Christianity and Africanisation Project:

Possibilities of African Christianity within
mainline churches in South Africa

 

Project leader: Malinge Njeza
Researcher: Nomsa Hani
Senior research adviser: Prof. J. W. de Gruchy
Technical adviser: Jacques de Wet

September 1998

 

Contents

Background and Problem

1. Personal
2. General: Topic, Some Preliminary Questions and Themes

Themes

1. African Christian World-view
2. The Concept of Divinity
3. Christian Ritual Language and Symbolism Used in the Performance of Traditional African Rituals
4. Prayer-movements and iimanyano

Literature Review

1. African Christian Movements Outside the Mainline Churches
2. Opportunities within the Mainline Churches to be African and Christian
3. Selective Integration of African Traditional and Western Christian Beliefs and Practices
4. Philosophical Attempts to Integrate African Traditional and Western Christian World-views
5. Biographical Studies

Research Focus

Theories

Manfred Max-Neef
John Cumpsty
George Spindler & Louis Spindler
Paulo Freire

Some Commitments and Poinnts of Departure

Methods of Collecting the Data

The Sample
The Questionnaire
Focus Group Interviews
Types of Questions Used to Guide the In-Depth Interviews
Techniques of Analysis

Ethical Issues

Significance and Value of the Study

Time Frame/Schedule

Bibliography

Notes

 

Background and Problem

1. Personal

I am an African and I am a Christian. I grew up in an environment where it was quite normal to accept mainline Christian beliefs and lifestyle, however, my parents also practised certain African traditional rituals like ukubuyisa (the ritual reincorporation of the living-dead), imbeleko (ritual inclusion of babies into the clan) and ukwaluka (rite of passage into adulthood) and lobola (the traditional process followed in customary marriage by isiXhosa speaking people). Also, they recognised the African traditional world of spirits, for they were staunch adherents of the prayer-movement known as Indaba zosindiso. The movement is a Christianised attempt to cope with the existence and effects of traditional spirits upon the individual and its rituals include inspired singing, prayer, the blessing of water and other personal accessories. To be sure, this was necessary as response to a range of African experiences and beliefs that were ignored by the mainline Church. However this latter dimension in my parents' identity was exercised discreetly outside the Church. Apparently, the inevitable predicament from this did not appear as a problem for my parents as it does for me. For the individual the existence of the two systems co-existed even though for the Church the African one did not exist. However, as I begin to reflect on my personal African Christian identity I discover that I have inherited a legacy of confusion and identity conflict in my life. The problem for me is that ‘the other’ dimension which acknowledged our African traditional heritage was somehow tagged on and operated in disguise. This resulted in what seemed to be a split personality and an identity crisis because it led to the denigration and destruction of Africanness.

Mainline Christian Churches, because they are through and through Western, historically ignored and undermined African traditional ways of seeing, being and doing that were an integral part of many African Christians’ lives. Consequently many African Christians left mainline Churches and joined the African Initiated Churches (AIC’s). Some were very reluctant to leave but eventually they too grew tired of having to express their Africanness on the sly and left the mainline Churches to find a home in AIC’s.

The problem is that when we are in mainline Churches we cannot freely express our Africanness, but when we are outside these Churches and perform African traditional rituals and customs at home we do not abandon our Christian faith. For instance, most of the traditional rituals still adhered to by many African Christians like ukubuyisa, imbeleko, ukwaluka, and lobola are often combined with Christian symbols and Christian ritual language precisely to accommodate both the African traditions and the Christian faith. For some African Christians there is a conscious effort to reinterpret these traditional rituals in a Christian way, for others the Christianisation of African traditional rituals is less conscious and almost taken for granted.

Those who left mainline Churches did not want to abandon either the Christian faith or their Africanness and thus have found a place in the AIC’s where they feel at home as Africans and as Christians. However, many like me who remain in mainline Churches in South Africa still struggle with the lack of opportunity to freely express our Africanness within the mainline Christian tradition. We have genuine desire to continue certain aspects of the mainline Christian tradition but we do not want to do so at the expense of our Africanness. Many of us do not want to appropriate the Christian faith outside the mainline churches. We want to be able to do so within. We want to be able to appropriate the Christian faith in a way that also expresses our Africanness and within the mainline churches. Hence the need for mainline Churches to reflect their location in Africa thus accommodating our desire to be both African and Christian. But where do we look for examples of how this can be achieved? People like my parents were part of a movement of ordinary African Christians who developed strategies for being both African and Christian. They found ways of being loyal to both identities. Like them, but in a different way, my quest to be both African and Christian is rooted in the need to be loyal to both traditions. My quest is for ways of seeing, being and doing that integrate my traditional African cultural heritage and my Christian faith within the Presbyterian Church.

It has been necessary to use the individual "I" in the above narrative to reflect the personal experience and perspective of the researcher. This is so that we emphasize both the experiential level and the inside view of researcher. However the project is a team effort and comprises of other voices and experiences. Unless otherwise stated the collective "we" will be preferred to reflect this composition. The "we" will be used in a relational sense not only between the research team but also between the researchers and the participants. This is also in line with traditional African anthropology where the collective "we" is preferred to the individualistic "I". Beside the senior research and technical advisers, the team will be enriched with the inclusion of Nomsa Hani during the research stage. Not only will Nomsa provide a more sharply defined focal point on women issues but she will also add more quality and depth into the research project.

