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Spirituality of liberation:
A conversation with African religiosity
Author: The arrival of a salvationist, authoritative religiosity through Western Christianity in South
Vuyani S. Vellem1 Africa, in the company of a capitalist modernity, did not only dismantle and subvert the
African indigenous dispensation of religiosity. It also sought to destroy it completely and
Affiliation:
1
Department of Dogmatics arguably continues to do so in subtle forms in the 21st century, by attacking the imagination
and Christian Ethics, Faculty and consciousness of black Africans. This article argues that African religiosity as expressed
of Theology, University of in African Initiated Churches (AICs) is the site of the spirituality of liberation. Employing the
Pretoria, South Africa
notion of mokhukhu – a shack – the article places the sanity of black Africans, the spirituality of
Correspondence to: liberation, black African agency and consciousness within the narrative of African religiosity.
Vuyani Vellem It concludes by offering African religiosity as a resource for an alternative civilisation and an
important agenda in the current debates of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
Email:
vuyani.vellem@up.ac.za

Postal address: Introduction

Private Bag X20, Hatfield
0028, Pretoria, South Africa This article originated from an address presented by me at the University of Stellenbosch in 2013, at
a conference that was held under the auspices of the South African Missiological Society (SAMS).
Dates: The original title of the address was ‘Christian spiritualities of liberation and human dignity: A
Received: 03 June 2014
conversation with African religiosity (African Traditional Religions).’ I have reworked that paper
Accepted: 05 July 2014
Published: 20 Nov. 2014 and changed the title to its current form mainly to give it a focus on liberation spirituality and its
locus in African religiosity. The main argument of this article is that African religiosity is the site
How to cite this article: of liberation spirituality. For this reason, African religiosity does not require inclusion in Western
Vellem, V. S., 2014,
‘Spirituality of liberation: A frameworks but equal recognition as a value system amongst others. The article first presents
conversation with African an overview of liberation spirituality from the point of view of a struggle against a salvationist,
religiosity’, HTS Teologiese authoritative religiosity that was transplanted to South African soil. It highlights the resources
Studies/Theological Studies
of spirituality of African religiosity expressed through the African Independent Churches as a
70(1), Art. #2752, 7 pages.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ response to this salvationist, violent and subjugating form of Western religiosity. As a site of the
hts.v70i1.2752 spirituality of liberation it is argued that African religiosity offers resources for cultural liberation,
African history, black African agency and moral consciousness. African religiosity, the article
Copyright:
© 2014. The Authors. further argues, is a resource for an alternative civilisation in the context of empire1 and concludes
Licensee: AOSIS with a brief reflection on current debates in the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
OpenJournals. This work
is licensed under the
Creative Commons An overview of spirituality in African religiosity
Attribution License.
It is now common cause in theological circles that before the arrival of Western Christianity on
the African continent, there was a free dispensation of moral and ethical thought that shaped the
lives of the black African people. Black African encounters with Christianity essentially meant
an encounter with modernity. The modernist ethos not only disrupted the norms and values of
the life of black Africans, but also their spiritual dispensation. As a black Reformed Christian
in South Africa, it would be logical to include Reformed faith as part of this modernist ethos, at
least in as far as black Africans have experienced its transplantation as part of the missionary
enterprise and later as a distorted theological basis for apartheid in South Africa. It should be
conceded that Western Christianity, including Reformed faith, became a form of religion that
became authoritative and argued broadly for a salvation based on ‘true’ belief.

Western Christianity became an expansionist religion concomitant with modernity, but also with
terror as experienced by black Africans in South Africa. In this manner, Western Christianity
became part of the historical disruption of the moral and ethical dispensation of life amongst black
Africans. Some further explanation is probably necessary, but more importantly, this historical
Read online: perspective requires to be punctuated at this very point of our conversation as it forms the basis
Scan this QR of this overview. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (2009) conveys this as follows:
code with your
smart phone or 1.I use the notion of empire as shorthand for my social analysis, taking my cue from the numerous works that have been published since
mobile device the adoption of the Accra Confession in 2004. Cf. Koshny (2006), the entire volume is dedicated to the notion of empire. Also cf. Vellem
to read online. (2012).

