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Africa and the Woke and Cancel Culture
Contemporary South Africa and Africa is deeply engaged in an ongoing discourse over the decolonisation of the continent, its socio-political and economic facets of the African people, rightfully so ‘to dismantle the horrific structural and emotional traces and scars left behind by the evil colonial era’. Among the many facets of this effort that are pursued by diverse quarters of society according to individual or group interest, is the question of ‘religion and Christianity as a weapon used by the evil powers to oppress its people and siphon-off Africa’s wealth to European shores’. However, as an African Christian, it becomes deeply concerning when the discourse seems to be highly immersed in misinformation, disinformation and confusion that leads Africans towards an unintentional war against God and his word (the canon of scripture).
The Woke Alkebulan
As African Christians, we observe some
of the misleading information with great levels of concern, appreciating many
of the realities and challenges that the religion is faced with in the
contemporary, among others the deeply concerning decline of Christianity in a world
that is becoming either highly secularised or highly pluralist, but certainly “woke”.
With the changing world of technological advancements such as Social Media and
Artificial Intelligence (AI), allowing easy access to, and sharing of information,
ideas and worldviews, the ‘woke culture’ in Africa is evidently growing by day.
In fact, this reflection is informed by a plethora of “woke content” on social
media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, You-Tube and X, focusing particularly
on the historical fact that is ‘colonialism and its relationship to
Christianity’. In his effort to explain “woke culture”, Ken Paulson submits
that “the phenomenon has its origins in social awareness, adopted in recent
years as a pejorative political term, often used in the same vein as “cancel
culture” and “political correctness.” (https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/the-woke-movement-and-backlash/), to this we may add that it speaks to ‘a
societal shift that emphasizes social awareness and consciousness on injustices
of the past that contributes greatly to those of the contemporary, colonialism
being one, including issues such as racism, sexism, and other forms of
discrimination’. It encourages questioning of power structures and supporting
marginalized groups. While originating in Black culture as a call to social
awareness, it has evolved into a broader term, sometimes used pejoratively. For
the benefit of this argument it would equally be prudent to add that ‘theology
also has a place in woke and cancel culture, perhaps even historical, Black
African Liberation Theology can be classified as “woke or cancel theology”. And so, this theological reflection must
be regarded as “a woke Christian
response to woke Africa on the question of colonialism and its relationship to
Christianity and the Bible”.
Misinformation in the discourse
The terms misinformation and
disinformation have a very close relationship and are generally used
interchangeably, the former being the most common of the two, and key to this
argument. Generally, Misinformation is false or ‘inaccurate information—getting
the facts wrong’. While disinformation is false information which is
deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts. Though
misinformation around the question of “the relationship between Colonialism,
Christianity, the Bible, God and Africa” is at the center of our argument,
disinformation often finds its way into the mix to course deliberate harm in
the discourse. There is genuine course for Africa to confront the question of “how
the colonial power used Christianity and the Bible to oppress, kill and exploit
Alkebulan’s mineral wealth and her people through forced labour and human trafficking”,
an undisputed historical fact. The recourse to this is the continued effort by
Africa to redress the imbalances of this horrific evil era, through practical
dismantlement and discourse. However, in the same vein Africa must be careful
not to spread misinformation that creates disunity and hatred amongst its
people, while seeking to achieve the same goal. The Bible in two of the synoptic
Gospels warns us about this danger that “Every kingdom or household divided
against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided
against itself will not stand" (Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:25 NIV). In this
discourse, Africa is divided on the historical facts surrounding the
relationship between Colonialism, Christianity, Africa and the Bible, by
extension the arrival of and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ was carried into
Africa.