2. General: Topic, Some Preliminary Questions and Themes

This research proposal is going to focus on a specific area of African Christianity. ‘Africa’ has to do with the reality of our location and rootedness, while ‘Christianity’ recognises our religious orientation and expression. We are interested in investigating strategies that are used to negotiate African Christian identities. Particularly, how aspects of both the African tradition and the Christian faith are appropriated in integrated[1] African Christian identities

Although there is a proliferation of literature regarding the life and nature of the AIC’s the experiences of African Christians within mainline Churches remain under-recorded. It is within the latter that the expression of identities that are African and Christian has been problematic. Having been denied room for expression in the mainline Churches African traditions have thus been forced underground by the missionary intransigence, on the one hand, and the Churches’ insensitivity towards African religio-culture, on the other. African Christians have coped with this problem in a variety of ways. Many have carried their traditions with them into the Church, albeit surreptitiously and sometimes unconsciously. While others have integrated these experiences and traditions. Fragmented identities resulting from denial and resistance have consequently emerged among some African Christians.

We are generally interested in African Christian identities and the ways in which many African Christians in mainline Churches attempt to meet their need for an African identity and a Christian identity. It is common knowledge that the mainline Churches have been mostly hostile to any attempts to move away from strict Western Christianity and Africanise[2] the church. How then have Christians who value their African traditional cultural heritage met their need for an African Christian identity? How have they integrated (or failed to integrate) traditional African and Western Christian worldviews? If there has been no deliberate institutional process of integrating traditional African and Western Christian ways of seeing, being and doing within mainline Churches, how have ordinary African Christians themselves coped with this situation?

Some of the themes that have emerge from above experiences and that are of interest to me, include the following: With the four themes stated below, we shall also pose problematic question/s related to each theme?

1. African Christian World-view

The unfortunate reality of mission Christianity is that it is thoroughly Western in its conception and expression. Many African Christians, however, have been engaged in efforts to root the gospel within the African traditional milieu. One of their strategies has been the significant borrowing from African traditions in order to complement the Christian tradition. They have understood the Christian faith from the perspective of traditional African religio-cultural categories. The African context has served as a vehicle of perception and communication of the Christian faith. This is so because the perception of a religious phenomenon is always conditioned by the social matrix or context that shapes a particular people. Africa had her own religio-cultural traditions and these have shaped the way in which African Christians have appropriated and expressed the Christian faith.

2. The Concept of Divinity

The traditional African understanding of Divinity, for instance, has influenced African Christians’ articulation of God. For example, traditional African monotheism and emphasis on the unity of Divinity is reflected in the ways African Christians understand and express their idea of God. Thus, although acknowledged, the orthodox trinitarian Divinity has not been really assimilated by African Christians in practice. Further, the understanding and role of Jesus and the ancestors in African Christianity, for instance, remains one of the most contested areas of debate. The traditional concept of ancestors has clearly influenced the way African Christians understand Jesus, his humanity and his mediatorial role. The current debate in African Christology is indicative of this. Further more, the role of the Holy Spirit and her relationship with traditional spirits also remains very much unclear. Thus different[3] African Christians have emphasized different aspects of the trinity at one time or the other, and the trinitarian balance is not clearly articulated.

3. Christian Ritual Language and Symbolism Used in the Performance of Traditional African Rituals

The ancestors and rituals are a dynamic reality and have such resilience and pervasive role in the life and thought of Africans, including Christian Africans, such that they have found their way even into the mainline Churches. As late as 1975 Pauw has shown that a concern with the ancestors is still a vital part of the life of many African Christians and that, despite education there seems to be widespread belief in the ancestors. For the educated and conscientised African, concern with ancestors "has not only a religious and symbolic significance, but it exhibits a clear political dimension"[4]. It is an affirmation of Africanness and Blackness and a rejection of the European derogation of ancestor cult. The rite of ukubuyisa (reincorporation of the living-dead) even in modern practice and tombstone unveiling commonly practised by African Christians all have connotations of the traditional ancestor ritual (Pato: 1988; 1990). Similarly, other traditional rituals like imbeleko (incorporation of baby into the community), ukwaluka (rite of passage) and lobola have found their way into the mainline Church by being Christianised. As practised by African Christians these ceremonies would include an opening church hymn or prayer and also would be expressed in a way that shows the influence of baptism, confirmation or other Christian rituals. Other traditional rituals have involved even a change of name, e.g. what would have been called idini (ancestor sacrifice) in the traditional sense, for instance, is renamed idina (dinner) (BA Pauw: 1975).

4. Prayer-movements and iimanyano

Many African Christians still understand illness, for instance, in terms of traditional world of spirits. Traditional ways and means to exorcise bad spirits are often sought within the context of the mainline Churches, e.g. prayer-movements are preferred as Christianised options to consulting an inyanga (traditional healer) and using traditional herbs. Abathandazeli (faith healers) are often sought and charms, bandages, blessed water, etc. from them are utilized as safety measures against those harms the mainline Churches is unable to deal with. Also, ways of expressing African spirituality are sought within the confines of mainline Churches, for instance, through the manyano movement which is uniquely African Christian.

A lot has been written on iimanyano, and most scholars have stressed two major functions of this movement; firstly, to revive the African spirituality that has waned in the mainline Churches. Thus there is lot of African-style singing, dancing, extempore praying, exposition of the Word by the laity, healing and exorcism. Secondly, they also provide ways of responding to and coping with the uniquely Africans’ concrete socio-political problems. Thus imigalelo (saving societies), masingcwabane (burial societies), stokvels and credit unions are popular among ordinary African Christians. These serve, not only as alternative African economic structures to a global economy that excludes them, but also they meet the strong social and communal dimensions of traditional Africans. They are tools of affirming their humanness in a situation of alienation and denial.

A possible third function of iimanyano, which is the least endorsed one, is that of ordinary African women seeking expressions of their own voices that have so long been suppressed by both the Christian tradition and traditional African culture. Until recently, women were not allowed to pray or preach in the mainline Churches although they have always prayed and preach aloud in the manyano movements. Thus, iimanyano are potentially conscientizing mechanisms that contain the possibility of unsilencing the silent voices of ordinary African women in the Church and Society. This unsilencing of the silent voices will enable African Christian women to talk about important issues regarded in traditional African culture as taboo; issues of sexuality and sexual related deseases such as AIDS, for instance.

