A BRIEF HISTORY
OF EVANGELISATION IN AFRICA
by
Rev. Celestine A.
OBI (Nigeria)
INTRODUCTION
It is a happy coincidence, that this Synod for Africa is taking place
just when the Church is celebrating the paschal mystery, the event of Christ’s
resurrection which transformed the first disciples. By dying he destroyed our
death and through his resurrection he restored our life and gives the hope of
future resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus has remained the core of the
Christian message ever since. Christ crucified and risen from the dead is the
centre of all evangelization. It is the key point of the gospel message.
Evangelization started with the Apostles and the women going to the tomb in the
morning of Christ’s resurrection. They were afraid at first but the descent of
the Holy Spirit on the disciples marked the birth of the Church, the new
society of believers. On the day of Pentecost, Peter on behalf of the rest
spoke up - PROCLAIMING THE MYSTERY OF FAITH: Christ has died, Christ is
risen, Christ will come again. Speaking in Kilmanjaro Stadium of Moshi in
Tanzania, on 5th Sept. 1990, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II says: “The same
witness of the Risen Lord which the Apostles gave - and which lies at the
heart of the two-thousand year history of the ‘missions’ in the Church - is the principal task facing the Church in Africa”. These gospel narratives are
stories about God’s intervention in human history. The Gospel is history and it
also has a history of its won. It is the word of God. Strangely enough, the
power of God’s word is also its weakness. God’s word needs help; God’s word
needs ministers- those who will be sent to preach. The Father sent His
only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus in turn sent Apostles: Going therefore,
teach ye all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son an
of the Holy Spirit ... Matt. 28:19ff.
The Gospel is Good News, a story, a message that has
an impact and part of its impact is that it gets itself repeated. It snowballs.
It transforms the quality of human living for the ordinary people. It gets
itself told in successive generations. This is what evangelization is all
about: The telling of the Good News, whether it is evangelization of Africa or
of Europe or of America. The tellers of the Gospel story are ministers of the
Word. These ministers pass the Gospel story from mouth to mouth, from heart to
heart, among ordinary Christians. However, for the telling of the Gospel story
to be successful, it must be received, God said everything there was to be said
in Jesus but God’s communication cannot be complete until the last human being
in history has responded to God’s invitation.
1. STAGES OF EVANGELISATION IN AFRICA
The Earliest
Period: The Ancient Church of North Africa Jesus, the Gospel and the Ancient
Churches in North Africa
A history of evangelization in Africa simply means
Christianity and Africa in dialogue. This is the central theme of this paper.
Christ came to Africa. How did Africa receive Him? Evangelization is not recent
to Africa. After all, Africa played host to the infant Jesus and the entire
Holy Family during the flight in Egypt, about a year after the birth in
Bethlehem. This could pass for the earliest beginnings of the history of
evangelization. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was a refugee in North Africa. On
the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles, some
Africans were among those who heard Peter’s solemn address ‑ preaching
the dead and the risen Christ. The Ethiopian eunuch was actually reading the
Bible even if with great difficulty.
The first expansion of Christianity which can be
called the pioneering stage of evangelization started from Jerusalem and moved
to Caesarea and Joppa. Then Christians moved to Samaria and Syria. The
conversion of Saul (Paul) of Tarsus gave the early Church a giant of a leader
and a tireless evangeliser. He broke down barriers of prejudice, and stated
with conviction that in Christ there was no distinction between Jews and
Gentile, between slave and freedman and between man and woman. Paul spread the
faith through Asia Minor and Greece. The Gospel reached Rome. By the 2nd
century, Jewish Christianity began to grow feeble. Jewish Christians in
Jerusalem had suffered severe persecutions. James brother of John was martyred
in or about 44 A.D. Christianity next crossed the mediterranean region from
Italy into the Roman province of North Africa and later in the century in the
Egypt. Meanwhile the Christian gains were consolidated as Christianity spread
from its urban strongholds to the surrounding country sides. The Church at Rome
associated with Paul and Peter in New Testament times was growing to dominate
the scene by the third century and faith flourished too in Northern Italy. Gaul
(modern France) received the faith through Greek colonies settling there. Early
Gallic centres of Christianity included Vienna and Lyons. By the 3rd century
too there was much Christian activity in Syria especially in the South. (Tim
Dowley, The Story of Christianity, 1981 pp.6,7) By the year 200 AD.
