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H.
Exc. Mgr. Cyprien Mbuka, C.I.C.M. - Auxiliar Bishop of
Boma (Dem. Rep. of Congo)
Introduction Like all religions, the African Traditional Religion (ATR) is a complex whole of beliefs, and of spiritual, ritual and ethical practices, including agents who guarantee their authenticity and continuity.1 As a traditional religion, the social and cultural environment of its origin is its place of reference. Its transmission from one generation to another is provided through the living tradition of that environment.2 For this reason, the African traditional religious experience can be seen in very varied forms; nonetheless, it is unquestionable that a common religious background runs through all of them: belief in a Supreme Being, the Creator and Father of all that exists; belief in the ancestors and spirits; belief in two worlds, the visible and invisible, their interaction, their community and hierarchical character, the way of celebrating. At the heart of all these religious expressions, some common structures and aspirations can be found.3 Therefore, we can readily speak about the African Traditional Religion in the singular form. The statistics speak about approximately 16% of Africans as being the followers of the ATR,4 without forgetting that in one way or another, all Africans have come from the social and religious context of the ATR continues to impregnate individual and collective life and to inspire thought and behaviour in a profound way. In the confrontation with modernity and other religious experiences which have come from elsewhere, the ATR is sometimes led to make new choices.5 For this reason, proclamation and dialogue in the context of the ATR appear to be a complex undertaking. This lesson deals with proclamation and dialogue in the framework of the African Traditional Religion. It will be limited to the general context and be content with mentioning and stressing some aspects which are already known. The lesson will be divided into five parts. The first part will briefly recall the general meaning of proclamation, dialogue and their connection with one another. The second part will synthetically present the situation of life in Africa. The third part will point out the strong points of the ATR, and the fourth will speak about the practice of proclamation and dialogue. Lastly, in the fifth part a few words will be said about the importance of interreligious dialogue with the ATR. Understanding Proclamation and Dialogue 1.1 Proclamation Proclamation of the Good News is a need which flows from the gratuitous love of God: "The love of Christ impels us", (2 Cor 5:14). The Gospel is intended for all men and women, not only as individuals but also as society. The faith "contains in itself a missionary urgency. The certitude of having discovered in Jesus the 'pearl of great price' of the Kingdom of God brings about a transformation which in turn implies newness of life. It demands a detachment, it uproots and launches one on mission both within one's country and outside to the ends of the earth".7 Proclamation of the Good News normally leads to Baptism.8 1.2. Interreligious Dialogue Dialogue is a process between persons who meet with the concern to find one another in the Truth. It "does not only refer to the fact of speaking to one another but also the whole of positive and constructive interreligious relations with persons and communities having different beliefs in order to learn to know and be enriched by one another".9 This implies collaboration in the promotion and protection of the fundamental values of fraternity, justice, peace, freedom and respect for human dignity and nature. Interreligious dialogue is thus a structural part of evangelization. 1.3. Proclamation and Dialogue Proclamation and dialogue are two necessary dimensions of the mission. They enlighten and enrich one another.10 Proclamation highlights sharing one's own faith with others and thus stresses the gratuitousness of the gift of faith. Dialogue highlights the universality of salvation which is already there, but always to come; it sheds light on the presence of the Spirit in the different religious traditions and the required openness to Him; it encourages respect for the religious convictions of others and recognition of its limits. Proclamation implies a dialogue just as dialogue implies proclamation. Proclamation maintains the priority but in practice the accent will be placed on one dimension or another in consideration of the contexts. In many circumstances, the only form which evangelization can take is Christian witness through living together and daily meetings. Every encounter with persons of another religion is not necessarily interreligious dialogue. No one who rejects a common religious, horizon can be obliged to, take part in an interreligious dialogue. The situation of life in Africa One cannot effectively proclaim a message to others and dialogue in depth with them without first having an area of communication with them. We will confine ourselves to pointing out some indicators of the African situation and their meaning. 