Literature Review

The aim of this section is to understand what other authors have said and are saying about our topic of an African traditional cultural heritage and the Christian faith as building blocks towards Christian identities that are African. How they have dealt with our topic and what has been their motive? Of particular interest to us is literature that explores and represents strategies of resistance to Western forms of Christianity and the negotiation of an African expression of faith and identity by African Christians, especially those within the mainline Churches. We are especially interested in the literature that may capture or reflect the ordinary African Christian voices in the mainline churches.

Something needs to be said about how we interact with the different categories of literature on the topic. One set of literature addresses the topic on a philosophical and academic level. Here we perceive African Christian theologians struggling with the problem at a personal level and seeking to conscientize by means of sharing their concerns with others. This is in itself a strategy for affirming their identity. Another category of literature reflects observers’ writing as ethnographers their observations of African forms of Christianitiy.

Our research builds on these previous studies that attempt to describe, sometimes explain and in other instances simply grapple with forms of Christianity that are distinctly African. We are particularly, but not exclusively, interested in indigenous African writers' attempts to reinterpret the Christian faith in a way that takes a past and present African socio-cultural experience seriously.

I think the following are the most relevant samples which deal with, or at least offer insight into our problem. The sources are arranged thematically.

1. African Christian Movements Outside the Mainline Churches

There is a proliferation of literature focused on the study of the AIC’s as African attempts to live an integrated African and Christian existence. The studies have been done either by members of the AIC's themselves, or by outsiders. Among the former are books such as "Speaking for Ourselves: Members of African Independent Churches Report on their Pilot Study of the History and Theology of their Churches" (Braamfontein: ICT, 1985) and Paul Makhubu’s "Who are the Independent Churches?" (Johannesburg: Skotaville, 1988). The early conclusions of Sundkler (1948), who pioneered the study of the AIC's as an outsider, revealed precisely this that he was an outsider looking in. Sundkler concluded that the AIC’s were the African Christians’ return to their ‘heathen’ past. But he and later writers have since modified this position. The AIC’s are now widely perceived as authentic expressions of African Christian experiences.

However, the intensity with which the AIC's have been studied as phenomena of African Christianity would suggest that the latter does not exist within the mainline churches. This suggests that the AIC’s have the monopoly of people who freely and visibly manifest signs of an identity integrating the African and the Christian. And that those who want to do so in the mainline Churches are not free to express their Christian faith in African terms. But, if their African identity is subdued in the mainline Churches and they are serious about it, what keeps many African Christians in mainline churches? Do they not perhaps express being African and Christian in other ways? Indeed literature suggests that besides the AIC’s other movements outside the institutional Church meet the need for African Christian ways of seeing, being and doing that are rooted in African Christian existential experiences.

Pauw (1975) mentions, for instance, the Indaba ZoSindiso prayer-movement, which is a Christianised attempt to cope with the reality and effect of African traditional spirit-world. This operates outside but parallel to the mainline Churches and uses Christian symbols such as prayer, singing, water, salts, etc. to exorcise the effect of traditional spirits upon the individual. The members of these movements attend the mainline Churches on Sundays but during the week they are active in these movements. These take place discreetly and without reference to the institutional Church.

2. Opportunities within the Mainline Churches to be African and Christian

To reiterate, many African Christians who are serious about simultaneously affirming their African traditional heritage and their Christian faith leave the mainline Churches to join the AIC’s. However, substantial number of African Christians choose to remain within the mainline Churches and find ways to express their subdued African identity therein. Some literature suggest that in order to do this they carve space within the perimeters of mainline Churches where they can exercise these other aspects of their identity (Vellem: 1997, Harker: 1989). African Christians thus bear with the dead and irrelevant symbols and practices of mainline Churches but create and develop within them sacred spaces for themselves to meet their need for identity and belonging in a culturally appropriate manner. Consequently, iimanyano are a peculiarly African Christian phenomenon (Gaitskell: 1990, 1992, Lynn: 1997). They are a success among the African Christians in mainline Churches because they find a sense of belonging and self-expression therein. This sense of belonging is dependent on African Christians’ ability to appropriate African symbols and practices and express them within the confines of mainline Churches. The above mentioned authors suggest that in the iimanyano the dead Western Christian symbols and practices are jettisoned in favour of their African counterparts.

3. Selective Integration of African Traditional and Western Christian Beliefs and Practices

Another category of literature talks of attempts by African Christians to selectively integrate African traditional and Western Christian beliefs and practices. Setiloane (1979) and Sundkler (1948) argue that this has to a certain extent happened even among the African Christians in mainline Churches. Elements of African traditional heritage like ancestors, rites of passage and rituals persist in the thought and practice of African Christians. Consequently, Kofi Appiah-Kubi (1987) holds that African Christians understand and interpret Christianity from their own perspectives as Africans. They bring their African heritage and understanding to bear upon their appropriation and practice of Christianity. Thus integration of the African and Christian traditions occur invariably through the processes of "stealing back and forth" of sacred symbols (Chidester: 1989) or adaptation of one tradition to the other by modification, taking the form of elimination or substitution of certain details. (Pauw: 1975). Further still, Western Christian forms may be reinterpreted in terms of the African tradition. The obvious instance is that of unveiling of tombstones which is permeated through and through with the African ancestor ritual of ukubuyisa (reincorporation) among isiXhosa speaking people (Pato: 1988, 1990). The African Christian identity is thus a result of a combination of different layers of religious consciousness borrowed from both African traditional heritage and the Christian faith.

