in South Africa

Vol. 2· NO.2 November 1988

The JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA IspubliShed by the BLACK THEOLOGY PROJECT .s a forumfor the exchange of theologlclliideas and a contribution to thedevelopment of Black Theology In South Afrka andelsewhere. The articles In thlsjoul'NIl repI ....nt the views ofthe .uthors .nd not of the project. editorial board or pub­lisher.

EDITOR: T.kIItso A. Mofokeng

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Simon S. Mal"*­

EDITORIAL BOARD: Itume5eng J. Mo..I.Buttn_1o

L.ebam.ng SebldlMokgethl Motlhllbl

CONTRIBUT1NG EDITORS: J.mes H. Cone, Prot.ssor ofSystematic TMology, Union TheoIoglclll Seminary,

New York, U.S.A.

Cornel West, Prof.ssor at Philosophy and Religion, UnionTheologlca' Seminary, New York, U.S.A.

Jacqueline Grant, Professor of Theology,Interdenominational Theological center, Atlanta,

Georgia, U.S.A.

N. K. Gottwald, New York TheoIoglcIIl Seminary,New York, U.S.A.

Theo Sundemeler, Unlwrslty of Heldelburg, West Gel I"any

Theo Wltvliet, University of Amaterdllm, The NeIl'1ertanda

B. Gobs, Unrversity of South Afrka

Well.. M17aml.., University of Cap" Town

G. M. set:lloane, University of Cap" Town

Llzo Jafla, Federal TheoJogIcaI seminary

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November 1986

EDITORIAL

JOURNAL OFBLACK THEOLOGYIN SOUTH AFRICA

Vol. 2· No.2

ARTICLES:

The Implications of the Text of Esther for African Women'sStruggle for Liberation by Dr ItumeJeng MosaJa 3

Civil Authority - From the Perspective of African Theologyby ProIC.S. SetiJoane 10

A Quest for an African Cbristologyby Dr Gwinyaj Muzorewa 24

Toward a Quest for Christican Identity: A Third WorldPerspective by Dr BonganjaJo Gobs 31

BOOK REVIEWS:

Global Economy- by Ulrich Duchrowreviewed by M.P. Moila 37

The Voice of Black Theology in South Africa- by L. Kretzschmar 39reviewed by S.S. Maimela 39

Ethic and Liberation: An Introduction- by Kamer 111 C.L. 40reviewed by S.S. Maimela 40

From the Heart of the People The Theology ofGustavo Gutierrez- by C. Cadorette 41reviewed by S.S. Maimela 41

EDITORIAL

This issue of the Journal offers you an assortment of articles dealing with a widespectrum of issues which are relevant to the black community and the BlackChurch. At the base of all of them is the pressing concern for a church and theologythai can explain the predicament of being christian and oppressed at the sametime as well as empowering the community to rise from the ashheaps to the gloryof being children of God.

Bonganjalo Goba's article grapples successfully with the issues which continueto torment African christians and theologians - our christian identity as well asthat of OUf theology. Closely related to it is that which is introduced by GwinyaiMuzorewa, namely African Christology. Those of our readers who have been fol·lowing theological debates on the African continent will recall that the debate be­tween African and Black Christology is not yet over. It is continuing. It should beeasy to notice an encouraging sign in this debate-amidst all the differences, a fewagreements have been reached. Gwinyai Muzorewa continues this discussion insearch for more commonalities.

Mosala's article addresses the priority of the historical materialist and her­meneutical approach to the study of the Bible. This approach is used here spe­cially in connection with the gender and cultural struggles for liberation.

This issue of the Journal being devoted to African theology and African strug­gles for liberation. it is appropriate that the father of African Theology in SouthAfrica should be contributing. We refer to Gabriel Setiloane's article on "CivilAuthority - from the Perspective of African Theology".

If this issue of the Journal does nothing else, it should at least underline theimportance of the specificity of the oppression of Africans and therefore of thespecifically African struggle for liberation. In particular it should draw attentionto the religious forms of thai struggle and its place in the life of theological thoughtand of the church. Now more than ever the place of the African in the liberationprocess needs to be addressed with a certain kind of deliberateness.

Simon Maimela and ltumeleng Mosala.

JOURNAL OF BLACK n1EOLOCY IN SOUTH AFRICA 3

The Implications ofthe text ofEsther for African Women's

Struggle for Liberation inSouth Africa*

Dr Itumeleng JMosala

IntroductionA word about the definition of terms isappropriate at the outset. There existsa great deal of confusion concerningwhat exactly is meant by LiberationTheology. In part, the confusionrelates to the use of terms. There is alsoa conceptual misunderstanding in thisconfusion. Furthermore, it is not beingextreme to suspect a fair deal ofideological distortion. That is. a delib­erate misunderstanding that seeks tomake a mockery of or to obscurethings.

As far as terminology goes, the con·fusion is of two forms. There is the fai­lure to distinguish between LiberationTheology and Theology of Liberation.Liberation Theology refers to the LatinAmerican form of the Theology of Lib­eration.1t is associated with the namesof activist scholars such as Segundo,Gutierrez, Assmann. Bonino, etc. Bycontrast, the term Theology of Libera­tion is generic and denotes a move­ment of Third World people involvedin a struggle to break the chains of cul-

tural-religious imperialism that helpto perpetuate their political andeconomic exploitation.

The second form of the terminologi­cal confusion involves a discourseimperialism of a certain kind. At firstsight, there may seem to be no distinc­tion between this form of terminologi­cal confusion and the first. There ishere a tendency to refer to all ThirdWorld theologies of the poor andoppressed peoples as LiberationTheologies, thus subsuming themunder the Latin American version ofthe Theology of Liberation. This mis­take is made mostly, though by nomeans exclusively, by white radicalpeople who identify culturally morewith the, European descendants ofLatin America than with Third Worldpeople. Cornel West raises the ques­tion of the political implication of thiscultural preference of the political leftwhen he writes:

For oppressed coloured (blllck) people thecentral problem is nol only repressivecapitalist regimes. bUI also oppressive

• This Paper was originally read at the International Meeting of the Society forBiblical Literature. in Sheffield. England. and subsequently given in a mod­ified form as a lecture at Rhodes University. Grahamstown.

European civilizing attitudes. And evenMarxists who reject oppressive capitalistregimes often display oppressive Europeancivilizing attitudes toward colouredpooples. In this sense, such Marxists.though rightly critical of capitalism. remaincaptives of the worst of European cullure. \

Secondly, I resolved that on thisoccasion a simple apology for theTheology of Liberation would begrossly inappropriate. This is so notonly because this theology has been inexistence for so long that it is now aninescapable reality, but also becauseso many significant strides havealready been made in developing it. Inthe case of South Africa, black theolo­gians have been at work for more thana decade now wrestling with manyissues of the nature, the method, thespecific form. the epistemology, thesources and the goals of the BlackTheology of Liberation. More recently.the question of the Black FeministTheology of liberation has emerged asa high priority on the agenda of BlackTheology.

For the reason. therefore. of wantingto get on with the business of doingBlack Theology as opposed to simplyap%gising for it. as well as for thereason of giving priority to a BlackFeminist theological discourse, Ichose to address the following topic:

The Implications of Ihe text or Estherror African Women's Struggle ror Lib­eration in South Arrica

1. Reading the Bible in South AfricaThat the Bible is a thoroughly politicaldocument is eloquently attested to byits role in the Apartheid system inSouth Africa. No other political orideological system in the modernworld that I know of deri ves itself sodirectly from the Bible as the ideologyof Apartheid. The superiority of white

IMPLICATIONS OF THE TEXT

people over black people. for example.is premised on the divine privilegingof the Israelites over the Canaanites inthe conquest texts of the Old Testa­ment.

For this reason. in South Africa, allmanner of theological sophistry hasbeen produced by way of counteringthis embarrassing use of the Bible. Thedominant opposition discourseagainst this way of using the Bible hasbeen the liberal humanist one. The keycharacteristic of this oppositionalperspective has not been its funda­mental disapproval of the conquesttexts of the Old Testament. Rather, thismodel concurs with the conservativemodel in its approval of the conquesttexts, but disagrees with the likes ofApartheid ideologues' interpretationof them.

Thus in effect a biblical hermeneu­tics of textual or authorial collusion!collaboration rather than one of strug­gle or revolt dominated the debate con­cerning the reading of the Bible.Increasingly, therefore, biblicalappropriation in South Africa becamealienating to Blacks as their realityconstantly contradicted their sup­posed inclusion in the biblically basedlove of God.

Consequently. the struggles of the1960s which led totheexile, imprison­ment and banishment of many Blacksand their organisations, notwithstand­ingGod's love for them witnessed to inthe Bible. produced a crisis in blackpeople's self-insertion in the story ofthe Bible. The rise of Black Theology.which like its counterpart - LiberationTheology - in Latin America. groundeditself in the liberation stories of theBible. signified black people's discur­sive attempt to deal with this crisis.This new reading of the Bible by blackpeople themselves in the light of thestruggle for liberation would attempt

JOURNAl.. OF BLACK THEOt..OGY IN SOlITH AFRICA ,

to argue that liberation and not con­quest or oppression was the key mes­sage of the Bible.

Black Theology and LiberationTheology's biblical hermeneutics wasa product of a crisis situation and notof a revolt on the part of the readers. InSouth Africa it was not until the post­1976 period when black people seemto have looked death in the face andcome to terms with it in their struggleagainst the forces of Apartheid thai arevolutionary reading practice becamepossible. This practice is an integralpart of the social insurgency of theblack masses and a necessity of theorganic location of its subjects in thecontext of that insurgency.

The new and developing biblicalhermeneutics of liberation differs fromthe liberal humanist tradition in that itrepresents a theoretical and not simplya moral mutation from ruling class her­meneutics. Such new reading of theBible. particularly in the context ofSouth Africa. would concur withTerry Eagleton when he says in sup­port of what in literary criticism hascome to be known as the "Revolt of theReader" movement:

That readers should beforcibly subjected 10textual authority is disturbing enough: thatthey should be insultingly invited to hugtheir chains. merge into empathetic har­mony with their oppressors to the pointwhere they befuddledly cease to recognizewhether they are subject or object, worker,boss, or product is surely the ultimateopium.'

A study of Esther's relevance forAfrican women's liberation strugglewill need to take into account the trad­ition of the revolt of the reader that isbecoming part of Black Theology's lib·eration praxis. Not only will this her·meneutics refuse to submit to thechains imposed on it by the biblicalexegetes of Apartheid or those of the

liberal humanist tradition includingits black and liberation theology ver­sions. but it will contend against the"regimes of truth" (Cornel West: TheDilemma of the Black Intellectual,1985:120) of these traditions as theymanifest themselves in the text of theBible itself.

2. The Biblical Scholarship ofEstherMost studies of the book of Esther arepreoccupied with questions of thereligiosity, canonical status. historic­ity and purpose. The problem withthese studies is not that they addressthemselves to these questlons but thatthey rely heavily on the text itself notonly for information but also for thetheoretical frameworks with whichthe texts must be interpreted. Thusmost works simply retell the story,assess the obvious irreligiosity of thetext and confirm the book's own con­fession of its purpose.

Traditional scholarship does. how­ever. raise crucial issues which a bibli­cal hermeneutics of liberation cannotignore. Nonnan Gottwald. for instance,addresses the question of the plot of thestory, "replete with dramatic rever­sals'" which is· important to note inorder to understand the rhetoricaldevices employed by the dominantideology of the text. It is also crucial toobserve with scholars concerning thehistoricity of the book that:

The archaic placement of the story in thePersian court is accomplished with consid­erable knowledge of its inner workings andcustoms, but there are so many historicalinaccuracies and improbabJilties that thework cannot be taken at face value. Thestory may draw on memories of conflictsover Persian policies toward the Jews inwhich the Jews serving in the imperialcourt were involved, but the actual settingof the narrator is in the Maccabean-Hasmo­nean era. This is indicated by several lines

6

of evidence: the intensity and bitterness ofthe Jewish-Gentile conflicts in the bookwhich are pictured as "fights to the finish",the lack of external references to the bookuntil lale Hellenistic times, and the verylate appearance of Purim as a recogni7.edJewish festival"

Historical Critical scholarship pro­vides these insights which cannot beignored by newer exegetical ad her­meneutical methods. It must be noted,however. that traditional scholarshipconsistently fails to draw the ideologi­cal implications of its historical andliterary studies. This it does because itis often in ideological collusion withthe text. A criticism that sets itself thetask of serving the cause of human lib­eration must overcome this limitation,For as Terry Eagleton rightly argues:

The task of criticism ... is not to situate itselfwithin the same space as the text. allowingit to speak or completing what it necessarilyleaves unsaid. On the contrary, its functionis to install itself in the very incomplete­ness of the work in order to theorise it -toexplain the ideological necessity of those'not-saids' which constitute the very prin­ciple of its identity. Its object is the uncon·sciousness of the work - that of which it isnot, and cannot be, aware.'

3. African Women's StrussJe for Lib-eration

The hermeneutical weapons of strug­gle of African women must of neces­sity issue out of the specificity of theirpraxis within what Cornel West callsthe process of "critical negation, wisepreservation, and insurgent transfor­mation of (the) black lineage whichprotects the earth and projects a betterworld".6

In the South African situation blackwomen's struggle takes at once theform of a gender, nationaL and classstruggle, The oppression and exploita­tion of black women operates at all

IMPLICATIONS OF THE TEXT

those levels. What is more, thesedimensions of African women's strug­gle span different historical periodsand social systems each of which hasinflected this struggle in particularways.

