Towards African Missiology: Issues of New Language for African Christianity

By Francis Anekwe Oborji

This volume reflects on a credible and a new language of Christian mission in Africa. The author’s thoughts and approaches not only provide a missiological insight which contribute to the repertoire of expanding fresh ideas in the missiological studies but also serves the purpose of highlighting the active participation of Africans in the missionary mandate of Jesus Christ. In other words, the scope of missiology needs a contextualized interpretation.

Thus, he proposes a proactive language for missiology in Africa thereby underlining Africans as normal and full members of the human family. In the light of the Vatican II mission theology, the new language should be based on the fact that Africans will grow and do better in admiration and not in sympathy. Interestingly, the arguments in this volume opens the space for the on-going discussions in the mission of the church in the era of secularization and post-modernity. Consequently, a new language for missiology in Africa will come from the retrieval and modernization of our African cultural matrix pursued from the point of view of the daily struggles of the Africans themselves for survival which also addresses Africans in the spirit of cooperation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664137189

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Copyright © 2020 by Francis Anekwe Oborji.

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Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Website

Rev. date: 11/18/2020

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Contents

Acknowledgment

Abbreviations

Preface

Editors’ Note

Part 1

Towards African Missiology

Section I Historical Perspective

Chapter 1   The Question of Missiology in an African Context

Chapter 2   The Evangelization of Africa

Chapter 3   The Bible and Evangelization of Africa

Chapter 4   The Concept of the Person in African Thought and Culture: A Missiological Appraisal

Section II The Language of Mission

And Missiology in Africa

Chapter 5   Mission Ad Gentes of African Churches

Chapter 6   Missiology in an African Context

Section III Mission and Charity Trend In Africa

Chapter 7   The Mission-Charity Trend in Africa

Chapter 8   African and Church’s Ministry of Charity to the Poor

Part 2

Issues of New Theological Language in Africa

Chapter 9   Paths of Dialogue in the African Context

Chapter 10   Inculturation in the Changing Face of African Theology

Chapter 11   Small Christian Communities in Africa

Chapter 12   African Religion and the Healing Churches

Chapter 13   African Theology

Chapter 14   African Palaver and Language Learning in Social Reconciliation

Chapter 15   Between Religion and Violence: A Missiological Appraisal

Chapter 16   Edinburgh 1910 and Christian Identity Today: An African Perspective

Chapter 17   Catholic Missiology (1910 -2010)

Chapter 18   Missiology in An African Context: Towards a New Language

Bibliography

DEDICATION

To

God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Acknowledgment

The Scriptural references are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, online edition.

It is important to note too that some of the articles in this volume have been published in a peer review journals and certain newspapers by the author Rev. Fr. Professor Francis Anekwe Oborji. The sources where they are published are duly recognized at the footnote of its corresponding chapter.

Abbreviations

Preface

God desires the salvation of everyone (1Timothy 2:5). Thus in the fullness of time He sent His only Son, born of a woman to liberate human beings (Galatians 4:4). St. John the evangelist tells us that Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). In this affirmation of St. John is the declaration of the Mission of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who was sent by the Eternal Father out of His Eternal love and goodness that all may have life to the full (John 10:10) and that the world may be saved through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (AG 2). The Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and Human beings, after completing earthly mission, before He returned to His Father entrust His saving mission to the Church in the wonderful mandate as enshrined in Mathew 28: 19-20 (make disciples of all peoples, by going to them, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of time).

This Mission at once divine, universal and historical continues throughout out the world and in all ages through the missionary activity and practice carried on in various lands of the whole world. This missionary activity must be informed, enriched and enlightened by a sound Mission Theology and Missiology. Indeed as Martin Kahler and Johannes Verykul have affirmed In the New Testament, Theology arose as Missiology, for it was the reflection on the missionary activity in the Apostolic Era¹. Thus the Mission of Jesus Christ and the divine mandate to the Church becomes truly the mother of theology.² Theology, affirmed Kahler, was an accompanying manifestation of the Christian Mission³.

St. John Paul II, in 1990 reminded the whole Church that "The Mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the church, is still very far from completion. As the second Millennium after Christ’s coming draws to an end, an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service".⁴ Among the many reasons for writing this wonderful encyclical on Mission is that of encouraging theologians to explore and expound systematically the various aspects of missionary activity.⁵

I am very grateful to Prof. Francis Anekwe Oborji for having responded to this invitation of Pope John Paul II and write for us various articles that develop a Missiology that is to accompany the Christian Mission and missionary activity in Africa, a continent that has largely remained a missionary territory regardless of the fact that Christianity arrived on the continent as early as the apostolic times.⁶ In the articles that Ikenna Okagbue & Kenneth Nnaemeka Ameke have organized into 18 chapters of the first volume of works of Prof. Francis Oborji, one sees a developing African Missiology, that is, a study of the salvific activities of the Triune God, geared towards establishing God’s Kingdom and the Church’s Divine Mandate to serve this Triune God who aims at saving the world, within the African context and according to the needs and mentality of the African people.

