The Past, the Present, the Future of African Christianity

The Past, the Present, the Future of African Christianity An Eschatological Vision for African Christianity By

Prof James Kombo Daystar University, Nairobi Kenya Contact: email [email protected], tel: +254722756093

An Abstract

A brand of the 1960s and the 1970s popular scholarship perpetrated by agitated missionaries, indigenous Africanists, budding novelists and critical scholars of religion predicted the total mopping out of Christianity from the face of Africa by the turn of the century. Their logic was simple: the mighty colonialism had just suffered a devastating collapse; Christianity was inseparably conjoined to colonialism; Christianity in Africa must therefore face a similar immanent collapse. Unknown to this line of thought was the simultaneous emergence of a new narrative—a metamorphosis of Christianity in Africa to African Christianity which would not only confound the doomsayers but would paint the southern two thirds of Africa as ‘Christian Africa.’ In the context of Kenya, this is the Christianity exemplified and lived by Rev Canon Jeremiah Awori, Archdeacon Canon Esau Oyuaya, Rev Gilbert Mulaha, Rev Erastus Otieno,1 to name but a few. Indeed several years later, Pew Research would confirm what has been going on for a long time: the shift of the center of gravity of Christianity to Africa and therefore the logic that African Christianity has in our own time assumed significance on a global scale. . But there is a concern—whereas African Christianity has had what is clearly a momentous growth in our own time, the measure and nature of the progression of its theological reflection in the various fields appear to have assumed an inverse proportion.2 For instance, in the abundance of the numerical strength of Christianity, one would still work extra hard to find a systematic presentation on Eschatology for African Christianity that derives from Scripture (including vernacular translations), that adequately canvases with seminal theologians (Irenaeus, Anselm, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, etc) without being controlled by them, and which seriously upholds African epistemology (JS Mbiti, B Idowu, P Tempels, A Kagame) and pushes for worldview transformation (Umuntu,3 Ikintu,4 Ahantu5 and Ukuntu)6 of the African people. This present study therefore is not just an eschatological vision for the African Christianity but it is a contribution to what

1 Watson AO Omulokoli, Christianity in Africa: Select Pillars from Kenya, Vol.1. BTL: Nairobi, 2017.

2 Note that Systematic Theology has traditionally organized what it sees the Bible saying into 9fold division—God, the Bible, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Salvation, Humanity, Angels, the Church and End Times.

3 Category denotes life forces with intelligence (men, spirits, the leaving dead)

4 These are subordinated powers of things, objects or simply animals, plants and minerals (or simply beings without intelligence)

5 This category describes the power of place and time would hopefully with time evolve into a definitive systematic theology discourse in Eschatology for the African Christianity.

The Past, the Present, the Future of African Christianity An Eschatological Vision for African Christianity

Eschatology—The African Ontology as Medium of Engagement

This is an attempt at the use of a non-Western ontology, in this case African ontology to do theology for the African Christianity. What is eschatology? How do I explain the term to my 80 year old dad who though not a theologian, does not use English, is not a tabula rasa, and has lived by the gospel for a better part of his life? ‘Eschatology’ as a word is a foreign category but concept which it embodies is not. This is what the first African bishop, Bishop Ajayi Crowther had in mind when he instructed thus: When we first introduce the Gospel to any people, we should take advantage of any principles which they themselves admit. Thus through the heathens in this part of Africa possess no written legends, yet wherever we turn our eyes, we find among them, in their animal sacrifices, a text which is the mainspring of the Christian faith. ‘Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.’ Therefore we may with propriety say: ‘That which ye ignorantly practice, declare we unto you.’7

The principles we take advantage of in articulating eschatology for the African Christianity reside in African ontology. In that conceptual framework we find death, dying and living on; ancestors, spirits and divinities as well as events, time and seasons. The way these categories stand in the African ontology allows us not only to see how the pre-Christian Africans responded to the question of life beyond this physical death, but also how these questions are making marks in African Christianity. This is granted, given that eschatology is about physical death and its logical spinoff--what happens to people when they die? The matter of time, events and seasons in the context of eschatology for the African Christianity allows not only for the utilization of the African ontology as a prism in relation to time, phenomena and events, but they also help us to see how African Christianity is living out these aspects of the African world—what is time, for instance in relation to the second coming of Christ? How is time related to the fulfillment of history realized in the corporate outlook to eschatology--completion of God’s redemptive plan in history and climaxed in the return of Christ.