Contemporary African women areproducts of pre-capitalist semi-feudal,colonial. and settler-colonialmonopoly capitalist racist social sys­tems, on the one hand, as well as ofheroic anti-sexist, anti-colonial anti­racist and anti-capitalist struggles inSouth Africa,on the other hand. At dif­ferent times and in different waysaspects of these processes and strug­gles enjoyed dominance or subser­vience in determining who Africanwomen are and how they would wagetheir struggle.

Thus given this complex nature ofAfrican women's struggle a biblicalhermeneutics arising out of such astruggle can hardly be simplistic, It israther akin to the programme that Cor­nel West suggests for revolutionaryblack intellectuals. He writes:

The new 'regime of truth' to be pioneeredby black thinkers is neither a hermetic dis­course (or set of discourses). whichsafeguards mediocre black intellectual pro­duction, nor the latest fashion of black writ­ing, which is often motivated by the desireto parade for the white bourgeois intellec­tual establishment. Rather it is inseparablefrom the emergence of new cultural formswhich prefigure (and point toward) a post­Western civilization.'

A hermeneutics of liberation whichis envisaged for an African women'sstruggle will be at once a human, Afri­can and feminist hermeneutics of lib­eration: it will be polemical in thesense of being critical of the history,the devices, the culture, the ideologiesand agendas of both the text and itself:it will be appropriative of the re­sources and victories inscribed in the

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA ,

biblical text as well as its own contem­porary text; it will be projective in thatits task is performed in the service of atransformed and liberated socialorder."

4. Reading the Text of Esther

4.1 A Feudal-Tributary TextThe social formation implied by thetext of Esther is clearly a kind of feudalor tributary system. Chapler 1 describesthe social and political topography inthe Persian Empire which patentlypresupposes the tributary mode of pro­duction; a hierarchical political struc­ture with the monarch - me/ek - at thehead of the royal ruling class, followedby the chiefs and governors (sarim)still within the ruling nobility (vss.1-3):then follows the non·royal ruling classfractions, some of whom may be pro­perly designated middle class, the in­fluential seCtor - probably by virtue ofits property ownership - advisers andpeople of high office (gedolim.hakamim and yoshbim. vss.5.13-14).The Queen (malkah) is of course amember of the royal nobility, but evenin a fairly straightforward descriptivetext like chapter 1 her Insertion intothe ruling class is gender-structured(vss. HH I) where mention of hernecessitates the royal summoning ofseven eunuchs, the latter symbolisingthe private property character of thesexuality of the king's wife, In fact, thefundamental problematic of this chap­ter as indeed of the whole text of Estheris the gender structuring of politics.

The feudal social relations of thePersian Empire as articulated in thistext reflect two forms of oppressionand exploitatioll. The aile form is pre­sent by its absence: it is represented bythe "not-said" of the texl. This form ofoppression is signified in the verses ofchapter 1 that describe the use to

which the surplus production of theeconomy was put. In typical feudaland tributary fashion. surplus wassquandered on non-productive luxurygoods and a luxurious life-style amongthe ruling classes. None of it wasinvested in productive activities ortechnologies in order to enabledevelopment to take place. Moreimportantly, verses 5-9 which de­scribe this wasteful expenditure of theeconomic products simultaneouslyfunctions to obscure the social rela­tions of production on which this con­sumptionist practice Is premised. Itmystifies the fact that behind theseluxurious goods and this extravaganzalie exploited. oppressed and dispos­sessed peasants. serfs. and sub-classes.This text, which is otherwise excellentin its provision of socia-economicdata. is eloquent by its silence on theconditions and struggles of the non­kings, non-office holders. non-ehiefs,non-governors and non-queens in thePersian empire.

The second form of oppression ispatriarchy. This specific kind ofoppression is an inherent part of thestructure of feudal society. The centralthrust of the bOOk begins, in chapter I.around the question of the anti-pat­riarchal revolt of Queen Vashti. Thetext's agenda is spun around the view,generated by the text itself and repre­senting its dominant ideology. that theaudacity of one woman unleashed thepolitical possibilities rerlectedapprovingly in the rest of the book. Allthis, however. is located in andrefracted through a feudal social struc­tural arrangement, producing athoroughly feudaltexl.

African women who are themselvesproducts and victims of past feudallegacies and are presently historicalsubjects in the context of transformed

,

but pervasive tributary/feudal prac­tices surviving under capitalism,understand the specificity of Ihis formof oppression. Further. they recognisethai this oppression cannot simply besubsumed under other kinds of oppres­sion such as capitalist or colonialoppression. For this reason the revoltof Queen Vashti represent a form ofstruggle with which an African bibli­cal feminist hermeneutic of liberationmust identify. It does not accept theimplicit condemnation of Vashti bythe text, and eschews the techniquewhereby her revolt is used as reasonfor the rise of an apparently moreacceptable queen. This identificationis possible only on the basis of a bibli­cal hermeneutics of struggle.

4.2 A Survival TextThe book of Esther builds its storyaround the memory of very difficult.times under colonial exile. Thespecific lesson it seeks to draw atten·tion to revolves around the struggle forsurvival. In particular, two forms ofsurvival are accented in this story: cul­tural and national survival. Needlessto say that these two types of survivalare inseparable, though not identical.

The material conditions of the prac­tice of survival presupposed by thetext are political powerlessness,economic exploitation, cultural andnational alienation. The text proposesits own solution. It suggests a pure sur­vival strategy, which is not underpin­ned by any Iiberative political ideol·ogy. According to this solution Esthergets incorporated into the feudalhaven of the King, Mordecai isappointed an administrator in the col­onial political machinery and later aneven higher honour is given him.Through the cooperation of these twofigures the rest of the oppressed Jewish

IMPt.lCATIONS OF THE TEXT

community manage to survive theodds against them, and in fact findthemselves in a position where theyoutpace the Persians at their owngame.

The price that the oppressed pay forthis favourable turn of events for themis at least two-fold. Firstly, the oppres­sed must be seen to have bought heav·i1y into the dominant ideology in orderthat their survival struggle should findapproval. In chapter 9 this ideologicalcapitulation is expressed in three tersebut powerful repetitious statements:vs.l0 "However. there was no loot­ing"; vs.15 "But again, they did nolooting": vs.16 "But they did no loot­ing". This principle of upholding thesanctity of property over the life ofpeople is well known as part of ruling­class ideology. The final chapter of thebook of Esther exposes the politics ofthis ideology when it summarises thethrust of its discourse:

King Xerxes imposed forced labour on thepeople of the coastal regions of his empireas well as on those of the interior. ... Mor­decai the Jew was second in rank only toKing Xerxes himself. He was honoured andwell-liked by his fellow·Jews. He workedfor the good of his poople and for the sec­urity of all their descendants. (l,l)

Secondly, in this book the survivalof the group is achieved first andforemost by the alienation of Esther'sgender.power and its integration intothe patriarchal structures offeudalism.

4.3 A Patriarchal TextMore than being a feudal and survivaldiscourse, Ihe book of Esther is a pat­riarchal text. There are at least threeobjections that a biblical hermeneuticsof liberation must raise against it.These three are related to each otherand to the questions raised in relation

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA ,

to the texl's feudal and survivalcharacter.

Firstly, the text's choice of a femalecharacter to achieve what are basicallypatriarchal ends is objectionable. Thefact that the story is woven aroundEsther does not make her the heroine.The hero of the story is Mordecai whoneedless to say gives nothing of him­self for what he gets. Esther struggles,but Mordecai reaps the fruit of thestruggle. African women who workwithin liberation movements andother groups will be very familiar withthese kinds of dynamics. A trulyliberative biblical hermeneutics willstruggle against this tendency.

Secondly. the book of Esther sac­rifices gender struggles to nationalstruggles. In the name of the strugglefor the national survival of the Jewishpeople it disprivileges the question ofgender oppression and exploitation.The matter of the subsumption of somestruggles under others is a seriousissue of discourse imperialism. In thebook of Esther this problem is espe­cially unacceptable given the purelynationalist character of the nationalstruggle. The Maccabean-Hasmoneanrevolution which probably underliesthe nationalist struggle of the text ofEsther is known to have replacedGreek Hellenism with Jewish Hel­lenism.

Thirdly, the discourse of Esther sup-

presses class issues. including theclass character of cultural practices.The feast of Purim, for example, whichrepresents the principal cultural bene­fit of the Esther revolution, is notlocated in class terms in such a waythat proper ideological choices can bemade about it. In this it is very muchlike many cultural practices that seeminherently autocratic in the demandsthey place on their people.

5. ConclusionThis essay has tried to take seriouslyElizabeth Schussler Fiorenza'S crit­ique of what she calls the biblical her·meneutics of consent.' In taking thiscritique seriously it has argued for theneed for cultural-materialist biblicalhermeneutics of struggle. Such a her­meneutics will raise questions of thematerial. ideological and cultural con­ditions of production of the text. It isargued here that it is only when suchquestions are raised that the politicalissues affecting nations. women. races.age groups, and classes will receiveproper treatment in the interpretationof the Bible.

The conviction that has been articu­lated elsewhere must be reiteratedhere, namely, that oppressed com­munities must liberate the Bible sothat the Bible can liberate them. Anoppressed Bible oppresses and a lib­erated Bible liberates.

IIlbI;OII"I,"'I. Com" Wesl. '11>. llilemml oI1he 81",,1 IntellectUII." C"It"...1Crilique. Vo1.1. WIll 19851 P 256,2. Te,ry Eoglelon, ~jn.r rheGnin (London, Ve,lIO. 19861 P 102.3. No,mln GOIII"II<I". The If"""' ... Bible. (Phliidelphll' Forl,..,... 1985) P 561,I. Ibid. P 562S. Terry ~elon,t. Cornel \\ "'I. "The Dilemml of tIM! BI""k Intellectull," I' 124.1. Jbid.p122 .•. Terry Eoslelon, Wllter Ben/lmln,•. F,liube1h Sch~.. le, I'ioren ... , Brwd not Slone. (Booton: lI..oon Press. 198-1). p 4311.

CIVIL AlJfHORITY

Civil Authority ­from the Perspectiveof African Theology

Gabriel M. Setiloane

This treatment has been long overdue.For the greatest taunt that AfricanTheology has had levelled against it byher sister theologies - Black Theologyand Liberation Theology - has beenthat it seems to ignore the sin ofoppression, poverty and structuralviolence (Apartheid) perpetrated onGod's people (M. Buthelezi, D. Tutuetc.) and is concerned rather morewith questions of culture and African­ness than those of justice in public life- areas in which Africans at home andin the diaspora have suffered most.Acknowledging this charge, on behalfof African Theology, I have pointedout that that does not mean that thereis not inside it a concern for theseissues, but that for the immediate pastAfrican Theology has been preoc­cupied with dialoguing its way intoacceptance as a legitimate way ofdoing theology in the face of the arro­gant resistance of Western Theologiesand their proponents. I pointed outthen that when African Theologyreaches the stage of theologising inthat area, the outcome will make thepreoccupations of the other theologiesappear like a Sunday school picnic.'

This essay seeks to address the ques­lion of Civil Authority from an Africantheological perspective. In an essay on

1. Afrir.ttn TheoIOfl.'· en Route.

"Salvation and the Secular - From anAfrican Perspective" {Mosala andTlhagale. The Unquestionable Right tobe Free 1986)1 do what I am reputedfor criticizing Black Theology and Lib­eration Theology for doing, i.e take theWestern concept of civil authority forgranted and not question its existenceand raison d'etre. I propose that inorder to make its point African The­ology will have to begin at this funda­mental level. Thereafter it will benecessary to assess its human expecta­tions from civil authority. For far toooften, especially in many Africancountries these "principalities andpowers" have sought the allegiance.loyalty and slavish obedience ofpeople without seeing themselves ascontracted to fulfil reciprocal obliga­tions. This is the case especially inSouth Africa where civil authority willclaim even divine ordination to ruleover people whom it denies the right ofconsent to be ruled by it. Finally weshall attempt to draw out what wouldbe African Theology's understandingof what civil authority should beabout.

As African Theology has alwaysclaimed not to be a theology of booksfor some elite academics, but a verbali·zation of the relij;lious experience and

JOURNAl. OF Bl.ACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA n

feelings of the African people, we shallattempt to show that Africans' atti­tudes to civil authority are indeeddeepseated and emanate out of theirAfrican cultural background. This ~

does not necessarily mean to say theyare not "Christian". On the contrary Ihope we shall be able again to showthat these genuinely deepseated Afri­can cultural in-sights do not only cor­roborate Christian teaching at its best,but immensely illuminate the biblicalbasis out of which it draws its life. Anoften ignored reason behind the easyacceptance of Christianity as a way oflife on African soil lies in the fact thatits message was first heard as a confir­mation of the values and principles ofBotho-Ubuntu taught, aspired to andstriven for in the traditional Africanworld-view:

"For they did have a strong sense ofmoral equity concerning the behav­iour of man as he lived with others. It isthis sense of moral equity they drewfrom when they condemned the evilthey saw among themselves by declar­ing of the perpetrators: "Ga se Motho"(he is no man!) i.e. he is a beast. a sav­age.... What the missionaries stood forcorroborated with what was best intheir hopes and desires, with theirsilent and unuttered search and aspi­rations after human perfection,'"

The Rulers of African TraditionalSocietiesWhen the while people arrived inAfrica, they found African people liv­ing in groups bound together bylineage and language and a commonorigin. These groups they called"tribes", At the head of each groupsadministering its laws. customs and

usages, speaking and dealing on theirbehalf was one whom they calledlnkosi (Nguni)-Morena (Sotho­Tswana).