In these chapters one finds a genuine effort by Prof. Francis Anekwe Oborji to respond to the double task of missiology within the African context. He has investigated scientifically and critically with amazing clarity and courage, the presuppositions, motivations, structures, methods, patterns of cooperation, approaches, language, models and thought patterns and leadership which the African churches are bringing to the mandate Jesus Christ the Founder of the Church has given them. He has also examined with incredible prophecy the other human activities taking place on this beloved continent which claim to combat evil on the continent to see if they fit the criteria and goals of God’s Kingdom already present and not yet. Professor Francis in the 18 articles presented in this book deals with a spectrum of issues. These include the need for an authentic African Missiology, evangelization of the African continent and its historical and practical dimensions, the role of the bible in the evangelization of Africa, the language that is needed for the effective mission and missiology in the African context, the execution of Missio Ad Gentes by the church in Africa and within Africa, the various mission trends on the continent including the mission-charity trend, the paths of dialogue, inculturation, Small Christian Communities, healing, social reconciliation, religion and violence, Christian identity and a typically catholic missiology on the continent. There is no doubt that the joy of the famous African theologian and historian, Rev. Fr. Prof. John Mary Waliggo at meeting Prof. Francis Oborji in Rome in 2005 is becoming complete. When John Mary Waliggo saw Francis, he exclaimed: it is so wonderful to see this young African professor teaching at our beloved Urbaniana University, the future of African theology is becoming even more bright.

I am very grateful to Prof. Francis for his tireless academic efforts to make African theology, but in this perspective African mission theology, develop and thrive. I gladly recommend this book of great value to all those who love the Church and the African continent and would like Jesus Christ make a true and permanent home in Africa and from here move to save the rest of the world through a renewed, dynamic and liberative missionary activity powered by an enlightened and fully liberated Missiology.

Rev. Fr. Dr. Benedict Ssettuuma

St. Mary’s National Major Seminary

Ggaba, Kampala, Uganda.

Editors’ Note

Behind the prevalent story of foreign charity to Africa is the unhappy desire of the modern imperial nations (through their multinationals, international media, Non-Governmental Organizations as well as some foreign charitable agencies, etc.), to keep the continent as long as possible under foreign tutelage. It is a kind of tactical language employed by the former colonial imperial nations to keep alive the colonial image of the continent and its people. It is an attempt to justify the historical human and cultural dispossession of African people. This is to justify the never-ending foreign exploitation of Africans and the continent’s natural and mineral resources. In this situation, what role has Christianity to play to help Africa regain its true identity and dignity in the community of nations today? For even the language of mission in Africa, most of the time, cannot be exonerated from this trait. In other words, there is a need for a new language of Christian mission in Africa if it is to be credible and seen to be different from that of the imperial nations, NGOs, and foreign media about Africa.

Remarkably, the title of this volume Towards African Missiology: Issues of New African Christianity promises a direction towards a new language of Christian mission from an African perspective. As an expert in missiological studies, contextual theology and professor at the Pontifical Urban University Rome, Rev. Fr. Prof. Francis Anekwe Oborji’s reflections inspire and re-inspire one to a deeper understanding of the contextual missionary contribution of Christianity from an African perspective. It goes to lend insight into the universal implication of the missionary mandate of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The author’s thoughts and approaches not only provide a missiological insight which contribute to the repertoire of expanding fresh ideas in the missiological studies but also serve as a useful tool for church authorities, theologians, missionaries and students of theology and missionary formation in the African context for a self-reflexive understanding of Africans in Christendom. The argumentation of this volume serves this purpose of highlighting the African role as active participant in the missionary mandate of Jesus Christ. Thus, the volume guides any curious mind on how to understand the contributions of the African Christians in the mission of the church.

This volume comprises two parts. The first part contains the history of missiological studies from an African perspective. This part covers issues ranging from the question of missiology in an African context, which sheds light on the active participation and contribution of Africans in the mission of the church. This considers the African Christians as people who having been evangelized by others in the last centuries, are today missionaries both within the African context and to the wider world. This further argues how the Africans add to the missionary zeal that sustains the mandate of Christ in Matthew 28:19 to the church. In a heading that follows, the author points out the problems and successes of the African mission, which reveal dynamism, hope, and promise for the future and for the universal church family.

The author further argues for the importance of the Bible for the African Christians as a firsthand experience of the message of the gospel represented by the church in Ethiopia. The importance of the Scripture for the African Christians is thus analyzed through the pedagogy of the sharing of the good news of Jesus so compelling like the experience on the Emmaus road; which illustrates the direct way of receiving the good news and the promise of the blessing to those who have not seen but believe. This forms the theological formulation through which to perceive Christ springing from every culture and the daily life and narrative. Moreover, in building this historical foundation of mission in Africa, the author brings into the missiological discussion the understanding of the human person in the African thought and culture.

Furthermore, the first part equally deals with the language of mission and missiological studies in Africa which enables us to understand the mission of the church from within and directed to others termed ‘missionaries to yourselves’. This missiological approach enhances the formation of agents of evangelization and geared towards a self-reliant church in Africa. The question is: how matured are the African Christians to embark on the mission to others? The author delves into the scope and aim of mission which reflects the theology and pastoral plans of the church in Africa.

In the third section of part one, Prof. Oborji delves into the trends of mission in the contemporary African perspective. By so doing, he distils the mischaracterization that conflates the Christian mission with the acts of charity directed toward the evangelized in the process of missionary encounter. This enables one to bring the message of salvation and the restoration of the human dignity laid out by Christ into a proper perspective. To conclude this first part, the author argues through the lens of the thoughts of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council regarding the joy and hope distinctive of the Christian approach to charity. This approach distinguishes charity as integral to human salvation, which should not be conflated with social service. Rather, charity is argued in connection to the principle of an action directed towards one’s neighbour in the light of the social teaching of the church and practice to the poor.

The second part concentrates on the emerging issues in the African theological language in missiology. The missiology pundit suggests the model of palabra (palaver) for dialogue and reconciliation in the context of pluralistic culture and religions or society. Accordingly, this further argues for the contributions of African theologians in minimizing the conflict existing among the proponents of the different dominant theological trends namely, inculturation, liberation theology, and reconstructionism. Correspondingly, for a fruitful accomplishment of inculturation in the light of the evolving trends of the African theology, the integration of African theology which harmonizes theories, the social and practical commitment should be explored as an option. Another remarkable language in African theology explored in this chapter focuses on the importance of the Small Christian Community (SCC) for the church in Africa. SCC serves as a useful pastoral method for effective catechesis which transcends the previous approach employed by the missionaries – the ‘outstation’ approach.

