TANGAZA COLLEGE
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA
ADAM FIJOLEK, SMA
07111T
THE CONCEPT OF THE WILL OF GOD (MPANGO WA MUNGU) AMONG THE SUKUMA OF TANZANIA An Influence of Christianity and its Challenge to Christian Mission
Supervisor
Rev. Fr. Michael McCabe, S.M.A.
A long Essay Submitted in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Ecclesiastical Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology
NAIROBI 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest gratitude goes to God who generously filled my heart with the
inspiration and zeal to write this essay. To You, 0 God, be Glory and praise for ever more.
I thank the S.M.A. community in Poland and in Tanzania which made my stay in
Usukuma possible. My several sojoums in Tanzania were very enriching and enjoyable ones. I have been greatly influenced by the S.M.A. members working in Tanzania.
My heartfelt thanksgiving goes to Rev. Fr. Michael McCabe, S.M.A., who generously and cheerfully accepted to supervise this essay. I thank him for his academic guidance and the necessary corrections of English.
In a special way I want to thank my fellow S.M.A. brothers from Tanzania who generously shared with me their knowledge of the Sukuma culture. I must mention here in a particular way Athanas Dotto, Shija Benjamin, Musa Amende and Christopher Mukoji who are members of the Sukuma people. I thank you, brothers, for your sincere contribution of time, ideas and critique. III •
STUDENT'S DECLARATION
I, the undersigned, declare that this long essay is my original work achieved
through my personal reading, scientific research method and critical reflection. It is
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ecclesiastical Degree of
Baccalaureate in Theology. It has never been submitted to any college or university for
academic credit. All sources have been cited in full and acknowledged.
Signed: ,4104.4.4 90C-ez_
Name of Student: Adam Fijolek, S.M.A.
Date: 02 G/02/201/
This long essay has been submitted for examination with my approval as the college
supervisor.
Signed: c /Ca-el ti' 614-c -
Name of Supervisor: Rev. Fr. Michael McCabe, S.M.A.
Date: „.24, IV
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS STUDENT'S DECLARATION III CONTENTS IV ABBREVIATIONS VI
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter I 4
General Introduction of the Sukuma People 4 Introduction 4
1.1 A Short History of the Sukuma 4
1.2 The Sukuma Identity and Worldview 6
1.3 The Sukuma Customs and Religious Practices 12 1.4 Short History of Christian Presence in Sukuma Land 17 Conclusion 18
Chapter II 20
The Will of God among the Indigenous Sukuma 20 Introduction 20
2.1 The Sukuma's Belief in God 21 2.1.1 The Supreme Being 21 2.1.2 Spirits of the Ancestors 23
2.2 The fatalistic Perception of God's Will among the Christian Sukuma 26 2.2.1 Brief Etymology of Mpango wa Mungu 26 2.2.2 Meaning of Determinism and Fatalism 27
2.2.3 Christian Influence on the Sukuma's Traditional Understanding of the Will of God 29 2.3 God as the Director of Human Life 33 Conclusion 35
Chapter III 37
Sukuma's Idea of the Will of God as a Challenge to Christian Mission 37
Introduction 37
3.1 A Christian understanding of God's Will 38
3.1.1 Jesus' Proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom 39 3.1.2 Jesus - Representation of the Loving Abba 42
3.1.3 The economy of God's Grace also for the Sukuma 45 3.2 How Can Christian Mission Contribute to a Development? 48 3.3 Practical suggestions for a Positive Development 49
3.3.1 Proclamation of the Loving Father of the Christians and of All People 50 3.3.2 Empowerment 54
3.3.3 Milieus of Action 56
Conclusion 58
GENERAL CONCLUSION 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY 61 VI
ABBREVIATIONS cf. confer; compare Bar Baruch DV Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. Dei Verbum (18 November 1965) ed. edited by EP The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1972) New York: Macmillan Eph Ephesians Ex Exodus GS Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Gaudium et Spes (7 December 1965) Heb Hebrews i.e. id est — - that is Is Isaiah Jn John LG Dogamtic Constitution on the Church. Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964) Lk Luke Mk Mark NGO Non-Governmental Organization Pet Peter Ps Psalm SCC Small Christian Community SMA Society of African Missions Tim Timothy GENERAL INTRODUCTION
While having my pastoral stage in Tanzania, mainly in the dioceses of Mwanza and
Shinyanga, among the Sukuma people I had a great opportunity to observe many marvelous things. Together with some shorter periods of time in Usukuma which amounts to a bit over a year in total I was often surprised by people's simplicity of life, their approach to their "joy and hope, the grief and anguish" (GS, 1). During my time in
Tanzania I made a great effort to learn the Swahili language and the Sukuma culture. Only when I was able to speak some of it, I began to understand the people's mentality more and more. I liked most of the things about the Sukuma, but as I made more significant progress in the knowledge of Swahili I began to discover that there is something wrong with their understanding of God and his salvific will for us. I noticed that there is a certain expression that comes about in people's conversations quite frequently and I realized that it was like a
cliché of some sort. The saying was, "Mpango wa Mungu". It literally means: Plan of God
or God's Will.
Perhaps I would not have paid much attention to it, if not for some particular
events. I found myself in some sad situations within a range of two days connected to the
death of two innocent infants. Their death was not much a surprise to me, because the
death rate of infants in Tanzania is one of the highest in Africa. What upset me and
eventually made me reflect deeply on the issue was the approach of people responsible for
the maintenance and the medical care of those two children, that is their parents and the 2 medical personnel at hospital. Let us now explain the background against which this saying is so commonly used. In the case of the first infant, the parents docilely came to terms with the death of their one and a half month old baby girl by saying that it must have been
Mpango wa Mungu. They ignored the fact that the child was dismissed from hospital because the doctors claimed that everything was all right. The girl died on the way home from hospital! The latter was a one year old boy who was refused attendance by a nurse at a hospital. She claimed that if it dies, it will be Mpango wa Mungu. The child after an intervention was attended but died a few days later.
These two events, as well as many more of lesser gravity, made me reflect on the issue of the will of God among the Sukuma. They were the source of my motivation and inspiration to write this essay. To my understanding it smacked of fatalism. I then decided to delve into the problem more deeply and see what would be the possible reasons of such a conception of God among the Sukuma.
The fathers of the Second Vatican Council reassure us that, "At all times the
Church carries the responsibility of reading the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, if it is to carry out its task" (GS, 4). The Sukuma's apparently fatalistic conception of the will of God seems to me to be one of the signs of the times emerging in the Sukuma church. Whether the problem stems from the traditional Sukuma understanding of God or whether something has gone slightly wrong in the process of the evangelization of this wonderful people will be the focal point of our investigation. We shall try to identify whether the Christian mission had any influence on the Sukuma's vision of God. The fact of the matter is that as Christians we cannot agree with such an understanding of the God who is love.
To change the fatalistic thinking about God among the Sukuma remains a pastoral challenge for all who work among the Sukuma people. The aim of this essay 3 remains ultimately pastoral. Our research was not conducted in Usukuma. In this research
I relied mainly on the books of some other researchers of the Sukuma, on a few members of the Sukuma tribe living with me in the community and, as I mentioned above, on my personal experience and observation. We shall attempt to clarify the issue at stake in three main chapters.
In the first chapter we will describe briefly the history, geography and some cultural, social, political background of the Sukuma people. We will also present a brief history of the Christian presence in Usukuma. That will help us understand better the mentality of this fascinating people.
In chapter two we shall examine the understanding of the will of God among the
Sukuma. In order to do that we will first look at the beliefs of the Sukuma, in particular their belief in the Supreme Being and the role of the ancestors in their daily life. Secondly, we shall explain the problem of fatalism which seems to be permeating the Sukuma attitude towards life. We shall also look at God's role in the daily living of the Sukuma.
In chapter three we will attempt to present the Sukuma's concept of God's will as a challenge to our Christian mission. In that we shall turn to the pages of the Holy
Scriptures. We shall reflect on our topic in the light of Christ Jesus who is the icon of the loving Father. Lastly, we shall give some practical suggestions for a positive development and change of the seemingly biased thinking of the Sukuma. It is worthwhile mentioning that our study will be focused and based on the Catholic understanding of God's will. 4
•
Chapter I
GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF THE SUKUMA PEOPLE
Introduction
In this chapter we shall offer a general description of the Sukuma people. In that we
shall first write about their history and geographic conditions in which the Sukuma live.
Secondly, we shall look at certain factors which shape their identity. Thirdly, we will study
their worldview, their traditional customs as well as religious practices.
1.1 A Short History of the Sukuma
"The Sukuma are a patrilineal Bantu people [...], closely related in language and
custom to the Nyamwezi to the south." "The word Sukuma means 'north' in the
Nyamwezi language and was used by the Nyamwezi people, who are living on the central
plateau of Tanzania, to refer to the people living north of them"2 The Sukuma are a people
of the population circulating round 6 million nowadays. They are the biggest tribal group
in Tanzania, in that they constitute almost 15 percent of the whole population. The first
group of the White Fathers who were going towards the shores of the Lake Victoria once
described the land, which can today be termed as Usukuma, in such words, "Once beyond
the soggy plains of Tabora, the ground was high and clear. Winds from the huge lake
'F. WUSEN • R.TANNIER, Seeking a Good Life, 9. 2 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 47. 5 swept across the wide fields, soft enough to be refreshing, strong enough to discourage
flies and mosquitoes. The soil was fertile; the many villages were surrounded by rich farms."3
"Usukuma covering an area of 50,000 square kilometers in North-west Tanzania, south of Lake Victoria, has an environment now rapidly approaching semi-desert conditions once described as the cultivation steppe."4
The Sukuma are a mainly rural and sedentary people whose main activities are
farming and herding of the large herds of cows, goats and sheep. "They are not a migratory people but annually a significant number of them move away from their perceived difficulties to seek better locations for their farms and livestock with more congenial neighbours."5 According to one of our informants, the Sukuma people seem to
value their herds more than their standard of living or even human life itself An individual
can posses up to 1,000 cows, but live in very poor housing conditions, that is, in a simple
small hut made of clay with a thatched roof. The Sukuma can also wear very poor and
worn-out clothes. "Their main food crops are maize and millet and cassava as a reserve for periods of food shortage and cotton is grown for cash."6 To that we have to add rice which
these days would be the second most important food crop in Usukuma. These days, sadly,
the farming is becoming more and more difficult and troublesome due to the global climate
change which affects eastern Africa indeed very acutely. The Sukuma are said to have
cleared wide areas of forest in order to settle down, cultivate and feed their cattle. Their
fertile lands are diminishing towards the southern parts of Usukuma. The most affected
region is Shinyanga, but the deforestation is advancing noticeably in Kahama district too.
Those to be blamed for the problem, apart from the global warming, are the Sukuma
3 G. D. KITTLER, The White Fathers, 146. 4 F. WIJSEN — R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 9. 'ID. K. BEHERA - G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 184. 6 F. WUSEN- R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 9. 6 themselves. They believe that all the trees were planted by God, so they can cut them down for firewood without replanting them since God is going to plant them for them again! The rains are also becoming scarcer, more local and very unpredictable. As a consequence the former fertile lands of the Sukuma are becoming arid or semi-arid.
Therefore, the Sukuma are very vulnerable to droughts and the last serious one occurred in the year 2006. The harvest season in Usukuma is usually completed by July. "After the harvesting and threshing is completed, little attention is paid to agricultural work until the following rainy season. [...] House-building and repairs are also carried out during this period, and dancing and beer-drinking are at their most intensive at this time."7
1.2 The Sukuma Identity and Worldview
An ordinary Sukuma when asked about his or her tribal association or even religious identity will quite spontaneously answer, "I am just a Sukuma" (Mimi ni
Msukuma tu). This common answer indicates that the Sukuma have no problem whatsoever with identifying themselves as Sukuma. In the previous section we have said that the Sukuma are related to the Nyamwezi. "Their link with the Nyamwezi to their south is so strong culturally that it seems likely that they had a common origin from the south rather than having a lacustrine origin allied to tribes to the west and north of Lake
Victoria."8 How then, did the Sukuma get their identity and what makes them Sukuma?