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When Vasco da Gama set foot in Cape Town in 1498, it was with Western Christianity as an accomplice. She remains
part of the general period of what has come to be known as one of the remarkable examples of a religious leader, and
the European renaissance, the founding moment of capitalist in this case a woman, a seer and a prophetess who was
modernity and Western bourgeois ascendancy in the world. incarcerated by the colonial authorities for resisting to
It was also the beginning of the wanton destruction of many
submit to the psychic-cultural dominance of the West. She
city civilizations along the coast of Africa, Eastern Africa in
was not only incarcerated; in fact, she was committed to Fort
particular. (p. 52)
Beaufort mental hospital in 1924 and later to Weskoppies
Following the sentiments above, we identify this as an mental hospital in Pretoria.
important starting point of our overview of the spirituality of
African religiosity, the beginning of the destruction of African One of the things Nontetha promoted amongst black
civilisations to synchronise with the ascendancy of capitalist Africans was the unity of Amaqaba (the red-blanketed ones)
modernity and the expansion of Western Christianity. Within and Amagqhoboka (the educated ones). The division of the
this history, we should remember that the Reformed tradition, black African communities between those who accepted
upon its emergence, posed the question of salvation in a context Christianity and those who did not was also expressed
that provided a number of answers to this very question: the through the division of the land between ‘mission station’
context of Europe. It was a deep question of salvation in the sense and ‘mission field.’ Because of her commitment to unity,
that it asked how one person could live with people who are Nontetha was seen as a problem because the colonial regime
different and appeal to different sources of truth. The Reformed benefited from the division of black Africans and indeed
faith proposed its own authoritative doctrine of salvation. It was actually fuelled these feuds. She was declared mentally ill,
a form of a salvationist religion. Essentially, in other words, the insane! This because she led her people with the values and
arrival of the Reformed faith in the history of the West brought norms of salvation rooted in her own culture and African
about rivalry around the understanding of authoritative marks religious views. By way of illustration, in November 2012, in
or criteria of salvation. Students of the Reformation should a Roundtable of the Centre for Public Theology in Pretoria,
be familiar with the violence, upheaval and revolt associated Puleng Segalo, a psychologist, was not hesitant to predict
with this tradition. This rivalry of ‘authoritativeness’ and that according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM),
‘truthfulness’ around salvation is a contest that in the West anyone with diphaephae3 would be found to present symptoms
resulted in the liberal tradition and various forms of toleration of disorder − mental disorder surely.
in the ultimate recognition of a plurality of truth references,
ostensibly as they existed in the West. Whilst the DSM is a tool employed by psychologists to
diagnose mental disorders scientifically, this illustration
The success of the liberal tradition is probably true only in the shows that it might be inadequate once it crosses frontiers
West because the expansion of Western Christianity2 became into systems of knowledge that are foreign to Western
historically intolerant, authoritative and violent in other thought. In the history of the encounter between the West
parts of the world, especially in Africa and more particularly and Africa, Nontetha represents an embodied text of the
in South Africa. The propulsion of an authoritative diagnosis of black African spirituality as a form of mental
salvationist form of religiosity characterised with violence disorder by the powerful, ‘superior’ and arrogant West.
and intolerance constitutes the major point of contention in
this overview. It is simply unavoidable. To clarify how black A commentary from Max Stackhouse might help us grasp
Africans responded to this form of religiosity from the West this notion of diphaephae better. He says that traditional social
the concepts African religiosity and spirituality are used sciences have limitations as they often fail to fully grasp ‘that
synonymously. Anderson (2000:17) perceives the two terms we live in a world of vital, intelligible, spiritual forces that
‘spirituality’ and ‘religiosity’ to be more or less the same. were created to be obedient to divine laws …’ (Stackhouse
2004:185). Failure to grasp the existence of such powers
In the light of the foregoing background, it is important first arises from the fact that ‘they do not believe that we live in
to argue that African religiosity maintained the sanity of a world of vital, intelligible, spiritual forces that were created
the African soul within the underbelly of modernity. The to be obedient to divine laws as servants of divine purposes’
narrative of the AICs is an expression of this spirituality (Stackhouse 2004:185). Unfortunately, the realm of the spirits,
of sanity in the context of a political, economic, spatial and as part of the view through which the imagery of the cosmos is
cultural domination of a salvationist religion of the West formulated by black Africans, has become a constant casualty
ironically experienced as terror by black Africans. Nontetha and victim of the most powerful in the world.
Nkwenkwe is a quintessential epitome of the lived space of
insanity by black Africans under colonial and apartheid rule Arguably, the notion of mokhukhu could be helpful to capture
2.John de Gruchy in his work, Liberating reformed theology, argues that the problem in this deficient grasp of the reality of the spiritual forces that
South Africa was both Calvinism and Catholicism. One of the most important points
he makes is the parallel he draws between the Reformed tradition or Calvinism in are part of our created order (see Vellem 2013). A mokhukhu
the South and Roman Catholicism in Latin America (1991:10–13). More recently,
Chung, Duchrow and Nessan in their 2011 work, Liberating Lutheran theology, 3.Diphaephae is a Sesotho word that is used to describe an entranced person, a
particularly the section on Latin American liberation theology by Nessan, argue that person who is on a ‘high’ spiritually. In isiXhosa, the phrase that is used to describe
the Roman Catholic Church is clearly not innocent in the history of genocide in Latin this moment is: uphethwe ngu moya. It expresses a similar sentiment although it
America. This note therefore seeks to clarify that it is not only the Reformed faith specifically brings the idea of the spirit taking a person over. This phenomenon is not
that became tainted outside Europe, particularly in the era of the Europeanisation easy to describe, one has to witness it when it happens. This state, often rife among
of the world, but other traditions like Roman Catholicism too. traditional healers, is about a ‘flight’ into another realm to fight for life.