The whites refused to use the term"king" for this leader, as doing sowould equate him with their own"kings" back home. They called him"chief". As most of the first contractswere on a military basis, "chief"developed a nuance in meaning thathas degenerated it to a military ruler­"Kaptein", and the impression that itwas attained by superiority in militaryprowess. Some of the serious blundersthat were made, therefore, in some ofthe treaties signed with the blackswere made with the rulers-Amakosi­Marena - who may at that time havebeen militarily superior. but were infact not so in the traditional view andprimogenital ceremonies of the peopleconcerned, The case in point is that ofNdlambe and Ngqika in the Zuurveld.~

African rulers derived their auth­ority from their seniority of birth. AsCasalis points out-

"the right of primogeniture involves greatresponsibilities... Thus Reuben, in theplains of Dothar, felt himself responsiblefor the life of Joseph. and was troubled atthe thought of the disagreeable position inwhich he was placed by the disappearanceof the lad:"

In a tribal group the ruling familywould under normal circumstances bedirectly descended from the founderof the group by whose name the wholegroup would be known. e.g. Kwena(BaKwena). Rotong (BaRolong). Fam­ily seniority in the group wou Id also bedetermined by lineal proximity to theoriginal source. So the whole group.tribe or village would. either in fact or

Z. C.M. s"tiloane, The Imageo(Cod among/he SOtha·Ts....n•. A.II. Balkcm., Rotterdam, (1976), pp t381.J. see. E.V, To....... Nxele and Maika,... M.A. lh... i., lJniv""ilj' of ca"" Town. (1!l87).•• E. ca..H•. Tlrelh.,,/os, lam... Niobet, London, (18651. P 180.

fictitiously be able to trace some san­guinary relationship with this sourceof origin. Indeed there would be laterappendages resulting from conquestand others who would have soughtand found asylum. The allegiance ofsuch would be understood as not onlyto the physical power but also to thesource out of which that power came,viz: the ancestors of the group as theirreal owners- Beng. Naturally, becauseof incompatibility and internal feuds,fision also occurred. Often it occurredal the very source, in the ruling family.For whatever reason it might havebeen so, the law of primogeniture con­tinued to hold sway thus affecting theposition of the (tribal) groups on theladder of seniority. Therefore amongthe Tswana the seniority of theHurutshe group over others, Ngwa­ketse, Kwena, Kgatla, etc. etc. isaccepted and acknowledged in ritualto the extent that a MoHurutshe com­moner would be granted prior placeeven to royalty in a first fruit ritual per­formed in another group among whomhe lives or sojourns.s

This law of primogeniture extendsbeyond the realm of the living into thatof the ancestors. Every family has along line of ancestors it traces itselffrom and to whom it owes gratitude forprotection and sustenance. Collec­tively all these ancestors sustain anduphold the total group. In that role theancestors of the royal household areconsidered exactly in the same orderof importance as they were while theywere alive and themselves headed thegroup. The ruling head, therefore,derives his powers and rights not onlyout of primogeniture but from hisancestors who are not only his but alsothe ancestors and protectors of the

CIVIl. AUTHORITY

whole group. For instance, H. RiderHaggard was right to make the legiti­macy of the headship of the group to bejudged and finally decided by the ver­dict of the ancestors, in spite of the factthat Umbopa already bore the indisput­able sign of "tribal" headship (King Sol­omon's Mines). So the ruler (Morena­InkosJl does not rule of himself, nordoes he do so only because he is bornto do so; but he does it as a Vice Regenton behalf of his ancestors who haveruled before. Therefore a Tswana ru lerwould never refer to his subjects as"My people" but rather as "The peopleof my fathers" or call them by the nameof the original founder of the group,e.g. "BaKwena", the people of Kwena.The crucible, therefore, of the moralityand righteousness of his actions as aruler is whether they would be passedby his ancestors. Therefore w.e. Wil­loughby tells the story of a Tswanachief who under pressure from hiscourtiers to act in an obviously pre­judiced manner against another,retorted: "I cannot do that! How shall Iface my fathers if I did SO?"6

In a similar manner the respect. hon­our, loyalty and allegiance that anAfrican ruler received from his sub­jects were/are not offered to him as aperson alone but as representative ofhis forebears. *) In this way he becomesthe prototype of the group, and isrespectfully addressed as such e.g."MoKwena", "MoKgatla", "MoRo­long". He is Number One! The morehe, in his conduct of public affairs.shows respect and adherance to their(i.e. the ancestors') ways - mekgwa ­amasiko-and traditions, the more andcloser the people will be drawn to him.For as he does so, ensuring a goodrelationship with his ancestors and

5. .se" R, Moffat, Mi"ion.", ubou,. ondScene11n Sou/hem Af'ic.. (lM~). ",,"imI. W.e. Willoullhby. The Soul nfrheBonlu. SCM. London. 119211. p 390

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOI.oGY IN SOUTH AFRICA "

conducling himself and public affairsas they did and would. he ensures theprosperity and wellbeing of all. Theearly missionaries often describedAfrican rulers as unimpressive peoplewith mediocre physical appearanceand lacking in personality. Neverthe·less these leaders commanded therespect. loyalty and allegiance of theirpeople. For it was not in their physicalappearance and achievements thattheir premiership lay and was dis­played. Although they impressedstrangers "with a low opinion of theirintellect". their countenances exhibit­ing "so much mediocrity and mentalindocility that one would not takethem for a chief unless appraised ofit'" theirs was a vital role in the rituallife of the group. Every year al springthey presided over the Seed-Clean­sing-Ritual: in autumn they headedthe First-Fruit Festival and in winterthe Harvest. So also their sons and bul­locks annually went first to initiationand circumcision. Above all when dis­aster and tragedy like drought orplague struck. they were the interces­sors who in ritual appealed to "TheOwners of the Land" - the fathersdeparted -for Lotsjdjdj-cooler times.a respite. That is why. especially in themore climatically arid parts. the west­ern highveld. mainly Sotho-Tswana­country. rain-making was a covetedpropensity of the monarch.

"None but the paramount chief could pres·ide over this ritual n. he. being the seniorsurviving representative of the line. is thenatural priest of his fathers. who are thetutelary deities of the tribe....Varied as these rain-rites are.... it canscarcely be denied that they were designedas a ritual of intercession with the spirits ofthe old chiefs, the tutelary gods of the tribe,

Hence the surviving successor of any givenline of chiefs. who was born to share theirdivine prestige. is the only possible offi­ciant. For as much as the rites are intricateand ... would be ineffectual unless per·formed with meticulous conformity to rule.the chief is assisted by his experthierologist, and often by his uncles. in hisdramatic invocation of the favour of hisfathers upon his Hegemen. herds, fields.pastures and woodlands: but he is the pon­tiff. and they are the acolytes."1

The Role of Women in RitualPerhaps this is the point at which men­tion needs to be made about Ihe role ofthe women members of the royal house­hold. For while it is true that the ances­tors repose their authority on the"Monarch", their insight. wisdom andeven power are not restricted 10 himalone. His immediate relations,uncles, brothers, sisters and auntsshare this authority with him. Theymay nol necessarily and always do soin the public place like the Kgotlawhere the various clan heads gather, ifIhey are women; but they certainly dohave a unique place in ritual. Forinstanceasj. and E. Krige have broughtit to public notice in The Realm of theRain Queen {.194?1 among the Vha­luvedu the monarchy is divided as itwere. The maller-of-fact-adminislra­lion and conduct of affairs is done bythe heir who is in fact monarch andruler. But where it concerns ritual,affecting the whole group's wellbeing,the seasonal festival etc., his mother.the widow of the deceased father andpredecessor, acts; especially in rain­making, First-Fruits festivals and SeedCleansing. Therefore the Krige's tille.She is the ceremonial head who linksthe living community with the de­ceased ancestral community. While

7. Iohn Comeron. in An;hive. of the We.teyon Me1hodi.t Mluionary $ocle1y. London.•. W.C. Willouxhby. Opclt.. P 204 ond 214.

..Ihis is not so very obvious among theother peoples. it is still there. el Amongthe Tswana an old paternal aunt to theMonarch joins the Monarch and hiselderly uncles as they pray for rain cal­ling upon their fathers (royal ances­lars) 10 intercede on their behalf.Medimo e menyenyane re rapelJenB80MogoJo- "Little divinities pray on ourbehalf to the great Divinity". With thecustomary privilege that daughtersenjoy with their fathers while alive.such a great aunt might even lake theliberty of addressing the departedroyal ancestors. falher, grandfatherand grand uncles. by name, Ihis wayintensifying the communities' appealand examplifying her greater proxim­ity and intimacy to them.9

It must not be forgotten also that thebeer. lhal is always available al theKgotla where men are met. and whichis so very important in the invocationof the ancestors, in normal intercousethere and particularly in the receptionof strangers and visitors. is brewed byor under the direction of the women ofKgosing - Ihe royal household -. i.e.they prepare the sacred drink, sacredbecause it is shared with the ancestors.By an old Sotho-Tswana custom themost ceremonially senior woman inthe Monarch's household, his motheror wife. was responsible for the fire atthe Kgotla. Thai fire was called MoJlo"'8 Badimo- the Fire of the Ancestors-and was never allowed to die out. If itdid. she was responsible for rekindlingit. This she would do before dawn.because normally the Kotla was "out ofbounds" -taboo - for her as a womanduring the normal times of its activity.When the siting of the village waschanged - as happened ever so oftenduring difaqane - it was this seniorwoman's responsibility to carry the

t. C.M s.tnoone.Opcll.. pp1SI.

QVIl AUTHORITY

embers of the fire from the foresakenKgotJa to the new one and with these torekindle the fire there. Whatever thecase her's was the responsibility tokindle the first fire in the new site. It isfrom this central fire place that thesenior women in the various clanscomprising the group (tribe) wouldtake the light to kindle their householdfires.

The purpose of this diversion is tomake two points. viz:a) That authority was shared inside

the family. each member havinghis/her part to play even before itwas exercised on the hoi poJo;. IIwas not a privilege or favour be­stowed by the royal ancestors onone person. Indeed it cohered andrested ultimately in the ancestors.

b) That women shared in the favourand privilege bestowed by theancestors and played a very impor­tanl ritual ceremonial part inaddressing them on behalf of thegroup. So also down the strata of thecommunity. the clan. the house­hold, and the family (lapa), womenshared in the exercise of authority.Indeed their role was prescribed.;but then everybOdy's role. even Ihalof the ruler - Morena-Jnkos; - wasstrictly prescribed by tradition,enfored by the invisible powers. theancestors. and he strayed out of theset rules of behaviour at risk to hisstatus and position.

WHEN "PRINCIPALITIES ANDPOWERS" REBELLEDFrom the foregoing it is clear that Afri·can Traditional Society would behighly conservative. Roles in the com­munity were determined by traditionand enforced by the Divinity. through

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA "

the ancestors who were the guardiansof morality and equity at various levelsof the community,'". Departure fromtradition would therefore be under­stood as acting contrary to the preceptsof the ancestors. and for one in auth­ority it would be tantamount to sedi­tion in high places. African "prin­cipalities and powers" are. like the OldTestament Kings and Judges assessedgood or bad. successful or not to theextent that they do and live by what isconsidered "just and righteous" in thesight of the Divinity, in this case theancestors. Departure from traditionalusage which might offend the ances­tors and thus bring about disaster tothe total group by way of drought, pes­tilence elc. is punishable even by thetribal tribunal. For as Monica Wilsontakes pains to mention. drawing fromdifferent sources. both among theSotho-Tswana (Schapera) as amongthe Nguni (Kuper), a chief "was tradi­tionally below the law and could betried and fined by his own counsel­lors" who would then be the executorsof Divine authority. Such a ruler, whoabrogated traditional usage. settinghimself above the common good andacting capriciously. lost respect andauthority and was described asMorena wa meKopu - a king of pump­kins. "

African history. oral and written.especially in Southern Africa isreplete with examples of how civilauthority that went off the path wastreated. Certainly loss of loyality andallegiance of "the people of hisfathers" was the first thing. Forallegiance and loyality to a powerwhich is itself disloyal to the higherauthority of divinity through the

ancestors is blasphemy and idolatry,Le. like worship at wrong shrines. Sec­ession would be the next step. By sec­eding or running off to set themselvesup under the leadership of some otherperson of an even lesser status - someuncle or younger brother - away fromthe decadent ruler would be a peacefulway of solving the problem. The seces­sionists would plead departure fromtradition and the will of the ancestorsas good reason, and see themselves asthe defenders of truth and right: Thecase of Ndlambe and Ngqika in theEastern Cape in the last century is inpoint. Among the BaTswana about thesame time a young ruler misguided byhis KgotJa ordered the annual cere­monial castration of the yearling bul­locks before the harvest had beenbrought in. The normal sequence isthat the harvest be brought in first. Thecastrated bullocks can then feed on thegrain stalk in the fields without thestrain of travelling too far. and thusheal quickly. The courtiers could notconvince their Morena that he wasdoing wrong in so departing from trad­ition and therefore inviting the wrathof the ancestors on the whole group.Late one night. these councillors andother disgrunteld families taking withthem the Morena's sister who wasmother to a suckling boy calledMoeng. secretly leaving the main com­munity with their cattle and house­hold effects to set themselves up as anew tribal or clan group under theleadership (Morena-ship) of thiswoman, MmaThari. To this day thisincident is celebrated in the oral praisesongs of this clan of BaRolong people.Peter Delius describes a similar actionby ManKhurwane and a section seced-

10. Ibid. p 65.11. M. \\,illlO•• el .1. OxfnnJ History ofSouth Arci"•• OUP. vul.l. (;.onlbridge P""•. 11_1. PP 12Z .nd 158.U. E.C... lis.Op"it.

"ing (rom his brother SeKhukuni underthe influence of the missionary (1986).In this case the religious element in themotive was even more palent becauseit was Christianity that was the bone ofcontention.