The actual shape of African ontology though highly anthropocentric is discussed by Mbiti thus: 1. God as the ultimate explanation of the genesis and sustenance of both man and all things 2. Spirits being made up of superhuman beings and the spirits of men who died a long time ago

6 This category denotes manners (modalities) in which power acts (quality, quantity, relation, action, passion, position and possession).

7 J Page, The Black Bishop. London: Simpkin: 1910:282. 3. Man including human beings who are alive and those about to be born 4. Animals and plants, or the remainder of biological life 5. Phenomena and objects without biological life.8

God occupies the number one category, since he is the Originator and Sustainer of man; the spirits ancestors and divinities explain the destiny of man; Man sitting at the very center of this ontology gives it an anthropomorphic outlook; the next two categories are Animals, Plants and Natural Phenomena and Objects—these categories provide both the means and the theater in which man lives. This ontology is experienced as unified, impeccable and incapable of being destroyed without destroying the entire ontology including the Creator. This confidence though important for stability purposes fails in the face of eschatology—African Christianity must preach that Christ’s second appearance will shatter all syllogism, human pretense, cultural and conceptual structures. Now for instance we know sprits, ancestors and divinities, however what we know of these realities is only tentative. We experience phenomena and objects without biological life, we interact with animals, plants and the remainder of biological life but the extent to which we can go is only half way.

In a world that is configured in these terms provided by the African ontology, how do we figure out the message of hope, the good news of our individual and corporate destiny with our maker? As we shall see, this ontology has a way of speaking not only to the categories named, but even more fundamentally to the question of personal eschatology which of course climaxes in death and life beyond death. But the ontology also has a way of appreciating corporate eschatology. Although the African nomenclature appears to have spoken so eloquently to matters of personal and corporate eschatology in its context, the discussions have been pushed to the field of religious studies and social sciences. And so how we understand time, death or ancestors – categories that themselves are very theological—has contributed very little to the nature and shape of theological discourses and much less to a probable tinge of eschatology for the African context. This must change, and theology, it appears, must start to take positive advantage of our own intellectual tools.

Eschatology in relation to Death, Dying and Living On

The two ideas—death and dying in the African conceptual framework-- are to be seen as two realities at the end of a continuum. How this is understood is definitive in the discourse around personal eschatology. Note for instance that we are said to be dying to the extent that our ‘life force’ is diminishing, and we are said to be dead when that life force has entirely diminished. Jesus farther complicates the notion of death when he introduces into the mix of things what is clearly a spiritual death: “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt. 10:28). The dead who has experienced physical death encounters separation of the body from the soul and as Eccl. 12:7 puts it, “the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

So death squarely belongs to eschatology and not to other areas of knowledge; and it is continuous and instantaneous, physical and spiritual. Placide Tempels explains this

8 Mbiti, 1969:20. complexity by introducing another factor—‘force’ and he defines it as the ‘… nature of being, force is being, being is force.’ Placide Tempels’ explains this phenomenon thus: To understand ‘force’ means one must pay attention to the African people’s notion of life and death. The African people view life and death is not as absolute concepts but as relative concepts that are to be seen together. Life in this sense is a dynamic process of increase or decrease in ‘vital force.’ Under this system of thought, one enjoys a state of wellbeing when his/her life force is strong and is said to be dying when his/her life force is diminishing.9

When death occurs John S. Mbiti asserts, we see “…a separation and not annihilation; the dead person is suddenly cut off from the human society and yet the corporate group clings to him. This is shown through the elaborate funeral rites, the dirges and other ways of keeping in touch the departed.”10 The dirge used by all African communities, it should be mentioned, becomes a handy means of expressing the inevitable—the dead is praised, honored and moaned. African Christianity has traditionally not been happy with this—it has castigated elaborate funeral rituals, honoring the dead and any form of maintenance of links with the dead either in the past or in the present. This continues to be a grey area and Christians within the Independent, Charismatic and Pentecostal extractions appear to have sensed the lethargy of the historical forms of Christianity and are making steady inroads among the second generation Christians.