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is a shack in which people live, mostly in peri-urban South Africans are not like children, fixed for life from the first white
Africa. It is a structure associated with the ghetto. It is a impressions. Thus you do not have to deny the presence of
symbol of struggle for life in squalor and sordid conditions. Europeans in Africa to believe that African history abides by
It connotes psychosis in and amongst those who are living its internal logic, that African agency is authentic, that African
themes are original, and that an African outlook on life shapes
in the underside of history and it is fast becoming a habitat
people’s historical and moral consciousness. (p. 11)
for urban black South Africans. Indeed it is part of the
history of evictions, a tale of displacement and dumping of Mokhukhu is used here to aggregate the symbolic meaning of
black Africans at will for the pleasure of others in our land. AICs and African spirituality. Mokhukhu enacts the internal
Yet, it is also a symbol of the spirituality for a black African logic of African history, the agency of black Africans, their
person. One of the biggest churches in South Africa, the originality and moral consciousness.
Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is known for this. The same
word mokhukhu is used to capture the choreography and One cannot forget that missionaries purposed to dismantle
liturgical dance of the members of this church. When they the indigenous cultural dispensation of black Africans.
dance, they do mokhukhu! This phenomenon, mokhukhu, Furthermore, subverting the black African genius was one of
in Nigel Gibson’s (2011) description of life in the squalid their objectives: yet, as Lamin Sanneh has argued in his theory
informal settlement is tantamount to ‘living death.’ The of vernacularisation, the mother tongues in the translation of
point cannot be over-elaborated. When one looks at the the Bible paradoxically consigned primacy to black African
various dimensions of life symbolised by mokhukhu, one originality and agency and continue to undermine the
cannot but conclude that African religiosity provided sanity arguments that seek to present Western cultural dispensation
to black Africans in living death. as superior. Sanneh (2001) says:
Accordingly, in the language projects of modern missions,
African religiosity is the site of spirituality of liberation. It Europe confronted the native character of non-Western races
offers the methodological sources for the search of this in its irreducible profundity, in its core self-understanding,
spirituality of liberation in our South African context. By the rather than as space to be filled with European speech forms
close of the 20th century, after the distinct phases of African and habits only. (p. 17)
theology’s reflection on African religiosity, the AICs had The reality of the desire to dismantle the cultural dispensation
been linked to praxis and thus the tradition of liberation and of black Africans exists up to this very day. Although this
resistance. Maluleke (1997) argued: desire by the West was initially fraught with physical, violent
The basic proposal of many AIC ‘theologians’ is that the praxis terror by dismembering and excluding black Africans from
of these churches must now be regarded not only as the best the communion of the Homo sapiens, today, we argue,
illustration of African Christianity, but also as ‘enacted’, ‘oral’, this desire is more subtle and sophisticated, as Ngugi wa
or ‘narrative’ African theology—a type of theology which is no Thiong’o has indicated above.
less valid than African theologies, they would add. (p. 17)

