Enculturation/Africanisation

 

 

Enculturation is a term that was born out of a religious context but is currently used in different academic disciplines. In religion, the term can be used to refer to the process by which a particular religion for example the Christian faith, comes into a particular cultural context, makes convert, and goes on incarnating that culture for continuous and effective gospel communication. The result of that Christianity’s cultural incarnation is that the religion reaching out (Christianity) takes hold of the content of the culture by using its cultural concepts, but in turn, reflects the identity of that culture. This is to create continuity between the pre-Christian traditional religions of that area with the Christian faith. Africanisation also refers to the same thing as enculturation but with Africanisation, the focus is on the African context and its cultures (Starkloff 1992:69).

Now in this study, we shall describe the religious aspect of enculturation/Africanisation using Christianity to describe what is being Africanised within it. We shall do this by looking at the following areas; Problems faced by Africanisation, the solutions proposed to the problems and then conclude.

 

Problems

A common outcry against the Africanisation of Christianity is the issue of syncretism. This can be defined as the merging of two contradictory beliefs or religions. In this case Christianity and African traditional religion. This merging results in the violation of the core doctrines of Christianity. Commenting on this Tarisai Mutangi (2008: 538-539) says “Mainstream Christian churches accept the possibility of what we call ‘dual worship’ or syncretism, in which one is allowed to practise both traditional and mainstream Christian values.” So we see this attempt of integrating two contradictory religious beliefs as though they are one and do not contradict results in compromise. Yusufu Turaki (1999:2) adds that “there are those who still hold to some of the “precious” traditional religions even after becoming Christians.” Now, this happens as many Africans attempts to discover a Christianity that reflects their cultural identity.

Moreover the Ethiopian movement which broke off from protestant churches in the late 19th century has in many evangelical circles being called separatist. The cause of this was due to the ill-treatment, loathing of African culture and the pathetic paternalistic attitudes of white protestant ministers, which resulted in hostile attitudes and suspicious feelings against all things Western by the Ethiopianists. Commenting on this Van de Merwe (2016:564) says that “The Emergence of African initiated churches created a platform for resistance against missionary activities in Africa. This was initially prompted by a Black Nationalist group branded as “Ethiopians.” They went on to establish their churches and also cutting off all connections with previous missionary churches. This created separation and hostile feelings between the two which still exist to this day.

Furthermore the African continent has billions of people and has many different languages. There are over 800-1200 tribes all with their different cultures that can traces their origins to hundreds and thousands of years ago (Mbiti 1970:131). These cultures have solid and deep roots. Now many have said that seeking an African Christianity identity in this huge diversity is an impossible task. Moreover, these many cultures in African can lead to different African theologies which in the end can cause strive and a lack of cohesion among African theologians. Perhaps this also was the reason for the lack of serious impact in the grassroots among African people that TS Maluleke laments when he says that “multiple future African theologies were suggested while the ground already captured was neglected (Van Der Merwe 2016: 568-569).” This was after 1960 when Africa began to seek its indigenous Christian theology freed from western ethnocentrism which used to define and made reality be perceived in accordance to their epistemic and cultural categories. Since Africa has a large portion of the world languages and its various cultures, how to go about this was bound to bring problems, which African theologians embarked on a journey to try to solve (Van Der Merwe 2016: 569).

 

Solutions

Africanisation to avoid the pitfalls of syncretic tendency it must show commitment to scriptures, in other words, it must strives to be biblical. This is because rooting itself in the scriptures provides a standard, a canon to which it measures its thinking, limits, practices and keeping at its centre the saving message of Jesus Christ, which has a universal dimension to all humans regardless of race. Though this is not always a goal achieved within the movement, many sections within it have fallen to syncretism. Commenting on this Yusufu Turaki (1999:2) says that “African traditional religions and cultures is still profound and dominant in modern Africa.” He further highlights the fact that its dominance still has a profound influence on African Christians. Therefore Turaki suggests that “it is very important for African Christians to know how the bible defines, addresses and approaches the traditional religions and cultures (Turaki 199:2).” Thus this solution will solve the problem of syncretism.

Moreover the Christian church is not only composed of the local church within a given geographical context but it is also composed of various people from all the different ethnic, linguistic, cultural and theological traditions around the world. Therefore for Africanisation to avoid the labelling of being an ecclesiological separatists movement it must take into consideration this fact that there is a lot to learn from other believers around the world, commenting on this Van de Merwe (2016:579) says that “African theologians should take cognizance of publications from the West and archaeological excavations done by Westerners.” He points to the fact that Christians from different cultures in this case the West and Africa have much to offer each other for the interpretation and advancement of Christianity.

Now since the African continent has a large population that has different ethnic groups with their various believes and worldviews and having been colonised by  Western nations imposing on them different Christian traditions, therefore to try and avoid theological and methodological conflicts, African theologians have to work on keeping the essence of Christianity central. They must only strive to strip Christianity of its Western trappings and search the Scriptures to find a truly Biblical, yet African faith. This striving to maintain the essence of Christianity free from Western ethnocentrism will provide the Africans with a transcultural-historical message which they can all look towards for guidance in all that they do. Now it cannot be denied that this has not come to full realisation since within this Africanisation movement there are still those who do not fully subscribe to keeping the essence of the gospel and are still invested in Western Christianity, and thus cause both theological and methodological problems. 

 

Conclusions

We see that enculturation is a very necessary aspect of the life and existence of the Christian faith in Africa. If the faith is to continue to exist in Africa and continue to grow tackling issues that affect the continent such as Aids, poverty, corruption, it should incarnate the culture to move with it and maintain its relevance. A failure to do so can result in many Africans rejecting it as useless and irrelevant.  

Mzwekhaya ka Nkosithabile

Nubian Exodus

 

Bibliography

1.      Mbiti, S, J., 1970. African Religions and Philosophy. Anchor Books: New York

2.      Mutangi, T. 2008. Religion, law and human rights in Zimbabwe. African Human Rights Law Journal, Vol 8, No.2, pp 526-545

3.      Starkloff, C, C, J., 1994. Inculturation and Cultural Systems. Theologica Studies, Vol 55, pp 66-81

4.      Turaki, Y., 1999. Christianity and African Gods: A Method in Theology. Potchefstroom University: Potchefstroom

5.      Van de Merwe. 2016. From Christianising Africa to Africanising Christianity: Some hermeneutical principles. Stellenbosch Theological Journal 2016, Vol 2, No 2, pp 559–587.