Dr U.E. Umorem
Enculturation and Inculturation: The Gospel of Liberation and the Culture of African Womanhood

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DEFINITION OF TERMS

First let us define our central terms as they are used in this article: "Enculturation", "Inculturation", "Gospel of Liberation", the "Culture of African Womanhood".

Enculturation, an anthropological term coined by J.M. Herskovits (cf. J. M. Herskovits, Man and his Works, the Science of Cultural Anthropology, 1948, New York: Knopf, particularly pp. 39-48. Margaret Mead has however redefined the term by grounding enculturation in the particular culture. She says enculturation is "the process of learning a culture in all its uniqueness and particularity". cf. "Socialisation and Enculturation" in Current Anthropology, 1963, Vol. 4, p. 187.), means a process of learning from infancy till death, the components of life in one's culture. The contents of this learning include both the material and non-material culture. The latter refers to the values, attitudes, beliefs, etc., of a culture and the corresponding behaviour patterns; the former refers to artifacts such as a hoe or mask. In the said process of learning, a person grows into a culture, acquires competence in that culture and that culture takes root in that person and becomes the cognitive map, the term of reference for acting.

 In this study, inculturation (cf. Umoren, U.E. "Inculturation and the Future of the Church in Africa" in Ukpong, J.S. et al (eds.) Evangelisation in Africa in the Third Millennium Challenges and Prospects, 1992, Port Harcourt: CIWA, pp. 63-65.) refers to the missiological process in which the Gospel is rooted in a particular culture and the latter is transformed by its introduction to Christianity. Christianity and culture are thereby mutually enriched. The Gospel of liberation here refers equally to the person of Jesus Christ, his spoken and dynamic message of setting human beings free (liberation) so that these human beings may have life in abundance (development).

 By the culture of African womanhood this article refers to the total life style and social legacy of women in Africa (South of the Sahara) embodied in the symbols and meanings by means of which human beings can learn and perpetuate certain ideas and patterns of behaviour towards womanhood in Africa.

 The question arises: what roles can the anthropologist's enculturation and the missiologist's inculturation play in carrying out the project of Jesus Christ, to set the women of Africa free from their cultural bondage that they may have life and have it to the full? (cf. Jn 10:10).

 First we will sketch the contents of the African women's cultural bondage and argue that these were learnt in the process of enculturation. We then suggest that the process of inculturation should relate the Gospel of Liberation to that content and transform it. Both the relating event and the construction of a new culture of African womanhood are to form part of new enculturation contents leading to the integral development of the liberated African women.

THE CULTURAL BONDAGE

 The cultural captivity that calls for the liberating force of the Gospel is situated in the general context of the culture of African womanhood in all of what Peter Hammond (cf. An Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology, 1978, New York: Macmillan, pp. 12-13.) calls the seven anthropological categories. These categories are social organisation, political organisation, economic organisation, technology, art, religion and language, itself the vehicle of culture. These categories constitute the context of enculturation, that is, the context of the process of the African woman being taught and she herself learning both consciously and unconsciously the derogatory-positive components of life in the culture of African womanhood. Largely because of social pressure she as a child internalises not only the positive but also the derogatory components of attitudes towards women.

 The African child is born female or male. The girl child (our focus) grows up as an African girl and later becomes a woman through the said process of enculturation. This enculturation process has both cognitive and emotional elements. The girl child who later becomes a woman learns and internalises both. This learning-to-become is comprehensive in the sense that one learns and internalises both the derogatory and positive concepts, judgements and attitudes towards womanhood. This learning takes place through example, direct teaching and in patterns of behaviour, in songs, proverbs, wise sayings and folktales. What is learnt directs towards corresponding patterns of behaviour.

 Whatever positive or negative cultural attitudes there are of African womanhood are further concretised in the kind of woman one is thinking of. The following are some of the several kinds of women in Africa: the western educated woman, the uneducated or illiterate woman, the rural woman, the urban woman, the élite woman, the common folk woman, the married, the single woman, the married child bearing, the married barren, the single woman parent, the single childless woman, the divorced woman, the widow, the working woman, the home maker, the professional (lawyer, engineer, medical doctor) the non-professional, the non-Christian, the Christian woman, the professed religious woman, and the non-professed.