The teaching here is that conscienti­OllS followers of tradition found tbem­selves constrained to withhold theirlove, loyalty and allegiance from acivil authority which was handlingaffairs contrary to the will of the ances­tors. Such an authority was deemd "re­bellious to higher powers" and itsactions could only be followed by dis­aster (or all.

A famous case is that of Sechele.KgosilMofen8 of BaKwena under thepastoral activity of George McKenzieof the LMS at Molepolole in the lastcentury. Sechele, having been con­verled Christian and living under mis­sionary influence, would not conductthe annual communal ritual of "rain­making". In tradition "rain-making" isthe monarch's responsibility to ensurethe goodwill and beneficence of theancestors and the survival and pros­perity of the group. By 50 refusing toperform this ritual and others becausethey were to him now "heathen",Sechele was rebellious as a monan::h tothe direct~ons and will of the ances­tors. Thus left in the lurch, his peoplesettled for second best. They treatedSechele as if he had ceased to be theirruler or had died, and persuaded hisbrother Kgosidintsi to perform theritual. As he was in the direct line ofprimogeniture it was proper to do so.Sechele remained their "ruler" inevery other way but not in ritual. Butas Kgosldintsi performed the com­munal rituals, interceding on behalf ofthe people with the ancestors, theirloyalty, trust and allegiance shifted

13. w.e. WllloupbY.OJIclI.. p311O.

CIVIL AUTHORITY

from Sechele to him. For instanceritual services after the hunt or har­vest, and even straight devotion andrespect as Morena, Vice-Regent of theancestors, were<! directed to Kgosi­dintsi. Sechele realised his mistakeand loss of control. He was becoming a"pumpkin ruler" -Morena waMekopu.He repented and began again to per­form ritual and rain-making. As he didso, the people returned their loyalty,love and allegiance to him, recognisedhim again as their king. 0) This againexamplifies the Sotho-Tswana expres­sion: Morena ke Morena ka Batho- "Aking is one only when and as long as heis acknowledged by the people".Therefore it is clear thaI Africanpeople acknowledge a civil authorityonly in as far and as long as it is pre­pared to be the channel of the blessingsof divinity to the community. Thedivine right of kings, so·called, thenbecomes an onerous burden on theruler. It is not, as often some think,only and absolute privilege. As Casalisobserved - "The right of primogeni­ture involves great responsibilitiesamong the natives". Precisely becauseof his mystical involvement with allhis people, Morena is not above thelaw. He discharges his responsibilitieswhile fully aware of the two auth­orities by whom he may be checked ­his KgotJa-council of elders and hisBadimo-ancestors who are at the sametime Badimo of his whole people;

"It is not unusual to hear a chief say,in objecting to some course of actionthat is proposed to him: 'How will Imeet my father (or grandfather) if I dothat?' Such a phrase presupposes anunpleasant experience in the spiritworld for one who has wasted his pat­rimony, broken up his tribe or sac­rificed the domain that his ancestorswon."q

rOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA "The heart of the matter here is that

there is for the Morena·lnkosi no causefor personal and individual self-suffi­ciency and pride even in achievementbecause all would be understood as agift of 8adimo who although his directphysical forebears are not his alone,but his for the total community.

THE VIOLENT OVERTHROW OFAUTHORITYThe case of Tshaka and his brothersDingane and Mpande who decided toassissinate him has left them as the vil­lains of African history. Unlike Brutusin Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, butlike Judas of the New Testament theircase has lacked advocates and sheergreed - heathen pagan greed - andambition have been seen as theirmotive. The other and more Africanview could be that Tshaka had ceasedto be a channel that transmitted divin­ity and its blessings to the community.The killing of Noliwe, his betrothed,for the attainment of physical powerand the inhumanity and the crueltywhich he brought his mother's retinueput him beyond the pale of Ubuntu ­Ga se motho! Also the havoc hiscruelty had caused all over the subcon­tinent with difaqane certainly couldnot win the approval of the ancestors,let alone their blessings. His continuedreign only presaged a curse and thewrath of the ancestors on the group.Deciding to assassinate him couldtherefore be seen as an act of service tothe community not unlike shooting arabid dog.

What we are saying is that in thetraditional African view a civil author­ity which by its actions has ceased totransmit the blessings of divinity to thecommunity, but persecutes, exploitsand terrorises, thereby forfeits itsauthority and is expendable even by

violence. Put in another way, a civilauthority is not sacrosant but owes itsright of existence and homage from itssubjects only to the extent to whichand as long as it continues to be the ser­vant (minister) of divinity to the com­munity. Very appropriate here there­fore the British royalty's householdmalta propounded at the peak of theglory of British monarchy and impe­rialism viz: "fch dien - I serve." Thecivil authority is understood to be aservant of the community, in biblicallanguage "a minister" to the people.

CIVILAUfHORITY AND PERSONALRIGHTS AND LIBERTIESPost-colonial independent Africa hasbecome the laughing stock of theworld because of the extent to whichits new civil authorities, "prin­cipalities and powers" have provedinsensitive to human liberties andrights. Often many self-respectingAfricans have had to hang their heads,dumbfounded and their nationalistprice quenched by shame. Ourenemies have of course made capital ofthis and inhuman systems and regimeslike South Africa's apartheid policieshave won support on world platformsand courts because it has becomefeared that, left to themselves, Afri­cans cannot bring into being nor man­age institutions of government whichwould uphold personal liberties andrights. The "tyrannous" rulers of Afri­can history, especially Tshaka andMzilikazi, misrepresented and misin­terpreted by prejudiced imperialisthistorians and observers, have beencited to indicate how contrary it is tothe nature of Africans to be fair in pub­lic dealing, sage in council and consid·erate in judgement of people as per­sons. A study and knowledge of Afri­can religiOUS values and concepts can-

"

eerning the human person and thecommunity would. however, stronglyargue against this. Common everydayexpressions indicate a sensitivity thatshould lead 10 kindness, humanenessand tenderness which would make forgreater respect for human rights andliberties. Examples for this are: Mathake Modimo - "A human person isdivine", and - Malata wa khutsana 0

Iowa ke ditshoswane - "The cause ofthe defenceless orphan is contested byants", meaning what has been saidabove, that in all human intercoursethe ancestral unseen divinity is a silentobserver and ultimate judge andexecutor.

Actually early observers of Africanpublic affairs. before the threat ofinsecurity and adulteration by othercultures (the very Western cultureswhich today claim superiority) wit­ness to societies and communities inwhich these values and concepts werepractised and upheld by the civilauthorities. "Records of the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries among theXhosa and Mpondo, and the eight­eenth century in Natal, ... depict a so­ciety in which disputes were settled incourt, trade regulated and the power ofthe chief bridled ... "

Van der Kemp, the first missionaryto the Nguni, reported in 1800, of theXhosa Chief Ngqika:

"He has his counsellors who inform him ofthe sentiments of his people, and his cap­tains admonish him with great freedom andfidelity, when he abuses his authority tosuch a degree that there is reason to fear thatthe nation will shew him their displeasure.This is done, if he treats the admonitionwith contempt ... most effectually bygradual emigration.""

CasaUs reports that Tshaka and his

CIVil. AUTHORITY

successor Dingane were not the normbut historical freaks (like Hitler andNapoleon}. He calls them "the tyrantsof Natal ... who exacted almost divinehomage. Those who approached themwere obliged to crawl into their pre­sence with adverted heads ... Theseservile habils were entirely withoutprecedent in this part of Africa. andthe country was deluged with blood inorder to establish them. Nothing likethis is ever found among the Bechuanas... There everyone approaches the mostpowerful chiefs without the least cere­mony. No one dreams of rising in theirpresence, either as a mark of respect orto give them a more comfortable seatwhen they enter unexpectedly a circlealready formed. They are interruptedand contradicted without ceremony,and are merely addressed by theirnames, pompous titles being reservedfor State occasions."'"

Moffat confirms that primogeniture.the divine sanction of the ruler's posi­tion as Morena (authority) did nolnecessarily limit the freedom ofspeech, censure or even the freedom ofaction of the members of the groupwho were under his authority againstthe authority:

"The government of these people partakesboth of the monarchial and partriarchal.comparatively mild in character. Each tribehas its chief or king. who commonly residesin the largest town and is held sacred fromhis hereditary right to that office. A tribegenerally includes a number of towns orvillages. each haVing its distinct head,under whom there are a number 01 sub­ordinate chiefs. These constitute the aris­tocracy of the nation, and all acknowledgethe supremacy of the principal one. Hispower, though very great, and in someinstances despotic, is nevertheless control­led by the minor chiefs. who in their pichos

14. M. Wi loon and I•. Thompoon. Oxfonllfi.t",y of South A.lrieo, OUP. "01. I.1$. K ..... Ii.,Opcit.. p219.

JOURNAL OF BLACK THOOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA "or pitshos, their parliament, or public meet­ings, use the greatest plainness of speech inexposing what they consider culpable orlax in his government. An able speaker willsometimes turn the scale even against theking, if we may call him such. I have heardhim inveighed against for making womenhis senators and his wife prime minister,while the audience were requested to lookat his body, and see if he were not gettingtoo corpulent; a sure indication that hismind was little exercised in anxieties aboutthe welfare of his people.... the nationalcouncil (Pitso) {was and still is) the slron­ghold or shield of the native customs. inwhich speakers have, in a masterly style,inveighed against any aggression on theirancient ceremonies, threatening confisca­tion and death to those who would arraignthe wisdom of lheir forefathers. This wastheir forum, while the responses on nobleswere the pulse of the nation.'""

Just to what extent free criticalspeech was exercised at the Pitsoagainst the Morena is examplified bythis record of the proceedings of onevital Pitso, The occasion was the dis­covery of the MaNthatisi warriors,about to attack the BaTlhaping's prin­cipal village, The speaker, one Taisho,was one of the subjects of King Mothibiof BaThlaping:"Turning to the king, he said: 'You are tooindifferent about the concerns of yourpeople; you are rolled up in apathy: you arenow called upon to show that you are a kingand a man'. "u

Nor was this freedom of speech andexpression restricted as "Parliamen­tary privilege" to the precincts of thePitso ground which Moffat rightlydescribes as "their parliament".Casalis in his Etudes de la Langue duBechuana records how even a highlyrespected and loved monarch likeMoshoeshoe had sharp and incisive

criticism levelled against his decisionconcerning the use of his own properlyby a poor warrior:

"Moshesh had given a few cattle to a verycourageous officer. And then he wanted totake these cattle back in order to send themto Leshwe, chief of Bathlaping ... Theofficer was extremely angry and presentedhimself in front of Moshesh with thesewords:"Is this the way a just man should behave?You take from me all my food, all the sub­sistence of my wife and children in order tosend it to foreigners. Have you not othercat­tie to give him? Must you leave those towhom you owe your salvation living inmisery? Look at my body, it is covered withwounds, I fought against MaNthatisi, theZulus and the Korona. If the enemy comesagain will you see Moshesh expose himselfto the assegais? No! He will not dare to fol­low me, It is I who is going to fighl. sufferhunger, lhirst and fatigue. while my chiefwill eal. drink and sleep peacefully.""

WHO SPEAKS THE WORD OF COR­RECfION?African traditional community life inthe interaction between the peopleand their civil authority seems not tohave a set-up that would identify asingle person w.ho would stand out asthe spokes-person on behalf of divin­ity - i.e. a prophet. an Amos or aNathan. In comparison with biblicalIsrael. African traditional societyseems to be at the pre-prophetic periodwhere the priest suffices (besides theking!) as the interpreter of divine willand purpose. In this context Ihis rolewould be filled by the Ngaka yaMora(e, the official doctor of the com·munityfgroup, who could be thespecialist, always available to adviseas to the details in the conduct of

II. II. Mon.I, Opcu" pp 24lff.\? Ib;d•. pJ~l_II. [, C... II•. Etude< de utlflne du 8«:hu.n•• Roy.1 Pret•. I'..i•. 11114JI. P 16.

affairs and especially rites.'· The kingis the priest-patriarch. except that he isnot an autocrat. The Kgotla, Elders'Council, is not only his board of exe­cutors or ministers of state, but also hischeck. It is out of this group which iscomposed of "the aristocracy of thenation" that despotic tendencies arechecked in the name of tradition andappeal to the authority of the ancestors(or the good of all.

Guardianship of the morality andadvocacy for the cause of the helplessand deprived who are seen as BathobaModimo- the people of Modimo (in aspecially deeper sense than all theothers) was not left to select people. Asin the case of the warrior who chal­lenged Moshoeshoe (above) theythemselves enjoyed straight and unre­stricted access to the seat of power,there to "use the greatest plainness ofspeech in exposing what they considerculpable or lax in his government" orconduct as head of the group. So thesituation is that the community itselfthrough the persons (individuals) whocompose the various levels and in dif­ferent capacities exercised spokes­manship towards equity and right­eousness in society in the name ofdivinity. It is true that knowledgeabout the workings of divinity - Mod­imo- through the ancestors was depo­sited on or acquired by the Ngaka morethan anybody else. even the King him­self. However, revelation or inspiredinsight into things was the prerogativeof all, royal, noble and common folk.men and women. In this way it wouldseem aggression and evil in publicaffairs would be curbed before it hadgrown to inordinate proportions.

It needs to be said though. that agegave an even greater freedom ofspeechand authenticity as speaking on behalf

II. C.M. Soeli ....... Opdr.. p 76.

OVll. AUTHORITY

of the divinity. A word of warning orcensure from a grey-haired, bodily fee­ble. wise old man uttered with atrembling voice at the KgotJa or infor­mally, was greatly heeded by the wiel­ders of power. It had resonances of thewords of their fathers now gone andliving in the realm of Badimo. those hehad consorted with in youth and man­hood. and whom he expected 10 claimhim soon to join their company in theland of Badimo. Who could speak fordivinity with more authority even ifless ostentation!