The point intended here is that the sight and witness of The point that Ninian Koshny (2006) makes is important for
mokhukhu, is equally the sight and witness of an enacted, our consideration:
oral narrative of the sources for the spirituality of liberation. The shift in terminology from ‘dominance’ to ‘hegemony’ to
Indeed the sight and witness of this praxis, as Maluleke ‘empire’ is significant, above all, because it highlights the classic
(1997:18) further argued, must be viewed as ‘a “problem”, concept of direct political control by an imperial centre. It is a
“reflection”, or “failure” of “missionary work”’, ipso facto, a question of indefinite dominance. The rhetoric, concept, strategy
subversive statement and enactment of the narrative of life and policy of the empire camp are not new. The difference is that
against a dominating salvationist paradigm of the religion they are now in power. (p. 336)
of Western Christianity. We need to remember that the Ninian Koshny is discussing ‘empire’, a term used in the Accra
religiosity of Western Christianity equals cultural subjugation Confession, to define the character of the 21st century as a
of the black Africans who were colonised. Black theology convergence of military power, politics, economics and culture.
of liberation and its relationship with Black Consciousness
should be understood in this way, particularly the With these insights, he elaborates on the discourse of the global
psychosocial dimension of this school. Ngugi wa Thiong’o empire, particularly its distinct features, and in relation to the
(2009) says cultural domination is even more dangerous than spread of military power of the United States of America. The
political and economic subjugation: relevance of this quotation to our conversation is manifold.
[B]ecause it is more subtle and its effects long-lasting. Moreover, Obviously, one should concur with Koshny about the character
it can make a person who has lost his land, who feels the pangs of the 21st century, and there is no need to spend time on
of hunger, who carries flagellated flesh, look at those experiences this matter as it is widely discussed in theological circles
differently. (p. 57)
today. The poignancy of the sentiments above is nonetheless
As an expression of indigenous culture and spirituality, accentuated in the distinction we must make between the
mokhukhu is a spirit that refuses to be killed by the existential concepts of dominance, hegemony and empire. This is the
challenges and failures resulting from the subjugating and point that is envisaged in this conversation. The brutal force
death dealing form of the religiosity of Western Christianity. of domination that was used to dismantle the black African
Lamin Sanneh (2001) aptly says: dispensation shifted to hegemony which masquerades the