In all this, it is evident that in most African societies, the living refuse to let the dead go because the dead is believed to be at the entry point to a deeper relationship with the world around him and therefore he would be a direct benefit to those left behind. As a matter of fact, the goal of life among a good number of the African peoples is seen to be the ability to begin a relationship with the world around, a sort of a guarantee to open line for a vibrant communication with both the visible and the invisible world. Indeed the dead are granted a befitting funeral so that the dead is prevailed upon not to become a wondering ghost who suffers the indignity of not living properly after death. Note that in death, the position is that the whole person and not just some part of him continues to live and gets invested with powers to transact as an ancestor.

The following agenda is thus raised for an appropriate eschatology:

Agenda Item Phenomenon Recommendation for theology Agenda 1 Death We are said to be dying to the Understand death as a and extent that our ‘life force’ is continuum—we are dead, Dying diminishing, and we are said to be we are dying, we will die dead when that life force has entirely diminished Agenda 2 Clinging  We need to let our dead Situate death in the context

9 Placide Tempels, Bantu Philosophy (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1969, (45-55)

10 (African Religion and Philosophy, 1970, p. 46). to the go—they need to wait for of eschatology—that is dead resurrection where it belongs.  The dead viewed as a direct benefit to the living Hold vibrant conversation relatives on ‘clinging to the dead’  Should we moan? sing is Address contextual issues the reason for dirges? such as ‘befitting funeral’ Praise the dead?

Agenda 3 The goal The goal of life is to be an Ancestor only? Can we live of life ancestor for something else; for someone else, for more? Agenda 4 The Beyond the grave, the whole The whole person and not whole person continues to live just some part of him person continue to live; there is also the issue of quality of life one lives beyond the grave. At what point do we kick in the biblical teaching on heaven? Hell and eternity of punishment? Immortality?

Ancestors, Spirits and Divinities: Living in the After life The discussion about the intertwinedness of the African world has largely driven how we are to understand the seen and the unseen, the visible and the invisible, the sacred and the secular.11 Lamin Sanneh has heightened the discussion in what he sees as Africa’s religion which falls like a shaft of light across the entire spectrum of life.12What this means for eschatology is that in the African world, we have ancestors, spirits and divinities living within the same environment. Moreover, we don’t have another world which we are to occupy once we die, and neither do we postpone our bliss to a far distant future. Those who have since departed occupy abodes within proximity to their living relatives. The good who die dream, at the very best, of becoming ancestors as soon as they transition so that they can continue to patronize their living relatives and acquaintances. It is thus understood that this is our world and we continue to live in it whether we live or die. Talking about eschatology and the African world has in my view opened what is completely a different perspective on the possibility of an African eschatology. The

11 Stephen Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar, Worlds of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 14.