2.1. The Facts In Africa, politics is marked by dictatorship and oppression; in the economy there is stagnation and misery; socially, there is disorganization and de-structuring; regarding culture and ethics, we are witnessing a loss of cultural identity and a scale of values. As a whole, the African continent is saturated with bad news: poor administration of resources, corruption, political instability, totalitarian regimes, social and ethical disorientation, very poor education, tribal wars, hunger, galloping demography in a context of deterioration of the environment, violation of human rights, the problem of refugees and displaced persons, a very precarious sanitary situation, discrimination toward women, religious intolerance. As to religion, three major religions share Africa: the ATR, Islam and Christianity. Sects and independent African Churches are flourishing. The Catholic Church, together with the other Churches, but at times in competition with them, has contributed to the economic growth and the promotion of moral values in Africa. Their works of charity, such as schools, health centres, orphanages, trade apprenticeship centres, development activity, defence of the weak, etc., give witness to this. The Church is one of the rare official institutions that has been able to present some opposition to the dictatorial power. Despite this encouraging result, however, it must be recognized that in many places a profound dichotomy exists between concrete life and the faith professed. In Church structures, a certain discrimination and domination can be seen. The Synod for Africa recognized that the Church in Africa has not always respected justice, for example, with regard to the men and women who work in it: "We have not always done what we could in order to form the laity for life in society, to a Christian vision of politics and economics. A protracted absence of the lay faithful from this field has led them to believe that the faith has nothing to do with politics".11 The self-financing of the local Churches is far from being a reality. 2.2. Meaning of the Facts Throughout this history, the Africans make their aspirations known; they reveal their limitations and sources of dynamism and express their disappointments. Life, peace, justice, the land, communion/ fraternity, material goods, mastery of self and one's resources, numerous descendants, a life in harmony with God, the ancestors and the inhabitants of the invisible world constitute the principal aspirations of the Africans. Among the limitations which can be pointed out in the behaviour of Africans, we will refer to these: 1) a certain lack of awareness of their individual and collective identity. On the one hand, Africans reject the West; on the other, they are fascinated by it, and from this imitations set in. 12 2) A certain evasion of their historical responsibilities which is expressed, among other things, in the tendency to seek the cause of all their ills in the West.13 3) A certain blind trust in nature: Africa is often content with following the rhythm of nature and what it offers. It trusts nature more and lets itself be carried by it rather than imposing its imprint on nature.14 4) Fatalism: the strong presence of what is sacred in African life does not allow Africans to become masters of what they live and undertake; the world of spirits is called upon too often to solve problems. Along with these limitations, fortunately various sources of dynamism can be noted: 1) The African "palaver" (discussions), a practice which seeks everyone's consensus, is one element which contributes to social organization by encouraging everyone's communion and participation. 2) The primacy of life over the law, a situation which is favorable to dynamism in administering life and which allows for change over the course of history when necessary. 3) Patience which makes it possible for Africa to resist the different external and internal forms of aggression. This is not merely passive waiting; it includes ingenuity and tenacity. In this way, some children and women provide a slightly more decent life for their family by means of the informal economy. 4) The spiritual dynamism which pushes Africa to seek less a power of having than a power of being: being in good relations with others is more important than having many material goods. 5) Love for solidarity: a large number of Africans are still marked by a vision of the world in which the community aspect has priority over the individual aspect. The visible world is in constant connection with the invisible world; life is understood as being shared; one does not live — one's own life — but the life of the community; to live is to exist within a community with brothers and sisters having the same destiny and who must make it bear fruit. This principle is at the basis of clan solidarity which is lived through the obligations of mutual aid, hospitality and sharing, especially on the occasion of important events in life. Lastly, Africans do not hide their disappointment with regard to certain situations experienced over the course of their history. With regard to politics, whether it refers to the pre-colonial, colonial or post-colonial period, they deplore the priority given to exploitation for oneself over giving value to others in their differences and in their individual and collective identity. Colonization, for