 The African culturally made derogatory attitudes towards the woman are concretised around these different kinds of women. The physical or psychological violence directed against the woman, the socially induced feminine low self image, political, economic and even religious intolerance and exploitation, the depriving of women of educational opportunities, denying them the chances to develop their full potential as human beings, the perpetuating of customs and laws that not only discriminate against women but also mutilate or completely eliminate their common right to avail themselves of the opportunities of modern science and technology - all these are calculated attempts at blacking out women, rendering them invisible. They are forms of human degradation that can be identified in varying degrees in the existential experiences of all the above categories of women in Africa.

 Let us now focus on one of the many issues of the culture of African womanhood so that we can relate faith to it in depth, namely social organisation.

KINSHIP AND THE CULTURE OF BONDAGE

 Our focus is on the form of social organisation based on blood and marriage, namely kinship (cf. P. Hammond, op.cit., pp. 220-237). Here we look at the culture of African womanhood in polygamous, levirate marriage, early marriage, widowhood, and divorce.

 Looking at polygamy as a cultural phenomenon, John Mbiti (cf. African Religions and Philosophy, 1969, London: Heinemann, pp. 142-143.) observed that it helps satisfy the African quest for many children, increases the sense of corporate existence, it is source of labour and an economic asset; it also reduces unfaithfulness of husbands. He acknowledges also the existence of its inherent negative aspects: the inter wives rivalry, quarrelling and fighting.

 African women theologians (Odoyoye, M.A. and Kanyoro, M.K. (eds.) 1990 'Talitha Qumi' Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians, 1989 Ibadan: Day Star Press, pp. 208-209.) however see polygamy as part of the African oppressive structure against women, constructed primarily for the benefit of men. These theologians say that the polygamous social structure confers on men more than women, social, political, economic, even sexual gains. Polygamy denies women the human right to the undivided love of a husband. While the wife cannot share her love with other men, the man can share his with other women in the system. It turns women into an appendage, a property of the man - one of the man's labourers. (A new and vocal group is advocating revisiting polygyny as a vital African cultural value).

 Another aspect of African marriage that robs the woman of her human dignity is levirate marriage, the marriage between a woman and the brother of her deceased husband. Levirate emphasises the position of the bereaved woman as the property of the husband and his family. Therefore at the husband's death she is generally expected to stay on (as property of the family) without any choice in the matter. She raises children to immortalise the deceased husband's name. With the absence of choice, levirate is more dehumanising than polygamy.

 Other forms of human degradation of women abound in African marriage: early marriage that gives the girl no right of mature choice based on love, bride price that is so exorbitant today that it gives the impression of the woman being sold out to the highest bidder and is the source of tensions in the family, divorce which discriminates against women. The African social structure is so traditionally set up against the woman that she is always blamed for the breakdown of the marriage. If divorced, she is not given a fair share, if anything at all, of the wealth or property acquired with her as a contributor. Another area of dehumanisation for the African woman is the issue of fidelity. A husband can commit adultery many times over and get away with it without being divorced or subjected to public ridicule. A woman cannot. Indeed tradition in some parts of Africa requires that at child delivery she should name any man or all the men who had slept with her. Her guilt is publicised.

 Perhaps the most abhorrent treatment of the African woman is the ritual of widowhood. From a recent empirical study of widowhood practices of the Okrika, Ahoada, Ogoni, Nembe and Ikwerre all in Nigeria by Ngeri Mwagha, (cf. Widowhood practices of the Rivers State, 1990, pp. 2-8; and Oduyoye, M.A. and Kanyoro, M. op.cit., pp. 189-191.) one can identify the following common characteristics of the ritual of widowhood:

 In some of the unique cases in Nigeria, for example, in Ogoniland, the widow's ordeal begins with the people's suspicion that the widow is responsible for the husband's death. She is adjudged guilty until her prolonged swearing by ancestral shrines and an oracle consulted by elders exonerate her. Among the Ikwerres the widow cannot trim her toe or finger nails nor wear shoes during the mourning period.

