LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
3.8 The Rise of African Indigenous Churches
discern tendencies that could be utilized in the practical task of building Christ Church in Africa ( Sundkler 1961: 17-11).
Church and the Native Independent Congregation Church. This was simply because they were formed in places where there were people of the same ethnic group. The same case applies to the Bapedi Lutheran Church formed in 1889. The young and zealous missionary. l.A Winter, a German missionary of the Berlin Mission. working in the N0l1hern Transvaal, now called the Limpopo Province. instigated and led secession from the Lutheran Church to form the Bapedi Lutheran Church. His vision was to delegate leadership responsibilities to the indigenous people he was serving as a missionary. He maintained that White people treated Black people. even the educated ones, as inferiors.
and therefore, according to him. it was necessary to create independent churches in which Africans could govern themselves (Hinchcliff 1968:91). The mission authorities disagreed with him on this radical move because giving Afi:ican people any form of self..
government or leadership was seen. and in many churches is still seen. as an irresponsible action. African people are regarded as people who cannot govern or lead themselves.
This is still a problem in many church organizations where Blacks and Whites work together. It is very rare in such a situation to find a Black person holding a powerful and influential position. In many cases. Blacks are being appointed into non-administrative positions that do not influence the direction and the decisions of the organization. That is, they are given the responsibility but not the authority of the organization.
In the same year, 1889. the new move was beginning to happen in the Anglican Church in Pretoria. Khanyane Napo, an evangelist. and not an ordained minister, formed his own church. Napo's church was different from others since it was not tribal but national by its nature. The church was called the African Church. The name portrayed the desire for a single. united and true church of African people. Napo' s vision was later followed by many of the African church leaders. who v\'anted to see a united and true Church of Africa for African people. expressing themseh'es unashamedly in the African way to worship God. Sunday. November 20. 1889 Mangena M. Mokone. a Wesleyan Minister launched a new church called the Ethiopian Church (Stassberger 1974:90). The new church was launched in Johannesburg. He was a gifted speaker and a great thinker.
Mokone is said to have left his mission church because of segregated conferences. This proves to us today that racial segregation was being practiced in South African churches for a long time (Makhubu 1988:8). The Church would be divided into White and Black
congregations and so would be the conferences. He resigned from his church and later joined the African Indigenous Churches. Together with other leaders they founded the Ethiopian Church. This was inspired by Psalm 68:3I. which say that. "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God". He interpreted this scripture as a promise of the evangelization of Africa. pal1icularly by Black people. Mokone took this to mean the self-government of the African Church under African leaders. At this time Ethiopia was symbolically for Black ationalism and Black leaders. since Ethiopia was one of the first countries in Africa to receive freedom from colonialism. Pretorius and lafta say that.
"Ethiopianism was a direct expression of resistance against the missionaries. White settlers. and the colonial government"" (Pretorius and lath 1997:2J3). Mangane Mokone mobilized men like Khanyane Napo. S.J Brander. .lonas Goduka and lames Dwane to fulfill his vision for Africa and the African people. lames Dwane was the most gifted of the group that joined Mokone and because of his outstanding abilities. he soon became the leader of the group. ovel1aking the man who introduced him to Mokone. Dwane. like Tile and Mokone was an ordained Wesleyan minister in 1881. Between 1894 -1895 Dwane was sent to England to represent his church and seek tinancial support for the work in South Africa. On his return. he quarreled with the missionaries about the use of money without his consent and left the Mission Church.
In 1896, at the conference in Pretoria he was chosen to represent the Indigenous churches in America. so as to seek affiliation with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church among the African-Americans. The AME was founded in 1816 a by Black American preacher Richard Alien in Philadelphia. He died in 183 J. Dwane succeeded in securing affiliation with the AME for AIC group of churches in South Africa.
The remarkable turnaround of the AIC came in 1889 when the AME bishop. H.M.
Turner visited South Africa. The visit lasted the duration of five weeks. The coming of the Black bishop from the United States of America. visiting Black churches in Africa.
was of great inspiration to both the leaders and the members of AIC churches in South Africa. Turner managed to achieve some outstanding results within the duration of his
stay within the country. The work was organized in regional conferences. He also ordained sixty-five African ministers of the gospel and consecrated Dwane as an assistant bishop and bought land in Queenstown for the future development of the center for higher learning. Through Turner, the membership of the church more than doubled, mainly through affiliating malcontent groups from Mission Churches (Sundkler 1961 :41).
