Turner Definition

Philip Turner, formerly of Makcrere University rightly criticizes, "The phrase, 'An African Theology,' is much in evidence these days, but one cannot escape the impression that neither 'African’ nor 'Theology’ are used with great precision.” Turner's worthy evaluation of the phrase may seem harsh, but that is what a conscientious reader of the pro-ponents of African Theology understands. Turner evaluates:

It does not seem to help much to speak of "African Theology." The term is viewed with suspicion because the interest in traditional religion associated with it calls up in the minds of many a return to paganism. . . . The phrase "an African theology"

has about it, therefore, the quality of a slogan of vindication. It refers first to the attempt to find points of similarity between Christian notions and those drawn from the traditional religions of Africa.

Second, it refers to the hope that the systematic theology expressed in the language and concepts of traditional religion and culture, may one day be written. . . . The phrase implies in its popular usage an attempt to amalgamate elements of Christian and elements of traditional belief. ³

This is the African Theology that is hailed by men both within and outside the Continent. It is a funeral march of Biblical Christianity and a heralding of syncretism and univer-salism. It has for its funeral directors the undisceming theologians who fail to see the spiritual issues at stake because of their unguided enthusiasm for projecting African

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ity. McVeigh enumerates and compares some champions of African Theology, "Here men like Mbiti, Idowu, Sawyerr and others play their role. They exercise a function for Africa equivalent to that of Barth, Tillich, Niebuhr and Rahner in Europe and North America." We shall deal with only two ⁴ who have made much contribution in writing: Professor John S. Mbiti, a former Head of the Department of Religions and Philosophy, Makerere University now the Director of Ecumen-ical Institute at Boise near Geneva; Professor E. Bolaji Idowu, Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University

of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Dr. J.S. Mbiti

Dr. John Mbiti has written three major books to date:

African Religions and Philosophy, Concepts of God in Africa, and New Testament Eschatology in an African Background.

A prolific writer, he has also contributed numerous articles in other books and journals. Most of his writings concern the basic philosophy of African Theology. The basic premise seems to be the presupposition that African traditional religions are a well-organized system. It is assumed that the animist in Africa has not only known God truly, but that he has worshipped Him. Admittedly, Mbiti does not concede to the possibility of salvation in traditional religions. He holds the view of salvation for all men on a different ground.

Mbiti brings the idea of African personality into religion.

Culture and religion, sociology and politics, all merge into one stream. Mbiti says: "The ideological claim of Negritude, African Personality and African Socialism, is similarly oriented to the Zamani roots which, as we have shown, are profoundly religious." Mbiti apparently does not see that this contra-⁵ dicts his other statement "if African Theology starts with, or concentrates upon, anthropology, it loses its perspectives and can no longer be regarded as Theology." Mbiti's intellectual⁶ acumen cannot be disputed. He may justifiably be called the "father of African Theology," but his works have many apparent contradictions.

In African Religions and Philosophy, he says, "It is open to a great deal of criticism, and the theory 'of vital force' cannot be applied to other African peoples with whose life and ideas I am familiar." A few pages later he turns around to say,⁷ "In addition to the five categories, there seems to be a force, power or energy permeating the whole universe." While⁸

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Africans, according to Mbiti, "set their minds not on future things, but chiefly on what has taken place," the same Afri-⁹ cans, Mbiti has observed, have a concept of the family which also "includes the unborn members who are still in the loins of the living. They are the buds of hope and expectation, and each family makes sure that its own existence is not exting-uished."¹⁰

But contradiction is not the worst problem of Mbiti's theology. It is his universalism that poses a threat to Biblical Christianity in Africa. His great enthusiasm in "Africanizing"

Christianity, while done in good faith, poses a threat to "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

Although Mbiti claims that "the uniqueness of Christianity is in Jesus Christ," this unique faith is subjected to scrutiny¹¹ by the mighty power of African traditional religions. He writes:

In other words, by coming to Africa, Christianity lends itself to be judged by traditional religiosity, to find out whether or not it measures up to the religiosity which in effect it claims to have and disseminate.¹²

In a neo-orthodox fashion Mbiti hides his universalism by employing conservative evangelical language. Neo-orthodox theology uses orthodox language but attaches a new meaning to the words. The Bible, for instance, may be said to be infallible but that does not rule out the possibility of errors in it. Karl Barth is the father of neo-orthodoxy.

Philosophy of Time

Dr. Mbiti builds his theology almost entirely around what he claims to be the African concept of time. He describes the concept:

The most significant factor is that Time is considered as a two-dimensional phenomenon; with a long "past"; and a dynamic "present." The "future" as we know it in the linear conception of Time is virtually non-existent in Akamba thinking. My findings from other African peoples have not yielded a radical difference.¹³

The main point Mbiti makes out of this interpretation of his data is that the Akamba people, and other African people, have failed to comprehend the gospel message. Eschatology

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has not made sense to them. So now he sets forth the epoch-making key in order to help Africans get the message. He states:

My approach in this book is to treat religion as an ontological phenomenon, with the concept of time as the key to reaching some understanding of African religions and philosophy. I do not pretend that the notion of time explains everything, but I am ed that it adds to our understanding of the subject, and if that much is achieved, these efforts will have been more than adequately rewarded.¹⁴

Through this new effort, Mbiti hopes to deal with the great

"tragedy" that has been caused through missionaries' efforts.