 While the widow is subjected to these indignities a widower is not. He remarries, if he so wishes, at will.

 These acts of oppression, humiliation and dehumanisation of women identified in one aspect of African culture, namely social organisation, are observable in other aspects of culture and are themselves part of the culture of African womanhood with which inculturation is to engage the Gospel of Liberation in meaningful dialogue.

INCULTURATION AND THE GOSPEL OF LIBERATION

 Having looked at the nature of the culture of African womanhood we now examine how inculturation is to relate the Gospel of Liberation to the culture of bondage and, transforming it, sets the African woman free for integral development. Inculturation is a two way process: it roots the Gospel in a culture, and introduces that culture to Christianity. To root Christianity in a said culture is to initiate two events. The first is to transform the African culture of oppressing women.

 The second is to develop the culture's latent potential towards the human development of the woman, created like her male counter-part in the image and likeness of God. The other aspect is to introduce the woman and her transformed culture to Christianity, for example by allowing the woman a meaningful place among the agents of inculturation. We will return to this later.

 But first introducing the gospel of liberation into the culture of women means allowing that gospel to be read and understood in the context of the culture of women, their joys and sorrows, their hopes and disappointments, their achievements and failures, their language. It means infusing the realities of women's life with Christian values. It means Christ being allowed to be born into that culture and coming into that culture to tell the African woman "Talitha Qumi" - Daughter Arise - and thereby liberating her from the dehumanising conditions, that she might have life and have it in abundance. It means the Body of Christ, the Church, preaching against the evils of polygamy, levirate, early marriage. It demands educating people against the ill treatment of widows and the divorced. It challenges the Church to form supportive groups to help widows stand up for their rights.

 Inculturation here means infusing the culture of African womanhood in bondage with the Christian eschatological hope of liberation, a hope meant to energise, motivate the woman in bondage and the Church to work towards the hoped for liberation.

 Eschatology, the science of last things is highlighted by both Christ's proclamation of the Kingdom of God and by his Resurrection. Christ declares in Luke 4:18-19.

 By the resurrection of Christ, the latter's authenticity and claims are confirmed and as the theologians of hope explain, (cf. Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 1967, London: SCM Press especially pp. 15-19; 21-26; also Rubem Alves, A Theology of Human Hope, 1970, New York: The World Publishing Company, pp. 24-50.) our hope for a future restoration of things is established. Christ's Resurrection is source of hope. This hope is dynamic, subverting the present order to receive a future kingdom where degradation, misery and exploitation shall be no more, a kingdom where justice has brought peace, a kingdom of love and freedom. There we shall be masters of our destiny, masters of our land. As Isaiah 65:21-22 says, the people

 The kingdom is incompatible with a humanity that is not every inch human according to the image and likeness of God. It is incompatible with the humiliation of widows and the divorced. But it is the hope given us by Christ that urges us to work perseveringly towards the restoration of human dignity and humanity in general and the African woman in particular as God meant it to be at the end of time, namely, a person, a being in the image and likeness of God. That hope urges the Church to make decisions that will help the woman to find herself and come to terms with herself as a being with equal opportunities in education, employment and salary, with access to the property she jointly acquired with her husband before becoming a widow, or a divorced person. That hope motivates the Church as sacrament of the Gospel of Liberation to form the laity so well that the latter can fight to abrogate laws that discriminate against women, laws and customs that enslave women, rituals of widowhood that contradict the human dignity of the woman.

 Liberated, her culture of bondage transformed, the African woman and her transformed culture can be introduced to Christianity, to the Church, the milieu of inculturation. There in the Church she herself is to contribute her quota to the on-going, never to end, project of inculturation.

