Africans have often been portrayed as a religious people. As far as I know, no African professes publicly and systematically that she or he is an atheist.  In that context, the proliferation of Christian churches of various denominations suggests a phenomenon of religious renewal.

However, this phenomenon is interpreted differently.  Social scientists such as Professor Bourdillon of the University of Zimbabwe take a functionalist view that analyses how religion is used to channel social concerns and conflicts.  Other thinkers in the Marxist tradition are of the view that religion actually inhibits people’s ability to deal with real problems of life and consider it a drug that works as an anaesthetic.

Psychologists add their input by analysing how aspects of human experience, such as fear, self-interest, “existential insecurity”, emotional imbalance, or early childhood experiences contribute to religious beliefs and practices.  On the African continent eminent scholars such as John Mbiti have tried to compile various ideas of God. Brilliant   research  is  reposing  in libraries and has given rise to what is known as African theology.  Many Africans have acquired high quality academic credentials, including doctoral degrees, and are functioning as ministers of dynamic and prosperous Churches.

However, one may ask why, if Christians are the “salt of the earth”, the African continent is still experiencing the worst consequences of inhumanity through political violence, corruption, and so forth.

The identification of the God of Israel that Christians worship with the God(s) of African traditional religions is puzzling.  Its chief disadvantage, in my view, is that it limits the question of God to an academic exercise.  It leads to compiling and listing attributes of God in books that are stored in reputable libraries.  This is a noble achievement but the theories developed in universities may not have a direct link with the daily struggles of an ordinary African.

TRADITIONAL AND CHRISTIAN WAYS

Although immense ethnographic studies have been done, most of the studies are controversial and do not delineate to what extent the traditional ways of worship are compatible or incompatible with Christian ways.  Where open conflicts between the proponents of traditional revivalism and enthusiasts of modern fanaticism are avoided, syncretism (amalgamation of different religions) often occurs. 

My suggestion is that in either way it is still impossible to isolate the believer from the rest of society.  In other words, the separation of religious beliefs and practices from the rest of life is a self-deceptive enterprise that may result in mental disorder, such as schizophrenia (a mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, and withdrawal from reality into fantasy and delusion).  Although some modern Western societies claim to have succeeded in separating the sacred from the secular, for the ordinary African believer this separation is not possible.

Confronted with the challenges of the modern and post-colonial eras, the traditional opposition between the sacred and the secular is not only difficult, but  may  lead to a kind of religious artificiality.  In some instances, it actually makes religious beliefs irrelevant to other personal and social concerns, and may credit the Marxist idea that religion is a drug.

The position of a believer in the African context is indeed a complex phenomenon.  There are difficulties to integrate residual elements of a decaying traditional society with the intrusion of elements of a Western system that are sometimes confusingly combined with Christianity.  For instance, a head of state like the former Zambian President Frederic Chiluba can proclaim his country a “Christian” nation, and then live in an unstable marriage and finally be prosecuted for corruption.

The post-colonial context is itself a shaky ground.  In a situation where traditional practices such as witchcraft, fanatical tribal passions and polygamy stand side by side with euphoric Pentecostal preaching and miracle making, Hollywood movies and Internet surfing, the attitude of a believer is a complex “game” whose ins and outs are not easy to specify.

In my view, what the Cameroonian sociologist Achille Mbembe has noted about the ways Africans adapt to their changing political, social and economic contexts is also valid for religion.  In his view, colonization has opened African societies to the  structure  of  a  game  with its own norms, regularities, and models.  In the continuation of the colonial field, the post-colonial field has fostered the apparition of new modes of existence and made possible the appearance of new rules of codification different from ancestral codifications. New limits of the game have been set out. 

The players must learn how to frequent the new mechanisms and sites, where they learn to internalise the new rules of the game, which seem to change at every moment and in every place of daily life.  Many systems of reference are, therefore, available and the indigenous person seeks to use them at the appropriate place, time and situation.  This leads to an extraordinary complexification of the way Africans make mental constructions, and conceive socio-economic, political and cultural (and religious) realities.

