SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 4 - N. 22 - 1998 - May - V
From: CIOFS Bulletin, 1998, N. 1
The first wave
Christianity in Africa is not a recent experience nor a by-product of colonialism: its roots are deep in the apostolic times.
The Church flourished on the northern edge of this continent for 600 years before Islam was born. In those times Egypt and North Africa with their great theologians, such as Athanasius and Augustine, were the most important figures of the Universal Church. Unfortunately, because of the Arab invasions which began in 640 A.D. the expansion of Christianity suffered a hard blow. It became extinct in North Africa, but it has survived until today in Egypt as an oppressed but meaningful minority.
The second wave
The subsequent Christian presence in Africa was for many centuries like a rivulet that dribbled across the desert. Divine Providence, however, has not permitted it to dry up and nowadays it has become a river which floods the entire continent.
When Carthage, last Christian stronghold in North Africa, fell to the Arab attack in 697, King Mercury asserted his authority in Nubia setting up a Christian reign that extended from Assuan to the Blue Nile. When this kingdom had to surrender to the Turkish-Islamic attacks in 1270, there was a rebirth of the Ethiopian Church, already 900 years old. The restoration of the Salomonic dynasty under Ykumo Amlak and the religious reforms of Takla Haymanot, the great father of Coptic monachism, brought new life to this unique Christian reign. There was a florishing Christian culture in the mountains of Ethiopia, similar to that of medieval Europe, until the greater part was destroyed in the Islamic holy war in 1527.
But from this date there was already another king that carried the torch of the faith: Alfonse, king of the Congo, the first Christian king south of the Sahara. For 20 years he worked tirelessly to create a Christian kingdom, and in 1526, together with his son, the Bishop Henry, he organised a program of evangelization to be brought to all the provinces of his reign. For more than 300 years his successors wanted to have contacts with Rome; for a century and a half they called not less than 450 Capuchins to their country.
The Kings of the Congo were still asking desperately for new missionaries from Rome when in 1792 the first permanent mission was built in South Africa by the Moravians, and in West-Africa the first church of freed slaves returning from America was established. Actually, what happened was that in many places the returning and freed slaves were the ones who laid the foundation for the present African Church. From their settlements came the converging efforts to bring the Good News of salvation in Christ to the tribal communities and to the heart of the Continent.
The third wave
The pre-colonial period - from about 1800 to 1880 - was really the heroic age of the modern missions. As proof, it is sufficient to remember the 100 Austrian missionaries who from 1852 to 1862 penetrated the Nile up to Gondokoro in southern Sudan. They all died by attacks of fever, except for the famous Comboni. There were then the White Fathers who tried repeatedly to cross the Sahara in the hope of reaching the mysterious city of Timbuktu, but along the way they were killed by their guides. A more lasting influence was reserved to the many Protestant missionaries who followed the footsteps of the great explorer Livingstone whose activity opened the way for other missions in the region of the Great Lakes and in the Zaire basin.
During these first attempts, although there were many obstacles and most of the missionary settlements were made up of freed slaves, some Christian communities comprising the local population flourished in Western Africa. In East Africa there was the nucleus of a Christian kingdom at the court of Kabaka.
Most of the African churches, however, developed during the colonial period: 1880/1960. This period brought to Africa many modern infrastructures which have facilitated the work of evangelization. What the white man did not understand at that time was how much the African would have suffered because of this European invasion putting the entire Continent in a position of inferiority. Those who knew the history faced the approaching moment of independence with serious doubts: would Christianity be swept away with colonialism?
The present situation
Today, after almost thirty years of independence, two facts have clearly come forth. The African Christians have been able to distinguish the substance of Christianity from its outside European aspect. Those who have discarded both and have embraced Islam, or have gone back to the religion of their ancestors, have been a small minority. The banishment of the missionaries has been a transitory phenomenon which has touched only a few countries. It is an unquestionable fact that, statistically, since 1990 Christianity has become the most widespread religion in most of Africa, except for Western Africa. But even here Christianity has become stabilised and is strong.
The second fact is that, even if it has become consolidated, Christianity in Africa has serious problems. One problem is the infiltration of secularism, especially evident in the growing urban centres.
A second problem consists in the division among the various Christian denominations which has been inherited from the mother churches. Here more than in any other continent, this fragmenting process, apparently without end, continues and is fed by the constant influx of new sects and the African tendency to gather in small communities. This is more evident in the independent Christian churches.
The attraction that these groups are beginning to show even on the educated population has something to do with a third problem, which is inculturation. Even though many Christians feel at home with the European aspects of their Church and consider them an integral part of traditional Christianity, a growing number of faithful feels the need of a deeper incarnation of their own faith within the African personality. The greater part of the leaders of the Churches has understood the necessity of inculturation, but not its urgency. Only a small group is looking for convenient solutions that go beyond the introduction of local songs in the liturgy.
One thing, however, is certain: African Christianity has made the Bible its own, and, at least as far as Catholics are concerned, has put great value also in the Sacraments. It is a well-founded hope that Africa will soon become not only a Continent of the developing Third World, but a third spiritual power between the Christianity of the East and that of the West or, as an African prophet (Blyden) said: "The spiritual reservoir of the world".
The National Fraternity of Zambia will celebrate 50 years of
existence and is appealing for any kind of assistance from able
brothers and sisters. Any help in form of material, literature or
money should be channelled through the International
Secretariat.
Pray with and for us!
J.C. Tinalesa (National Minister and International
Councillor)
P.O. Box 40892
MUFULIRA (Zambia)
PS: The National Fraternity is asking any Fraternity throughout the world interested in starting a correspondence relationship to write to the above address sharing experiences.