4. Philosophical Attempts to Integrate African Traditional and Western Christian World-views

There is yet another set of writers whose approach to the problem is philosophical and academic. Their concern about an African Christian identity is both personal and academic. They seek to find answers for themselves, on the one hand, and to problematize African Christian identity issues, on the other. Some compare the African traditional and biblical worldview so as to show continuity between the two (Tutu: 1972, Dickson: 1988), others show the inadequacy and limitations of the Christian faith and the value of dialogue between African and Christian traditions (Setiloane: 1979, Boulaga: 1984, Mugambi: 1992).

5. Biographical Studies

There is yet another category of literature that is historical in nature. Some historical studies are directed at key African individuals who personally struggled to renegotiate their identity in the era of African-European encounters in the Eastern Cape frontier (John A Chalmers: 1878; L Ntibane Mzimba: 1923; C Saunders: 1970; Donovan Williams: 1978). People like Tiyo Soga and Xoxo Nehemiah Tile and Mpambani Jeremiah Mzimba were some of the African Christian pioneers who struggled with the question either at personal or institutional, intellectual or structural levels. The other historical literature studies examine the processes or movements whereby attempts were made to recreate a Christianity with an African face, e.g. Ethiopianism (Mutero Chirenje: 1987; James T Campbell: 1995).

One other crucial factor is that my own PhD research on Tiyo Soga and Mpambani Mzimba deals with similar issues of identities. It has, therefore, given impetus for this research proposal and the research project. My study of Soga and Mzimba has revealed that the African Christian identity issues have been an enduring challenge since the European and African encounter. Also there has been a variety of responses and strategies to deal with this challenge. Strategies of selective appropriation and rejection, integration, contestation are among those used by Soga and Mzimba as Africans in their encounter with the Christian faith. Their responses suggest that the negotiation, formation and reformation of identities is a much more complex process and that African Christian identities are constructed, dynamic and multi-layered. Insights and skills gained from the study of Soga and Mzimba will thus inform this research proposal and will provide a historical perspective into our research of contemporary African-Christian identity issues.

Research Focus

The primary task of this research is to investigate the strategies that ordinary African Christians, within a Presbyterian Church, adopt in an attempt to affirm their African traditional heritage and the Christian faith. The research will focus on the black Presbyterian Churches in Langa and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. Our interest is in recording these experiences and struggles from the perspective of the ordinary African Christians and to give voice to their views of reality.

While there has been much research into this area on the AIC’s, insights gleaned from these remain to be tested against the backdrop of the mainline Churches. As Per Hassing suggested:

Of equal importance is the study of religious life and thought of the millions of African Christians who belong to the more orthodox Catholic and Protestant churches. Where do these many Christians fit in the spectrum between the old African traditional religions and the thought-world of the New Testament? One interesting question here is whether one can discern a pattern of continuity or discontinuity between the past and the future.[5]

All too often the focus on African responses to Western religious concepts and understanding has either been restricted to the earlier periods of the colonial-missionary enterprise or to the AIC’s. Admittedly the AIC’s are the most visible attempts by ordinary people to be both African and Christian. However, "it is not only in groups separate from mission control that interesting new ideas, ideologies and emphases have emerged"[6]. There is some evidence to suggest that African Christians within mainline Churches are also finding ways of expressing an African Christian identity. These experiences have been manifestly under-recorded. We wish to record these experiences and give recognition and voice to their existence. This would serve to provide counter-narrative to the hegemony of Western forms of Christianity found in mainline Churches and to counter-act the "tabula rasa" endorsed in the African Christians’ mind in the name of the gospel by the missionaries. Which brings us directly to the major concerns concerns underlying research project mainly that mainline Churches should be open to African expressions of Christianity and give credibility to diverse forms of African Christianity. This is the heart of our research project.

It is with those African Christians who are serious about their African cultural heritage that we are concerned; those who while remaining Africans seek to be Christians as well. There is evidence to suggest that many ordinary people have a strong desire to integrate their African cultural heritage and Christian faith. Some tend to express their African Christian identity more often than not outside the mainline Church. We seek to answer a number of questions. What strategies do African Christians adopt to express their African cultural heritage and their Christian faith while remaining in mainline Churches which tend to affirm a Western Christian world-views and ignore or reject African traditional worldviews? How have they consciously or unconsciously sought to be Christian while remaining African? We also wish to investigate how they find ways of integrating these two world-views in order to forge an African Christian identity? The more so since historically such a thing has been understood as being mutually exclusive by the mainline Churches. Furthermore, how have they carved space for their Africanness and created a sense of belonging in the mainline Churches?

Theories

We have struggled to find suitable theories from the African sources as we would have preferred. Consequently, the theoretical works of Manfred Max-Neef (a Chilean "barefoot" development economist and author of "Human Scale Development"), John Cumpsty (author of "Religion as Belonging) and George Spindler and Louis Spindler (cultural therapists) are suggested as they offer us theoretical insights and interpretative tools needed for our research. These are not incompatible with our own social location. The conditions in Chile are not dissimilar from those of our own which we are addressing. Also Cumpsty developed his theory from a South African situation. His research depended on field-work done within a rural African setting. Spindler and Spindler conducted their research among the Indigenous American people. Thus these theories have been developed in contexts that have affinity with our own situation.

We have not developed a single theoretical framework but our understanding of the problem and the process of identity formation and reformation is informed by a number of theories indicated above. The extent to which we use these theories depends on whether we move beyond a descriptive design to an explanatory one. At this stage we see these theories as interpretative tools to help us analyse the strategies ordinary people adopt in their quest to meet the need for an integrated African Christian identity. Further, if we are correct in our observation that there is a lack of theoretical works from the indigenous African writers, this research project will also serve to meet this need.