APROPOS THE CURRENT THEO­LOGICAL DEBATEBefore entering the area of pointing outwhat I would call the perspective ofAfrican Theology as regards civilauthority and its dealings. it seemsappropriate to make clear what Ibelieve lies behind the hermeneutic ofAfrican Theology. African Theologymaintains that theology is a verbaliza­tion of an existential (subjective?)experience of divinity. Naturally diffe­rent people have different experiencesof the same divinity -(for "Behold, aIsrael. the Lord thy.God is One!"). Eachgroup of peoples interprets or under­stands divinity and its workings at anyone time, out of its aggregate historicalexperience of life and the view thereof.A Weltanschauung. So although wemay stand in a common Christian sol­idarity of confession, each groupnevertheless has its own understand­ing and view. therefore its owninterpretation of that which wetogether commonly confess. Thisuniqueness of each group's confession(called theology) is based on and to agreat extent is moulded by its histori­cal experience called culture. In Afri-

JOURNAl. OF BI.ACK THEOU:X;Y IN SOUTH AFRICA

can theology, we Africans encounterthe materials of the Christian faith (theBible and teachings of the church)with our whole history from the begin­ning of time and of existence, and howit has schooled us to comprehend,appropriate and live with reality. Isuppose this is what is meant by cul­ture! Without denying others theirown expression according to the pathwe each have travelled from timeimmemorial to the point at which wehave all converged at the cross on Cal­vary's hill, we stubbornly declare thatour experience, dedication and com­prehension are clear, real. could edu­cate others too, and certainly deserve aplace in the record of the variousunique existential confessions of thisreality in universal experience. OurAfrican traditional practice and/orreligion, therefore. becomes our pathto the universal revelation of divinitythrough the man of Nazareth and hiscross on Calvary. In other words ourhermeneutic key then is our tradi­tional historical existential experienceof divinity in community from thebeginning of time. What representa­tives of other cultural groups have haddifficulty in accepting is this stubbor­ness in claiming the uniqueness of ourunderstanding of this reality whenthey claim to have been the tutors whobrought us to the foot of the cross.Perhaps we should refer them to Paul'swords in the Epistle to the Galatians,viz. that a child who is the heir istotally under the direction of the tutor,but when it has attained adulthood itmight even instruct its erstwhile tutor(Gal. 4:1 n.)

WHAT THEN IS AFRICAN THE­OLOGY'S PERSPEcnVE OF CIVILAUTHORITY?

1. That Morena - {nkosi is what hel

she is through the working of divinityand that not just anybody can take hisJher place and head the group, seems tobe fully in line with Romans 13, that"the powers are ordained by God". TheAfrican traditional view, and thereforeAfrican Theology, would enthusiasti­cally echo Peter when he states thepurpose of being of these powers: "forthe good ordering of society", Le. lifetogether. Our historical traditional lifeshows this all the way in the prescrip­tions it sets for the responsibility of thecivil authority - e.g. conducting ritualfor the transmission of the graces andbeneficence of divinity to the people.In fact in its view of the whole sphereof society being an arena of the divin­ity's activity (i.e. no sacred-seculardichotomy) the African traditionalconcept bears witness to the fact that itconsiders that all civil authority isunder the charge - and that means forgood or evil, for blessings and forjudgements - of divinity.2. That the civil authority exists forthe people in the community to subjectthemselves to it (Le. to be obeyed) iswithout question. The African tradi­tional situation would even say thatwilful and persistent disregard of civilpower as Vice Regent of divinitywould be seen as apostasy againstdivinity and therefore punishable.That is why treason is such a seriousoffence. punishable even with death.3. However, African Theology, draw­ing from African traditional practicewould never view any civil authorityas absolute. All rights and powers ofsuch an authority are vested in thedivinity, and the authority is under itsjudgement. "How shall I meet myfathers ... ?"4. When the civil authority ceases tobe the transmitter of the graces andbenefits of Divinity, Le. execute what

" aVll AUTHORJTY

has been entrusted 10 it, it forfeits itsvalidity. The case of Sechele when hestopped performing the rituals whichwere vital for the group's life points tothis.5. Such a forfeiture of validity meansan extrication of the people from itsauthority and rule. Should it, how­ever. persist to exert itself as authority,then it becomes the "'abomination ofdesolation' ... standing in the holyplace" (Matthew 24: IS). a hindrance 10the people's access to divinity, view­ing itself as the final point of reference,and as such expendable. Here we come10 t~e bela~ured question of uprisingagamst or vlolenl resistance to the civilauthority. African Theology would.therefore, siand by this and perhapseven advocate II as an act of faith. thusreminding us of Islam's teaching onthe "Jihad".

Throughout my life and career infrCumenical discourse and acrossdebate the African conlinent (andelsewhere) I have never once comeacross an African Christian theologianwho would forswear the validity orlegitimacy of violence against a repro­bate civil authority. Many of us haveshied from open advocacy of violencebecause of the logistics of it. Men ofGod, however, like Bishop Lowun ofUganda during the Idi Amin regime,a~~ some Nigerians during their tragicCivil war, have not resisted condemn­ing aggression by the civil authorityeven to the point of martyrdom. CanonBurgess Carr as the spokesperson ofAfrican Christian religiosity ver­balized it, ex cathedra in his capacityas General Secretary of the All AfricanConference of Churches (AACC) at itsThird Assembly in Lusaka 1974:

If for no other reason, we must give our

unequivocal suppor! to the LiberationMovements. because they have helped theChurch to redIscover a new and radicalappreciation of the cross. In accepting theviolence of the cross. God, In Jesus Christ.~nctified violence into 8 redemptiveInstrument for bringing into being a fullerhuman life.-

In the Book 01 Revelation there isexhibited a strong revulsion, similar totha~ of African traditional practice,agamst a civil authority which usurpsthe role of divinity in determining thefate of people. It is seen as "the Beast",the "AntiChrist". It is true that theBook 01 Revelation does not explicitlyadvocate the destruction of the "An­tiChrist" by its victims. It. however,sees it deposed and destroyed by God'smight. African traditional practice~o~ld support the formeroplion! For,10 tts understanding, divinity alwaysacts out its purposes through people.We have pointed out also how in Afri­can traditional practice the word or act~f censure and judgement (prophecy)IS spoken and acted out by even thecommoner, Hence the "ant" in theproverb Molato wa khutsana 0 Iowa Iceditshoswane (see above) could be thedowntrodden victim of systemicaggression and misgovernment.

I have argued in this paper andelsewhere that when any peoplebecome Christian they willy-nUly andeven unconsciously bring with theminto theirChristian understanding val­ues, insights and perceptions inher­ited from their pre-Christian pas!. Theworld has reacted rather judgemen­tally to the frequency and multiplicityof coups d'etat in Africa since thedeparture of the colonialists. Perhapsthe world should stop and look and lis­ten. Is it not still the African's tradi­tional. very religious understanding

:N. See Ropo<l ollM 11.11 11.100 Conlon"""oI0".",I\ea·-n.e r _t.. '._ • _. "'. ,'_.., _ "•• ,.."."""'", p1ft.

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRIC,J"

that actuates the dramatis personae inthis drama: That a civil authority thathas ceased 10 transmit the beneficenceof life from God on whose behalf it actsas an authority. loses validity? I onceheard a Zulu lay person declare in achurch conference that the Soulh Afri­can white regime. as far as he was con­cerned. had lost its lsithunzi = itsessence of being and had therefore

become. as it were, a wraith, an emptyshell. When once such a conclusionhas been reached and, mark you! aftervery long and deep religious reflec­tion, is nol the obedient devotee calledupon. in the name of God and in pre­servation of its integrity, to "rise upand strike"? It is logical. To my under­standing of African Theology - "To fal­terwould he sin".

" A. QUEST fOR AN AFRICAN CHRISTOLOGY

A Quest for an AfricanChristologyby Dr. Gwinyai Muzorewa

Christology is a major aspect of Afri­can theology, yet not much has beenwritten specifically on the subject.One of the very early statements onChrislology was made by John Mbitiback in 1972: "Some African Conceptsof Chrislology" in Christ and theYoungerChurches(edited by G.F. Vid­edom). Another statement on the sub­ject was made by John Pobee in hisbook Toward An African Theology(1979). Most recently a whole bookChrist Our Ancestor (1985) by CharlesNyamiti has appeared on the subject.Father Charles Nyamiti has writtenfascinating creative work using thebasic African traditional religiousancestral concept to formulate a Chris­tDlngy.1 believe it is fair 10 say that theconcept of ancestors is as popularamong traditional Africans south ofthe Sahara, as is the name of JesusChrist in the Church in Africa.

Because of the importance of Chris­tology for the Church in Africa today,where Christian Church membershipis growing like wildfi're. it deservesone more review to which I now invitethe reader in order to bring the subjectinto theological and dialogical focus.Let us devote our time to a discussionon Charles Nyamili's quest for a Chris­tology,

CHARLES NY AMITI'S QUEST FORAN AFRICAN CHRISTOLOGYThe quest for an African Christology is

one of the most important concerns inAfrican theology today, The need for arelevant theology is urgent because theChurch is growing faster than thedevelopment of African theology,Furthermore, African theologians aretaking indigenous theology very seri­ously. Father Charles Nyamili hasaccomplished a monumental task asthe author of Christ as Our Ancestor:Christ%gy from an A/rican Perspec­tive (1984, Mambo Press) which is anattempt to develop an indigenousChristology. I believe that Nyamiti'sstudy is very crucial on the subject ofChristology because Africa has accept­ed Christ as their incarnalional sav­IOUr.

In his remarks in the preface, Nya.miti tells us that 'Theological enquiryrevealed that not only African ances­tors who died in the state of friendshipwith God but all the saints in heavenand purgatory can be regarded as ourtrue Christian ancestors... if thedeceased Africans and the saints aretrue Christian ancestors they are soonly in virtue of their participation inChrist's unique Ancestorship,'" Thusfor Nyamiti. ancestorship is not con­fined to those Africans who died in agood relationship with God, but to allthe saints. In fact. the author defines'ancestor' as: "a relative of a personwith whom he has a common parent,and of whom he is medialor to God,archetype of behaviour, and with

JOURN .... L OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOllfH .... FRICA

whom - thanks to his super-naturalstatus acquired through death - he isentitled to have regular sacred com­munication." (p 24) African Christanshave to prepare themselves to acceptthis spiritual link as the basis of theirbelief that Christ is their ancestor whowill provide all their needs, even sur­passing what the traditional ancestorswould do.

The discussion on the Incarnation isintended to establish that since Christis the Father's son and we are also theFather's children, therefore Christ isour brother: and since he is dead andraised from the dead, Christ hasbecome our brother-ancestor who willalso redeem us from death. That Christis God·human makes him the "arche­type of our supemature and Christianconduct." (p 35) Nyamiti notes that"all the essential elements of hisancestorship were fundamentally pre­sent in Him already at the moment ofHis conception" since he was bornprecisely to serve a particular purpose.(p 36) Thus Christ was not just anotherhuman being in spite of the traditionalorthodox teaching that he was trulyhuman and truly divine at once. Evenwhen he was still in the womb of theVirgin Mary "he was endowed withthe fullness. of the divine Spirit,although He could communicate Himfully only after His exaltation." (p 36)

Through several images, Nyamitiattempts to develop a Christologicalperspective based on one's under­standing of the African spiritualityand kinship. If one can comprehendwhat one's ancestors mean to him orher, then one can also understandwhat Christ as our brother-ancestormeans in our lives. Nyamiti's Christol·ogy begins and ends with the ancestralthought-form. Our understanding ofthe spiritual and the historical dimen­sions of ancestral dealings more or less

defines our conceptualization ofNyamiti's Christology. Indeed, hisChristology is best understood as anexpression of African spirituality.

Ancestrology is the frame of thisChristology. For instance, as our Afri­can ancestors heal, serve as prophetsand pastoral advisors, and as priests sodoes Christ - except He excells them!Nyamiti takes advantage of thesimilarities between the Africanancestral functions and Christ's pas­toral and redemptive functions todraw conclusions that demonstratehow much more the latter can do forus. Then he also uses the dis­similarities and divergencies betweenthe two to prove how superior "theredeemer shines forth as THE Brother·Ancestor par excellence, of whom theAfrican ancestors are but faint andpoor images." (p 70)

The conclusion Nyamiti buildstoward is that the African concept ofthe ancestor is a true "praeparatioevan8eJic8" for the Christian doctrineon Christ as the unique ancestor ofmankind, and that "His ancestorshipis the highest accomplishment of itsAfrican counterpart." (p 70)

By becoming,man the Logos becameour brother-ancestor, thus in principleredeeming the rest of humanitythrough the Incarnation and the Easterevents which bridged the God-human­ity gap. This is not new to us. Thehumanity of Jesus has always been adecisive factor in any Christologicaldebate. In fact, it is the most excitingelement in the doctrine. For instance,Nyamiti shares with the Greek Fathersthe view that Christ saved humanitybecause of his own human naturewhich represented the human raceand made reconciliation between Godand humanity not only possible butefficacious as well. However Nyamitistresses that his starting point is

"

human solidarity. whereas the GreekFathers pul emphasis on humannature. The difference between thetwo is both conceptual and philosoph.ical. and therefore it iscrucial.lt marksan important distinction between trad­itional Christology and thai ofNyamili. which is based on the under­standing of ancestrology.

Nyamiti and Traditional ChTistologyIn his quesl for a Christology, Nyamilibelieves that the Brother-Ancestormodel which he uses is only oneamong several possibilities bul it is themost Indigenous thought-form. Hecontends Ihat this model is a much bel·let method to interpret Christian reve­lation. Although there may be somesimilarities between traditional Chris­lology and the brother-ancestor Chris­tological model, there is no doubt inNyamiti's mind that the latter is in­fluenced to some extent by the former:yet it warrants its own station in thetheological arena. For instance, bothChristologies can be characterized as"Christology from above."

