JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015

‘THE PAULS OF NORTH AND WEST AFRICA?’: A RE-READING OF THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE BERBER IN THE ISLAMISATION OF IFRIQIYA, MAGHREB AND THE WESTERN SUDAN IN THE LIGHT OF THE PAULINE MISSIOLOGY

DR. DUBE EDMORE*

*Lecturer, Dept. of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Mashava Campus, Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The study sought to explore the possible phenomenological compatibility between the Pauline and Berber missiological cycles. Using the phenomenological tenets developed by Edmund Husserl, and especially articulated by J. B. Kristensen, the paper found the missiological styles replete with similarities. Zealotry/Kharijism and jihadism (scholarly, military and spiritual strife) were clearly the lubricants of the two missions. The fundamental sources of the oiling concepts were Semitic and Berber traditionalism. Both Paul, the Jewish scholar-cleric, and the Berber Almoravids and ineslemen/zwaya took the same route through forced conversion to the most reliable sources of mission. Their kharijite jihadism allowed no obstacle to stay them off their call and divine commissioning. In that regard they swam through the tide of resistance and persecution unperturbed. To this end the Berbers are indeed ‘the Pauls of North and West Africa’ in relation to their like contribution to the said regions.

KEYWORDS: Berber, Itinerant Scholars, Jihad, Kharijism, Pauline Missiology, Zealotry

INTRODUCTION The paper proposes the Semitic egalitarian Kharijism as one of the docking factors between the Pauline and the Berber missiological cycles. Of interest are the natures of acceptance of the mission and the subsequent styles of propagation. The general tendency has been to view the propagations of the two Asian religions (Christianity and Islam) not only separately, but as diametrically opposed with a perpetual oil-water relationship. This research demystifies the study by demonstrating that the approaches utilized by the two were phenomenologically compatible.

Hypothesis There has been an unfathomable drive by both Muslims and Christians to create divisive polemics by ignoring available confidence building measures in the areas of nature and implantation methodology of the two Abrahamic religions.

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Research Methodology The Phenomenological Approach The efficacy of this approach lies in its concern with that which manifests itself (Allen, 1987, p. 273). The method embraces comparative aspects through its classification of different types of phenomena, though it eludes any precise definition, which Chitando (1998, p. 101) attributes to the various orientations of its adherents, who include historians of religion. It is Edmund Husserl who ties it down to basics by maintaining that it deals with descriptive accuracy, by employing epoche which refers to the bracketing out of pre-conceived ideas (Cox, 1996, p.19). All commitments accumulated a priori must be overcome in order to allow the phenomenon to speak for itself. Bettis (1969, p.1) concurs by asserting that epoche eliminates “abstract a priori standards of academic disciplines.” Thus J. B. Kristensen (cited by Bettis, 1969, p.49) insists that “there is no religious reality other than the faith of the believers” and therefore at the end of any research the researcher must always acknowledge that, “the believers were completely right.” This baffles Chitando (1998, p.109) due to shear ignorance of some believers, whose usual explanations are, “Things have always been so.” The principle of epoche is greatly aided by “performing empathetic interpolation” (Cox, 1992, p.38). This entails putting oneself in the believer’s place and describing the phenomena from within. The researcher walks a mile in the shoes of the believer, which according to Cox (1996, 19f) has the problem of conversion. Fear of conversion often causes the faint hearted to rely on memorized conclusions. The performance of eidetic vision (Sharpe, 1986, p.224) follows this stage of empathetic interpolation. Eidetic vision comes from eidos meaning ‘form,’ ‘idea,’ or ‘essence.’ According to Husserl, this vision accounts for the observer’s ability to deduce the real essence of the phenomena independent of preconceptions, or popular declarations. Accordingly, one’s conclusion must always be based on the phenomena and the believers’ understanding of it. This commitment to objectivity is handy in this study of two rival religions.