The Religious Italian Job
At the center of this reflection and
argument must be the Bible as our main source of information, supported by all
other pieces of available historical data. First we must acknowledge that the
Bible is not only the word of God (to believers) but also a piece of literary
work that carries with it a lot of historical facts about the Jewish people of
ancient Israel, Judaism as a religion, the role of imperialism and colonialism
and the establishment of Christianity as a sect of Judaism in Antioch, within
the confines of Israel and the broader Ancient Near East region, particularly
around the development of its religious and cultural practices, its
civilisation and most importantly its documentation of its history through the
Bible, both Old and New Testament books and other documents that did not make
the cut at the time of its canonization, or official recognition, a process
which can be classified as “a hijack of the
history of Ancient Near East, the Jewish people and associated nations (Africa
included), by imperialists”. It is a historical fact that the Old
Testament's origin is rooted in ancient Jewish oral traditions and written
records dating back to the 10th century BCE. It is equally a historical fact
that the New Testament is centred around the same Jewish history, detailing the
life and teachings of a woke Jesus the Christ who stood firm against the same
imperial powers, whose wokeness lead to the establishment of the early Church,
which was equally hijacked by the same imperial power. It is a historical fact
that somewhere between 50 and 100 AD, the separation of Christianity from
Judaism happened, perhaps an emphasis on how Greek philosophy would have
influenced another form of division within the Jewish communities, the “Jewish
Palestinian Christians and Hellenistic Jewish-Christians”. Therefore, from this
we ought to register that “It is a historical fact that the Western drama,
including the great schism, was a war of imperial power and the big contradiction
of the failure to separate Church and State, captured very well by Britannica, highlighting
the fact that “as they came to dominate, the Pope and the bishops of Latin
Christendom sought to suppress contrary understandings of the essence of the
ancient faith, Jews (originators of the faith) were confined to ghettos,
segregated and self-segregated enclaves where they did not and could not share
the full prerogatives of Christendom, sects were defined as
heretical—Waldenses, Cathari, and others—because of their repudiation of Roman
Catholic concepts of Christian essence, they had to go into hiding or were
pushed into enclaves beyond the reach of the custodians of official teaching.
The essence of Christianity had become a set of doctrines and laws articulated
and controlled by a hierarchy that saw those doctrines as a divine deposit of
truth” (Britannica.com: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/Aversion-of-heresy-the-establishment-of-orthodoxy), developmental as it was, as can be seen in
the contemporary, it must still be seen and defined as “a hijack of the faith”,
for the benefit of this reflection.
Africa in Biblical History
It is for this reason that we must go
back to the Bible to identify the place of the African people in this history
and the developmental role they played. But first, the question of the
formalisation and establishment of Christianity must be dealt with, primarily
because this will allow us to trace the faith back to the epicenter, Jerusalem.
In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us that “those who had been
scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed travelled
as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch (on the Asian side of modern Turkey),
spreading the word only among Jews. Some
of them, however, men from Cyprus (modern West Asia) and Cyrene (modern North
Africa), went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the
good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great
number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:19-21 NIV), “The disciples were called Christians
first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26b NIV). Now in as much as these events
are happening during the Hellenistic period and the height of the Roman Empire,
the influence remains that of Judaism and the Hebrew Bible, given that ‘even
though under Roman rule, people were free to also worship non-Greek and
non-Roman Gods’. Luke also makes mention of men from other parts of the nearer
geographical areas, most interestingly Cyrene (modern Libya) is one of those
places. It is for this reason why we will need to reach deeper into the Bible
and identify some of the key events and figures that may have easily carried
the Gospel of Jesus Christ into Africa without the help or authority of the
Imperial-Colonial powers.
At Pentecost, before the Christian
faith was given a name in Antioch, Luke tells us that “there were staying in
Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven (All over the world,
including Africa). When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in
bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken (perhaps even
Geʽez, an ancient South Semitic language from Ethiopia and Eritrea, it is a
biblical historical fact that Ethiopians frequented Israel during that time, or
even Doric Greek as it was used by people of Cyrene who are featured all over
the biblical text, the less said about Egyptian languages the better)...Utterly
amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is
it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of
Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, [b] Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and
converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of
God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What
does this mean?” (Acts 2:1-12 NIV). One cant help but notice ‘African Christians
all over this text, the likes of Simon of Cyrene who is also placed at the
centre of the events at Crucifixion’. Further on in the book of Acts, Luke
tells us that “there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to
Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was
reading the prophet Isaiah” (Acts 8:26-28), another African who clearly
frequented Jerusalem for both work and worship, Kenneth Barker submits that “he
was either a proselyte or a God fearing Gentile” (K. Barker 19851659), meaning
the concept of God and worship was not at all new to him. But, two things are
of most interest about this eunuch, first, Parker submits that “he went to
Jerusalem on official duty to represent the Ethiopian Queen Mother” (K. Barker
1985:1659), lest we forget what is widely regarded as the legend of ‘the Queen
of Sheba in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12’, which might in fact
provide an opportunity to argue that ‘the eunuch’s visit in the New Testament
could be proof that indeed king Solomon may have hosted the Ethiopian Queen as
narrated in the Old Testament’. In fact, biblical archaeologist Megan Sauter
submits that “this Queen travelled to Jerusalem and had a love affair with King
Solomon, conceived a son who later went back to Jerusalem to meet his father
and subsequently returned to Ethiopia with the Ark of the covenant which is
believed to still be in Ethiopia to this day” (M. Sauter January 18, 2022)’. Secondly,
it is in how the eunuch converted to Christianity after Philip had preached to
him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, based on the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah fifty-three
(53) and baptised him, before he travelled back home as a Christian, which
tells us that in fact “the Ethiopian eunuch
willingly carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to Africa without the help of
any imperial or colonial power”. And it is for these reasons that we ought
to look at the sequence of these events or at least the general time frames to
enable us the opportunity to demystify some of the existing inaccuracies that
leads to the ongoing misinformation, disinformation and confusion within the
broader African woke discourse that seeks to rightfully decolonise Africa and
its religious practices.
