IS CHRISTIANITY A WHITEMAN'S RELIGION AND HAS IT DESTROYED AFRICAN CULTURE?

The question of whether Christianity is a Whiteman's religion has been a lingering debate for generations. Those who hold that Christianity is the Whiteman's religion also asserts that the bearers of this religion have not only imposed their religion on Africans but have also succeeded in destroying African culture.A recent concern of a tribal chief in Ghana that the president of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills has not been inviting him to offer libation at State gatherings, and the call by a pastor on the Ghana Media Commission to stop the preaching of the gospel on Radio and Television has re-ignited the debate of whether Christianity is an imported religion.

The president of the republic of Ghana, for instance, has made public his belief in the Christian faith and has travelled to Nigeria to join the Synagogue Church of all Nations led by Prophet T. B. Joshua to thank the Lord after he worn the December 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections. When people criticised him for turning the Castle, the sit of government to a prayer camp, he reacted by declaring unequivocally that he would not be bothered if the whole country was turned to a prayer camp. In a recent debate on a Radio station in Accra, one of the panelists who identified himself as the priest of African Traditional Religion, unleashed a tirade against Christianity and insisted that Christianity is a Whiteman's religion which succeeded in ruining African culture.

The question is whether these sweeping assertions have any basis at all? Dr. John Mbiti, an African Scholar and Theologian, thinks otherwise. In his book, "The Early Church in Africa," he stated emphatically that, "Christianity in Africa is so old that it can be rightly described as an indigenous, traditional and African religion." Right from the Bible one can trace the presence of African Christians. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 got converted long before the Apostle Paul took the gospel to Europe. Again in Acts 13 where the believers gathered to fast and pray, some African believers were named among those praying. Simeon also called the Niger (which means black) and Lucius from Cyrene(a country known to be in North Africa who is believed to have helped Jesus in carrying the Cross Matt.27:32), were early African Christians.Tradition also had it that John Mark, the disciple who runaway naked during the arrest of Jesus by the Roman soldiers, went to North Africa and planted Churches in Alexandra in 65 AD. Jesus and his family were in Egypt for some years before they returned to Nazareth and it might be possible that he learnt how to walk and talk in Africa.

It is also a fact that many brilliant ancient Church fathers such as Augustine, Athanasius, Tertullian the theologian who first coined the term "Trinity", Cyprian and others were Africans. The first Catechetical or if you like theological seminary in the world was in Alexandra in Egypt. History also has it that by the year 300 AD, Egypt alone had more than million Christians. It is believed that in the sixteenth century, Christianity spread to the Nubian Kingdoms, a kingdom which survived for 700 years resisting Muslim domination. The theological controversies in the 4th century which brought about what is called the Nicene Creed; an important statement of faith which is used by many Churches world wide today has its root from African theology.The Egyptian Coptic Church in the Sudan and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church still exist today. The history can go on and on but these are to prove that Christianity was dominant in African even before the advent of Western missionaries.

In his article, "Piety and Politics in African Christianity: The Role of the Church and the Democratization Process," Caleb Oladipo, a Nigerian theologian, quoted one Andrews Walls as saying that African missionaries evangelized African and planted Churches in tropical Africa before the advent of Western missionaries. "As early as 1792, Christianity arrived in Africa through many groups of Christians of African birth or descent who had come to faith in Christ as plantation slaves or as soldiers in British army during the American war of independence or as farmers or squatters in Nova Scotia after it.They took their own preachers or Church leadersand their Churches were functioning before the arrival of modern missionaries from the Western world," said Andrews Walls.This assertion of Andrews Walls seems to have been corroborated by an African Political Scientist and Scholar, Professor Ali A. Mazrui who declared that, "Africa has both the oldest forms of Christianity such as those of Egypt and Ethiopia and some of the newest forms of Christianity such as those of the Kimbanguists."

Having disproved the claim that Christianity is a Whiteman's religion, it is also appropriate to acknowledge the important role that Western missionaries played in bringing the gospel to many parts of Africa that were not then evangelized. The coming to Africa by Western missionaries though significant in the history of African Christianity was beclouded by two unfortunate motives of the Westerners. The firstis their desire to colonize Africa and the second is the branding of the African culture and tradition as fetish. Their mode of evangelism therefore was tailored in scraping African Traditional Religion and substituting it with Western civilization. It is a fact that cannot be overemphasized that, the intent of the West in colonizing Africa was carried out with the connivance of the missionaries who took advantage of slave traders'voyage to propagate the gospel. Most Africanists who abhorred the West and their colonization of Africa derided them by saying that the missionaries came to Africa with the Bible in their right hand and a gun in the other.

Most of these missionaries also led horrible lifestyles that contradicted what they claimed the Bible taught. For instance, while most of them condemned polygamy and alcoholism by even going to the extent of legislating against its brewing, they drank their whiskies and had illegitimate affairs with the African women bringing about what is called "mulato" children. Even the name akpeteshie was a Ga word meaning to hide and was used derogatorily to mock or tease those who hide to distil and drink the locally brewed alcohol. Colonialism also prevented even African Christians from expressing their faith with complete African idioms. In Ghana we are told that Dr. Ephraim Amamu, the renowned African gospel musiccomposer was prevented from preaching in a Church because he went to the pulpit in an African traditional cloth. It was obvious that while Africans wanted to Africanize Christianity for example, the desire of early European colonial powers was to Europeanize Africans through language and religion.