The Pauline Framework: Activities before conversion Before his conversion Paul (then Saul) was zealous for the Jewish Law and was an unstoppable luminary in that regard. He had an excessive tendency towards the Jewish purity code, which was maintained through great purges leveled against any pluralist innuendoes by anyone of the Abraham-Isaac descent and his accomplices (c.f. Elijah, I Kings 1819, 39f; Jehu

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& Rechabites, 2 Kings 1015ff). He had received one of the best Pharisaic rabbinic instructions under the reputable Gamaliel. As any Pharisee he had zeal for the Law of Moses and the traditions of the elders, both literary and oral. Of particular importance were the Pharisaic extra-legal beliefs in resurrection and angels (Campbell, p.156); features also peculiar to Christianity. These beliefs set them in a collision course with the aristocratic Sadducees who held the civil and spiritual reigns of the Jewish nation (J.J. Coutts, p.20). Despite their lean representational numbers in relation to the Sadducees, the Pharisees held their own in ‘the government of national unity’ (Sanhedrin) in which they were a junior partner to the Sadducees. Gamaliel, Paul’s mentor, prevailed in the Sanhedrin case against Peter and John, in which the majority opinion was for drawing the blood of the two apostles who resisted any form of restraint in calling upon the name of Jesus as Christ (Acts 533ff). Such a rabbinic tenacity and intellectual acumen were the legacy that Paul inherited and utilized to the full. When we meet him first, his chauvinistic patriotism exudes itself in his commandeering position in the jambanja (lynching) in which Stephen is stoned to death. Luke the evangelist and Paul’s intimate friend writes: “Then they cast him (Stephen) out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 758 RSV). Casting him “out of the city” for stoning was in line with the prescribed practice (Numbers 1535f). But “their violent reaction suggests a lynching rather than a juridical verdict, sentence or execution” which was supposed to be carried out by the “witnesses” (Lampe, 1962, p.896). The laying of the clothes at the feet of Saul defined his leading role in the deed, meaning that he stood-by, giving an authoritative supervision to the event, while the actors approved his position by reposting their regalia at his “feet.” Richard J. Dillon (1968, p.742) notes the “supernumerary presence of Paul,” while G. W. H. Lampe (1962, p.896) concedes that “Saul was apparently present as a prominent onlooker.” His complicity and seething anger are succinctly captured in the statement: “And Saul was consenting to his death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles…But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 81 RSV). Even if we buy Dillon’s (1968, p.742) argument that it is not credit-worthy that the Stephen- Saul nexus was pre-Lucan but rather a literary construction meant to place the Gentile mission hero at the preamble of the mission’s outward movement from Jerusalem, Paul’s own

299 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 testimony to the persecution (I Cor 15.9, Gal 1.13f, 23, Phil 3.6) lends credence to the same story. This of course does not escape Dillon’s (1968, p.744) notice. Paul’s anger does not easily dissipate for we hear in the opening verse of chapter nine that “Saul, still breathing threats and murder…went to the High Priest and asked for letters (summons)” (RSV) to repatriate the escapees to Damascus by force. Scholars like Dillon (1968, p.744) who doubt the efficacy of the High Priest’s Diasporan authority do little to alter Paul’s difficult character. This intransigency is only destroyed in a personal hierophant at the precincts of Damascus, in which Paul is not persuaded but compelled to repent. The strength of the force is noticed in the consequences: he is struck by light, falls down, is blinded and helplessly accepts assistance of those he had led to take him into the city. There in the city he experienced divine mercy at the hands of Ananias, the ‘faith healer.’ On regaining his sight, he finds his position refracted through 180o making him ironically what he had been fighting. The experience takes away nothing from his former vibrant self, except switching his old friends for enemies and his erstwhile enemies for friends. Sardonic readers may detect treachery in his character: requesting certification from the High Priest enabling him to cross the ‘battle line’ in order to elope with the enemy and become there ever after his most prudent guide. The Damascus Jews were not amused by his action and naturally plotted to hand him the highest prize due to a Jew who reneged on his puritanical duties; death. It is not farfetched to say that his Pharisaic background helped him appreciate the vision and the audition of the risen Christ. This would have been difficult for the Saddusaic Jew who neither believed in resurrection nor regarded angels to appropriate the implications of the divine theophany. His new mandate which takes him to great heights represents Christ’s ability to stalk the best amongst his fellow Jews. He called those who already had the hunting tenacity as represented by Saul the ‘purging puritan,’ the fishermen, the zealot and the tax collector; those who went all out to meet their set targets.