FAITH OF CONVENIENCE

In this context there has emerged what I call a faith of convenience.  This faith of convenience is manifested in the gap between religious beliefs and the practices of piety on the one hand and the real life of the people on the other.  On the one hand, faith is confined to aspects of private morality such as sexuality, consumption of alcohol and smoking and a radical individualism in the quest for salvation manifested in the question “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal saviour?” 

This radical individualism disregards aspect of human experience and society such as harmonious relationships with the family and the fundamental need of a nurturing human community.  Some people buy into this radical individualism to such an extent that they interpret the consequences of their unsociable behaviour as a persecution for their faith.  In many cases, this radical individualism leads to isolation, fanaticism or even irresponsibility.  In the most extreme cases, it leads to confinement to small religious groups where behaviour is limited to some simple rituals that are regulated and controlled in ways that smother human freedom and creativity.

This situation can lead to collective madness that in the most dramatic cases is expressed in scenarios of collective suicide or other forms of abuse.  Even where the situation is not so dramatic, instances of women who go from prayer meeting to prayer meeting disregarding their responsibilities as mothers and wives do occur.  Other so-called Christians are so obsessed with eternal salvation that they do not seriously address real human needs such as food, shelter and the building of a prosperous and harmonious human society.

In other instances, the motives behind so-called religious commitment raise some doubts.  There is a rising generation of young preachers who wear very expensive clothes and drive luxurious cars.  This suggests a suspicious link between the calling to preaching and money making.  Although no systematic investigation has been done and no legal action has been taken, in many churches quarrels over the management of money received from Western churches occur often.

At times people perceive religious commitment as an indication of ascendancy on the ladder of social mobility.  This can create an arrogance that prejudices the call to love and service for Christ.  Sometimes politicians pressure churches to channel their political agenda.  (The case of Bishop Kunonga of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe illustrates this).  In some instances Church ministers do not hesitate to support oppressive regimes and claim that every power comes from God.

In cases where churches do raise a prophetic voice for the sake of justice, peace and reconciliation, they are quickly reminded that they should give to Ceasar what belongs to Ceasar and  to  God what belongs to God.

Bishop Monswengo of the Democratic Republic of Congo was once told in front of cameras by an angry politician: si la politique n’est pas ton metier fais-toi sacristain (If politics is not your job make yourself sacristan).

In volatile mixtures of ambition and misinterpretation, the churches have been associated with imperialist powers.  In Burundi in the 1980s the relationship between the Catholic Church and the government became so tense that many missionaries were expelled and many churches were closed. This phenomenon was given various interpretations.

Some thought that it was the President’s megalomania that pushed him to try to control the only alternative voice to his party regime.  Others thought that the name of the basic Christian communities (Sahwanya) coincided with that of an opposition party.  This was a sign that the church was fomenting rebellion.

Others took a tribal stance claiming that the trouble was due to the ethnic composition of the clergy which was majority Hutu, in the face of a government that, in addition of being dominated by the  Tutsi  minority,  was  trying  to suppress any reference to the mass killings of 1972 that the Hutu of Burundi perceived as genocide.  Other people thought that the Church was an alternative channel of social mobility for the Hutu who were discriminated against in schools, government and security services.

In neighbouring Rwanda, the Church was compromised by its suspicious link with the Habyarimana regime.  Many members of the clergy have been brought to trial to answer charges of participating in the 1994 genocide.  This state of affairs has created mistrust because many Rwandese people deplore the fact that ethnic identity seems to take precedence over Christian solidarity. 

It is an insult to God and humankind when Christians participate actively in violence and killings.  In less flagrant situations, wealthy members of the society sponsor lavish liturgical ceremonies and make large donations to the Church, but do not reflect on whether they are treating their workers and business partners fairly or contributing to the building of a more humane and just society. 