Many African Christians today however hold the view that the issue of the slave trade and the connivance of Western missionaries have been over exaggerated. Caleb Oladipo holds this view and indicated that, "there is no evidence that the alliance between missionaries and colonialism was ever comprehensive in Africa," even though he maintained that the non-smoker who sits beside a smoker will not only inhale the smoke but will also smell the scent. Oladipo was quick however in coming to the defend of the African Christian stating that, the African Christian was so wise that he was able to decipher between the hidden intent of the colonists andthe missionaries."The majority of African Christians however, recognized that colonialism and missionary enterprise were not necessarily the same but were important independent factors that paved the way for African literary connection with the Western world."

In the area of culture it was believed that European missionaries held two views concerning the gospel. One of them is referred to as the dialectic model while the other is known as dialogic model. In his article "Bible and Culture in African Theology," Ernest Munachie Ezeogu explained that "the dialectic gospel holds that the gospel and cultureare diametrically opposed to each other, in perpetual conflict with each other and are ultimately irreconcilable and that the dichotomy between the gospel and culture can only be resolved by culture yielding to the demands of the gospel." The dialogic model however views culture and the gospel as "two compatible entities that could and that should be reconciled." This means that culture and gospel could blend harmoniously and dialogue and this could result in mutual enrichment and efficiency.

Unfortunately, the former model held sway in African and so the African culture was the sufferer for it. Almost every thing African was seen to be pagan or fetish. Peter K. Sarpong in an article entitled, "Can Christianity Dialogue with African Traditional Religion," enlisted some terms that he thinks the European missionaries wrongly labeled African Traditional Religion. Terms like paganism, heathenism, fetishism, animism, idolatry, primitive and native, ancestral worship and polytheism according to him are a misnomer. Peter Sarpong contended that those terms are derogatory and only go to condemn African Traditional Religion. He went on to explain that since culture cannot be separated from religion in Africa, an attempt by the missionaries to disparage our culture went a long way to affect our society.

What then is culture? For it is my conviction that the correct definition of culture will help us evaluated the effect of Christianity on African culture. If we define culture only to mean drumming, dancing and the arts, then our conclusion that Christianity destroyed the African culture will be closed to the truth. But I believe that culture is broader than that. A Greek Orthodox bishop, Anastasios Yannoulatos in his article, "Culture and Gospel; Some Observations from the Orthodox Tradition and Experience," which appeared in "International Review of Mission," gave a comprehensive definition of culture. He isolated seven constant elements found in every culture which are (i) formation of a system of contact, of a code of understanding, that is of a language, (ii) solution given to every first needs for humankind's survival, concerning shelter and maintenance, that is, developing of elementary technical skills and economics, (iii) regulation of the living together of the basic human unity, man-woman, for the perpetuation of human species, (iv) organization of a clan, race , nation, which means a regulation of social relations, (v) definition of what is good and bad, in order words, making social rules, (vi) artistic expressions of the beliefs and problematics of the individual and of society and, (vii) experience of the "Holy," of what is beyond everyday reality, through a form of religious beliefs."

By this definition, it is clear that culture involves language, housing, health, technical skills, economics, morality and social norms, laws, religion etc.This comprehensive definition of culture should give us a clue in our attempt to evaluate the missionaries and their work in Africa. One cannot say by this definition that Western Christianity has entirely wrecked African culture. Every objective person cannot overlook the positive things like schools, hospitals, roads, agriculture, technology, economic gains etc, which the West brought to Africa. The missionaries did not only teach us how to read and write the English language, but they also coined our own alphabets and taught us how to read and write them. Today, politicians, the clergy, lawyers, doctors, technicians, engineers, broadcasters, teachers and farmers in Africa cannot deny the fact that Western involvement in African history has made them what they are today. God cannot also be said to belong to a particular people alone. He is a universal God and the African believe in this universal God just as the European. The only bone of contention is the medium through which we can reach Him to worship Him.

Whilst the Christian believes that we can only reach God through Jesus Christ, the African believes that we can reach Him through the lesser gods. There are a lot of similarities in the African Traditional Religious belief and the Christian belief but I believe that we don't have to agree on everything to coexist as one people whether Blacks or Whites. For just as Dr. Aggrey said, we need both the white key and the black key of the musical organ to make a good tune. However, when a professor of an African Traditional Religion sits on Radio and condemns entirely everything about Christianity, I feel sad. Without the coming of Christianity, I wondered whether the good professor would have got the privilege of speaking English on Radio. Some of them who are condemning Christianity and the Whiteman have sent their children abroad to acquire knowledge from the same people they are bastardizing.

From the above analysis, it is clear that Christianity is not a Whiteman's religion and that it has rather brought enlightenment to the African. It is also clear that some mistakes were made especially as the missionaries married Christianity with colonialism. But these mistakes should be seen as human weaknesses which are bound to be found in every human endeavour. We as Africans should not always blame all our woes on the Westerners. We have a role to play. We cannot always claim that everything about our culture is perfect. We must purge our culture and move forward. As a Christian, I can only say that every culture has its good and bad side and the yardstick that can be used to measure every culture is the Bible.We as Christians need to evaluate our culture with the Word of God and throw away those that are bad and maintain the good ones. African Traditional Religion and other religions must do same for any religion that inflicts pain on her fellow human being is not a good religion. Love of God and humankind must be our watchword.