1.7 Ecclesiastical Departing Point
1.7.1 The Sources of Black Theology in Namibia
An important center for the development of a black theology has been the united Lutheran Theological Seminary at O~imbingwe. The author of this thesis was also a student at the Seminary between 1982-1985. What follows, therefore is a brief attempt by the author of this work to determine what he thinks to be more or less the source of black theology in Namibia.
In the dark days of apartheid and colonialism, the current Bishop Rev Dr Z Kameeta of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia said:
32.
The struggle in our land has to do not only with the liberation of Namibia, but it goes further and deeper than that. The presence of the South African Government is not just a political question, but it is a threat to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, I see it as the task of every Christian to see to the knocking down of this government. The South African Government and its supporters proclaim ... especially by what they do ... a message diametrically opposed to the gospel. While God tells us that Jesus Christ has broken down the wall of separation between himself and us, and between us and fellow men, the South African Government proclaims and builds the wall of separation which brings about alienation, mistrust and prejudice, fear, hatred and )) Steve Biko, I Write what I Like. London: The Bowerdean Press. 1978. p. 31-
enmity.
Therefore, I see the struggle in Southern Africa and especially here in Namibia, not merely as a political struggle, in which all Christians are called to participate and if this should happen, an armed struggle can be avoided, because the word of the cross is enough for us to be able to tackle this task ... or should God withdraw from the history of this world, hand it over to the Devils, and restrict himself to the temples and church buildings. 34
1.7.2 Scripture
The scriptures would be primary source of black theology in South Africa and Namibia. Its message is the record and proclamation of the liberation of God. The bible demonstrates God's will for justice, peace and freedom against injustice, exploitation and oppression among people. There is judgment upon the rich and upon those who oppress the poor and weak. There is a tendency in the bible against sin that is exercised in social, political, economic and religious oppression. Theology which takes the scriptures seriously in self- examination and in critical reflection on the present situation in society and on church life will have a sharp axe. It was scriptures that enabled the oppressed to affirm the idea of God that is radically different from that of the oppressor. For black theologian, God is the freedom made known in history, "the freedom that calls us out of our chains of oppression into a wholeness of life. 35
Through reading scriptures, the oppressed have come to realize that white oppression and white pretence at Christianity are incompatible with the message of the scriptures. The scriptures speak of Jesus Christ as the center of Christianity, as the liberator from all forms of oppression, the proclaimer of the Kingdom and rule of God and the savior of the world. In his becoming human in Jesus Christ, God has disclosed his will to humanity in concrete material realities. Through Jesus as Messiah, he chose to suffer with those who suffer and to set free those who are oppressed. Jesus was oppressed, but he was also a liberator of the oppressed. He identified with the oppressed of his day, was with the oppressed and belonged to the
34 Gerhard Totemeyer. South West Africa! Namibia. Facts. Attitudes. Assessment and Prospects, Johannesburg: Fokus Suid Publishers. 1977. pp. 221-2
35 Sabelo Ntwase and Basil Moore. "The Concept of God in Black Theology", in The Challenge of Black Theology in South Africa. Atlanta: John Knox Press. 1974. p. 27.
oppressed. Through the scriptures and through his present presence, this man, oppressed and liberating, represent the gospel of good news and has also today a word of hope and a promise of freedom for the oppressed people. This gospel and hope is not a mere spiritual reality but have effects in the improvement of the oppressed's physical existence as they are liberated and work and hope for the improvement of their conditions. Salvation includes the whole person.
In similar context, but in different vein, Bishop Kameeta said:
It is the task of the church to tell the people that they are free to stand up and speak for themselves. The church should speak out in the desert of silence where people are quiet. It has the task of helping those who cannot speak out. This is what Jesus did. He opened the mouths and loosened the tongues of those who could not speak. This is the task of the Church and this relates to our structures. How do our church structures look? Do they encourage the people to write their own agenda? For 106 years, the people of Namibia were not allowed to write their own agenda. They w~re told what they needed. The church must liberate itself and the people to write their own agenda.36
1. 7.3 History of Missionary Work
Black theology will also take time to study the history of the missionary work through which the churches in Southern Africa have grown and through which the church tradition has come to Africa. Black Theology would ask: What was the motive that made missionaries to leave their countries and come over to Africa? Were their goals to preach western civilization or to proclaim the gospel of God in Jesus Christ? Was there anything in their teaching and preaching which has distorted the Gospel? Why have missionaries unconsciously and consciously contributed to the oppression of black Africans and undermined the will of the people to resist exploitation, oppression, colonialism?
1. 7.4 Concluding Remark on Liberation Theology
Liberation Theologians maintain that God is present and active in history. In this history, people experience divine liberating activity. God is a liberating God who revealed himself in
36 Z Kameeta. CCN Messanger. September 1991, Windhoek.
the concrete historical context of the liberation of the oppressed and exploited. It is in this history that people experience the divine liberating presence and activity. God's revelation in history is to save and to liberate people from that which enslaves and oppresses them. His liberating events include the Exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt and Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. But throughout the history of humanity, men and women, poor and oppressed, have experienced and re-experiencing God's liberating power and presence.