Dwane's consecration as assistant bishop by Turner was short lived. Many of Black American church leaders and their churches within the AME did not welcome the move.
Dwane was very disturbed by the disapproval of the Americans. He was never a bishop.
a position he so wanted to occupy. He finally cut off his links with the AME.
Another important figure of the Ethiopian Church is P. J. Mzimba who formed the African Presbyterian Church in 1889. He came out of the United Free Church of Scotland. Mzimba was widely traveled. He represented the Black people at the Jubilee Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1902. His position as a pastor of the Presbyterian mission congregation at Lovedale made his secession a more serious one.
According to Sundkler two-thirds of this congregation followed him (Sundkler 1961 :43).
After his death, the leadership of the church was taken over by his son. L. M. Mzimba, as is the case with many AIC churches. When the leader dies. the son takes his father's position and the church tends to become the family church. These tendencies seem to have been influenced by the African traditional leadership style where the system requires that when the father retires or dies the eldest son must take over the reigns of leadership.
The African fndigenous Churches continue to grow in South Africa. Some of these churches. when they come together to worship at their headqual1ers. especially during Easter holidays. count their members by hundreds of thousands if not by millions. In reference to this. Barret says that it is:
A central confession of Christ as Lord; a marked resurgence of traditional African custom and world view; a strong affirmation of their right to be both fully Christian and fully African. independent of foreign pressures (cf. Strassberger 1974:92).
Strassberger adds that, in South Africa the gro\\1h rate of African Indigenous Churches has been phenomenal. He gives the following statistics to support his claims:
Year Churches
1913 30
1918 76
1932 320
1948 880
1955 1 286 (had applied for state recognition)
1960 2200
Year
1946 1960
Membership
761 000 2313365
% of total population
9.6%
21.2%
It will be right here, to conclusion that in growth, these churches are outstripping the established or the missionary churches by a long distance. To a great extent, their growth is a result of an increase in the number of churches that are planted everywhere. whether in major cities, towns. villages and farms. The less sophisticated strata of the African population are attracted to these churches.
Some of the factors which enhance the role of the independent churches in South Africa are the following:
• the opportunity to express themselves fully in the forms of worship which appeal to them
• independence from White dominated leadership.
• heightened participation.
• and re-establishment of tribal values
3.9 The Reasons for Leaving Mission Churches
There are many reasons that caused the majority of African people to leave the mission churches. but the White South African Christian must accept part of the responsibility.
In the past. the Church in South Africa was divided racially. Today. it is divided along cultural issues. The Whites preached the message of love but they did not love their Black brothers and sisters. They preached about giving generously when they had almost all the wealth of the country and refused to share with their Black brothers and sisters. When Black people shared the needs they had and asked for some help they were considered to be beggars. The Whites forgot how they were advantaged by the apartheid system and now ten years after the democratic government. Whites continue to enjoy the legacy of apartheid. whilst the majority of Black people are still sutTering because of the legacy the same system.
3.9.1 Nationalism
When some of the leaders of the first African Indigenous Church went to America to study. they were inspired by the freedom of African-Americans. These Black Americans had a say in the administration and the direction of the Church that they (South Africans) did not have back home in their motherland. Makhubu says that. on the political front.
African Nationalism was also growing and political parties such as the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress were growing and becoming strong inside and outside the country. It is clear that at that time the church was inclined to be a nationalistic institution. The fact that Black Christians were disappointed by their fellow White Christians. who they felt were taking sides with the Apartheid government or with colonists. forced both clergy and politicians to be gripped by the prevailing nationalist spirit and to work together, hand in hand (Makhubu 1988: 15). Sundkler made this point clear when he said that, ... nationalism plays a great part in Bantu separatist church organisation (Sundkler 1961 :3).
3.9.2 Racial Attitude
Although racism is not practiced openly one can "sniff the smell" of racist attitudes everywhere in South Africa. Churches included. Makhubu says that Black people were
stopped from attending the funerals of their fello\v-workers if they were White. because they were Black. But no White person was ever stopped from attending a funeral of his or her "good boy or good girl" or Black friend. They got all the help and respect of the Black people and they were given the best seats. Oppressed and deprived, the Black man felt. he could not be oppressed at work, in social life and in worshipping God, in other words, in the church (Makhubu 1988: 19). Black people are still feeling the racial segregation attitude both outside and inside the Church in South Africa. Colour has played a big role and still is. in the division of the Church. Sundkler says that,
... nowhere else has the Separatist church movement grown to such dimensions as in the Union of South Africa. this must mean that there is in South African society some particular root cause not found elsewhere. at least to the same extent. which leads to this result. This root cause is the colour line betv;een White and Black ... any inquiry into the life of the independent Bantu churches must give some consideration to the racial caste system in that country (Sundkler 1961 :32).