"It was outsiders who distinguished the Nyamwezi and the Sukuma by their differential involvement in the caravan trade and the fact that the Sukuma were heavily involved in cattle keeping. The Sukuma used to be free living, wide-spread, small collective groups without any specific name or categories which would distinguish them from other surrounding pastoralist groups. "They do not mark the graves and since their
7 R.G, ABRAHAMS, The Peoples of Greater Unyamwezi, Tanzania, 33. 8 F, WUSEN - R. TANNER, I Am Just a Sukuma. 38. 9 F. WUSEN - R. TANNER, I Am Just a Sukuma, 39. 7
houses are mud and wattle, there is little to denote occupation a year after a family has io moved away." It was the British colonial administration which needed to distinguish
them as a group for various bureaucratic reasons. Wijsen says the following:
The Sukuma as a significant collective term is of recent origin, a product of colonial need for administrative clarity and the need for the people themselves to have a contemporary political definition of their identity. It is thus probably incorrect to describe the Sukuma as having a collective identity which could have had a significant part in the creation of their cultural paradigm."
There exist some criteria that can be of help in finding out the factors which constitute the Sukuma identity and which are more useful than a need for a political definition. Humans are social beings. We realize our basic needs in society. Those needs are, for instance, security, belonging, respect and self-realization. What makes us into social beings is an environment — the external as well as internal one. It shapes our mentality — both individual and collective as well as our values, needs and attitudes. We grow up and live in certain environments with their respective cultures. Each culture will be distinct from another, in that it will consist of customs and traditions, language, clothing pattern, religious beliefs and rituals, behavioural customs, and general world view. Let us begin with a short study of the Sukuma language.
The Sukuma have their own language called Kisukuma, though it resembles significantly that of the Nyamwezi. "All dialects in Usukuma and Unyamwezi are mutually comprehensible."I2 The Sukuma are very proud of their own language and they hardly use
Swahili in their one-to-one conversations or bigger social gatherings despite the fact that the vast majority of them are remarkably fluent in Swahili. They will use Swahili only when necessary. "The art form which attracts the Sukuma is the use of their language in its full complexity. The Sukuma like using loaded words meaning far more than their
I° ID. K. BEHERA -.G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 186. "F. WUSF,N - R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 61. 12 F. WUSEN - R. TANNER, I Am Just a Sukuma. 38. 8 translation would suggest, telling stories or using proverbs."13 There language is a tonal
language and is quite hard to learn by an expatriate. Its complicated grammar as well as a very rich and difficult to pronounce vocabulary does not encourage many outsiders to
learn it these days, including expatriate missionaries who prefer to stick to Swahili.
The Sukuma hardly speak their minds directly and willingly. It has to be said that
the Sukuma are a very proud people. New things being introduced to them must first of all show some traits of material advantage or profit. They do not show anger and irritation easily except when they are very annoyed. One of the reasons for that is that they are aware of human weakness. However, when a Sukuma reckons that something is too much for
him, he can react dangerously. One will recall all the bad things that another person has
done to him, and then due to that fact he can easily kill. We must say that it is not all the
Sukuma who are like that. Nevertheless, my informants claim that the majority of them is
would be like that. Men are not allowed to cry as it is considered disgraceful and
unbecoming. If they do not agree with someone else's proposal or opinion they will
basically say, "yes, I agree" (ndiyo, ninakubali). In reality, however, this is a polite and passive way of expressing disagreement. After that an ordinary Sukuma will just go his
own way and do what he thinks is better or more profitable for him or what used to be
done until now.
With regards to physical appearance and clothing the Sukuma are quite ordinary and have no distinct pattern of clothing. Their clothing will be much the same as most of
other Tanzanians. The Sukuma men do not pay much attention to their clothing, its quality
or cleanliness, especially in the rural areas. They have adopted quite uncritically a blend of
Western styles and it should not be a surprise to anybody to see a man tending his cattle
while wearing a suit and tie. What is surprising is that even for religious worship they seem
"F. WilSEN, There is only one God. 58-59. 9
to use the same clothes that they use for work or any other daily activity. One could justify and excuse them by reason of their poverty, but it is not a case. Rather it derives from their
inherent indifference.
Women, on the other hand, are quite neat and tidy. They pay attention to their
looks, whether in town or countryside. The Sukuma women wear a piece of cloth tied around their waist called kitenge or kanga. An important part of kitenge is its inscription in a form of a proverb or saying. They are meant to communicate a message therefore, for a Sukuma woman the inscription will be more important than its colours and graphics.
With regards to the Sukuma world view it seems that they follow the pattern of
many traditional Bantu groups. What matters for the Sukuma is today. A saying, leo ni leo
(today is the day) is prevalent. It indicates their need to be happy and satisfied today.
Unfortunately, often it will mean that the end justifies the means. The goal of being satisfied today is often achieved by any means. For the Sukuma tomorrow will take care of
itself. The Sukuma do not belong to time. On the contrary, the time belongs to them. The daily movement of the Sun is their clock. That which divides their lives into periods is the dry season (mchho) and the rainy season (shidikho). "These are subsistence farmers whose
framework of thinking, if not confined to the immediate future, is unlikely to go beyond their hopes for the next harvest."14
The Sukuma are also a very down-to-earth people. Thinking in abstract terms is unlikely and incomprehensible to them. They are very pragmatic people who believe in what is tangible, that is, in what they can see with their own eyes and touch with their own hands; calculating costs and profits is a part and parcel of their life. Generally, we can say that:
14 F. WIISEN - R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 84. I0
The Sukuma are a conservative people, slow to see the need for or the inevitability of change and even slower to act. An unfavorable environment and a very narrow margin between success and failure have made them wary of innovation, which springs from more secure economic backgrounds than they possess now or have done in the past. Further, they are not unified people in the sense that they have had one culture for a very long time, and each chiefdom and its people has its origins elsewhere. Their ecology varies from the lake shore to the hinterland, their language and customs as wel1.15
The Sukuma understanding of the environment does not go beyond their geographical horizon. The horizon is the limit of their interest. It is very un-Sukuma to look beyond the horizon. "The homesteads are spread out, possibly at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest neighbours to take the best advantage of grazing and soil."16 One more reason for the homesteads to be so widely spread is also a fear of being bewitched by the neighbours. The further away you are from your neighbour the lesser chance that the power of your neighbour can reach you. The issue of magic and witchcraft is a part of the Sukuma world view, but these particular areas will be expanded in further chapters.
"Homesteads consist of one or more houses, sometimes surrounded by a hedge. [...] Usually there is a small cleared space between the huts, where household work is done and food is eaten. Cattle byres, often fenced with thorns or stakes, are built next to the huts. A hut is sometimes reserved for calves and small stock, but these are also kept occasionally in large houses in which people sleep."17
"In 1967, the famous Arusha Declaration was proclaimed and President Nyerere's socialist policies of the state controlled economy and Ujamaa Village Program were put into action."I8 "The East African country of Tanzania began early... [in 1967] to do what few countries ever do: put its principles into practice."I9 It is quite obvious that some of the
Nyerere's policies greatly affected the mentality of many Tanzanians, among them the
15 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 59. I° R. TANNER, "Christianity in Sukuma", 384. 17R.G, ABRAHAMS, The Peoples of Greater Uttyamwezi, Tanzania, 41-43. httn://philin.greenspun.com/sukuma/intro.html, 20/02/2010. W.P., LUSEBERRY, The Reference Shelf 67. II
Sukuma. We such a description of Nyerere from 1967, "Tanzania is one of the few states on the continent that has as a leader a genuine man of ideals, one sometimes wryly imagined by Europeans as being something of a saint."20 Julius Nyerere was fascinated with the great ideas of what we call in Africa, African socialism. It is a nice, nevertheless, ambiguous name for what we know as communism. In Tanzania the system is known as
Ujamaa. As in many parts of the world where the socialistic system was introduced there has been lot of negative influence on people's mentality, their approach to life and especially, to private property. As a matter of fact, those African countries which used to be or are ruled by socialists remain among the poorest in the world and this is the case also in Tanzania. Older missionaries remember that in the 70's one could not even buy a nail in a shop. The collectivism was imposed on the Sukuma who are an individualistic people.
"The main theme of their lives as Sukuma seems to have been as individuals, living as separate families, in loosely conjoined neighbourhoods and in chiefdoms of varying sizes which had little or nothing to do with each other."2I As we can see here, the Sukuma were not used to communal living. "The downfall of these initiatives was that people were forced to move from areas where their families had lived for generations to new villages 5+22 without history or familiar surroundings. Christian schools and hospitals were
nationalized. That gave the Sukuma an impression that the state is there to do things for them. That attitude is still very deeply engraved in the mentality of the Sukuma, who will
be rather slow and unwilling to take an initiative to make their life easier or to fa, for
example, a leaking roof in a church building or school. The roof will have to collapse first
so that somebody from the state will cover the expenses of a new one. Some efforts of
Nyerere to change this prevailing attitude proved unsuccessful. He stunned his citizens
21) W.P., LINEBERRY, The Reference Shelf 67, 21D. K. BEHERA - G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 186. 22 hltp:kphtlip.greenspun.com/sukuma/intro.html,• • 20102/2010. 12 when he "set off at Christmas [1966] on a tour of the country's regions, deriding farmers who left the work to their wives while they dozed in the sun sodden with pombe, the locally brewed liquor. He told them to build their own roads, dig their own ditches, and put '123 up their own schools instead of begging for everything from the govenunent. Let us now look at to some of the Sukuma customs and religious practices.
1.3 The Sukuma Customs and Religious Practices
The Sukuma culture has been permeated by various influences from the Western world. These came mainly through the mass media, especially the Hollywood films and internet. Many patterns of behavior have been accepted quite uncritically. Nonetheless, these days there has been a turn toward the rediscovery and renewal of the Sukuma culture.
"The Sukuma culture is the most widespread in Tanzania and the Sukuma people are now expressing a renewed interest in their traditional culture. They are finding many new ways to celebrate their traditions. Tradition exists in harmony with contemporary life, rather than being in conflict with it."24 An important milieu for a closer encounter with the Sukuma tradition is the Sukuma Museum at Bujora in Tanzania in the suburbs of Mwanza. The museum was established by the White Fathers and became a very important centre lb' exemplary religious inculturation and adaptation.
"It is impossible to say that the Sukuma do this or believe that; only the broadest principle may be common to them as a whole."25 Notwithstanding, the Sukuma have their
particular customs which have as their goal to give a certain order to a daily life. Perhaps
many of those customs will be similar to or indeed identical with many prevailing customs
of many other neighbouring Bantu groups of Eastern Africa. "They are not physically
distinct and have not altered their appearance in any way by hair styles, scarification or
23W.P., LINEBERRY, The Reference Shelf 73. 24 A. FERNADEZ, Encountering Jesus Christ, 6. 25 It TANNER, Transition in Religious beliefs, 3. 13 tattooing which marks them out as Sukuma."26 We shall study only some specific areas which constitute the Sukuma daily living. In that we shall include the role and common behaviour of men and women. We shall have a look at marriage, including bridewealth exchange and polygyny; dance, rituals concerning land and harvest, to mention a few.
As has already been mentioned in the previous paragraphs the Sukuma are a patrilineal people. Therefore, one can quite easily assume that women in the Sukuma culture will not enjoy great status. Indeed, they have not much to say in ordinary life.
Despite the huge role which they play every day in their homesteads, work and farm, child rearing, and so on, the Sukuma culture is dominated by men and it is men to whom the final word and decision belong. It reminds us quite naturally of the Jewish society at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. What is expected of a woman is docility and obedience. The women, for instance, are not allowed to eat in the company of men despite the fact that it is they who prepare and serve the food. They are not equally entitled to the meat which is primarily for men. For instance, while eating chicken the women are allowed to eat only the bony parts and the entrails (matumbo) and it is men who will enjoy the meaty chunks.