Christianity has taken a firm root in North Africa. Carthage became a prominent
Christian centre. The Christian Churches of North Africa date back to the times
of the Apostles and were even associated with the name of St. Mark the
Evangelist. North Africa produced great and heroic Christians, saints, martyrs,
confessors, virgins and great doctors like Origen and Tertullian. Among the
saints are Athanasius and Cyril, leaders of the Alexandrian school. At the
other end of the North Africa coastline are great names like St. Cyprian and
the greatest of them all St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine of Hippo one of the
brilliant lights of the Christian world. The roll call continued with Anthony
and Pachomius who were the pioneer founders of the monastic life in North Africa.
From here monasticism later spread to Eastern and Western Europe. Pope Paul VI
in his message to Africa in 1965, spoke of St. Frumentius known by the name
Abba Salama who was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius and became the Apostle
of Ethiopia. The pope next mentioned the saintly African popes ‑ Victor,
Malciades and Galatius 1. These flourished around the Mediterranean sea and
were Africans of European or Arabic origin. (OBI C.A., The Twentieth Century
Pope, 1993, p.47). The Islamic invaders later almost totally wiped out
traces of Christianity in North Africa. So it is easy to forget the early
strength of the Faith in this region.
African Christian history places on record that
Christianity was introduced to Alexandria in Egypt in A.D. 61 and that Alexandria
became the centre of the Christian Church on the Nile. The Alexandrian
Patriarchate and Athanasius, Theophilius, Cyril and Dioscorus played its
greatest role in the years 311‑451 AD at the time of the Donatist heresy
and later at the Council of Chalcedon. This Council separated from Rome the
Coptic Church of Ethiopia. (Martin Bane, The Popes and Western Africa,
1968, preface p. ix).
Ethiopia much influenced by the remarkable current of
Hellenism adopted Christianity in 330 AD when the emperor Constantine built up
Byzantium and named his new capital Constantinople. This opened a new phase in
the history of Evangelization. With the conversion to Christianity of the king
of Aux, Ethiopia joins the Christian world. However, it took another century to
convert the rest of the traditional regions of old Ethiopia. Since the Schism
of Chalcedon, the Abuna, the head of the Abyssinian Church got much closer to
the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
The Arab conquest of North Africa around the year 640
AD is one of the great historical turning points in African history and means
also the dramatic end of old North African Christianity. This Arab victory
meant as well the establishment of the present foundations of the religious,
political, social and cultural life in the Maghreb countries, Libya and Egypt.
Only in Egypt has a Coptic minority managed to survive up to the present day.
The Muslim program of Islamization of the entire Black
Africa whether it came as a conquering, military and mystic force, as in West
Africa or as a feudal maritime, commercial and private‑like clement as in
East Africa, must be recognized for what it is.
Islamization
cooled off for a brief while. It took off again and captured the geographical
Sudanese area and led to the destruction of old indigenous African
civilizations. This did not happen over‑night but rather came on
gradually. Senegal was one of the first places to fall to Islam in the 11th
century. The drive continued and the Mali fell to Islam during the l3th and
14th centuries. The Songhay Empire of Gao fell to Islam in the 15th and 16th
centuries. During this time, it was the rulers who were converted and were
enjoined to convert their subjects (Martin Bane, idem p. x).
Christianity
makes a comeback to the African Continent
The Portuguese Mariners during the 15th century
discovered the African Coast, sailed around the Cape of Storms (Cape of Good
Hope) to finally land in Calcutta in 1494. It was in this way that the
Portuguese and the Spanish Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula carried the
Christian message to America and finally back to the African continent. This
latter initiative marked the beginning of the African missions of that great
out-pouring of zeal and energy to bring salvation to the indigenous
African people, the Portuguese missionary work was indeed remarkable. This is
seen from the Christianization of the Congo kingdom especially under the Mani
Congo Nzinga Cuvu and his son Alfonso 1 (1507 -1543). Mission posts were
set up in the Islands of Cape Verde and Sao Thorne’s Principe and the famous
Warri mission in Nigeria. However, the Portuguese endeavours ultimately failed,
perhaps because Portugal lacked finances and manpower to run such a vast
enterprise alone. Above all, very few of her missionaries were able to survive
the climate and disease. Up till the 20th century, the European had regarded
Africa as poor, hot, humid, miserable and the white man’s grave. In fact,
whenever mariners or missionaries arrived on the coast of Africa this was the
real picture. On the other hand, to the Easterners Africa meant a country of
opportunity and wealth. A second phase of the Congo missionary effort before it
failed due to internal dissension (civil war) and external attacks (Jaga
invasion 1561) was carried out by Capuchin Friars (mainly Italians, Spanish and
Flemish) in the 17th century.
