1. Introduction

Having encouraged us that globalization is not about to swallow us whole as it is incapable of doing so, We are urged that nevertheless inculturation should be empowered and dynamized to make some capital of globalization. We also describe the five current models of contextual theology that could serve the course of inculturation well. This is where I believe the African theologians and the masses in African Christianity can perform in concert. We suggest utilizing the black colour, the African Exodus, the Worldview of the Africans, the African context and other elements this article might identify. Let me comment on each of them.

1.1. Blackness

In the late 60s early 70s the blacks in the Diaspora were chanting something about “black is beautiful” and this sent ripples out. What does blackness stand for. I think the resilience of the black people in situations of oppression and deprivation is a value but we must unearth others through research and discussion among us. I am struck that many foreigners who visit Africa do not want to leave. They are not always watching animals on nature trails. They are interacting with locals and discovering the warmth of human relationships and a spirituality that is genuine and spontaneous. I suggest serious articulation of blackness. Incidentally a traditional song from the Gikuyu people suggests the idea of “never say die”!

Black mother

Don’t cry for me

I’ll not die; I’ll only get thin!

1.2. African Exodus and Worldview of the Africans

When we realize the depth at which African peoples view important issues such as fertility and the meaning of family, I think we can agree with Prof. Waliggo that globalization will take time to reach the core. But the time to act is now, not tomorrow.

1.3. African Context

Because poverty spells death and the human society everywhere has a strong instinct for survival, we can see why African theology will and should continue to analyse oppressive contexts and to work for full liberation. Theologians urges a confrontation with issues of justice and human rights in our theologizing.

I must add hare that the African context dominated as it is by poverty and its many forms of deprivation can undermine the efforts and commitment of local theologians to the pressing tasks of Contextual Theology. It is easy to be side-tracked with cheap offers as local ‘research assistant’ where others call the shots because they have the money.

I want now to make an observation about the models of inculturation so well articulated and justified in the paper. Basically what we are being given here are the tools with which to engage in theology dynamically, sensitively, inclusively, courageously and effectively. I think part of the courage needed is to undo some of the damage done by earlier models of evangelization.

To give the example of the translation model, I cite the case of the Iteso concept of God prior to the European missionary work among them and after the Christianizing work. Bette Ekeya’s research among the Iteso established that Ijokit should have been the name of God to adopt under Christianity. Among the several names describing attributes of God, Ijokit means the Good One. The missionaries however, chose the name Edeke, derived from adeka (which means sickness, plague and popularly among the Kenyan Iteso veneral disease).

Thus Edeke, God in his aspect of causing calamity becomes God the Father of Jesus Christ and Ejokit becomes the devil. Ekeya concludes that perhaps Christianity would have been less foreign if missionaries had been more sensitive to the beliefs and value systems of African Traditional Religion (Ekeya, B. “The Emurwon- Diviner/Prophet in Religion of the Iteso” PhD thesis, University of Nairobi, 1984,).

Let me conclude by agreeing that in our theologising we do need to capture the mission, mandate, vision and ethos in the task of inculturation. The final part of the paper deals with these issues about which I refrain from commenting further.

Thank you again for the opportunity to reflect on the challenges of this paper.

Even before he succeeded Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, the phrase “African Renaissance” had become the trademark of Thabo Mbeki. In April 1998, he delivered a lecture on the subject to the United Nations University in Tokyo.¹’ In August of the same year, he broadcast his “African Renaissance Statement”, and on the eve of the millennium he made his “Our African Century” speech to the South African National Assembly on the same theme.² In October 1998 an “African Renaissance” Conference was convened in Johannesburg and this was followed by the foundation of an “African Renaissance Institute” in that city and the creation of a ministerial committee on African Renaissance in the South African Government.³ In November 1999, another conference on African Renaissance was convened at the Africa Centre in London.⁴ As one observer remarked, there is now nothing short of an “African Renaissance industry”⁵_.

