The 3 S's of African Religion, Part 3 of 3

SALVATION-
You might be thinking, if they do not have a fear of judgment or sin then what is the need of salvation? That is a good question! Salvation for the Africa is not about a world to come, it is about his present world. The main need of salvation is in this life. The person wants a salvation that blesses in this life, and he does not worry so much about the life to come. Here is another quote to illustrate:

'Instead of speculating about life after death, salvation in African Religion is better located in this world. A big number of children who continue the family lineage, a healthy livestock and a good harvest are the expression of salvation, the assurance that God and the ancestors are blessing the community. Blessing and curse are defined from the perspective of the community, not of the individual. It implies also the just recompense of good and evil deeds in this world. In African Religion, there are no heaven and hell. Every evil is punished directly and executed either on the individual, his community or his children. The Luo tell a story of a family whose house was swallowed by the earth because they didn’t receive an old woman looking for shelter at night. The people say that this happened in reality, and the place of the incident is remembered.' (Mbiti, African Religion and Philosophy)

So to the African, he is not looking for a hope of forgiveness of sins or a hope of eternal bliss, but the hope of earthly blessings. The salvation of the average African is not about the future and the eternal, but about the present and the physical. This helps to explain the great spread of the prosperity gospel preaching that is fully embraced in most Charismatic churches.

To help you understand, let's look at the use of African language to express salvation.
'The main Twi term for salvation is nkwagye. It is made up of two words: nkwa and gye. Nkwa means vital life, vitality, vigor, health, happiness, and felicity. In short, nkwa means abundant life, that is, “life in all its fullness”. Gye has several meanings. But when used in the salvation sense it means to: rescue, retake, recapture, redeem, ransom, buy out of servitude or penalty; it also means to release, to free, to deliver, to liberate, to save. It could also mean: to lead, to conduct, to guide, to take along with; or to protect, to defend; or to preserve. The term nkwa-gye therefore is pregnant with rich meaning.' (Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Kingsley Larbi)

This term is correct, and when properly explained it lets the true believer understand that they have been rescued and given life. But when not taught or properly understood, the Asanti takes it to mean that God will give us all that we want for our ‘earthly salvation’. This is an area that the missionary must understand. The missionary needs to teach the real focus of eternal salvation and redemption.

From these blogs you can see the great differences. The African is not a person slaving away to get approval of God so that he might obtain forgiveness. He feels that he already has what he needs for eternity. His main focus is happiness, prosperity, and harmony in this life.

This has been a long three blogs, but here is the gist of it all. We need to be very thorough with Africans when we speak to them of our precious hope. Just because you use the same terms does not mean you have the same definitions.

Sometimes we need to return and rebuild, as there can be no building without a foundation. Hebrews 6:1 “…laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God..."

The 3 S's of African Religion, Part 2 of 3

SIN (Or in this context ORIGINAL SIN)-
The African believes that there are sins, but sins are actions that come from fundamentally good people. The African believes that there are no heart sins, just sins that disrupt life and society. Sin is only a verb, not a noun. Here is a quote to help you understand. It is taken from Evil and Salvation in African Religion and Christianity by Gregor Schmidt:
'In Christianity, sin is first of all rebellion against God, the Creator; in African Religion, the community is primarily offended… The biblical concept of sin against God is difficult to understand for Africans.'
And another...
'The idea of original sin is absent. Children are born innocent except in witch families.'
One more...
"In Christianity, evil infects us as persons in our very being; sin is there and always separating from God. Original Sin assumes that we have lost control and are slaves of sin. In African Religion, humans are free. Christ is only relevant under the premise of a lost state of humanity. Because Africans don’t have this worldview, the mediatorship of Christ is difficult to grasp.'