The eventual successful evangelization of the African
Coast was very much linked to the powers who had an interest in Africa and this
was from the 15th to the 16th centuries. Portugal (except for the period 1580 - 1640 when it was united to the Spanish Crown) was the most important name in
the history of evangelization of Africa. One remarkable fact was that the
Papacy right from the start wanted to keep the missions very much free from
“protection” and interference by the state. The first secretary of the
Congregation for the Evangelization of the Faith (now called the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples), Monsignor Ingoli (1622 - 1649) was
the first to attempt giving the pioneer African missions such autonomy.
The Portuguese decline and the growing impact of the
slave trade weakened the missionary efforts in the 17th and 18th centuries.
According to Martin Bane, few missionaries could survive the terrible
conditions on the African Coast and these were scarcely fit enough to fight the
growing slave trade interests.
Fortunately, the famous campaigns against the slave
trade by William Willberforce and actions of the “Amis des Noirs” during the
French Revolution (Mirabeau, Roberspierre, Lafayette, Sieyes) brought to a
gradual close the sad activities of the Atlantic slave trade. It also brought
with it the modem missionary activity in Africa which had weakened during the
17th and 18th centuries.
This modem missionary effort was not limited to the Catholic
Church. As a matter of fact, Wilberforce’s campaigns brought the famous London
Missionary Society (1792) which was soon to play a great role in the field of
missionary work and education in south Africa, which was the only country to
develop a native Westernized elite before the French colonial regime took over
the Island of Malagasy in 1895/96 Nyassaland and Uganda.
Other Protestant missions from England, Germany
(Bremen) Switzerland (Basle) and Paris became active in Africa with such famous
names as Casalis (Basutoland), Homberger Gold coast (modem Ghana) Keelle and
Hannah Kilham. The collective work of the missionaries is significant for the
development of Sierra Leone, the first of the so called black settler
countries founded by freed slaves in 1787. This is particularly true of the
famous Fourah Bay College, one of whose renowned products was Samuel Ajayi
Crowther, who was consecrated an Anglican bishop in Nigeria in 1864.
The Catholic missionary activity represents serious
new attempts in the 19th century to bring Christianity back to Africa. The Holy
Ghost Fathers appear to have made the most important efforts. They continued
their work in Senegal, Gabon and Congo which were French speaking African
countries. The Society of the African Missions (S.M.A) of Lyons was founded in
1854 and played an outstanding role in the evangelization of the Two Guineas.
Charles Cardinal Lavigerie founded the Missionary Society of the White Fathers
(Peres Blancs) in Algeria in 1864. Its official name is Fathers of Our Lady of
Africa. Members did not take monastic vows but bound themselves to work in
Africa for all their lives. The White Fathers also became famous for the
problems they had with Lugard on the Protestant missions in Uganda 1877, the
Pallotines Fathers and the Society of the Divine Word were the German
counterparts during this modem missionary effort and became very active in
Togoland and Cameroon (cf. Bane, idem, XIII).
The Holy Ghost Fathers continued their work of
evangelization in the Two Guineas. Fr. Edward Blancet C.S.Sp. led the first
band of Holy Ghost missionaries who were working in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The Holy Ghost missionaries continued to evangelize all the territory that was
left of the old mission field of the Two Guineas. The Vicariate of the Two
Guineas was discontinued and Gabon itself was established as a separate
jurisdiction. So the vicariate of the Two Guineas erected in 1842 existed until
1942 - a full century. By 1960 the Holy Ghost Fathers had administered 22
Ecclesiastical jurisdictions in what was a century earlier the vast Vicariate
of the Two Guineas.
Christian presence in Africa as we know it today is
the result of missionary initiatives during the 19th and 20th centuries. Added
to this was the fact that freed and repatriate ex-slaves returned to
Africa, bringing with them, the Christian religion. Thus Christianity spread
anew in Sierra Leone, Liberia, south Africa and some sectors of East
Africa.
II. OBSTACLES TO EVANGELIZATION
Certain factors worked against the spread of
Christianity in Africa at the initial stages. The slave trade constituted a
major obstacle.