The Pauline Framework: Conversion Aftermath Paul had to fight throughout his missionary life for his acceptance as a fully fledged autonomous apostle. He rejected dependence on “those who were of repute” and ministers of the word (Galatians 22). The straightforward criteria for attaining apostleship are laid down in Acts 121ff; in the story pertinent to the replacement of Judas Iscariot. These encompassed those who were with Jesus from the baptism of John and were witnesses to his death,

300 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 resurrection and ascension. Paul was none of these; but claimed a privileged post-resurrection call to which he was the sole witness. His controversial personality presents itself in his kharijite (fundamentalist) character which puts him into trouble both physiologically and intellectually. At Derbe he was stoned unconscious (Acts 1419). Barnabas his polished companion remained unharmed, and is even mistaken for a superior god due to the serenity of his poise. On the contrary Paul stirred insurrection-ridden controversies in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium and Lystra. It is needless to mention that in Thessalonica and Beroa he had to be hurried off leaving Timothy and Silas to tie up the loose ends of their mission there (Acts 1714f). Finally he is deserted by all except Luke (2 Timothy 410ff). Originally when John Mark and Barnabas left him it appeared they were both at fault; but we should never forget that Acts of the Apostles being a product of Luke, Paul’s best friend, tended to be apologetic towards his actions and polemic in respect of his critics. His intellectual jihad (strife) against both Jews and Gentiles had the immediate result of smearing a rotten egg in his face, though this eventually became his enduring legacy to date. The Athenian philosophers called him a babbler (Acts 1718), and dismissed him for lack of logic. The Jews could not forgive him for teaching against the Law of Moses in his famous theme of ‘justification by faith.’ This new teaching was hurting in the sense that for him Abraham was the abstract father of all the faithful while for the Jews he was the blood father of the Chosen race (Galatians 36ff; Romans 41ff). Paul ate and fraternized with the uncircumcised. It was criminal to willfully fraternize with Gentiles, and let alone bringing the uncircumcised Gentile Titus into the Temple to test his justification by faith hypothesis. Without the Mosaic code of conduct the Jews ceased to be a set apart race; the very locus of Jewish existence. Paul’s persuaded attempt to re-graft himself into the Mosaic code fails to pay dividends (Acts 2123ff). He is arrested over the same code and defilement of the Temple by bringing in Gentiles (Acts 2127ff). His scholarly interpretation of the Gentile religious phenomena was contra orthodoxy. In I Corinthians he advised against the efficacy of the idols to which food was sacrificed. He said that idols were not living beings and therefore people should not mind meat offered to them (I Corinthians 84). His contemporaries on the other hand believed that there was life in the idols. This is why their forefathers molded a calf at Sinai (Exodus 324-6) and placed metal bulls at Bethel and Dan (I Kings 1228f). This perception of seeing no life in idols also interfered with local Gentile traditions too. At Ephesus it caused a big uproar in support of Artemis believed

301 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 to be alive in metal images (Acts 1923ff). In other words the gods behind the idols “are not ontically nothing; but …are powerless powers” (Jurgen Becker, 1993, p.42 cf I Corinthians 84f; 1018-22). It is worth noting that Paul falls into the category of trading itinerant scholars. He was a tent- maker who collaborated with those of like trade. At Ephesus he worked with Aquila and Priscilla who were of a similar trade (Act 182f). He shared the proceeds of his labor with some of the new converts and encouraged that those who did not want to work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 310). He combined trade with intellectual evangelism. He ‘lectured’ first in the synagogue as a matter of priority. When he was chucked out he resorted to halls of learning and open theatres. At Ephesus he ‘lectured’ in the Hall of Tyrannus (Acts 199) and at Athens in the open air theatre (the Areopagus, Acts 1722). He moved from city to city making Christianity a city religion. To the end of his life Paul does not deny his zealotry (kharijism) (Acts 223). He remains dissentious (Acts 236): Noticing the composition of the Sanhedrin on the day of his trial, he manipulates the situation by declaring: “Brethren, I am a Pharisee…” This is done in order to earn the sympathy of the Pharisees and postpone the determination of his case. He understood well the consequences of inclusive innovation in the Jewish exclusive paradigm. He had meted the consequences on “the Way” himself before conversion (Acts 81ff).

The Dialogic nature of Paul’s Mission Paul should however be credited for introducing the ‘inclusive model.’ He is dialogic or accommodative in his approach. He makes no secret of his amphibian nature by declaring that he is like a Jew to Jews and like a Roman to the Romans for the sake of winning their conversion. His message is therefore highly acculturated. In other words we can safely say that the Christianization of Romans was paralleled by the Latinization of Christianity, while the Christianization of Greeks was equally paralleled by the Hellenization of Christianity. In I Corinthians 7 he accommodates intermarriages and in Galatians he accepts communion with the Gentiles even in the face of stiff opposition from his compatriots Peter and Barnabas; spurning pleas from the Judaizers sent by James the executive head of the Church. His suspension of the Law of Moses was meant to accommodate those who were reviled and excluded by it.