The food is eaten only with the right hand. If there are leftovers they can be eaten by children who are the last link in the hierarchy and they will normally have to be content with rice and beans. In general, "For the Sukuma food and meals are important. Having a meal together is much more than filling the stomach. A meal establishes good relationships. It also expresses the values of sharing and hospitality."27 On top of that women are to assist the men with water at the washing of hands before and after eating and show a profound sign of respect while greeting men in a way that is close to a genuflection.
When it comes to marriage, the Sukuma women's marriages are arranged by the parents and parents-in-law. A bridewealth exchange (ngwekwe) is an intrinsic part of
26 D. K. BEHEFtA - G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 185. 27 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 281. 14 a marriage arrangement. "The Sukuma, appealing to tradition, would state that there is only one type of legitimate marriage in which there is a payment of bridewealth in the form of
28 cattle to the father of the bride." The bridewealth is supposed to be a kind of a provision of the bride against any unpredicted future developments such as mistreatment or divorce. Nevertheless, more often than not, the brothers of the bride take charge of the mahari and the bride never sees her cattle or money again in her life.
The polygyny is also quite prevalent among the Sukuma. A man is allowed to take many wives provided he can afford them and guarantee them a decent living.
"A man with more than one wife has an additional farm worker and is an insurance against the ill-health of a single wife at critical times in the agricultural year."29 More wives can also provide more children which are useful and, at the same time, they are a sign of the father's fertility as well as of God's blessing. A barren woman can be divorced and it is socially and culturally accepted.
The Sukuma believe in one God whom they perceive as their Supreme Being and the Ancestors who are directly involved in the ordinary lives of the people. We shall deliberate on these two themes in a separate chapter later on in this essay. What we are
trying to do here is to draw our attention to one particular aspect of the Sukuma belief and
ritual, that is the diviner who plays an important role among the Sukuma. "The Sukuma
and other groups in Africa have deep faith in indigenous diviner-healer and in the power of
the medicine that he or she gives out."39 Who is he, then, for the Sukuma?
Tanner, a great British anthropologist who offers a profound study of the Sukuma —
we shall quote him rather extensively as his study accurately describes what we want to
know - describes the diviner in a following manner:
2a F. WUSEN — R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 110. 29 F. WUSEN — R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 114 3a J. LUPANDE al„ "The Sukuma Sacrificial Goat", 246. 15
The diviner or magician (nfumo; pl. bafumo, which may be derived from kufambula, "to discover") uses magic powers legitimately to enable the person in misfortune to find the ancestor or other cause of his misfortune, and provide the means by which it can be propitiated or in other ways put right, a dual role, with separate but connected functions. This is a very broad field and he appears in many social forms.
There are the diviners who diagnose misfortune by examination of the entrails of chickens (nfumo wa kuchemba ngoko or njanda), and those who, after a propitiatory sacrifice, discover whether it has been successful or not from an examination of the entrails of the sacrificial victim. There are those diviners who manipulate material objects in order to be able to tell the future, throwing shells, watching a floating stick, and so on. Others are specialists in particular matters, such as the magician who is able to keep seed-eating birds away from the harvest fields (nfumo wa noni), the rainmaker ( nfumo wa kugema mbula), those who prevent and cure snakebite (nfumo wa nyokanyoka, ngyangi and nswilili), and the female specialists who deal with infertility (nfumo wa nengo). 3'
As mentioned in the above quotation the rainmaker is an important type of a magician. There exist certain rituals which are supposed to bring about some rain.
Apparently these days the traditional rain maker is gaining prominence due to the shortage and irregularity of rains. Also any other traditional diviner loses none of his prominence in
Usukuma, even though people have better access to education and medical centres. Many of the youth, mostly boys, still get involved into the business, however, the reasons for that are merely economic. "The reasons for persons becoming diviners or healers, apart from any economic incentives, are the pressure on the individual psyche from previously unknown ancestor spirit among a vast pool of potentially active spirits to take up an uncertain career as a relief."32 It is important to notice that, "What they take up is not a vocation in terms of conformity to a set pattern of unknown ideas but a development of religious individuality within a loose paradigm of ideas."33
It is worthwhile mentioning that most of the Sukuma rituals do not have large communal or collective meaning. They are rather performed in private homesteads or local chiefdoms. Unlike some West African Traditional religions, for instance the Vodun in
31 R.TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 42. 32 D. K. BEHERA — G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 199. "D. K. BEHERA — G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 199. 16
Benin, the Sukuma do not have any specific shrines or altars of sacrifice were they would
worship and propitiate either the Supreme Being or the Ancestors. Tanner asserts:
The Sukuma passage through life is not marked out by a series of obligatory rituals and if anything it could be said that they have a social system which is noticeably free of rituals expressing collective life, even the rituals of the chief performed for the well-being of the whole community were not public communal affairs. It is not a social system marked by public ceremonies.34
The Sukuma have also developed various kinds of ritual dances which constitute a very important part of their culture. The most common and famous ones are the dance
during the harvest season and the dance with snakes. There exist few well organized dancing groups whose open-air entertainments can sometimes gather an audience of thousands.
1.4 Short History of Christian Presence in Sukuma Land
The pioneers who brought the Good News of the Kingdom to the Sukuma land were the Church Missionary Society and the White Fathers. "Both the Church Missionary
Society and the White Fathers entered Usukuma in the 1880's whilst the American African
Inland Missionary replaced the former later."35 "The Church Missionary Society opened a mission station in Buzalima in 1882. The Society of Missionaries of Africa opened a mission station in Bukumbi in 1884. 36 The story of the White Fathers unfolds in this way, "Lavigerie appointed ten men to his first caravan, nine priests and one lay brother.
They were to proceed together as far Tabora in Central Tanganyika, then split up, one group going northward to Lake Victoria, the other west to Lake Tanganyika."37
An expansion of the Catholic Church in interior Usukuma began in the 1950's. In
1950 an Apostolic Vicariate of Maswa was established. In 1953 The Vicariate was soon
34 D. K. BEHEFtA - G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 188. 35 R. TANNER, "Christianity in Sukuma", 383, 36 E WIJSEN - R. TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 12. 37 G. D. KITTLER, The White Fathers, 112. 17 promoted to a diocese of Maswa. On the 9th of August, 1956 the Maswa diocese was renamed as diocese of Shinyanga and the first bishop of the newly established diocese was a Maryknoll missionary Edward Aloysius McGurkin. In 1950 there were estimated 2,733
Catholics. They would constitute almost 6 per cent of the whole population of that time.
There were 5 diocesan priests.38 "Church missions provided many services, such as primary schools for children, which attracted people to the religious communities where 39 some converted to Christianity.” Tanner wrote in the 1960's, "The Catholic Church is ubiquitous and has expanded greatly in the last decade, with the Marylcnoll Missior coming in to found an additional diocese based on Shinyanga, to build on the work begun by the White Fathers, who remain within Mwanza diocese.40" As a matter of fact, the
Bugisi parish in Shinyanga diocese which was established by the Marylcnoll Missionaries and currently run by the SMA celebrated in 2009 its fiftieth anniversary. "It can be seen that there has been no wholesale movement into Christianity as there has been amongst the
Chagga and Haya."41 "Despite over a century of evangelization no more than 12 per cent are Christians (mainly Roman Catholic) and only a few thousand Moslem even though
Arabs have been in the area even longer."42 These particular assertions lose none of their validity until nowadays. In 2004 there were 284,590 Catholics in the diocese of Shinyanga.
That was 14,2 per cent of the total population of 2,001,893 and there were 29 local priests.43 The mass conversions are quite unrealistic among the Sukuma. There are many reasons for that. "Perhaps the most common of these is plain indifference; this cannot be
38Cf httn://www.catholic-hierarch_y.org/diocese/dshin.html, 25/02/2010. http://philin.greenvun.com/sukuma/intro.html 20/02/2010. R. TANNER, Transition in Religious beliefs, 71. 41 R. TANNER, "Christianity in Sukuma", 383. 42 D. K. BEHERA — G. PFEFFER, Contemporary Society, 185. 43 Cf. lap://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dshin.html, 25/02/2010. 18 particularly associated with the concept and practice of Christianity as these people are equally indifferent to traditional beliefs and practice.""
Conclusion
In this chapter we have offered a general description of the people of the Sukuma tribe of North-west Tanzania. These are fascinating people who are remarkably polite, gentle, pragmatic and, at the same time, indifferent in many spheres of life. We have seen that they are also a people who believe in spiritual realities and who have been influenced by Christianity. How they have been influenced, whether positively or negatively and to which extent, we shall attempt to see in the following chapter.
"R. TANNER, "Christianity in Sukuma", 385. 19
Chapter Il
The Will of God among the Indigenous Sukuma
Introduction
Stephen Ellis states that, "the religious revival sweeping Africa, not only in Muslim
circles but also in Christian ones and others, is more than anything else a formidable means of building, or rebuilding moral communities which have rules of a conduct backed by the most powerful sanction of all: the will of God"45
In this second chapter we will delve into the core of our claim. Having studied
some aspects of the Sukuma worldview and culture we shall now take our study further. It-
that we will delineate the concept of the "will of God" among the Sukuma people. Firstly,
we shall look at the Sulcuma's belief in the Supreme Being and the role of the spirits of the
ancestors in their everyday life. Secondly, we will study the problem of the alleged
fatalism which seems to be prevalent in the Sukuma culture. Thirdly, we shall try to see
whether the Christian mission has had any influence on the traditional conception of the
will of God among the Sukuma. Finally, we shall also do some social analysis of what we
have found out at in the course of our study in this chapter.
45F. WUSEN -R.TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 7. 20
2.1 The Sukuma's Belief in God
The Sukuma are certainly a monotheistic people. The converts to Christianity accept with a remarkable ease the Christian explanation of one God. Therefore, the concept of one God, though Trinitarian, does not constitute a major obstacle in the process of accepting the Christian faith. Wijsen observes,
When asking who God is, I got no clear answer. I got the impression that the concept of God among the Christians is vague and diverse. It seems that the Sukuma people are not so much interested in who the meta-empirical realities are, but more what they do. My informants expressed an idea of God which shows many parallels to the Supreme Being of the indigenous religion. He (God is regarded as male in essence) is the Creator (Muumba) of everything and everyone and his character is primarily good (Mungu mwema). Moreover, he is Almighty.46
And he goes on, "Undoubtedly my informants believe that there is only one God
(Mungu ni mmoja tu) and the God of Christianity and the Supreme Being of the indigenous religion is the same reality."47 Wijsen mentions in these two quotations the existence of a certain category of a higher being in the indigenous Sukuma religion that is the Supreme
Being. We shall now describe it more accurately.
2.1.1 The Supreme Being
The Sukuma, as perhaps a vast majority of African peoples, believe in the existence of some sort of a transcendent being. Neil goes even further in his assumption and says that, "there is the concept of the one high God, which seems to be present everywhere even among the remotest and simplest of people of the earth".48 Often such a being is said to have created the world and all things in it and then to have gone far away to look over his creation. Mbiti agrees that, "For most of their life, African peoples place God in the transcendental plane, making it seem as if He is remote from their daily affairs."49 We can
46 F. WIJSEN, There is only one God, 79. 47 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 79. 48 S. NEIL, Christian Faith and Other Faith, 131. 49 J. S. MBITI, African Religions and Philosophy, 33. 21 say that the existence of Supreme Being is, as it were, taken for granted in African cultures. Nonetheless, often times it is quite impossible to express it an analytical thought.
The Sukuma for instance do not have a specific name for such a being. They call him by various names, such as for example, Liwelelo or Seba. "He is regarded as male in essence
150 and has no particular living place.' To the Supreme Being the Sukuma "attribute a wide variety of power, under various names, depending on the locality concemed."51 The
Supreme Being is a solitary spiritual being who overlooks the world's affairs from afar.