Numerous writers, political observers and several theologians have published their reflections on the concept of African Renaissance. Thabo Mbeki himself has written a book about it^.6 African Renaissance is a subject that has aroused considerable interest and even controversy. In this paper, I propose to examine the concept of renaissance and its application to Africa, the circumstances in which Mbeki’s conception of African Renaissance has arisen, the relevance of religion in general and of Christian theology in particular to the realities underlying the idea.

1.4. The Concept of Renaissance Applied to Africa

Renaissance or rebirth is not a new concept in the history of cultures and religions. It is most familiarly associated with the cultural movement of l5th/l6th century Europe, and, by analogy, has been retrojected by historians on to the Europe of the 12th century. “Renaissance” is a commonplace in the philosophy of history. Arnold J.Toynbee, for example, wrote of an “American Negro Spiritual Renaissance”.⁷ “Rebirth” implies a previous existence, but it also celebrates a new reality, a creative transformation of the old. It carries with it the connotation of a flowering of knowledge and a blossoming of the arts. It is a more vital concept than “cultural revival” or “cultural retrieval”, which merely suggest the identical recovery of a past experience.

It has been said that, while renaissance is an old concept, African renaissance is a new one.⁸ This is not so. In 1864, Daniel Comboni, the missionary founder, wrote his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, and “regeneration” is a synonym for renaissance.⁹ Comboni’s idea of an African religious rebirth is thought to have had a major impact on the missionary strategy and thinking of another great founder, Charles Lavigerie.

In 1964, the contribution of the article African Ecclesial Review, entitled “Innocence or Renaissance ¹⁰ It was a discussion of an observation, made in a BBC broadcast by Ali Mazrui. that Africa’s political and moral innocence was an indictment of the West and of the West’s failure to live up to its own high ideals. I suggested that, while Africans had a contribution to make from within their own tradition, the latter was not a bare record of innocence, a cultural tabula rasa, so to speak. The article looked forward to the possibility of a cultural renaissance that was both African and Christian.

Since writing that article, I have consistently invoked the concept of renaissance in my teaching and writing, as a justification for a present interest in African cultural history. The rebirth of African culture in a radically new form is, in any case, a probable outcome of social change and a normal expectation of inculturation.

Mbeki’s idea of an African Renaissance is basically economic and political, coupled with an emphasis on moral renewal. His approach is dictated by the immediate circumstances in which it was conceived and which we now consider.

2. Moving Beyond Afro-Pessimism’

Africa, according to Thabo Mbeki, is passing through a “dark night”. It is a continent “Consumed by death”. Her children are at the mercy of destructive forces unleashed by criminals and gangsters, tyrants and dictators. It is typified by violence, by fraudulent elections, by bribery and corruption and, above all, by an obscene greed for wealth that is the cause of all these ills. This is the situation which gives rise to what has become known as “Afro-Pessimism”, a feeling of despair among foreign observers, and even among Africans themselves. This is the shame of Africa that must be banished, says Mbeki. “Africa needs her renaissance.”¹¹ Mbeki, in his speeches and writings, conjures up frightening images of savagery in contemporary Africa, and his African Renaissance is a call to rebellion against them. It is from this standpoint that Mbeki looks back on Africa’s past achievements, and finds hope for the future.

Some theologian commentators are more nuanced in their assessment of Africa’s present ills. Archbishop Desmond Tutu admits that the picture is bleak, but it is not the total picture.¹² There is no reason for Africans to indulge in self-contempt. This limited optimism allows Tutu to discern numerous signs of an incipient African Renaissance in the present situation, bleak though it may be. These we examine later in this paper.

Buti Tlhagale, Catholic Archbishop of Bloemfonteyn, believes that Africa’s own internal criticism has been exaggerated by western observers, and that this has given rise to a widespread spirit of pessimism that is unjustified.¹³ According to Tlhagae, the western world is expecting too much of Africa, too soon. It wants Africa to free herself from the aftermath of colonialism in a matter of decades. Africa is blamed for refusing to become mature. Echoing a point made by Mbeki, he argues that, if the world is a global village, it must help Africa to change. Africa, in fact, wants to change and to be part of the world community, but it must reject the materialism which is the cause of its present decline.

