Christianity in Independent Africa

636 Pages·1978·40.679 MB·English

by  Edward W. Fasholé-Luke, Richard Gray, Adrian Hastings, Godwin Tasie

OR
I'ifoO
CH8
CHRISTIANITY IN
INDEPENDENT AFRICA
edited by
EDWARD FASHOLE-LUKE, RICHARD GRAY,
ADRIAN HASTINGS & GODWIN TASIE
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BLOOMINGTON & LONDON
SCHOOL OP THEOLOGY
AT CLAREMONT
Copyright © 1978 by Richard Gray
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, in¬
cluding photocopying and recording, or by any in¬
formation storage and retrieval system, without per¬
mission in writing from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses’ Resolution on
Permissions constitutes the only exception to this
prohibition.
Manufactured in Great Britain
Library of Congress catalog card number: 77-26351
ISBN 0-253-37506-1
Typesetting by Malvern Typesetting Services
Printed in Great Britain
Contents
Preface ix
PART I: RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR STRUCTURES
GODWIN TASIE and Introduction 3
RICHARD GRAY
R. ELLIOTT KENDALL The missionary factor in Africa 16
ADRIAN HASTINGS The ministry of the Catholic Church in 26
Africa, 1960-1975
HAROLD W. TURNER Patterns of ministry and structure with¬ 44
in Independent Churches
TOM TUMA Major changes and developments in 60
Christian leadership in Busoga Pro¬
vince, Uganda, 1960-1974
P. A. KALILOMBE The African local churches and the 79
world-wide Roman Catholic com¬
munion: modification of relationships,
as exemplified by Lilongwe diocese
AKIN OMOYAJOWO • The Aladura churches in Nigeria since 96
independence
KOFI A. OPOKU Changes within Christianity: the case 111
of the Musama Disco Christo Church
ANCILLA KUPALO African Sisters’ Congregations: reali¬ 122
ties of the present situation
MARJA-LIISA SWANTZ Church and the changing role of 136
women in Tanzania
FILOMINA CHIOMA The role of women in the churches in 151
STEADY Freetown, Sierra Leone
OGBU U. KALU Church unity and religious change in 164
Africa
A. E. AFIGBO The missions, the state and education 176
in South-Eastern Nigeria, 1956^1971
COLMAN M. COOKE Church, state and education: the East¬ 193
ern Nigeria experience, 1950-1967
A. F. WALLS Religion and the press in ‘the Enclave’ 207
in the Nigerian Civil War
JEAN MFOULOU The Catholic Church and Cameroun¬ 216
ian nationalism
NGINDU MUSHETE • Authenticity and Christianity in Zaire 228
IAN LINDEN The Roman Catholic Church in social 242
crisis: the case of Rwanda
MICHAEL TWADDLE Was the Democratic Party of Uganda 255
a purely confessional party?
JOHN LONSDALE, with The emerging pattern of Church and 267^
STANLEY BOOTH- State co-operation in Kenya
clibborn and
ANDREW HAKE
DAVID J. COOK Church and State in Zambia: the case 285
of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church
SHOLTO CROSS Independent churches and indepen¬ 304
dent states: Jehovah’s Witnesses in
East and Central Africa
L. O. SANNEH Modern education among Freetown 316
Muslims and the Christian stimulus
A. R. I. DOI Islam in Nigeria: changes since in¬ 334
dependence
PART 2: TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND
CHRISTIANITY: CONTINUITIES AND CONFLICTS
EDWARD FASHOLE-LUKE Introduction 357
DESMOND M. TUTU Whither African Theology? 364
SAMUEL G. KIBICHO The continuity of the African concep¬ 370^
tion of God into and through
Christianity: a Kikuyu case-study
CHRISTIAN R. GABA Man’s salvation: its nature and 389
meaning in African traditional religion
GABRIEL SETILOANE How the traditional world-view 402
persists in the Christianity of the
Sotho-Tswana
JOHN MARY WALIGGO Ganda traditional religion and 413
Catholicism in Buganda, 1948-1975
HUGH DINWIDDY Missions and missionaries as portrayed 426
by English-speaking writers of contem¬
porary African literature
J.D.Y.PEEL The Christianization of African 443
society: some possible models
SIMON BARRINGTON-WARD ‘The centre cannot hold . . Spirit 455
possession as redefinition
MICHAEL SINGLETON Spirits and ‘spiritual direction’: the 471
pastoral counselling of the possessed
TERENCE RANGER The churches, the1 nationalist state and 479
African religion
LAURENTI MAGES A Towards a theology of liberation for 503
Tanzania
SIDBE SEMPORE O.P. Conditions of theological service in 516
Africa: preliminary reflections
AYLWARD SHORTER Recent developments in African 531
Christian spirituality
BENGTSUNDKLER Worship and spirituality 545
A. K. H. WE1NRICH Western monasticism in independent 554
Africa
DIAKANUA NDOFUNSU • The role of prayer in the Kimbanguist 577
Church
P. ABEGA Liturgical adaptation 597
INDEX 617
APPENDIX Address by Professor E. A. Ayaudele 606
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 614
Abbreviations
AFER—African Ecclesiastical Review ESOCAM—Parti pour ("Evolution
AMEC—African Methodist Episcopal Sociale Camerounaise
Church FO—Force Ouvriere (Cameroun)
AMECEA—Association of Member FOCA—Faith and Order Conference
Episcopal Conferences of Eastern FRELIMO—Front for the Liberation
Africa of Mozambique
AMI—African Methodist ILO-jInternational Labour
Independent Church Organization, Geneva
ARC—African Reformed Church JMPR—Jeunesse du Mouvement
(Zambia) Populaire de la Revolution (Zaire)
ARC AM—Assemblee Representative KANU—Kenya African National
du Cameroun Union
BDC—Bloc Democratique KCA—Kikuyu Central Association
Camerounais KNCU—Kilimanjaro (Native) Co¬
C & S—Sacred Order of the Cherubim operative Union
and Seraphim
KY—Kabaka Yekka
CAC—Christ Apostolic Church MPLA—People’s Movement for the
CAFOD—Catholic Fund for Overseas Liberation of Angola