 Introducing her transformed culture, that is, total lifestyle and social legacy into Christianity will have the salutary effect of increasing the image and revelation of Christ, our Christology. A hitherto predominantly masculine Christology will become integrally feminine-masculine Christology. It has to be, since Christ came to redeem both man and woman, and is relevant to both. Moreover, the two were created in and unto Christ.

LIBERATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN OTHER ASPECTS OF CULTURE

 Introducing the transformed culture of African womanhood as well as the liberated woman herself into Christianity in the process of inculturation is to embark upon the integral development of the transformed and the liberated. (Liberation is not an end in itself. Cf. Pope Paul VI's authoritative statement on integral development in his work: On the Development of Peoples, 1968, Washington DC: US Catholic Conference). We shall examine one aspect of this development, namely, the African woman theologising, African - womanly, developing and actualising the potentials of the woman as a person. We shall be informed here by P. Hammond's categorisation of all the aspects of culture into social organisation, political organisation, economic organisation, technology, language, art and religion (P. Hammond, op.cit., p. 12.). Let us now relate the project of women's theology to these categories.

 In social organisation as an aspect of culture let her faith enter into intellectual reflection on the complexity of the concept of womanhood in Africa, polygamy, marital love and self-actualisation, child bearing, dowry and the marriage covenant, widowhood, divorce, levirate. In politics let her bring her faith to bear upon the role of the woman in contemporary politics. African history, as N.E. Mba (cf. Nigerian Women Mobilised, 1982, Berkeley (California), University of California.) shows of Nigeria, is decorated with prominent women politicians especially in the process of resistance to colonial rule and the search for political independence.

 In economics what does the faith contribute towards the humanising roles of women in the production and distribution of goods and services in Africa? The African woman was traditionally identified with dehumanising forms of labour. How can we redefine theologically female labour to stimulate the concept of self-realisation or self-creation of the woman?

 How should modern science and technology be handled to enhance and develop the life of the woman without destroying her authentic religious values and without opening the way for Western forms of the death of God movement or secularism? How can the African languages enrich the language of feminine theological discourse?'(cf. M. Oduyoye, The Vocabulary of Yoruba Religious Discourse, 1972, Ibadan: Day Star Press). What role does the woman theologian assign African art in the development of a feminine oriented liturgy? Finally, the vast area of African Traditional Religion (ATR) is to be seen as the most crucial source of women's theology to help the African go from the enslavement, exploitation and marginalisation of the woman that are depicted, and perpetuated in ATR. Think of the taboos, the rituals, the supernatural powers that control woman's mind and life. Let the woman theologian bring her theological training to bear on these. Let the woman theologian help design a programme of enculturation with a section containing specially selected positive elements from ATR, which the new generation of both boys and girls from infancy till death can learn and internalise, that are creative of attitudes favourable to womanhood. This programme can be incorporated into a catechetical scheme.

 What can the Church leaders do about inculturating the faith in the culture of womanhood and introducing that womanhood to Christianity? We suggest that there should be massive financial and moral support for the training of African women theologians, the organisation of conferences by women, and the publication of works by women. Let the theology of femininity be taught in the major seminaries where priests are trained. Let there be seminars, workshops on that theology for older priests to increase public awareness and create support for this new brand of theology.

 Let the African women be allowed meaningful roles in the Church. The world is changing, developing, with women playing significant roles in politics, the legal sector, education, and business.

ENCULTURATION PROCESS AND THE NEW CULTURE OF AFRICAN WOMANHOOD

 We affirm that just as enculturation served the purposes of learning, teaching and passing on the contents of the culture of African women in bondage, enculturation is now to be used for learning and perpetuating the culture of the African women as liberated and developing.

 A well articulated programme to teach the positive values, attitudes and beliefs about womanhood should be worked out and taught to the African from infancy till death.