12 Lamin Sanneh, “New and Old in Africa’s Religious Heritage: Islam, Christianity and the African Encounter,” in Andrew F. Walls and Wilbert R. Shenk eds., Exploring New Religious Movements: Essays in Honor of Harold Turner (Elkhart, Indiana: Mission Focus, 1990), 64. question where do we go after we die asked from the position of a pre-Christian African has displayed the ancestors, the spirits and the divinities in a completely new light. The ancestors, the spirits and the divinities are not the nuisances that they have been displayed to be. Rather they provide what could in their differentiated ways be our windows into life after death. This is how our pre-Christian world explains what has befallen those who went ahead of us, our ancestors —they died but they are alive. This is how they explain how long they remain in those states and with what consequence. The ancestors did not just get annihilated and their souls are not merely asleep, instead they are perceived to be active and up and about the abodes of their living members of family. African Christianity has a duty to deal with this construct—to help its audience to ascend beyond the empty judgmental rhetoric of the missionary era and to embrace this window of opportunity for theological gain. The ancestors, the spirits and the divinities are not ghosts (pepo mbaya—bad spirits) and neither are they merely systems of ideas. Consequently, the living relate to them in active expressions, appropriations, and experiences of the supernatural. This category of existence (ancestors, the spirits and the divinities) were once human beings straddling their villages and holding positions of influence and honor, they live within easy proximity of their descendants and they remain to be part of their human family which they continue to actively influence in either direction depending on the inclination or quality of the relationship.13 Indeed as Daryll Forde once said, they are “… postulated in explanation of the workings of the universe, of the incidence of benefits and misfortunes, and of the strains of life in society.”14 They do this not just for the sake of it, but because they have immense interest in the welfare of their living descendant. This construct provides the African Christianity an opportunity to deal with such basic questions as: Where is heaven/hell? Note that our people think those who have gone are within easy reach of their living relatives. But even a more fundamental question: Heaven is for who and for how long? How does the doctrine of Soteriology fit in all this? The priority that the question of ancestors raises implies that for the African Christianity, the doctrine of Eschatology occupies a more privileged preference than the doctrine of Soteriology. Then there is the question of vigilance—the fact that the ancestors keep watch over their living relatives. They reward but they could also punish in equal measure. Thus they focus on requirement for discipline and provision of guidance in matters of family affairs, traditions and morality, as well as assurance of health and fertility. Thus witches, sorcerers and bad medicine have no powers over a man whose ancestors are alert. But the ancestors and the spirits are also known to punish members of their family in cases of error and moral vices. To that extent, they are not only considered the ubiquitous part of the clan which links both the world we live in and the spirit world,15but they are also understood to possess supernatural powers donated to them by the Supreme Being. They thus, independently can influence such powerful natural phenomena as rainfall and good

13 Omoregbe JI. Ethics, a Systematic and Historical Study. Lagos, Nigeria: Joja Educational Research and Publishers Limited; 1993. Epicurian ethics; pp. 174–7

14 Daryll Forde ed., African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African Peoples (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954)

15 Amponsah, k. Topics on West African traditional religion volume 1(Accra: Mc Graw-Hill FEP, 1974), p. 85. see also Awolalu and Dopamu West African traditional religion (Ibadan :Onibonje press, 1979),pp.272-273. harvest; even attainment of prosperity. On the other hand such misfortunes as drought, famine and destructive calamities may also be attributed to ancestors and the spirits. Note that there is a sense in which African Christianity may bring Eschatology into the doctrine of the Providence of God. Rainfall, good harvest even attainment of prosperity are all to be rightly situated within the providence of God. Although divinities are generally not directly related to the African eschatological vision, they are of massive influence among many African communities particularly the West Africans. For that matter, they are known variously as ‘gods’, ‘demigods’, ‘nature spirits’, divinities, and the like.16 It is understood that they exist in their hundreds. For instance, among the Yoruba, they are as many as 201, 401, 600, or 1700 divinities.17 Indeed JS Mbiti notes that among the Edo, there are as many divinities as there are human needs, activities and experiences.18Their eschatological significance lies in the fact that they are perceived to be intermediaries between man and the Supreme Being. As such, they function as windows through which sacrifices, prayers and offerings are both understood and presented to the Supreme Being. Although as Idowu argues, they do not necessarily distract from direct worship of God, where they are part of reality, their abode and function is considered half-way house, a purgatory of sorts which by design is not supposed to be permanent resting place for the departed.19 This recognition of ancestors, spirits and divinities in the African conceptual framework and their continued relationship with the rest of the African cosmology, we need to argue, is problematic. These realities, we note, have been discussed within some well understood narratives. For instance, we have had vibrant conversations on ancestor worship, animism or even diffused monotheism.20 Ancestor worship or veneration as typically defined in theological narratives is obviously negative21 and so are the other concepts—animism22 and diffused monotheism. While we state that the African culture is not animistic, we need also to emphasize that it doesn’t exist in ancestor worship nor is its character that of diffused monotheism. We however use these realities as genuine intellectual tools, perceptions of and responses for enabling access to the complex