James Owino Kombo, an evangelical theologian from Kenya, places the need for renaissance in the context of Africa’s present poverty, backwardness, bad governance, disease, racial-ethnic tensions and the abuse of human rights.¹⁴ The French economist, Serge Latouche, has described Africa as “the hopeless continent”. From a rational, technical point of view, Africa shows no sign of being other than a failure.¹⁵ However, Latouche is ultimately more pessimistic about the success of a rational technical society in itself, than he is about Africa, and a similar point is made by the Catholic theologian from Cameroun, Jean-Marc Ela.’¹⁶ For Ela, Africa’s poor showing in the world is not due to failure or backwardness, but because the continent is true to itself and is pledged to resist global neo-liberalism. Homo Africans, says Ela, is not Homo Economicus. This is not, however, a recipe for isolationism but a desire for participation in the global economy on Africa’s own terms. For Ela, neo-liberalism’s “culture of death” is responsible for the morbid factors in Africa’s present situation. For Afro-Pessimism, Ela substitutes a Euro-Pessimism.

3. The Roots of Renaissance in Africa

Africa’s past is glorious. Mbeki gives a lengthy, if oddly assorted, catalogue of past achievements.¹⁷ It includes: tile emergence of Homo Sapiens. South African cave paintings, the art and architecture of ancient Egypt and Nubia, the Benin bronzes. Makonde wood carving from Tanzania and Mozambique, the architecture of Aksum, the pyramids of Gizeh and the Great Sphinx, ancient Carthage, Great Zimbabwe and the centres of learning at Alexandria, Fez and Timbuktu. To underline the relevance of religion to Africa’s past, the list includes Ethiopian Christianity and Nigerian Islam.

Mbeki asserts his Africanness, but he has a broad, inclusive definition of what it means to be an African. in the end, it amounts to being simply a citizen of Africa. As Kwesi Kwaa Prah commented, “If Africanness is just citizenship, then nobody is an African”.¹⁸

As one would expect, Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s list places even greater emphasis on the religious achievements of Africa.’¹⁹ He stresses the absence of a punitive jurisprudence, as well as political totalitarianism in traditional Africa. The Bible depicts the continent as a place of refuge for Joseph and his brethren, as well as for the Holy Family. It was the seed ground of Christian saints and theologians: Augustine, Tertullian, Cyprian, Simon of Cyrene.

The fact that Africa had a golden age is proof for both Mbeki and Tutu of a potential for future achievement, even if it is not immediately obvious what the pyramids, the Benin bronzes or the flight into Egypt have to do with participating in the global economy and combating corruption in 21st century Africa.

Jean-Marc Ela’s approach to the African past is considerably more pragmatic. Africa’s achievement does not consist merely in elusive values or ancient works of art. It comprises viable technologies, capacities for innovation and reinvention, ancient skills and knowledge rooted in local culture. All of these things can help Africa take her place in the present global economy on her own terms.

Not surprisingly, feminist theologians do not view the African past through rose-tinted spectacles. Mercy Amba Oduyoye speaks for them all in her critique of patriarchal tradition and its denial of humanity and responsibility to women. African culture, she believes, is often invoked in order to oppress women. Men can override African culture when it suits them. but women are punished for doing so.²⁰ and it is certainly true that women’s concerns seem to play a somewhat insignificant part in the agenda of the African Renaissance.

4. The Agenda of African Renaissance

Nelson Mandela first mentioned the notion of an African Renaissance at the O.A.U. Summit in Tunis in 1994, and it was the O.A.U.’s call to make the 21st century “Africa’s Century” that stimulated Thabo Mbeki’s vision of the future.²¹In his millenium address, Mbeki challenged the continent to take ownership of the next century. What does this mean in concrete terms, according to Mbeki? ²³

The African Renaissance is first of all a rediscovery by Africans of themselves, a confidence building voyage of discovery into their own past. It is a rediscovery of Africa’s “soul” and a restoration of her self-esteem. It is a “mass crusade for Africa’s renewal”. It is a determination to learn and a desire for genuine liberation. It is a call for a people-centred development.