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initial bloodied and genocidal era of disruption to a more institutions do. When the underlying values of these
sophisticated dispensation in which a combination of all these symbols are not negotiated into the dominating values
strategies – mainly to maintain economic hegemony and, of the West, they simply remain a ploy. Incidentally, the
in fact, the control of the whole of life by empire – must be satisfaction that often becomes apparent on the part of
maintained.4 The desire to dismantle, or even to destroy, the those who perceive the inclusion of black African symbols
black African cultural dispensation is a problem we should either as concepts or terminologies in what is ‘mainstream’
not overlook but keep as a pervasive methodological question discourse has become a feature in post 1994 South Africa.
in the quest for a spirituality of liberation which is rooted in
the praxis of the AICs. This matter is discussed further when Inclusion might not be an easy thing, we could concede, but as
we look at the civilisation of the current order of the world a form of strategy to subvert the cultural dispensation of the
and African religiosity. African religiosity is therefore a site of
black African people it could be preferrable to the liberative
the spirituality of liberation in the context of a death dealing
content of this culture, or at least its equality amongst the
culture of the empire in the 21st century.
cultures of the world. Without any liberation, inclusion
could be deadly as it might simply imply assimilation and
What we need to remember at this point is that the onslaught
ultimately the death of consciousness. At its pioneering
against the indigenous dispensation of the black African
people entails the subversion of the ‘native’ as Sanneh stages, the black theology of liberation had this to say:
argued. In other words, where it cannot be destroyed and Any advice from whites to blacks on how to deal with white
dismantled it must be subverted. There are many examples oppression is automatically under suspicion as a clever advice
that could be given about this discourse of subversion in to further enslavement. Furthermore, it is white intellectual
South Africa.5 Arguably, the absence of the black African arrogance which assumes that it has a monopoly on intelligence
consciousness as a driving force for the transformation of and moral judgement. (Cone 1989:20)
our society after the demise of apartheid is one example. The discourse of inclusion does not only manifest itself in
This point should not be misconstrued to imply that black the vexing cosmetic use of black African symbols, but also
African consciousness should be a replacement of the often assumes in subtle ways that the selection of some of
dominant and the erroneous status of the superiority of these symbols for inclusion should affirm the intelligence
Western culture. Not at all! In the least, a commitment to the and moral judgement of the West. Cornel West (1979) is even
equality of all cultures could be the best thing to strive for. clearer with regard to inclusion:
Liberation would consist of including Black people within the
The co-opting of black African cultural symbols in a number
mainstream of liberal capitalist America. If this is the social
of spaces and places in South Africa today is an example
vision of Black theologians, they should drop the meretricious
of a continuum of subversive strategies that were used
and flamboyant term ‘liberation’ and adopt the more accurate
at the very first encounters between the West and Africa.
and sober word ‘inclusion’. (p. 556)
Some churches6 for example use black African concepts
or terminologies in their formal discourses. University The implication of the sentiments above is vivid. There is a
faculties7 use black African concepts or terminologies too substantive difference between ‘inclusion’ and ‘liberation.’
in the same manner as the political parties8 and government Black theology of liberation responds to the subversion
of the black African cultural dispensation by rejecting
4.Whilst South Africa attained its political liberation 20 years ago, its economic
policies have been trapped in the dictates of the Washington Consensus, and inclusion in favour of liberation which critiques the
poverty, inequality of unemployment have worsened since the demise of apartheid.
The South African economic structure of apartheid has not changed and most dynamics of the internal logic of superiority – the assumed
importantly, the government led by the African National Congress does not own
or even control the economy of this country. Whilst there seems to be no violent monopoly and intelligence of Western forms of knowledge
confrontation between the oppressed and the beneficiaries of the oppressive – from which black Africans must be liberated. Stated
regime of the past, it cannot be disputed that the hegemony of neoliberal economics
generally benefits the beneficiaries of apartheid. otherwise, Black Consciousness requires one to grasp the
5.First there is an important article that was written by Tinyiko Maluleke and Sarojini internal logic of Western superiority and debunk it. Then
Nadar (2004) which we interpret as a discussion of the intellectual subversion of
black African symbols. One equally potent work that sharply raises this point is Ivan rise above the falsely assumed inferiority of blacks: hence
Petrella’s (2004).
the affirmation of blackness and, ipso facto, the equality of
6.The Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa for example uses the word intelligent and moral forms of knowledge that are originally
taken from ChiChewa in Zambia, insaka, to designate group work discussion of its
assembly’s decision making processes. What is interesting is how out-sided this black African with any other forms of knowledge. This is
concept has become in the proceedings of the Council of the General Assembly.
Insaka group meetings take place when the assembly breaks into groups, often even the aspect we need to punctuate in our overview of black
outside the main venue of the assembly itself, barring logistics! At the centre of
the assembly discourse there is very little value of the black African palaver that African spirituality and religiosity. This discussion must
is integrated, worse in the denomination itself as the theological values that are take place in the context of a continuous desire to obliterate
assumed as core to the denomination are Western and white.
aspects of this cultural dispensation and the strategies
7.As a member of the Faculty of Theology in Pretoria, the use of the concept lekgotla
is equally fascinating. It is a Sesotho name for an equivalent of res publica. This is assumed to subvert, if not to dismantle and destroy, the
how deeply the word should be understood: sharing of power, re-making of the
community, dignity of the participants and so forth. Arguably, barring what some totality of the black African dispensation. As an alternative
might view as an expression of commitment to transformation, these meetings and
the faculty itself, have very little of the values that underlie the concept of lekgotla to the authoritative salvationist dispensation of Western
in its African import, let alone the epistemological implications of its use. religiosity, black theology of liberation identifies the death
8.The African National Congress has used the concept of imvuselelo for the revival of of consciousness as its starting point. This struggle against
its branches. This is even more intriguing as this concept is quintessentially liturgical
and thus spiritual in its black African roots. death is enacted in the praxis of the AICs.