1) For instance, the British and the European slave
trade was at its greatest height and Africa was the primary source of slaves.
The British colonial secretary, Lord Dartmouth, said in 1775: “We cannot allow
the colonies to check ‑or discourage in any degree, a traffic so
beneficial to the nation”. (Elliot Kendall, The End of an Era, pp. 17 - 18).
The whole coastline of Africa was known and ships of
several nations were constantly calling at the ports. There were no maps of the
interior of the continent and Europe knew nothing of the people of the
interior: their religion, culture and economy except as a source for obtaining
slaves.
An international trade with an average 130 sailings a
year from Britain alone could not be lightly brushed aside. In fact, in
1787, London had 26 ships, Bristol 22 and Liverpool 73 engaged in this trade.
They carried a total of 36,000 slaves from Africa averaging 494 a ship. In the
years 1795 - 1804 London sent out 155 ships to Africa and carried 46,405
slaves, Bristol’s ships sailed from the coast with 10,718, while Liverpool’s
1009 vessels carried 332,800 slaves. (Elliot Kendall: idem).
Between 1680 and 1786 over 2 million were imported
into British colonies not counting those imported into Brazil and other parts
of the Americas.
It must however be noted that the Atlantic slave trade
had first been exploited by the Portuguese. After 1494, following the Pope’s
arbitration, Portugal exercised a monopoly in the supply of African slaves to
Brazil and Spanish colonies. African slaves in very large numbers provided free
labour for the growing of sugar plantations in the Caribbean Islands and on the
American main lands (EWot Kendall, p.27).
At one time, more than 10 thousand slaves were being
shipped from the Congo/Zaire to Portugal and about 10,000 were being shipped
from East Africa to South America each year. Some people believed that
evangelization work in Africa was being indirectly financed partly from the
proceeds of the slave trade. This climate of opinion reasoned that, since the
missionaries begged for money, and depended on charity, that many of their
benefactors could have been slave barons made rich by this nefarious
trafficking in human fives. The slave trade left an indelible psychological
mark on the victims, a stigma which they carried to the grave.
2) The Berlin Congress of 1885 and its consequent
scramble and partitioning of Africa all drew the attention of the West to the
entire, continent all over again. The acquisition of colonies in Africa by
European powers, the invasions of Africa by European merchants searching for
raw materials to promote the industrial Revolution, and the influx in Africa of
Christian missionaries of different denominations, all came upon Africa as it
were, like an inundation. Thus today, the countries in Africa (54 or 55)
strong, have celebrated the first centenary of the advent of Christianity.
Africa incessantly and tirelessly searches for the fight and her dialogue with
Christianity continues.
3) For instance, this vast continent has fallen prey
to the dishonesty and rapacity of its politicians, soldiers and administrators.
The opportunities and temptations for malfeasance and embezzlement abound and
are exploited. In the entire sub‑Saharan Africa, skills and savings are
in short supply, while foreign enterprise can be selfish and even unscrupulous.
This again points out the necessity for dialogue between Africa and the rest of
the world. If development were to be achieved by conferences, Africa would soon
have made rapid strides forward. But very often these conferences achieve, at
best, declarations and communiqués which unfortunately almost always fail to
address the palpable problems of industrialization, inculturation and social
justice. Francis Cardinal Arinze in one of his most recent publications
entitled Looking for Light Series, in six volumes, referred to Africa as
“handcuffed Africa” (Arinze, F., Looking for Light Series vol. iv, Africa and
Christianity p. 1). This is indeed a most apt caption for Africa is still
handcuffed by underdevelopment, chronic foreign debts and lack of enlightened
leadership in actual control of affairs. The basic necessities of food, water,
shelter and light are not readily available to a large number of people. The
problems of underdevelopment are further complicated and aggravated by social
problems such as ethnic divisions, racial discriminations, unethical
behaviours, fraudulent political management of the country, corruption and
indiscipline. In some African Countries, wars are raging incessantly and the
number of refugees keeps increasing. All these in turn increase the people’s
sufferings, and reduce the efficacy of evangelization.
The necessity of the missions flows from Christ’s
explicit command as well as from the Church’s intimate nature. She must become
present to all nations in order to make Christ known to them, and to gather
them into one people of God according to the divine plan of salvation and for
God’s glory .... Missionary activity is the manifestation of God’s plan from
the first coming of the Lord to the second. Vat.II
Ad Gentes.
