AFRICANEWS

Africa

Beyond talking about inculturation

Incuturation

Inculturation continues to be a major debate in the Catholic Church. Leading theologians have agreed to disagree. In this article, the author insists that it is time to put inculturation into practice.

Various issues have occupied the mind, time and resources of the Catholic Church in Africa since the end of the Second Vatican Council almost 35 years ago. But perhaps none has been as prominent as inculturation, the effort to make the Church truly African yet truly Christian. Inculturation has earned even more importance and urgency since 1994 with the conference of bishops in Rome, called the African Synod.

So, conferences, symposiums and consultations on and about inculturation continue. Another such consultation took place in the city of Tamale, Northern Ghana, during December, the week of 1-6, 1997. Convened by the Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies (TICCS), it was a consultation with a difference. Whereas the stress so far has been about understanding inculturation, the emphasis of this consultation was placed on doing it:How can inculturation become a reality in the Church in Africa?

There were about 20 participants at the consultation, among whom the world-famous bishop-anthropologist and inculturationist Peter K. Sarpong of Kumasi in Central Ghana. Bishop Sarpong presented a paper on "The Politics of Inculturation in Africa," in which he related some of the problems he has had to face over the years because of his efforts at practical inculturation.

The objections against him have come from different quarters: from the authorities in Rome, from his fellow bishops in Ghana and throughout Africa, and from his own priests and lay people in Kumasi. "I love my culture," he said, "Right from the beginning, I knew that inculturation, of course, did not apply to dancing, singing and drumming. I knew that inculturation had to do, first of all, with the faith and how to explain it; it had to do, of course, with worship in which dancing and singing come into play."

At the level of the continental Church, Bishop Sarpong said: "You have been accused by some Bishops of being antiquarian. At the 1994 Synod, one Bishop in my work group, of which I was the Chairman and Moderator, said that he had accepted the Church and there was no reason why he should be talking about dancing and singing and not about Justice and Peace."

A number of factors inhibit the effort of inculturation continent-wide. Bishop Sarpong mentioned as being some of the major ones the superiority complex of the authorities of the Church, ethnocentric prejudice and stereotyping, as well as envy and jealousy. Others are traditionalism,lack of initiative,and sheer ignorance of the religious meaning and significance of other people's customs and rituals.

The participants agreed that the process of inculturation is not always easy and neat; most often it is difficult and messy. But it has to be done in order to save the Church in Africa from falling into irrelevance. They suggested that traditional African rituals, such as those of birth, marriage and death should not be dismissed easily as being against the spirit of the Christian faith. As the faith expression of the people, the participants stressed, these rituals and rites should form the basis for inculturation in each locality.

The consultation ended on an active note. The time to talk about inculturation was over, the participants agreed. It was now time to do it, with conferences and consultations like this one just helping to assess the direction and pace of the process.

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