The Sukuma consider "the Supreme being to be preeminent over a series of lesser spirits, who deal with the different aspects of life concerning human beings and the world in general."52
The Supreme Being is considered to be good. "The character of the Supreme being is constant and does not change from good to bad and vice versa according to the situation.
The fact that he is above the petty influences of man and does only what he himself wants
is thought to make his character primarily good."53 This is quite surprising that the neutrality of this being is a sign of his goodness. He performs neither good nor evil actions.
He does not interfere with the life of the people and animals. He does not deal out death, sickness or pain. What is more, such a concept of God totally excludes the possibility of fatalism in the traditional religion of the Sukuma for the simple reason of being too remote.
"However, it is generally recognized that misfortune cannot occur without the connivance of the Supreme Being, irrespective of the attitude of the ancestor spirits."54
In short, the Supreme Being is a spirit who is one, distant, and neutral which is a sign of his goodness. The Sukuma cannot communicate directly with the Supreme Being.
As ICabasele asserts, "Contact with God is made by way of certain divine envoys and
5° R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs. 6. 5I R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 5. 52 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 5. 53 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 7. 54 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 10. 22 delegates or intermediaries who are precisely the beings closest to the source of life — beings who, by a particular gift of God, have been endowed with a special communications network with God."55 The Sukuma's Supreme Being, as in many bantu traditions, uses the spirits of the ancestors as his intermediaries between himself and the people.
2.1.2 Spirits of the Ancestors
The idea of the ancestral spirits, that is the spirits of the dead, is widely spread and well developed in African traditional religions. "Throughout Africa we find the conviction that while no one has ever seen God, nevertheless God maintains contact with created beings."56 The Sukuma believe that God (Supreme Being) is in touch with them through the ancestral spirits. "The religion of the Sukuma, in its practical aspects, is composed almost entirely of a direct ritual relationship with the spirits of their ancestors."57
"Adherents of the Sukuma Indigenous Religion believe that the human being survives the death of the body and that the spirits of the ancestors exist and affect their lives."58 They decide to communicate with them since the Supreme Being is so remote. They believe that the Supreme Being uses the spirits of the ancestors as mediators between him and humans.
"The Ancestors are the first who received the force of life from God. They represent the highest level of being beneath God in the pyramid of beings. But they remain human."58
Hence, we note that the spiritual hierarchy is quite clear and well developed among the
Sukuma. God is distant, but the humans can get in touch with him indirectly through the direct contact with the spirits of the ancestors.
Unlike the Supreme Being the spirits of the ancestors are directly involved in the mundane events of this world and they freely interfere with petty human problems. In
55 F. KABASELE, Christ as Ancestor and Elder Brother, 123 56 F. KABASELE, Christ as Ancestor and Elder Brother, 123. 57 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 5. 58 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 67. 59 F. KABASELE, Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa, 42. 23 addition to that, it is not every one who becomes an ancestor. "Among the Sukuma tradition, in order to qualify to be an ancestor, one must have led a blameless life and must have died a good death. To have good death, means first of all to have died a 'natural' death; that is to say to have lived many years, to have transmitted one's message to one's family and to have been buried."643 Tanner discovers that, "A potential ancestor spirit
(isamva; pl. masamva) is in the blood of every man and becomes active after death."6I
As has already been mentioned, the spirits of the ancestors are primarily intermediaries between God and humans. "The ancestors and their descendants are in a constant state of exchanging gifts and favours. This is what communion requires; this is what remembrance means. This dialectic strengthens the life-force of the world for the sake of living humanity."62
Our study shows that the ancestral spirits are directly involved in the world of humans. That involves certain duties and obligations on their part. Some of their main duties are to promote life and protect the families on earth. "Ignatius Pembe asserts that among the Sukuma-Nyamwezi of Tanzania, 'They [the ancestors] remain in talking, and almost tangible, terms with their descendants."63 Kabasele Lumbala asserts, "The ancestors are therefore mediators (through the power of the Supreme Being, because
everything comes from God) in helping the people to be fertile, healthy, and prosperous."64
Thus the success of harvest or fertility of one's wife is attributed to benevolence of
ancestors. At the same time a misfortune in one's life is a sign of malevolence of the
ancestors.
"The Christian missionaries have influenced in many changes (sic) in the African
Indigenous Religion. Their attack on the ancestor-cult has contributed to the fact that the
au A. FERNANDEZ, Encountering Jesus Christ, 10. 61 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 13. 62 L. MAGESA , African Religion, 78. 63 L. MAGESA, African Religion, 78. 64 F. KABASELE Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa, 43. 24 ancestors nowadays are more feared than loved and has stimulated the more secret and private character of indigenous rituals."65 Wijsen asserts, "The ceremonies and rituals of the Sukuma Indigenous Religion used to take place in the open, but now tend to be done out of sight."66 It is a pity that things have taken such a negative direction. As Catholics we believe in the intercession of saints just as the Sukuma believe in the mediation of the ancestors. "Ancestors receive their power from the Supreme Being, just as the saints were moved by the power of Christ. Ancestors provide an example to follow, just as the saints do for Christians."67 We also believe that saints are those who have lived good lives on earth just as the Sukuma believe that the ancestors are those who lived a blameless life on earth. There are mainly two differences between our Catholic belief and that of the indigenous Sukuma. We do not attribute to saints any negative influence on our life and, according to our faith, they do not have a direct power to interfere in this world (it is God who listens to their intercessions on our behalf and then he acts himself). We shall, then, find a way of incorporating the spirits of ancestors into our Catholic worship and try to integrate them with the doctrine of saints. "The ancestors are allies of God. They are always at God's side doing the divine will. Because of their dedication to the will of God, they finda place alongside belief in the gospel, which is God's word expressing God's
As can be observed in our study, the Sukuma are convinced of some higher spiritual powers which have a direct influence on their fate in life. We can see that there is no direct action of the Supreme Being, but there is a direct action of the spirits of the ancestors. We have hereby arrived at the problem of the alleged fatalism among the
Sukuma. We shall now delve into this concept which is the crux of this study.
65 F. WUSEN, There is only One God, 66. 66 F. WUsENT, There is only One God, 69. 65 F. KABASELE, Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa, 46. 68 F. KABASELE, Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa, 45. 25
2.2 The fatalistic Perception of God's Will among the Christian Sukuma
Having studied the two basic objects of the Sukuma traditional religious belief, that is, the Supreme Being and the spirits of the ancestors and their roles and involvement in the Sukuma's life we shall now look at the problem of fatalism and the apparent negative influence of Christianity on the traditional understanding of the will of God among the
Sukuma.
We shall begin this section by rendering the reader an explanation of the terms we are going to use in our "accusation" so as to avoid any misunderstandings. We shall explain the meaning of some relevant terms for our study. We shall begin with the etymology of the Sukuma daily cliche Mpango wa Mungu and other two correlated terms which are determinism and fatalism.
2.2.1 Brief Etymology of Mpango wa Mungu
The word which the missionaries chose to name God in Sukuma is a bantu word
Mungu. It is also used in Swahili from which language it perhaps originates. "Present-thy
Sukuma prayers used by the Catholics contain phrases with Seba and Liwelelo as translations for the Christian "God"; a return to traditional usage after possibly half a century of using the Kiswahili word, which had by then become synonymous with their own words."69
The word 'will' among the Sukuma is vague. "They have apparently no word for will, so that the Sukuma might be semantically incapable of accepting the Christian idea that he could determine his moral actions independent of outside causation."70 My informants claimed that in Kisukuma there exists a certain word the meaning of which is,
69 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 6-7. 7° R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 88. 26 nonetheless, vague. This word is nguzu. Some of the informants said that it can stand for
others claimed that it means 'power'. Henceforth, they use casually the Swahili word Mpango which translates as a plan or arrangement.
2.2.2 Meaning of Determinism and Fatalism
Determinism is a correlative term to fatalism. "Determinism is the general philosophical thesis which states that for everything that ever happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen."71
The concept of fatalism is as old as the human history. Often peoples have fallen prey of this concept. Basically, fatalism occurs when people are convinced that everything happens to everyone everywhere and all the time and that they cannot change it. In other words, we cannot influence the changing states of affairs in our lives. Nonetheless, "It is one thing to know that some catastrophe will in fact occur; it is quite another to know that there is now nothing that anyone could do to prevent it, even if he so wished."72
Fatalism seems to be quite evident among the many Sukuma followers of the
Christian religion and we shall search for reasons for such a state of affairs. For instance,
David Westerlund talks of three different causalities with regard to the causes of human disease. These are suprahuman, human and natura1.73 In our study we shall focus on the first one, that is, the suprahuman causality. He asserts that, "there is the 'religious
(suprahuman)' causality, which presupposes 'a belief that human beings in different ways are influenced by or dependent on suprahuman or spiritual powers such as God and spirits of nature.'"74 We shall attribute such thinking to the Sukuma by applying the method of analogy. The Sukuma do think that God has a direct influence, both positive and negative,
71 W.H. DREY, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 359. 72 A. FLEW, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 438. 73 L. MAGESA, African Religion, 172-173. 7° L. MAGESA, African Religion, 172. 27 on their lives. "The Christian explanation for misfortune and disease, that it is God's will
(Shauri la Mungu), has contributed to a more fatalistic faith, while in the Sukuma tradition it has always been natural to seek for a cause with great persistence regardless of the cost."75 One who is conversant in Swahili will sooner or later notice, even in the very simple conversations, that the Christian Sukuma explain with a remarkable ease their misfortunes by putting the responsibility, or rather the blame, on God. Oftentimes it is the
Christian God who wills good or misfortune that comes across one's life; it is the will of
God (mpango wa Mungu). "Plato said that the human being was 'a puppet in the hands of
God, and in truth this is the best thing about him'."76 It seems that the Sukuma subconsciously adopted this Platonic idea. No doubt they feel like puppets in God's hands.
The human freedom to act is constrained by God's will. There is no liberty and God, as it were, does not respect human freedom any more.
As far as our praxis is concerned we observe that when a Sukuma gets infected with HIV/AIDS as a result of his own irresponsible behaviour, he will most likely explain it by the unfavourable will of God. If a Sukuma falls down while riding a bicycle he or she will say, Mpango wa Mungu tu (It is just God's will), forgetting that it was not God's will that the bicycle owner should not have failed to fix the brakes or repair a crooked wheel.
Many Sukuma children die of malaria or other tropical diseases because their parents ignore the symptoms of the disease in its early stages and then, when it is too late to help a child, they say it was the will of God. Such examples can be multiplied endlessly. And so there are some burning questions arising here. The first one is, why do the Christiar
Sukuma consider God as a kind of a "puppet master" who pulls the strings somewhere above and thence directs their lives? Humans then become "a living toy" of God.77
75 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 66. 76 MOLTMANN, God in Creation, 308. 77 Cf. J. MOLTNLANN, God in Creation, 309. 28
Secondly, why is God, who in the traditional Sukuma belief is absent from their earthly life and does not interfere with petty human problems, so involved in the course of affairs and the lives of the Christian Sukuma? Obviously we shall avoid any sort of generalization. It is not all the Christian Sukuma who have such a distorted perception of God, his benevolence and will. Many have a sound perception of good and loving God who is full of mercy and compassion and does not reward the good and punish the bad. However, there are more and more non-Christians who through the daily encounters with the
Christians get influenced with such thinking too. Notwithstanding, fatalism is, as we have already said, quite evident and prevalent among the Sukuma. There must be a cause for such thinking. In our study we put the blame and responsibility for this distortion on the
Christian mission.
2.2.3 Christian Influence on the Sukunza's Traditional Understanding of the Will of God
It seems that it was the Christian missionaries who brought the fatalistic understanding of God as one who rewards the good people and punishes the bad ones.
