The study has shown that conversion methods that were applied by missionary Christianity were influenced by the socio-cultural context that was taking place in their home countries before and during the time of western Christendom‟s expansion. The
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renaissance and enlightenment, the discovery of Darwin‟s theory of evolution and the quasi-scientific worldview strongly influenced western thinking that had impacted the western missionary theology of conversion and Christianization of non-western cultures.
For this reason almost all the conversion methods applied by missionary Christianity created African Christianity with a western outlook.
Although missionary Christianity conversion methods helped the Haya to adopt the missionaries‟ way of life such as dressing styles, and access to important social services like western medical care, skills and “formal” education, it did not touch the hearts of Haya African Christians as they were not conveyed in a way that takes seriously the Haya religio-cultural worldview, as we noted in chapter three. This suggests the possibility that most of the Haya became Christians not necessarily for religious reasons, but rather for benefits accompanying missionary Christianity.
It created the possibility of having a Christianity that is artificial among the African converts; one is worn and not experienced. The missionary Christianity in Northwest Tanzania, just like in other parts of Africa, to a greater extent did not take Haya region-cultural context and spirituality seriously. Sundkler (1980:5-6) admits that missionary Christianity had produced artificial Christians despite their contact with church and school. He points out that missionary Christianity‟s African generations were left at the borderline between old and new. This feature was not only the case among the lay Christians, but also early generation theologians who still had the same worldview of tradition and Christianity.
This study of missionary Christianity among the Haya and their conversion methods has shown that one of our interpretive hypotheses which we pointed out in chapter one is both true and wrong. The interpretive (working) hypothesis was:
“Since mission Christianity conversion was introduced and applied among the Haya people being accompanied by western cultural worldviews and values, it
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was perceived to be more cultural conversion and less religious conversion leading to negative consequences for their Christian life.”
The study has indicated that it is true that missionary conversion among the Haya of the western Tanzania to a certain extent lacked, and still today to some Haya Christians still lacks, authenticity and relevance for it does not strictly and adequately take into account the cultural and spiritual nature of the Haya people, as was discussed previously. It is nonetheless, important to point out that not all consequences were negative, as we have seen that social change was one of the key positive aspects of missionary approach and conversion methods. The question is, what about the spiritual aspect? Did the missionaries approach and methods sufficiently meet the spiritual needs of the Haya?
To address these questions, we need to go back to Stanley‟s distinction of conversion (2006:70). Stanley presents a vivid distinction between conversion to Christ and conversion Christianity. To him conversion to Christ is more of a personal relationship with Christ as a result of the influence of the Holy Spirit as a chief agent of this transformation process, while conversion to Christianity may imply a close relationship with Christianity as a religion. The former suggests spiritual transformation – regeneration, while the latter implies alignment with Christianity as a system of beliefs without necessarily a spiritual transformation. To Stanley, this is associated with a human being (missionary) as an agent of conversional process while the former is with the Holy Spirit as agent of conversion.
Taking into account what Stanley observes above, it can be concluded that western missionaries among the Haya endeavored to convert them into western Christianity, but probably not enough was done to convert them to Christ. Nonetheless, by the power of the Holy Spirit through East African Revival in the first place and later through Charismatic-Pentecostal revival, the Haya have come to realize that they needed conversion to Christ.
The Revival Movement and now the Charismatic movement, as shall be discussed at length in the next chapters, should be viewed as the work of the Holy Spirit that calls the Hayas to convert to Christ and enjoy the relationship with Christ in their social cultural
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contextual milieu based on their traditional spirituality and religiosity. However, there are some questions regarding this point. Does that mean that there is no conversion to Haya Lutheran Christianity? What makes these revivals more effective than the conversion methods in missionary Christianity? What is the theological and cultural contribution of these revivals? These questions will be explored in terms of the missioDei theological dimension of conversion through structuration theory in chapters five and six.
4.7 Conclusion
In chapter four we have discussed the Christianization and missionization of Haya by western missionaries in the nineteenth century. We have showed how Northwest Tanzania was Christianized and various categories of missionaries who Christianized Haya were discussed. The context that informed the missionary‟s theology of conversion and their approach towards religions other than Christianity was investigated. We finally at length explored various methods that were applied by western missionaries in their process of missionizing the Haya and later the strengths and weakness of these methods were also discussed in this chapter.
We pointed out that the conversion approach of western missionaries was good in nature;
however the way this was applied did not adequately take into account the nature and scope of the Haya traditional cultural contextual and spiritual worldview. Cultural conversion, mass conversion, education, medical work, material incentives, liturgical and sacramental conversion were applied in such a way that they could attract more artificial converts who joined Christianity for material, modernity and socio-political motives so as to access the benefits attached to these. These methods were likely to produce nominal Christians who remained in the dual religious system.
For this reason, today Haya Christians find themselves in tension between the Traditional Religion and Christianity because the way Christianity was and continues to be portrayed to them does not seem to adequately meet their spiritual needs and hence cannot address their inner religio-cultural challenges. Many Haya beliefs such as the question of ancestral
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spirits, witchcraft, curses, barrenness, misfortunes, have to be dealt with within the Haya traditional religion because missionary Christianity and the mainline churches that still follow the old system have failed to address them. This is precipitated by the fact that these missionaries failed to distinguish between the Gospel and their western culture.