That Christ is our brother-ancestorhas been established in part on thebasis of our knowledge of the Trinity,the Incarnation and the Chalcedonianformula from which traditional Chris­tology draws heavily. Nyamiti discus­ses the attributes of his Christology inthe light of what traditional Chris­tology says about Christ's "threeoffices." He believes that the fact thatAfrican theology shares insights withthe traditional classical Christology isa positive sign of a healthy dialogue.However there are clear differencesbetween Nyamili's Christology andthe classical orthodox Christologicalviews passed down through the tradi·tion of the church. Let us examinethese for a moment.

II QUEST fOR AN AfRICAN CIiRISTOLOGY

Nyamiti observes thai since the mid·die ages classical Chrislological dis­cussions have always dealt with themysteries of the Incarnation and theRedemption separately. In his judg­ment, classical theological thinking onboth the two natures of Christ, andChrist's sacrifice and vicarious suffer­ing was basically speculative withoutmuch interest in the pastoral relevanceof such a Christology.

NyamiU's approach is different fromthe classical approach in that theformer begins with an African under­standing of brolher-ancestor spiritual­ity. As he proceeds, he does not treatthe Incarnation separately fromChris('s work of Redemption. Hisapproach requires a unily between thesubject of the Incarnation and that ofRedemption thereby developing aChristology that is relevant 10 our Afri­can life of faith.

Furthermore, Nyamiti claims thathis approach leads 10 accenluation ofvarious Christological themes whichare quite different from the themesstressed in traditional Christology.Among the fifteen themes he lists,Nyamiti has included certain oneswhich are quite new in Christology,making his contribution special. How­ever, none of these should be taken inisolation. For example. the claim thatChrist is our brother-ancestor and thatwe are his descendants, creales a newingredient in the concept of Christol­ogy, but it is to be understood.

Nyamiti also stretches the ancestormodel so far as to argue that therecould be a sense in which God is ourancestor. Traditional Christology hasnot even entertained this perspective,let alone developed or utilized it as amodel to interpret theology. Yet ifJesus Christ and the Father are one,and the Son is our brother-ancestor, itnecessarily follows that God the

JOURNAl-OF B1.ACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA "Father is our great ancestor. AlthoughNyamiti does not develop Ihis. he pro­ceeds to compare his Christology withthe contemporary Christologies inorder to demonslrate how his readingmight be helpful in the contemporarydiscourse.

Nyamiti and Contemporary Chris­tologiesNyamili puts his theology to testagainst contemporary Christologies inorder to establish the difference bet­ween his own and others. In contem­porary theology, Christology seems 10occupy a significant place, hence ourinterest in the subject here, Nyamitigives a summary of the major featuresof the present day Christologies inorder to properly juxtapose these withhis own. For example, he discusses ahistorical approach to Christologicaldiscourse, including the "Chrislologyfrom below" vis-a-vis "Christologyfrom above" points of departure thathave influenced many modern theo­logians,

The second feature in contemporaryChristological discussion is whatNyamili calls "pastoral concern."Recently theology has become perhapsmore meaningful and relevant be­cause, more and more, members of acommunity are doing theology dealingwith the social context of their ownpeople. A side effect of this phenome­non is that a plurality of Christologies,most of which are not clearly articu­lated, has mushroomed especially inthe Third World. Worthy of mention isthe liberation theology, which is beingdone by members of the oppressedgroups themselves. Such theology ismost likely to be a "a theology frombelow" - based on the activities andthe message of the historical Jesus.Nyamiti remarks that some of thesetheoloKies have turned out to be secu-

lar or political Chrislologies, which isdesirable because it means Christ isunderstood as acting at the every daylevel of existence.

Nyamiti notes that current theologyhas its limitations along with itsstrengths, For example, the historicalapproach has opened possibilities forwhat Nyamili calls "theological disba­lance," and the opportunity for falsifi­cation of the Christian message, tomention only two drawbacks.

Nyamiti's Christology differs frommost contemporary theologies whosepoint of departure is historical,because his is a "Christo logy fromabove." In this approach he joinshands with such major Protestanttheological authorities like Karl Barth.Because Christ's ancestorship muststart from the mysteries of the Incarna­tion, Redemption and the Trinity,Nyamili's brother-ancestor modelnecessarily makes his "a Christologyfrom above."

Yet Nyamiti further argues that "thisAfrican Christo logy cannot be purelyontological." (p 80) Nyamiti's Chris­tology of brother-ancestorship mustalso necessarily combine the "above"and the "below" point of departure. Hesays his Christo logy "is bound to beboth ontological and functional." (p 80)

Clearly, Nyamiti's method makeshis Christology different from the clas­sical understanding in its approach,and different from contemporaryChristologies because he combinesboth the "ontological" and the "func­tional." Also, the way he treats theTrinity, the Incarnation and Redemp­tion makes his Christology uniquebecause he discusses all three as ingre­dients of divine spirituality.

Nyamiti's Christology is appealingto the African traditional religiousthought because of the firm belief thatGod who once withdrew to the heavens

28

has returned in Christ. So the coming ofJesus Christ is an event the Africananticipated. Therefore, an AfricanChristology from above fits well theirindigenous thought-forms. Further­more, rather than confining them­selves to the Jesus of history, the Afri­can is attracted more by the 'esusChrist who was crucified, dead andburied, but also was raised as theirbrother-ancestor. This is whereNyamiti's Christological model suitsthe African religious modus operandi.Death becomes an important aspect inan African brother-ancestor Christol­ogy because of the African concept ofspiritual life beyond the grave;whereas classical Chrislology wouldvalue the element of death only insofaras it is a true human being who expe­riences real death.

Here again we have a case whereboth the death (historical) and theresurrection (supernatural) bringadded richness to our Christologicalperception of the classical and con­temporary Christologies. includingthat of Nyamiti. Indeed, the brother­ancestor Christology is deeply Africanin its character, concept and spiritual­ity. It is this concreteness in Africanspirituality which draws many toChrist because life beyond the grave issuch a reality that it is worth pursuing.

Crilique or Nyamili's ChristologyUndoubtedly Nyamiti has made anexcellent attempt to synthesize Chris­tology and ancestrology. However.there are some parts that lack clarity.For instance, when he says on page 7that "... not only African ancestorswho died in the state of friendshipwith God but all the saints in heavenand purgatory can be regarded as ourtrue Christian ancestors" does Nyamiticlassify those Africans who never con­fessed Jesus Christ as their personal

A QUEST fOR AN AFRICAN CHRlSTOI.OCY

Saviour as Christian? Does he classifyfamous God-fearers like Abraham,Moses and a whole host of prophets asChristians of some kind? It is not clearwhether all God-fearing people are tobe regarded as Christians as such. Onthe one hand one ordinarily regards asChristian those who are baptized inthe name of the Father and the Son andthe Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, another way tolook at what Nyamiti is doing is tothink in terms of the pre-existentChrist who has always been with Godin a spiritual state. In light of thisperspective, it can be intelligiblyargued that those God-fearers who hada good relationship with God automat­ically related to the pre-existent Christwho is part of the Godhead. In thissense, we may call them Christianinsofar as they had a good relationshipwith Christ in God. However, we needto bear in mind that it is Christ in Godwho took the initiative to reach forthem.

In a real way then, this perspectivewould serve to explain in part thisauthor's quest for what Christ wasdoing in the lime between the Creationand the Incarnation. We have statedelsewhere in this section on Christol­ogy that Christ must have beeninvolved in the creation (history) sincethe beginning of time. He has alwaysparticipated in history and beyond.We cannot imagine Christ being "pas­sive" in the heavens, while peopleneeded the saviour as we always do.We are therefore convinced that Christmust have participated in history in adifferent way and form until the timeof the Incarnation when the Wordbecame flesh.

Another point which Nyamitimakes that is not clear deals withhumanity's filial link with Christ. Heargues that this link is made possible

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOt.eX;Y IN SOlITH AFRICA "

"through habitual grace alone" (p 24).It seems to me that this is a weak link asfar as ancestrology is concerned. HereNyamiti appears to experience diffi­culty in establishing how Christ is ouractual blood brother, a conditionrequired in order that he may be ouractual ancestor.

Of course, it is not easy to establish ablood-link since we generally regardany God-Human relationship as mysti­cal and spiritual, not physical. Maybewe would simplify the matter by bas­ing our relationship with Christ as thelevel of humanity, rather than of divin­ity (which Nyamiti alludes to when herefers to habitual grace alone). Person­ally, I would be contented to hear thatmy relationship with Christ is basedon our common humanity which iscreated by God our common creatorand parent. This would make moresense to me especially if Christ is con­ceived of as the incarnate word. Thetrue humanity of Jesus Christ whichmakes him one of us would also makehim our blood brother. Blood relationis extremely precious for us Africans.This feeling of solidarity with Christ isan important element in our Christiancommitment. Furthermore, establish­ing that our humanity shares a com­mon parentage with Jesus Christ theIncarnate would easily make Christ.who died and was raised from thedead, our "living-dead" or our ances­tor. In all this it is not difficult to relateto Christ in spirit, but Africansembrace both spirit and flesh and so itis important to establish a meaningfulrelationship both spiritually and phys­ically because Christ is viewed holisti­cally in the African philosophy of life.

Nyamiti's explanation may presentsome readers with problems because itconfuses the example with that whichthe illustration is pointing to. In otherwords, our understanding of the

ancestors can be useful in our study ofthe person and nature of Jesus Christwithout having to make Christ ourbrother-ancestor. However ancestrol­ogy is undoubtedly very useful as amodel for our Christological concep­tualization. But the model should notseem to replace Christ and become aform of Christology itself. What wearesaying is especially important in lightof the fact that here we are nol creatinga Christology but merely seeking waysto understand the orthodox doctrineon Christology. Therefore ancestrol­ogy simply opens a window throughwhich we can catch a spiritual glimpseof the nature and person of JesusChrist.

There is no doubt that most Africanssouth of the Sahara would understandChristology much easier if the subjectwere to be formulated in an ancestralmodel. But. because Jesus Chrisl is ourGod whom we worship, one wouldneed 10 distinguish between God andancestors. Of course we have pointedoul elsewhere that we do not worshipancestors. Rather, traditionalists wor­ship God through their ancestors whoare in a supernatural, spiritual statelike God.

To lalk of worshipping God"through" ancestors is quite differentfrom worshipping God "through"Jesus Christ. Some Christians arguethat to worship God through theances­tors is indirect but worshipping Godthrough Jesus Christ is a "direcl chan­nel." This argument implies a limitedunderstanding of the nature of God.When we talk to God, there is no ques­lion of direct or indirect. This questionis only applicable in a finite situation.For example, when the African tradi­tionalists present a case to the chief,they do it in an indirect way. The caseis presented through the hierarchy,ascending from the bottom to the top.

Although each lime the case is restatedeveryone can hear it, the protocol hasto be observed to show respect andhonor.

Therefore. when one channels one'sprayers through indirect ways becausethat is the most humble and respectfulmanner in one's culture, will God not

A QUEST FOR AN AFRICAN QiRISTOLOGY

listen to that worshipper because theprayer is indirect? Of course not! Themost important factor to bear in mindis that God likes those who worhsipGod in spirit and in truth Uohn 4;241.and African Christology expressed inAfrican spirituality creates a contextfor true worship,

JOURNAL OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOlITH AFRICA

Toward a Quest forChristian Identity:

A Third World PerspectiveBonganjalo Goba

31

INTRODUCTIONIt is now common knowledge that theintroduction of Christianity in theThird World by various missionaryagencies was an attempt to imposeWestern cultural values and normsthus providing political legitimacy forall forms of Western imperialism.Theo Witvliet. the Dutch theologianmakes, I believe, a pertinent observa­tion when he writes "From the begin­ning, the history of mission has beenentangled with the history of Euro­pean expansion: conversely, from thebeginning the conquest of distantlands has been associated with astrong developed sense of Christianmission.'" This is a very critical issue,and many Christians in the ThirdWorld are still recovering from thisreligious trauma by reevaluating therelevance of Christianity in their diffe­rent sociopolitical contexts.

Therefore any serious theologicaldiscussion about the nature of Chris­tian identity in the Third World isbound to be problematic for reasonswhich will become clear in this verybrief statment. As I cannot speak forthe entire Third World situation, myfocus will be on that part of the ThirdWorld which is Africa, with specialreference to the South African situa-

tion. The perspective that I wish toraise here represents the ongoingtheological commitment of those of uswho are members of the EcumenicalAssociation of Third World Theolo­gians, a theological forum establishedin 1976 to encourage theologicaldialogue and political solidarityamongst Third World theologians.

I want to suggest that the problem ofChristian identity is part of the ongo­ing task of theological hermeneutics.This, for me, has to do with the criticalinterpretation of the Christian faith ina particular historical context with theview of establishing its validity andrelevance. This hermeneutical taskalso involves a process whereby a newsense of identity comes to be estab­lished as a perspective that gives direc­tion or inspires action. This her­meneutical task of establishing iden­tity is a response to the basic tenets ofthe Christian faith, Le., to the tradition(paradosis) which is being handed on,so to speak, to those who receive it.The reception of any religious tradi­tion always calls for interpretationwhich brings new insights to thenature of religious identity. Robert J.Schreiter makes a very importantobservation when he writes:

1. Thea Wilvliet. t\ PI_In the Slln: An Introduction to LibeRtion Theo/"llJ' ill the Third WlN"ld ILondon: SCM Pre...1985).p9

Tradition contributes three things to thedevelopment of human community. It pro­vides resources for identity. It is a com­munication system providing cohesion andcontinuity in the community. It providesresources for incorporating innovativeaspects into a community!

