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Francis
Anekwe Oborji
The path of the language of the emergent Christian theology in Africa is relatively easy – African theologians seek spontaneously a more universal Christian theology that will connect them and their people with the whole of humanity and the history of salvation. Thus, in the writings of the African Christian theologians, one sees the effort to link the African ancestral world view with the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. They do this, by reflecting on the Christian faith and exploring the universal dimensions of the African ancestral heritage – their origins in the One Supreme God. Africans in the Diaspora, who for circumstances of history were up-rooted from their ancestral heritage, also seek spontaneously of a world that is founded in the universal dimension of the kingdom of God. In whichever case, the theologians began to realize the strength the Africans could draw from their ancestral history, and wanted to construct a theology that would bridge the gap between their colonial-past and their new found faith in Christianity. This, in a nut-shell, is the background for our understanding of the kind of language that has characterized the development of theological reflection in contemporary Africa. The origin of this theological effort in the continent, has been traced back to 1956 with the publication of Des Prêtres noirs s’interrogent (Black Priests question themselves). In that volume, a group of young African theologians raised questions about how theology was being done in Africa and whether or not things could be different, both theologizing in a more genuinely African way and dealing with topics important to Africans. Since the time that first call was made to develop a genuinely African Christian theology till today, volumes have been written, conferences and symposia on the topic are held on regular basis. Today we have Pan-African Conference of Third World Theologians and a number of research centers and universities have been founded with the specific aim of promoting studies and research on African theology. Besides, there are regional, national and local associations of African theologians. But, in all, African authors operate within the broad scope of the nature of the meeting of the Gospel message with the African culture and reality. In such an endeavor, the challenge is the term or rather the language to employ in the midst of the historical facts and tensions that have accompanied the meeting of the two realities. It would be hard to imagine that such a term or language could come about without a theological and missiological investigation (Vatican II: Ad gentes 22). In all, however, a closer look at the works of the African authors, reveals a theological language that puts a heavy accent on culture and the common origin of the human family. This accent and consciousness that emphasizes the positive value of the African culture and context as well as the universal brotherhood of the human family, was first noticed in the early attempts by some authors to articulate what we have come to call today, African Philosophy. Hence, in speaking of the theological language in Africa, we are also dealing with the intrinsic connection between philosophy and theology in the development of that language. Furthermore, it could be said that it was at the Pan-African Conference of Third World Theologians (Accra, Ghana, 17-23 December 1977), that the African authors defined the language and agenda of their theological reflection. In the final communiqué of this Conference, the theologians declared: That the Gospel has come to remain in Africa cannot be denied, but now our theological reflections must be addressed to the real contextual African situations.… We believe that African theology must be understood in the context of African life and culture and the creative attempt of African people to shape a new future … The struggle of African theologians, scholars, and other Christians in ventures such as this consultation is to find a theology that speaks to our people where we are, to enable us to answer the critical question of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Who do you (African Christians) say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) (Appiah-Kubi 1979: viii). Therefore, while the African theology acknowledges the serious challenge posed to missiology today by the radical relativism in the theology of religions – the concern of the Asian theologians, and the dialogue with post-modernity and between the West and East, for the African authors, the root cause of our problem is cultural. In fact, it has not been easy in the works of many African theologians to distinguish the present African reality from the historical uneasiness that have over the years characterized the relationship between the people of Africa and the others. Therefore, the challenge, as seen by the African authors, is to explore how African culture have come into contact with the Christian and Western thought-pattern and to emphasize those things that unite the peoples of various races, cultures and religions. How will this contact and facts of our common origin in God and faith in Jesus Christ, encourage and enable those from each tradition to learn from the other and by so doing foster a more humane understanding of how to see ourselves, each other and the world at large? (Brown 2004: 3).1 This is the spirit that has continued to permeate the development of theological reflection in contemporary Africa. One thing certain about African theology is that, its language is that of evangelization and of interpreting and incarnating the Christian faith in Africa. In that language of evangelization and of reflection on the Christian faith in Africa, two terms have continued to feature prominently, namely, the African theology of inculturation and of the human promotion (also referred to, often as theology of liberation in Africa). They constitute the major trends in African theology. The two trends are not contradictory but rather complement each other. In fact, they represent two sides of the same process of making Christianity a truly African religion. So, nowadays, African theologians present a more unitary perception of inculturation and human promotion. This unitary perception of inculturation and human promotion has produced a new term or language in African theology, namely, the theology of re-construction. This is one of the newest term or language in the growth of African theology. The above points, show that the effort of African authors to relate the Christian message to the African world view and concrete situation is indeed a theological effort with the sole purpose of promoting the work of evangelization and Church implantation in the continent. Theology as we have it today in the sub-Saharan Africa, shows attempt by the African authors to reflect on the Christian message which they have received from the missionaries and interpret that message in the light of their experience as a people. It is an attempt by the theologians to provide models from their own cultural heritage for an African reading of the mystery of the Christian faith, especially in areas of Christology, ecclesiology, liturgy, morality, spirituality, etc. The effort also embraces the attempts by the theologians to relate the Christian message to the socio-cultural, political and economic reality of Africa. The challenge, however, is to continue to work with courage and good will, and in communion with their bishops so that the fruits that will flow from the theologians’ efforts may enrich the common patrimony of the Church. The main currents in African theology are: inculturation and human promotion (liberation), each with its own currents and cross-currents. The inculturation theology is concerned with the encounter of the Gospel with African cultures. The theology dwells on the role of cultures in evangelization and studies ways of interpreting and deepening the Christian faith in Africa. The human promotion (or liberation theology in Africa), which developed in its different currents, addresses the socio-political and economic situations of Africa. The theology concentrates on problems of poverty, stigmatization, marginalization, and on other social realities, on structures for creating an enabling environment for an enduring political and economic stability and for the self-reliance of African Churches and societies. This theology is attentive to the oppressive cultural effects of traditional and modern African cultures and customs, and to elements of racial and color discrimination. The three main currents of African liberation theology are: a) an African liberation theology developed in an independent Africa; b) African women liberation theology, developed as a reaction against the injustices women are subjected to in traditional and modern African societies; and c) South African liberation theology, born as a protest against racial ideology. Today, African theology is moving towards the issues of re-construction and new forms for the Gospel proclamation in the emerging African realities. Basing our study of the theological language in sub-Saharan Africa on the above points, we shall limit ourselves to the following: a) African theology as catechetical language; b) African theology as philosophical language; and c) African theology and the African image. We shall conclude the study with a brief evaluation of the African concepts of life and ontology as viable theological categories for dialogue between the African world view and Christianity. 