Therefore, whatever interferes with evangelization
disrupts God’s plan to save humanity. The Church is by nature missionary. When
she evangelizes, she is only being herself. “We wish to affirm once more that
the essential mission of the Church is to evangelize all men” (The Synod of
Bishops: Evangelli Nuntiandi, 8 December 1975, Austen Flannery Vatican
Collection, vol.2, p.711).
4) Africa is indeed in need of fight to help her
arrange her priorities right. Greed and recklessness in money matters like a
jinx steers Africa onto spending very large sums of money on armaments to quell
internal oppositions or combat external enemies. For instance, West German arms
sales to Africa alone stood at 73,000,000 dollars during the period 1965 - 1974, but had escalated to 425,000,000 dollars between 1974 ‑ 1977. West
Germany sold 280,000,000 dollars worth of arms to Algeria and 140,000,000 dollars
to Libya during the same period. Total arms sales to sub‑Saharan Africa
by the U.S.A., France, Britain, Italy, the Federal German Republic and Canada,
added up to 1345,000,000 dollars during the same period. Furthermore, arms
transfers to states in sub‑Saharan.
Africa from the former U.S.S.R., China, Poland,
Czechoslovakia between 1974 and 1978 came up to 3,063,000,000 dollars. (Peter
Wickens, Africa 1880 ‑1980 pp.306 ‑307). This is a revealing
analysis of the Economic history of Africa. The result of all this is obvious ‑
a yawning gap between rich and poor nations in Africa, between rich and poor in
the country. Finally, this state of affairs perpetuates Africa’s servitude and
dependence on the industrialised nations.
5) As though this were not enough, sub‑Saharan
Africa has ever since recent political independence been plagued with
governmental instability. Coups and counter‑coups have rocked many
African countries to their very foundations. For instance, between 1960 and
1975 there were 20 successful military coups in Africa, and others that failed.
Soldiers were transformed overnight into administrators, legislators and
economists ‑ a metamorphosis no more to be commended as a solution to
economic and social problems, than would be similar pro‑tem feats by the
butcher, the baker, the cobbler, or the candlestick‑maker. The obvious
conclusion is that in so many cases, the capture of most government was an end
in itself, a seizure and a distribution of wealth and privilege, mostly for the
benefit of the soldiers and the civil servants on whom they rely (Peter
Wickins, op. cit. p. 310). The question is how do these military interventions,
“state of emergency” and “curfews” promote evangelisation? Christianity is
life. Disrupt the natural life of the community and you disorganize the family
which is the miniature Church and scatter the rest of the parishioners who are
members of the local Church. When these empty into refugee camps during a
breach of peace, they are no longer in their natural habitat where they live
and practise their religion meaningfully. The government sometimes makes it
difficult for missionaries to come and evangelise some countries in Africa ‑
refusal to grant visas, giving impossible conditions, preventing these
missionaries from preaching to some communities in a given area....
6) African soothsayers and fortune tellers and modem
prayer house prophets may explain away this situation by saying that Africa is
so regularly cursed with leaders who are incompetent, uncouth, self‑indulgent,
dishonest, apathetic, self‑seeking and corrupt. Note however that it
would be hypocritical to suggest that none of these problems was of Africa’s
own making. It is equally totally futile to deny that the solutions to most of
these problems lay in the hands of Africans themselves. Therefore it is very
clear that today, during this last decade of the twentieth century Africa is
still looking for fight. It is indeed in very great need of light. But how
seriously, how conscientiously and how unanimously she is seeking this, is
entirely another question. Already, the United Nations Organisation and the
Organisation of African Unity have declared the 1980’s the African Industrial
Development Decade. But who can be sure of African nations making progress at this
time? According to Peter Wickins, even the target of a modest 2% African share
of world industrial production by the year 2000 would require and annual growth
rate which surpasses the growth ever achieved so far by the African nations.
It is very obvious that the Christian religion and any
religion for that matter would not thrive in a country beset with political
instability and economic bankruptcy in spite of the often cited separation of
Church and State. This gives Africa more reason and determination to seek for
light ‑ the light of the Gospel Message. If the gospel is embraced and
its message honestly and consistently put into practice, social peace,
stability of government, economic recovery and bounteous growth of the
Christian religion would restore happiness and contentment to all Africa’s
citizens (EN, 17).