The political and economic objectives of the African Renaissance include eradicating hunger and poverty, promoting economic growth and integration, developing infrastructures, eliminating HI V/AIDS, creating a non-racial and non-sexist society, restoring human dignity. The social and moral objectives include the abolition of military governments and one-party states, the democratic empowerment of the people, the eradication of corruption and the abuse of power, the resort to peaceful means of conflict resolution, the return of African intellectuals to their own homeland.

Such a programme is a call to rebellion, says Mbeki, a rebellion against tyrants and parasites, but it is also a call to generate new knowledge and to apply this knowledge for beneficial social change. That is why the pool of African brain power must return from abroad. However, it has been pointed out that, for this to happen, there is need for a more friendly intellectual environment.²⁴ Africa must become a learning society. Universities must no longer be underfunded. People must be encouraged to follow academic careers. As Xolela Mangcu comments, “Being black is not in itself enough” for the African Renaissance to happen.

5. African Renaissance

Thabo Mbeki is far from being opposed to globalization. On the contrary, he believes that it augurs well for the future prosperity of the African continent. African Renaissance is a truly global action, but it demands a more equal distribution of the benefits of globalization. it demands debt relief and more generous First World trade policies. It also means that South Africa is to be an active participant in the struggle of the whole African continent. African Renaissance is, in fact, a new form of South African patriotism. It is about South Africa’s role in Africa’s awakening. South Africa has only recently regained her freedom; African Renaissance is her way of deciding what to do with this freedom. However, as commentators have not been slow to point out, this in itself could be a source of envy and suspicion, especially in the light of South Africa’s links with the United States^.25

Mercy Amba Oduyoye is a dissentient voice. She places little hope in the global economy. In fact, she believes that globalization works against the specific needs of women and their development priorities. These are especially in the area of autonomy and integrity.^’26

Jean-Marc Ela wants Africa to participate in the global economy, but on its own terms. Not only should its own practical wisdom and skills be integrated within the new technology, hut the economist ideology of globalization must be resisted. There are other ways of seeing the world than through the economic model. Africa, he says, does not subscribe to the philosophy of” I sell. Therefore I am”.²⁷ Ela proclaims Africa to be “the real continent of the future”. Before dismissing such a vision of things to come as a piece of hopeless romanticism, one would do well to consider the thesis of Serge Latouche, to which Ela’s ideas come remarkably close.²⁸ For Latouche, Africa is “a parable of the failure of the west’s idea of a rational, technical society”. Africa is a reality that defies the scientific logic of Euro-America. Although in western terms, it is economically moribund, Africa is full of happy, well-dressed, well-fed people. Its neighbourhoods are well populated with individuals who live in dignity, despite the poverty and austerity of their surroundings.

What is Africa’s secret? it is the African capacity for self-organization, the wealth of social ties and the capacity for solidarity. People find, outside the logic of the market, the necessary goods and services which they need in order to live. The western world no longer possesses such resources, such resilience or such social creativity. It places all its hope in economic science as the principal instrument for knowing and living in the world. Latouche believes that the global economy is a vehicle, driving at a crazy speed, without a driver, without brakes and is now running out of fuel. When it “crashes into the wall”, there will be no survivors.

Unlike Ela, however, Latouche does not believe that Africans are in their present predicament through their own choice. Most would like to enjoy the air of globalization if they could, but these are beyond their reach. Therefore they have recourse to their own cultural traditions, and these stand them in good stead, imparting a meaning to life, which is beyond the power and scope of globalization and its ideology.

