THE CATHOLIC FAITH: IN THE EYES OF AFRICAN TRADITION

IBIYEMI VICTOR ‘WALE

INTRODUCTION

In recent time, it is not obscure to attribute the failure of the full assimilation of the Christian message on the African soil to the “war” experienced when the Christian faith comes in contact with African traditional values. However, there is not escape of such battles because the same man who is a Christian is also the same who is African. He cannot strip himself off the African mentality or format his Africanness to become a new slate. For those who have tried to do this “formatting” of the African identity have only ended up joggled in the middle with no identity they could call theirs. In the same vein, the same man cannot jettison or reject his Catholic faith because he is African, if he tries this, he would be in perpetual darkness and spiritual debasement. Hence, many have cowardly crawled or dovetailed into what is regarded as syncretism or neopaganism which are two of the biggest troubles bedevilling the African man in recent times. What should therefore be the way out? If there is going to be any liberation from syncretism or neoganism? The only reliable solution I what is often regarded as inculturation which I vehemently think is a way of seeing the catholic Faith in the eyes of African Tradition. This paper transverse the idea of inculturation only in liturgy but ideally inculturation in every aspects of the people’s life. 

THE CATHOLIC FAITH AND THE AFRICAN PEOPLE: THE EVANGELISATION OF A PEOPLE

It is indubitable to remark that the contact of the Catholic Faith with the African world was staged in Evangelisation. In fact, evangelisation is still an ongoing task in the continent. And more importantly, with the elapsing effects of the Year of Faith, what registers is that, there is need for actual re-evangelisation of all peoples.

When the Faith was received, it wasn’t received in a vacuum as the early white missionaries would want to claim. It was in truth received, overlapping traditional cultural values with are very unique to the African experience. Sequel to the above, is the fact that the process of evangelisation came in with strands and elements of other agenda, therefore making the whole evangelical experience, a bunch of many coagulated ideologies.

The faith in so many Africans was not sunk deeply enough. Because, the faith was proven to be very different from what the Africans could normally conceive of their natural environment. After all, it is a foreign religion. That foreignness eventually became a perennial missing-link to identify the tenets of the Catholic religion to the African existence. What many did in those African settings was to just adopt Catholicism even without a full understanding of what it fully entails.

In the final analysis therefore, what is discovered is that, there is a huge gap between the faith of these people and culture. The result of this is living double lives. A life that is quite distinct when they are in the Church and another totally distinct life-style in social-cultural engagements. Is that not what we experience even with modern day Christians? This situation begs for solution and for a synergy between the religious and social expressions of Catholics.

In the consideration of this nagging problem, the solution has been a term vehemently invoke in mostly liturgical and theological spheres called- Inculturation.

INCULTURATION: INCARNATING THE GOSPEL INTO OUR CULTURE

Inculturation is a recent coinage in the vocabulary of the Church’s magisterium. Basically, it implies the incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the church.[1] Pope Paul VI also made the remark that “what matters is to evangelise man’s culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative was, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots), in the wide and rich sense which these terms have in Gadium et Spes (50), always taking the person as one’s starting point and always coming back to the relationships of people among themselves and with God.[2]

For Blessed John Paul II, inculturation means “the ultimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures.[3]For any effective conversion to be wrath, Africa needs an evangelization of her culture. On the African soil, this has taken different dimensions and is in the process, what we can hope for is that it is properly done for effectiveness. 

AN AFRICAN UNDERSTANDING OF THE FAITH: TOWARDS AN AFRICAN THEOLOGY

The Popes have continued to warn and advise that there must be an African Christianity.[4] When we talk of an African Christianity, it does not translates into a juju worship or a juju-based Christianity. It is understanding the Catholic Faith purely from our African scenes. In that light, we will not be living aloof of our religion. The question that must then be asked is: how truly can we create an African-catholic worship?

The most visible expression of that integration is the Liturgy. Indeed Sacrosanctum Concillium notes that the liturgy is the culmen et fons; the source of the Church’s life and existence. Therefore, Anscar Chupungco remarks that “inculturation is a process hereby pertinent elements of a local culture are integrated into the worship of a local Church. Integration means that culture will influence the way prayer formularies are composed and proclaimed, ritual actions are performed, and the message is expressed in art forms. Integration could also mean that local rites, symbols and festivals, after due critique and Christian reinterpretation, will become part of the liturgical worship of a local Church.[5] Hence, one thing is sure, liturgical texts, symbol, gestures and feast will evoke some sentiments from the people’s history, traditions, cultural patterns and imaginative genius. In effect, some areas that involve inculturation in the liturgy include: Language, music, ritual gestures, symbols and material elements.[6]

CONCLUSION: THE SWEETNESS OF BEING AN AFRICAN CHRISTIAN

There is abundance of joy when we truly worship the way we should- that we worship in our culture and tradition. By that, we promote God with what we have and in what we are. In fact, the idea of foreignness is abolished and worship becomes livelier and more appreciable. Let’s do it! 

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[1] John Paul II Encylical, SlavorunApostoli ,21

[2] Paul VI, EvangeliiNuntiandi, 20

[3] John Paul, encyclical, redemptorisMissio, 52

[4]Ude, Francis Arinze and Paul Ochada, “Inculturation and the Ongoing Dialogue: Implications for Liturgy” in Fifty Years After Vatican II: Challenges, Faith and Culture- A Journal of African Theology Vol. 23 Published by the NACATHS, Nigeria. (March, 2013), p. 2

[5]Anscar J. Chupungco, OSB, Liturgical Inculturation: The Future that awaits us in www.valpo.edu/ ...chupungco2.pdf Accessed on 17^th Nov, 2013.

[6]Ude, Francis Arinze and Paul Ochada, Op.cit. p. 7