MANFRED MAX-NEEF (1991)

Human Scale Development draws into a single theory the work done by Manfred Max-Neef, founder of CEPAUR (Development Alternatives Centre in Santiago, Chile) and a team of researchers from five countries in Latin America during 1985-6. The team included experts in economics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, political science, anthropology, geography, engineering and law.

One of the building blocks of his theory is the notion that there are nine fundamental human needs. This theory of fundamental needs is not be be confused with Abraham Maslow’s popular theory of a hierarchy of needs. Max-Neef shows that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has unwittingly encouraged too simplistic an understanding of human development. Human Scale Development begins with a far more sophisticated analysis of human needs. Max-Neef’s theory is able to distinguish nine fundamental needs in terms of human values: subsistence, protection, leisure, affection, understanding, participation, creation, identity and freedom. These needs are the same in all cultures and do not vary over time, though the way they are satisfied shows tremendous variation. Each society and culture has its own style of satisfying these fundamental human needs. Whether or not people’s needs are actually satisfied depends upon the generation and provision in their society of an adequate system of satisfiers. Max-Neef’s theory shows how people’s needs are not limited to material goods or services rendered. For example, the way a meal is communally prepared, served and enjoyed can help satisfy the needs for participation and affection, as well as for subsistence. He goes on to suggest that quality of life depends on the possibilities people have to adequately satisfy all nine fundamental human needs. The lack of satisfaction of any fundamental need is poverty. (Max-Neef argues that we can no longer talk in terms of poverty but of poverties) Max-Neef mentions that a poverty of identity exists where there is an imposition of alien values upon a local/regional culture. The theory of Human Scale Development promotes a process that encourages people to draw on the values and energies within their own culture as they seek to build communities and societies in which the fundamental needs of all their members can be met.

Max-Neef distinguishes between four different types of satisfiers. It will suffice at this point to mention these:

In Human Scale Development the quest for identity is a struggle to satisfy the fundamental human need for identity with the help of synergic satisfiers.

JOHN CUMPSTY (1991)

Cumpsty’s theory of Religion as Belonging is useful in helping us address the problem of how ordinary people meet their specific fundamental need of identity. In their quest for a secured identity and a sense of belonging, according to Cumpsty, "people never seem to be comfortable in two unrelated worlds, but rather seek to integrate their experience"[7]. The strategies people utilise can include containment, allocation and bridging. For example, Cumpsty says that, when the scale of influence of the incoming culture enlarges to the point where there are simply two worldviews in competition with each other then the competing traditions need to be held together or they will tear their adherents apart. Then "the development of bridging myths, or alternatively the embracing of bridging symbols, becomes the appropriate means of integration"[8] of these competing traditions., otherwise individual and corporate identity is not possible nor can there be sense of belonging without finding ways to bridge the competing logical systems.

GEORGE SPINDLER & LOUIS SPINDLER (in Phelan et al., 1993:27-52)

Although originally applied in the field of anthropology of education their model of the enduring, situated and endangered self developed by Spindler and Spindler is particularly useful for our purposes. The enduring self is "that sense of continuity one has with one’s own past - a personal continuity of experience, meaning, and social identity. It provides the ego-syntonic functions of the self and functions as an integrating principle of the personality phenotype"[9]. In turn the situated self encompasses "those aspects of the person required to cope with the everyday exigencies of life"[10]. It is thus oriented to the present and the contexts (situations) one finds oneself in. Lastly, the endangered self results when the enduring self "is violated too often and too strongly by the requirements of the situated self that is constructed as an adaptive response to situational contexts"[11]. The endangered self is thus the result and evidence of a conflict between the enduring self and the situated self.

PAULO FREIRE

Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator, born in 1921, in the North East of Brazil, in a town called Recife. Coming from the background of extreme poverty and underdevelopment, Freire dedicated his life for the development of the poor people. He soon discovered that, the reason why the poor were ignorant to learning was the direct fault of the educational system that helped to maintain the status quo - a situation of economic, social, and political domination, and of the paternalism of which they were victims. He saw illiteracy as affecting the entire self-image of the poor and their very possibility of full human-development. Thus, he embarked on a literacy campaign throughout the north-eastern parts of Brazil. His method of educating the poor was to use a critical-consciousness-raising praxis approach, which he termed conscientization to describe the learning process in which his learners began to perceive social, political, and economic oppression and acted upon it. Paulo Freire’s innovative approach to literacy training among the poor encouraged them to ‘decode’ their situation of poverty in a systematic way in order to do something about it.

Some Commitments and Poinnts of Departure

We want to state explicitly our commitments and points of departure. We are committed to human development and improving the quality of life of people. Also we are interested in what ordinary people have to say and in recording their struggles. Our aim is to facilitate the process whereby the participants in the research enterprise become co-owners of the project. We aim to write in solidarity with the participants which implies an active commitment on the part of the researcher to the participants as a group and allowing their voices to come out throughout the process. Thus this is a project that does more than just observe and record and analyse. It seeks to go beyond this to build capacity both among the participants as well as suggest processes for the Church to come to terms with ways of anchoring the Christian faith in Africa. Our research is done in solidarity with people who are trying to fulfil a fundamental human need, namely the need for identity.

However, this commitment raises some methodological questions. We have struggled with the question of the distance of the researcher from the topic. This came about, in part, because the primary researcher is an "insider" in that he is part of the Church community in which the problem is to be investigated. The questions posed by the study are therefore questions with which he himself grapples. Our study is therefore not an academic exercise in the detached sense. It has its own commitments, biases and subjectivity in that it is done by an insider and from an experiential perspective. This brings us to the next question. How do we write in solidarity with the participants? Writing as an insider means that common experiences are shared and common strategies to common problems are mutually sought by the researcher and the participants. Being an insider can help us write in solidarity with the participants but we are also aware of some pitfalls. Hopefully the involvement of so-called "outsiders" in the project will introduce the necessary checks and balances.