7) The proliferation of Churches, healing ministries,
fellowships, constitute another obstacle. While the Catholic missionaries,
whether expatriate or indigenous, go about evangelisation in the traditional
way ‑ teaching Christian doctrine and administering the sacraments ‑
those “new apostles” and “evangelists” ‑ go on to teach the people, to
command God directly, dynamically to their will. Some people see this new craze
as the African’s way of seeking to participate actively and fully in the
Christian religion as his grandfathers had done in the traditional religion. In
the Catholic Church, only the ordained minister preaches and administers the
sacraments. All the other members of the faithful are content to be served and
led by the priest. In the “new dispensation” ushered in by the proliferation of
Churches, more and more people proclaim themselves Priests, Apostles, Salvation
Army Major, Salvation Army Colonel, Divinely appointed messengers and
Archangels. Now the question is how will African individualism fare in the
Christian Church which is a hierarchical, monarchical community of salvation?
The new situation has brought a shift of emphasis. Spiritual values,
Intellectual values, Moral and Aesthetic values are de‑emphasised. Money
and what money can buy , receive the greatest regard and attention. In times
past, it mattered very much how one made one’s money or rose to greatness.
These days, the tendency is to celebrate success, no matter how it was
achieved. All care and effort are centred on making money and accumulating
material goods. Some students cheat in examinations or forge certificates to
get highly paid jobs. Christian moral conscience is pushed down into Limbo
where it is awaiting a resurrection when this craze for temporary and
transitory values subsides. Religion itself has become a most lucrative
business industry. People who fail in commerce, industrial adventures or in the
civil service become self appointed “ministers”, “high priests”, “bishops”,
“primates” or “the supreme head of the religion, or religions, founded by
themselves. They read, quote and interpret the bible, telling the client what
he or she would like to hear. The new ‘religion” has no patience to wait for the
will and intervention of a divine Providence that takes time to grant the
creature’s request. Pay the “pastor” ready cash and he will claim to hand an
immediate miracle of good health to you if you are sick, a wealthy loving
husband to the spinster, a highly educated beauty‑queen to the bachelor,
automatic promotion to the topmost managerial post to the impertinent and
scheming aspirant and 9 months’ old pregnancy to the sterile and anxious
housewife. The Sects are so numerous that no one really knows how many they
are. They have one thing in common: you pay huge sums of money and get what you
want with computer speed and precision. The “ministers” through their “prayers”
can do all things for their clients. They can pray for you to receive two
contradictory requests. The God of the “new Christianity” is a servant God
waiting at the counter. This is a phase that is new and so attractive to simple
people that it disturbs effective evangelisation in Africa.
III. AFRICA’S RESPONSES TO EVANGELIZATION
1) «The acid test of religion is man’s behaviour in a
crisis. What he does when stirred up to the very depths of his being, when he
is racked with pain, when his crops fail, that constitutes his religion»
(Robert Lowic: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, London 1934, p.
304). Adversity, misfortune, W‑health and threat of death itself are the
true tests of the value or strength of a Christian’s Christianity. To their
greatest dismay, the early Missionaries both Catholics and Protestants found
that many African converts in crisis and ill health went back to the charms,
amulets and medicines «known» to ward off wicked spirits and disasters no
matter their origin. Little wonder then, that «despite the sacrifices of many
Missionaries both black and white, Catholic and Protestants who laboured and
died in Igboland Nigerian; the missionary enterprise had on the whole at the
early stages achieved little success» (Isichei, E.,: The lgbo people and the
Europeans: the genesis of a relationship to 1906, London 1973, p. 153). Fr.
Shanahan complaining in desperation over the back‑sliding of the
Christians at Onitsha declared the Missionary effort, «a thankless job among a
thankless people... religion only wanted for material purposes» (C.S.Sp.
Archives, Paris, B191/B/IV, Shanahan, Provincial visit, 1912). Many
Missionaries had encountered these problems years before his time. Here’s how
Bishop Crowther, an Anglican Missionary presented the whole picture in 1890
after 40 years apostolate in Onitsha: «The inhabitants are entirely in the hand
and control of the priests and gods of medicine men, the king not excepted» (C.
M.S. G3/A3/1890/140), Crowther: «Difficulties» in the way of missionary work on
the West Coast of West Africa (August 1890).