2. African Theology as Catechetical Language One of the principal contentions of this paper, is that African theology has a catechetical purpose. In this case, we are reaffirming the fact that the theological language is that which we use in our research and education to express the Christian faith (catechesis). Thus, evangelization work in the African Churches has started to be accompanied by indigenous theological reflection. So, far, the two areas where African theology has actually shown its catechetical perspectives are in the area of Christology and ecclesiology. In this section of our study, we shall make brief allusion to these two aspects of the Christian mystery to demonstrate how the theological language of the African authors has a catechetical value. 2.1 Christological Trends in Africa A careful study of the writings of the African theologians, reveal that, of all the theological themes, Christology (in particular) the ancestor model), has received the greatest attention of the authors It is the focal point from which various theological themes are being addressed by the theologians. These attempts at Christological reflection reveal an effort to present Jesus Christ in the context of the Sub-Saharan African Traditional Religion and the peoples belief in the ancestral lineage. Jesus Christ can best be presented as the Great Ancestor of the people of God. The concept of ancestor common to many ethnic groups in Africa becomes a new paradigm for Christological reflection. Such a Christology, it is believed by some, will make the figure of Jesus Christ more intelligible and attractive to African peoples of the Traditional Religion. Jesus Christ is considered as the “Ancestor Par Excellence”, that is the “Proto Ancestor” in whom the whole life of the African Christian can be rooted (Bujo 1992: 77); He is the Brother Ancestor who unites all believers in the one supreme God and in the one Family of God (Nyamiti 1984: 61). In other words, in the African theology, Christ is seen as the life-giving ancestor and one who presides over the new family of God, the new extended universal family. The same Jesus Christ can be considered as the Great Healer, the Liberator and the Great Master of Initiation. Throughout Africa there are processes of initiation viewed as rites of passage at every stage of human existence, but more markedly at the passage from adolescence to adulthood. Christ was initiated in the customs of his Jewish people. He was also initiated into God’s plan which was the route to his perfection through obedience in his death and resurrection. Christ’s initiation into a new existence is the raîson d’être of our being initiated into a new existence, and he himself leads us into the fullness of life. Thus he comes to be master of initiation, the elder brother in his father’s foyer, initiating others into the same household (Sanon 1992: 85-102). Christ is also designated as the African king, who like the traditional African potentates is very much concerned about the spiritual and physical well-being of the people. The African kings fulfilled significant sacramental roles for their communities, and through their annual festivals maintained harmony between their societies and their Ultimate Reality. Through an equally detailed examination of Christ’s designation as king in the scriptures, it is being argued that the visions and the conceptions of African kingship cultures can enrich the same concept in the New Testament, at least for the African mind (Manus 1993). All these are concepts and images very familiar to most African people and they can serve to illustrate the figure of Jesus Christ. African Christologies based on such specifically African concepts may be called “Illustrative Christologies” (Karotemprel 2001: 19); some have called it “narrative theology” (Healey-Sybertz 1996). Such Christologies have the merit of being sufficiently inculturated in African culture. They also serve a catechetical purpose since people can readily relate themselves to the images of Jesus Christ proposed by African Christologies. African critics of Ancestral Christology, raise some basic questions about the relevance of an Ancestral Christology theologically and socio-culturally. Theologically, can the ancestor Christological paradigm really serve to reveal the whole person of Jesus Christ? How do we exploit this concept to capture all the richness of the Traditional Christology within the context of the theology of the Trinity? How about non-African Christian believers in Jesus Christ? It is not clear how the life of Christ is imparted to these biological ancestors, whether it is on the basis of a common grace (as Nyamiti seems to say) or by a kind of universalism derived from the efficacy of the resurrection. If Christ is the mystical and spiritual Brother-Ancestor, how can he be related to biological ancestors who are not strictly within the community bound together by faith? Socio-culturally, if this ancestor model is to be valid today, how long will it have relevance in Africa given the momentum of the process of modernization, urbanization and universalism of education? As a result, the ancestor paradigm may have to be re-examined and evaluated by emerging African theologians. However, the criticism of the ancestor model of Christology does not cancel the already gained catechetical import of the attempts to interpret the mystery of Christ with a cultural model Africans can easily identify. At least, the concept of proto-ancestor, as suggested in the writings of some of the African authors has proved to be a more acceptable paradigm to interpret Jesus Christ as an ancestor in the African context, his salvific functions and his relationship to the Church and humanity. One cannot deny the usefulness and relevance of inculturating Christology in the cultures of Africa. There is an immense catechetical value in the whole attempt at presenting Jesus Christ in terms of African cultures. 2.2 African Theology as ecclesiological language Recently and precisely, at the Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa in 1994, the language in African theology received an ecclesiological formulation through the African renewed image of the Church-as-Family of God. This renewed image of the Church-as-Family of God, is the most recent result of the theological reflection in Africa, which found great reception among African bishops at the 1994 Synod for Africa. In evaluating this model of the Church-as-Family, the bishops appreciated the important role of African theologians in promoting the work of evangelization in the continent. Hence, the bishops addressed the theologians as follows: African theologians: Your mission is a great and noble one in the service of inculturation. You have already begun to propose an African reading of the mystery of Christ. The concepts of Church-as-Family, Church-as-Brotherhood, are fruits of your work in contact with the Christian experience of the People of God in Africa. The Synod knows that without the conscientious and devoted exercise of your function something essential will be lacking (Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa: Message 56). And in evaluating this image of the Church-as-Family, the bishops viewed it as a new model for evangelization and Church formation. In the final message of the Synod we read: Churches of Africa, People of God in assembly throughout the world, it is primarily to you that we proclaim Jesus Christ (cf. I Corinthians 1:23). … The Synod has highlighted that you are the family of God. It is for the Church-as-Family that the Father has taken the initiative in the creation of Adam. It is the Church-as-Family which Christ, the New Adam and Heir to the nations, founded by the gift of his body and blood. It is the Church-as-Family which manifests to the world the Spirit which the Son sent from the Father so that there should be communion among all (Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa: Message 24). The bishops accepted this model for works of evangelization in the continent today, because of its anthropological basis in the African context. Highlighting the universal dimension of the African ancestral heritage in relation to the history of salvation, the Synod Message says: Jesus Christ, the only-begotten and beloved Son, has come to save every people and every individual human being. He has come to meet each person in the cultural path inherited from the ancestors. He travels with each person to throw light on his traditions and customs and to reveal to him that these are a pre-figuration, distant but certain, of Him, the New Adam, the Elder of a multitude of brothers and sisters which we are. (Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa 1994: Message 24). In the Post-Synodal Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, John Paul II once again highlighted this path of the African theology. He exhorts the African Christians in the following words: Today I urge you to look inside yourselves. Look to the riches of your own traditions, look to the faith which we are celebrating in this assembly. Here you will find genuine freedom – here you will find Christ, who will lead you to the truth (John Paul II 1995: Ecclesia in Africa 48). These documents emphasize one thing in common, namely, the common origin which all humanity shares and the role of African traditional religion and culture in leading us to the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The African traditional religion becomes, then, a kind of an “Old Testament” for the African Christian – which has now found its fulfillment in Christianity. This is the fact which the African authors have been trying to demonstrate variously in their writings since the emergence of theological reflection in contemporary Africa. It must be noted that the core message of the African renewed image of the Church-as-Family of God is not for the glorification of the African cultural and religious elements. Because like every other human culture, there are many elements in those cultures that are not incompatible with the Gospel message. So, they need purification and redemption (John Paul II 1990: Redemptoris Missio 54). Certainly, we can not regard the Church-Family model