Furthermore, the second part also explores the religiosity, which challenges the missionary expectation contained in Matthew 10:8 (to cure the sick, raise the dead…). This piety emanates from the unorthodox approach employed by the African Independent Churches (AICs) which resonates with the religiosity of the African Traditional Religion (ATR). Hence, these missionary expectations and religiosity are compared in the light of religiosity based on the Paschal mystery of Christ. This explains the origin of the religiosity arising from the AICs and its missiological concerns regarding the understanding of salvation in and through the phenomenon of healing. This concern is analysed in the light of the understanding of healing in the traditional magisterium of the church. Thus, this leads to the observation of what the AICs represent seen as a deformational element as well as transformation character of the African traditional religiosity which to some extent serves as a resistance to the colonialism or the Christianity perceived purely of Western domination.

Moreover, the second part also discusses the concerns of an African theology ranging from the unsystematic oral form to a literal form via inculturation, liberation theology and theology of reconciliation. These forms of theology are important because of how they evolve and speak to the African (Christians) changing reality. In another chapter, this volume reiterates the concept of the African palaver as a model of reconciliation. African palaver is put in relation to the question of language learning in the reconciliation process which emphasizes the importance of management of words in the inter-human relations on the people’s commonalities over the perception of differences as exclusive. In a similar line of thought, the author examines a missiological appraisal of religion as a tool of violent confrontation and war and as a means of achieving peace and social justice.

Another significant shift in the language of mission is discussed in the African perspective of Edinburg Missionary Conference of 1910. This conference redefines the understanding of the mission from the ‘Christian land’ to that of ‘mission land’. In other words, the mission was basically a movement from the West (senders) to the non-West (receivers). The African perspective is based on an outlook that is Christocentric which entails reciprocity and mutuality. This leads to the contemporary re-conception and articulation of Christian missionary approaches. Finally, the Prof. Oborji reflects on how Africans can embark and contribute to the mission in contemporary times.

Suffice it to note that this volume offers to contribute as part of the missiological discourse and understanding of mission in our contemporary time but does not presume to define the definitive missionary approaches and understandings in and for the contemporary person. Interestingly, it opens the space for the on-going discussions in the mission of the church in the era of secularization and post-modernity. We invite you to critically engage the argumentations in order to efficiently participate in the universal mandate of Christ to evangelize the world.

Part 1

Towards African Missiology

Section I

Historical Perspective

Chapter 1

The Question of Missiology in an African Context

African churches are said to be among the most lively churches in the Christian world today. Besides that, young churches of Africa have started sending their own children as missionaries to many parts of the world. The strength of Christianity in Africa is as a result of the active participation of the laity and their generous contribution to the growth of the Church both locally and internationally. Therefore, a scientific reflection on missiology in an African context in this new millennium is timely. It is also a challenge to the African clergy and religious who bear a special responsibility of teaching the Christian faith to seriously reflect on missiology so as to enhance contributions to the cause of the Christian mission on the continent and in the world at large.

This opening chapter addresses the question of missiology in an African context. We are essentially discussing a continent in search of a model for mission theology and the praxis of evangelization. But the formulation of a model(s) for an African missiology depends to a large extent on the answers given to the following questions: What has been the prevailing missiology in Africa? What can Africans say about missiology in this twenty-first century? And finally, what contributions can African theologians make towards the inculturation of the Christian faith and of integral human development in the continent?

These questions are closely interrelated, for our knowledge of the prevailing missiology in Africa will, to a large extent, determine our new vision for Christianity in the continent. This, in turn, has led to questions such as: What should be the role of individual local churches and theologians for the promotion of a really authentic inculturation of the Gospel in Africa? Do Africans have a contribution towards missiology or are they passive consumers of the mission theology and the version of Christianity developed overseas? Can African churches participate fully in the evangelization of the continent and beyond?

To explore these issues, I have chosen to emphasize the importance of a new language for missiology in Africa. I am convinced that the prevailing language of missiology has prevented us from recognizing the potentials of the local churches and the people of Africa in the mission of the Church. In developing models for Missiology in an African context, therefore, priority should be given to the question of rethinking the way Africa has been conceived in the minds of many people since the foreign invasion of the continent from the 15th and 16th centuries AD. In spite of the adjustments in the use of some terminologies, the missiology developed in that era about Africa is still the same and may not change soon. Unfortunately, that missiology does not reflect the true Africa, for it was based on the foreigner’s superstitious beliefs and resentment of anything about Africa.

Although African authors started well with the critical approach in examining the praxis of the theology of mission used in the evangelization of the continent, it is now time to move from criticism to construction, in order to build an authentic African Christianity. This was the challenge of Pope Paul VI to the African bishops in his address at the closing session of the Symposium of African Bishops on July 31, 1969, in Kampala, Uganda. The Church in Africa will continue to be a burden to the universal Church unless we construct and build. To gain self-reliance and self-respect in the universal Church and in the community of nations we need a new language for missiology in Africa. We need a language of construction to build a house for Jesus Christ who has found a new homeland in Africa. This is the basis for the call for language-learning for missiology in Africa as outlined below.