2) Ancestor veneration. Another area of
conflict was ancestor veneration. Ancestors according to local belief are the
invisible segment of the lineage, men of moral integrity who died in good old
age and received the usual series of burial ceremonies. They are regarded as
ever present and sharing in the company of the living. They are regarded as
successful men who married and begot children especially male children, a male
child to continue the family line of descent. Ancestors are believed to be
present and to be sharing in the company of the living. Ancestors are looked
upon as the patriarchs of African religion as spokesmen for the living in the
land of the living or in the spirit world. The living speak of them with awe
and as an example they are called upon to imitate. The Igbo people of Nigeria
believed that ancestors return to life in the form of new born babes. Some
African peoples refer to them as the Saints of the African Traditional
religion. The people regarded them as though they are still living in their
bodily form. Due to its strategic place in traditional religion, converts to
Christianity during those pioneering days felt a vacuum in their spiritual fife
without the influence of their ancestors. The Missionaries sought to create a
counter‑appeal. Converts should now pray, no longer to the ancestors but
to the Saints in heaven. This was not a satisfactory substitute. The people
felt that the galaxy of saints in heaven is not interchangeable with the
multitude of ancestors in the world of the dead who share the lives of their relations
in this world. Problems surrounding ancestor veneration are still very much
alive among many African Christians. In Truth the ancestor is made by man and
then given to the society. It has no independent existence of its own, its
influence at the grassroots poses a problem to evangelization.
In spite of seemingly overpowering difficulties and
obstacles to evangelization already rehearsed in this paper the African
continent has given and continues to give a positive response to
evangelization. Some convincing evidence is contained in the Relatio Secretarii
Generalis ‑ the detailed Report of the Synod’s General Secretary, pages 4
and 5. This Synod is indeed a celebration of Africa’s «Yes» response to the
Gospel. For Africans participating in the Synodal sessions, it is a
thanksgiving rally ‑ thanksgiving to Almighty God for choosing Africa and
for incorporating the Africans into the new people of God. Africa request for
prayers in order to remain steadfast in answering God’s call.
Our Holy Father Pope John Paul II leads the way in the
evangelization of contemporary African nations. He has visited Africa ten times
and the 10th visit was in February 1993. His pastoral visits emphasize the
global mission of the papacy and enable him to show collegiality in action.
During these pastoral visitations he celebrated Mass before mammoth crowds,
gave sermons carefully prepared for the specific groups and communities,
administered the sacraments, gave attention to the little children and to the
sick and moved the congregation by his outgoing personality. Africa and the
Africans most sincerely thank Your Holiness for your enduring love, care and
generosity to Africa and especially for calling and presiding over the present
Synod. Most Bishops now in Africa arc African and the local hierarchy is
established in all countries. Through these measures, the Holy Father says that
the Church in Africa has come of Age.
We thank the Congregation for the Evangelization of
Peoples, the Missionary Congregations and the Pontifical Missionary Societies
for the efficient management of funds and personnel and making these available
when and where necessary. The Secretary General and his team of workers and all
organizers who see to the smooth running of the Synodal sessions are given our thanks
and gratitude.
We thank all the missionaries both living and dead who
helped in planting the Faith on the African Continent. They gave a very
eloquent testimony to the truth of the Faith and the beauty of Christianity by
their heroic sacrifices. Some were even murdered in cold blood during violent
outbursts in some mission lands. The generosity of the older Churches of Europe
and America can not be omitted. They did not stop, at giving their sons and
daughters to work as missionaries in Africa, they followed up with incessant
funding in cash and other materials to facilitate more mission work. They too
are indeed missionaries. One can not but be moved to recall the zeal, vision,
courage and sufferings of great missionaries like Cardinal Lavigerie, Father
Cardoso S.J., Mgr. Daniele Comboni, Fr. Joseph Emile Lutz and Bishop Joseph
Igantius Shanahan, to mention only very few.
We thank the valiant army of native teachers and
catechists for their proverbial dedication and cooperation with the
missionaries. The success of the missionary efforts depended so vitally on
them. Thanks to them all, the faith spread and Catholic education also kept
pace with the development of the Church. All the pioneer missionaries and their
helpers sowed in tears and the fruits of their sowing we see today in
marvelling and consoling abundance. The work heroically begun by them was no
less heroically continued by the steadily growing number of their courageous
and generous confrères.
Today
at the close of the 20th century, when non Catholic missionaries have already
called for a «moratorium» on funding their missions, more Catholic missionaries
continue to come out, to the mission lands. The number of missionaries working
in Africa is still large ‑ forming about 50 % of the present work‑force.