16 Mbiti, John S. African. Concepts of God in Africa. London: SPCK, 1975:117.

17 Njoku, Francis O. C. Essays in African Philosophy, Thought & Theology. Owerri: Claretian Institute of Philosophy & Clacom Communication, 2002:127.

18 Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann, 1969:119.

19 Idowu, E. Bolaji. Oludumare: God in Yoruba Belief. London: Longmans, 1962

20 Bolaji Idowu uses this concept and by it he meant that to discuss the relationship between the divinities and Supreme Being in Africa according to which divinities serve as “functionaries in the theocratic government of the universe.” Accordingly therefore, the various divinities are apportioned respective duties to undertake in accordance with the will of the Supreme Being. It is also the case that divinities are ministers with different but complementary assignments in the monarchial government of the Supreme Being. Essentially then, they are administrative heads of various departments Idowu, E. Bolaji. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. London: SCM, 1973: 170).

21 We have had some vibrant debates in the last few decades about the nature of the relationship between the ancestors and the African people (Bae 2004:342). West (1975:185-187), Kuckerts (1981:10-11), Triebel (2002:192-194) all appear to have divergent views. Some talk of ancestor worship while others still consider it to be ancestor veneration. Most Christians such as Anderson (1993) reject ancestor worship on religious grounds as Anderson. mechanics of Africa’s pre-Christian cosmology and its provision for the world, humanity and existence beyond the grave. Some issues for ancestors, spirits and divinities:

Issues Phenomenon Needed intervention Issue 1 The departed occupy abodes within Heaven, immortality, proximity to their living relatives. intermediate state,/purgatory and the problem of biblical and historical data? Issue 2 Ancestors, spirits and divinities are not Exorcism as a way of containing demons. them is thus misplaced; we should instead direct them to where they should be as they await resurrection. Issue 3 They require discipline from their living A proper understanding of who relatives and in turn they provide guidance they are in the African ontology in matters of family affairs, traditions and corrects the manner of relating morality. They may also be the reason for with them. misfortunes. Issue 4 The divinities exist in their thousands, they A proper understanding of who are not to be confused with the biblical they are in the African ontology idols corrects the manner of relating with them Issue 5 Ancestor worship, animism or even Worldview and all its elements is diffused monotheism- is this what misunderstood—the African operating within this ontology implies?. ontology is not animistic, not about ancestor worship and is obviously further from diffused monotheism.

Interpreting Time, Events and Seasons

Africa’s notion of eschatology is inextricably intertwined to time, events and seasons. Here time whether past, present or future is concrete and substantive. It is thus defined as “a composition of events which have occurred, those that are taking place now and those which are immediately to occur.”23 This characterization that compounds time alongside events, activities and seasons allows for a possibility of conceiving potential time and actual time. Thus for Mbiti, the African people talk of time in terms of potential time and

22 The term animism was coined by the anthropologist E.B. Tylor (1832–1917). By it he meant a theory of religion according to which religion is a “belief in spiritual beings,” which originated in the early idea of attributing life, soul, or spirit to inanimate objects. “In defining the religious systems of the lower races, so as to place them correctly in the history of culture,” Tylor observed in 1892. See Tylor, E.B. “The Limits of Savage Religion.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21 (1892), 283–301.

