SOUTH EASTERN KENYA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION HUMANITIES AND SOCIA SCIENCES

CPR 409

CHRISTIAN AFRICAN THEOLOGY

LECTURER: DR. JANE

GROUP MEMBERS

NAME REGISTRATION NUMBER

1. SHARON MAKENA

2. REGAN MULI

3. ANTHONY MUTUA

4. DOMINIC KYALO

5. JOSHUA MWANDIKWA

6.

QUESTION: DESCRIBE THE ORIGIN, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY IN AFRICA.

THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY IN AFRICA

very negative approach to African culture. In many cases they did not only reject elements

of culture that contradicted biblical principles alone, but African culture in totality. In

practice it meant that Africans, when becoming Christians, had to adhere to Western

culture as well. The whole process of acculturation was intensified by the effects of

colonial rule in Africa.

Western colonial rule and Western missions were experienced by many Africans as a form

of aggression which bereaved them from their cultural inheritance. No wonder that when

independence dawned for Africa in the sixties, a strong feeling of Black consciousness and

African nationalism originated. Among Christians, the search for more authentic African

expressions in practice and theology was stimulated. Many black theologians started to

reflect on the relationship between faith and culture, and the Independent Black Churches

as centres of inculturation, dramatically increased their membership numbers. Most

African theologians agree that a church can only be regarded as truly incarnated in Africa

if it has practices, doctrines and symbols comprehensible to African people.

Two main stages have been identified in the development of theological thoughts in

contemporary Africa. The first stage started with the debates on the theology of adaptation.

Some African theologians were inspired by Placide Tempels’ work on Bantu philosophy

(originally published in 1945). They began to seek for African philosophical categories to

aticulate a systematic way of presenting the Gospel to the Africans. The method was

influenced by the Scholastic theology.

The second stage began with anthropological approach. Things began to change with the

new discoveries and developments in social sciences in the early twentieth century. The

new scholarship in social sciences and its subsequent application to Christian missionary

activities opened up new prospects for missiological and theological reflection and

research.

People once considered uncivilized and uncultured were discovered, after careful study, tohave
complete cultural systems, religious beliefs and high moral standards. It was also realized that culture
had a much deeper influence on the person than was previously

thought. And that merely converting individuals and isolating them from their native

cultural milieu so as to protect their faith was a useless endeavour. Rather, what is required

is authentic conversion through a confrontation of the cultural milieu with Gospel values.

This new development in the appreciation of culture and its impact on the person,

introduced a further challenge in missiological reflection. This challenge initiated the

debate on missionary adaptation and the development of the theology of adaptation in then first half of
the twentieth century. Missionaries and theologians in the local churches of

Africa were not aloof to the debate. Their contribution to the debate gave rise to the birth

of what we call today African Theology.

Furthermore, inspired by the new development in social sciences, African theologians

began to use cultural categories to interpret the Christian message and to demonstrate that

Christianity is the true religion for the Africans. They also started to make ethical
judgement on the African situation on the basis of their Christian conviction. This methodbeing used is
referred to as functional analogy. The result of this approach is the two early trends of African theology.
The most recent result of this approach is the evaluation of the

two trends under the title, African theology of reconstruction.

The inculturation theology in this context is an attempt by the African Christians

themselves to interpret the Christian message and to provide models from their own

cultural heritage for an African reading of the mystery of Christ, the church, liturgy,

Christian morality, spirituality, and so forth. Rooted in the common faith in Jesus Christ,

his Gospel message, and in communion with all the local churches of the universal Church,

this theology is an attempt by the Africans to reflect on the Christian faith within their

situations.

The liberation theology is the effort of the theologians to make an ethical reflection on the

African situation as they relate the Christian message to the socio-cultural, political and

economical reality of the continent. Theology of reconstruction has come to challenge the

two early trends, inculturation and liberation, to be socially transformative oriented. This

forms the background for our understanding the path of development of theological

reflection in contemporary Africa.

The origin of this theological effort in the continent has been traced back to 1956 with the

publication of Des Pretres noirs s’interrogent (Black Priests question themselves). In that volume, a
group of young African theologians raised questions about how theology was

being done in Africa and whether or not things could be different, both theologizing in a

more genuinely African way and dealing with topics important to Africans. Since the time

that first call was made to develop a genuinely African Christian theology till today,

volumes have been written, conferences and symposia on the topic are held on regular

basis.

Today we have Pan-African Conference of Third World Theologians and a number of

studies and research on African theology. Besides, there are regional, national and local

associations of African theologians. But, in all, African authors operate within the broad

scope of the nature of the meeting of the Gospel message with the African culture and

reality.

