ENCOUNTERING THE MBUTI PYGMIES A Challenge to Christian Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by MUSOLO W’ISUKA PAUL KAMUHA submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY in the subject MISSIOLOGY at the University of South Africa Supervisor: Prof. Nico A. BOTHA Co-supervisor: Prof. David M. KASALI June 2013 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Student number: 3512-366 -4 I declare that “Encountering the Mbuti Pygmies: A Challenge to Christian M ission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ” is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. __________________ 10 June 2013 Signature Date (Mr) MWP Kamuha To the Pygmy peoples, victims of discrimination and exclusion. We should remember them well, for they mirror our past. They are the living spirits of our not so distant hunting and gathering ancestors. (Duffy 1996) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The only words worthy of being said at this moment of the completion of this thesis are that, “Nothing is impossible for God!” (Luke 1:37). “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever…” (1 Tim. 1:17), who made it possible for me to undertake this study and sustained me through all the hardships I have endured up to the accomplishment of the project. I am greatly indebted to Professor Nico Adam Botha, whose warm personality, guidance, and continued encouragement have spurred my efforts throughout my research. May the present work be for him a subject of pride. So, too, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Professor David Musiande Kasali of the Christian Bilingual University of the Congo whose depth of experience and insight have been profoundly helpful in developing the thesis. I owe UNISA a debt of gratitude for the ideal setting for research, especially the well-equipped library without which this thesis would not have been of a sufficiently high scientific quality. My deep gratitude is also expressed to the staff members of the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology; the staff of the library of the main campus in Muckleneuk; and to all those who are in charge of the students’ administrative issues at Sunnyside, Es’kia Mphahlele Registration Hall B. I sincerely thank the Université Libre des Pays des Grands Lacs (ULPGL) for the recommendation to postgraduate studies at UNISA and for the necessary financial support in this regard. Thanks to its initiatives of both genius and determination, postgraduate education has become a reality which contributes greatly to the sustaining of its educational goals, despite the scarcity of financial resources within an environment of diverse conflicts and wars. Through the ULPGL’s partnership with European universities, I have been granted two research stays in Europe, in the Netherlands and in Switzerland. In this respect, Professor Jansen Mitchell of the University of Utrecht (UU) in the Netherlands was very helpful in the early days of this thesis. Professor Hans-Christophe ASKANI of the University of Geneva vi (UNIGE), furthermore, tutored me during my research time in Geneva and has read parts of the manuscript carefully and offered several helpful insights. Heartfelt and warm thanks go to my partner of life, Madame Josephine Masika Bakalania, who has remained at home in Goma in DRC with our children and has suffered through long periods of separation, silence, and loneliness while I have been busy conducting research in South Africa and in Europe. As a true and suitable helper from God, she did not fail to be a steady and constant source of encouragement, strength, and spiritual support to me. May this thesis be a subject of relief for her. So, too, I thank my daughters and sons for having endured my long absence during my studies. May this thesis be for them a subject of consolation as well as an inspiring model for their studies. I am very grateful to each one of my friends and PhD colleagues, and others who have helped me in many different ways, for instance, Marie-Eve Kayowa who first suggested and encouraged me to conduct this doctoral research on the Pygmy peoples, and Diel Mochire Mwenge, a Mbuti Pygmy, who first introduced me to the Pygmy world. May anyone else who, in one way or another, near or far, has contributed to the completion of my thesis find in this academic work the expression of my profound gratitude. As there cannot be a good musical concert without a good sound mixer, the final words of gratitude are warmly addressed to both Reverend David Swanepoel and Mr Honoré Bunduki, whose task of editing has been to ensure that this thesis is well tuned in terms of the English language. MWP Kamuha SUMMARY This thesis explores the Mbuti Pygmies, a sub-group of the Pygmy peoples, one of the main ethnic groups of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Mbuti Pygmies are settled mostly in the Ituri rainforest, and are, with regard to Christian mission, still unreached and unchurched. The oversight of the churches vis-à-vis these people is highlighted, through this thesis, as a challenge to Christian