He describes the "tragedy":

This, among other things, has resulted in the tragedy of establishing since the missionary expansion of the nineteenth century only a very superficial type of Christianity on African soil. Although Islam has generally accommodated itself culturally more readily than western Christianity, it also is professed only superficially in areas where it has recently won verts. Neither faith has yet penetrated deeply into the religious world of traditional African life; and while this is so, "conversion" to Christianity or Islam must be taken only in a relative sense.¹⁵

Mbiti has tried to convince his readers into believing that the Christian message has not yet been preached in Africa.

But it is extremely hard to reconcile his claim of fantastic figures of Akamba Christians and the view that the gospel message has not even been preached. He estimates that there are about three hundred thousand Akamba Christians, and that "this means that about thirty percent of the population may be considered "Christian" in the broad sense of that term." Is it true and fair to call all these three hundred¹⁶ thousand Christians superficial? Is the success of the gospel ministry based entirely on the messenger's knowledge of culture? Is there no room at all for the working of the Holy Spirit? In any case, how truly African is Mbiti's concept of time? To that I now turn.

The reason why Mbiti makes the concept of time the heart of his theology comes out in his Ph.D. dissertation, later published under the title New Testament Eschatology in an

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African Background, His syllogism seems to be this: the Akamba people, as well as other African people, cannot con-ceive the distant future; they do not have a linear concept of time, which is the European way of thinking. Rather, the African concept of time is circular, that is, an endless round circle of events. They cannot conceive a future end of the world. Moreover, Mbiti states that the New Testament sup-ports the circular concept. He writes:

Obviously we cannot get away from this threefold dimension, but the New Testament does not subject itself exclusively to a linear three dimensional Concept of Time. From the Akamba (or African) side we have seen that a two dimensional concept of Time is equally valid; and that many of the traditional cepts and religious practices are governed by that twofold dimension. What then becomes of Christian Eschatology?¹⁷

Mbiti's thesis is that both Africans and the New Testament do not basically conceive of time as past, present, and future.

Only the western mind has invented three dimensional time.

Christian eschatology which claims that world history has a beginning and is moving forward toward a climactic end is Western and erroneous, according to Mbiti. This is the type of western Christianity that African Theology must "demyth-ologize" or do away with. Mbiti's eschatology will be examin-ed in detail later. His basic premise that Africans cannot con-ceive of a distant future will now be examined.

John Mbiti's strength turns out to be the source of his weakness. He sets out to defend African Theology by taking African peoples as one in their thinking and reasoning, despite the fact that "there are about one thousand African peoples (tribes), and each has its own religious system."¹⁸ Although Mbiti sets out to deal with the Akamba people in his New Testament Eschatology in an African Background, he ends up talking about African people as a unit. He states the area:

But it is a selective investigation in that it focuses upon the Akamba people on the one hand, and tain aspects of New Testament Eschatology on the other hand. This makes it possible for us to examine the situation in some depth. Where relevant, ence is made to other African societies by way of comparison in order to draw some conclusions which

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are both specific (for the Akamba situation) and general (for other areas of Africa).¹⁹

In examining the book one cannot help but note that very little of the Akamba situation is not "relevant" elsewhere in Africa according to the author. Mbiti uses the expressions "African societies," "other African peoples," and such like at least 45 times in the book which has only 191 content es. It is, therefore, conclusive that Mbiti wants his readers to know that Africans think of time the way he propounds it.

Mbiti's extensive research into the linguistic and philosoph-ical concepts of Akamba and Gikuyu in East Africa is

commendable. But it must be noted that it is John Mbiti who gives the interpretation and theological implications of the facts collected. Furthermore, he is a child of his age totally immersed in western education and thought patterns. His further limitation comes from the fact that he was born and brought up in a Christian home. Thus he is not able to under-stand the background of African traditional religion as well as one who has been raised in a thoroughly traditional way.

Again, in the area of time, inconsistency does not seem to bother Mbiti. According to his table: "Analysis of African Concept of Time," the farthest into the future the African can articulate is two to six months. He actually says,²⁰

"Beyond a few months from now, as we have seen, the African concept of time is silent and indifferent." In the next paragraph Mbiti arbitrarily extends it to two years:

Therefore if the event is remote, say beyond two years from now (tense number 4), then it cannot be conceived, it cannot be spoken of and the languages themselves have no verb tenses to cover that distant "future" dimension of time.²¹

Continuing his inconsistency, Mbiti says, "There is virtually no future dimension of Time, beyond a few years at most."²² Thus the "people cannot articulate what is in the distant future; they cannot speak about it and cannot, therefore, form myths about it." But they can think of two months,²³ six months, two years, and a few years. In fact, the Akamba people perform the "kumithya," that is, the initiation cere-mony when a child is 15, and this is anticipated at the child's birth. The African who cannot conceive the future is yet²⁴ able to plan the marriage of an unborn baby! Mbiti himself writes:

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African concept of the family also includes the unborn members who are still in the loins of the living. They are the buds of hope and expectation, and each family

makes sure that its own existence is not extinguished.