as just the African nuance to the pastoral method of Small Christian Communities, as Fuellenbach seems very close to argue (Fuellenbach 2002: 188). The African ecclesiology is developed in the context of proclamation and evangelization with its inspiration generally from St. Paul the great missionary. The inspiration is specifically from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians on reconciliation of the Jews and pagans with one another and with God (Ephesians 2: 11-22). It received a great reception among the Africans because of its anthropological basis and African value of the extended family, bound together by the ancestral blood and community life. This communitarian accentuation of the family makes the new model a real African reading of the Vatican II concept of the Church as communion or as the people of God (Vatican II: Lumen gentium 4). It is an African cultural heritage which has been uplifted and given a new meaning to promote a real ecclesial communion in the universal Church-Family and an authentic brotherhood among nations. In the first place, the African renewed image of the Church-as-Family wanted to point out the devastating effect on the human family of new forms of racism, ethnic exclusivism and the hidden violence of all forms which, according to the African bishops, are caused by “envy, jealousy and the deceit of the devil.” These have continued to burden the human family: They have lead to war, to the division of the human race into first, second, third and fourth worlds, to placing more value on wealth than on the life of a brother, to the provocation of interminable conflicts and wars for the purpose of gaining and maintaining power and for self-enrichment through the death of a brother (Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa 1994: Message 25). However, this is not the end of the road. Attention is drawn to the complexity of the whole problem. But the reality is that there is a new offer of hope in Jesus Christ. So, the Message adds: But Christ has come to restore the world to unity, a single human family in the image of the Trinitarian Family. We are the Family of God: this is the Good News! The same blood flows in our veins, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ. The same Spirit gives us life, and it is the Holy Spirit, the infinite fruitfulness of divine love (Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa: Message 25). In other words, the Church-Family model intends to promote a healthy relationship between Africans themselves and people of other races, just as it presented some trajectories for strengthening and deepening the relationships among Africans of different ethnic or religious groups living in the same community and nation (Oborji 2003: 158). In other words, the theological language in Africa speaks of ways of achieving harmony, peace and understanding among people of different ethnic groups in African societies and between the Africans themselves and peoples of other races. It also highlights the importance of helping us all to embrace the fact that we are all children of one God and therefore should accept one another as brother or sister. Furthermore, as an ecclesiology, it touches on the issues of the recognition of signs of growth or development into maturity found in the African Churches and society. Consequently, considering all the factors, the African bishops and theologians, following the orientation given by Vatican II, wish that the unity in diversity or rather ecclesial communion be interpreted dynamically, so that their young Churches could inculturate the Gospel in their cultures and develop new forms of Christian living, worship, and thought that are relevant to their people and at the same time in communion with the long tradition and theological expressions of the universal Church-Family. In so doing, the African local Churches will be enabled, not only to remain faithful to the common faith in the work of inculturation, but also to communicate to the other particular Churches outside Africa and to the whole Church their own experiences of God’s grace operating in their particular socio-cultural contexts. This endeavor, it must be affirmed has a common ancestry with all other Christian theologies. The question of the admission of Gentiles into the Church without imposing Jewish law on them initiated a general council before it could be resolved (cf. Acts 15). For Karl Rahner, that was the first major shift in theological language of the early Christianity: a transition from a Judaeo-Christianity to a Christianity of the Gentiles (Rahner 1981: 83). With this shift, the Church came to appropriate new structures, categories and symbols in an effort to make Christianity relevant to the people of the new socio-cultural milieu. Hence, the early apologists described the good elements in Greek philosophy as praeparatio evangelica and as semina verbi planted in creation by the Logos which took flesh in Jesus Christ (Oborji 1998: 70). Again, philosophical categories of the Mediterranean cultures were adopted by the early Church when Christianity reached that region. Examples of such categories include: ousia, homoousios, physis, hypostasis, substantia, consubstantia, natura, and so forth. These were adopted to formulate central Christological dogmas. However, ecumenical councils were held to ratify and define the use of such terms as Christian dogmas. Once that was done the category or symbol so adopted acquired a new meaning which transcends its original meaning, on account of the novelty of the Christian faith. John Henry Newman notes that when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire in the fourth century, Christian liturgy developed with structures adopted from elements of the Roman cultures (Newman 1989: 373). According to A. Chupungco, the rites of Baptism, the Eucharist and Ordination of the Roman liturgy were developed through the incorporation of elements from the cultural milieu of the time (Chupungco 1994: 65). In the same manner, David Bosch explains that the early Christians did not simply express in Greek thought what they already knew; rather, they discovered, through Greek religious and philosophical insights, what had been revealed to them. Thus, Bosch writes: The doctrine of the Trinity and of divinity of Christ … for example, would not be what they are today if the Church had not reassessed itself and its doctrines in the light of the new historical, cultural situations during the third through the sixth centuries (Bosch 1991: 190). Therefore, the African theology in its ecclesiological formulation is saying that as Christianity has become the religion of the Africans, the African cultural values must be respected and taken seriously. And that it is ontologically wrong to continue to regard Africa as an appendage or rather as a junior member of the human race. Thus, we should not pretend as if there is any section of humanity that is not part of the world and full participant and beneficiary in God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ 3. African Theology as Philosophical language Philosophical approach dominated the early attempts of the African authors to articulate in writing, the cultural and religious heritage of the Africans in the light of the Christian faith and their experience as a people. In this regard, the leading voices came from Francophone African countries (and also from the Anglophone and Portuguese speaking countries of the continent as well as from the Africans in Diaspora). The primary focus of these investigations in African Traditional Religion, culture and customs, was to articulate the African concept of “ontology” or rather of “ultimate reality” and its relation with human life and history. How do we bring the African world view and traditional religion into contact with the liberty and historicity of the self-communication of God in Jesus? Again, in these studies, African authors discovered that the Africans’ preoccupation with life and its security provides the ingredients for our understanding of their concepts of ontology - the divine beings, in particular of God as the supreme being who is the “ultimate reality” that is above all history and that is at the root of the religious formulations of the Africans. The value which the Africans attach to life, its prolongation and security is the basis for our understanding of their concepts of ontology. In fact, the whole efforts in African Traditional Religion are geared towards the protection and guarantee of life and its security. Thus, from this standpoint, African authors began to demonstrate that life stands out for the Africans as a value around which other values find their meaning. The search and project for life that is meaningful, its continuity and dynamic progress towards fullness and realization (ancestral status, divinization) are fundamental for our understanding of African person’s perception of ontology and ultimate meaning (Uzukwu 1983:9). Placide Tempels, a Belgian missionary who worked in central Africa and who has been described as the father of contemporary African theology and philosophy, was among the early scholars to begin an inquiry into the African concept of ontology) (cf. Bujo 1992: 58; Nkafu 1995: 26). Tempels began his inquiry with the question: Does an African ontology exist? And if does, what is it? The result of his research was an original study entitled, La Philosophie Bantoue, published in 1945.2 In this work, Tempels posited the “life force” as the central philosophical concept in the Bantu world view. Thus, he used the “life force” (force vitale) category as a basic ontological structure for understanding the Bantu culture and thought patterns. The central concept and supreme value of the Bantu is “life force.” According to which the universe is a composite of divine, spirit, human, animate and inanimate elements, hierarchically perceived, but directly related, and