Christianity in Africa
Monday, May 26, 2014
Brother Richard DeMaria
When the colonialists and the missionaries arrived in Africa, they concluded that the people did not have a religion, because there were no written doctrines. Some of the earliest Europeans who arrived wondered whether these African natives were human, could think or had a human soul. With time, that kind of chauvinistic thinking disappeared: It is now clear that, of course, Africans are fully human and can think. Furthermore, Western people have come to realize that there was a rich religion in place before the Europeans arrived. This culture was passed from generation to generation through stories and legends. It has become clear to us that people don’t have to have a carefully constructed, written theology to have a religion. Academics today have come to respect and value the indigenous African religions and lament how they were crushed by Western ways.
Christianity found in the Africans a people whose religious sensibilities matched well with the faith. Africans take for granted the existence of God. They believe in an all-good Creator of everything who wants only our good. If something bad happens in a person’s life, the person must try to find out what caused it. It is unthinkable to Africans that God would wish a bad thing for a person. So the suffering person tries to discover the cause by asking:
Although the indigenous Africans did not have a name for it, scholars now recognize that a rich philosophy guided their social lives. This philosophy merges the goals of the individual with concern for the community. Philosophers today call this philosophy Ubuntu (which understands humanness as being in a relationship: “I exist because you are.”) The Catholic Church has refused to accept either communism or capitalism as an ideal economic system. It might find in the social economy of Africa — communalism — the sought-for ideal.
Other beliefs of traditional Africans that match well with Christianity:
Returning to the point that the Africans did have an inherent belief in a good Creator without a codified religion: I would say that the religion was so much a part of their culture that it was “in their bones.” I often ask myself: Is the Christian religion “in the bones” of contemporary Western people? I am beginning to think so. I suggest that the basic teachings of Christianity have become so much a part of the culture of the West that they continue to influence the consciousness and actions of even those who say that they don’t believe these doctrines any more.
We pray often in the Our Father that “Thy Kingdom come.” Our hope is to create a society where God’s will is done, where all accept the morality of Christianity. Is it possible that we have made more progress than we realize in that direction? We meet so many people who are people of faith and hope and of charity (even though they don’t accept any creed or religion). Rather than fret about the loss of Church commitment, maybe we should be rejoicing in the extent to which so many people seem to be motivated by some of the essential elements of Christian consciousness; it is “in their bones.”
Sadly, not all the elements are “in their bones”: The West does not accept Christian sexual morality and is becoming a culture of death. In these ways, Africa wisely has not followed the West.
But I hasten balance my optimism about religion being in the bones of the West with a caveat: I’m not sure how long this “religion in the bones” can last when the structure of faith and ritual is not there to support it. For this reason, those of us who treasure the Catholic creed, ritual and morality must do all that we can to keep the Church alive and its doctrines orthodox so that the Church will be there with its creeds, its rituals and its community when a new generation realizes it needs them. I don’t’ know if this will be in one, two, or three generations. What I do know from history is that religious revivals have occurred repeatedly within the Western world whenever people were lost and living purposeless lives. We, the Church, must be prepared to respond to that need when it reappears.
In the meantime, we can rejoice at the way that Christianity has taken root in African soil, and we should look to Africa to lead us to new understandings of our own tradition.
- Who in his area is a witch or a wizard who has cast a bad spell on him?
- Has he done something to annoy his ancestors who might be causing this?
Although the indigenous Africans did not have a name for it, scholars now recognize that a rich philosophy guided their social lives. This philosophy merges the goals of the individual with concern for the community. Philosophers today call this philosophy Ubuntu (which understands humanness as being in a relationship: “I exist because you are.”) The Catholic Church has refused to accept either communism or capitalism as an ideal economic system. It might find in the social economy of Africa — communalism — the sought-for ideal.
Other beliefs of traditional Africans that match well with Christianity:
- They are “pro-life,” even if they don’t know about the pro-life/pro-choice debate in the West.
- They always welcome the visitor, even if he arrives uninvited. One never asks a visitor: “What can I do for you?” He would be shocked by this rudeness. Rather when the visitor comes in, one offers tea and discusses local news before finally getting to the purpose of the visit.
- They believe marriage lasts as long as both partners are alive and even if only one of the partners is living in this world. Even the practice of polygamy and widow inheritance, which at first seems immoral to some from the West, reflects a commitment to marriage that lasts forever, and the priority they give to procreation.
- For them, the purpose of marriage is procreation. So much do they take it for granted that every person must bring new children into the world that they can’t imagine a relationship that is not for the purpose of procreation. (Two well-educated Africans asked me to explain how anyone would be inclined to homosexuality, because they could not even imagine it.)
Returning to the point that the Africans did have an inherent belief in a good Creator without a codified religion: I would say that the religion was so much a part of their culture that it was “in their bones.” I often ask myself: Is the Christian religion “in the bones” of contemporary Western people? I am beginning to think so. I suggest that the basic teachings of Christianity have become so much a part of the culture of the West that they continue to influence the consciousness and actions of even those who say that they don’t believe these doctrines any more.
We pray often in the Our Father that “Thy Kingdom come.” Our hope is to create a society where God’s will is done, where all accept the morality of Christianity. Is it possible that we have made more progress than we realize in that direction? We meet so many people who are people of faith and hope and of charity (even though they don’t accept any creed or religion). Rather than fret about the loss of Church commitment, maybe we should be rejoicing in the extent to which so many people seem to be motivated by some of the essential elements of Christian consciousness; it is “in their bones.”
Sadly, not all the elements are “in their bones”: The West does not accept Christian sexual morality and is becoming a culture of death. In these ways, Africa wisely has not followed the West.
But I hasten balance my optimism about religion being in the bones of the West with a caveat: I’m not sure how long this “religion in the bones” can last when the structure of faith and ritual is not there to support it. For this reason, those of us who treasure the Catholic creed, ritual and morality must do all that we can to keep the Church alive and its doctrines orthodox so that the Church will be there with its creeds, its rituals and its community when a new generation realizes it needs them. I don’t’ know if this will be in one, two, or three generations. What I do know from history is that religious revivals have occurred repeatedly within the Western world whenever people were lost and living purposeless lives. We, the Church, must be prepared to respond to that need when it reappears.
In the meantime, we can rejoice at the way that Christianity has taken root in African soil, and we should look to Africa to lead us to new understandings of our own tradition.
