{"id":59346,"date":"2025-06-11T14:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T19:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/?p=59346"},"modified":"2025-06-12T09:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:17:13","slug":"african-churches-consult-on-decolonization-reparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/african-churches-consult-on-decolonization-reparations\/","title":{"rendered":"African churches consult on decolonization, reparations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>African Church leaders, theologians, and academicians attending a theological consultation on decolonisation and reparations, from 3-6 June, stand in a group photo at the All Africa Conference of Churches headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on 4 June. Photo: Fredrick Nzwili<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Amidst a global momentum in discussions on decolonization and reparations, African churches are challenging the notion that early Western missionaries were part of the colonial enterprise, while asserting that the continent\u2019s churches were not solely a product of colonialism.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, said the missionaries were different from colonists and chose to live among rural communities, where they learned local dialects and translated the Bible for use by local people.\u201cIt is also not true\u2014from what I know from the churches\u2014the gospel simply disrupted our cultures, which we must go back to,\u201d said Mwombeki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader spoke at a theological consultation on decolonization and reparations in Nairobi on 4 June. The 3-6 June meeting has assembled theologians, church leaders, and academics from across Africa to discuss subjects under the theme, \u201cAfrican Churches’ perspectives on decolonization and reparations debates in global Christianity.\u201dThe meeting examined, among other areas, the existing understanding of the subjects and their implications on the continent. The discussions laid the ground for producing a position paper that African churches can utilize and adopt to guide their discussions in the global arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mwombeki labeled as problematic the thinking that Christianity was a European cultural product, which should never have been \u201cexported\u201d to Africa.\u201cIt is also true that Africans were the biggest agencies of evangelization, and the churches grew and continue to grow faster than under missionaries\u2019 leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Prof. Helen Ishola-Esan, president of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Eku, Nigeria, told the gathering that despite evangelizing Africa, the missionary churches also became vehicles of cultural colonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, according to the academic, the African churches’ decolonization agenda involved more than rejecting Western theology; it also entails reconstructing Christianity through African lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDecolonization in this sense encourages African theologians and church leaders to draw from African philosophies, proverbs, oral traditions, and communal values to shape doctrine and praxis,\u201d she told the gathering. \u201cThis re-rooting enhances relevance, especially in pastoral care, liturgy, and social ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Prof. Dr Faustin Leonard Mahali, vice chancellor of Tumaini University Makumira, an institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Africa\u2019s decolonizing theology should involve rediscovering local resources and ways of life that could enhance people\u2019s wellbeing to end excessive dependency on Western or Chinese lifestyles and supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI propose a return to the reinterpretation of our African liberation theology, which unmasks the heritage of colonial behaviours among our people while embracing our African cultural values of human dignity (ubuntu), hard work, community, environmental protection, hospitality, happiness, spirituality, and healing practices against threats to our wellbeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ishola-Esan highlighted that the agenda faced significant resistance within African churches, since they were still doctrinally and financially dependent on Western denominations and mission agencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis creates a theological and institutional inertia that discourages innovation. Additionally, some African Christians fear that decolonization might lead to syncretism or a dilution of \u2018pure\u2019 Christian faith. This is partly due to earlier missionary teachings that vilified African culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tackling reparations, Dr Gorden Simago, director, African Union Office and Advocacy, All Africa Conference of Churches, said the call for reparations was no longer a peripheral issue.\u201cThey are at the center of global justice conversations at the moment, and I wonder whether this is what theologians call the kairos moment,\u201d he said. \u201cI think reparations go beyond financial demands, and at the center is this truth-telling and restoring dignity. Addressing the systemic injustices is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, according to Rev. Prof. Edison Kalengyo from Uganda Christian University, the African church’s voice on the subject was not visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to note from the onset that the churches\u2019 effective voice on reparations is conspicuously and completely absent,\u201d he said. \u201cLittle bits on the political side\u2026but nothing concretely on reparations and advocacy for reparations on the side of the churches.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he said, the churches have focused their prophetic advocacy on the weak, the sick, the poor, and the vulnerable, who live in progressively dehumanized conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Information<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n