always interacting with each other. This constitutes the visible and invisible spheres of the universe. The visible world being composed of creation, including humanity, plants, animals and inanimate beings, and the invisible world being the sphere of God, the ancestors, and the spirits. Placide Tempels calls all these “forces of life” or “vital forces” (Tempels 1959: 17ff). For the Bantu, at the top of the hierarchy of the universe is the “Divine Force”, which is both primary and the ultimate life-giving Power, God the Creator and Sustainer, the Holy. All life, and the power that is life or existence, flows from God. Human person is the primary and most important beneficiary of God’s life force. In this African world view, God is the ultimate guardian of the human life. He does this for sole, ultimate purpose of benefiting humanity. Moreover, humanity, being central in the universal order, is morally bound to sustain the work of God by which humanity itself is, in turn, sustained (cf. Magesa 1997: 46). In all, Tempels retains that an ontology founded on the “life force” is the soul of the Bantu culture, the soul of the African. This is because for the African, the central concept of the ultimate reality and meaning is the “life force.” Tempels identifies this “life force” with the “Being” of the Western philosophy and came close to almost affirming that without this “force”, it will be difficult to think of Being or even conceive of it at all. For him, among the Bantu, there is no other idea of “Being” apart from the “vital force” (Tempels 1969: 50-51). The nature of being is force and being is force. Alexis Kagame (of Rwanda in the Bantu region), celebrated for his historical, linguistic and literary knowledge and writings, is also revered as the first African Catholic priest to undertake a scholarly work about the philosophy of the Africans. He postulated an ontology in which he spoke of the Kinyarwanda categories of being or “forces.” Applying his linguistic skills, Kagame notes that the Bantu languages are noted for the phenomenon of classes of words and sweet prefixes, suffixes, and infixes of complex nature that found their unity in the subjective term. Thus, these characteristics which constitute the manner of speaking by the Bantu, help to bring out the structural dynamism which comes from a true and sure metaphysical vision. This justifies their articulation about the function of the ultimate reality and meaning as exemplified in the Tempel’s Bantu philosophy. This new awareness of the basis for an African world view and of ontology was the preoccupation of Vincent Mulago (of the Congo also in the Bantu region). In fact, it could be said that the really evaluation of “life” as the basis for an African ultimate reality in the tradition of Tempels, found its most eloquent spokesperson in the person of Vincent Mulago (though each of the authors developed his own theory with different nuances). For this, Mulago has been rated as an enthusiast African theologian,3 principally because of his treatise on the Bantu concept of life which he calls l’unione vitale. For Mulago, the essence of “vital union” for Bantu life is communion, one with the other. Such communion survives even death, for a fundamental idea of Bantu religion, as Mulago interprets it, is link between the living and their dead ancestors, who are the intermediaries between the living and God, the ultimate source of all life. Thus, Mulago affirms that the cult of ancestors unites the two worlds, the visible and the invisible. Humans can exist only in the community and for the community. Vital union thus has a twofold function, corresponding to the “vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of religion. It is the link with God, the ultimate source of life, and at the same time the link between man and his fellow and the world of things. In this respect, vital union is neither exclusively corporeal life nor exclusively spiritual life; rather, it is life in the totality of its being, in its full integrity. As such it is “super-empirical”, for life here and now and life beyond the grave are inseparable and interdependent.4 Therefore, for these authors, relationality, is at the heart of the African conceptions of the ultimate reality. This is the basis of Henri Maurier’s 5 augmentation of the notions of force vitale by Tempels, and nyama (transmitted life energy) held by the Dogon ethnic group. Maurier presents the category of “relation” as the most fundamental in African world view of ontology. All existence, occupation and functioning is relationship. The fundamental reality of things is that they are related. Their existence is defined in their relatedness (cf. Maurier 1985: 65; ID 1997). Maurier introduces the expression Je-Avec as the unifying cord of the categories of the relationships found in the African world view. Je-Avec is the fundamental substratum of relationship that underlies all others. Everything is Je-Avec. The person (Je) begins the questioning and the relationship, and it is expressed in all others (God, community, individuals, events, etc.). One can therefore conclude that what force-vitale is for Tempels, Je-Avec is for Maurier. Kwame Gyekye, in his relational theory of the African reality among the Akan of Ghana, speaks of categories of being. Primary in the Akan doctrine of being is the reality of a Supreme being (Onyame, Onyankopon). This is in descending hierarchical order. After the Supreme being, comes the reality of gods and goddesses, ancestors, humans, and the physical empirical world in its various contents. In Akan ontology, the gradation of beings is not pyramidal as Parrinder suggests for African societies. It is rather vertical: God, Spirits, Ancestors, Humans and other cosmic beings. The ancestors who were formerly humans occupy a privileged status having acquired higher powers in the spiritual-world. Though God is viewed alongside other beings, yet he is a casus sui generis (special case apart). That he is worshipped proves him to be real among the Akans. The qualities attributed to him bring out his ontological status as the ultimate ground of all reality: the Nyame. Nyame is the great, the creator of all things. He is infinite, absolute, eternal. He is he who endures from ancient times, boundless and unsurpassable. Finally he is invisible and omnipresent (cf. Gyekye 1987: 103; cf. Iroegbu 1995: 301). Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, their concept of time tells us much about their conceptions of the ultimate reality (cf. Olabimtan 1994:36ff). For the Yoruba, future time is a full reality. The past has come and gone. It can be recalled and spoken of. It is real. The present is the now, the most real. In it we live and move and operate. The future, though not yet there really, will nevertheless be there. Events will take place. The Yoruba plans for events in the future: farming, harvesting, festivities and other activities are projected for a future execution. Therefore, in the Yoruba thought, the future is real. The reality of time (past, present and future), is the reality of concrete life lived in the circumstances of different projects: personal, public, individual and communal. It is from these different aspects that the basic existential platform called time (and space) is measured. Time is the locus of all activity and of all events. There is a long antiquity arising from the uninterrupted passage of the present into the past. Events have continued to take place even before other events that are of more recent occurrence. Things have been. Events have been taking place, and will continue (cf. Iroegbu 1995: 306). Therefore, for the Yoruba, there is in time ontology, the fact of the irreversibility and the uninterrupted of time. In a word, the absoluteness of temporality. The Igbo (of Nigeria) world view explains the ultimate reality and life in terms of spirit rather than of the flesh. The Igbo is no materialist. Indeed nothing was farther from his mind than a materialistic philosophy of existence. It makes no appeal to the Igbo. According to Joseph Jordan, it is obvious fact of experience that the Igbo live a life of continual consciousness of their absolute dependence on the spiritual beings for a realization of life that is meaningful and rewarding (Jordan 1948: 124). In practice, the Igbo attribute so much power to the spirits that they are considered almost next to God and also as having been endowed with power to operate sometimes independent of the Great Spirit. Francis Arinze observes that the Igbo offer sacrifice to God often through the spirits. Though, God is often invoked first, even in sacrifices to the spirits and the ancestors. The Igbo invariably invoke God in the beginning (cf. Arinze 1970: 49). In his pioneering studies of Igbo traditional religion, Stephen Ezeanya notes that Igbo metaphysical reality could be glanced by looking at the people’s motivation to offer sacrifices to Chukwu (Supreme God, Great Spirit) through the mediation of subordinate spirits in order to ward off evil that may threaten life, its prolongation and security. This attitude that is centered around safeguarding life is also seen in the qualities which the Igbo attribute to God which are often expressed in the names which they give to their children (cf. Ezeanya 1956: 24-25). Moreover, the centrality of life, its prolongation and protection in Igbo world view neatly explain some of their worries in cases of sickness or want of children for example.6 Thus, underneath the Igbo world view, is the predicate and desire for life rooted in the benevolence of the same Chukwu. This is also the case in the Igbo concept of life. The Igbo word for life is (Ndu). Ndu is a noun meaning life, existence, being. The verb di or du means to be, to exist (to be alive). Eugene Uzukwu notes that in speech and action, whether in ritual or profane atmosphere, “life” stands out for the Igbo as a central value around