The African does not feel that he can offend God. It is only possible to offend people or lesser gods in the active world.
'Sin is anything that disrupts the cohesiveness of an ordered world and causes disharmony. When disharmony occurs, rituals such as sacrifices and offerings must be performed to restore order in the universe. For the traditional religionist, salvation is the restoration of harmony.' (Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 59)

Another quote about sin:
'According to my informants, there is no abstract concept of evil in African Religion, only concrete evil actions. Every action or behavior that destroys the harmony of the community is considered evil; everything that promotes the well-being and the life-force of the community is good. “Good and evil actions are judged according to the benefit of the clan.”; the individual asks always: “Does it bring me in good terms with society?”; evil is “not following the cultural norms and the commandments of culture … an action, always with negative social implications; it can only be identified by concrete examples; incest, premarital sex and to marry an older woman are evil...This shows the importance of taboos in the traditional context, especially concerning the regulation of sexuality and marriage.
The judgment to identify a certain behavior as evil depends entirely on its visible outcome, i.e. if it affects the community negatively. There has been no evil committed if life on the outside – the public harmony – remains normal, and prosperity is a sign of goodness. Therefore, jealousy is not evil. Feelings are considered evil only if they become an obstacle to interact with others. In the same logic, adultery is only an evil action if it is discovered. “Transparency is not an African value.”' (Gregor Schmidt)

To understand Africans you have to know that most do not believe in original sin. They do not believe that man chose to disobey God and therefore came under punishment. The most common belief is that the Creator God removed Himself from man because of other people's errors or His disapproval of normal things needed for daily life. I will illustrate this to you with the traditional story told to Akans about the separation of God and man.
'The Ashanti (Ghana) tell a story that the sky was very near to the earth. Therefore the Creator God was very close to man and fellowshipped with him. A woman who was preparing fufu, the national food, continually hit God with her pestle, and that annoyed Him, so He withdrew Himself from man. Since that time the sky (God's realm) is high above the earth.'

This traditional story shows you the mindset. Here is another citation:
'My informants couldn’t tell me how evil came into this world. Two...informants told me a myth how death came into the world: God sent the Chameleon to announce to the humans that they wouldn’t have to die. But the hawk was jealous and didn’t want to grant humans this favor. So he hurried and announced, before the Chameleon could bring God’s message, that also humans would have to die. This is the reason why there is death. God punished the Chameleon for its slowness and ordered that it would never conceive a second child. Therefore, Chameleons die while giving birth. In this story, death is the consequence of an unfortunate event, contrary to the African belief that it is always caused by a person or a spirit. According to another informant, God created good and evil as a way to make people learn and mature. Without the opposite, education would be incomplete.'
'The most surprising answer was that evil came to Africa with Christianity. People behave (in) evil (ways) because the churches have rejected the traditions that guaranteed good moral behavior. “Today we’ve lost our principles: The authority system is not working anymore, the difference between age-groups [youth, adults, elders] is not respected, female circumcision has been abolished, there are high promiscuity and prostitution. Besides, the churches have separated the people in groups. Before, life was good and there was unity.”'

The thing that needs to be understood is that the African worldview of sin is very different from the Christian worldview. The African feels that he is an innocent person that God has chosen to separate from. He believes that the Creator God does not punish his sin, and that only outward sin that disrupts the clan or society is worth punishment. He does not fear God; he does not fear judgment. With this idea it is easy to understand this verse of scripture...

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

The 3 S’s of African Religion, Part 1 of 3

To understand the African's faith you have to understand the way that he thinks about his soul, sin, and salvation. Ancient beliefs root the African to the ground. These beliefs seem to have no skin in this modern world, but they still have muscle and bone. They might be covered over with modern skin, but they are the thing that controls how the African moves. The average city-dwelling African might not be able to articulate and divide his beliefs of the world, but they still exist. It is much like a pregnant woman’s cravings for burnt popcorn or ice-cream with pickles. She might not understand the why, but the desire is very deep and needs to be fulfilled.
Before starting on this subject, I want to make reference to a topic that I stated in an earlier blog. Worldview is very important, and a missionary needs to understand the great differences between the Western and African worldviews. You might be thinking, “If the differences are so great, then how come no one talks about them, or notices them?” I want to give one answer to this question now, and I will deal with the other answers in a blog that I hope to write in the future.

We have to remember that we are living in a modern world, a world where people have changed their exteriors greatly. They no longer seem so foreign. We also are living in a developing world in Africa, where Christianity is the popular norm, and people have embraced the forms, terms, and practices of Christianity. This skin of religion can make it very easy for a missionary to look past the deep-heart differences of the people that they are called to reach.