SOCIAL SIN

It is a social sin when Christians participate in networks and mechanism of discrimination, exploitation and corruption.  Further, the failure to uphold basic principles of private morality that emerge from time to time in sexual scandals or domestic violence must be exposed and investigated.  If they are needed, there are techniques for healing that have been developed by modern psychology that can deal with problems of identity confusion and social inadequacy that stem from unfortunate childhood experiences.

In many African countries the Catholic Church should be grateful for its situation.  It enjoys a numerical superiority that makes a powerful influence and has the most educated clergy.  Its structures of control have created systematic doctrines and sacramental practices and there is no room for improvisation.  Many people from the African intelligentsia acknowledge the fact that the Catholic Church has made a significant contribution in key sectors such as education and health services.

In the 1990s, it catalysed civil society in the struggle for democracy.  Many bishops led national conferences and some of them -- like Archbishop Christophe Munzihirwa, S.J., of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- paid with their lives in opposing the ambitions of their neighbouring countries.

However, at the same time, highly structured liturgical practices can promote a passive conformism that leads to a “magical sacramentalism” (i.e., a routine repetition of pious practices left by the missionaries without any reference to the challenges of the day).

DISCERNMENT OF THE SUPERNATURAL 

In some instances, the supernatural may intrude through such phenomena as Milingo’s (former Archbishop of Lusaka now in Rome) healing sessions or stories of apparitions of Mary or Jesus.  But these phenomena, new insights and personal charismata have been left to the discretion of individuals.  In such situations, the Church has lost an opportunity to venture into a serious investigation or develop a theological formulation that takes into account popular piety.

In other instances these phenomena have been dismissed as manifestations of a fetish mentality or fantasies of people at a primitive stage of cultural development.  While some clergy were busy purging the African church of aspects of traditional life that  they  thought idolatrous, they ignored the new idols of money, power and violence. Within the Catholic Church, for instance, management of power, wealth and knowledge has not always been equitable.

At times racism, tribalism and other forms of ethnocentrism among the clergy have been noted.  Sometimes racial or tribal identity has been a key factor in the choice of bishops or superiors in religious congregations.  In some instances, the mechanism of selection and admission of candidates was so obscure that some observers had the impression that family connections and other irrelevant considerations counted for more than serious discernment of religious vocation.

CONCLUSION

In my view, the mystery of God cannot be dissociated from the mystery of the human person.  Christianity and other forms of belief in God, if they are to survive on African soil, must fulfil the triple mission identified by the Cameroonian theologian Jean-Marc Ela.  That mission is rekindling hope, practicing faith, and at the same time liberating the human person.  Each person should be given the right to be different, although the grounds for solidarity and unity in diversity must also be nurtured.  Parishes must be schools of prayer.

People must be initiated to personal prayer and discernment taking into account what goes on inside and outside them.  Limiting worship to lavish (and sometimes noisy) liturgical celebrations may degenerate into simply a way of entertaining masses that cannot afford any other form of entertainment. Familiarity with the word of God and its relevance for our times must challenge the habit of postponing salvation until the afterlife.

The relevance of the mystery of a God who was, is, and is to come must be emphasized.  And since the Christian vocation is more a journey than a destination, Christianity must constantly redefine itself and witness to the mystery of the unconditional love of God. 

In fact, as Professor Nicholas Lash has noted, “What we call Christianity is supposed to be a kind of school the purpose of whose pedagogy is to foster the conditions in which dependence might be relearned as friendship; conditions in which the comprehensive   taming  of  chaos by loving order, of conflict by tranquillity, of discord by harmony, might be instantiated and proclaimed.  To use the Creed, to make its article one’s own, is, therefore, to be pledged in labour towards the kind of ‘heaven and earth’ in which our human work might be the finite form of God’s.”

 

 

Stanislas Bigirimana, S.J.
Arrupe College
Harare