With these ideas in mind we now turn to the research design.

Methods of Collecting the Data

The research methodology should help facilitate a process whereby people can think through and develop strategies that bring about change both in their lives and in Church in order for them to meet their needs better. Thus we suggest a participatory form of research. We will in this regard use Action Research (more about this later) which is a qualitative research methodology.

While we are committed to a qualitative paradigm we will use a questionnaire survey, which is a quantitative instrument, to locate those who say they are committed Christians and committed to maintaining their African cultural heritage but find the Church does not acknowledge their African identity.

The Sample

The target group consists of African Christians within the Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the Western Cape. We will draw our target group from Presbyterians Congregations in Langa and Khayelitsha townships in the Cape. These Congregations are chosen because they are the most accessible to us, the members are black and African, and they are in a mainline Church dominated by Western forms of Christianity.

We will adopt a stratified sample method involving a cross-section of men and women, young, middle aged and elderly. This cross-section is necessary because we suspect that the different categories of people adopt different ways to affirm their African cultural heritage and their Christian faith. For our purposes we shall define the young as those who are between 16 and 35 years, the middle-aged as those who are between 36 and 55 years and the elderly as those who are older than 55 years. From this we shall identify our sample group.

The sample group will consist of those who say they are committed to upholding their Christian faith and their African traditional cultural heritage. We will make every effort to get the mix of ages and gender referred to earlier. These will be chosen from those who regularly attend Church on Sundays.

We use a non-probability method of sampling known as "Convenience Sampling" to identify the sample and therefore the sample cannot be said to be statistically representative of the population. While the sample is not statistically representative of the entire Church membership we think the sampling method ensures that the sample is sufficiently representative of African Christians in the Presbyterian Church in the Western Cape for us to draw conclusions about the population from the findings of this study.

The membership of the two Presbyterian Churches in Khayelitsha is 283 and 235, and there are about 400 at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Langa. The total Church membership is a little more than 900 members. Of the total membership, women constitute about 70% and men about 30%. Furthermore, the young form about 30 %, the middle aged form about 50% and the elderly about 20% of the total membership. The average weekly attendance at a typical Sunday service is about 50 members at each of the churches in Khayelitsha and 120 at the church in Langa. Together these 220 members would constitute the sample targeted in our questionnaire survey. Of those who say they are committed to upholding their Christian faith and their African traditional heritage we will invite a cross section based on gender and age to participate in focus-group interviews. We aim to get forty people to participate in the focus-group interviews in order for us to work with four groups with ten participants in each group; two groups from the Langa church and two groups from the Khayalitsha churches.

The Questionnaire

The questionnaire will serve to answer our question about the existence of a significant number of black members of the Presbyterian Churches in the Western Cape who see themselves as African and Christian but who find that their African identity is not affirmed by their Church. (Our hunch is that there is a significant percentage that falls into this category.) We will use the questionnaire to enable us to identify and reach this group of people. The questionnaire will help us capture the necessary data to locate those we wish to be involved in the focus group interviews.

We will start off by testing a pilot questionnaire on about 10 persons. This will give us the opportunity to make the necessary changes to the questionnaire before the final survey is conducted.

Focus Group Interviews

The forty participants in the focus group interviews will be divided into four smaller working groups for the purpose of focus group interviews. We will draw on the principles of Action Research throughout the research project but during the focus group interviews we will draw heavily on Action Research theory.

Action Research is a suitable research design for a number of reasons. It aims at the improvement and better understanding of situation of the participants. It contributes towards social change as it is participatory and collaborative in character. It is participatory in that it involves the researcher in his/her own enquiry, and it is collaborative in that it involves the people in the subject population. It is a shared enquiry. The researcher and the participants have a mutually rewarding, symbiotic relationship. In this way Action Research is a process as much for the participants to address real life issues as it is for the researcher to address a research problem.

Action Research methods will enable the researcher and the participants to make conscious what is often a less conscious process of identity formation, reformation and renegotiation. This research method goes beyond description and explanation. It generates "useable" knowledge that will help people in their everyday lives while allowing the researcher to describe, explain and understand the problem better and to test the features of specific theories. It moves people forward by way of engaging them in their own enquiries into their own lives. Action researchers thus contribute to raising awareness and consciousness, in turn this generates engagement with people’s own problems. Thus, we hope, this will also be a conscientizing project that enables ordinary African Christians to reflect more critically on their faith.

Action research therefore means action both for the researcher and the participants; action that leads to change. It does not pretend to be value-free. Values are involved in the process of change. Action researchers are, furthermore, accountable to those engaged in the action, the participants; i.e. observations, findings, speculations and alternative perspectives are fed back to the participants. They are more concerned about the process than the product and they are committed to the solving their problems.

We will begin by having a preliminary session with each group to "break the ice" and orienatate the participants. Thereafter we intend to hold two sessions of about 2-3 hours long for each of the four groups. These sessions will, with the permission of the participants, be tape recorded. We will finally hold a report back session for each group to discuss the findings of the report and to stimulate discussion and critical reflection about the different strategies people adopt in their attempt to meet their need for an African and Christian identity and how the groups may want to use the report to impact on their Congregations and Denomination as a whole.

Types of Questions Used to Guide the In-Depth Interviews

The questions are aimed at soliciting information about the strategies people adopt in their quest to affirm their African traditional cultural heritage and their Christian faith while remaining in mainline Presbyterian Churches. The types of questions we will ask will help people who explore their African and Christian identity more consciously, and whether they feel they would like to express their Africanness more in Church and what forms this could take. We are interested in exploring the different and varied strategies they presently adopt to express their African identity outside the Church and, where it occurs, inside the church. Our approach is to facilitate and probe with the aim to inform and transform the Church to facilitate a process that will help people meet their need for identity and belonging in more synergic ways.