Africa. of course, has long had an ambivalent attitude towards western science and technology. African writers and philosophers have illustrated different aspects of the dilemma.²⁹ On the one hand, as Latouche points out, Africans aspire to enter the world of modern science and technology. Indeed, pace Jean-Marc Ela, such an aspiration seems unavoidable. However, it is not at all certain how African cultural traditions can help bring about such a development. And therefore whether talk of an African Renaissance is strictly relevant in this regard. African cultural tradition is not scientifically distanced from nature. It lacks competitive thinking and specialization. It is not (as John Mbiti has famously argued) funire-oriented.³⁰ it suffers from ethnic and linguistic fragmentation and complexity. Above all, it cannot avoid a perception of science and technology as “western” and, therefore, foreign.

On the other hand, it can also be argued that western thought is very far from being self-evidently rational and scientific, in spite of its own characteristic self-image.³¹ Africans and westerners ultimately share the same humanity, and, if the rational, technical society is as vulnerable from a human point of view as Latouche claims, then the vision of a new civilisation based on the humanity of African people may not be so far-fetched.

6. Present Signs of the African Renaissance

In spite of Africa’s present dire predicament, there are, according to our sources, already signs of an incipient renaissance. Thabo Mbeki lists the heroes and heroines who have shaped the new Africa which is making its appearance at this moment of history. They include Kwame Nkntmah. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Oliver Tambo, &n Bella and Nelson Mandela.³²

Desmond Tutu appeals not only to the example and influence of Mandela, but to the whole experience of liberation in South Africa. His text is worth quoting in full.

Africa amazed the world in how apartheid was ended, to be followed, not by an orgy of retribution and revenge wreaked by blacks en whites, but by the extraordinary Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a process of forgiveness. Amnesty and reconciliation.

Africa can boast that it is the home of the most revered statesman in the world today, in the person of Nelson Mandela, held in awe because he has demonstrated remarkable magnanimity and generosity of spirit in his willingness to forgive his tormentors and the oppressors of his people. So that he is regarded as an icon of forgiveness and reconciliation in a world where these qualities are so much sought after.³³

Ali Mazrui believes that the African Renaissance began when Africans started to exert control over their natural resources. He also cites the magnanimity of another African leader, Yakubu Gowon, who, although he won the Nigerian Civil War, did not resort to retribution. His magnanimity was founded on the values of African tradition “reinforced by Christianity”. Mazrui goes on to cite the peaceful resignation from office of Leopold Senghor and Julius Nyerere, as well as the reconciliation process in South Africa, as harbingers of renaissance.³⁴

It is interesting, though not surprising, that such examples of humanity should be regarded as an inspiration for the moral renewal which underlies the concept of the African Renaissance.

7. Religion and the African Renaissance

At the London conference on African Renaissance, the South African Vice-President, Jacob Zuma, was openly sceptical of the role of religion in the African Renaissance.³⁵ According to Zuma, the chief culprits responsible for the destruction of Africa’s vibrant past civilisation were slavery, religion and colonization. According to this view, “European religions led to the destruction of the moral core of African culture”. We have already seen that religion, including Christianity, is part of Africa’s cultural heritage, and that Christianity is not exclusively a European phenomenon.

Buti Tlhagale concedes that religion has often been politically diivisive and that it has been a supporter of unjust regimes, like that of apartheid, but, he argues, the abuse of religion does not invalidate its potentially positive contribution.³⁶ For Buti Tlhagale, African Renaissance seeks to bring out what is noble in humanity. It is a new orientation, a radical shift in the scales of preference, the adoction of spiritual values that have been overlooked. It is therefore a form of religious development.

However, African Renaissance is not merely an attitude of mind. It is a determination to act, and it has a political agenda. It has something distinctive, something African, to offer. That is why it resists a global standardization under the aegis of the west. Africa wants to be a mover and shaper of history. Religion has much to offer. According to Buti Tlhagale, all communities of faith share in a “mystery of fellowship”, which they try to live. The Church is, in fact, a model- even a “laboratory” - of the new society proclaimed by the African Renaissance. The communities of faith deliver a strong message about justice and peace, and about reconciliation, all of which are components of the renaissance. However, reconciliation, in particular, depends on dialogue and respect for others.

