Situación profesional de evaluación número 1

4 David B Barrett Schism and Renewal in Africa ,1968, 278 [italics mine] 5 op cit, 109

Protestants and Catholics in the tribe.6

These factors com bined, to a greater o r lesser extent, to create a predisposition to an indigenous

form o f Christianity.

For Barrett this highlighted the integrated nature o f a tribe’s social structure, m eaning that “no enforced change can take place in one area w ithout affecting all the others; for politics, law,

religion, art, language, culture and society are all closely interlocked in a balanced and self-

righting system.” 7 w hich is another w ay o f affirm ing the A frican dictum; “w e are, therefore I

am ” .

3 . The development of A I C s

Barrett is highly critical o f the early missionaries w ho m ade little attem pt to discern points o f

preparedness for the G ospel in traditional rehgion and w ith the translation o f the com plete Bible”...African societies gradually began to discern a serious discrepancy betw een m issions and biblical religion in coimection w ith the traditional institutions under attack [like

polygyny]...It becam e m ost severe in those tribes w hich had had both foreign m issions and

vernacular Bible for a long periods, w ith neither the liberty to practise w ithin the Church the institutions apparently sanctioned by the O ld Testam ent; nor the liberty o f new converts to

govern their ow n churches sanctioned by the N ew .”

T he irony lies in the m issions’ translation o f the B ible into vernacular w hich, as in the

Protestant Reform ation, becam e the tool o f criticism o f the status quo in the peoples’ hands and becam e for A frican societies an independent standard o f reference to legitimise their

grievances. These grievances becam e articulated in certain biblical themes but centred around

the desire to m anage church affairs free from foreign control; to shake o ff w hite pohtical domination; to em phasise the Spirit or pneuma and the desire to experience “bibhcal release”

from sickness, w itchcraft and sorcery. In short, they w anted to control their ow n destinies “by

exercising biblical pow er prom ised to the people o f G od and derived from pneuma'\^

6 Barrett 1968, op cit 109 7 op cit, 265

Those ‘tribal un its’ w ho cam e from a position o f ‘bibhcal pow er’, reacted against the “force

vitale”9 o f the w hite missions in a recognisably C hristian way w ith m essianism , miUeniahsm and the various form s o f Christian prophetic m ovem ent.

Barrett lO highhghts other features o f the indigenous Christianity that have em erged from the AICs:

i) The centrahty o f the historical Jesus as L ord and Saviour.

This w ould include a central confession or form al acknow ledgem ent o f Christ as L ord, using vernacular term s for ch ief ship o r lordship; a m arked resurgence o f A frican custom and w orld view and a strong affirm ation o f their right to be both fiihy A frican and fully Christian, independent o f foreign pressures.

ii) A com plex o f new rehgious form s m arked by three themes: bibhcism , africanism and

Philadelphia

n .

i) A new type of community

Barrett sees the em ergence o f new indigenous churches as a response to the destruction o f the

old societal form s w ithin a tribe. T hat they are, in effect, building a new type o f com m unity , “a restructuring o f society w hich replaces the old tribe by the new church often w ith its ow n

closely-integrated institutions, custom s, behefs and law s, in w hich the m ass o f innovatory ideas and practices serves to bring about a quite new social cohesion in a disintegrating society. This new society, then, becom es a place to feel at hom e, capable o f fulfilling the same

m ediating role in the new secular w orld as the traditional tribal com plex played in the old.” 12

9 Barnett, 1967, op cit, 26 7 Africans “had failed to obtain the force vitale, the mysterious power of the whites -either material, financial, cultural, religious, spiritual or ecclesiastical. Their societies were not being fulfilled by the new religion , but w ere being dem olished.”

10 op cit, 273

11 ‘brotherly love’ 12 op cit, 275

ii) The power of prayer

In his critique o f the A frican Indigenous church m ovem ent, Zablon N tham burii3 adds prayer

as a significant feature o f the A ICs and that the A frican attitude to prayer is one o f great hum ility, reverence and subm ission.

Pockets are em ptied o f all m oney and other objects that m ay distract one’s devotion, since one is expected to dem onstrate hum an vulnerability and unw orthiness before the creator. The

com m unity prays together, thus em phasising com m unity cohesiveness. Such fellow ship includes not only those w ho are gathered together at a particular place but all G od’s people,

including not only the living A m ong the K im banguistsi4 C hristians personal prayer is very

im portant for all occasions- w hether before sleep, before having a m eal or before work. In

public prayer K im banguists rem ove their shoes before entering the sanctuary., m em bers o f the

com m unity but the living-dead as w ell.” i5

N tham buri asserts that w hat these churches have learned from A frican traditional rehgiosity is “the place o f prayer in the life o f a com munity. The church is, above all else, a praying

com m um ty. It is only after m eaningful fellowship and prayer that the church can go out to

evangelise by the strength o f the H oly Spirit.” 16

*The place o f prayer is therefore reflected in all aspects o f life. Indigenous churches know that A fricans caimot dichotom ise life and so com bine m undane and spiritual spheres o f life show n particularly in prayer. A holistic understanding o f life is crucial for the modus operandi o f

13 Zablon Nthamburi “Toward Indigenisation of Christia nity in Africa: a Missiological Task”, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, July 1 9 8 9 ,1 1 2 -1 1 8

14 The Kimbanguist Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo w as founded by Simon Kimbangu in N’Kamba In early 1921 where he started a powerful prophetic ministry in which thousands were converted, miracles were performed and his followers were exhorted to abandon fetishes, give up polygamy and dancing. He soon aroused the anger of the then Belgian colonial government and the jealousy of missionaries. By Septem ber 1921 Kimbangu, a pacifist, w as arrested, accu sed of treason and insurrection and sen ten ced to death. This sen ten ce w a s modified to life imprisonment where he spent the next thirty years mainly in solitary confinement. He died in prison in 1951.

However the Kimbanguist church continued to grow despite persecution and the' Church of J e su s Christ on Earth through Simon Kimbangu’ gained official recognition after the country’s

independence. It now has a membership of several million, Is self-supporting and continues an indigenous holistic ministry, with faith-healing and exorcisms.

For further reading: Marie-Louise MartiniKlmbangu: An African Prophet and his Church, Blackwell, Oxford, 1975; Also Fashole-Luke et al. (Eds.) Christianity in Independent Africa 1978

15 Nthamburi 1989 op cit 117