Having made these rather generalremarks about Christian identity as theongoing task of theological hermeneu­tics, I want to explore very briefly howcertain African and Black Theologiesare addressing this problem. Theseefforts we see in the African and BlackTheology movements. They both rep­resent different approaches to thequestion of Christian identity in theAfrican context. But they are impor­tant. as you will discover, because theyare interesting examples of the processof contextualizalion in the Africancontext.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AFRICANAND BLACK THEOLOGIES ANDTHEIR QUEST FOR CHRISTIANIDENTITY

1. Today when we speak about thequest for Christian identity in the Afri­can (black) context we refer to theongoing task of African and BlackTheologies in their efforts to redefinethe nature of the Christian mythos'from an African and black perspective.I use the terms African and blackbecause they represent two importanthermeneutical movements withinAfrican theological scene. For overtwo decades African theologians invarious parts of Africa have beenpreoccupied with the development ofAfrican theologies' in an allempt to

TOWARD A QUEST FOR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

define for themselves their under­standing of the nature of African Chris­tian identity. These efforts haveexamined the relation between Chris­tianity and African traditional re­ligions. This process of re-interpretingthe Christian mythos within the Afri­can world view has challenged Afri­can theologians to examine variousaspects of Christian doctrine such asGod, Christ and the mission of thechurch. In a paper I wrote some fewyears back, I defined African Christiantheology as a reflective understandingof the Christian faith within the Afri­can cultural religious milieu.' What isimplied in this definition is that seri­ous theological reflection within theAfrican context will have to take seri­ously the cultural religious context.Before Christianity came to the shoresof Africa, Africans had a strong com­mitment to their traditional religions.These religions played a very signifi­cant role in defining who they are andthe meaning of life in its totality. Thisis why John Mbiti makes this ratherinteresting comment:

Be<;ause traditional religions permeate alldepartments or life. there is no formal dis­tinction between the sacred and the se<;u­lar. between the religious and nonreligious,between the spiritual and the material areasof life. Wherever the African is. there is hisreligion."

Thus African religious cosmologyprovides a unique context for Africantheological reflection. It becomes acrucial point at which African chris­tians begin to articulate their commit­ment and establish an identity as fol­lowers of Jesus Christ. This process of

2. Rohen I Sch iter. Conslructi,l.'l Loc.1 ThooIOSI~ IN" ... Yorl: Orbl •. 19851. P 1053. C!. Tn.,....o IV I"nnings. Ir.. In/rod'''''I'''' 10 Th~I"lff: An Indl.li"" In Reflee;rJoD upon Ih~ Chrl"i.D Mylhos

II'hll.rl"lp~lo:Fort ...... P...... 197614. Cr. K,,'e.i A. Did""". Th~I"IIY in Afric. l:-':c'" \"nrk: oroi. Il""l•. 1Y84).,. Cr. Ilunpnj.lo Gaba, "Ahk.n Chrl,lIon T~""lollJ' To....'.rd. Tent.ti,'" M"lhodoIOlQ·lrum. Soolh Af,ieon P"..pec.

!iv~." fTh SA. ,m, 26 (M."'~ 11I7111. pp l·ll,6. John S M~ill. Afric.n He/iRlon••nd Phil<>sophJ'Il''''~wYork: And'Of IIoob, Douhled.)· ond Co.. 19m). p 2.

IOURNALOF BLACK THEOLOGY IN sotml AFlI.lCA

theological reflection has challengedAfrican Christians. for example. toredefine Iheir understanding of God infavour of one which takes seriouslytheir traditional view of God. Manycurrent names used by African Christ­ians for God do not reflect their tradi­tional meaning because Ihese weregiven by Western missionaries wh?had vcry lillie knowledge of the Afri­can religious worldview. For example.the currenl name for God we use inZulu is "UnlwlUllkuJu", ·'the greatestone." and is felt to be inadequate: yetthe traditional name "Umvelinqangi"which means the one who is the begin­ning of e\'erything. the source of life or10 use Tillich's phrase. "the ground ofour being:' is hardly used within theMrican Christian community. Bulbecause of the emergence of Africantheology more African Christian com­munities arc being challenged inter­pret the concept of God in the conte~tof their lraditional religious expert­ence. this also applies to their views onthe significance of Christ.

What is important in this process ofconlextuaIi7..tltion. is that AfricanChristians are motivated to confronttheir religious schizophrenia byreclaiming the basic tenets of Chris­tianity in their particular context.Archbishop Tutu makes the samepoint whcn htl writes:

The lact is that. until fairl~' recently. theAfrican Christian has suffered from a religi­ous schi7.ophrenia. Wilh part of herlhimselfslhe has been compelled to pay lip serviceto Oirislianily as understood. expressedand preached by the white man, But withan e\'er greater part of herlhimself, a part slhehas been oflen ashamed to aclnowledgeopenly and which sfhe has struggled to re­press. slhe has felt that hislher Africanness

was being violated, The while man's largelycerebl1ll religion was hardly touching thedepths of hislher African soul; slhe was beingredeemed from sins slhe did not believe hehad committed: sihe was being givenanswers. and often splendid answers, toquestions slhe had 001 asked.'

I believe African theologies in diffe­rent parts of Africa arc beginning toaddress the issue of religious identitycrisis by developing the kind oftheological hermeneutic which takesseriously the Afrocentric view of life.and in so doing develops a ncw senseof Christian idcntity. What is also sig­nificant in this process is that AfricanChristians are Illorc conscious of thechallenge of religious pluralism thantheir Western counterparts. Religiouspluralism is not viewed as a problem,but as a fundamental fact of religiouslife. There is an open and dynamicview here. that rcligious idcntity issomething innovative and crcative inthat it involves a critical rc_evaluationof our religious convictions, especiallyill any context of religious pluralism.African Christian identity. in otherwords. evolves out of this pluralsim. inwhich there is a creath'c dialogue be­tween contrasting and yet comple­mentary religious worldviews. Interest­illg examples of this creative dialogu.ecan bc seen ill many attcmpts by Afri­can theologians to devclop rclevantchristologies for their churches."2, The other important contributionto this quest for Christian identity weencounter in the Black Theologymovement both here in the UnitedStates and in South Africa. My ownwork as a theologian has been greatlyinfluenced by this movement. Blacktheology is an attempt by Black Chris­tians to reinterpret the Christian faith

"in the context of Black religiousexperience. It is a theology whosebasic hermeneutic expresses the chal­lenge of being black in a context ofwhite institutional racism. This excit­ing black theological hermeneutic is aresponse 10 the challenge of blackpower here in the USA and black COIl­

sciousness in South Africa. It is atheology whose poi nl of departure isthe experience of oppression in whichthere is a positive reaffirmation of ourblack Christian identity. This point ismade also by Boesak!

It is no longer possible for black Christiansto escape these pressing questions: how canone be black and Christian·~What has faithin Jesus Christ 10 do wilh the struggle forbhlCk liberation?"

This quest for black identity in theblack power movement and black con­sciousness movements becomes a her­meneutical key to unlocking the depthand richness of the black religiousexperience. It is a redefinition of blackpersonhood. by black Christians thatauthenticates their faith in JesusChrist. The reality of blacknessbecomes the basic expression of ourobedience to the imperatives of thegospel. Therefore black theologicalreflection becomes the vehicle orchannel through which black Chris­tian identity is established.'o

What we see in both these efforts toredefine the nature of Christian iden­tity, is a commitment to take seriouslythe challenge of being African andblack in the world. It is to give theChristian mythos a new interpretationwhich is rooted in our Africanness aswell as our blackness.

TOWARD A QUEST FOR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ANDIDENTITY FORMATIONAny identity is anchored in a particu­lar social context or in a specific set ofsocial relations. This point has beenwell developed by Peter Berger andThomas Luckman, in their book, TheSocial Construction of Reality." Thatidentity formation process involves adialectical relationship between theindividual and society really impliesthat we become who we are as a resultof a particular form of socialization inwhich there are always competingclaims of meaning and negative powerrelationships. These competing claimsof meaning within a particularsociopolitical context lead to thedevelopment of critical conscious­ness. It is in this context that onebegins to appreciate the political sig­nificance of the conflict of interpreta­tions about the nature of social reality.

I believe this conflict of interpreta­tions about the nature of social realitygoes on also within religious com­munities as they seek to be faithful tothe imperatives of the gospel. In thiscontext claims to religious authentic­ity do not only necessitate conflict in ageneral sense, but may also lead toschism. I want to suggest for our dis­cussion that claims to religiousauthenticity in many Third WorldChristian communities are approach­ed in terms of (a) new forms of spiritu­ality. (h) critical involvement in strug­gles for justice and peace, and (cl a newtheological method.

When African theologians engage inthe theological task of reclaiming thebasic tenets of the Christian faith, theyare rejecting the kind of colonial Chris-

•. ....1I~n Iloes.ok. F~,.._IJ 10 InltOC\loat. A 5o<:jo-E1hi,...1Sludy 00 BI.d Tft.oJ"", Ind Po"'er (Orbi, Boob. 1977/. p 4010. Cf. Booloniolo Coba. An~d. for 81",,1~Y. HarJ'Mml>ulic$ for 5o<:~1Ch'''Il'' lIohoonesbu'll: Skn/ovi I~ Pub·

li.h~... 198111. In !hIt book Ilry to .dd...... the ptob1em of Chtl.Uln iden'il) from. bl""llh""l"lieol penpeo;live.II. Cf. Pete. BefllBt. Thotnl. Lukmln. ThtI 50<:;.1 eonstrucljon o( RNUty (New Yotk: "'nchotbook. 19671.

JOURNAL OF BL....CK THF.OLOCY IN SOUTH .... FRICA

tianity which was imposed on them.This rejection, as I have noted before,represents a projection of a new Chris­tian identity, one which takes seri­ously the African holistic view of lifesteeped both in the cultural values andtraditional religious practices of thepeople. It is in this context that weappreciate the exciting revitalizationof the Christian faith as one which isnot foreign but speaks to the very heartof the Christian community. This her­meneutic regrounding of the Christiantradition within the African worldview does not only promote a newsense of African Cristian identity butbecomes the sine qua non of the newkind of spirituality In the African con­text. There can be no authentic pre­sence of the church without this newsense of African Christian identity inAfrica. Theo Witvliet makes a veryperceptive comment in this regard:

Anyone who reflects on how long .nd howfundamentally the .... tonomy of the AfriQmhas been undermined and trampled on bysystematic contempt and mockery of hislher cult ... re .nd religion will recognize theinevitability of • reaction which acknow­ledges the value of those traditions andeven glorifies them. This reaction createsthe necessary self-respect which is theindispensable condition for the search for anew Iiberatlngldenttly."

The other important contribution tothis critical task of identity formation.I believe takes place in black theologi­cal reflection. It is a reaffirmation ofour God-given task to challenge racistoppression on the basis of our faith inJesus Christ. In a situation where ourblack identity is threatened and sub­jected to oppressive structures, blacktheological reflection becomes thebasis for developing a critical con-

12. Wll"I1... " PI_In ,IN! Sun. I' 110.

sciousness, one which exposes thecontradictions of our society. Ourblackness becomes a point of depar­ture for theological reflection. Whatauthenticates this kind of theologicalreflection is a commitment to thestruggle for liberation, as we strive todismantle the system of apartheid. Weare challenged to expose contradic­tions in our everyday social life. aswell as to discover our true black iden­tity. For those of us who by choice areChristians, this identity is rooted inour black religious experience. Thereis a sense here in which our involve.ment in the struggle for liberation isshaped by who we are and at the sametime defines who we are.

The quest for Christian identity is adynamic process which evolves asChristians reinterpret the gospel in aparticular context. It can never be afinished product but always invitesanother critical theological reflection.In the Third World this sense of Chris­tian identity is forged in the strugglesfor cultural and religious authenticityas we have observed in Africa. It is alsoforged in the various struggles for lib­eration, especially in South Africa andmany partsoft~eThirdWorld. What isunique about this quest for Christianidentity as part of the theological task,is that faith is validated by praxis. Inother words, what is at stake here is notthe challenge of orthodoxy but oforthopraxis. Dermot Lane makes arelevant point in this regard:

Linked to this praxls·centered understand­ing of knowledge is the presence 01 anequally different view of what constit ... testhe truth. In many traditional epis­temologies, such as empiricism or criticalrealism. the mode of truth which Is opera­tive is one 01 disclosure. In the praxls-cen­tered understanding of knowledge tha

"model of truth is one of transformation.Truth is perceived in the experience ofsocial transformation."

I believe this praxis-centeredtheological approach has interestingmethodological implications for theChristian identity formation processin any given sociopolitical context.Theological reflection for me is verymuch connected with the Christianidentity formation process whichbegins with the basic experience ofoppression. Governed by a hermeneu­tic of suspicion. it unravels the con­tradictions in our life through a criticalprocess of social analysis. It is in thistask of social analysis as we engage inthe struggle for liberation that weacquire new self-understanding. Thisprocess is sometimes referred to asconscientization. But social analysis isnot sufficient to bring about this new

TOWARD It QUEST FOR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

sense of Christian identity alone; itmust be accompanied by criticaltheological reflection, which involvesa reappropriation of the basic affirma­tions of the Christian faith as decisivein shaping our praxis in a particularcontext. This praxis-centered theolog­ical approach which arises out of ourcommitment redefines who we are inthe struggle and at the same time isbased on our faith. Christian praxisoffers an interesting alternative to anydiscussion about the quest for Chris­tian identity. Feminist. black andThird World liberation theologies areall interesting examples of the diffe­rent approaches to the notion of Chris­tian identity and all address the prob­lem of religious particularity andtheological inquiry in a public contextfrom the perspective of the undersideof history.