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His acceptance of food offered to idols, culturally helped Corinthians cope with traditional requirements and avoided alienation. He also accepted their traditional dress code and gender roles. For that reason women should cover their heads and remain silent in public, a Corinthian cultural trait which is now often used out of context in modern churches. For Paul such actions were integrative although now they are used as forms of gender based violence since they are being used on people who do not recognize them as cultural norms. In his arbitration to church disputes he re-grounded believers back into their culture from where they could genuinely accept Christ. Paul summoned the Athenians to accept the message of the same God they had all along termed “unknown” (Acts 1723). In this manner the new converts remained anchored in the known and slowly moved towards the abstract. What initially changes here is the nomenclature. In his inclusive drive he called upon local people to take up leadership roles and move forward the work of God. Being local, they remained sensitive to the local norms (Acts 1423). But “when Europeans and Arabs arrived in Africa as missionaries, the Christian missionaries added the image of the triune God to African traditional deities, while the Muslims added the image of a fierce and exclusive monotheism” (Shyllon, 2003, p.11). Contrary to this view, Paul asked trusted local men to accompany him on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the alms for the poor saints (Act 204). He saw the temple as the gate for salvation for both the circumcised and the uncircumcised represented by Titus. His attitude was enhanced by the fact that he was hosted by local people, like Lydia (Acts 1615), during his Gentile mission. He therefore understood them empathetically. Braybrook (Joel Beversluis, 2000, pp26-32) noted that living together and sharing existential problems is the beginning of dialogue. Ignoring the Pauline model in Africa has resulted in the growth of new religious movements posing challenges for Islam, Christianity and African Traditional Religions “by crossing the divide between the traditional religion on the one hand and the new technological modern Christian and Muslim complex on the other hand” (Shyllon, 2003, p.12). This problem resulted from the fact that Europeans felt that the Africans had no culture and had to provided with one. John S. Mbiti (2003, p.139) is critical of these modern trends which down-play the role of tribal religions. Despite the world becoming a global village, “discussions about globalization have taken shape essentially in Christian and Western secular circles and not in those of tribal religions” (Mbiti 2003, p.139). He hazards some questions: “Are tribal peoples being globalised together with, or in spite of, or entirely without their religions? Globalization

303 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 means a new world, a largely foreign world for tribal peoples. How can they continue to bellow in such a strange land as this global scene?” (Mbiti 2003, p.140) The call here is for meaningful interaction with the local dispensation in order for the outcome to be relevant to both parties. Ezra Chitando (2003, p.117) notes with great relish that, with the Second Vatican Council localization of the church started in earnest and “terms like contextualization and acculturation gained currency as the church sought to make faith meaningful to the adherents.” That was like a new discovery of the Pauline pastoral theology.

The Pauline Framework: the Berbers before conversion The Berbers are the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The term ‘Berber’ comes from the Latin word “barbari” (Gk Babaroi) literally meaning foreigners but formally meaning barbarians. The Romans referred to non-Latin speaking Africans as barbarous (Phillip K. Hitti, 1970, p.214). The indigenous North Africans were anti-civil members of the Byzantine province of Ifriqiya and therefore ‘Berbers.’ They regarded the Romans and their garrisons as foreigners and desisted from cooperating with them. As the garrisons were restricted to towns and cities, so was Christianity which only thrived where the foreigners thrived; in the cities. While the foreign functionaries took security in their created urban centres, the Berbers remained on the mountains, in the rural areas and the inhospitable desert. Because of this lack of engagement, the Berbers remained traditional and chauvinistically patriotic. They defended their local traditions against any infiltration by foreign cultures. Their modus operand was non engagement, chauvinistic patriotism, treachery and fundamentalism. First they refused to be Christianized despite North Africa being a reputable old Christian stronghold; the home to Tertullian, St Cyprian and St Ignatius the princes among early Christian Fathers (Phillip K. Hitti,1970, p.214). To achieve that, they remained in the rural areas where tradition reined supreme (Mervyn Hiskett, 1984, p.3). Their nationalism is further espoused in the manner in which they resisted Arab colonialism. They made an agreement with Aqbah the Arab conqueror of North Africa to fight the Christian Byzantines, who were a common enemy to both. When Aqbah made lightening progress towards the sea he became too excited. On getting to the Mediterranean he is quoted as having said, “My God, I call you to witness that if my advance were not stopped by the sea I would go still further” (Francesco Gabrieli,1968, p.182). He then imprudently thinned security around him, a fatal move that his compatriots regretted afterwards. Kusaila, the