mission. This challenge is a result of the way Christian mission is understood and undertaken in DRC, namely in the selective and exclusive way of missioning, according to which some peoples are targeted and others forsaken. Churches in the DRC shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies probably because, on the one hand, these forest dwellers belong to the group of Pygmies whose existence as full human beings is enigmatic and very controversial. Because of the uniqueness of the Pygmy peoples in terms of physical features, culture, and way of life, on the other hand, the non-Pygmy peoples, including Christians, suffer from a kind of complex of superiority that creates in them a spirit of discrimination against the Mbuti Pygmies. As the Mbuti Pygmies are discriminated against even by Christians, it is very difficult for them to be taken into account within the mission agendas of the churches. This challenge to Christian mission is highlighted by two facts. Firstly, Christian mission is designed for all the nations to which the Mbuti Pygmies belong. Secondly, the churches, with their missional mandate to all the nations, shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies as if these people were outside the scope of Christian mission and, thus, unworthy of God’s grace and love. To remedy this challenge, with the aim of implementing Christian mission in the DRC, this study suggests a missional encounter as a way forward to addressing the Mbuti Pygmies. In practice, this may be implemented through the missionary conversion, the right perception of the Mbuti Pygmies as being fully made in the “image of God” and fully part of the “all nations”, promoting formal education among the Mbuti Pygmies, and sustaining the churches by an integrated theological education. viii Keywords All Nations, Challenge(s), Christian Mission, Church(es), Conversion, Discrimination, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Encounter(ing), Formal Education, Image of God, Integrated Theological Education, Mbuti Pygmies, Missio Dei , Mission (missional) encounter, Northeast DRC (Ituri rainforest), Pygmy Peoples. ABBREVIATIONS ACHPR African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights AFP Agence France-Presse AG Ad Gentes (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity) AIM Africa Inland Mission B.C. Before Birth of Jesus Christ BMS Baptist Missionary Society CAR Central African Republic CE Communauté Emmanuel CEBCE Communauté des Eglises Baptistes du Congo-Est CECA-20 20 ème Communauté Evangélique au Centrale de l’Afrique CECCA Communauté Evangélique du Christ au Cœur de l'Afrique CEI Commission Electorale Indépendante CEIRDC Centre d’Echange d’Informations de la République Démocratique du Congo CEPAC Communauté des Eglises de Pentecôte en Afrique Centrale cf. confer , compare CIA Central Intelligence Agency CIM China Inland Mission CIS Congo Independent State CL Church Leader CM Communauté Mambasa (Mambasa Community) CMA Christian and Missionary Alliance CMS Church Missionary Society CNCA Communauté Nations du Christ en Afrique CPM Congo Pygmy Mission CPPA Cadre de Politique pour les Peuples Autochtones CWME Commission on World Mission and Evangelism DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo DVD Digital Video Disk ed(s) editor(s) et al. et alii , and others ETCN Ecole de Théologie du Congo Nord (Theological School of Northern Congo) GCOWE Global Consultation on the World Evangelisation GMT Greenwich Mean Time HAM Heart of African Mission HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome i.e. id est , that is IBE International Bureau of Education IM Immanuel Mission IMC International Missionary Council x IRIN Integral Regional Information Network ISDR Institut Supérieur de Développement Rural LIM Livingston Inland Mission LCWE Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization MARC Mission Advanced Research and communication Centre MM Mambasa Mission MP Mbuti Pygmy MPC Mbuti Pygmy Camp n.d. no date given NALU National Army of the Liberation of Uganda NGO(s) Non-Governmental Organisation(s) NP Non-Pygmy ONWR Okapi National Wildlife Refuge RFI Radio France Internationale RM Redemptoris Missio RUPs Remaining Unevangelized Peoples SANRU Santé Rurale SDAC Seventh Day’s Adventist Church SOWIP State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge STIs Sexual Transmitted Infections SWG Strategy Working Group TEF Theological Education Fund UAM Unevangelized Africa Mission UFM Unevangelized Fields Mission ULPGL Université Libre des Pays des Grands Lacs UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UK United Kingdom UPC Université Protestante au Congo (Congo Protestant University) US(A) United States (of America) USB Université Shalom de Bunia (University Shalom of Bunia) VEM Verbundene Evangelische Mission (United Evangelical Mission) v(v) verse(s) vol(s) volume(s) WCC World Council of Churches WEC Worldwide Evangelization Crusade WMC World Missionary Conference All the abbreviations related to the NGOs working among the Pygmy peoples are listed and explained in footnote 11.