Missiology and Mission Trends in

the Evangelization of Africa

As a preamble, we begin by explaining briefly the subject matter of missiology which is the principal word in our topic. Missiology (science of missions or mission studies), deals with the scientific study of the missionary dimension of the Christian faith, the Great Commission (of Matthew 28: 18-20). It is a theological discipline that engages in a systematic and scientific study or elaboration of the fact that the Church is missionary by nature (Vatican II 1966: Ad Gentes 2 (hereafter AG). Furthermore, missiology examines scientifically and critically, the activities through which the church does her mission or the work of evangelization and the planting of the church among people of various cultures (cf. AG 9). In other words, we have two major areas of specialization in missiology: (a) specialization in mission theology (missionary theology), and (b) specialization in evangelization (praxis).⁷

In a more technical term, missiology is a branch of theology that studies the salvation activities of God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit throughout the world geared toward bringing the Kingdom of God into existence. It studies the church’s divine mandate to bring the gospel message to the ends of the earth. In dependence on the Holy Spirit and word and deed, the church has the obligation to bring the gospel and God’s saving plan to all mankind.⁸

As a science of its own in theological education, missiology is of recent origins. Though theology was born out of mission (and mission as it is often said, is the mother of theology), yet it was not an easy road to get a chair or department of missiology established in theological faculties and universities. It was only towards the end of the nineteenth century that the necessity of scientific reflections on mission started to gain support in Christendom. It started by seeking ways and means of accommodating the missionary idea into the existing theological disciplines or of incorporating it into one of them, usually pastoral (practical) theology. But this method could not work for obvious reasons. One of which is that the teachers of other subjects usually are not sufficiently aware of the innate missionary dimension of all theology. Furthermore, the teachers may not have the knowledge and patience to pay attention to developments in mission and to the missionary dimension of their vocation. A goat owned by all is nobody’s goat.

Again, leaving missiology to pastoral theology or any other area creates a serious problem, since pastoral theology itself is concerned with the pastoral care of those already living the faith. But missiology, ipso facto, studies the church’s relationship with the peoples of the other religions, cultures, the emerging situations and problems in missionary fields. Thus, the only way out was to advocate the introduction of missiology as a discipline in its own right. This was how Alexander Duff’s chair of missiology came to be established in Edinburgh in 1867; here missiology was taught for the first time as an independent subject in its own right. This challenge was taken up by the German theologians, however, through the request of the German government for their colonies.⁹ This is how Gustav Warneck (1834-1910), at Halle, Germany, emerged as the father of the Protestant missiology, and Josef Schmidlin (1876-1944), at the Műnster University became the founder of Catholic missiology. With the efforts of these two German theologians, missiology became fully established as a theological discipline in its own right.¹⁰

The significant thing about missiology is that it is often defined in the context of what is mission (its scope and goal) over and above what is missiology itself. Here we have to distinguish between mission (singular) and missions (plural). The first refers primarily to the missio Dei (God’s mission), that is, the divine intervention in favour of all humanity at all times and in the whole world.¹¹ It is God’s self-revelation as the one who loves the world, God’s involvement in and with the world, and in which the church is privileged to participate, the sacrament and instrument of bringing about the realization of God’s plan of salvation among all mankind. Missio Dei enunciates the Good News that God is a God-for-people. The second (missiones ecclesiae: missionary ventures of the church), refers to those undertakings by which the heralds of the gospel are sent by the church and go forth into the whole world to carry out the task of preaching (evangelization) and implanting of the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ.¹²

In the words of David Bosch, missions refer to particular forms, related to specific times, places, or needs, of participation in the missio Dei.¹³ Missiology, however, is concerned not only with missio ad extra but also with missio ad intra. Its field of operation is the entire spectrum of the Christian mission, the three concrete situations in which the Church carries out its various evangelizing activities: (a) mission ad gentes, (b) pastoral care of those living the faith, c) new evangelization.¹⁴

All this indicates that missiology is a theological discipline which tries to prove how all generations of the earth are objects of God’s salvific plan of salvation in Jesus Christ.¹⁵ It tries to show that this dimension of the Christian faith is not an optional extra: Christianity is missionary by its very nature and it is the intrinsic nature and mission of the church to proclaim the message of salvation in Christ to the ends of the earth. To neglect this mission is for the church to deny its very raison d’être. But this does not mean that missiology as a theological discipline is a neutral or disinterested enterprise; rather, it seeks to look at the world from the perspective of commitment to the Christian faith. Such an approach implies as well a critical examination of every manifestation of the church’s missionary activity to rigorous analysis and appraisal, precisely for the sake of the Christian mission itself.¹⁶

Therefore, pioneer missiologists began by defining mission. This is how they started the first systematic working out of the goal of the Christian mission and of defining the distinctiveness of the new discipline. At least on the Catholic side, we have the Műnster and the Louvain schools of missiology. The basic argument of the Műnster school (led by Josef Schmidlin), is that the primary goal of mission is the conversion of non-Christian individuals. The Christian mission aims first and foremost at the salvation of souls (salus animarum). And for the Louvain school led by Pierre Charles (1883-1954), the aim of missionary activity is the implanting of a church (plantatio ecclesiae), in non-Christian countries. The theological foundation of the thesis of the Louvain school is God’s desire for the salvation of everyone not individually but in the church. The mission theology of these two schools was adopted by the Vatican II (cf. AG 6).

From the foregoing discussion, one thing is now sure. Christian mission (beginning from the fifteenth century) came to Africa when there was no developed theology of mission.¹⁷ Moreover, during the two centuries (fifteenth and nineteenth centuries) missionary expansions in Africa, there was no Council convened or rather there was no major theological shift similar to the one that took place when Christianity encountered the Hellenistic world.¹⁸ What then was the language of missiology in the evangelization of Africa especially during the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries missionary expansions?¹⁹ What changes came from the Vatican II mission theology?