Beside fatalism we can savour a tang of the idea of retribution among many Christians in
Usukuma. It is God's will to deal out life and death, health and sickness, fertility and
infertility of women and land, rain and drought. Wijsen says, "I do not attribute fatalism to
the Sukuma. Not only would this argue for more Sukuma converts to Islam, but the idea of shauri ya mungu is also against their understanding of evil. According to their tradition the
Sukuma are obliged to seek a solution for their problem regardless of the costs."78 And he
continues, "it is only when all means have been tried and nothing works out that they can
accept that misfortune is God's will."79 "It is this cultural paradigm which makes them
78 F. WLISEN, There is only one God, 137. 79 F. WIISEN, There is only one God, 137. 29 survive, even in severe circumstances such as drought or epidemics."8° "The whole system is tailor-made to provide answers for almost anything which happens to a person and of course it does not exclude the obvious: when a Sukuma breaks his leg, he knows very well what caused it, but he wants to know what other factors may have precipitated the accident."81 "Causation in their thinking is animate rather than inanimate. An event, particularly an unfortunate one, has to be caused by someone or something, living or dead, with malevolent intentions towards the sufferer. There are no pure accidents in
Usukuma."82 "Basically this paradigm consists in the belief that God cannot be held responsible for medical or ecological disasters, as the Supreme Being is too far from and not interested in this world; that ultimately most evils have a human origin, caused by the ill will of somebody, an ancestor or a witch; that the evil nature of demons, devils and evil spirits is not ontological but ethical, and thus can be changed."83 Basically, in the indigenous Sukuma tradition it is some other metaphysical forces which are responsible for evil. It might be caused by the neighbours, sorcerer or a witch. "No event that has some bearing upon human life can take place unless it has behind it some sort of personal causality. Misfortune never happens entirely by chance, it always has a 'why' and a 'who'
behind it. Personal causality is of the essence of every event that touches on human life."84
Having said this we cannot but agree with Wijsen that there is no space for fatalism in the
indigenous Sukuma tradition.
We have learnt from our study that the Supreme Being of the Sukuma is distant and
neutral with regards to human affairs. The Sukuma traditional belief does not comply
whatsoever with the Christian vision of God who is Immanuel - God among us (cf. Is
7:14). In Christianity God "has pitched his tent among us" (Jn 1:14). From the moment of
8° F. WUSEN — R.TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 9. SI F. WUSEN — R. TANNER, /Am Just a Sukuma, 60. 52 F. WUSEN R.TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 47. 53 F. WUSEN -• R.TANNER, Seeking a Good Life, 9. 54 F. DONUNGUES, Christ our Healer, 24. 30 incarnation God and human history are inseparable. Wijsen assures us of one basic difference between the Christian belief in God and that of the Sukuma. He writes,
When a person falls sick, it is God who allows it to happen (ni kazi ya Mungu). And the person recovers if God wants it (Mungu akipenda). There is, however, one difference. Unlike the adherents of the Sukuma Indigenous Religion, the Christians believe that God is not remote and indifferent to the world. The Christians say that God helps us a lot (Mungt. analusaidia sana).85
Hence the conclusion, if God dwells among us and is not remote, he must definitely be involved in our lives. If we consider God as involved in petty human things and we consider him as one on whom everything depends, then a wide field of possibility of determinism and fatalism is ushered in.
The Sukuma have been evangelized by many Christian groups. It was not only the
Catholics who brought them the Good News of the Kingdom. Our study showed that the
African Inland Mission and the Seventh Day Adventists have also had a significant impact on the faith of the Sukuma. They took a rather strict approach to our Christian religion.
Tanner writes,
Perhaps the largest group do not become Christians because of misconceptions as to the nature of Church requirement. This relates to the Church which goes further than it is entitled to do in attempting to regulate Sukuma life; that dancing is bad in itself no matter the occasion or place; that smoking and drinking are not allowed to Christians and that short skirts equal prostitution. Whilst the Protestant Churches are conspicuous by these wholesale prohibitions which scare away the Sukuma from enjoying their usual traditional pleasures, the Roman Catholics similarly have always gone further than Vatican's rulings on traditional beliefs and practices,
This statement seems to presume that the Protestants and the Catholics have equally contributed to the distortion of God's image in the minds of the first Sukuma converts to
Christianity. "However, while the Roman Catholic missionaries took a gentler and more long-term view of their objectives, both the African Inland Mission and the Seventh Day
Adventists established in Nassa and Shinyanga in 1910 did take this much stronger line on
" F. WIJSEN, There is only one God. 79. 86 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 385-386. 31
what they considered to be the bad aspects of Sulcuma culture."87 They often used, as
already said, the method of fear (that the evil doers were destined for the fires of hell) as
the method of evangelization. Wijsen asserts, "The African Inland Church and the Seventh
Day Adventist Church advocate a literal interpretation of the Bible. They interpret
metaphorical statements in the scriptures as representing physical facts. Many Protestants
take the doctrines of creation, heaven and hell to be the literal truth and Satan to be the
cause of all evil in the world."88 The issue at stake is that they read the Bible not as a book
of faith but as record of historical facts and events. If a non-educated person goes through
the pages of certain Old Testament books, for instance the books of Exodus or Joshua, he
or she will find plenty of violence and blood on many pages. Moreover, one will notice
that Yahweh was approving of that. Also if one reads the book of the Apocalypse as
a factual description of the future events without taking into consideration its rich and
complicated symbolism, one will certainly get a distorted image of God. Due to suck'
interpretations or rather "misinterpretations" the Protestant churches had greatly, yet
negatively, influenced the Sulcuma. For that reason, "The African Inland Church and the
Seven Day Adventist Church require renouncement of drinking, smoking and dancing
from its followers and suggest that it is un-Christian to participate in the political life of the
country."89 As a matter of fact even these days Catholic priests or Sukuma who drink
alcohol or smoke cigarettes are considered by the Seven Day Adventists as bad Christians
who are going to burn in the fires of hell. Such thinking has a tremendous impact on the
Catholics since all the followers of the different churches interrelate in every day life.
87 F. WUSEN - R. TANNER, / Am Just a Stdcutna, 104. 88 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 68. 88 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 69.
• 32
2.3 God as the Director of Human Life
Jurgen Moltmann, while comparing the world to a "great theatre" (theatrum
mundi), says that, "The world is the stage on which human beings, directed by God, play
their predetermined roles, whether they know it or not — in pain or joy, `life's tragedy and
its comedy alike'."90 Such a perception of the world and of human beings as mere actors
who are only to play a God's play is imbued with fatalism.
Tanner notices that, "To a people who have never disputed immediate causes of
misfortune, the explanation that it is God's will cannot give them the satisfaction provided
by the traditional system, which provides explanations, or alternatively the reasons for theit
failure to get an explanation."91 "The Christian view may seem to them to be a counsel of
resignation and despair, while their tradition has always been to seek for a cause with great
persistence regardless of the cost [...]".92 "The search for a cause is often still in terms of
the traditional life, in which, if blame cannot be attributed to a relative or neighbour, the
malevolence of an unremembered ancestor must be the reason."93
Among the Sukuma "God is believed to be interested in maintaining the Good Life
(maisha nmzuri). Sometimes God allows the Spirit Being to harm the believers in order to
punish them or warn them. But God is good (Mungu ni mwema) and his mercy is sufficient
(rehema ya Mungu yatosha)."94
The Christian God is "perfectly good, omniscient, and omnipotent and upon whom,
moreover, the entire world and everything in it, down to the minutest detail, are absolutely
dependant for existence and character."95 "If, for example, we consider first the absolute
goodness of God, it seems incongruous not only to think of him as choosing or by his
9° .1. MOLTMANN, God in Creation, 308. cl R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 107. 92 R. TANNER, Transition in African Beliefs, 107. c" F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 107. 94 F. WUSEN, There is only one God, 81-82. 95 W.H. DREY, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 361.
• 33 action inflicting evil, but equally of his being able to choose, inflict or even permit evil."96
Why then do we, and especially the Sukuma, so often blame God for the evil that comes our way?
We said in the first chapter that the Sukuma are a patrilineal people. The role of men is significant. In particular the role of a father is a very important one indeed. In this society fathers greatly influence their children in the process of upbringing. It must be said that the Sukuma fathers are very strict in dealing with their children. In that corporal punishments are very common. The children often acquire the image of a severe father who punishes for bad actions and does not necessarily reward for good ones. It is the fathers who teach their sons that men do not cry. What is more, when a certain child sees his father beat his mother (and that, besides, is quite common among the Sukuma, especially as beer becomes more and more available even in the remotest villages) the image of the father gets even more severely distorted.
In the field of psychology we speak of a certain process that takes place in the
course of human development that is projection. "Let us take Jung's assertion that many 1997 a man's idea of God is a 'projection of father-image.' It seems to be true that so often
we do project on God the Father the qualities and traits of character we have seen in mu
own biological fathers. If a father was strict and demanding it is most likely that we will
think of God as demanding and strict in dealing with his children. Sometimes it might take
years before one discovers God as a merciful Father who is not interested in vengeance.
"Parents are meant to be the mirror in which the child sees reflected the love of his
heavenly Father who cherishes him and who wills only his greater good and happiness."98
That is the ideal which, unfortunately, so often has no reflection in the ordinary lives of the
96 WE!. DREY, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 361. 97 E.J. CUSICELLY, The Kindness of God, 27. 98 E.J. CUS10ELLY, The Kindness of God, 27. 34 people, especially in patrilineal societies where the role of men is elevated and that of women diminished. The problem of alcoholism is also emerging in the Sukuma society.
Men often drink beer or pombe (local alcoholic drink) and then, become aggressive. It is worthwhile remembering that the Sukuma men do not cry. Consequently many emotions accumulate inside a person. It is only when men are drunk that they have the necessary courage to release their emotions in a form of aggression, unfortunately, on the most vulnerable targets, either women or children. Certainly such fathers are not mirrors of
God's compassion and love.
Conclusion
In this chapter we have studied the traditional belief of the Sukuma in the Supreme
Being and the spirits of the ancestors. The Supreme Being is remote and neutral. It is the ancestral spirits who are intermediaries between the Supreme Being and humans. They cap be source of fortune or misfortune happening to an individual or his family.
Our study showed also the influence of the Christian mission on the process of distorting the image of God who for many Christians, indeed these days for non-Christian
Sukuma too, became a God whose will is not always favourable. We have seen that
fatalism had no, or if it had, it was very little place in the indigenous Sukuma tradition and that it was principally the Christian missionaries, mainly the Protestant ones who
introduced it to their culture (nota bene the Catholic mission has a share in this negative
contribution too). Through their method of interpretation of the Word of God and other strict approaches to evangelization and morality they distorted the image of God who
became for many a dispenser of good and evil.
We shall now proceed to the last chapter of our study. There we shall reflect on the
outcome of our study in the light of the Word of God and the teaching of the Magisterium 35 of the Catholic Church on the will of God. Furthermore, we will search for a way forward
for the Christian mission so as to be able to contribute to the changing of the existing status quo. 36
Chapter III
Sukuma's Idea of the Will of God as a Challenge to Christian Mission
Introduction
Having studied the concept of the will of God among the Sukuma and having identified the causes of its fatalistic vision, we concluded that the Christian mission has greatly contributed to the current state of affairs. It is evident that the Sukuma's Mpango wa Mungu poses a serious challenge to the Christian mission. Consequently, in this chapter we shall look for some theological and practical ways to challenge and correct such an unfortunate conception of the will of our Christian God. The goal of this final chapter is practical and it is to bring about a change in Usukuma, this time round, in a positive way.
We shall proceed in the following way. First, we will begin with a study of the
Christian, mainly Catholic, understanding of God's will. In this we shall see how the incarnate word, Jesus Christ, presented the loving person of the heavenly Father during his earthly life and ministry, particularly, in his proclamation of the Good News of the kingdom of God. Secondly, we are going to see that the economy of God's grace includes also the Sukuma. Furthermore, we will see how the Christian mission can contribute to 37 a positive development. In the final section of the chapter we shall identify and propose some practical suggestions and paths of action.