The emergence of African Indigenous Churches was a result of Black people's disappointment with their supposed brothers and sisters who would not accept them as equals. They had hoped things would be better in the Church, but the opposite was the case. One of the young leading lulu who expressed strong views on this matter was quoted by Sundkler:
For a long time the church acted as a mellowing influence in African life. Whatever inequalities existed in the harsh everyday world, the Africans firmly believed that these would not exist within the church. But in many cases these hopes have not been fulfilled. The result has been racial bitterness and the ultimate formation of Bantu separatist churches. Even where this has not happened there is a general acceptance of the inevitability of an African National Church. unless relationships between Africans and Europeans take a turn for the better. (cf. Sundkler 1961:37).
The racial attitude has many faces. Outside the church. the social relations between Black and White Christians in South Africa is usually only casual. The relationship does not go deeper than the church business that affects the family and the practical conditions of one's life. Segregation and the colour bar created a glass wall between the
different races in the church in South Africa. The master-servant attitude is sti11 so strong that it is as if one can touch it in many churches. Black people are seen as servants of the Whites. They are still perceived as good for hard jobs such as gardening and kitchen work. To put this in the South African oppressive language. they are perceived as good garden-boys and kitchen-girls. Many of the leaders of the AIC complained that their fellow White workers treated them as inferiors when it came to the issues pertaining to leadership, finances and major decisions of Church life. They also felt that they were not given equal rights with White believers within the same Church or denomination. Black leaders are less sought after in the Churches where Black and White Christians work or fellowship together.
Finally, leaving Mission Churches came as a result of trying to escape White people's domination in Church life. Some White missionaries. instead of teaching the Gospel of Jesus, promoted and taught White civilization. The Black people were stripped of their customs and culture, and, in exchange. were forced to embrace Western customs and culture which they detested.
The African Christian leaders were surprised when they discovered that their culture that was condemned by the fellow White Christians. were found and upheld by the very same Bible read by White people. When they tried to interpret and find the biblical meaning of Scriptures in the Bible. they discovered that the Bible affirmed many aspects of African culture and customs.
The African people did not accept the Western culture. but were forced into it. On the other hand. White people condemned and demonized the African culture. As far as the White people's culture was concerned. Black people were expected to be obedient and submissive without questioning why. If one questioned. especially church teaching. that person was seen rebellious and unspiritual. The tendency and attitude of mission church leaders was. "We know what is good for you. Accept without question because you will not understand even if we tried to explain to you" (Makhubu 1988:22). After adopting Western cultures and customs in order to be Christians. Black people soon found out that
nothing of their own culture and customs were left. They had become copies of their teachers. the Whites and were no longer good for the African masses in Africa. The result was frustration and that is how some of the African Indigenous Churches came to exist. They were responding to the urgent need of the people. People were in need of the unadulterated gospel: a gospel that is good enough for the African masses just as it was good for the Americans and the Europeans.
The answer did not lie with Black people being forced to accept the White people"s culture as we have so far witnessed. Nor does the ans\\"er lie in White people accepting Black people's culture because the end result will be another extreme of the former case.
The answer will be found in open discussion among people of both cultures and customs and finding common grounds from the Bible as it is the Word of God meant for all the people of the world. The approach should be that of a "salad-bowl" and not that of the
··melting-pot.·' In the former approach, all things that are biblical. positive and good from every group are used to enhance and complement each other for the enhancement of the gospel and the kingdom of God. For one is not complete without the other. A multicultural approach in leadership. music. administration and in dealing with problems in our local churches is necessary to see South Africa continue to grow in Church.
politics. sports. education. business and many other arenas. To the Corinthians Paul wrote:
Though I am free and belong to no man. I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I become like a Jew. to win the Jews. To those under the la"". I become like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law] become like one not having the law (though I am not free ham God's law but am under Christ's law). To the weak I become weak. to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings (I Corinthians 9: 19-23).
This is what all South African Christians. both Black and White, and all Christian Churches should be - all things to all men. This leads us to look into the challenge of multiculturalism in the local churches of South Africa. The local churches of South
Africa are supposed to "become all things to all men" if they are to facilitate peace and harmony amongst all South Africans of different colours. languages and cultures.