Religion in general and Christianity in particular, can contribute to the regeneration of humanity, through the discipline of sacrifice and self-denial. From a purely pragmatic point of view, religions cross the boundaries of African states and can help to provide the intercultural and inter-ethnic dimension of this new society.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye, while admitting that religion remains integral to the various ideologies that inform African nationalism and internationalism (including, presumably the African Renaissance) nevertheless views the Christian Church as essentially a male organization, in which women are permitted to participate in a purely marginal manner.³⁷ If the Church is to contribute to a non-sexist society as part of the African Renaissance, it needs to put its own house in order.

7.1. Christian Theology and the African Renaissance

There is no doubt that contemporary social problems. Such as poverty, oppression and marginalization, as well as materialism and corruption, are issues for African Theology.³⁸ But, to what extent are such issues relevant to a rebirth of African culture? James owino Kombo is a theologian, whose Evangelical tradition has tended to ignore the African past, and he therefore asks whether Theology is relevant to the African Renaissance.³⁹ Kombo believes that there are four basic issues for African Theology in this context.

The first issue is that contextualization must be taken more seriously by African theologians. African theology must give the lie to the claim that Christianity is a European phenomenon. The second issue concerns what Kombo calls the “publics” of African theology. Whom are African theologians addressing? Are they addressing the academic community, the universities? Are they addressing the believing community, or are they targeting the political arena in general? Kombo believes that theology must come out of the seminary or Church-related University and into the public arena.

The third issue for African Theology, argues Kombo, is the training of African theologians themselves. They must be made fully aware of all the social problems that are on the current theological agenda. Their formation must help them to develop creative and critical thinking. The fourth issue concerns the relevant theological paradigm. Here, Kombo lists Justin Ukpong’s three paradigms: Inculturation Theology, Black Theology and Liberation Theology; and he asks whether any of these fit the context of African Renaissance.

All of these paradigms, he believes, are outmoded. Due struggle for liberation in South Africa is over. Black Theology, he feels, should no longer be necessary. Inculturation is also, by implication, irrelevant to an emergency situation that calls for social and moral reconstruction. African Theology should no longer give prominence to an “identity problem”. What Kombo finally offers amounts to a realist, problem-solving theology founded on contemporary social analysis.

Listening to the voices of African Renaissance, however, one still receives the impress ion that African identity is important. Moreover, as the very term “renaissance’ implies, it is assumed that there are Continuities with Africa’s past. Culture, particularly in its inclusive anthropological sense, should not be too easily dismissed by a theology aspiring to relevance. Moreover, theologians of Liberation would recognize in the concept of the African Renaissance, much that belongs to their own theological perspective. Liberation cannot be simply equated with the struggle that led to the death of apartheid. African Renaissance is a multi-faceted enterprise that points to the links, rather than the differences, between the various theological paradigms. If it is really a moral crusade and a vision of renewed humanity in Africa, then African Renaissance is considerably more than a political enterprise. It is a theological praxis that, not only deserves, but urgently demands, the support of African theologians.

8. Conclusions

The African Renaissance remains a somewhat vague and ill-defined ideal. Whether it is conceived as a continental flowering of arts and sciences, or as Africa’s share - on its own terms- in the global economy, it might be thought as remote a possibility as the much vaunted target of the Kenya Government of “industrialization by 2030”. There are no convincing signs of such a renaissance being imminent. The incipient signs of renaissance cited by its protagonists belong chiefly to the moral sphere. As was said above, Christian theology is obviously relevant to a rebellion against corruption and violence, the aspiration towards a more just society; and this is much more than a political programme. On the other hand, its implementation is largely political. A “rebellion” of this kind requires social analysis, elaboration of strategies and the establishment of appropriate structures. Theology can provide the motivation and the justification for action, and perhaps help to strengthen the political will that is necessary for such action to be a success.