which other values derive their meaning. Thus, the Igbo would say Ndubuisi (life is first), Ndukaku (life is greater than wealth). These are proper names pregnant with meaning. In other words, the term ndu seems related to the Bantu ntu (being), though the Igbo are not within the Bantu linguistic group (cf. Uzukwu 1983: 9). In order words, the Igbo do have clear ideas about life after death. This is not to be confused with the reincarnation (inyo uwa). Since the world of spirits is the home of the dead from which all souls come into the world of man, the reincarnation occurs when the ghost enters the body of an infant at birth, becoming seeds of heart (nkpulu-obi). This spirit assumes the role of a motivating force underlying the life of the child. So for all practical purposes, the soul (mmuo) or (nkpulu-obi) or the spirit (mmuo) of the infant, is the reincarnation of the soul of the ancestor. In this case it is more reasonable to see this term “inyo uwa” (reincarnation) as a way of expressing the link between the individual person and ancestors who have been loved by the community. Since they have lived a full life in the world of man, they become protectors or patrons of the new born, who in turn look up to them (ancestors) as models in life. Again, when the agu (the person who returned) is a living human being or a non-corporeal local spirit, it is the living elder, it is his own agu who protects the new born. He assumes his full responsibility when he becomes ancestor. Again, we have to add that this Igbo concept of reincarnation does not mean that there is no clear idea of future life among the Igbo. In the first place, the Igbo concept of life after death is patterned on life in the world of man (cf. Ikenga-Metuh 1987: 266). But it is a life where status are retained in a stable way. This means that it is a life where collective and individual hopes are realized to the full. A person who dies a death as willed by his personal chi (onwu-chi) and the ancestors, that is, who has fulfilled his predestined course in the world of man, is said to have gone back to the home of his personal chi and the ancestors. This is the Igbo way of describing a fullness of communion with the personal chi and the ancestors. In the Igbo world view, life after death is a life in which all the complex relations characteristic of life in the world of man are retained: continued interest in the affairs of one’s progeny; collaboration with Ala (the earth spirit, guardian of the land of the living and the dead) in maintaining the laws of the land (odinani); collaboration with Chukwu and the personal chi in the creative process, by playing the role of patrons (agu) and guardians of new born members of the community. It is a life lived most intensely because one is close to and a collaborator of the source of life. It is this acting in concert that marks the fundamental step in becoming an Igbo man. One achieves an ideal life (both for this life and the life-after death), only when this given and chosen destiny is successfully worked out in a concrete life.7 As a result of this dynamism in Igbo culture, Uzukwu proposes a “personal chi ideology” as a factor in Igbo cosmology which is very important for the understanding of meaning of life and ultimate reality.8 Thus, expressed in person’s model, the following realities are ultimate (taking Igbo as example): Chukwu (source of life), personal chi (destiny, selfhood/personality emanating from Chukwu), ancestors (close to the source of life, they become the immediate givers and guardians of the life of their community), spirits (favoring or endangering the continuity of life). This is the African world view and ontology in a nutshell. However, our analysis of the African world view and concepts of ontology and life does not mean that one would have to overlook the problem associated with relating these traditional cultural realities to the Christian pattern of thought and beliefs. Thus, one would have to avoid the extreme position of those who advocate a near total return to the decadent past and cultivation of African indigenous values and attitudes. And also of those who call for a focus on the philosophical ideologies of “Negritude” and “African personality.”9 This approach ignores the fact that most elements of the traditional religion and also the philosophical ideologies of the Freedom fighters are sometimes clothed in visions and realities incompatible with the Gospel.10 This, however, does not mean that one would have to succumb to Jean Marc Ela’s theological position that compels him to reject the philosophical and theological reflections that take as point of departure the traditional culture and values. Ela regards such project as “abstract” and that which does not touch the present reality and the praxis needed to addressing the African problem (cf. Ela 1986: 125; ID. 1988). But does Ela’s proposal not a confirmation of the value of what he claims to be criticizing? The fact is that praxis and reflection go together. Praxis not founded on the philosophy and ultimate reality of the people may turn out a superficial project. And as Engelbert Mveng observes, the African concept of ontology must not be viewed as a “monad” – an individual without any concrete consistency. But must be viewed, rather, as a dialectic of the monad, dyad, and triad. It is two dimensions – ultimate and concrete, reflection and praxis. Put the two together, and you will have an African reality (cf. Mveng 1979: 139; ID. 1990). It is interrelatedness that characterizes the African reality. 4. African Theology as a struggle over the African image In their theological reflections, the African authors touch also the question of rethinking the way Africa has been conceived in the minds of many people since the foreign presence in the continent which systematically began in the 15th century. In spite of adjustments in the use of some terminologies, the language or rather the image developed in that era about Africa is still the same and may not change soon. Unfortunately, this image does not reflect the true Africa, for it was based on the foreigner’s superstitious beliefs and truncated theories about the continent and its people. Hence, the African theologians argue that the prevailing image of Africa has prevented us from recognizing the potentials of the local churches and people of the continent in the mission of the church as well as in the world at large (Oborji 2001: 109). The African theologians appeared to have been awaken from their slumber by the works of the Enlightenment philosophers and the evolutionists’ theories. To this must be added the works and stories which some explorers and others have circulated about Africa. In most of those studies, Africans were judged on the basis of material deprivation, technological simplicity, skin color – as people who are in urgent need of spiritual and material assistance. The continent itself was conceived as that inhabited by poor dark-skinned and backward people, unintelligent and without culture and civilization. Thus, Africa became a place where the un-reached are and so in need for missionizing. The Africans themselves were, in turn, reduced to objects of foreign charity. And for missiologists, there developed an inevitable link between mission and charity. Mission and charitable work become synonymous. Pen, they say, is mightier than sword. African authors’ reaction to this theory has been referred to as critical stage in the development of African theology. It is the origin of the critical tone that is often found in the works of some African authors. Thus, African theology has a character that could be called a struggle over the restoration of the African dignity and image. The image-making language in African theology began as a response and rejection of the earlier negative descriptions of the Africans. It is an effort aimed at correcting the prejudices which have been created against the Africans in the writings of these other authors. A brief allusion to some of these early but enduring perception of Africans in the works of these foreign authors may help us in appreciating the type of theological language in the writings of the African authors. 4.1 African Theology and the Enlightenment Philosophy A typical example is the work of G.W.F. Hegel. In his Philosophy of History, Hegel did not apply the “category of ontology or ultimate reality and universality” to African character. In a blunt tone, he denied that the African has any capacity to think, reflect, or reason. Hegel postulated that in an African life, the characteristic point is the fact that consciousness has not yet attained the realization of any substantial objective existence – as for example, Law of God, in which the interest of man’s volition is involved and in which he realizes his own being. As he puts it: The distinction between himself (African) as an individual and universality of his being, the African in the uniform, underdeveloped oneness of his existence has not yet attained; so that the knowledge of an absolute Being, an Other and a Higher than his individual self, is entirely wanting (Hegel 1944: 93-96). Reacting to this way of perceiving Africans, Innocent C. Onyewuenyi, in his Afro-centric work, argues that Hegel’s History of Philosophy as far as Africa was concerned, was written with prejudice and used as a means of gaining some objective. This objective is principally, the denial of the Ancient Model, that is, the African influence on Greek philosophy and civilization: Because the Germans believe that their philosophy and civilization came from the Greeks, any suggestion that black Africa mothered Greek philosophy and culture before these were transmitted to Germany must be eliminated by all available means (Onyewuenyi 1993: 99-100). In fact, for Hegel, not just the sub-Saharan Africa that is underdeveloped and unhistorical, but also the regions of the ancient Egypt and Maghreb Africa – the regions, he named European and Asiatic Africa. Hence, in his three-volume History of Philosophy, Hegel does not find it necessary to include Egypt as a source of philosophy. He admits that Europeans had taken their religion and civilization from a point beyond Greece, namely from East and more especially from Syria. He avoids the mention of Egypt which was the principal source of Greek and European religion and civilization as recorded by Greek historians and philosophers themselves(Hegel 1983: 150). However, as a philosopher and historian, Hegel was typical of the age in which he grew up, with special love for Greece and the Germanic culture and civilization. He had no consideration for Africa, although he had never set foot on the continent but relied on the accounts of others. One of these reporters of Africa was the Rev. W.N. Bentley, who said that his experience in Africa showed that the African can do almost everything except reason and philosophize. In other words, for Rev. Bentley, the African has no notion of ontology and eschatology (Bentley 1900: 256 quoted in Levy-Bruhl 1978: 27-28). 