The Fifteenth Century Mission Trend in Africa

During the fifteenth century Christian expansion in Africa, the language of missiology depended heavily on the so called theology of the curse. Subsequent trends in mission theology have had to build on this. The theology of the curse is based on the European myth that Africa is the land of the deepest, darkest, heathen night inhabited by dark-skinned backward people, the poorest of the poor, unintelligent, without culture, language, religion, civilization, etc.²⁰ This myth perceived Africans as the children of the cursed fallen Angel (Ham). It sees Africa as a target par excellence of mission.

The overall assumption in this myth was that Africa is inhabited by one homogenous people, who have neither culture nor civilization until the coming of the European colonizers and missionaries. This belief was also reflected in the padroado (papal privileges of patronage), which empowered the Portuguese sovereigns, explorers, and the missionaries who sailed around the coast of Africa to enslave, subdue and convert to Christianity the perceived children of Ham that inhabit the dark continent.²¹ The Portuguese explorers brought with them, Priests who became the first missionaries along the West African coasts. Many more missionaries came later, with the approval of the Portuguese kings, as was stipulated on the privileges of patronage (padroado) granted them by the popes over the new missions in Africa.²²

Again, prior to the maritime revolution which was championed by Portuguese and Spanish in the fifteenth century, the world was believed to consist only of the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The common conviction then was that the gospel had been preached everywhere.²³ However, the fresh contacts with the Atlantic coast and interior of Africa, together with similar discoveries of lands of the Americas and East Indies revealed immense masses of people outside the Mediterranean region. Naturally, these were bound to provoke new and difficult ideological currents. Were all these peoples really human beings like the rest of the people in the then known world?

Furthermore, if they were to be classified as human beings at all, were they among the people for whom Jesus Christ died? In other words, do they need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ? To these questions the Church saw no contradiction in answering in the affirmative. Those of the new world are also children of God. They belong to the human family and so were destined for salvation through Jesus Christ. For this reason the Church had no problem in asking Portugal and Spain, the two Catholic countries and maritime powers in Europe at that time to see to the evangelization of the new found lands. In a bull, Quae pro bono Pacis, Pope Julius II (1503-1513), divided the overseas continents and islands between Spain and Portugal. Spain was given the West Indies, while Africa, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and their islands went to Portugal.

But while the concern in the ecclesiastical circle was the evangelization and salvation of souls, the issue in the political circle was sovereign domination and economic exploitation of the new found lands. It is from this background that one could understand the behavior of Portugal and Spain in their areas of influence at the time. Therefore, the theology of the curse which remained prevalently active until the nineteenth century, paved the way not only for the Christian penetration of Africa but also for the growth of the European power and commerce in the continent. However, the modest achievements of this missionary phase were the erection of parish house by 1462 in the islands of Santiago, a bishopric by 1533 at Cape Verde, and the Episcopal ordination of Don Henrique as the first native bishop from Africa, south of Sahara. But it was not long before the newly founded missions began to decline. This was caused, partly, by the divided interests exhibited by the nations to whom were entrusted the work of evangelizing the region as mentioned already and more also by the underdeveloped theology of mission at the time.

During this period, the missionary work was seen as the church’s bounded duty to bring the true faith to pagans, or to save souls that were in darkness. Christianity was intended to civilize and to save Africans from idolatry, immoral marriage (polygamy), and the devil.²⁴ With this type of attitude, the missionary efforts of this period did not really take the African spiritual vision into serious consideration. However, one needs to collocate this missionary tendency to the prevailing thoughts about Africa at the time. The fact is that the other world religions and cultures did not as well show positive attitudes towards the African culture and civilization. This was the spirit of the time. So much so that it was said that during the Vatican Council I, the famous missionary and founder of a missionary Institute (religious order), Daniel Comboni, had to request the Council Fathers to lift the curse on the children of Ham.

It was believed that through this curse the Almighty had been punishing the sons and daughters of Africa with a cruelty unknown in the history of the human race.²⁵ But Engelbert Mveng has argued that no such curse was addressed against Africans; rather the Bible shows Yahweh taking the side of Moses and his African wife.²⁶ According to Elochukwu Uzukwu, medieval Christian belief sustained such a curse, and the prayer for the conversion of Africa (composed after Vatican I), which was recited in many churches of Africa before the Vatican Council II suppressed it, proves the continued presence of such a belief.²⁷

The Nineteenth Century Mission Trend in Africa

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a notable development occurred in the African mission: a change in the missionary juridical system from padroado to ius commissionis. The Congregation de Propaganda Fide issued the ius commissionis by which mission territories were allocated to particular missionary institutes (religious congregations or orders) to evangelize and administer. Many religious institutes were founded in France during the period, specifically for the conversion of Africans to Christianity. Among these are: the Holy Ghost Congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, the Society of African Missions, the Missionaries of Africa (commonly known as White fathers), etc. Consequently, Portugal was virtually replaced by France in the missions in Africa. In principle, the pope himself, represented by the Propaganda Fide, had the primary responsibility for evangelization and not a monarch as was the practice in the padroado system. The missionary institutes were therefore responsible to the pope and not to their national sovereigns in matters concerning the mission territories.²⁸

It was at this period that Josef Schmidlin and Pierre Charles, among others, developed their mission theories of the saving of souls and implanting of Churches, which included building of schools and hospitals, and other forms of social services. However, many missionaries interpreted the planting of churches literally, and tried to reproduce in Africa carbon copies of the churches in Europe, especially in terms of architecture, organization and devotions. Again, many missionaries continued to judge the cultures of Africa very negatively.²⁹ This development was accompanied by establishment of a chair or department of mission studies (missiology) in the universities and faculties of theology. This, however, was largely, as a result of pressures from missionaries and students (particularly in the United States), and in a more concrete way as a result of requests from governments as happened in Germany. David Bosch argues that when missiology was first introduced in theological faculties, its primary goal was to serve the colonial needs. The issue of proper incarnation of the Christian faith was secondary.³⁰

Again, the missionary work of this period initiated the debate in the theology of adaptation. In principle, adaptation is the missionary effort whose primary objective is to translate the Christian faith into African conceptual apparatus. However, for critics of this theology, adaptation is a missionary theory that was employed to transplant a Christianity developed elsewhere into Africa as if Africans have no cultures of their own on which the Christian faith could anchor.³¹ In his An Overview of African Theology, Ngindu Mushete³² identifies three mission theories inherent in the theology of adaptation.