Africa’s contribution in the Canon of
Scripture
As the Empire grows in lips and
bounds, the Greco-Roman influence takes its shape into the world, history has
it that “At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine made Christianity (once
an obscure Jewish sect) Rome’s official religion” (history.com: 21 August
2020), a religion which none of them never imagined would one day outclass
Roman civic religion. In fact, “the
Roman state had its own official civic religion which was about worshiping the
Roman gods”, but as the empire grew, Christianity seemed to have been spreading
like wild-fire, and so the hijack seemed a more plausible option to maintain
and retain political power. The growth of Christianity across society from
the early centuries to the contemporary, indicates a broad failure of
persecution as a deterrent used by the early Roman empire, this extends to the
evil use of religion to oppress the people of Africa and loot her resources.
The ultimate goal of the Roman empire was to ensure a total extinction of
Christianity through persecution, but the end results of this goal were a total
opposite, Christianity continued to grow despite persecutions, reason why
Constantine saw it fit to adopt it. Next was the compilation of the canon of
scripture, Frederick Bruce defines the canon of scripture as “a list of books
contained in scripture, recognised as worthy to be included in the sacred
writings” (F.F. Bruce 1988:17), none of which have any traces of European
authorship. What is most interesting about the compilation and affirmation of
the canon of scripture is the process and the parties involved in this God
ordained and led history. In brief, the Council of Rome convened in 382 CE set
the tone, then its decisions influenced subsequent councils, such as the Synods
of Hippo (393 CE) and Carthage (397 CE) both of these events were located in
North Africa. Two of Africa’s most influential theologians featured prominently
in this historic event and process, Augustine of Hippo (modern city of Annaba,
Algeria) and Cyprian of Carthage (a seaside suburb of Tunisia’s capital,
Tunis), to this we should also add that “Alexandria (Egypt) remains the
epicenter of theology and philosophy to this day”, producing theologians and
philosophers such as Cyprian, Clement, Origen and the great son of mother
Africa ‘Augustine of Hippo’, the most notable of all African theologians of the
early church. These Africans were highly influential in shaping early Christian
systematic biblical interpretation and the finalisation of the canon of
scripture, they were simply great African Christian leaders who did not need
the help of any imperial or colonial power to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to African shores, in fact ‘they were at the center of all theological
interpretations of the Christological nature of Jesus and his relationship to God’.
The council of Nicaea is a perfect example of their participation, at the
center of the theological dispute on the nature of Jesus was Archbishop
Alexander of Alexandria (Egypt) and the presbyter Arius of Cyrene (Libya). Baur
describes the theological school of Alexandria as having to have “quenched the
thirst of knowledge of the young Christian in Egypt” (Baur 1994:22). All of
this supports our argument that “Africans carried the Gospel of Christ into Africa
and the world” and continued to preserve the Christian witness in the continent
through the growth of the church, among others the ‘Coptic church of Egypt’, a
church that John Baur describes as “the proper Egyptian church” (Baur 1994:23)
which continues to exist in present day Egypt under the leadership of Pope
Tawadros II of Alexandria (Wikipedia). Therefore, it is my considered view that
North Africa’s thought leadership on matters relating to religion, Christianity,
Spirituality, Theology and Philosophy, regardless of its Greco-Roman influences,
earned Africa great respect throughout the globe, to this day. I have no doubt
in my mind that these great Africans in turn, influenced many of our African
theologians and philosophers, the likes of John Mbiti, Kwame Bediako, Desmond
Tutu, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, Justin Ukpong and many others who
have made significant contributions to the development of African theology,
which contextualizes Christian faith within the cultural and historical
realities of Africa, including the woke Africa that we are today.