3.1 A Christian understanding of God's Will
In order to realise that the Sukuma actually do misinterpret the meaning of the will of God we shall now delineate a picture of our Catholic understanding of God and his will.
Our hope is that at the end of this section we shall be able to contrast the two concepts and notice that they cannot be reconciled. Let us remember that we are going to contrast the position of the Christian Sukuma and not the traditional one which in fact we have alsc studied in the previous chapter.
At the centre of the Catholic mission stands the proclamation and the establishment of the kingdom of God. The foundation of this primary duty of the Church we find in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the four canonical Gospels. Many people have rather vague an idea of what the kingdom or the reign of God is really all about. Until the Second Vatican Council the kingdom of God was identified with the
Catholic Church and its structures. The axiom 'extra ecclesia nulla salus' was considered
a basic statement of dogmatic significance. The buildings and numbers of the baptized,
expansion and grandeur were the points of reference of the quality of the kingdom of God
as established on earth. We shall bear in mind that the very primary evangelization of the
Sukuma people took place in that aura of pre-Vatican II. Moreover, the concept of
kingdom among the Sukuma, likewise in other African traditions, is quite clear. Africans
have a well-developed concept of chiefdoms or kingdoms with either their kings or village
chiefs. Such kings are supposed to be just, merciful, but also fearless in times of war.
Unfortunately, those kings, and so also many current African leaders, become despotic
dictators unwilling to hand over power to others. This might be one more reason why at 38 times Africans perceive God as a ruthless king. It is possible that once again by the means of projection they attribute to God their traditional perceptions of their own earthly kings.
But it can only remain in the sphere of a speculative thought. Nevertheless, we can currently observe an apparent revival of the importance of the chiefs and chiefdoms among the Sukuma which were abolished in 1963.99 Quite fortunately, the Second Vatican
Council brought about a rather radical change in the Church's perception of the kingdom of God. Ever since the Second Vatican Council theologians have no longer perceived the
Kingdom of God in terms of numbers, buildings and structures, but rather they perceived it in line with the Lumen Gentium as a seed that is planted and is to grow and bear abundant fruit in this world (cf. LG, 5). And the Church is no longer identified with the kingdom, but it is seen as a seed and sign of the kingdom in the world. We shall now deliberate more specifically on the kingdom of God as introduced by Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry so as to identify what the real will of God is and how it is revealed by God in Christ.
3.1.1 Jesus' Proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom
The very first words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk 1:15). Jesus right from the beginning of his public ministry proclaims the kingdom of his Father. That the proclamation of the Basileia or
Malkuth Shamayim was at the centre of Jesus ministry is beyond a shadow of doubt. It is
Jesus' primary goal to establish the reign of God in his contemporary society. Lumen
Gentium asserts that, "This kingdom shone out before men in the world, in the works and
in the presence of Christ" (LG, 5). Again the same Constitution tells us that, "principally
the kingdom is revealed in the person of Christ himself, Son of God and Son of Man, who
came `to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mk 10:45)" (LG, 5).
99 Cf. WIJSEN — R. TANNER, !Am Just a Sukuma, 178. 39
It is worthwhile noting that Jewish society at the time of Jesus was marked by remarkably unjust social structures in which most of its members were the oppressed am ha-aretz that is the "people of the land" who in their daily struggle for a living could not follow all the minute religious demands of the Law, especially the purity laws. Boff says,
"It is not the law that saves, but love: In this we have a summary of the ethical preaching of
Jesus. He de-theologizes the conception of law: The will of God is not to be found only in the legal prescriptions and sacred books; it manifests itself principally in the signs of the times (cf. Lk 12:54-57)."I®
The life story of the people of the land was marked by suffering, pain and rejection.
We can succumb to the temptation of calling also the Sukuma am ha-aretz. These sedentary farmers are indeed people of the land. They often fall prey to exclusion, rejection, social injustice and political and economic manipulation. Jesus stretches his hand to all the least, the last and the lost in a life of total inclusion of everyone. In a special and very visible way the kingdom was demonstrated in Jesus' miracles and in his open table fellowship.
Unlike John the Baptist Jesus did not preach the wrath of God. Jesus preached the
Good News of the kingdom and his main policy was compassion. "Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate" (Lk 6:36). Jesus quite consciously targets some well-defined groups of people. Among those are the poor, the blind, the dumb, the lame, the deaf, the crippled, the paralysed, the lepers, the diseased, women and children with no legal or social status, the broken-hearted, the prostitutes and tax collectors, and even the
Roman officials and soldiers. We can multiply the list of those excluded whom Jesus
included. Desmont Tutu, the Anglican Bishop from South Africa explains that, "He
Forgave sins; he healed the sick; he cleansed lepers; he opened the eyes of the blind and
I" L. BOFF, Jesus Christ Liberator, 67. 40 the ears of the deaf; he made the lame whole again, raised the dead to life and preached the good news of God's love for all his children and about the coming kingdom of this
God."1°1
Jaques Dupuis defines the kingdom of God in these words, "The Kingdom of God is God's rule among people. It requires a complete reorientation of human relationships and an ordering of human society according to God's mind. The values which, in accordance with God's Reign, must characterize human relationships, can be summed up in a few words: freedom, brotherhood, peace, justice."I°2 All these were brought about by
Jesus whose Good News of the kingdom of God was and is a free and unconditional gift of the Father to all who are ready to accept and receive it freely in faith and in love. The
Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, puts it rather boldly,
"The word of the Lord is compared to a seed which is sown in a field (Mk 4:14); those who hear it with faith and are numbered among the little flock of Christ (Lk 12:32) have received the kingdom" (LG, 5).
Our presentation of Jesus' preaching of the Good News of the coming of God's
Reign in love does not have as its purpose to elaborate a sophisticated christological doctrine, but above all, to show us how the proclamation of the reign of God is central to
Jesus' ministry and it is to render a reader a Biblical foundation of our argument. Haight explains that, "whatever Jesus was referring to in a particular saying on the kingdom of
God, he always meant something about the will of God."I°3 It is in Jesus' proclamation of
the kingdom that we can realize that salvation is not exclusive and that the will of the
Father is benevolent and it is to include and lift up all the despised, the rejected and the
1°11. ALLEN, ed., The Rainbow People of God. The Making of a Peaceful Revolution, 28. °2 J. DUPUIS, Who Do You Say I Am?, 44. 103 R. HAIGIIT, Jesus Symbol of God, 96. 41 downtrodden. From the outset we notice that Jesus preaches the Good News. Good and not bad news. That implies that God's will towards us is benevolent! It is benign!
Having discussed, however briefly, the kingdom of God we shall now shift our focus to Jesus' personal understanding and his personal relationship with his God who desired his only Son to initiate his divine plan to establish his rule among his covenanted people, Israel, and extend it to other nations too.
3.1.2 Jesus - Representation of the Loving Abba
According to Vatican II Jesus is the "sum total of Revelation" (DV, 2). In Christ we find the fullness of God's self revelation to humanity. Jesus is like a mirror in which the image of God is perfectly reflected. Already St. John of the Cross anticipated this assertion of Vatican II. In his spiritual masterpiece "The Ascent of Mount Carmel" he writes, "In giving us his Son, God gave us everything. By delivering up to us his unique Word, he revealed everything to us. There is nothing further to wait for after Jesus Christ."" Again
Del Verbum asserts beautifully, "After God had spoken many times and in various ways through the prophets, 'in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son' (Heb 1:1-2). For he sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, to dwell among men and to tell them about the inner life of God" (DV, 4). The word was made flesh and dwelled among us
(cf. Jn 1:14). God revealed his mystery in the most amazing of mysteries, that is, in the mystery of the divine incarnation of his Son. "His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature (cf. Eph 2:18; 2 Pet 1:4)" (DV, 2).
Jesus life was marked in a very explicit way by his extraordinary relationship with
God whom he called warmly Abba. This Aramaic term is neither to be found in Jewish prayers nor in the Greek text of the New Testament. It is a name by which little children
104 DE LUBAC, H., The Discovery of God, 201. 42 would mumble to their parents in their very early stage. It could be translated into English as 'daddy' or 'papa'. Nevertheless, the designation was not used by children towards the male parent but it used to be used between two adults whose relationship was that of very intimate trust. None of Jesus contemporaries would dare call Yahweh Abba. It sounded blasphemous to the Jewish authorities. "Even if `Abba' was not a child's address to its male parent, Jesus evidently spoke of, or rather with, God as his Father in a direct familial way that was unique, or at least highly unusual, in Palestinian Judaism."I°5 Jesus was perfectly right in calling God his father. He was absolutely in line with the Psalm 2:7 which says, "I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you." This designation of God as Abba implies Jesus' unique and filial relationship with God. 'Father' on Jesus lips is found no less than 170 times on the pages of the Gospels. Although Abba is an anthropomorphism, it reveals that Jesus must have had a strong conviction of his filial relationship with God.
Jesus discovers God as a loving and compassionate father who is full of hesed, that is, super abundant love of God (cf. Ps 138:2). "And Jesus qualifies this love. It is partial love, love that can be described in human language as infinite tenderness. It is a love freely offered that does not terrify through terrible majesty, but is offered and imposed through its invincible closeness to what is little and lost in this world."106 Jesus revealed most boldly the compassionate and tender face of God in the Lukean parable of the Prodigal Son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). For Jesus "God is totally good, Father, the love that lies at the origin of all, guarantor of the meaning of life and the one in whom he can rest."I07
He is God in whose abode he finds shelter. He is the source of Jesus' inspiration and motivation. It is this gentleness of God that inspires Jesus to follow the precepts of his will
°5 G. O'COLLINS, Christology, 122-123. 11)6 SOBRINO, Jesus the Liberator, 157. 1°1 J. SOBRINO, Jesus the Liberator, 157. 43 up to the point of the Cross. In Sobrino's words, "One might say that Jesus is not only grateful for God's goodness, but rejoices in the fact that God is like this, a bountiful father not frightening out of majesty, but impinging through loving closeness."I08
There is a very meaningful English saying which says, "I know you out of your father". It means that one looking at me sees in me something of my father that I would not see myself. Likewise, one who sees Jesus sees the Father. The one who understands Jesus understands the Father. Jesus is the symbol of God in the world. St. Paul will say that he is
"the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being" (cf. Heb 1:3). Jesus is the sole key to the full and true understanding of God and his will. A God who is God of the living cannot be on the side of death and dread, but solely on the side of life. Jesus communicated that quite explicitly in his healing ministry and most fully in his resurrection from the dead.
He submitted himself fully to the will of the Father even to the point of the Cross and was eventually rewarded by God for that saving act of perfect obedience. Jesus is the visible representation of the invisible reality of God's grace. He is the icon of God the Father. At this juncture we shall proceed to the next section in which we shall delve into the issue of the economy of God's saving grace and its gratuity for the Sukuma.
3.1.3 The economy of God's Grace also for the Sukuma
In order to elucidate for the reader what we mean when we claim that God's grace
is also for the Sukuma, we shall first explain what we mean by grace in this study. It is
only then that we shall be able to understand fully our argument that the economy of God's
grace includes the Sukuma people as much as all other human beings on earth.
Rahner defines grace in the following manner, "Grace is God himself, the
communication in which he gives himself to man as the divinizing favour which he is
1".1. SOBRINO, Jesus the Liberator, 146. 44 himself."1°9 "Rattner prefers to think of grace as the immediate indwelling of God in the human person. Grace, therefore, is not simply the name given to one of God's gifts to us.
Grace is not this or that particular gift. Grace is the gift par excellence — God himself.
Grace is the totality of God's self-communication to us."I I° Grace is indeed God's free act.