ENCULTURATION AT PRE-SCHOOL STAGE

 At this stage the family and the Church as agents of enculturation are to teach the said positive values through proverbs, the personal names given to baby girls, folktales, rhymes, biblical stories. Take the first two: proverbs and personal names. Both proverbs (cf. Umoren, U.E., "Some Nigerian Proverbs for Cultivating Discipline; A study in the Symbolism of Proverbs" in Ogele Journal of Humanities and the Social Sciences, 1987, Port Harcourt, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 61-69.) and personal names (Africans use names to uphold and pass on certain ideas and cultural values; also Annag, Efik, Ibibio Personal Names: A Cultural Study, 1975, Owerri (Nigeria): Black Academy Press.) are powerful symbolic expres-sions with meanings that direct action. Such wise sayings or proverbs and personal names abound in Nigeria. An Ogoni proverb says: "A daughter is the mother's sunshine". For the Labari people, "A family of girl children never gets exhausted". The Andoni people teach that "when the big rat grows old it sucks the breast of its children". Each of these sayings extol the use of female offspring. For example the Andoni proverb teaches the value of girl children by emphasising the milk of human kindness and the deep sense of concern associated with girl children towards their aged parents. As to personal names, the following are examples of positive attitudes towards female children. The Ogba (Nigeria) name AJUMOKECHUKWU: "I don't reject my share of gift from God" is given to a girl to emphasise acceptance of a girl child as God's gift. The Ekpeye (Nigeria) name UNYOMATADHEWE (No woman is useless) means a daughter is useful. Many other similar names help teach acceptance of girl children. Such names should be given to girls in a new context of a well thought out programme of enculturation for African women's liberation and development.

 While the child is helped to learn positive attitudes toward womanhood, the parents who constitute the first teachers should be helped through seminars and film shows to strengthen their own favourable attitudes. The early years of acculturation are most crucial in laying the foundation on which subsequent learning will be built.

SCHOOL STAGE AND ENCULTURATION

 It should be mandatory for all teachers to take a course and pass a written examination on femininity in the training colleges before teaching at any level of the school system.

 From nursery to University, a course on the positive aspects of womanhood should be built systematically into the school curriculum. Competitions on essay writing and behavioural patterns regarding positive femininity should be encouraged with prizes.

 Since admittedly the Catholic Church has a big role to play in enculturating people with positive ideas of womanhood, special attention should be directed towards the formation of the clergy in femininity in the seminaries on all levels. Seminars and workshops should be organised for elderly priests to orientate them towards the new and positive contents of the culture of African womanhood.

 The point we are making is that the culture of African women in bondage was learnt in the process of enculturation. Let the desired culture of liberation from discrimination, victimisation, marginalisation and subjugation be learnt through a systematic programme of enculturation. Let the laws of the Church and those of the civil society sustain the culture of women's liberation.

 But liberation is not an end in itself. It clears obstacles, breaks fetters and opens blind eyes and then the beneficiaries of liberation can develop integrally or in Martin Luther King Jr's parlance, develop the three dimensions of the human being: length, the inner person of oneself; breadth, inter-personal relationship; height, relationship with the supernatural. We should see the Gospel of Liberation in this context as liberation from bondage to integral development, the development of the whole African woman.

CONCLUSION

 This article set out to identify what the anthropologist's enculturation and the missiologist's inculturation can contribute to the project of preaching Jesus' Gospel to liberate the African woman from her cultural bondage so that she can develop integrally. After defining our central terms of enculturation, and others, we sketched the nature of the cultural captivity particularly in social organisation from which women are to be liberated.

 We then showed how inculturation was to relate the Gospel of Liberation to transforming cultural bondage and set women free to march on to integral development. Liberation is not an end in itself. Just as the people of Israel were set free from bondage in Egypt to march into the promised land, women's liberation leads to integral development. To make this possible the culture of liberation and development is to be learnt from infancy till death. What emerges from all this is that, just as the culture of female bondage was learned and internalised manifesting corresponding patterns of behaviour (including woman's acceptance of her very marginalisation as of divine origin), in the same way, it is possible for woman to learn and internalise, through enculturation the culture of liberation and development with their corresponding patterns of behaviour, that she has the ability to realise her potential and create the new woman who takes her destiny into her own hands.