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Berber leader, seized upon the opportunity to play the treacherous lip friend. He revolted and cut the Aqbah group in the rear sealing off its retreating line. In the process the Arab luminary lost his life. With the death of Aqbah, the revolt gained momentum and the Arabs were expelled from the Berber lands. Once again the Berbers were on their own, practicing their traditions to the best of their knowledge. Independence was a catch word for them. After the death of Kusaila, Kahina the Berber prophetess carried on the traditional flame for the next twenty years routing the Arab colonists at every turn. To deal with the Berber intransigency Bedouin Arab mercenaries were hired. But unfortunately for these marauding Arabs, they brought with them an egalitarian Kharijism which the Berbers received with two hands. Egalitarianism for the Berbers meant the negation of colonialism, which meant that when the Berbers finally accepted Islam a century later, they preferred it without Arab rule. For a short period of time they accepted the Shiite Arab Fatimid dynasty which they helped entrench itself in Ifriqiya, but when the Fatimid confidence in them grew misfortune struck. The Fatimids decided to change their capital from Ifriqiya to Egypt, leaving the Berbers in charge of their Western half of the empire. The Berbers revolted, in the process changing their Shiite Islamic affiliation to the Sunni of the Maliki school of Qayrawan. Here their treachery reached its peak. To avoid serious reprisals, they accepted strict Islam, but maintained their negation of foreign over lordship. In this they were true Pauls who refused to take instructions from anyone, not even “from those who were of repute.” They defended their sovereignty without footnoting. But true to the Pauline anti- climax they finally succumbed to a superior force, Allah’s rod of conversion.

The Pauline Framework: the Berbers after conversion After conversion the Berbers turned their backs on tradition and became fundamentalist Muslims. They advanced both military and intellectual jihad. It would not be farfetched to say that ‘without the Berbers West African communities would have been sparred of jihads,’ both military and intellectual. Their major launching pads were Qayrawan in Tunisia and Fez in Morocco. First they studied Arabic and Islamic theology. Having done that there emerged a tendency towards monastic ribat / zawiya in which Almoravids (Murabits) were trained. The Almoravids were a religious militant brotherhood established in the eleventh century in the lower Senegal. A ribat (monastery) on an island in the lower Senegal started with a thousand Sanhaja Touareg monks who on graduation went out with great enthusiasm. They forced tribe after tribe to accept Islam by the sword, including some Negroid tribes of the

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Sudan and were in a short period of time, masters of North Africa and Spain (Phillip K. Hitti, 1970, p.541). The Almoravids are credited with sweeping through northern Ghana and establishing the city of Awdaghost. In the true Pauline spirit they wanted to supplant, modify or infuse all local beliefs with Islam; the perfection and/or successor of the erstwhile local religions. The intellectual jihad tended to take the lead in livening up for military jihads. Hajj tended to glorify intellectualism as a purifying factor. When one Berber chief, Yahiya ibn Ibrahim went on a pilgrimage in 1045 he was convinced that the type of Islam that they practiced at home needed a great intellectual purification. For that reason on his way back (1048) he passed through Qayrawan requesting for a scholar to help his people in that regard. He was given Abdullah ibn Yassin who had great passion for reform (Adu Boahen et al, 1986, p.12). The reformation that followed in the area of Awdaghost was in the true spirit of the Almoravids. In this case scholarship was a clear flagship for military jihad. True to the Pauline model, intellectualism was the precursor to insurrection, courting the ire for military involvement. Phillip K. Hitti (1970, p.541) notes that the Almoravids created two fundamentalist extremes: militant jihadists and the intellectual mystic jihadists called ineslemen / zwaya. The ineslemen were pacifists who loved peace-building through astute mediation in the true nomadic spirit. These scholars moved from place to place lecturing in established or make shift schools in temporary trading centres (zongos). They trained local evangelists to broadcast on the word of God among their own people (Adu Boahen, 1986, p.12). Such local students could deepen their knowledge by moving from rabbi to rabbi, since individual scholars specialized in particular areas. Such militant jihadists like Usuman dan Fodio were tutored by such itinerant scholars (Adu Boahen, 1986, p.46). Quite a number of these scholars had trade as their primary concern. It is interesting to note that trade gave rise to urban centres, which then gave rise to universities. Scholarship grew in such Berber cities as Tedmakkat, Jenne, Walata and Timbuktu. The scholars were vitriol critics of kings in the western Sudan. From time to time the scholars were hired by kings to initiate reforms. Of this class of scholarship Abd al-Rahman al Maghil stands out prominent (Adu Boahen, 1986, p.13). But it was not always rosy for the scholars. Sometimes their aristocratic criticism was unwelcome and they were persecuted. Some Berbers served the city as government officials, scribes and any position requiring literacy in the interest of the state. A number of Muslims even became ministers alongside their non Muslim counterparts (Mervyn Hiskett, 1984, p.22). In that they became like