These are: (1) the theology of the salvation of souls in darkness; (2) the theology of the implanting of the church (among people considered to have neither culture nor civilization, the theology of tabula rasa); (3) the theology of the search for stepping-stones (the theology of the semina verbi and of the praeparatio evangelica). The contention of Mushete is that since these were the popular mission theories that governed the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries evangelization of Africa, they might account for the slow pace in the incarnation of Christianity in the continent. In any case, Mushete asserts that the modest contribution of the theology of adaptation is that it has helped in clarifying the process of inculturation.

During this period, the Bible and Catechetical books were translated into some African languages. Apart from that, there was no much effort to carry on theological investigations into various aspects of African cultural elements and religiosity as a necessary step towards inculturation.³³ Furthermore, this phase witnessed unfortunate inter-denominational rivalries among missionaries. Christian missionaries of different denominations were competing to outdo one another with regard to winning converts and establishing social services. This type of attitude made some Africans to question the motive of the missionaries. In addition, it made Africans confused about which denomination to follow. It was really a scandal in the face of the new converts. Moreover, the competition caused unnecessary duplications in the establishment of social services as each group often tried to outdo the other. On a more serious note, the rivalries aggravated ethnic divisions among the local populace.³⁴ This was the situation up to the Vatican Council II.

One major aftermaths of this period and the foreign invasion of the continent is the feeling of an inferiority complex which has been placed on the African who now tends to look down on anything associated with the black race, especially, his language and culture. In the teaching of John Paul II (1995: Ecclesia in Africa 41 (hereafter Ecclesia in Africa), the trauma of these past incidents have weakened the ability of the Africans to resist and to respond to situations: An injured person has to rediscover all the resources of his own humanity. To achieve this, the pope speaks of the theology of the Good Samaritan, asking that Africans need an understanding presence and pastoral concern: They need to be helped to recoup their energies so as to put them at the service of the common good (Ecclesia in Africa 41).

The Vatican II Mission Theology

One of the hallmarks of the Vatican II is its rediscovery of the theology of reciprocity (cf. Vatican II 1965: Lumen gentium 13 (hereafter LG), AG 22). This theology is based on the gospel image of the sowing of the good news and on the Council’s theology of the local churches that are established in every place. This theology informed the Council’s missionary juridical system of mandatum which replaces the ius commissionis. The conciliar system of mandatum empowers the local bishops as fully responsible for evangelization in their dioceses. The missionaries are to enter into contract with the bishops in whose diocese they wish to serve.

Again, the new awareness is centred on the Council’s theology of mission as reciprocal activity between sister churches. This new theology of mission applies universally to all the churches, even while not denying their differences (cf. AG 6). Thus, the Council’s mission theology should not be confused with the prevailing missiology in the evangelization of Africa.³⁵ The bottom-line in the conciliar mission theology is the emphasis on cultural diversity in the church and the role of local churches (in communion with the universal church-family) in the work of evangelization and implanting of the church in their various cultural contexts. This is reciprocity. In addition to assuming all that the church has acquired in its earthly pilgrimage, each local church is challenged to contribute something from its cultural-setting to enrich the patrimony of the universal church-family. In other words, the Council developed a theology of co-responsibility in evangelization and of trust in the local churches.

The foregoing discussion underscores the importance of the Vatican II theology of mission, particularly, the rediscovery of the local churches as the primary agent of mission. This awareness has led to a fundamentally new interpretation of the purpose of mission and the role of missionaries and mission agencies. However, the Council still affirms, and rightly so, that in the midst of these new circumstances and relationships there is still need for formation of experts or rather trained missionaries. But the missionaries are to recognize that their task pertains to the whole church, and they are to appreciate that they are sent as ambassadors of one local church to another local church (where such a local church already exists), as witnesses of solidarity and partnership, and as expressions of mutual encounter, exchange, and enrichment (cf. AG 26).

I have chosen to highlight the above aspects of the conciliar mission theology so as to help us evaluate and see for ourselves the pros and cons not only of the language of the previous mission trends but also of the actual language of missiology in Africa. We are now in a position to show whether the practice of mission in Africa today is following the Vatican II theology or whether it is still rooted in the out-dated phenomenon already discussed.

