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.