4.2. African Theology and the Evolutionists anthropology A similar perception of the Africans can be found in the anthropological works of even some modern anthropologists whose studies are heavily dependent on the theory of evolution. An example is that work of E.E. Evans-Pritchard about the Nuer people. Evans-Pritchard claims that from his contact with the Africans, he discovered that they are not endowed with the capacity to endure great trails and sufferings, such as the death of a loved one or any sort of devastating illness. This fact, according to Evans-Pritchard, is seen in the African languages and symbols – which, as he assets, are devoid of terms and signs that captures the meaning of death and eschatology as well as the transforming grace of suffering. In his words: This horror of death fits in with their (Africans) almost total lack of eschatology. Theirs is a this-worldly religion, a religion of abundant life and the fullness of days, and they neither pretend to know, nor, I think, do they care, what happens to them after death (Evans-Pritchard 1956: 154). Pritchard launched a direct attack against African religion, ontology, eschatology and anthropology as well as African languages and symbols. That is, if we excuse him, as not suggesting resignation to hardship – and hiding a covert agenda to convince Africans of the necessity to accept the image and way in which they have been stereo-typed and mind-set in the works of these foreign authors – and these as values Evans-Pritchard, himself, was looking for in the African religion and culture. In other words, he negated Africa’s spiritual world-view with its values and strengths that have (even in our own time) sustained Africans throughout their history. It is hardly to believe that there is nothing in African Traditional Religion (ATR), culture, customs, etc., that was not particularly instrumental in preparing Africans to absorb and survive the trauma of “transplantation” in distant lands of the Americas, and of the after-effects of colonialism? Recent studies reveal that, indeed, there are values in African ancestral heritage and traditional religion, culture and customs, that helped and are helping them in adapting to new cultures and customs of other continents (especially Europe, America and Asia), where people from Africa live today. Pope Paul VI in his apostolic letter Africae Terrarum, notes that many customs and traditions of Africa, once considered to be strange, are seen today, in the light of modern studies, as integral parts of valid social systems, worthy of study and commanding respect. The Pope goes further to highlight the African spiritual world view and belief in after-life: The constant and general foundation of African tradition is spiritual view of life. … they have a deeper, broader and more universal concept which considers all living beings and visible nature itself as linked with the world of the invisible and the spirit. In particular it has never considered man as mere matter limited to earthly life, but recognizes in him the presence and power of another spiritual element, in virtue of which human life is always related to the after-life (Paul VI, 1967: Africae Terrarum 7-8). In fact, for Paul VI, the most important element general found in the African spiritual concept, is the idea of God, as the first or ultimate cause of all things. Other characteristics common to African tradition is respect for the dignity of man, the sense of family and community life. Pope John Paul II, in the post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, speaks also of the African spiritual world view on life and of the life-after death: Africa is endowed with a wealth of cultural values and priceless human qualities which it can offer to the churches and to humanity as a whole. … Africans have a profound religious sense, a sense of the sacred, of the existence of God the Creator and of a spiritual world. … The sons and daughters of Africa love life. It is precisely this love for life that leads them to give such great importance to the veneration of their ancestors. They believe intuitively that the dead continue to live and remain in common with them. Is this not in some way a preparation for belief in the communion of the Saints? (John Paul II 1995: Ecclesia in Africa 42-43). Thus, Evans-Pritchard’s study and similar studies such as the ones we mentioned before, do not represent the true African world view. Evans-Pritchard, applied the Western category of Scholastic thought in his study of the African religion and culture. Thus, instead of speaking of the African concepts of the “After-Life and Final End of Man”, he began with the Western word and concept of eschatology. Eschatology either in the sense of the culmination of individual human lives, or of human history in general, is of marginal interest in traditional religion. But even at that, the Songo people of Tanzania, have a myth about the end of the world. According to this myth, as the end of the world draws near, the sun will turn into darkness. Then two suns will arise, one from east and the other from the west, and when they meet in the middle, the world will end. When this happens, Khambageu/the hero-God figure of Songo religion, will come down to the earth and save the Songo people, while the rest of mankind will be lost (Mbiti 1969: 164, quoting R.F. Cray, The Songo of Tanganyika, O.U.P. London, 1963). As far as present studies have shown, this myth is not due to Christian influence. It is therefore one case that has proved wrong the claim that there is a total absence of eschatological speculations in African Traditional Religion and culture (Ikenga-Metuh 1987: 262). However, as we demonstrated earlier on, African traditions do have myths about the after-life that could be described as a well prepared ground for their acceptance of the Christian doctrine on eschatology. This can be gleaned from their myths about the beginning (of time) and the “Life-After-Death” itself. In all, it is to be located in their concept of life. Africans focus on a period outside and before the cyclic time process, when things were made. Some African authors have called this period as the cosmogonic time period, during which all realities in the world of cyclic time originated. It is the golden age when God and deities were close to man. It was the age of the founding ancestors who shared in the power, vitality and beneficence of the divinities (Ikenga-Metuh 1987: 262). This belief that death is not the final end of man is common to all African societies. Physical death is accepted as both natural and inevitable. Death after ripe old age is called “God’s death” or natural death, and is counted as a blessing to be sought for through prayers and sacrifices. Any death before this time is regarded as unnatural and blamed on agents of evil-witches, sorcerers or evil spirits of the death, and occasionally on God and the deities. When God and the deities or ancestors cause death, it must be for a just cause, usually as a punishment meted out to the individual for his sins. 4.3 African image vis-à-vis the HIV/AIDS Palaver Apart from the early works of these authors who stereo-typed Africa, we have to accept the fact that Africa is still being perceived in those images. Thus, even today, the relationship, the world has with Africa, is still based on these conceptions. Almost all foreign agencies, based in or claim to be working for Africa operate on this principle. The normal “state to state” relation, in the African case, has been replaced with that of the charitable and civil-right organizations. And the activities of some of these organizations are still characterized by the full range of often contradictory attitudes and sentiments that the continent evokes. This is evident from the usually superficial, the sensational, and exotic way in which the foreign media and press carry the news about Africa. For most of the media and press, Africa is synonymous with poverty, sexual promiscuity, tribal wars, refuges, hunger, disorderliness, disease, ignorance, illegal immigrants, etc. Rarely do news items that are not derogatory to Africa appear in the foreign media. If we are to promote the dignity of the human person, the media must balance their presentation of Africa by giving a positive image of the continent. The most vivid manifestation of this stereo-typed image of Africa is the on-going attempt to label Africa as a continent of HIV/AIDS carriers. Some even try to give impression that HIV/AIDS is what Africa exports to the world. But recent researches have shown that in most African villages and towns, where there are no foreigners, we do not have cases of HIV/AIDS (Horowitz 1996). If this is so, it gives credence to the dissenting voices who are saying that HIV/AIDS was a laboratory made disease