The Imperial Evangelical mission VS the
arrival of Christianity in Africa
There is a general theological belief
around the arrival of Christianity in Africa that is centered around St Mark,
said to have been around 61 CE, approximately 31 years after the event of Antioch,
for the benefit of this reflection let us call it “the original arrival of
Christianity”. Fast forward to the 540s, Baur records the official conversion
and arrival of Christianity in Nubia as having to have taken place under
Justinian around this time, despite all the efforts and participation of the
likes of Cyprian, Alexander, Augustine, Arius and others in the early years of
Christianity and the Roman catholic church, the imperialist saw it fit to
record this as the official arrival, lets call it “the second arrival”.
Justinian, a catholic that arrived in Nubia with his Monophysite wife Theodora,
who later succeeded in sending Julian as the first missionary (Baur 1994:32),
who oversaw conversions in Nubia among the three African kingdoms Nobatia,
Maqurra and Alwah between 543 and 575 (TEEC 2022a:30). It is evident that ‘information
about ancient kingdoms of Africa is also downplayed in the recording of the
African story, and that is why the existence of pre-colonial slavery and
African religious practices is such an unknown reality to contemporary woke
Africa’. And so the distinction between the ‘African slave trade and the
Afro-Euro slave trade’ is of paramount importance when we examine Christianity
in the context of slavery and colonialism. In his effort to paint for us the
story of ‘the second and evil arrival of Christianity’, Kalu highlights the
emergence of a number of descriptions of missionaries coined by scholars, among
others we hear of “missionaries as
imperialists at prayer, who failed to weave their message into the primal
worldview” (Kalu and Hofmeyr 2005:3). Needless to say, the European
conquest and its socio-economic and political mission, carried in it a branch
of religious mission enterprise that was to reconstruct the cultural identity
of its subjects. And in this scramble for Africa, out came some bungled work.
The second and evil arrival (the
Afro-Euro slave era) started with Henry the Navigator, at the time when the
Muslim occupation of Spain and Portugal was at its peak. History has it that
both Christianity and Islam claims to be African religions, and so Baur asserts
that “Henry decided to carry his war against Islam occupation of his continent
into the Muslim land itself” (Baur 1994:44), North Africa. It is therefore
evident that this crucial piece of information was chief to his decisions as he
studies all possible entry points of attack, which lead to his ships accidentally
reaching and/or discovering the West African shores. Baur makes a point that
“for Portugal, it was all about its dominance of the sea-borne trade between
Asia, Africa and Europe” (Baur 1994:48), as can be seen from Henry’s navigation
model that missionary activities were closely connected to the conquests, and
this is why the Portuguese through the king, were also in control of the church,
a phenomenon generally known as a padroado which in simple terms means “a
patronage network between the church and the empire”. The practical way of
understanding the Padroado system is in how the Portuguese used baptism as a
way of enticing Africans in converting to Christianity for economic gains, Kongo
is a perfect example of this. It simply meant that conversion was a doorway to
the economic patronage of trade, priesthood, education and all other
privileges. This in turn, positioned the church as an upper-class institution, Hasting’s
describes the Kongolese church as “a taste among the upper classes for Western
finery to wear on ceremonial occasions, and, principally, a host of unruly and
uncontrollable slave traders” (Hastings 1999). Scholars
Hastings, Isichei and Baur all agree that this era, especially of the Jesuit’s,
was a total disaster for Christian mission, this applies to both their attempts
to evangelise in Angola and Zimbabwe respectively. In Angola the Portuguese
establishment’s main mission was access to Silver and in Zimbabwe gold. But in
both instances the implementation of the padroado system through the deployment
of Jesuits did not yield much positive results. Instead, in both instances the
use of force to convert and evangelise turned Christianity into a less
attractive faith for the majority, just as it did in the Kongo, it became a
patronage carrier between the Portuguese empire, the local monarchy and a
select few that managed to gain access to the elite club. At the end we see in
both instances the slave trade emerging rather than the intended control and
access to minerals and the spread of the gospel. There was also the emergence
of black clergy and scholars that seem to have been one of the most positive
aspects that came out of the bungled mission work, which also gave birth to the
independent African church, inspired by thought and reason, one such was the
Antonian movement in Kongo. It is also to be noted that the European mission
contributed significantly in the developmental agenda of the African continent,
though unintentional. Just as the sons of Jacob in Genesis sold their brother
Joseph for nefarious reasons, only for Joseph to become a senior government
official in Egypt (Genesis 37 – 50 NIV).