example, imposed the consumer society on Africa before production; it introduced Africa into modernity in a brutal way, with no transition, and thus took away its mastery over its own collective organization.15 This fact is not extraneous to the egocentricity which is ravaging the continent: corruption, exploitation of some by others, ethnocentrism. With regard to the Church, some criticism is made against her. 1) Though on the one hand missionaries have carried out admirable works in anthropology, ethnology and linguistics, and on the other have devoted themselves above all to the marginalized in society, to children, orphans, widows, freed slaves, they have only met the people partially.16 To Africans' fundamental questions, they have not been able to give answers sufficiently incarnated in their cultural and religious reality. This in part has contributed to the growth of independent Churches and sects. 2) If it is true that the Church in Africa has contributed generously to human and spiritual promotion, at times she has held the Africans back by not encouraging them to have a greater awaresness of their responsibilities and arousing in many a mentality of "welfare recipients". 3) Nor has she known how to value correctly the positive elements present in the ATR, at times making it difficult for Africans to live their own ancestral faith and contributing in part to their dual religious behaviour.17 4) Finally she is reproached for her involvement with colonialism and having brought into Africa a Christianity "divided" into several religious denominations. 3. Strong Points of the ATR The African continent is immense and its religious expressions are many. Here we will only point out some strong points of these religious experiences.18 3.1. Overall View The ATR is an ensemble of coherent systems of belief and practices, an overview of the world that impregnates all individual and collective life guides and regulates interpersonal relations between the living and the living dead. Culture and religion constitute only one reality, the source of life, family and identity. There is no strict distinction between the sacred and the profane. Every being is sacred and shares in the divine. The connection between the spiritual and the material spheres leads to a concept of salvation which makes the ATR a therapeutic religion,19 which integrates social concord and harmony with God, the ancestors and nature. These different connections provide the ATR's internal dynamism and enable it to resist the different forms of internal and external aggression. Belief is a dynamic path which has nothing to do with the dilemma of everything or nothing. 3.2. Faith in a personal and one God Through stories, proverbs, songs, names, etc., the God of the ATR reveals himself to be a personal being. He is considered the Only God, the Creator, the Almighty One, the Omniscient One, Life, the Other, the Transcendent-Immanent One, the One who had no beginning. The other spirits that dwell in the invisible world are inferior to Him but superior to man. It must be noted that God is not absent from ordinary life. The God of the Africans is neither abstract, indifferent or solitary. He is a Being of relations; his acting in the history of man and the universe passes through the spirits that take care of daily life. These represent attempts to make a symbolic incarnation of the divine into the human, of the hereafter with the here below.20 3.3. Community and Individual Morality religious denominations The African's way of acting leaves no doubt regarding the existence of an ethical rule. The importance of the community dimension in Africa has led certain anthropologists to say that the moral rule of traditional Africa does not have an inner divine law but only the notion of wrongs done to the community. In reality, the community does not exhaust the individual conscience and responsibility; this is made up of sensitivity to the notion of good and evil as such, with the enlightenment of the conscience.21 In this way the existence in Africa of individual retribution after death can be understood. 3.4. The Importance of Ancestor Worship Africans believe in life beyond the grave. Sacrifices and offerings are made to the living dead who have the duty to aid the living, ensure their material prosperity and the perpetuity of the lineage. The dead join their ancestors in a place of happiness. However, it should be noted that not all the dead will go to that place. It is certain that heroes, the founders of tribes or ethnic groups and men who have marked a generation have their place there.22 Among the dead, ancestors occupy the first place because they play an important role in African soteriology.23 With regard to the living on this earth, they have a threefold relationship: the fundamental source of life, a continuous presence among us, mediation between God and us. Life has its origin in God, but we have received it from the ancestors who are the founders of the family. 