There has been a common understanding of missionaries attempting to guide the process of cultural changes among the African Christian community members. Therefore as Nyongeza (2001:30) put it “their often severe denunciation of African culture can be viewed as evidence of their insistence of wholesale westernization”.
As we saw in chapter three based on the social theory of structuration which complements the social dimension of conversion to Christianity, the realization of authentic conversion is not only determined by missionaries with their conversion methods and approach, but the social religio-cultural context of a convert would influence the Haya understanding and realization of Christian conversion. In chapter three I argued that the Haya indigenous and their social structure was not only transformed by missionary Christian conversional methods, but their religio-cultural background also at least to some degree played a role in their task of interpreting a new faith – Christianity. I concluded that, “Missionaries‟
teaching and application of conversion cannot only be factors influencing the Haya understanding of their conversion and its consequences, but Haya Tradition and Religion within which the Haya live is also important”, hence the affirmation of continuity and discontinuity among the Haya Christian converts was an inevitable reality.
These arguments resonate with what Sanneh (1990) and other scholars like Bediako (1996) call internal assimilation. They maintain that missionaries conveyed external transmission and the people to whom the Gospel was brought, conveyed internal assimilation. This implies that the assimilation of Christianity among the Haya, though it was conveyed with weakness, was not necessarily going to be based solely on the agents of western Christianity, but the internal socio-cultural dynamics also had a role to play in shaping Christianity among the Haya that would address both their spiritual as well as their temporal needs. Based on the above arguments, chapter five looks at the impacts of the missionary Christianity conversion approach and methods from the responses and
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perspective of the Haya Christians. The theoretical scaffolding matrix of conversion allows us to look at issues on different levels of practices and movements with regards to conversion in Northwest Tanzania.
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CHAPTER FIVE
HAYA CHRISTIANS’ RESPONSES TO MISSIONARY CHRISTIANITY’S CONVERSION APPROACH AND METHODS
5.1 Introduction
In chapter four we explored the conversion methods that were applied by missionary Christianity in the course of missionization of the Haya. The study ascertained that the influence of enlightenment, renaissance, Darwin‟s theory of evolution and western quasi-scientific worldview on the western missionaries who came to evangelize the Haya people informed their approach and conversion methods. Based on these reasons, the study has argued that although the missionary Christianity conversion methods were good in nature, with good motives, and produced social changes that were instrumental in the modern development of the Haya in terms of formal education, medical care and other skills that later produced Haya Africans who became leaders in church and socio-political arena, the kind of Christianity received among the Haya did not sufficiently address the religio-cultural contextual spirituality and worldview and thus produced a conversion that, to some Haya, appeared artificial.
Drawing on missiological, theological-anthropological and sociological approaches, chapter five explores the response and praxis of the Haya Christian converts with regard to their understanding of conversion in relation to the missionaries‟ conversion approach.
The chapter examines the indigenous Haya‟s attempt to indigenise post missionary Christianity‟s conversion within the East African Revival and in the Pentecostal-Charismatic revival movements. For this reason, the chapter attempts to answer some questions like: If missionary Christianity achieved its intended goal when converting the Haya indigenous people why then do the baptized and confirmed Haya Christians within the framework of mainline churches need and still go to Haya Traditional Religion with problems related to their ontological existential crisis? Why today Haya Christians within the Protestant mainline churches go for another conversion (re-conversion) in either East
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African, or Pentecostal-Charismatic Revival movements, a critical question which this thesis addresses61.
The chapter argues that due to the inadequacy of missionary Christianity methods and approach in indigenization of Christianity among the Haya, some Haya Christians tend to actualize their “re-conversion” outside their church‟s theological orthodoxy of conversion.
That implies that the Haya have been and continue to undergo what appears to them as a
“real” conversion within the East African Revival and Charismatic spiritual movements and at the same time, some other Haya Christians who do not undergo such a “re-conversion” maintain dual allegiance to both Christianity and the African Traditional religious discourse, especially during existential crises.
The chapter also argues in line with our second interpretive (working) hypothesis proposed in chapter one: “The Haya’s perception of indigenous religion as a totality of life that incorporates one’s whole existence has moulded their perception of strict religious adherence, and is continuing to impact and shape their inception and perception of Christian conversion in general and Christian life in particular.”
It does so by first investigating the missionary and post missionary classical doctrinal understanding of conversion and the Haya contemporary Christians‟ understanding of conversion. The chapter shall also investigate critically the levels of Haya responses to the western missionary presentation of conversion in the light of conversion to Christianity and conversion to Christ, a distinction proposed by Stanley62. Haya primal religion influences their contemporary understanding of conversion shall further be explored. It shall finally be concluded by pointing out the findings based on the abovementioned investigation and analysis.
61 For a decade or so some church leaders and theologians have been accusing Pentecostal-Charismatic churches and movements of “stealing” their church members or what has been termed as fishing from others’ boats due to this tendency of Christians moving from mainline churches so as, among other things, to attain a “real” conversion that makes sense to them. The accusation has been responded from the accused side as not stealing sheep but planting grass Planting grass in this case implies the ability of Pentecostal-Charismatic churches to meet peoples‟ spiritual needs that are certainly not met in their respective mainline churches, see for example, Anderson (2011:68).
62 See chapter two (2.4 ) and chapter four (4.6 )
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