23 John S Mbiti, 1971. New Testament eschatology in an African background. London: Oxford University Press, 1971: 17. actual time. Potential time in this scheme of things is understood to be that which has the likelihood of immediate occurrence or simply that which lies within the category of natural phenomenon. Actual time on the other hand is what is present and what is past. What is present is what is called sasa. This is the word for the time that covers the now period, with a sense of immediacy, nowness and nearness. Although time is felt in the present, it also actualizes in its habit of moving backwards rather than forward. This phenomenon is what he calls zamani. For Mbiti, zamani is the period of termination, the dimension in which everything finds its halting point. Here we meet something of the store house of all phenomenon and events, here all things get consumed.24 Thus Mbiti explains that in moving from sasa to zamani we actualize a situation our focus is seen to be a long past, a present and virtually no future.

Whereas, time for the African people embraces the past and the present with a measure of certitude, and the future only obliquely, Africa’s other way of reckoning time is by tying it to concrete, specific things and purposes. Time in this case is designated and not merely numerical or mathematical. Thus time is not conceived in a vacuum, rather we say, it is ‘time for’ or ‘time to’ or ‘time of.’ This way, Mbiti argues, we do not become slaves of time—we master it. In this scheme of things therefore, calendars represent phenomena—concrete things that happened. For instance, an ‘Oldman’ remembers when he was born or when he married in relation to an event or a phenomenon that happened just around the time. Time becomes a significant marker of event or phenomenon. In the case of our ‘Oldman,’ what is important is that he was born or that he married and not the mathematical exactitude which characterizes the year or month. That time is meaningful only to the extent that he was born or married then—it is a mere beacon in the theater of events. For that matter, African Christianity doesn’t appear bothered enough by when Christ will come, and so it doesn’t bother itself much by issues the eschatological controversies around when exactly is Christ coming. What is important for the African Christianity is that Christ will come—that ‘time for’ Christ to come, that ‘time of’ his return will sure come.

Kwame Bediako has aptly summarized Mbiti’s concept of time given above as comprising three important features: 1) it is two-dimensional, meaning it has a long past, a present and virtually no future; 2) Africa reckons its time in concrete and specific, related to events but never mathematically verifiable; and 3) Africa’s concept of time is related to history, but it always moves towards the past – from the present (the now) into the past.25 In as much as this conception of time relates to the African ontology, it also in a significant way lays ground for what could be a vibrant conversation on African eschatology. For instance, death and nothing else moves a person from sasa to zamani. This person who leaves the sasa for zamani however is still remembered by his family, acquaintances and friends. Occasionally he ventures out and he is identified. This intersection between zamani, sasa (a two-dimensional world) and humankind explains why Africa’s theological discourses on personalities such as ancestors, spirits and deities (the encounter creates event) are heavily engaged while future related and equally exciting topics such as eternal life, millennialism and so on are rarely engaged.

24 John S Mbiti, 1971. New Testament eschatology in an African background. London: Oxford University Press, 1971: 17: 23

25 Bediako, K. John Mbiti’s contribution to African theology. New York: De Gruyter, 1993:22-23. Agenda Phenomenon Intervention Agenda 1 past, present or future is concrete and To be noted substantive Agenda 2 There are three important features of the Area for further study— African notion of time: 1) it is two- opened vicious debate. dimensional having a long past, a present and virtually no future; 2) it is concrete and specific; and 3) it is related to history, but it always moves towards the past.

Key to this debate is Mbiti’s terms—zamani and sasa. Agenda 3 Concepts that require the use of a long time Recognize the gap and seek —eternal life, millennium etc. theological intervention.

Finally--- Eschatology! Eschatology plays a major part in the imagination of African religiosity. The issues of death, and the after-life; the problem of ancestors, spirits and divinities; the question of time, events and seasons in Africa couldn’t be more urgent. These ontological categories are not merely questions for the African conceptual framework. More importantly, they wrap themselves around social and theological questions which themselves shape the sub-Saharan Africa’s eschatological hope. We struggle daily with issues of death, with disease, with hunger, with environmental degradation—all these indicate that ‘we are dying.’ But there is hope—we are not dead yet—we are rising up to a new life in Christ.