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As the site of the spirituality for liberation, African religiosity The social development of Africa represents a fundamental
as expressed by AICs, mokhuku is not merely a quest for the aspect of the anthropological pauperisation of the African
inclusion of the African moral and ethical dispensation in the person. If we define pauperisation as the fact of becoming
Western salvationist hegemonic forms of religiosity, but a or making poor, namely being deprived of all that we have
acquired, all that we are and all that we do, we shall recognise
well of liberating resources for life and consciousness on its
that African is subjugated to structures which result in complete
own, and against extinction.
pauperisation: political, economic, and social. When it is not a
matter of being deprived of all that we own, but rather of all
Indeed, by the close of the 20th century, the project of that we are—our human identity, our social roots, our history,
indigenisation, epitomised in the notion of inculturation, had our culture, our dignity, our rights, our hopes, and our plans—
produced impeccable proponents such Lamin Sanneh and then the pauperisation becomes anthropological. It then affects
Bediako Kwame. Tinyiko Maluleke described the work of religious and cultural life at its very roots. (Dedji 2003:258)
these two scholars as translation theologies. He says: This statement was made in 1986 and no one can deny that
Elsewhere I have linked these theologies to the names of Lamin since 1989 and 1994 in South Africa, important changes
Sanneh and Kwame Bediako. This, however, must be taken to have taken place. One such change is the democratic wave
mean that Sanneh and Bediako present us with exactly the same that engulfed not only our continent, but also other parts
agenda. Both of them are important, innovative voices whose
of the globe. Yet anthropological pauperisation is still
thinking bears significant implications for African theology as
a relevant methodological category that should inform
the twentieth century draws to a close. (Maluleke 1997:19)
theological discourse on our continent. The discussion
The quotation taken from Sanneh: ‘[T]he logic of the about the rough sketch of the methodological development
translatability of the Christian message or gospel into African of African Christianity is that enculturation, liberation and
vernacular languages’ (Maluleke 1997:19), the translation of reconstruction – as hermeneutic procedures that have sought
Christianity into the mother tongue and thus the indigenous to understand the cultural-political reality of black African
cultural dispensation remains an anticipated subversive site people and thus African religiosity – is, paradoxically, also
of the struggle against the clamour of Western superiority equally about a tragic spirituality of African religiosity. At
in the interpretation of this faith. Indeed, vernacularisation root level, the discussion of African religiosity as indicated by
and translatability had become important variants of the this overview of the development of this trajectory is tragic.
inculturation methodology by the turn of the 20th century. In
South Africa, Desmond Tutu had already postulated that the It is an overview of a spirituality of woundedness: a site of
Bible that was used to take the land from black Africans had a spirituality that harnesses life in the resources of African
to be used to claim the very land back. Enculturation thus values and a refusal of the death of consciousness.
entailed translation and the struggle to claim back the space
– the land – that was stolen from black people. In our own African spirituality: A resource for
description of the developments in the contestation between
the West and Africa, black Africans had learned how to
an alternative civilisation
‘colonise’ for their own liberation the same instruments – As we have already argued, African religiosity is often
Christianity in particular – misused by the colonisers to more pragmatic and this-worldly than it is an esoteric
subjugate them. Valentin Dedji (2003) spells out the historical phenomenon, as is mostly found in some Western forms of
development of methodologies and paradigms of African Christian spirituality (Anderson 2000:17). Spirituality is the
Christian theology. What became enculturation, liberation soul of culture and embraces one’s whole religious experience
and reconstruction paradigms share a characteristic that – beliefs, convictions, patterns of thought and emotions –
Dedji (2003) describes in the following manner: about the ultimate understanding of the transcendent. It is
for this reason that we should avoid any dualities between
The task of the theologian, like the philosopher, is not just to interpret
spirituality and consciousness when we think about the black
reality but, as Marx reminds us with his theses of Feuerbach,
African imagery and religiosity. One is the other side of the
to change it. ‘Africanization,’ ‘liberation,’ and ‘reconstruction’
other. According to Jon Sobrino (1988), there is no spirituality
then can be described as hermeneutic procedures that seek
without life, so it is important to avoid making these artificial
both understanding of African cultural-political reality and the
interpretation of this reality in the light of the gospel of Jesus, so as dualities that are common in Western thought. What this
to bring about social and political transformation. (p. 262)
means for our conversation is ultimately important.