3.5. Value o f the Human Person and the World The human person is one of the fundamental features of the ATR. The person is considered as the connection between the visible world and the invisible world; the person is God's principal partner and the ATR is an effort to make known and celebrate this partnership.24 Many founding African myths affirm that the harmony between the visible world and the invisible world is broken through the fault of humans. This is because they are concerned with restoring the relationship of initial, general harmony.25 The African anthropological structure, which is broken down into life/death/life, constitutes the fundamental itinerary of the ATR, as a permanent search for more life, a liberation from the various evil forces.26 The ATR is a generator of life, fruitfulness and family. It is a force for mastering death. In the ATR humans aim at being in harmony with God, with the ancestors, among themselves and with nature. We can immediately see how the human condition, seen through the ATR, reveals a cosmic vision of the human person and the world aimed at transcendence. Everything aspires to God, everything participates in the divine. God is the ultimate reference for everything. This confers on humans and the world their inalienable dignity and their spiritual dimension. 3.6. Connection with the Tribe The ATR, like many traditional religions, has its sociological configuration in the tribe. It is understandable from this that the ATR does not have missionary ambitions; it is not looking for new followers, but it is open to new contributions. "Without running the danger of becoming absorbed, the ATR lets the new elements come to it, on the level of its members who are not initiated (...) The people are hardly scandalized by this sliding from one sect to another, from one Church to another, nor by the dual belonging (...) Paradoxically, sectarianism in Africa is associated with tolerance".27 3.7. Connection with the Oral Tradition African religious experiences which have written sources are rare. Being subject to the law of secrecy, these religions are often only the privilege of the initiated. The creed is written in the heart and borne by the living tradition. In this context, the risk of deviations — magic, sorcery, fetishism, animism, etc. — is great. However, "the violent impact of modernity has certainly caused the loss of coherence and cultural identity, and these religions restore the significant elements for the social context they assimilate as a support for pragmatic longevity".28
Notes 1. Cf. J. Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion, 2nd ed., Heinemann, Oxford, 1991, pp. 11-13; "Religion of Traditional Peoples" in The Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion, ed. Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1995, pp. 1087-1099. 2. Cf. Eliade/Couliano, "Religions de l'Afrique", in Dictionnaire des religions, ed. Plon, 1990, pp. 27-39; J.E. Ballong-Wen-Mewuda, "L'idée de Sainteté dans la Religion Traditionnelle Africaine" in Pro Dialogo, Bulletin 92, 1996/2, p. 183. 3. Cf. SECRETARIATUS PRO NON-CHRISTIANIS (SPNC), A la rencontre des religions africaines, Libreria Editrice Ancora, Rome, 1969, p. 27; V. Mulago, "Religions traditionnelles et christianisme. Point de vue d'un catholique" in Semaines Théologiques de Kinshasa, L'évangélisation dans l'Afrique d'aujourd'hui, Proceedings of the Tenth Theological Week of Kinshasa, Faculty of Theology, Kinshasa, 1980, p. 77. 4. Cf. Jeune Afrique, L'Atlas du continent africain, ed. Jaguar, Paris, 1993, p. 46. 5. Cf. SPNC, op. cit., p. 144. 6. See the document "Proclamation and Dialogue", 1991, published jointly by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, especially nos. 58-63. 7. Synod for Africa, Message, n. 9; cf. JOHN PAUL II, Redemptoris Missio, n. 11. 8. Cf. Proclamation and Dialogue, n. 10. 9. SECRETARIAT FOR NON-CHRISTIANS, Attitude de l'Église catholique devant les croyants des autres religions, Vatican City, II, 1984, n. 3. 10. Cf. Dialogue et Annonce: reflection and guidelines concerning interreligious dialogue and proclamation of the Gospel, 1991, nos. 77-78. See also Lesson I presented by the Most Rev. M.L. Fitzgerald. 11. Synod for Africa, Message, n. 33. 12. Cf. KA MANA, L Afrique va-t-elle mourir ? Essai d'éthique politique, Karthala, 2nd ed., Paris, 1993, pp. 35-59. 13. Cf. Ibid., p. 65. 14. Cf. Ibid., p. 24. 15. Cf. R. Leneau, L.V. Thomas, Les sages dépossédés, Paris, 1977. 16. Cf. SPNC, op. cit., p. 143. 17. Cf. Eboussi Boulaga, Christianisme sans fétiche. Révelation et domination, Présence Africaine, Paris, 1981, pp. 28-34. 18. Cf. L.V. Thomas, R. Luneau, Les religions d'Afrique noire, Textes et traditions sacrés, ed. Stock, Paris, 1995, pp. 11-457. 19. Cf. E. De Rosny, L Afrique des guérisons, ed. Karthala, Paris, 1992, p. 41. 20. Cf. Card. B. Gantin, "The Universal Values of African Traditional Religions" in Omnis Terra, n. 268, 1996, n. 6, p. 199. 21. Cf. SPNC, op. cit., pp. 106-108. 22. Cf. SPNC, op. cit., 65-66; J.B. Ballong-Wenmewuda, op. cit., p. 191. 23. B. Bujo, "Pour une éthique africano-christocentrique", in Bulletin de Théologie Africaine, 2 (1981), p. 47. 24. Cf Card. Gantin, op. cit., n. 8; SPNC, op. cit., p. 42. 25. Cf. Card. Gantin, op. cit, n. 7. 26. Cf Ibid., n. 8. 27. E. De Rosny, op. cit., pp. 136-137. 28. J.E. Penoukou, "Religions Traditionnelles. Synthèse des ateliers", in Spiritus, n. 138, 1995, p. 141.
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OMNIS TERRA, n. 326, Aprill 2002, pp. 144-149. |