Present Trends of Mission in Africa

There are two main trends in the present-day language of missiology in Africa which still bear some traces of the old beliefs before Vatican II. These are: a) the mission-charity trend; and b) the "on the way or the still–learners" trend.

a)     The Mission-Charity Trend

This trend is based on the linkage of mission with charity. As a result of this theology, foreign mission agencies and charitable organizations have recruited workers for Africa on the basis of the continent being the target of mission par excellence which in turn is the expression of the phenomenon mentioned above. Some have risen to the status of hero in the West because of their African experiences. Yet all their efforts seem to have availed little for the continent. Africans are still poor and languishing. Indeed, Africans themselves have been aware of their own vulnerability for sometimes. And as Tiénou puts it: Is Africa good only for promoting outsiders to hero status?³⁶

The impasse here rests on the fact that many people easily associate material deprivation, technological simplicity, and skin colour, with spiritual needs. Since Africans are the poorest of the poor (the Third World of the Third World in the words of an American Journalist,³⁷ since Africa is inhabited by dark-skinned backward people, it must follow that Africans are most in need not only of missionizing, but also of philanthropists’ invasion and of foreign occupation. Moreover, since Africa has the highest number of the world’s poorest countries, it must follow logically that it is the place where the unreached are found. When missiologists are convinced of this, an inevitable link between mission and charity develops. Mission and charitable work become synonymous.

Furthermore, the theology of charity has brought about an unholy alliance between the press, the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the missionary agencies. These organizations engage in the propaganda of damage to the African image in the name of seeking donations to help the poor people of the dark continent. Take up the rivista (journal) of any of the foreign missionary institutes (orders or congregations), NGOs or agencies operating in Africa and you need not be told what their image of Africa is all about. Christopher Clapham has recently drawn our attention to the fact that the arrival of the NGOs engendered a change in the content of the external world’s relation with Africa, in ways which reduced the normal state-state relation, and increased that of charitable and civil-right organizations. In addition, Clapham affirms that the NGOs broadly represent the privatization of North-South relations. In Africa they come with strongly held Western values which encompass the full range of often contradictory attitudes and sentiments that the continent evokes.³⁸

In the same vein, Peter Sarpong contends that the role of the foreign media in Africa has assumed ideological and political strategy, designed to demoralize and discourage the Africans from believing that they are of equal partners with the rest of the world. For the media and most of the charitable organizations, Africa is synonymous with "poverty, AIDS, sexual promiscuity, tribal wars, refugees, hunger, disorderliness, disease, ignorance, etc. In fact, in many cases, the media is used to poisoning the minds of Africans and to propagate crimes, violence, falsehood, and immorality. What is more, only rarely do news items that are not derogatory to Africa appear in the media in Europe or North America. Sarpong insists that if we are to promote the dignity of human person, created in the image and likeness of God, the media must balance their presentation of Africa so that people of good will can have an accurate image of the continent (cf. Sarpong 1996: 225).

b)    The On-the-Way or Still Learners Mission Trend

Another tendency in the actual language of missiology in Africa is what we have termed above as the theology of "on-the-way. This tendency is another expression of the phenomenon already described. Its theology is based on the conception that Africans are still on the way, that they are still learners or rather that they are helpless children or junior members of the human race and in constant need of benevolent care. The on-the-way" theology does not see Africa as a continent just like any other continent on the planet. It does not perceive Africa as a continent of people, just people, not some strange beings that demand a special kind of treatment. This theology does not feel that Africans have a capacity for beatific vision and ontological reality. It does not recognize the fact that becoming a good Christian does not depend on colour or place of birth but on one’s response to faith in Jesus Christ. One may be born in Africa but responds to faith in Jesus Christ more than the person born in any of the so called Christian nations (cf. Oborji 1999: xii).

Furthermore, from the on-the-way theology we can now see why some people are angry when they see an African living in a decent building, riding in a good car, or doing higher studies. In the psyche of these people, Africans are not born for such advanced luxury and studies. This is also why many religious orders in the North would prefer closing their communities and convents to inviting their counterparts in Africa for helping in the work of the new evangelisation in Europe (cf. Nzuzi 2000: 241). It is for this same reason that missionaries from Africa are not received in Europe and America on the basis of equality and in the spirit of Pius XII’s encyclical Fidei donum.³⁹ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gives a classical description of this theology. When asked about the idea that a bishop from Africa or Latin America might take his place on the papal chair, the learned cardinal replied thus: "No. Everyone, at least in the college of cardinals, could imagine us electing an African or someone from a non-European country. To what extent European Christians would swallow that is another question.

For despite all the declarations of racial equality and all the condemnation, there is still a certain European self-consciousness that comes to the surface at critical moments (Ratzinger 1996: 262). Thus, the theology of on-the-way" shows that missionary endeavour is still characterised by a curious paradox in that, while preaching equality of all before God, it nonetheless elevates White Christians into superior beings, thereby keeping alive that racism is a way of life even in the church.

In addition, when asked if Africa will be part of the new impulses that will shape the future of the church in the new century, cardinal Ratzinger said: There is a strong consciousness that the Africans are still on the way, that they are still learners (Ratzinger 1996: 262). This is the crux of the matter. Will a student ever become a master? Africans have been students for the past 500 years or so since their encounter with the West and the Arab world. During these years, Africans have been enslaved, colonized, islamized and christianised. They have been capitalismized, communismized and apartheidized. They have been polarized by the Organization for Islamic Conferences (OIC). At present they are studying in the schools of the NGOs, the Multinationals, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These are departments in the current university of Globalization. Africa! When will you graduate?

This question is important because no people becomes a nation under bondage. A servant can never be greater than his master. Nor can a student be the master of his teacher. Moreover, no one becomes somebody through begging. A beggar is generally, a despised person, without a voice and often forgotten and excluded in decision making body. A beggar has no self-respect. Is Africa destined to be forever a student and a learner under foreign control? As John Paul II teaches, in the midst of an all-pervading despair, how is the Christian message Good News for the African? Where lie the hope and optimism which the Gospel brings? Moreover, in a world controlled by rich and powerful nations, Africa has practically become an irrelevant appendix, often forgotten and neglected.⁴⁰

This has been an important aspect of missiology under which the evangelization of Africa is being executed. Some have argued that the theology is based on the dependency program, the system of control: The unhappy desire to keep Africa for as long as possible under foreign tutelage (cf. Parratt 1995: 8).⁴¹¹ In this case therefore, the theology of the Good Samaritan proposed in the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Africa⁴² needs to be qualified and complemented by the prophetic theology proposed by the African bishops in their message at the end of the 1994 Synod for Africa (as we shall see shortly (cf. Synod of Bishops for Africa 1994: 15). The problem that remains is how to free the theology of the Good Samaritan from the prevalent tendency of paternalism, dependency, and control.