. . . For that reason, African parents are anxious to see that their children find husbands and wives, otherwise failure to do so means in effect the death of the unborn and a diminishing of the family as a whole.²⁵

According to him, the African cannot conceive the future, and yet he can call God "the everlasting one of the forest."

At death, Africans "do not say to the living-dead: 'please sit down and wait for food to be prepared'; nor would they bid farewell with the words: 'Greet so-and-so in the spirit world..'." As opposed to what he has so asserted, Mbiti then²⁶ says, "And the whole community, including cattle, joins in 'sending off’ the member who leaves for the next world."²⁷ With so many inconsistencies, how can Mbiti's readers

accept his view that Africans can think only in terms of "Sasa"

and "Zamani," which are Swahili words for a distant past and a dynamic present? The Africans, including the Akamba people, may not have a clear understanding of the future, but that does not mean they cannot conceive of the future.

Several African theologians do not share Mbiti's assessment of African concept of time.

A Harvard Ph.D. graduate in anthropology. Earnest Balintuma Kalibala, strongly rejected the notion that Africans cannot conceive of the future. When I asked if Buganda of Uganda are among the "other African societies" who share this supposed Akamba belief, Kalibala replied, "This is absurd. The African theologian who believes that kind of thing is following what Europeans have taught him. He has not been home to find out things for himself." He then add-ed, "We absolutely believe in the future. We even believe in a future resurrection. This is demonstrated by burial ceremon-ies and the contact we maintain with the spirits of the dead."²⁸

Kalibala's evidence may be too optimistic as he is a strong nationalist. But other scholars dissociate themselves from Mbiti. Dr. Anatoli Tibaryehinda Balyesiima-Byaruhanga-Akiiki ki, a former student of Mbiti's and now a lecturer in the

Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Makerere University stated:

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The people here believe firmly that there is life after death. For example, the tomb of Buganda going back to 1814, is guarded by the wives, of the kings buried there. Our people firmly believe in the future.

Mbiti's claim of absence of future thought can be limited only to the Akamba people. ²⁹

Dr. A. Lugira, the deputy head of the same department at Makerere, also dissociates the belief of his people from the two-dimensional time philosophy. He says, Professor Mbiti is giving his own opinion; it is academic. His basis is Akamba, and that should be limited there. My people, Buganda, do have a future concept of time. "³⁰

As indicated in chapter three, Jaba people do not only believe in the future, they also have myths about the future.

The pithy saying that "when you die your grave will burn with fire if you are naughty now" is indicative of future belief. That there will be a ladder leading on to heaven for the good people who will dance there is a myth for the future.

While the "Sasa" and "Zamani" concepts are stronger than the future concept, this does not mean that African peoples do not think of the distant future. Linguistically, Jaba people have terms depicting future days, months, and years. In a matter of months, the future is indicated by the season. For example, six months from the present dry season will be referred to as the rainy season, and vice versa, or if it is har-vest time now, the next season will be farming season. If it is next year, they say "mek tson." After one year they describe the next two years and beyond as "mek tson kokong," then

"mek tson kokong kokong," that is, the "next, next year,"

or the "next, next, next year." The same system of counting is used for the past year. The past few months are indicated by the season. Then last year is "lisah." If they mean the last two years they say "lisah kokong." To extend it beyond two years to the time unlimited is "lisah kokong kokong."

Just as they believe in and describe the past, so they also do the future.

In the use of numbers relating to the future, some tribes are limited to only a few figures. Jaba, for example, can count only up to twelve digits. Any figure larger than twelve is expressed as a multiple of twelve. The Urhobo of Mid Western State of Nigeria can count only up to "ogbon" or thirty. From there on the figures are multiplied by twenty.

So it is difficult for them to be specific in the number of years 62

to come or those that have passed. But there are also tribes that count up to a thousand. In the Hausa language they have

“dubu,” which is "one thousand." In Yoruba they count to

“egberun" or one thousand and then count in multiple numbers of two from there on. In Ibo, they do the same after reaching one thousand. All these peoples can count so many years into the future by the numerals they recite.

From the African point of view, a belief in the future is an attested fact. The denial of a linear concept of time is a very questionable proposition. African strong belief in creation is itself indicative of their belief in linear time. Mbiti affirms

From the African point of view, a belief in the future is an attested fact. The denial of a linear concept of time is a very questionable proposition. African strong belief in creation is itself indicative of their belief in linear time. Mbiti affirms