Baur
makes a point that “Henry’s quest for commerce on the African continent, was
the originator of the ungodly African slave trade” (Baur 1994:45), therefore
this means that the trans-Atlantic slave trade from the 16th
century, opened the inter-continental slave trade market. Benefactors in the
entire ecosystem included the Kingdoms of Africa, their chiefs whom we
understand were the negotiators of deals with the European ship captains on
behalf of the Empire, land owners and businesses in Europe who bought the
slaves for end use. Within the very ecosystem of slavery, lies the nuances of
superiority and/or inferiority complexes that all benefactors of the ungodly
trade received, including that which gave birth to discrimination by race or
ethnic group. Kingdoms in Africa enslaved each other based on tribal lines,
white Europeans certainly chose their slaves by ethnicity. In his effort to
answer the question as to whether “The Atlantic slave trade was primarily race
or profit based”, the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Eric Williams
concludes that “racism was the consequence of slavery” (Williams 1944:7),
further making a point that everybody was an “unfree labour”, people of all
racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The
Portuguese had the monopoly of the supply of slaves to other Europeans for a
while, one can deduce that this was primarily on the backdrop of the foundation
laid by Henry and Portugal’s extensive exploration of Africa, but of cause it
was bound to end at some point. With the Dutch being the first to enter the
lucrative market, forming the Dutch West Indies Company in 1621 (TEEC
2022a:76), the British and French soon joined the scheme, all of them using the
same modus operandi of “establishing companies that were to trade in slaves”. It is said that “the system was
eventually dismantled when the Empire of Brazil became independent from
Portugal in 1822” (Wikipedia), however, the Vatican could have seen it coming
when its very own clergy began to speak out, this includes key figures such as Bartolome
de Las Casas, a Spanish catholic clergy that is said to have contributed
greatly in the “banning of the enslavement of West Indians”. This he achieved
through persuasion and reason by writing, it is said that ‘he pleaded his case
before the law makers of Spain and eventually Emperor Charles V conceded’ (TEEC
2022a:78), eventually God’s word and his works prevailed, demonstrating exactly
what had been taking place the entire time, that “the Bible and Christianity
were only a vehicle for the evil advancement of economic gain”.
Separate God’s word (the Bible) from the works
of the Evil Imperials
The relationship between the church and the Roman empire had in
many instances proved itself to be one that is riddled with conflict of
interest, such that the church continues to carry a substantial amount of blame
for the atrocities of the Imperial powers across the world, reason why Africa’s
woke culture continues to blame God and the Church, but woke theology must
guide us to a place where ‘the world
agrees that these were atrocities of evil individuals who chose to exploit God
and his Word (the Bible) for their own selfish ulterior gains’. The
prophecy of Gamaliel in the Acts of the Apostles is one profound scripture that
speaks against humanity’s unintended war against God, the learned judge
submitted and warned others to “Leave the apostles of
Christ alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin,
it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them; you will only find yourselves fighting
against God” (Acts 5:34-42 NIV). Woke Africa needs to be careful not to
repeat the persecutions of the Imperial powers against the contemporary
Christian communities, in the name of wokeness and cancel culture against the history
of imperialism, Colonialism, and Apartheid racism in the case of South Africa. Modern
religion is charged with a new mission, a mission to continue on the path of
West Africa’s Africanisation of religion. Africa’s independence of the
gospel had always been eminent, even at the time of the arrival of Christianity
through among other means “force”. Boaheng notes that “missionaries at that
time, had to abandon their uncompromising approach and adopt a more flexible
one, which blended African culture in the gospel” (Isaac Boaheng: March 2018
Citation), an ecumenical approach that speaks to
religious pluralism in the contemporary, where all nations are one and worship
one God, through their respective means and ways.