The following is a list of the type of questions we may use to guide the in-depth focus group interview:

Techniques of Analysis

Two quantitative software packages will be used to process the numerical data obtained from the questionnaire survey. We will capture the data using Excel which is a spreadsheet based computer package. The data will then be imported into STATISTICA and statistically analysed further. The qualitative data obtained from open-ended questions in questionnaire and from the in-depth interviews will be transcribed. The qualitative data will be processed and analysed with the help QSR.NUDIST (The QSR stands for Qualitative Solutions and Research, and NUDIST stands for Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorising). We will sift through the texts and thematically arrange the data in order to present our findings to the groups for further reflection and analysis.

Ethical Issues

Our commitment to do research in solidarity with the participants will inevitably raise the participants’ expectations. We are ethically bound to declare at the outset what we can realistically do as researchers. We do not want to raise the participants’ expectations unrealistically. If the process is to be collectively owned by the stakeholders (i.e. the researchers, sponsors and participants) the research report needs to be jointly owned by all. This means that the uses of research report will also need to be a subject for negotiation.

We will establish a clear and fair agreement with the research participants, prior to their participation, that clarifies the obligations and responsibilities of each of the parties involved in the project. We will at all times strive to protect the welfare and dignity of the participants. To this end we will ensure that informed consent is obtained from each of the participants. The identity of the participants will be protected through use of pseudonyms.

Significance and Value of the Study

The study will contribute significantly to the continued existence and relevance of Christianity in Africa. Its contribution will be made at personal, institutional and academic levels:

The adoption of Action Research will provide the participants with an opportunity to critically reflect on the strategies they use in an attempt to meet their need for an identity.

The research will provide lessons for the Church as an institution so that it can order its life accordingly. The Church will be able to approach issues of inculturation differently, for instance, and thereby respond to the need for an integrated identity. The study could serve as resource material for workshops and other such training projects for human development.

The study will further enrich the academic study of the forms of Christianity in Africa and enable a much more focused curriculum. It will also answer those who call for a new African rootedness in our teaching and research. We are thinking of co-operating, among others, with the Universities of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), Fort Hare, College of the Transfiguration and the Institute for Contextualization of Theology to pilot our questionnares and also to inform their curriculum.

It has always been assumed that the AIC’s are much more African and the mainline Churches are much more Western and, therefore, alien. This study will show that common grounds do exist between the AIC’s and, at least, the African component of mainline Churches, which in turn can serve as basis for dialogue and the creation of a common African Christian identity.

Time Frame/Schedule

The proposed time frame for the actual researching of the project is split into two phases. The first phase will consist of the field work, data processing and data analysis and will run over approximately 12 months. The second phase will focus on writing up the results, a feed back process involving the research participants, consolidation of findings and a final research report. This will take approximately another 12 months.

Bibliography

1. Appiah-Kubi, Kofi and Torres, Sergio (eds.) African Theology en Route (Maryknoll: Orbis), 1979.

2. Baeta, CG (ed.), Christianity in Tropical Africa (Cape Town/ London/ New York: Oxford University Press), 1968.

3. Bediako, Kwame, Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Maryknoll: Orbis/ Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 1995.

4. Becken, Hans-Jurgen (ed.), Relevant Theology for Africa (Mapumulo: Lutheran Publishing House), 1973.

5. Boulaga, Eboussi F, Christianity without Fetishes: An African Critique and Recapture of Christianity (Maryknoll: Orbis), 1984.

6. Bourdillon, MFC, Religion and Society: A Text for Africa (Gweru: Mambo Press), 1991.

7. Chalmers, John A, Tiyo Soga: A Page of South African Mission Work (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot/ London: Hodder and Stoughton/ Glasgow: David Bryce & Son/ Grahamstown, Cape Colony: James Hay), 1878.

8. Chidester, David, ‘Worldview Analysis of African Indigenous Churches’ in Journal for the Study of Religion, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1989, pp.15-27.

9. Chirenje, Murenje J, Ethiopianism and Afro-Americans in Southern Africa, 1883-1916 (Baten Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press), 1987.

10. Cox, James L (ed.), Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa (Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press), 1998.

11. Cumpsty, John S, Religion As Belonging: A General Theory of Religion (Lanham/ New York/ London: University Press of America), 1991.

12. Fashole-Luke, Edward et al (eds.), Christianity in Independent Africa (London: Rex Collings), 1978.

13. Guma, Mongezi and Milton, Leslie (eds.), An African Challenge to the Church in the

21st Century (Cape Town: Salty Print), 1997.

14. Kretzschmar, Louise (ed.), Christian Faith and African Culture (Unitra: Religious Studies Forum) 1988.

15. Kuckertz, H (ed.), Ancestor Religion in Africa (Cacadu, Transkei: Lumko Missiological Institute), 1981.

16. Makhubu, Paul, Who are the Independent Churches? (Johannesburg: Skotaville Publishers) 1988.

17. Makobane, Mohlomi et al (eds.), The Church and African Culture (Germiston: Lumko), 1995.

18. Maluleke, Tinyiko S, ‘Black and African theologies in the New World Order: A Time to Drink from our Own Wells’ in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, Nov. 1996, No. 96, pp. 3-18.

___________________, ‘African Traditional Religions in Christian Mission and Christian Scholarship: Re-Opening a Debate that Never Started’ in Religion and Theology: A Journal of Contemporary Religious Discourse, Vol. 5-2, 1998, pp. 121-135.

19. Max-Neef, Manfred A, Human Scale Development: Conception, Application and Further Reflections (New York and London: The Apex Press), 1991.

20. Mbiti, John S, ‘Christianity and African Culture’ in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, Sept. 1977, No. 20, pp. 26-40.

