this guy one day at the airport on my way to Naija, and he gave me an insight to things i was fascinated by. He spoke to me about deities in Naija, like sango, obatala,and many others. Well, as a born again christian brought up in the way of the anglican church, i told him all that was fetish and devilish. He then asked me what i thought of the saints e.g saint theresa, st james, st. francis of assissi. Well im not too familiar with them since they are related to catholism, but he made me understand that they were both the same.Both saints or gods were humans that had been deified after their death. Sango was a human being who had been imortalised and so were these saints too. So why does Sango (god of thunder ) strike people , especially naija folks as fetish and devilish and St. francis of Assisi otherwise. Well, I say it was part of the plan of colonization to eradicate our culture and consider tradtions and our ways as fetish and devilish.
This goes hand in hand with the myth of language that if you spoke your native language, your Engish would be tarnished and also how Nigerian art such as the masks , sculptures and carvings considered fetish and demonic, but we'd think the head of Augustus caeser was not fetish but art. I actually went to one retired Naval officers house in Lekki Lagos, where at the foyer of the house, there stood the head of caeser on a pedestal. I wonder what people would say if it was the head of Oduduwa (Father or yoruba people) on that same pedestal. Hmmm colonization...i have mixed feeling about that, sometimes i just wish they left us with our Empires and huts, but then again i love my Tv and computer. BUt then again who says our oyo empire would not have soared in technology as well. For this we shall never know.