History records that 'the tradition
of offering prayers for the deceased has its roots in old writings,
particularly in 2 Maccabees 12:42–46. However, the venerated Roman Catholic
saint St. Odilo of Cluny is credited with creating a particular day for
intercession for the deceased souls. We shall therefore not focus on Odilo and
what could possibly be the age old European claim to many things including
religious practices. In this text Judas Maccabeus, a
Jewish Guerilla leader who proved to be a Military genius when
'he successfully defended
his country from invasion by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
preventing the imposition of Hellenism upon Judaea, and preserving the Jewish
religion' (Britannica), puts emphasis on the need to pray for
the dead, specifically for their forgiveness of the sin that they died in, for
the preservation of their souls in heaven. As a priest, perhaps Maccabeus realises this need as he
constantly finds himself having to administer last rites to many of his dying
soldiers at war, perhaps a concept somewhat slightly different from Odilo's
idea of All Souls, equally so different from the African meaning of
commemoration or Umsebenzi (mpho ya badimo).
In the contemporary, the church presents All
Souls in a number of different ways, primarily as a result of some of the
theological arguments around the belief, Martin Luther's schism being
one of them. Luther vehemently argued that there is absolutely no need to pray
for the souls of the departed, simply because he believed that "all
departed persons are saved" (Luther's Sermon of the first Sunday after
Trinity 1523-24), but Odilo established the concept specifically for praying
for the Souls of the departed. On the other hand, Africa has her own
theological arguments surrounding All Souls and what it means to the African
culture and environment. According to
Catholic belief, the soul of a person who dies can go to one of three places.
The first is heaven, where a person who dies in a state of perfect grace and
communion with God goes. The second is hell, where those who die in a state of
mortal sin are naturally condemned by their choice. The intermediate option is
purgatory, which is thought to be where most people, free of mortal sin, but
still in a state of lesser (venial) sin, must go. In the African Christian
context, the same principle applies in the make-up of the individuals in the
contemporary European or mainstream church that practices the theology of All
Souls. You have those who outright reject the African Christian way, those who
strongly believe in the African way within the European church and those who
are willing to accommodate the two groups, the former being our area of
interest, All Souls in the context of African culture.
The African Christian in question holds a view that ‘the only
acceptable way of commemorating and remembering the departed is the Odilo way, the
European way’. However, African history tells us that for the longest of time
Africans have always commemorated their loved ones through various ceremonies,
many of which boasts elements of the All Souls custom of remembering the dead.
When dealing with matters concerning kings, marriage, ancestors and God,
Hastings makes a point that "even though the colonial missionaries sought
to convert African kings and queens in the twentieth century, for these kings
and Queens regular performance of rituals in commemoration of their ancestors
was none negotiable" (Hastings 1994:311), an indication that 'like
Maccabeus, the African tradition and culture were to be preserved by all means’.
These traditional and cultural practices within the black African communities
include ceremonies such as 'umsebenzi wamadlozi’ among the Nguni speaking
tribes or Mpho ya badimo among the South Sothos of South Africa. Most notable
in this custom is the unity that is displayed among families, just as Maccabeus
went on to collect contributions from his soldiers to provide for an expiatory sacrifice, Morales
explains expiation as ‘referring to the cleansing of sin and removal of sin’s
guilt by blood of a sacrificial lamb’ (Morales 2019), they too come together to
make available a sacrificial animal, in some instances a goat, a sheep or
chicken depending on financial ability. In the sacrificial system of Israel,
blood was collected from an animal’s severed arteries and then manipulated in a
variety of ways. In the same fashion, Africans slaughter for a number of
reasons including appeasing the ancestors as it is generally believed that ancestors
act as intermediaries between the living and God, in the same vein for the
atonement of sin. Others, using the belief of Ancestor intersession and being
intermediaries, extend this feast as a form of request for blessings from God.
Most importantly, the sacrificial feast is commonly an offering of thanksgiving,
the community in this instance is invited to the feast, at the entrance of the
family home snuff, tobacco and African beer are displayed as an indication that
the ceremony is specifically to acknowledge those who have gone before, however
tribes have their own individual approaches to this custom.
It is for this reason that we conclude that an African Christian
that rejects the African way of commemorating the dearly departed is but misinterpreting
the natural extension of the concept of All Souls, by virtue of the
expectations of what a relevant contemporary church looks like. Unless their
view is that of a discriminatory nature, in that the European way is the only
way. We know that the European conquest and scramble for Africa carried in it a branch
of religious mission enterprise that was to reconstruct the cultural identity
of its subjects, which then would be the only explanation as to why an African
Christian in the contemporary would reject the African version of this custom.
If anything, for the preservation of the African way the church ought to
incorporate in its liturgy, the African way. Boaheng notes that “even missionaries
had to abandon their uncompromising approach and adopt a more flexible one,
which blended African culture in the gospel” (Isaac Moaheng: March 2018
Citation), it is therefore logical for the contemporary African Christian to
blend Odilo’s All Souls with the indigenous African way. The church is becoming
secular by day, the contemporary Christian continues to ask questions in order
to validate their presence in the church, among some of the key questions is ‘the
church’s effort to accommodate the African way’, it is my unreserved conviction
that the church ought to infuse elements of Umsebenzi into its All Souls
service, this includes preparation of a feast by slaughtering a sacrificial
animal, suggesting that the church must go to the extent of including snuff,
tobacco and African beer in the feast, a friend laughed her lungs out, an
indication of how Africans frown at their culture in the context of Christianity.
In
conclusion, it is a fact that the delayed concession by the European Empire
including the abolishment of the colonial rule, the slave trade and the
acknowledgement of Africa’s indigenous worship and culture, was the biggest
obstacle to effective evangelism, such remnants are seen in the modern world’s
continued secularisation, which is a threat to the church’s potential
extinction. The African Christian in the contemporary must at the least learn
and appreciate the importance of the African way in worship and liturgy, adopt
and acknowledge the African language and by extension culture, into the
liturgical material of the European Church.
May
the Souls of the dearly departed continue to Rest in peace, bo rrarona ba ba re
eteletseng pele, bone ba mminathoko wa Setswana oreng “Modimo wa boikanyo o ba
gogile mo dinageng tsa lenyora”.
Badimo
ba rona, o khokho bethu, izinyanya zethu.
Kgosiemang
Phejane
Writing in my personal Capacity
#MeditationsOfTheHeart
No comments:
Post a Comment