The Christian Church is that community of people called into existence by the life, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only Lord. Nowhere is the church's identity found than in Jesus Christ. The church has its beginning in Jesus Christ and its end in Jesus Christ. In this context, the liberation theologian Walter Altmann of Latin America said:
Theology of liberation describes this process as a rebirth of the church from the bottom, for example; in Leonardo Boffs writing, like Luther, it does not mean to say that the church of Christ did not exist before. On the contrary, liberation theologians acknowledge again like Luther that they have received the gospel from and through the church of the past, but that church had a distorted worn-out face. The renewed church is the happy face of an infant and children are also, as we know, among the privilege objects of God's love. 37
This means that without Jesus Christ the Church has no identity. For this very reason Apostle Paul speak about the church as the body of Christ (Col 1 :24.) The church proclaims Christ who is the word because flesh (John 1: 14) and he is the embodiment himself of the mission of the church in this world. In its missionary call, the church receives the power and authority from Jesus. There is for every generation of Christians the important question of asking
themselves what it. is that constitutes their identity and for that matter empowers them to live
that identity out in the world. Cone's answer would be to focus on the institutional and ethical activity that validates the ecclesiastical confession of Christians and whatever else the definition about "church" might be, the doctrine of the church should not be separated from its historical embodiment in our congregational life nor should we ignore the social and political significance of our credal formulation. 38
37 Walter Altmann, Lutherans in Brazil: History, Theology, Perspective. Edited by G.
Brakemeier. Sao Leopoldo. 1989. p. 75.
38 James H. Cone. Speaking the Truth. Grand Rapids: WB. Eerdmans. 1986. p. Ill.
The church cannot, in light of its very credal formulation, where it confesses God as the creator of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ as the Son of God and only Lord and the Holy Spirit and as the Sustainer, isolate itself from its mission to be present in the context that is in opposition to the divine life in order to reveal the nature of the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
Of the principalities and powers that are active in this world, Christ's Lordship over it not only frees persons from bondage to these powers but the church both corporately and through its individual members is set free by the Lordship of Christ to contribute toward the restructuring of these powers. The church witnesses in the midst of these principalities and powers. This witness brings both critical judgement upon the failure of the powers to serve human purposes and creative contribution to the structure of social and cultural life. The church by the power and authority commissioned to it, presents itself in the social and political environment in this world even if that environment in this world is in opposition to divine life. Such a presence of the church in such a context reveals the very nature of Jesus' power and authority. This means that in the name of the historical Jesus which we confess as Lord of the church and as Lord over the world, and on the basis of our credal confession, the church can and should represent a life where its faith is socially and politically relevant, and where it is prophetic and praxis-oriented instead of merely just words. This is the Prophetic faithfulness of the church. Kameeta refers to that:
The true prophetic of the Lord sees and judges the situation and the events in this world, but on the basis of God's word. That is the word of truth, justice and love. 39
In faithfulness to this the church should declare that as the one to whom divine power and authority have been committed to proclaim, not its own will but God's will, it has a responsibility for the social and political problems and how the society is governed. Power is an inevitable and necessary reality, but is also ambiguous. Jesus' life, death and resurrection allow for the use of power in theological terms, but it does not eliminate the ambiguity. To talk of power in relation to those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord who died on the cross and was resurrected from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God, means to reflect on the power that the church has in relation to the truth which has been committed to it to proclaim
39 Z Kameeta, Why 0 ' Lord? Geneva: The Risk Book Series. 1986. p. 51.
to the world. In proclaiming this message, the church would be brought into confrontation with the worldly rulers (state) and in such confrontation the church realizes that it is powerless in the sense that it does not possess physical means to protect itself. However the church possesses the power of the divine word and sacrament that have been entrusted to the church. Because of the power of the word committed to the church the church's task is to interpret and proclaim the truth set forth in the word of God, namely the law and gospel regarding the reality of the power of the world as well as its limits.
The Church's role is one of proclaiming and reminding that the work of God alone is the basis and foundation of all authority and alone from the divine word do we come to learn and understand secular power and know its purpose. It is also a Lutheran theological interpretation that the divine word of God establishes and preserves secular power and by that subjects it to the word of God. The divine word, therefore can instruct, judge and rebuke where abuse of authority prevails, where the will of God is contradicted and violated.
As Cone rightly states, black theology derives its inspiration from scripture, and Luke 4: 18, may be said to be its liberator's creed. It also derives inspiration from the old Testament story of the Exodus, which is often cited as proof that God as the liberator of the oppressed who freed the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, would surely hear the cry of the black people in America (South Africa) and deliver them from their anguish. The fact that Jesus' gospel was addressed to the poor in this world, the people he identified with in this world, was also a source of inspiration for black theology. 40
Moses was sent to liberate all the people of God enslaved in Egypt. From the beginning, liberation by God was concerned with the liberator of a community. And when community is talked about, the issue of selfhood comes to the fore.
Selfhood was the main issue for Israel when they were enslaved in Egypt. Pharaoh ruled over their life and disposed of it as he liked to do. We Africans do have a good grasp of the fate of
40 Lebamanga Sebidi. In The Unquestionable Right to be Free. Edited by Itumeleng J.
Mosala and Buti Thlhagale. New York: Maryknoll. 1986. p. 42.
Israel because we also have experienced this loss of identity. My Lutheran heritage informed me that we are dealing with a gracious God, who could liberate from the grips of the law. The point lies in God's graciousness that is there to liberate. Our kind of liberation bears other dimensions even though still connected to Luther. For us the graciousness of God is shown through our liberation from personal, political and social sins.41