exported to Africa as part of the general program to keep the continent down and backward. Otherwise, how does one explain why the industrialized nations have continued to block the moves to make available to the HIV/AIDS victims, in affordable prices, the drugs already manufactured to treat the disease? (Maitra 2001: 28). How does one explain, why the big media houses and organizations have continued to suppress the views of those who claim that some multinational companies, with the tacit or overt support of their home governments, are using Africans as guinea pigs for the test of their pharmaceutical products; that the deadly HIV/AIDS and Ebola virus may have been deliberately imported to and spread in Africa as a means of population control; and that there are attempts in some of the developed nations to send sterilizing drugs in the form of vaccines for children in Africa? (Schapiro 1997: 18). These claims may be unconfirmed but perhaps not unfounded. Even if they are unfounded, they are not entirely impossible in a world in which the last word has been left to the market economy. Moreover, who hears from the World Health Organization (WHO) nowadays, complaining of over population in Africa? It seems the HIV/AIDS, is already doing the job for them. South Africans call HIV/AIDS “the second Apartheid”, for the killer disease began to flourish there as soon as apartheid was overthrown, at least systematically. All this means that the whole truth about the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, is not yet told. However, it is to be granted that talking about the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS in Africa could be a first step to finding a solution. But there is need also to balance the effort by exposing the ideology and system responsible for the introduction of the killer disease in the African continent and other places of the globe. That the first recorded AIDS related death in the world was that of a 25 year old sailor named David Carr, of Manchester, England in 1959. The fact is that the presence of HIV/AIDS in Africa did not originate from the continent, neither did it come from the culture or behavior of the Africans. In order words, any discussion on HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa must expose all those factors responsible for its spread in Africa. The whole discussion about HIV/AIDS must be approached within the complex reality in which it was introduced as a killer disease in Africa and other third world countries. All this shows, that there is something sinister in the constant effort on the part of the foreign media and authors to give the impression that some embarrassing human problems are exclusively African. Often these authors and media make many generalizations with the intention to label Africans as sexually promiscuous and to create the impression that this is as a matter of fact, a cultural problem with the people. Some have even gone to the extent of stereo-typing the African religious leaders as anything but rapacious sexual predators. And they pretend that they tell all those lies or rather half-truths because of their love for Africa! 4.4 African Theology and the African Image The above points may help us in appreciating the image-making posture in African theology. In fact, the biased ideas and attitudes about Africa, have continued to haunt many, lingering on, as they do, not only in the popular mind but even in some learned circles and, like a suppressed cork under water, tend to pop up with relative ease at the least provocation. Though, it is difficult to change one’s frame of mind or perception of the other people, once it is formed, nevertheless, the African authors have made immense contribution to the study and deepening of insights into African culture and people. In this effort, African theologians assumed a new duty – they began a struggle, which others, often pursue with sword, or wealth and power. It was a battle over image. African theologians began to realize that the battle over image is better fought with words and so they began to assert their right to write about the African culture, philosophy and traditional religion. Hence, in the writings of the African authors they combined the cultural, the philosophy and the theology. The African theologians in their writings, examine the factors under which the others have formed and developed their concepts of a) The black color of Africans, b) Africa’s different way of life; and c) Africa’s religious beliefs and practices. This is an effort aimed at compelling these others, scholars and ordinary people alike, to rethink and alter previously held views on Africans and their religious-cultural heritage. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (the famous Kenyan novelist), in a recent lecture, pointed out that image resides in the memory and that as the African begins to write about his people and their culture, he is, as it were, initiating a process and his right to participate in the process of helping his people to draw their image themselves, unfettered. (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 2003: 51). Images are very important. This is why many people like looking at themselves in the mirror. They like to have their photos taken. In many African societies, the shadow is thought to carry the soul of a person. But in our own context, we are talking of the image of Africa as a cultural, religious, philosophical, and even as physical, economic, political, moral and intellectual universe. In the writings of the African authors, there is tendency to show that this image resides in the memory. So also are dreams and hopes as well as the African concept of life. The contention here is that previous studies on Africa was one of the ways the foreign authors tried to mutilate the memory of the Africans and where that failed, they dismembered it, and then tried to re-member it to their own memory (authors’): their way of defining the world, including their take on the nature of the relations between their people and the Africans (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 52). Thus, in many cases, Africans perceived some of these previous studies about their continent and people, as one of the ways through which these foreign authors tried to control or rather, they tried to subject the Africans to their own memory, to make the Africans see themselves through the hegemonic memory of the colonizing center. However, we have to admit that, this way of relating Africans to the others have some other reasons, such as political, economic or whatever. But, for the African authors, there is a cultural undertone in the whole process, the ultimate goal of which was to establish psychic dominance on the part of the colonizer and psychic submission on the colonized. These things are effected through the system of the mind-set found in the writings of these other authors and media. In other words, the theological language in Africa is about making the journey of the mind, a mental journey aimed at addressing the cultural subjugation and its effects on the Africans. As Ngugi wa Thiong’o puts it: But cultural subjugation is more dangerous, because it is more subtle and its effect, long lasting. Moreover, it can make a person who has lost his land, who feels the pangs of hunger, who carries flagellated flesh, to look at those experiences differently. For instance, from the standpoint of pessimism, “oh there is nothing I can do about this”, failing to see in his history any positive lessons in his dealing with the present (Ngugi wa Thiong’o 2003: 52). In other words, the image-making language in African theology is aimed at addressing the Africans who may have been drained of historical memory of a different world. The Lord Jesus who once warned: “fear not those who kill the body, but those who kill the spirit”, was right on the mark. And one may, to some extent, say that the African theology, in this regard, is working within the prophetic warning of the Lord Jesus! African theology is regarded by some as one of the leading thoughts “that has helped to give dignity to millions of the African people.” 5. Conclusion and Evaluation All said and done, African theology as such, is still at its infancy stage of development, and so its impact on the actual ecclesial life in Africa is still minimal. But the theology has a good beginning by asking that African cultural and religious heritage be appreciated and be taken seriously in the process of implanting the Christian faith in the continent. And also by using the Gospel in making ethical judgment on the Africa’s socio-political and economic situations. Poverty, injustice, discrimination, stigmatization and marginalization of Africa and different forms of oppression on the continent have assumed unbearable proportion. Thus, some of the leading concerns of African theologians, such as culture, human development, liberation, poverty, oppression, etc. are viable theological categories that can enrich the traditional themes of systematic theology and pursuit of mission. True to the classical definition of theology as a science that reflects on the faith, African theology – which must be pursued in communion with all the local churches of the universal Church-Family, which has the Chair of St. Peter as the center of communion, reflects on the mystery of the Christian faith in the context of the Africans and in their daily struggles for survival. Furthermore, there is need to emphasize the fact that African concepts of life as a theological category, could enhance the dialogue between the African traditional world view and Christianity. Our investigations so far have shown that Africans have concepts of ontology before the advent of Christianity and Islam in the continent. But the African concepts of ontology have not often been given a positive appreciation in some early studies on the topic. This problem still lingers