306 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 statesmen to the politicians to win the aristocracy for God. Kings valued Muslims for their skills in divination, dream interpretation, faith healing and prayer. Muslim officials were exempted from ritual prostration before the king. In the Pauline Semitic model no human being was allowed to prostrate before another even in the face of awesome signs (Acts 1415). In Mali, as in ancient Ghana, rulers, townspeople and the intelligentsia who interacted with the Berbers as traders, government officials and scholar-clerics were the first to convert to Islam. As a result Islam was the religion of the elite and the powerful. Like Paul, the Berbers made a greater impact in the cities where uprooted people were looking for a common unifying denominator, outside the inhibiting traditional hand. Though Sonni Ali of Songhai extended his borders by wrestling the city of Timbuktu from the Touareg Berbers (Mervyn Hiskett, 1984, pp.33f), it is clear that he was a nominal Muslim. The Sunni ulama of Gao, Walata, Timbuktu and Tedmakkat branded him an impious traditional king who mocked Islam at the expense of ancestral worship. He reacted by persecuting them. To ease pressure on him, Muhammad Ture, his successor, sought the assistance of the Sanhaja Berbers with respect to the purification of Islam.

Nature of conversion In the typical Semitic call and commissioning God could appear in a divine theophany before the selected individual who had no way of escaping from duty. This is true of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Muhammad. God could also make use of the human rod to bring people into the fold as he did with the Assyrians and Babylonians. Phenomenologically the former approach suits Paul while the later suits the Berbers. Both Paul and the Berbers made frantic efforts to avoid the new way without success. Both committed murder to avoid conversion or flourishing of the new way. Paul persecuted the people of ‘the Way’ and finally fell to the divine theophany at the gates of Damascus. The Berbers killed Aqbah and his entourage, losing 50 000 of their fellow tribesmen during a century of resistance but finally fell for the egalitarian Kharijism. From this time on the Arabs used “them as fresh relays in the race toward further conquests” (Phillip K. Hitti, 1970, p.214).

The new person After conversion both Paul and the Berbers became the backbones of evangelism, carrying out several robust missionary journeys. They both made use of intellectual jihads. In that regard they brushed shoulders with authorities from time to time. The problem was that the

307 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 intellectual jihads tended to challenge the status quo and sometimes disturbed peace. Egalitarianism was particularly a challenge to stratified societies and a dangerous ferment for the lower classes. It was a time bomb among the Fulani and Dyula communities of Nigeria; a rapturous dynamite in the Jewish-Gentile relations. In ancient Nigeria it caused tempestuous revolutions and the rulers did not look kindly on those who propagated the new egalitarian faith. For his part, Paul was several times brought before proconsuls and procurators though he was more often than not discharged without any fine.

Methods/nature of propagation 1. Zealotry/Kharijism Zealotry was a major factor in the overall framework of the Pauline-Berber evangelization. Paul stresses that he was zealous for the law before conversion and lived solely for the lord after conversion. The foregoing has demonstrated that he caused several uproars during his work, some of which nearly cost him his life. The Berbers were particularly fundamentalists, who as Almoravids left no stone unturned. While Paul lost political support with conversion, in the Maghreb, the Berbers actually enhanced their fundamentalism with a political clout following their conversion. But in the cities of the Sudan they were as prone to persecution as Paul was in the Greek and Roman cities, in respect of their criticism of the establishment using their nontraditional standards. As we have seen; in the time of Sonni Ali the ulama (Berber scholars) of Walata and Tedmakkat opposed him, and he reacted by persecuting them. Zealotry knows no persecution and shies away from none; pitying Paul and the Berbers against authorities without ceasefire. That intransigency emanated from the conviction of true divine call and proper scholarly interpretation of divine will.