Several factors have favoured the development of African theology. Apart from the

impacts of modern scholarship of social sciences and the experience of the African

churches themselves, the development in the political scene at the time had also a great

influence in stimulating theological reflections among African Christian scholars.

Beginning from the nineteenth century onwards, political and human rights activists’

movements such as ‘Pan-Negro’ that were at the base of this development started to rise.

These were activists’ movements calling for the recognition of the human dignity of the

Africans, who in the first place were the victims of the slave trade, followed by the racial

oppression and colonialism. Pioneer scholars and protagonists of these movements were of

African-American origin such as William E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), Edward W. Blyden

(1832-1912), Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) and George Padmore (1902-1959). Some of

them had founded Afro-American Unions or Movements committed in the campaign

against slavery.

Moreover, at the beginning of twentieth century many nationalist movements were

founded in Africa by African intellectuals many of whom were educated in Europe or

United States of America (USA). These were nationalists’ movements for the struggle for

political independence of Africa from the Western colonialism. The most famous among

them are: “Negritude” (in the Francophone Africa) and the “African Personality”

Movement (in the Anglophone Africa).

Famous leaders and founders of these nationalists’ movements include: Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906-
2001), Leo Gontran Damas (1912-1978), Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904-1966),
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), Kenneth Kaunda (1924-), Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) and

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta among others.

Apart from the struggle for political independence of Africa, these movements were also

concerned in the search for the rediscovery of the African cultural values. The movements

are known more for their defence of human dignity and African cultural identity. Other

source of inspiration for the development of African theology came from the experience of

pioneer African religious leaders such as Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1807-1891), African

theologians including African women theologians and African scholars.

In December 1977 at Accra (Ghana), a conference of African theologians was held that led

to the formation of the Ecumenical Association of African Theologians (EAAT) (a

member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). The

Accra Conference defined the perspective that gave birth to African theology. It was there

that African theologians appropriated the term “inculturation.” This conference brought

together, for the first time, Catholic and Protestant Francophone and Anglophone African

theologians. The conference placed the theme of ‘liberation’ in its theological agenda.

However, at the end, its new concept of theological unity came to be expressed in the term

“inculturation.”

In August 1986 at Yaounde (Cameroun), African women theologians gathered together

for the first time to deliberate on themes they considered important for the development of

African theology. The following themes were listed, among others: a) Woman and the

church, b) Woman and the Bible, c) Woman and Theology, d) Woman and Christology, e)

Woman and Struggle for liberation, and f) Woman and Spirituality. For the participants at

the Yaounde conference, the spiritual experience of life shows that God gives and reveals

himself in a way known to him alone to each human person, without discrimination.

Because of this, the African women theologians at the conference invited the church to
give the woman her right place, also within the ecclesial structures. According to the

women theologians, African anthropology considers the human being as bi-dimensional

man and woman, male and female; a man without a woman is not a complete person, but

simply a project; the same thing is of a woman without a man.

The human person complements one another: male and female God created us. All the structures:
political, economic, cultural or religious, are institutions at the base of which

there is complementarity of our being created, male and female by God. In this case, the

complementary nature of human beings, male and female, comes to be interpreted in

terms of its role and functions. When compared with the dominant discussion of the same

issue of equality between sexes in political spheres, the position of the African women

theologians looks a better approach to the debate. The women theologians contend that in

Africa, religion is a place in which women feel more as guardians of life, where they have

a unique role of interpreting. In addition, in some parts of Africa, the prophetic-priestly

role is a function that is typically for female folk. In this case, the sexual discrimination

evident in the Western Christian tradition is totally absent in African tradition.

From 1986 onwards, African women theologians have had other occasions of meeting

together, especially, under the auspices of the Circle of Concerned African Women

Theologians, which was started by Mercy Amba Oduyoye of Ghana. They have expressed themselves in
various meetings and congresses on the theme of African woman from the

perspective of culture and religion. Leading voices among the African women theologians

are: Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Bernadette Mbuy Beya, Anne Nasimiyu-Wasike, Teresa

Okure, Theresa Souga, Elizabeth Amoah, Luise Tappa, among others.

In general, African theologians - men and womenfolk altogether have participated in

various meetings of EATWOT, where they have had the opportunity to bring at the

international level, their project for African theology. In all, the emphasis is always about

the value of African cultural and religious heritage as well as the liberation of African
peoples from the present situation of injustice, poverty, oppression wars, discrimination

and the marginal position of the continent.