The Conciliar fathers of Vatican II say that, "the invisible God (cf. Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends (cf. Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15), and moves among them (cf. Bar 3:38), in order to invite and receive them into his company"
(DV, 2). It is God's sheer grace to have revealed himself to his creation. He did most fully in the incarnation of his Son. It is through Jesus that God addresses men and women in love, and we respond in faith. Grace is God's love for us. Grace is God's lowering himself to our level in order to elevate us. God graciously loved us first.
God's grace is universal. This assertion explains why we claim that God's grace includes the Sukuma too. God is the creator of everything and in him everything holds in being. The creator of everything cannot but love everything he created, for everything God created was good. That means that God's beloved Son redeemed the whole universe and through him, in the Spirit, God's grace was poured out abundantly on all people and other creatures. That means that the Sukuma are also included in the economy of God's grace which is a drawing of God-self to us in absolute and infinite love. "The fundamental meaning of the word 'grace' is bound up with love."m
Certain burning questions arise here. Since we claim that God is infinite love and graciousness, why is there so much suffering and pain in this world? Can the God of love and mercy be reconciled with the unmerited suffering of the people, and above all of the most innocent and vulnerable, that is, the children? Is God impotent? Is God able but
I" K. RAHNER, "Nature and Grace", 177. '° E. MULCAHY, Class Notes on Grace and Original Sin. nt E. MULCAHY, Class Notes on Grace and Original Sin. 45 unwilling or is God willing but unable to rid us of pain and suffering? Some people will say that our Christian God is the cruelest of all gods, that he is passive and that he enjoys watching the painful struggles of the people or that he is totally absent. Others will argue that it is God himself who is involved in the affairs of this world, and as we have already said in the previous chapter, God pulls the strings of human lives thus directing their fate.
This would mean that humans are not really free, and that is not at all in line with our
Catholic teaching. We believe that God absolutely respects our freedom to act and Ix respects our choices and in no way infringes on our freedom. We shall distance ourselves from any of such serious and negative accusations and assumptions about God. Let us now see how, or whether, we can explain the existence of evil and suffering in our world.
It is quite impossible to explain fully the suffering in the world. We should be aware that we cannot give a proper and satisfactory answer to the existence of suffering and evil. However, we can offer a response. There exist different types of evil in the world.
We distinguish between natural evil (i.e., natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis), physical evil (i.e., sicknesses, physical pain) and moral evil (i.e., my deliberate choosing to sin). Again there is the deliberate evil (i.e., acts of terror, war, abuse of the minors). By all
means we should avoid falling into the snare of pre-determinism, meaning that God
predestines some people to afflict evil upon them. God does not positively predestine evil.
God only foreknows it. That God does not sometimes intervene is because of God's
permissive will, rather than his deliberate will. We have already affirmed the truth that God
respects human freedom and our free will which is God's free gift for us. At times God
allows some evil and suffering to take place in view of some, maybe even greater, good
that can follow from it later. "Love remains as the expression of omnipotence in the face of
evil, in the face of the sin of creatures. Only omnipotent love can draw forth good from 46 evil and new life from sin and death."112 Some evil might also be permitted in order to educate us, in such case suffering would be formative in purpose. Some suffering can awaken in us charity, compassion, sympathy. In other words it can educate us to be more human. But God never deliberately or directly wills any sort of suffering of his people.
We shall strongly affirm that the God in whom we believe is not a passive God.
God created the world and constantly cares for it. God is not indifferent. God proved it most fully in the incarnation of his Son. God became one of us. For Tutu "Our God is the living God, the God who sees, the God who hears, the God who knows, the God who comes down to deliver."' God in his Son shared our fate and became like us in every aspect of our human life. God in the finest of ways realized the idea of his divine mercy in the mystery of incarnation. God takes interest in us and dwells among us in our daily life. Rattner assures us that, "Our whole spiritual life is lived in the realm of the salvific will of God".114
It is a strong assertion indeed. Such explanations that evil and suffering occur because of
God's punishment for human sin, that suffering is a natural consequence of sin, that it is
God's will, or that it is God's vengeance for sin are unacceptable. God's will is salvific!
Salvation of everyone is the primary thing that God wills. It is salvific, universal, benevolent and inclusive of every one. The greatest joy of God is a human being fully alive. God's joy is human happiness.
3.2 How Can Christian Mission Contribute to a Development?
We have discovered in our study that the Church's mission has greatly influenced the Sukuma's perception of God's image in such a way that many Christian Sukuma regard
God as a ruthless judge who is responsible for their misfortunes in the course of life. The ordinary Christian Sukuma believes that God's will is to be blamed for everything evil that
112 JOHN PAUL II, God, Father and Creator, 145. 113 J. ALLEN, ed., The Rainbow People of God. The making of a peaceful revolution, 162. 114 K. PANNER, "Nature and Grace", 180. 47 occurs during one's lifetime. Undoubtedly their perception of God's will is suffused with fatalism. Part of the blame might be put on the approach of the former missionaries who first arrived in the Sukumaland. As we have already pointed out earlier on, some churches and often Catholic ministers, too, have used the imagery of hell to produce a certain level of fear among the people so that they would convert more willingly to Christianity. We shall remember that the doctrine of hell is not present in the Church's teaching in order to send our people there. We must educate our Christians that hell is not a place but rather a condition of one who has lived an unrepentant life and died in a state of mortal sin. The doctrine of hell is there only to help people make a decision in their lifetime and choose the better option of a life of grace and love of neighbour.
"So there is a difference between the way human beings see God and the way God sees human beings. We can sometimes box God in, create him in our own image, and make him serve our interests. We can pervert God, and tragically, we may be willing to give our life for a perverted God. But God does not box us in."115 Since the Christian mission was able to influence the Sukuma's perception in a negative way, we believe that it also can have a positive influence. The contemporary post Vatican II theology opens a field of new and more positive approaches to mission. Our mission is not any more a race for souls to be saved through the immersion in the baptismal waters, but rather it is a planting of a seed of the kingdom of God that is to grow among the peoples of the world.
A modern missionary must be aware that God's Spirit works also within other cultures long before the missionaries arrive there with their proclamation of the Good News. It is a task of a missionary to study the culture, traditions and languages of the peoples so as to identify the seeds and traces of God's Spirit's work in a particular culture and traditional religion. Every non-Christian culture contains some imprints of God's work. It is
115 J. SOBRINO, Where is God?, 135. 48 unfortunate that so often we forget that God created the world long before we were even born and that he permeates it with his divine presence. At this point let us look for some ways of influencing a positive change by the contemporary efforts of the Christian mission.
3.3 Practical suggestions for a Positive Development
In this section we shall look for some practical suggestions and solutions to the issue so as to change things and move forward with a new perspective and with a sound perception of our God and his will, The Christian, and above all Catholic mission is still present in the Sukumaland and it still remains the main driving force of primary evangelization in the interior lands. Our argument is that it must find new ways of presenting God as a benevolent God who is replete with motherly tenderness, loving compassion and forgiving mercy, a God who cares for his people and the whole of creation.
3.3.1 Proclamation of the Loving Father of the Christians and of All People
One of the main ways of reaching out to our Christian brothers and sisters is through the proclamation of the word of God. The ministry of the word of God is an opportunity to encounter Christ the Teacher. It is through the same means that the Sukuma heard and still hear false teachings concerning God, mainly, as our study showed earlier on, through the proclamation of the word of God as taken literally by the protestant and some independent African churches, ecclesial communities or even sects. We have also seen that the proclamation of the Good News of the kingdom was the core of Jesus' ministry. It is necessary that it also become the primary duty of our Catholic priests,
religious sisters and brothers as well as the lay who work among the Sukuma. The breaking
of the word of God explained and interpreted in the light of the sound Catholic doctrine 49 can become a powerful instrument in helping bring about a positive and lasting change.
Our announcing of the word of God must have some proper content. It cannot be a mere talk to fill time between the readings and the offertory during the Eucharistic celebration.
It is important that our proclamation of the Good News of the kingdom be suffused with affirmation of the infinite love of God and not with hellish images of flames and
God's wrath so as to cause fear among people. Our late Pope John Paul II said, "The
Church's faith reaches its peak in this supreme truth: God is love! In Christ's cross and resurrection he revealed himself definitively as love. 'So we know and believe the love
God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him' (1 Jn 4:16), I16 That God is love must become our iceggma. We have to preach a God who cares for his people and creation as a whole. Tutu asserts, "God can't help it. He always takes sides. He is no neutral God. He takes the side of the weak and the oppressed."117 This message must be passed on to our Christians.
The biggest miracle of God, a miracle that we often overlook, is his faithfulness.
Prophet Isaiah affirms this truth most beautifully in these words, "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget,
I will never forget you. See, upon the palm of my hands I have written your name"
(Is 49:15-16). In this short passage we can observe two important things. The first one, as we have already mentioned, is God's faithfulness and his special attachment to us and the second one is God's motherly love. This reference to maternal love of our God to us is a very significant one. Though for Jesus, for us and for the Sukuma God still remains masculine, his love for us appears like that of a mother to her child. It is God's own superabundant love and mercy revealed to us by the means of gentleness and tenderness of motherhood. In Hebrew the word for mother's womb is rehem (it can also mean heart,
116 JOHN PAUL II, God, Father and Creator, 144. "7.1. ALLEN, ed., The Rainbow People of God. The making of a Peaceful Revolution, 72. 50 entrails, being in touch with one's inner-self and others) which is the root word for rahamim, which commonly translates as tender and compassionate mercy of God. That implies that God's attachment to us is very intimate, very much like that of a mother and her child. The image of such intimate love between a mother and a child is shown most strikingly in Africa where mothers carry their children on their backs, creating at the same time a very special relationship with each other.
Again, the prophet Isaiah describes the Son of God in these beautiful words, "Here is my servant whom I uphold, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smouldering wick he shall not quench.'
(Is 42:1,2-3). Can such a loving God, who would not extinguish a smouldering wick, be interested in extinguishing the life of an innocent child? Or is it rather the parents who neglect their personal responsibility to take the ailing child to hospital? The answer is quite obvious and the question seems to be a rhetorical one. It is such a loving God, the compassionate Abba of Jesus Christ that must be unceasingly proclaimed to the Sukuma
Christians, and to non- Christians too, in various daily situations and encounters by means of the spoken word and witness. Such images of God as a mother caring for her child and a tender father must certainly make sense in an African set up for these are the images that are very dear and tangible to the people. These are not some abstract images, but images taken from a daily experience of the people.
The proclamation of the word of God takes place most of the time within the liturgical celebration, especially during the Eucharist. The liturgical celebration is the
Church's way of giving praise to God and receiving his grace in return. In the liturgical celebration, God's people are sanctified. The liturgical expression is not uniform and universal. Nevertheless, it is a sad reality that the Sukuma Catholic Church is not really
"Sukuma". It is true that the Matyknoll missionaries did a great job as far as the 51 incorporation of the Sukuma language into the liturgy is concerned. They put much effort into learning it and then adopting it in liturgy. They translated text books and religious songs and propagated the use of the Sukuma Bible. Unfortunately, not much had been done in terms of liturgical adaptations, with such exceptions as the parish church at Ndololeji
(Shinyanga diocese) or at Bujora (Archdiocese of Mwanza) where the White Fathers also established the Sukuma Museum. The Sukuma church remains very European and
American for the former missionaries used the implantation method of evangelization while bringing the Good News to Sukumaland. The un-Africanness is a striking feature of the Sukuma Church which is easily noticed by many outsiders who have participated in the
Sukuma liturgy. Many express their surprise by the Sukuma liturgy, especially if they have already had an experience of the liturgy in other African countries, particularly in West or
Central Africa. We have to pay respect to the Maryknoll missionaries who studied the
Sukuma customs and traditions in-depth. They really tried to understand their mentality and culture. However, there are not many indigenous symbols used in the liturgy. Drums are hardly used and are considered as primitive. The liturgical texts are translated faithfully
from their European or American counterparts with not much adaption. The Sukuma
language has been almost totally erased from the liturgy. Only few local priests use
ICisukuma in the celebration of the Eucharist. The pioneers of the missionary activity in
Shinyanga diocese, that is, the Marylcnoll missionaries who put much effort into learning
Sukuma and who new it better than Swahili are now dying out and the young expatriate
clergy refuse to learn or are not interested in learning the language. The bishops are
encouraging the use of Swahili in the liturgy. It is a matter of fact that Swahili unites the
country, but it does not profoundly touch the hearts of the faithful. There are no elaborate
meaningful liturgical actions that would express God's benevolence in an understandable
way. There are also very few special rituals targeting things and realities that are important 52 to the people's ordinary life, such as a special blessing of the cattle and other livestock ot a blessing of the farms and paddy fields. In the Swahili ritual for Tanzania there is no special prayer of exorcism. Needless to say, the Sukuma as a proper African people are concerned with evil spirits whose existence they take for granted. Churches' decorations are very minimalistic too. They limit themselves to few symbolic shapes such as triangles and circles - symbols of unity, community and common participation in decision-making
process - painted on the walls in colours dear to the Sukuma, that is, red and blue, white
and black. We need the current "Sukuma" Church to die so as to be able to construct a new
and true Sukuma Church on the very new foundation where the Sukuma will feel at home.