We must now mention the Martyrs of Uganda, and some
dozen African heroes of the Faith awaiting Beatification and eventual
canonization. Different sets of missionaries and helpers planted and watered,
then God Himself gave the increase as the statistical data show.
3) Africa. Some facts and figures (1988/1989)
Population 629,973.000
Catholics 85,610,000 or 13.59 %
Bishops 488
Priests 19,125 (9,7 % diocesan;
10.124 religious)
Brothers 5,650 (50 % indigenes)
Sisters 41,863 (70 % Africans)
Catechists 246,899
Major
Seminarians 13,433 (10.617 diocesan;
2,816 religious)
Parishes 7,379
Mission
Stations 36,482
Primary
School
Pupils 7,589,090
Secondary
School
Students 1,127,770
Hospitals 654 with 74,248 beds
Dispensaries 1,938
Leprosariums 436 with 277,119 sick persons
Orphanages 218 with 17,039 orphans
Monasteries 155 95 for Women 2,116 nuns
60 for Men containing 2,681 monks.
IV. EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
After this cursory history of evangelization in
Africa, it becomes clear that more intensive evangelization is the duty and
obligation of all Christians. A man is baptized not just for his own salvation
alone, he shares in the great mandate to spread the faith which Christ gave
first and foremost to his disciples (Cf. Mt. 28:19). Every baptized person is a
member of the Church and a participator in the Church’s mission. From our brief
survey, we see that missionary activity belongs to the very essence of the
Church.
«Proclamation (evangelization), because it is made in
union with the entire ecclesial community, is never a merely personal act. The
missionary is present and carries out his work by virtue of a mandate he has
received; even if he finds himself alone, he remains joined by invisible but
profound bonds to the evangelizing activity of the whole Church» (Pope John
Paul II: Redemptoris Missio, n. 45). This is one of the main reasons for
the current Synod on Africa. We realise that the Church’s mission is never
over. Evangelization continues till the very last person is brought into
Christ’s one sheepfold. This is a case for the present Synod on Africa. For it
is only when the Church in Africa becomes mature and turns a factor of positive
relevance to the African society that the Church’s mission will be said to have
begun in Africa. The Church’s mission should be dynamic, and not a kind of self‑servicing
in‑group of baptized believers. Africans have come to realise more and
more that the majority of Christians live in Europe and the Western world
influenced by Europe. Both universal Church and mission history show that the
resources in materials and personnel lay in the West. Mission Theology itself
was equally written in the West. Today, a new situation has arisen. Africa has
received the faith even if yet unconsolidated. Christianity has come to stay in
Africa. The deliberations, suggestions and conclusions arrived at by the Synod
will help the African Church to grow from strength. to strength, to leaven the
entire continent, and grow mature enough to send her sons and daughters as missionaries
to other lands. Therefore evangelization should include the decision to
understand the human person. The African personality is to be kept alive. What
is more, it should influence African Christianity. These ideas are not totally
new, but have been mooted by Africanologists like Ayward Shorter WF (Theology
of Mission, p. 14) and sober African patriots, like Leopold Sedar Senghor (On
African Socialism, London 1964, p. 14) and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (Ujamma,
Oxford 1968, pp. 6‑7).
In summary, a Christian Africa will never be at home
in the Church of God until she stops being under a perpetual obligation, being
in a condition of begging and in a state of perennial juniority and the
underdog of the world. The Church’s teaching is clear on this: From the very
start, the Christian community should be so formed that it can provide for its
necessities in so far as it is possible. (Ad Gentes, 15).
In conclusion, Pope John XXIII’s advice to Africa in his Encyclical Mater et Magistra, on how to improve the Agricultural situation to give special consideration to the needs of the rural population which is the most important sector in both Church and State is very pertinent. He summarily declared that Africans are primarily responsible and the principal artisans in the promotion of their economic development and social progress. Briefly they should become artisans of their own destiny. This paper ends on a good and hopeful note with the admonition of Pope Paul VI: «The road is not an easy one and the obstacles are many. But resoluteness which makes great enterprises possible must not falter and to ensure this, we believe that everyone will find it advantageous to bring to fruition in his own Spirit the message of Charity in the Gospel, creating an atmosphere of understanding and dialogue in place of mistrust and fear, and thus laying a solid and lasting foundation for the future of his own country» (Message to the New Africa, Oct. 31, 1967).
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