on, partly, because of the difficulty of interpreting the African concepts into and through the Western thought-patterns and in relating them to similar categories in the Christian religion. Again, some authors have not been able to link the central idea in the African concepts of ultimate reality and meaning with that of the Christian religion and the Western thought-pattern. Therefore, if we are able to show (as we have done in this study), that Africans have valid concepts of ontology, it means we have established a point of contact between the Christian faith and the African belief – so a viable means for the peoples of the two traditions to engage in positive and creative dialogue. The central point here is: how do we relate the African concepts of ontology to the Christian category on which most scholars have based their evaluation of the African culture and traditional religion? In other words, what is the relationship between the African concepts of life as an ontology in ATR and that of the Christian religion? A further reflection on the relatedness of concepts of life in the two traditions, will help to take us a step further in highlighting how African traditions have come into contact with Christianity. Therefore, in this concluding part of our investigations, I wish to highlight once more, the theme of “life” in the two traditions as the central element for dialogue. So far, we have demonstrated that the Africans have a valid concept of ontology. This is built around their vision of life, its security, prolongation, and preservation. It is rooted on the relationality between the beings in the invisible world and those of the world of man.1 The life of man is at the center stage of this inter-play between the beings of the two worlds. One lives an ultimately meaningful life, a full realized life, when he follows the “life-lines” (destiny) mapped out for him in the community, and when he participates in maintaining the dynamic relationship with all the realities which ultimately concern life. In this world view, one can always avail himself of the services of specialists to assure optimal realization of his life project. Furthermore, the African world view presents us with a notion of a universe that is marked by harmony and unity (between the spirit-world and world of man); of a human person created by God; signed with a divine mark (chi for the Igbo and ntu for the Bantu), who realizes his destiny through participation in dynamic relationship and communion. This African world view believes that the universe will always be there and fulfill its function. So, it is not a lifeless, indifferent universe, but a personalized active participant in the maintenance and increase of human life. This personalization of the universe is symbolized in the spiritualization of certain objects created by God and in the veneration of ancestors and deities. Moreover, the African universe does not know any dualism. There is also no indication that any part of this universe is evil – only evil men and evil spirits could pollute a section of the universe. And when this happens, it requires ritual purification to re-establish equilibrium. Morality is rooted in the manner one maintains or does not maintain the complexity of relations in the universe which favor the continuity, prolongation and full realization of life. Therefore, in relating African ontology to the Christian and Western thought-pattern, there is need to link up the African ideas of life, the people’s search for life, with the Johannine Gospel in which Jesus said that he had come to bring life and to bring it in abundance (John 10,10) (cf. Tempels 1962: 38). If Jesus is truly the Way, the Truth and the Life, then he is the final answer to the aspirations of the whole human race and not only of Africans. All human cultures manifest the human longing for fullness of life. There is also another way we can see the link between the African world view of life and that of the Christian in its Western thought-pattern. In the Western Christianity, the God of life is conceived as the God of love. The life that God communicates is love; and it is communicated out of love to the human person. God is life and God is love. Only God can communicate life and love. Human persons are beneficiaries of God’s gift of life. It is a gift gratuitously given out of love of God to the human person. The human person is only administrator of this gift of life. Again, the Christian God is revealed as a Trinitarian God and thus defined as God of love. Both in his immanent and economic identity, God is recognized in the Christian theology as God of love. This is the Christian understanding of God. The African world view, on its own part, conceptualizes God, as God of life. The Africans celebrate life and God as its originator. Thus, in the African Christianity, we have the meeting of life and love in God. The God who has spoken to the humankind through his Son, Jesus Christ, is the God of life. The life he gives is out of his love for the human person. And that life is God himself, the Trinitarian life, which is life of love. Therefore, the African world view of life must be complemented with the revelation of God as love in the New Testament teaching. In this case, the ATR could be described as the “Old Testament” for the African who has become a Christian. However, the link made of African concepts of life and the Christian, however, does not mean that the two realities are identical. For instance, in ATR the life which flows from God to humans is sustained and maintained through ancestral mediation and harmonious relationship among the living and with the dead (the living dead). In Christianity, Christ is at the center of the source of life, its mediation and maintenance. It is a participation in the Trinitarian life which has been revealed in Christ. Thus, the African concept of life as absolute value, in its relation to the Christian faith, must be seen from the background of the theology of a reconciliation or unification of all things in God through Christ, who is the manifestation of God’s love and who has come that man may have life and have it in abundance. In traditional Christian theology, it means that African ultimate reality has found its fulfillment in Christianity. In this case, life as an absolute reality is made concrete in the people of God. The people of God is the community that shares in the fullness of the life of God; that is, the love of God for the Christians themselves and for all others. This love of God is the force that unites the diverse peoples among themselves. It is also that which unites the people with the heavenly realities. This is so, because, God is the Creator of all things. And all the created things (visible or invisible) are meant to participate in enhancing man’s full realization of life which has God as its source and originator. This is the principle behind the African vision of ontology as relationality in maintaining the life union and force. On this lies the link between the African world view and the Christian and Western thought-pattern. It could serve as a point of departure in promoting meaningful dialogue between the two traditions and in appreciating the universal value of African world view. In addition, the African world view as stated above is necessary for the understanding of modern African society and for any meaningful dialogue with other cultural or religious traditions. In fact, despite the influence of Christianity and Western education in the continent, the African world view (though in the garb of a foreign view of the universe), has continued to underline the participatory role of Africans in the modern society. This is manifest in the mode of prayers and hymns that are found in most churches and communities of Africa today; the preference in some communities for traditional ideas and laws of marriage over any state or Christian laws. Again, the persistence of the practice of hospitality; the importance attached to family solidarity, extended family, village-groups, and even the whole ethnic group.11 These are social benefits and some emergent manifestations accruing from the traditional African understanding of life as participation. Moreover, one won’t forget that a good number of African communities are still steeped in ancestral religious practice. This underlines, still, the virility of traditional African world view; the proliferation of “healing churches” of all sorts in the continent. In addition, most people still attach great importance to traditional medicine, which is still very popular despite the technological advances in modern medicine. Some still prefer traditional psychiatry as more effective in re-establishing equilibrium in a modernized world marked by disunity and separation. All this is backed by the cultural revival that is leading to a re-evaluation and dissemination of traditional values which has marked the modern time (cf. Uzukwu 1983: 22). All this confirms that the traditional African world view is still very much alive and that it has not been stifled by the forces of modernization. It is a world view that favors progress and success in an equilibrated universe. It is for this reason that its role has to be recognized as fundamental for the dialogue with the Christian and Western thought-pattern as well as for the creation of a new cultural identity in modern African society.A fact that dominated the discussion during the Synod of Bishops, Special Assembly for Africa.12 It is therefore to be hoped, that positive evaluation of African world view would lead to a genuine dialogue between Christianity and the African traditions. This may be one of the ways through which we would be enabled to learn from the other for a more humane understanding of ourselves and the world at large. _______________________ LITERATURE Appiah-kubi,
K. – Torres, S. (eds.) (1979). African Theology en
Route. Maryknoll, Orbis Books. |