MAP OF ZAMBIA
4.2 Christianity in Africa
4.2.1 Mission Churches
Mission churches are those churches introduced in Africa by Christian missionaries, thus importing European culture, which often resulted in the suppression of African culture in the local churches. Idowu Bolaji in Towards an Indigenous Church mentions that mission churches are colonies of Rome, Canterbury, or Westminster or American Missionary
120Oliello, J.The Gospel and African Culture ... 2005. p. 13.
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Board.121 Bolaji further explains that mission churches in Nigeria brought more than the Word of God. He argues that, "Apart from preaching the Gospel, they taught their converts or the adherents of the new faith to read and write, employing, of course, the only method known to them - that of Western education (English system mainly)".122 Thus they also introduced a new lifestyle in Africa. Furthermore, the predominant language that is used in the mission churches of Africa is English: even during baptism in mission churches, converts " ... were given European or Biblical names ...,,123
4.2.2 African Indigenous Churches
African Indigenous Churches are mainly controlled by black people. They aIm to articulate the fact that Africans have their own religious and cultural agendas. These encompass ways of communion as religious people with their own cultural practices, values, and norms. Their theological arguments are based on the Bible and a particular reference to the cultural context of their areas. That is, they retain an African ethos based on African religion and culture. Kofi Appiah-Kubi in James Amanze states that AICs are:
... churches founded by Africans for Africans in our special African situations. They have all African membership as well as all African leadership. Some were founded by Africans in reaction to some feature of the Christianity of missionary societies; most were founded among those people who had known Christianity the longest.124
In addition, Makhubu argues, " ... an African Independent or Indigenous Church means a purely black-controlled denomination with no links in membership or administrative control with any non-African church".125 Therefore, many AICs have no inter-religious links with the mission churches. With their own interpretation of the Bible, many Africans established African Indigenous Churches in many parts of Africa, with the goal of retaining some of the African cultural practices and to treat each other as equal.
John Pobee and Gabriel Ositelu 1I have pointed out that:
The acronym AIC may stand for a number of things: African Independent Churches, African Initiatives in Christianity, African Instituted Churches,
121 Idowu Bolaji.Towards An Indigenous Church. London: Oxford University Press. 1965. p.5.
122Bolaji,I.Towards An Indigenous Church ...1965.pp.4 -5.
123Bolaji, I.Towards An Indigenous Church, __1965.p. 4.
,)~4 lames, Amanze.African Christianity in Botswana: The Case ofAfrican Independent Churches.Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press. 1998. p. 68.
125Makhubu, P. Who are the Independent Churches? 1988. p. 5.
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African Indigenous Churches. Some would call them African Christian Initiatives. The Acronym specifies a category of church in Africa to be distinguished from "mission" or "historic" or "mainline" or "established"
churches.126
Pobee and Ositelu distinguish between churches that were imported into Africa by missionaries such as the Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Churches, and the African Initiated Churches. Furthermore, Anderson is of the view that:
The term "African indigenous churches" has therefore also become inadequate, particularly because most AICs are not completely free from
"foreign" influence and can't [sic] be regarded as "indigenous" in any normative sense.l27
Although Anderson prefers the term African Initiated Churches to African Indigenous Churches due to the reasons mentioned above, I will retain the term "African Indigenous Churches" because the church that is referred to in this study, the Mutima Church, is completely free from "foreign" influence. The Mutima Church incorporates some of the characteristics of the local people such as the practicing of polygamous marriages.
Therefore, it has some of the cultural and religious aspects of its people built into its doctrine and practices.
4.3.2 Formation of African Initiated Churches
One of the main reasons that have been given for the formation of AICs is that missionaries misinterpreted the biblical message to Africans. For instance, some of the conditions that were laid down by the missionaries in mission churches did not accommodate some African cultural practices, such as polygamy. Those who practiced polygamy were either excommunicated or asked to divorce the other wives to remain with one wife in order for them to be baptized and to participate in the partaking of Holy Communion. On the other hand, when some African people learnt how to read the Bible, they found practices such as polygamy written in the Bible. Hence Makhubu notes:
The blacks were stripped of their customs, and in exchange were forced into a culture they could never embrace. When blacks read the Bible and found something about polygamy and circumcision they were puzzled. The very
126Pobee,J. S. and Ositelu, 11, G.African Initiatives in Christianity: The Growth, Gifts and Diversities of Indigenous African Churches: A Challenge to the Ecumenical Movement.Geneva: wee Publications.
1998.p. 3.
127Anderson, A. H.African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the20'h CentUlY.Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc 200I.p. 1I.
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things condemned by missionaries were found right there in the Bible. The black leaders gave their own interpretation to those £ortions of the Bible which confirmed aspects of their culture and customs.l 8
In addition, the missionaries were always in full control of the African converts and interfered in their cultural practices as they condemned some of the cultural practices such as polygamy. To some Africans, this seemed to indicate that the God that was preached by the missionaries favoured only the missionaries and not the Africans. Due to this, some Africans started coming up with more flexible theologies and started forming African Initiated Churches. They were able to re-interpret the Bible since they found favour within it on the issues of polygamy and circumcision.
Pobee and Ositelu point out that some African churches broke away from the mission churches for a variety of reasons. They contend that:
Some AICs broke away from historic churches out of administrative or doctrinal differences ... The church of Lord (Aladura) came into being as a result of Pentecostal resurgence which the Church Missionary Society (CMS) (Anglican) felt unable to countenance and for that reason expelled the men and women who eventually founded their own brand of Ale. Christ Apostolic Church of Nigeria was formed by a group who broke away from the Anglican Church as a result of doctrinal influence from a North American religious group.129
It is important to recognize that the cultural practices of the Africans were different from those of the missionaries. The African Initiated Churches mainly consisted of members from the same ethnic group and location. This allowed more African converts and membership in AICs. Some Africans like the founder of the Mutima Church, failed to adapt to the Western culture when they found out that they were stripped of almost all that belonged to them. They decided to retain their way of worship that includes singing, the beating of drums and dancing.
In his attempt to describe the significance of the formation of AICs, Anderson argues that an African Pentecostal movement" ... often begins with an individual founder who has a spiritual experience, usually in dreams or visions, which is perceived as a divine
128Makhubu, P.Who are the Independent Churches? 1988. p. 24.
129Pobee, J. S. and Ositelu 11, G.African Initiatives in Christianity: ... 1998. p. 2.
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call and which results in a desire to proclaim a new message".130 However, Africans wanted to receive a clear spiritual message, in their local languages and contexts, which would touch both their hearts and their minds.