Development
MPR—Mouvement Populaire de la
CCAP—Church of Central Africa Revolution (Zaire)
Presbyterian
NAI—National Archives, Ibadan
CCN—Christian Council of Nigeria
NCCK—National Christian Council
CD A—Calabar Diocesan Archives of Kenya
CID—Criminal Investigation NCNC—National Council of Nigeria
Department and the Cameroons
CMS—Church Missionary Society NUT—Nigerian Union of Teachers
CPP—Convention People’s Party ODA—Onitsha Diocesan Archives
(Ghana) PA RMEHUTU—Parti du
CSM—Church of Scotland Mission Mouvement de VEmancipation Hutu
CSSp—Congregatio Sancti Spirit us, PCEA—Presbyterian Church of East
commonly Holy Ghost Fathers or Africa
Spiritans RCM—Roman Catholic Mission
CTC—Catechist Training Centre RDA—Rassemblement Democratique
CWCN—Catholic Welfare Africain
Conference of Nigeria SECAM—Symposium of the
CWME—Commission on World Episcopal Conferences of Africa and
Mission and Evangelism Madagascar
ECZ—Eglise du Christ au Zaire SES—South-Eastern State, Nigeria
EJCSK—Eglise de Jds us-Christ sur la SFIA—School Fees Insurance Agency
Terre par le Prophete Simon
SHCJ—Society of the Holy Child
Kim bangu
Jesus
ELCT—Evangelical Lutheran Church
SO—Stationery Office
of Tanzania
SPCK—Society for Promoting
ENCC—Eastern Nigerian Catholic
Christian Knowledge
Council
SPG—Society for the Propagation of (Zambia)
the Gospel UPC—Uganda Peoples Congress
TANU—Tanzania (orig. Tanganyika) UPC—Union des Populations du
African National Union Cameroun
TTC—Teacher Training College UPE—Universal Primary Education
UCZ—United Church of Zambia (Nigeria)
UDI—Unilateral Declaration of UPP—United Progressive Party
Independence (Rhodesia) (Zambia)
UISG—International Union of USCC—Union des Syndicats
Superior Generals Confederes du Cameroun
UNAR—Union Nationale R wanda ise WCC—World Council of Churches
UNA ZA—University Nationale du WF—White Fathers
Zaire WS—White Sisters
UNC—Uganda National Congress WTBTS—Watch Tower Bible and
UNESCO—United Nations Tract Society
Educational, Scientific and Cultural YCS—Young Christian Students
Organization
ZANU—Zimbabwe African National
UNIP—United Independence Party Union
Preface
As Tropical Africa approached independence, it was widely assumed
that, since most missionaries were at least partly identified with colonial
rule, the influence of Christianity throughout the continent would be
dramatically reduced. Was this a misconception, based on Eurocentric
conceptions which greatly exaggerated the role of foreign missionaries in
the development of the churches in Africa? Did political independence
prove to be a decisive watershed, and how have the churches been
evolving within the new political climate? What has been the wider
cultural significance, both for Africa and the world outside, of the
continuing interaction between Christianity and African Traditional
Religions? In what respects can developments within Islam in Africa
during this period illuminate the Christian experience?
With questions such as these in mind, a research programme has been
conducted for over two years at seminars and conferences in eight
university and ecumenical centres in Africa and in the universities of Los
Angeles and London. Besides these formal occasions, a wide range of
contacts was established in most African countries, and in the first week
of September 1975 nearly a hundred academics and churchmen met in
Nigeria at the Jos Campus of the University of Ibadan to review the
findings of this research. These encounters extended across the divisions
of academic disciplines, denominational allegiances, ideological
viewpoints and ethnic loyalties; together the series constituted an
experience and generated a variety of insights which it is impossible to
compress within the confines of a single volume. The contributions
printed here represent only a small selection of the papers, totalling more
than two hundred, presented and discussed during the course of the
research programme and at the Jos conference. We are acutely aware of
so much that has had to be omitted and of the debt which we and our
contributors owe to the other participants in the programme. We hope
however that this selection still offers an impression of the far reaching
political, social, intellectual and spiritual influences which have been
transforming the nature and role of Christianity in Africa during the last
two decades.
PREFACE
For financial assistance to the programme, we wish to record our
gratitude to The Leverhulme Trust Fund, The Lilly Endowment Inc.,
The SFIA Educational Trust, The British Council of Churches, The
Theological Education Fund, Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk,
and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
We wish to thank both Professor E. A. Ayandele, then the principal of
the Jos Campus of the University of Ibadan, for the invitation to hold
the international conference at Jos and for his opening address included
here in an appendix, and also all those whose work enabled the con¬
ference to take place. We remember particularly the encouragement
advice and help received from the Rt. Rev. Desmond Tutu, then Africa
director of The Theological Education Fund, and the Rev. J. Kerkhofs,
S.J. of Pro Mundi Vita. We would also like to thank Mrs Yvonne Brett
for her translations of the chapters by P. Abega, Diakanua Ndofunsu, J.
Mfoulou, Ngindu Mushete and S. Sempore; Dr G. S. P. Freeman-
Grenville for his generous and expert assistance in proof-reading, and
Mrs Jane Linden for compiling the index.
PART ONE
RELIGIOUS
AND
SECULAR STRUCTURES