Clearly, methodology is important for anyone who is Firstly, any pondering of spirituality without considering the
alert to schemes that seek to dismantle and subvert the lives of the poor remains pie in the sky. Indeed, black Africans
cultural heritage of a black African person. Ultimately, believe that the whole of life is infiltrated by spirituality. This
the hermeneutical choice one makes must provide means that the African comprehensive view of life could be
guidance for a commitment to socio-political and economic regarded as the praxis of lex orandi, lex credenti. In this manner,
transformation. At the core of the methodological stages African life as a whole is prayer and believing. It is public
that have evolved in African theology is the notion of theology, so there are many assets of spirituality that easily
‘anthropological pauperisation’ which, as stated in the derive from this understanding. In line with our understanding
Ecumenical Association of Third Theologians’ (EATWO) of black theology of liberation, the struggles of the poor are a
assembly, is expressed in this manner: fountain of spirituality. According to Terry Eagleton (2009):

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The only authentic image of this violently loving God is a ‘cultural’ concerns it raises. Engaging Heleen Zorgdrager is a
tortured and executed political criminal, who dies in an act of subject for another article. The importance of her article arises
solidarity with what the Bible calls the anawim, meaning the from what the questions are, and indeed, what she asks about
destitute and dispossessed. (p. 23) Africa is even more fascinating: ‘I would be interested to hear
In this regard the poor are an image of the future in their very about possible models from Asian, African or Latin American
poverty. African religiosity offers a deeper meaning of the background. Are there more alternatives of negotiating the
mystery of the preferential option for the poor. local and the global in theology?’ (Zorgdrager 2011:168).

Secondly, against the challenges of life and indeed the threats It is not just an accident that amongst these questions of
of death that the 21st century displays, African religiosity debate and discord there are silent ones too. The responsibility
is an important asset for life-giving spirituality amidst the of the Reformed faith itself and its culpability in the
secularised eschatology of the global market. In this context, destruction of the African dispensation and the subversion
the spirituality resonant with African religiosity offers a basis of its internal logic must be constantly put on agenda. As
from which Christ’s Gospel could be ‘saved’ from the claws of Anderson (2000:17) aptly argues, divine revelation must
empire. The point in this section should be clear. Much as the be sought in the experience of Africa in relation to the
AICs and therefore African religiosity offers resources for the Reformed heritage as part of an expansionist, authoritative
spirituality of liberation for black Africans, the Gospel itself salvationist religiosity of the West. One of the topics the
requires to be salvaged from the ascendancy of a particular Reformed faith cannot avoid is what Rothney Tshaka (2011)
form of civilisation that has been obstinately portrayed as the has expressed as ‘notions of Africanness.’ As a confessional
only truthful mediation of life in the 21st century. form of faith, Tshaka poses an important question about
the embodiment of confessional faith in the Reformed
Reformed faith and tradition. Therefore, in these questions of debate and