Contemporary African Religion and the future of Christianity
It
is my utter conviction that “the Gospel of Jesus Christ was carried into Africa
by its own people”, a gospel which found African Religious Practices and lived
side by side with them. To this we recall the likes of Thomas Birch
Freeman, the son of a black African free man and a white woman, a man that was
to play a role in the direction and shape which African Christianity was to
take. Though born within an Anglican ethos in England, Freeman’s role was
primarily played from a Methodist mission church background. He is regarded the
Father of Ghanaian Methodism, as he was the first missionary to be sent to
Ghana in 1838 in response to an invitation by a Bible band that wrote to the
Wesleyan Missionary Society. Freeman’s role in the growth of the Methodist
movement in Ghana and the West African region is seen in many of the activities
that formed part of his ministry, among others we note that “Human sacrifice
was abolished, he baptised traditional priests that converted to Christianity
and was the one that called for a West African Methodist Conference that called
for its independence from the UK” (TEEC 2020a: 112-114), these contributed
greatly in the growth and independence of the Methodist Church in West Africa
as it clearly became more and more rooted in the African way, therefore making
it more and more attractive.
The growth of African Independence in
faith continued on the same trajectory as we see yet another great story of an
African contributing to the general growth of the faith. William Wade Harris, a
Liberian native who grew up under the roof of a black American settler whom he
learned to read and write under his care. Harris was brought up in the African
Methodist Episcopal Mission, where he also started his journey as a lay
preacher, he had already adopted an
anti-traditional religion stance. In other words, he wanted to break the
boundaries of the European way of religion, one of the illustrations to be
noted is how he abandoned European clothing, perhaps in order to appeal more to
the native people. This stance is largely responsible for Harris’ successful
ministry among traditionalists, among other key African cultural practices
which the traditional religion was against was polygamy, even though he
initially spoke against it, he later chose to promote monogamy as preferred,
but polygamy as an acceptable alternative. It is to
be noted that “Harris comes from a deep traditional influence owed to his father, Poede Wadé, a follower of the African
Traditional Religion (ATR) of the Glebo ethnic group” (Gabriel
Leonard Allen: 2022). Among many of
his teachings we note “the destruction of fetishes, belief in Jesus Christ,
baptism and the importance of church (emphasis on Sunday being a day to be
dedicated to worship), and the abandonment of traditional medicine being used
for witchcraft as opposed to their healing purposes”.
Through the
teachings of Harris, Freeman and others, it is evident in the modern Church
that religion has been Africanised, therefore decolonised. Baur makes a point
that “much as traditional religion has survived in the West, it owes this
survival to the Independent African Churches and its constructive incarnation
into the African culture and society, leading to an African Theology” (Baur
1994:428). A clear indication that the Church in Africa in its independence, is
largely influenced by its African culture and background. We must also take
cognisanse of the fact that, “to this day, in Ivory Coast, Eglise Harriste
continues to thrive as a Church that was established on the teachings and
doctrine of Prophet Harris, the Catholic and Protestant church continues to
enjoy membership that was passed onto them by Harris, and there is an AIC named
the Twelve Apostles which is influenced by the Harris traditions in Ghana”
(TEEC 2020b:33) all indicating that the African influence in the Church
continues to play a major role.
And so as Africans, our belief in
Christ Jesus remains the work of God through his Word, which he bestowed upon
his writers, ordained upon the historical facts of the people of ancient Israel
and the life and times of his son Jesus Christ, reason why:
We believe in one God, the God of our African
ancestors,
God the creator of those who have been
and those who will be
God the almighty that created the
people of Alkebulan in her own image
God of Love, compassion and providence
Creator of heaven and earth
We believe in one God who created the
splendid valleys and Hills of Alkebulan,
Who provides her with trees to protect
her environment,
Provide oxygen and improves her air
quality
God that ensures Alkebulan’s climate
amelioration and conserves her waters,
Preserves her soil, and supports her
wildlife and the majestic big five
Father of Jesus Christ our Lord
We believe in one God of the ancient
Alkebulan (Africa)
The African God that did not
discriminate
The God who created one African
ancestor
The Lord God who speaks Setswana,
Swahili, Yoruba and all languages
African God the Holy Spirit
We believe in the mighty God that sees
no race, ethnicity or gender
Mighty God that lifts no hand against
a defenceless woman
He protects his women and children
with all his might
Lord of the defenceless and disabled
Lord of the homeless and needy
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Kgosiemang Phejane
Writes in his personal capacity as an advocate for "Woke Africanised Theology"