The sacraments and sacramentals are an integral part of the Church's ministry. An
administration of Sacraments is a means of encountering Christ the Priest. Everything that
was seen, heard and experienced in the salvific ministry of Jesus, is still tangible and is still
at work in the sacraments of the Church. Sacraments make visible and audible God's love
which makes us into one community. Sacraments not only point to new life, but they also
give it to us. They do not merely talk of our salvation, but they give it to us. They do not
merely talk of the Lord's proximity, but in them the Lord comes to us. God leans toward
his people especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist which are the
sacraments of God's love and pardon par excellence. Most perfectly in the Eucharist the
Sukuma are drawn to and taught about the Mapenzi ya Mungu, which stands for God's
will. Mapenzi ya Mungu has a very positive meaning and it is surprising that the Sukuma
are more inclined to rather use the negative Mpango wa Mungu. Even all the Biblical
translations of the will of God in Swahili speak of Mapenzi ya Mungu and not of Mpango
wa Mungu. 53
3.3.2 Empowerment
According to the philosophy of Existentialism one realizes his or her freedom by taking on his or her shoulders the responsibility of one's own life. Not all of us have the same amount of courage or charism to take hold of one's own life. It seems that the
Sukuma also need some sort of empowerment and encouragement. We shall explain right now why we claim such a thing in this essay.
In the first chapter we asserted that the Sukuma are well aware of the distinction between good and evil. They know what the moral implications of the two are.
Nonetheless, it is apparent that they refuse or are unable to act. There are always many words imbued with beautiful and at times very practical ideas thrown in the air. The problem is that when it comes to put them into practice the Sukuma prefer to continue as in the past (kuendelea kama zamani). Of course, always the first excuse not to act is a lack of money and then many other excuses will follow. We also asserted that the
Sukuma are pragmatic people who like to see a tangible and preferably quick material profit. If they realize that they cannot expect any profit in the near future they are most likely to say, "hakuna faida tu", which means that there is just no profit. One of Sukuma proverbs says: "The person overly involved in the affairs of everyday life dies without getting married"118 Would that indicate why the Sukuma are so resistant to action?
Therefore, we postulate some sort of empowerment of the Sukuma people so that they may be able to take hold of their own fate with their own hands.
St. Irenaeus of Lyon once said that God "became what we are to empower (sic) us to become what he is"."9 It is St. Irenaeus who so acutely asserted that the Glory of God is humanity fully alive. These are great assurances that God really wants us to be responsible for our lives. We can become masters of our own lives in accordance, however, with his
118 .1. HEALEY - D. SYBERTZ, African Narrative Theology, 41. 119 E. MULCAHY, Class Notes on Grace and Original Sin. 54 divine will. Rahner reminds us that, "One must indeed always remember that God is not diminished by our becoming greater."12° It is, therefore, crucial to always remind the
Sukuma, right at the grass-root level, that they are able to do something for themselves and that it is not always Mpango wa Mungu when something bad happens. They need to be taught that to a far extent than they imagine they are responsible for their own fate in life.
3.3.3 Milieus of Action
As the first important milieu of our Christian action we shall propose is the process of catechesis which will be done in-depth. In the process of catechesis the consciences of our faithful are formed. It is in our consciences that we find and know the will of God for us. It is our duty, as it was also for Jesus, to be docile to God's will and surrender to it. We pray daily in the "Lord's prayer", "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". It is important to teach our Christians that God's will is always benevolent no matter how malevolent it might seem at times. We shall bear in mind that God always draws some greater good even out of apparent evil. Our current Pope Benedict XVI says that, "God's will flows from his being and therefore guides us into the truth of our being, liberating us from self-destruction through falsehood."121 When humans begin to follow their own will and reject God they are doomed to self-destruction. What happens when we reject God we saw most acutely in the 20th century, a century which produced the bloodiest wars and
regimes in history. The falsehood by which many Christian Sukuma live is the fatalistic
understanding of the will of God. In the process of catechesis we might be able to
influence people of every social strata - the elders as well as the young, the rich as well as
the poor, men as well as women. The catechesis is to take place during the Christian
initiation of the adults, of the children and before particular preparations such as, for
120 K. FtAHNER, Nature and Grace, 177. 121 j RATZINGER, Jesus of Nazareth, 148-149. 55 example, for the first communion, confirmation and marriage. A proper explanation of our loving God ought to be a subject of recollections and retreats. Pupils must be addressed on the issue in primary and secondary schools. We have already mentioned the ambo and the proclamation of the word of God in churches as a suitable and powerful place to address a wider audience. Maybe during some short examinations before admission of our
Christians to sacraments they ought to be asked about their perception of God, and if distorted, it ought to be corrected and explained.
Another useful milieu for action must undeniably be the Small Christian
Communities. They are a new way of being Church in East Africa. Almost every, if not every, Christian in Tanzania is considered a member of an SCC. Such small groups are very vibrant. Groups are good milieus for theological reflection. In groups some great and creative ideas usually emerge. It makes our pastoral theology a participatory theology which is in touch with the lives and experience of the people.
We must also suggest a ministry of Christian charity as a possibility of an encounter with Christ the Good Shepherd. Priest, religious sisters and brothers, lay missionaries and indeed ordinary lay faithful bear witness to the loving mercy of God in the most tangible of ways through their works of charity. Our faithful should be encouraged to join various NGO's and social organizations such as Caritas. We shall also encourage our faithful to establish such small charitable organisms in our parishes so as to bear witness to the love of God.
Furthermore, we suggest that the pastoral ministers spend more time with ordinary people in villages and towns. A Sulcuma proverb says: Kwigasha siza na banhu utalagaiwa ng'wa kupanda, that is, "Relationship is in the soles of the feet, to emphasize the importance of going out to other people."122 These days people usually see a big white
122 J. HEALEY - D. SYBERTZ, African Narrative Theology, 345-346 56 car passing by through the villages and towns. Local priests and missionaries are in a hurry to go back to their comfort zones as fast as possible. Some would even refuse to eat the food provided for them by the faithful and by doing that we miss a great opportunity to know our people. Of course, there are some exceptional priests who spend time with their faithful and the effects of such approach are visible in their parishes. One such example is a Ngw'andoya parish in the diocese of Shinyanga. It is a small bush parish where an Irish missionary used to spend all days in the villages and as a result the parish became a very vibrant one. We need to start using our feet and bicycles, and not air-conditioned cars.
Therefore, we shall suggest that we do away with the "go late and come back early" method of visiting the outstations. Let people see something more than just a cloud of dust behind the passing car. Sybertz and Healey assert, "To evangelize in depth, missionaries have to be accepted by people as sisters and brothers. True evangelization is not making superficial marks on trees, but making spiritual marks of friendship and brotherhood/sisterhood through the preaching of the Gospel that transforms people's lives.""
Conclusion
We have shown in this chapter that the Sukuma conception of the will of God poses a serious challenge to the Christian mission. At this juncture we are bound to admit that it
is a hard task to tackle, therefore we have searched for evidence of God's loving nature in the life of his incarnate Son Jesus Christ who revealed God's loving face most explicitly in
his proclamation of the kingdom of God, in signs and miracles and his special filial
relationship with God whom he called Abba. We have also seen that God's grace is
universal and cosmic, that it includes everyone (the Sukuma as well) and everything, and
that it excludes no one. We have traced some ways and means which hopefully might be of
123 1. HEALEY - D. SYBERTZ, African Narrative Theology, 346. 57
help in tackling the problem of fatalism among the Sukuma Christians. It is our hope that it
will be possible to bring about a positive change in peoples minds and that they will be
able to discover the loving face of God who has only prepared the positive Mapenzi for his
people and not the negative Mpango.
• )
4 58 s.
GENERAL CONCLUSION
Having delved into a brief study of our subject matter, namely the fatalistic vision
of God's will toward his people, we look back at the process we have gone through, at
what we have discovered and try to draw from it some logical conclusions. Let it be clear
that the entire research process brought about some surprises. Nonetheless, from the outset
we were open to surprises, for we wanted to find some binding answers and not to prove
any fixed idea about the topic. We did our best not to impose on the Sukuma our own
opinion which could well be biased.
At the beginning of our study we tended to think that it was rather the Sukuma
indigenous religion and their traditional concept of God that brings about confusion. To
our surprise after the short study of their traditional conception of the Supreme Being and
Ancestors, we discovered that such is not the case. Our study showed that it was rather the
Christian mission (mainly Protestant churches) that introduced fatalism to the Sukuma,
especially thanks to their literal interpretation of the Bible. Many missionaries have also
made the Sukuma used to relying on the aid from outside (such as government and
missionaries), consequently and accidentally, teaching them an abandonment of the sense
of responsibility for one's own fate in life. We have also noticed that part of the problem
might be the Sukuma's approach to their daily life. What matters for the Sukuma is today.
They have not developed any idea of planning for the future or even for tomorrow (except
for the fanning). So whatever happens today has been predetermined to happen. If
6 59 -• someone dies, there is always something behind the death. No one dies without any cause
and any purpose. Also nothing happens without a cause and a purpose.
Our method was inductive and not deductive, meaning that, we have started with
an ordinary human experience and then reflected on it in the light of the Bible so as to find
some ways of transformation of the Sukuma's approach to God's will and their own
responsibility for their own fate in life.
We shall hope that our study will find a positive application in the missionary field
in Usukuma. The mission among the Sukuma continues. We have notified that the Sukuma
are rather slow in converting to Christianity. We know that the missionary presence will
still continue there into the distant future. Henceforth, it is time to look at our methods of
evangelization and see which ones have worked and which ones have proved useless. It is
high time to evaluate them and do away with those which bring no progress, or bring such
a negative influence as the one on the concept of the will of God. We read the signs of the
times and adapt to new pastoral situations and circumstances. We need to keep updating
our methods and approach. We hope that the mission among the Sukuma will continue and
that a true "Sukuma" church will soon be constructed. We hope that the seeds of God's
Spirit working in Usukuma before Christianity arrived be found, retrieved and watered and
fertilized by our modem missionary endeavour, so that they can grow and bear multifold
fruits.
We do not expect great fruits of our work immediately. The Sukuma are a people
who take their time before they allow themselves to be convinced of something. It would
be our desire that the battle against the fatalistic vision of God's will be a join-handed
process. In reality we propose that even endeavour of as ingle person can start bearing fruit
gradually. We shall bear in mind that the process of the growth of the kingdom is a gradual
process. Even Jesus was well-aware of that. There is a Sukuma proverb that says: Igembe
1 60 litaponyaga ,"The hoe does not deceive, which means that hard work will produce good
results."I24 We hope that our hard work will produce abundant results too. We also
encourage a further and more profound investigation of the problem among the Sukuma.
124 I HEALEY - D. SYBERTZ, African Narrative Theology, 134. 61
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