21. McVeigh, MJ, God in Africa (USA: Hartford), 1974.

22. Mokgoba, Mmutlanyane Stanley, ‘Christianity in an African Context’ in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, Sept. 1985, No. 52, pp. 5-16.

23. Mosala, Jerry, ‘African Traditional Beliefs and Christianity’ in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, June 1983, Nos. 39-43, pp. 15-24.

24. Mugambi, JNK (ed.), Critiques of Christianity in African Literature (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers), 1992.

25. Mzimba Ntibane L, Ibali Lobomi Nomsebenzi Womfi Umfundisi Pambani Jeremiah Mzimba (Alice: Lovedale Institution Press), 1923.

26. Oosthuizen, GC (ed.), Religion Alive: Studies in the New Movement and Indigenous Churches in Southern Africa (Southern Africa: Hodder and Stoughton), 1986.

27. Oosthuizen, GC et al (eds.), Afro-Christianity at the Grassroots: Its Dynamics and

Strategies (Leiden/ New York/ Koln: EJ Brill), 1994.

28. Parrat John (ed.), A Reader in African Christian Theology (London: SPCK), 1987.

29. Pato, Luke, ‘The African Independent Churches: A Socio-Cultural Approach’ in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, Sept. 1990, No. 72, pp. 24-35.

30. Pato, Luke (ed.), Towards an Authentic African Christianity (Unitra: Religious Studies Forum), 1989.

31. Pauw, BA, Christianity and Xhosa Tradition: Belief and Ritual among Xhosa-speaking Christians (Cape Town/ London/ New York: Oxford University Press), 1975.

32. Peterson, Kirsten Holst (ed.), Religion, Development and African Identity (Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies), 1987.

33. Phelan, Patricia and Davidson Ann Locke (eds.), Renegotiating Cultural Diversity in American Schools (New York/ London: Teachers College Press), 1993.

34. Pobee, John S, Skenosis: Christian Faith In An African Context (Gweru: Mambo Press), 1992.

35. Ranger, Terence et al (eds.), Culture, Identity and Politics: Ethnic Minorities in Britain (Sydney: Avebury), 1996.

36. Sanneh, Lamin, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (Maryknoll: Orbis), 1983.

37. Sanneh, Lamin, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (Maryknoll: Orbis), 1989.

38. Saunders, CC, ‘Tile and the Thembu Church: Politics and Independency on the Cape Eastern Frontier in the late Nineteenth Century'’in the Journal of African History, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1970, pp. 553-570.

39. Sindima, Harvey, J, Drums of Redemption: An Introduction to African Christianity (London: Greenwood Press), 1994.

40. Speaking For Ourselves: Members of African Independent Churches Report on their Pilot Study of the History and Theology of their Churches (Braamfontein: Institute for Contextual Theology), 1985.

41. Stinson, Arthur, Action Research for Community Action (Ottawa: Carleton University), 1977.

42. Sundkler, Bengt GM, Bantu Prophets in South Africa (London: Lutterworth Press), 1948.

____________________, ‘The Concept of Christianity in the African Independent Churches’ (Seminar Programme, University of Natal), 1958.

43. Taylor, Dexter J (ed.), Christianity and the Natives of South Africa: A Yearbook of South African Missions (Alice: The Lovedale Institution Press), 19

44. The Action Research Reader (Victoria: Deakin University Press), 1981.

45. Tlhagale, Buti and Mosala, Itumeleng (eds.), Hammering Swords into Ploughshares: Essays in Honour of Archbishop Mpilo Desmond Tutu (Johannesburg: Skotaville Publishers), 1986.

46. Williams, Donovan, Umfundisi: A Biography of Tiyo Soga 1829-1871 (Alice: Lovedale Press), 1978.

47. Winter, Richard, Action-Research and the Nature of Social Inquiry: Professional Innovation and Educational Work (Sydney: Avebury), 1987.

Notes

[1] However it is not integration per se that we are concerned about, for there may be other strategies that are adopted to negotiate the coexistence of the two traditions. Further it may be asked whether it is always possible to integrate these two traditions, i.e. Christian faith as the religious culture of the West and African religion as the religious culture of Africa.

[2] In this context the concept of Africanisation is perceived as a process whereby African Christians are seeking to recapture the lost integrity of the long degraded African cultural heritage. This process has sometimes been defined as inculturation, however, for us the term Africanisation embraces both the inculturation and liberation trajectories. Further it is also helpful for its critical embrace of African religio-cultural traditions.

[3] As in other contexts there are Christians of varying orientation even within African Christianity and more so within the mainline Churches. There are conservative, evangelical, liberal or radical African Christians, respectively, in terms of their relation to African cultural heritage.

[4] C W Manona, ‘The Resurgence of the Ancestor Cult among Xhosa Christians’ in (ed.) H Kuckertz, Ancestor Religion in Africa (Cacadu, Transkei: Lumko Missiological Institute, 1981), p. 37.

[5] M J McVeigh, God in Africa (USA: Hartford, 1974), preface.

[6] Bengt G M Sundkler, The Concept of Christianity in the African Independent Churches (Seminar Programme, University of Natal, 1958), p. 1.

[7] John S Cumpsty, Religion As Belonging: A General Theory of Religion (University Press of America: Lanham/ New York/ London, 1991), p. 237.

[8] Ibid, p. 421.

[9] George Spindler & Louise Spindler, ‘The Processes of Culture and Person: Cultural Therapy and Culturally Diverse Schools’ in (eds.) Patricia Phelan & Ann Locke Davidson, Renegotiating Cultural Diversity in American Schools (Teachers College Press, Columbia University: New York & London, 1993), p. 36.

[10] Ibid, p. 37.

[11] Ibid, p. 37.