2. Missionary journeys Paul carried out three missionary journeys according to Acts of the Apostles. Al Maghil and Yassin are among the most prominent Berbers who went on missionary journeys which changed the faces of the communities that hosted them. According to Adu Boahen (1986, p.12) “Many of them (Berber scholars) went on lecture/or missionary tours to convert people, while others became advisors to Sudanese kings on how to become effective rulers.” Berbers, in the true Pauline spirit, trained locals and sent them back into the fold to do likewise. This created for the Berbers a similar network of collaborative companions as one created by Paul in respect to Luke, John Mark, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Apollo etc. This collaborative

308 www.jiarm.com JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 3, Issue 1, February 2015 approach grafted the message into the known cultural perspectives, making it better accepted by the locals.

3. Faith healing Faith healing was an effective method used by both Paul and the Berber missionaries to convert people to either of the two Abrahamic religions. According to Levtzion in Adu Boahen (1986, p.12), “It was the magical aspects of Islam that aided Muslims to win over the chief in competition with the local priests.” The same tactic won Sergius Paulus over to Christianity against his local spiritual protector Bar-Jesus. Adu Boahen maintains that the baraka (spiritual power) that a pilgrim acquired through the performance of hajj enhanced his reputation and for a ruler, his political power as well. The returnees tended to bring water from Zam Zam which was believed to have specially coveted healing powers. Paul’s mission is littered with faith healing. He punished Bar-Jesus in Paphos through a simple faith proclamation (acts 1310f) leading to immediate belief and conversion of the proconsul. At Lystra he healed a lame man who listened to his preaching with great interest, leading to the Pauline team being declared gods (Acts 148-10). At Philippi he cast out a spirit from a slave girl (Acts 1618) leading to the subsequent conversion of the jail guard and his family. To this end it is clear that faith healing and extraordinary acts played pivotal roles in the two missions.

4. Chameleon nature For the mission to be successful the missionary needed to put on the local camouflage. Paul was clear that he intentionally became a Jew to Jews, a Roman to the Romans and a Greek to the Greeks in order to win them for Christ. This inclusive acculturation was greatly welcome to the Gentiles who had been visibly and contemptuously segregated by the Jews for centuries. For that reason they flooded the ‘Way’ ahead of the Jews. Likewise “the Islamisation of Africa was paralleled by the Africanisation of Islam” (Levtzion, in Adu Boahen, 1986, p.12). As in the Pauline context a degree of inclusiveness bore best results. The cleansing holy wars came much later when Islam had become for some the first religion.

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5. Arbitrational Paul did arbitrate in many disputes among believers. The numerous letters that Paul wrote generally had arbitration or remediation as their core. In I Corinthians 71 he says, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote.” What follows are corrective opinions and exhortations. Of great interest are the ineslemen/zwaya who were intellectual pacifists who put down their swords and traversed the desert as hermits, mediating disputes amongst nomadic tribes. Nomads often had skirmishes over pastures and water points. The ineslemen/zwaya also established temporary and more permanent zawiya and received students from both nomadic and sedentary tribes. For them education was the major arbitrational tool. Al Maghil went as far as Borno where he wrote for the rulers, law books to help in the arbitrations of legal wrangles.

6. Trade (handcraft) Paul was a tentmaker who made common cause with Aquila and Pricilla in Corinth (Acts 182f). Although the writer of Acts makes proclamation his major cause and trade, its subsidiary, there is no doubt that without it his mission would have been greatly affected. Because he worked with his hands at his trade he mastered the guts to declare to the Thessalonians that those who shunned work should retire from eating (2 Thessalonians 310). Because of his handwork he could easily engage lovers of handcraft like Lydia who dealt in purple dye and opted to host Paul and company (Acts 1615). Paul also dealt with those who sold the raw materials of his trade. More-so he was not expensive to host and was easily welcome in several homes of the Roman administrative and commercial cities such as Philippi, Corinth and Ephesus. The primacy of trade in the Islamisation of the Sudan has been thoroughly dealt with for centuries. My stress here remains that it was the Berber who was the major carrier, as the trader cum scholar and cleric. Although the latter were more visible in the later periods scholar-clerics were certainly there from the onset. What should be underlined here is the fact that trade gave rise to cities, which in turn gave rise to universities, which in turn bore the scholarly ferment. The scholarly ferment mothered the brotherhoods which nursed jihads. It is clear that in either case the trade effect cannot be underestimated. It was clearly a mechanism for funding mission; so mission was fueled by trade