13. [lennol A. l.an~. FoondAIi"n$ far ASocial Theology.' Prui•• Procen And SAI"Allon (Dublin; CHI and Macm; lion, LId..1984), P 13.

JOURNAL OF BLACK ll-IEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Book Reviews•

Global Economy: A Confessional Issue for the Chun::hes?Ulrich Duchrowwce Publications, World Council of Churches, 1987, 231 pp" $9.50.

Dr. M.P. Moila, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Mapumulo

Ulrich Duchrow's book fiercely challenges the churches in rich industrial coun­tries. especially in the Federal Republic of Germany. to accept the universal chal­lenge of the global economic system. Thus it articulates the author's strong beliefthat the economic problem is one of the problems facing humanity today and thatit is a problem which the churt:h of Christ cannot ignore and which should be tack­led in "contextual" terms.

To achieve his objective the author clearly identifies the factors which preventthe churt:hes in rich industrial countries from accepting this challenge. the fellerswhich hold up these churt:hes captive in their Egypt, and traditional resourceswhich could be utilized by them to free themselves from their enslavement bythese fellers. Further he identifies God's concrete command in this issue of globaleconomy. credal question to ministers of these churches, and the steps whichshould be taken in the global context.

The book speaks directly to the German context and indirectly to other contexts.Thus apart from articulation of warnings, it also builds on German tradition, forinstance certain valuable experiences such as those of the confessing churt:h inNazi period. It consists of ten chapters.

In the first chapter the author spells out the distortion of the Lutheran "Two­Kingdoms" doctrine by the Neo-Lutheran tradition. In his view this doctrine hasacquired enormous ideological importance in most Lutheran churches today andas such it is used as an "axiom" that the church has nothing to do with politics (p3). For him it, thus, serves "as their basis for a double standard of morality - a Sun­day morality and weekday morality" {p 13}, has led the rich churches to believethat political maters are outside the scope of salvation, led to the restriction ofChristianity's influence, substraction of its authority. the identification of someLutheran churches with the dominant forces in society and the belief by someLutheran churches that Christians are incapable of resisting political structures,because they are a very small minority in society. The author believes that thisusage is contrary to Luther's original idea and intention. In his view Lutherinfended to point out the real tension between the divine kingdom and the forcesof evil in buman history and to encourage humans to become "fellow-workers"with the God whose will is that the whole of creation should have life abundantly.

In chapter 2 the author discusses the assimilation of the institutional churchinto the social and political institutions and interests of its social context. Thischurch, he maintains, either seeks a privileged place in society or exists at

38 BOOK REVIEWS

privileged places in the world. Utilizing Bonhoeffer's ecclesiologies, he con­demns this church and concludes thallhe struggle of the church of Jesus Christshould be waged in the world and that the global economic system is one of theforemost places where Christus praesens should be today, because it is this placewhich is central for justice (p 26). In his view the church should be where Godshares in the sufferings of the world. In chapter 3 on the basis of Luther's andBonhoeffer's ecclesiologies he concludes that the church is summoned to resistperverted and oppressive political systems and to persuade society as a whole. byits own resistance and example, and by creating and developing just and par­ticipatory structures in order to solve humanity's vital questions (pp 60-67), Inchapter 4 he challenges the church's financial system and those responsible forthe European churches to listen to the voices of those who suffer from the globaleconomic system, in regional and national meetings of the W.C.C. In his view thisis the only way through which these churches could join God's liberating actionfor justice. He thus views the decision of the ecumenical movement to be in sol­idarity with the poor as a significant break-through in the history of the church (p 74),and challenges European churches to "recognise honestly their direct complicityin the structures of the global economy and draw necessary conclusions (p 81).

In chapter 5 he concludes that the struggle for justice and human dignity shouldbegin within the church itself, because in his view at issue "is not simply a posi­tion of a belter society but of a choice between Christ and Anti-Christ, betweenchurch and anti-church" (p 94). He thus challenges churches and christians,unless they are poor, to confess their sin of supporting in one way or another theglobal economic system. He believes that the church is destined to win the strug­gle for justice and human dignity, because it has received the promise that eventhe gates of hell shall not prevail against it (p 96),

In chapter 6 he concludes that for us today the question of "confessing church"is no longer just a theoretical possibility, it has become an historical "must","which both alarms and exhilarates us" (p 113), He condemns selfstyled "Christ­ian" groups which support oppression and intimidation (p 118) and warns thatthe European churches will destroy themselves, as white South Africa is destroy­ing itseU, if their relationship to the two-thirds world develop in the same way aswhite South Africa is developing in relationship to its black peoples (p 134). Inchapter 7 he concludes that "the global economic system is a mission field for theconfession church today" (p 177) and that the church must live, work, worshipand struggle in concrete solidarity with the underprivileged -locally and world­wide (p 180), In his view every effort should be made "to persuade the institutionsin both church and state to fuUilI their God-given function of promoting and pro­tecting life" (Ibid).

In chapter 8 he challenges churches and Christians in the rich countries toaccept the forgiveness of all their sins in the new convenant in Christ's blood andjustification by God's grace before they can be God's instruments of re-newinghuman societies and socia-economic structures, He insists that the forgivenchurch "at every level should thoroughly investigate the economic questions,especially in respect of the global economic system, its mechanism and possiblealternatives" (p 196), For him this church "must test the institutions against scrip­ture and the confession of faith" (p 198) and rigorously analyse "secular institu­tions in the light of the revealed will of God as attested in scripture and reflected

JOURNAl. OF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOtm-l AFRICA "

in the creeds and confessions" (Ibid). He also insists that "the nations of the worldand the church must unite in the quest for alternatives for life, the life of thehuman family and of the whole earth.. (p 2(0) and that the church is the fellowshipof all people except those who exclude themselves (p 201). In chapter 9 he chal­lenges Christian churches to demonstrate their solidarity with the poor of theearth by participating in the struggle for a more just economic system (p 213). Inchapter 10 he insists that the strongest possible ecclesial response should be givento the challenges which confront the churches and humanity as a whole (p 218).In his view "the one church of Jesus Christ" can be "one of Ihe strongest signs ofhope, in a world in which suffering and danger multiply", only through a processof mutual commitment to justice (p 225). He, however, maintains that the realityof Ihis commitment comes to us as a gift from the Triune God.

The book seeks to help the affluent churches of the West 10 recognise their mis­sion in secular institutions and those theological resources which exist to enablethem to be in solidarity with the poor in their struggle for justice and peace. It is,therefore, of utmost importance for the situation in South Africa whereby blackpeople suffer as a result of an unjust political system.

Louise Kretzschmar: The Voice of Black Theology in South AfricaJohannesburg: Ravan Press, 1986. xiii + 136 pp.

5.S. MairneJa, Unisa, Pretoria

Louise Kretzschmar's book, which grew out of thesis for a Master's degree, is anImportant contribution toward the interpretation of the significance of BlackTheology for South Africa. Written by a sympathetic female white theologian, thebook should go a long way toward mediating the concerns of black South AfricanChristians to the white community. This is a task that only a white person, familiarwith the literature on Black Theology. could perform. Unl~keth05ewhites, be theyconservatives or liberals. who quickly dismiss Black Theology on the basis ofhearsay or mischievous misrepresentation before they have read or listened to it.Kretzschmar's work is commendable since it is highly informed and the authortakes pains to thoroughly document her arguments. For this reason. she speakspersuasively and with authority, as a Black South African would.

The above positive comments, notwithstanding, I must regrettably point outthat it is rather unfortunate that Kretzschmar's book should trade on and is repletewith male sexisllanguage. Her lack of sensivity on sexist language is unforgivablecoming as it does from a female theologian who sympathetically discusses theBlack Theology of liberation. Some of us had counted on her to help conscientizeher male readers about the problems concerning sexist metaphors for the divine inIheologicallanguage. We pray and hope that, in the future, she will become as con·cerned about male sexist domination of women as she is about the white racialoppression of Blacks. That concern should be reflected in the language we use.

Furthermore, Kretzschmar has tried to cover too much in few pages. The resultis that she succeeds merely in introducing important themes without developingthem. In so doing, the author has rendered her work into an encyclopaedic rather

.. BOOK REVIEWS

than an original and creative one. If her intension. was to introduce the subject toher readers rather than sink her shaft deeply in few aspects of Black Theology inorder to provide new insights then this book has perhaps achieved its limited goal.I commend it highly to all South Africans who are concerned about and wish toenter into dialogue with one another, thus overcoming the polarization thatthreaten to lear us apart.

Kammer III. Charles L.: Ethics and Liberation: An Introduction.Maryknoll. NY.: Orbis Books. 1988. xi + 243pp $11.95 (phk).

S.s. Maime/a, Unisa, Pretoria

Kammer's book. apart from its very perceptive introduction, is made up of eightchapters. In Chapters 1-2 the author, among others. argues that ethics is a humanenterprise because to be human is to be moral. He defines the task of Christianethics, and delineates its ethical sources, Most important sources are the Bible andthe person of Jesus because they provide a norm of how God is to be understoodas that reality which coaxs people into freedom and responsibility, thus creatingloving and caring Christian communities.

Chapters 3-4 discuss what Kammer refers to as the Christian moralscape whichinforms and shapes moral questions. Among these are world-views, loyalties toself, 10 society and to God, as well as norms and values. Chapters 5·6 focus on therelational interdependency between the individual and the community. Kammernotes thaI while individuals have the potential to create societies in which theylive, the quality of their personhood is largely dependent, both negative and posi­tively, upon the life of the communities in which they live. Consequently, Chris­tians should strive to create communities in which love of neighbour and mutualcaring could best be realized.

In Chapters 7-8, the author oUllines a social vision which holds promise for thedevelopment of human communities in which each person will be accorded dig­nity, justice, and freedom, This leads Kammer to reject certain Christian traditionswhich stress individual salvation, personal spirituality and orthodoxy above com·munity reform, social transformation, and social justice. Also, he rejects the so­called "Christian realism" which has been hijacked by the Christian right and isused as an ideology in defense of the status quo when it is argued that, because ofsin, the capitalist structures and policies which breed oppression and exploitationof the weaker members of society cannot really be transformed for the belter.Rejecting this social pessimism, Kammer embraces liberation theology which, inhis view, offers the only alternative vision which holds promise for a just, peacefuland reconciled society, thus providing real hope for human survival against ourinhumanity and brutality toward each other and our planet.

Kammer's book is a balanced, lucid and readable exposition of Christian elhics,and should be read by all who care 10 develop a useful vision of what it is to be agood person and caring Christian community, a vision attractive enough to moti­vate Christians to wanl to transform themselves and their communities in accor­dance with the ethos of the Kingdom of God.

BOOK REVIEWS

Chapter 5 discusses the liberative praxis of Jesus and its siRIlificance for thepoor's struggle for liberation, as they struggle to transform unjust human societyin anticipation of God's kingdom in which human struggles for justice, freedomand reconciliation shall be summed up and given their ultimate meaning and ful­fillment.

I commend this book highly for those who want to know what liberation is allabout.

Mills Lilno48314

.IOURNALOF BLACK THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Cadorette. Curt: From the Hem ofthe People: The Theology ofGustavo Gutier­",z.Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone Books, 1988. xviii + 140 pp. $14,95 {Paper): $34,95(Hard Cover.

5.S, MaimeJa, Unjsa. Pretoria

In this valuable publication, Cadorette makes available to the general reader anupdated bibliography and exposition of the theology of one of Latin Americas'leading theologians, Gutierrez, whose name has rightly become synonymous withliberation theology.

The book, apart from its invaluable preface which discusses its author's longstruggle to overcome his idealism and to come to terms with the Latin Americansituation, is made up of five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the socio-economic andpolitical context of the Peruvian situation, which is characterized by dual conflict­ing forces: oppression and liberation, exploitation and freedom, sin and salvation,and death and life. On one side there are a minority of powerful oppressors whoperpetuate exploitation, domination, poverty, physical torture, pain and death.On the other side there are the poor and oppressed masses who are strugglingagainst all odds to shake off the death-dealing chains of capitalism and classoppression.

In Chapter 2, the author discusses the negative and positive aspects of popularculture and religion as expounded by Gutierrez. He notes with deep insight thatculture and religion in the hands of the dominant section of society can be lethal;they can be used to block the oppressed people's advance towards understandingtheir real situation and the causes of their poverty and domination. On the otherhand. these cultural ideologies need not be dismissed as opium for the masses.Rather they should be critically appropriated and used by the oppressed as instru­ments to help them to understand the place of the poor in society and themechanisms that breed and perpetuate oppression. FuncJioning in this positivemanner. they can inspire the oppressed to act against forces that are life·denying.and to create a new social order in the place of the unjust one.

Chapter 3 discusses two Peruvian Intellectuals, Arguedas and Mariategu. whohave influenced Gutierrez's Intellectual growth. From Arguedas. he learnt howreligion can be misused and also learnt of a different God who takes the preferen­tial option for the poor in support of the poor's struggle against the forces ofoppression and domination. From Mariategu, Gutierrez learnt that Marxism haspositive aspects. Similarly religion can become a useful instrument in the poorpeoplp.'s struggle against social evils, for it announces a vision of an alternativesocial order which can be created in the place of the oppressive one.

In Chapter 4, Cadorette discusses the role that Marxism and social sciences playin the theology of Gutierrez. He demonstrates persuasively that Gutierrez Is not aMarxist as his detractors often allege. Rather he is a creative thinker who takes thebest insights from thp. sources he uses. Perhaps the most important contribution inthis chapter is the discussion of that often misunderstood concept in liberationtheology, namely, class struggle He points out how Gutierrez relates this notion tothe Christian struggle for justice.