Towards a New Language for Missiology in Africa

It is now evident that the prevailing language of missiology in Africa is a cultural problem. The historical unhealthy relationship that has been existing between Africans and people of the North has its origin in the myth that informed the theology of the curse: the peculiar and strange way in which the continent is still perceived, despised, and marginalized. The tragic events of the past and of the present are committed on the ground of cultural bias. On the basis of this, the new language for missiology in Africa must be centred around the effort to give a new and an admirable identity to the Africans based on their cultural values, traditions and the gospel message (cf. Oborji 2001: 72).

A new language for missiology in Africa will come from the retrieval and modernization of our African cultural matrix pursued from the point of view of the daily struggles of the Africans themselves for survival. The attainment of a degree of self-esteem for the Africans depends on their identifying themselves with their own culture and rediscovering deeply rooted traditional values in the light of the gospel. John Paul II challenges the African church thus: 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 (Ecclesia in Africa 48).

The new language for missiology in Africa must be that of admiration and appreciation of Africans as normal and full members of the human family. In the light of the Vatican II mission theology, the new language should be based on the fact that Africans will grow and do better in admiration and not in sympathy. Africans will do well when they are offered hope and not demoralization.⁴³ Indeed what Africa needs is not necessarily foreign aid (which often comes with strings attached), but a change of attitude and mentality of the people of the North in speaking, studying, and dealing with the continent. What Africa is asking for is the purification of memory and evangelization of the superstitious beliefs which have hitherto informed the external world’s attitude and relationships with the continent.

The new language for missiology in Africa should also address the Africans themselves on the spirit of cooperation.⁴⁴ The naked truth is this: "Why is it that it is the black communities or countries worldwide that are most disunited, fractionalized, disorganized and strife-prone. Why is it that it is the black communities or countries that have the largest number of tribes, ethnic groups, dialects and language groups. Why are Africans backward as communities, groups and nations? Why is it that the most stable countries in Africa are those where the resources are firmly under the control of one boss, and often, however greedy he is, he is not challenged? Why is it that the state in Africa is the personal fiefdom of whoever is in power?

It may be easy to suggest that the reason for all this, is because Africans suffer from the above named forces of division or from an inferiority complex and mental slavery caused by their sickening under-development and insurgence of the foreign powers. It may also be easy to blame only the African leaders and accuse them of being incapable of rising to the demands of good governance and responsibility as indeed some have (cf. Achebe 1983: 1). But the fact remains that all human beings share the same attributes irrespective of race. Every race has its own share of the good and the bad (of lazy and hardworking, of honest and of thieves, of corruption, of embezzlement, of bribery and rigging, etc). Therefore, Africans are not inferior in respect to all their God given attributes. At the individual level, given reasonable opportunity, Africans are comparable to the others. This is evidenced by the large number of thriving Africans in all areas of human endeavours (albeit most may be in Diasporas).

The issue is that the people may not quite get the rulers they deserve but there must be a connection between the rulers and ruled. The dictators, even the jump-up sergeant who seizes power with the gun and rules by repression and whim, emerge from society. There is no loyalty to the state itself, let alone to development of the people. Wars occur not where life for the masses is intolerable but where there is competition for resources. Owning the state is the only true ambition of many African leaders.⁴⁵ Why all this? According to Ayinmode: "The answer is that blacks find it difficult to work as a group (emphasis mine). But it will be wrong to say they are incapable of working as a group. It is this individualism or intolerance for group cooperation and defence that is probably responsible for the break-up of Africans into incredibly large number of ethnic nationalities.

It is also probable that this same factor, as well, made and still makes Africans vulnerable to external forces of divide and rule. It may therefore also explain why they were (and still are) the ones most susceptible to external forces and oppression as suggested by historical and contemporary facts discussed already.⁴⁶ It is in the context of this absence of spirit of cooperation among the Africans that I highlight cooperation as a new missiological language in the continent (cf. Synod of Bishops for Africa 1994: 24-25). Unity in diversity and diversity as strength should form the bedrock of the new language learning for missiology in the African context.

The Role of African Theologians

Okonkwo, the hero in Chinua Achebe’s (1958) Things Fall Apart, laments: He has won our brother and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the thing that held us together, and we have fallen apart. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart describes a Pentecost kind of event in Igboland in particular, and Africa in general. This novel, though published many years ago is yet to be read and taught to African children with prophetic vision. In their Message at the 1994 Synod, the African bishops took hold of the vision in Things Fall Apart in these words: The culture which gave its identity to our people is in serious crisis. For the bishops, the way out of this crisis is for prophets to arise and speak in the name of the God of hope for a creation of a new identity. Africa has need of holy prophets (Synod of Bishops for Africa 1994: 15). In the light of this search for prophets in Africa, I propose the following as ways through which African theologians can make their own contribution for the reconstruction of their continent:

African theologians should take the lead in the process of re-education of their people. If the church championed education in Africa during the colonial era, it is now the turn of the African theologians and intellectuals to educate their people, using the available resources God has blessed them with. African theologians must prepare themselves not only for assignments in higher institutions such as the university or the diocesan chancery, but also for teaching