African religiosity discord in the new Communion, there are deeper questions
that call for attention, one of which is African religiosity. It
It might be good for us to briefly map what the spirituality of might be important to make a remark about the problem
liberation implies for this heritage. Heleen Zorgdrager (2011) of particularity and universality specifically in relation to
is correct in referring to the variety of contextual expressions black theology of liberation. Theo Witvlei (1987) said:
of this heritage. She makes the following point:
We have seen that in its initial phase black theology tended
The Reformed tradition has always felt more comfortable more to be a survival theology than a real theology of liberation.
with theologies that start from diversity than with those that Granted, the term ‘survival’ here has absolutely no pejorative
find their point of departure in unity. The preferred model is connotations. Why should survival, in whatever form, not come
‘unity in diversity’ and not ‘diversity in unity’ in the polarity first for a people who has had to undergo so many traumas? Who
between the contextual and the universal the balance swings has the right to pass a negative judgment here? However, it is an
to the contextual, the particular. However, this caveat must unmistakable fact that the black struggle for survival has never
be borne in mind: Reformed churches have proven to be been without a wider vision, one extending to total liberation
champions of creedal doctrines and confessional documents, in a world without tears. From the beginning this inclusive
which they have tended to see as expressing transhistorical dimension was also present in black theology. Especially thanks to
and thus universal truth (p. 161) experiences in peripheral ecumenism this dimension has become
more visible. Black theology now moves in the field of tension
It is important to remember that the sentiments above come
between particularity and universality, kairos and context. (p. 243)
from a time when the two global former ecumenical bodies
of the Reformed faith came into union in 2010 in Grand The question of particularity and universality about black
Rapids. Heleen Zorgdrager is essentially reflecting on some theology of liberation was posed by Witvlei some 27 years ago.
of the recommendations that were proposed in the inaugural Notions such as ‘survival theology,’ ‘world without tears,’
assembly of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. ‘peripheral ecumenism’ and ‘kairos and context’ are fascinating
She aptly discusses what she designates ‘topics of debate and as they bring Witvlei closer to Zorgdrager’s reflections in 2011.
discord,’ and identifies women’s ordination, homosexuality, Tshaka (2011) also discusses the question of particularity in
and the theology of justice as some of these topics (Zorgdrager relation to confession and embodiment. We bring to the fore,
2011:161–163). as we conclude this conversation, the question of paradigm,
particularly what Edgar Engelbrecht (1987) argued:
Interestingly, she does not only identify these topics of debate The understanding of a rival system which is based on a radically
and discord, but actually makes her biases clear at the same different paradigm or the defence of the own system against a
time. She sees culture as one dominant element in the areas system based on a radically different paradigm, often involves
of women’s ordination and homosexuality and, indeed, even illegitimate prejudices. The illegitimacy of these prejudices becomes
in the debates and discords around the Accra Confession. clear when the criterion of scope is applied to them. A reductionist
In other words, she seems to imply that the interpretative scope is often indication of illegitimate prejudice. (p. 10)

exercise of the Accra Confession is mostly cultural and less What does the relationship between Reformed faith and
theological: hence it must be repudiated for its attempt African religiosity signify? Does it imply the ‘inclusion’ of
at universalising what should actually be the contextual the black African dispensation in its central tenets, or does it

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 Page 7 of 7 Original Research

signify the liberation of African religiosity within its tenets? Chung, P. & Duchrow, U., 2011, Liberating Lutheran theology: Freedom for justice in a
global context, Fortress, Minneapolis.
Put differently, one could pose the question as to whether
Dedji, V., 2003, Reconstruction and renewal in African Christian theology, Acton, Nairobi.
African religiosity is an embodiment of the Reformed faith De Gruchy, J., 1991, Liberating reformed theology: A South African contribution to an
liberated in South Africa, or not? No amount of prejudice will ecumenical debate, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.
disqualify African religiosity as an expression of the struggle Dickson, K.A., 1991, Uncompleted mission: Christianity and exclusivism, Orbis, Maryknoll.
for life, sanity and liberation against the perpetual desire to Eagleton, T., 2009, Reason, faith and revolution: Reflections on the God debate, Yale
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subvert, drain and destroy the historical memory of black Engelbrecht, E., 1987, The pattern of religion in the Black Theology of of James Cone,
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Christ, sola fide, is meaningful with African religiosity as its Koshny, N., 2006, ‘The global empire: An overview’, Reformed World 56(4), 335–354.
indispensable component, at least in South Africa. Maluleke, T.S., 1997, ‘Half a century of African Christian theologies: Elements of the
emerging agenda for the twenty-first century,’ Journal of Theology for Southern
Africa 99, 4–23.
Conclusion Maluleke, T. & Nadar, S., 2004, ‘Alien fraudsters in the white academy: Agency in
gendered colour,’ Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 120, 5−17.
We have presented an overview of African religiosity in this Ngugi wa Thiong’o, 2009, ‘Recovering our memory: South Africa in black imagination,’
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