FROM CHRISTIANISING AFRICA TO AFRICANISING CHRISTIANITY

Dear Editor

Devotion to Jesus has been a large part of the African experience. Should we, as black people, follow this Jesus?. The best historical record of Jesus’ life is found in the Bible. One of the most frequently posed challenges is, “Isn’t it just a European book that has nothing to do with our people?

  Indigenous African spirituality today is increasingly falling out of favor. The amount of devotees to indigenous practices has dwindled as Islam and Christianity have both spread and gained influence throughout the continent.

According to all the major surveys, Christianity and Islam each represent approximately 40 percent of the African population. Christianity is more dominant in the south, while Islam is more dominant in the north. Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa.

Nevertheless, since 1900, Christians in Africa have grown from approximately 7 million to over 450 million today. Islam has experienced a similar rapid growth.Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions.

The bottom line then is that Africans who still wholly practice African indigenous religions are only about 10 percent of the African population, a fraction of what it used to be only a century ago, when indigenous religions dominated most of the continent. I should add that without claiming to be full members of indigenous traditions, there are many professed Christians and Muslims who participate in one form of indigenous religious rituals and practices or another. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa.

The success of Christianity and Islam on the African continent in the last 100 years has been extraordinary, but it has been, unfortunately, at the expense of African indigenous religions.

Michael is a Spiritual and Political Researcher based in Sandton