Planificación; aplicación de técnicas y procedimientos constantes en los

Bosch (1991:84) indentifies the ‘Gospel and Culture’ as one of the prevailing missionary motifs in post-Enlightenment missionary activity. Many Western missionaries held that supplanting African cultures with that of the West would bring “the abundance of the good things that modern education, healing and agriculture would provide for the deprived peoples of the world” (Bosch 1991:85).

The outcomes, as we all know, were disastrous, because Africans sometimes be liable to be antagonistic to this Western worldview. At the differing extreme, Western missionaries held the African beliefs and practices, i.e. polygamy and ancestor veneration, in derision. The consequence was, and still is, nervousness between Western Christianity and the African expression of Christianity.

Oduru (202:35) points out that Western missionaries did not conceive replacement to the beliefs and practices they destabilized or banned. Their failure to notice left many African Christians with nothing to grasp onto in times of crisis. Many became alienated socially, culturally, psychologically, philosophically and religiously. Bosch (1991:96) sums it up sound, saying that “identity crisis was the overall result”. These cultural impositions by some Western missionaries and their African allies by hook or by crook prepared a fertile ground for the institution of AICs. These churches have been inventive in fusing African culture and Christianity. The optimistic reaction by Africans is a attestation that people take responsibility for the Church when they can transmit its beliefs and practices to their own context.

5.0 Conclusion

Christian missionaries assisted colonial officials in a number ways: they taught that Christians respected and obeyed those in authority; they provided a European presence in

educational and health services that the colonial government would not provide, in the process reducing opposition to colonial rule. Colonial governments provided missionaries with a peaceful environment in which they could do their mission work. Moreover, mission groups were often provided with land to build their mission stations by the colonial governments. However, their attitude towards Africans as inferior to the whites and prohibition to practice Christianity in African context made them to construct their own theology that would be suitable for them.

6.0 Summary

Christianity in Africa naturally bore and still bears the marks of those who introduced it into Africa. At the same time, for various reasons including the self-styled superiority of the culture of the West, little attention was paid by the early missionaries to the religious thought-forms and practices of the African peoples. Christian African leaders seem, however, not to have felt fully at home with the ‘imported’ forms of worship. Today, African Christians and missionaries alike are calling for an intensive study of the ingredients of the indigenous religious thought-forms and practices in order to ensure a truly effective communication of the gospel. So drums and dancing, offering of sacrifices to the gods and to the ancestors are receiving greater attention. It is reasonable to suggest that with the emergence of independent African States, nationalistic feelings may be behind the trenchant criticisms of contemporary Christian teaching and worship.

7.0 Tutor Marked Assignment

1. What are the main factors influenced the origin and growth of AICs?

2. List the ways in which (i) Christian missionaries and their activities may have helped colonial governments, (ii) colonial governments may have assisted Christian missionaries in their attempts at converting Africans.

3. State the two main reasons why some African Christians broke away from missionary churches to form African Independent Churches.

8.0 References for Further Reading

Harold Turner, History of an African Independent Church (1) - The Church of the Lord (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).

Terence O. Ranger, ed., Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Gunther Pakendorf, "A Brief History of the Berlin Mission Society in South Africa," History Compass (2011) 9#2 pp 106-118

Richard A. Van Dijk, "Young Puritan Preachers In Post-Independence Malawi," Africa (Edinburgh University Press) (1992) 62#2 pp 159-181.

Patrick Harries, "Christianity in Black and White: The Establishment of Protestant Churches in Southern Mozambique," Lusotopie (1988) pp 317-333

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 volumes, (1938–

45), the most detailed scholarly history

Barrett, D.B. 1968. Schism and renewal in Africa . Nairobi: OUP.

Bediako, K. 1995. Christianity in Africa: The renewal of a non-Western religion . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Bosch, D.J. 1980. Witness to the world: The Christian mission in theological perspective.

London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.

Bosch, D.J. & Saayman, W.A. 1987. Church and mission. Only Study Guide for MSB200-B. Unisa, 1-177.

Bosch, D.J. 1992. Transforming mission. Paradigm shifts in theology of mission.

Maryknoll:

Daneel, I. 1987. Quest for belonging. Gweru: Mambo Press.

Hastings, A. 1979. A history of African Christianity 1950-1975. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hayes, S. 1992. Mission as an African initiative. Study Guide for MSB302-G. Unisa, 1-134. 100

Kato, B.H. 1975. Theological pitfalls in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Evangel Publishing House.

Maluleke, T.S. 1998. African traditional religions in Christian mission and Christian scholarship: Re-opening a debate that never started. Religion and Theology, 5(2): 121-137.

Maluleke, T.S. 2000. The crucified reflected In Africa’s cross-bearers. Mission Studies, XVII (1/2): 33/34: 82-96.

Masuku, M.T. 1996. African Initiated Churches, Christian partners or antagonists?

Missionalia, 24:3 (November): 441-455.

Masuku, M.T. 1997. Feedback on assignment 02 in Tutorial Letter 102/1997 for MSB301-F. Unisa.

Molobi, V.M. 2004. African theology, Black theology and the AIC: A vision for mission.

D.Th. Thesis, Unisa.

Mpako, D. 2000. African priests accuse Catholic Church of racism. Challenge 59, April/May: 16-17.

Mugambi, J.N.K. 1977. The Church and the future in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: All Africa Conference of Churches.

Pato, L.L. 1980. The communion of the saints and ancestor veneration: a study of the concept “communion of saints” with special reference to the Southern African religious experience. MA dissertation, University of Manitoba.

Sundkler, B. & Steed, C. 2000. A history of the Church in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Turner, H. 1979. Religious innovation in Africa. London: Oxford University Press.

Uka, E.M. 1989. Missionary go home? A sociological interpretation of an African response to Christian mission. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

West, M. 1975. Bishops and prophets in a black city. African Independent Churches in Soweto, Johannesburg. Cape Town: David Phillip

Parratt John ed. A Reader in African Christian Theology. London: SPCK, 1997.

UNIT 5: AFRICAN CHRISTIANITIES: FEATURES, PROMISES AND