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7. Apocalyptic Both Paul and the Berbers made effective use of the apocalypse as the reason for the urgent need for conversion. In discussing “Paul as a Pharisee of the Diaspora” Jurgen Becker (1993, p.42) highlights the symbiotic relationship between “Pharisaism and apocalypticism.” Initially Paul thought that he would still be alive at the Parousia. Although the Second Coming eventually appears remote for Paul, who later says “for those who will still be alive,” he does not procrastinate conversion. The Berbers preached the century of the Mahdi (Messiah) resulting in the formation of the Tijaniyyah brotherhood which emphasized action as opposed to intellectual conquest advanced by Quadriyyah. Immediate action resulted in many revolutionary jihads of the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. The emphasis was to prepare the way of the Mahdi (Messiah) so that when he comes he would find no disbelief.

Conclusion The study in its utilization of the phenomenological approach has concluded that the Berbers are indeed ‘Pauls of North and West Africa.’ The exploration has demonstrated a high level of compatibility between the two missiological cycles especially in terms of nature and approach. Apart from Kharijism and jihadism, Messianism (Mahdism) has been an equally driving force in the shaping of both missions.

References 1. Allen, D. (1987) “Phenomenology of Religion,” in M. Eliade (ed.) The Encyclopaedia of Religion, Vol. 11, New York: Macmillan 2. Becker, J. (1993) Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles, Westminster: John Knox Press 3. Bettis, J. D. (ed) (1969) Phenomenology of Religion, New York: Harper and Row 4. Beversluis, J. (ed) (2000) Source Book of the World Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality, California: New World Library 5. Boahen, A., Ajayi A. and Tidy M. (1986) Topics in West African History, Singapore: Longman Group Limited. 6. Campbell D. B. J., The Synoptic Gospels, Harare: John Murray [n.d.] 7. Chitando, E. (2003) “Christianity in a pluralistic context: Religious challenges in Zimbabwe,” in James L. Cox andGerrie ter Haar, Uniquely African? African Christian identity from cultural and historical perspectives, London: African World Press, Inc. pp. 109-130 8. Chitando, E. (1998) “The Phenomenological Method in a Zimbabwean Context: To Liberate or to Oppress?” in Zambezia, Vol. XXV (i), pp.99-114 9. Coutts, J. J. How Christian Faith Began: A Commentary on the Gospel of St Luke’s and the Acts of the Apostles, Longman [n.d.] 10. Cox, J. L. (1992) Expressing the Sacred: An Introduction to Phenomenology of Religion, Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications 11. Cox, J. L. (1996) Expressing the Sacred: An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion, Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications 12. Dillon R. J. (1968) “Acts of the Apostles,” in R. E. Brown, et al, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs: Burns and Oates, pp722-767 13. Gabrieli, F (1968) Muhammad and the Conquests of Islam, Milan: World University Library

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14. Hiskett, M. (1984) The Development of Islam in West Africa, London: Longman 15. Hitti, P. K. (1970) History of the Arabs from the Earliest Times to the Present, London: The Macmillan Press 16. Lampe, G. W. H. (1962) “Acts” in Matthew Black and H. H. Rowley (eds) Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, New York: Routledge, pp.882-926 17. Mbiti, J. S. (2002) ‘“When the bull is in a strange country, it does not bellow”: Tribal religions and Globalization,”’ 18. in Max L. Stackhouse and Diane B. Obenchain, God and Globalization Vol. 3: Christ and the Dominions of Civilization, Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, pp139-172 19. Sharpe, E. (1986) Comparative Religion: A History, London: Duckworth 20. Shyllon, L. E. T. (2003) “What roles do institutions of theology and religious studies play in the engagement with African cultural dynamics?” in James L. Cox and Gerrie ter Haar, Uniquely African? African Christian Identity from Cultural and Historical Perspectives, London: African World Press, Inc. pp. 9-24

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