With this stated, let's go beneath the surface…

We will talk about three things in this blog: the Traditional African view of the soul, of sin, and of salvation.

THE SOUL
In the Akan tradition we believe that each person has three souls (or spirits)- the okra (soul), the som (spirit), and the mogya (blood). Each person has these spirits. The belief is that when a person dies his okra will always return to the Creator God. The som dwells on earth after death by entering the world of the Ancestors. This is the spirit that we pour libations to, and the spirit that must be worshipped, remembered, and kept alive. The mogya is the last spirit. It is believed to come from the mother’s blood, and enters the children when they are in the womb.

So to the Akan person, his soul is not separated from God. It will always return to his Creator. The blood is always passed to the children. The only concern that he has is making sure the earthly som (spirit) is maintained. Let me give you a quote from the New World Encyclopedia about African religions:
'Immortality is associated with a person’s name and with the collective memory of their family. As long as there is someone alive who can remember a deceased person, that person is considered as part of the “living dead.” After no living person remembers the name of the deceased, he or she becomes part of a collective, community immortality. For this reason, marriage and children are very desirable, as many descendants ensure the immortality of an individual.'

Here is another quote from Evil and Salvation in African Religion and Christianity by Gregor Schmidt.
'In African Religion, there is no heaven and no hell. As long as they (Africans) stay within this order, they consider themselves good and need no divine help to do what is right… Whatever the transgression is, humans remain within God’s creation that is sustained by his love for our well-being. “God is and was always with us. He comes in dreams and through mediators. He can renew our life through wisdom.”'
In the African view of things I do not have to wonder about my soul. All souls go to be with the Creator God. The only soul that I can influence is the one that remains on earth, and the Creator does not deal with this soul. He has no laws for this soul. The decision about the resting place of this soul will be determined by my family and the way that I follow social norms. Therefore, the Akan does not fear death.

Here is another quote from the New World Encyclopedia:
'With a few exceptions, most African religions do not posit judgment or punishment in the hereafter. There is no heaven or hell, and no desire for a closer contact or union with God. Belief in life after death is not associated with the hope for a better future or the idea of “salvation.” Death is regarded as part of man’s destiny, a departure in which the physical body decays but the spirit moves on to another state of existence.'
The idea of the soul is very clear. The African does not worry about his soul in relation to the Creator God. It will always be accepted. The fear of the soul is with the living in this world. The living determine how long the som (spirit) of the dead will remain.

Here is one last quote to illustrate my point. It is taken from The African Experience of God Through the Eyes of an Akan Woman by Mercy Amba Oduyoye:
'As God is the foundation of life, so nothing happens without God. God lives, God does not die, and so indeed humans do not die. Even when we do not occupy a touchable body, we still live on. People believe that all the good and well-being they enjoy come from God, and that if one is not yet enjoying well-being it is because one's time has not yet come.'

Is it Broken?

When a Westerner comes to Africa and stays long enough for the initial excitement to wear off, he gets his first taste of culture shock. He sees the system, the people interacting, the daily motion of all the parts of the cultural clock, but it seems to him as if something is broken! He sees all the problems, the poverty, the inefficiency of the whole, and his western mind starts working on solutions. He thinks like I did: You know if they just had a bus schedule then ..., if the police would just arrest instead of taking bribes then... if, if, if!!! The Westerner gives all the answers that work within his world view. He thinks that if he was to be in charge for about six months, he would fix the whole thing. And, if God does not help him, that is what he seeks out to do in his circle of influence.

But the question is, is it broken?

To answer that question, I have learned that I had to go deeper. Truth is only found when you look below the surface. A friend of mine told me a Nigerian fable: A man is walking down the road, and as he passes a crowd of people they all stop him and complain that the load that he is carrying on his head is quite crooked. They keep saying that if he is not careful the load will fall off. The man just replies with a smile and says, "You all say that my load is crooked, and that is true, but while looking at my load, you never thought to look at my legs!" And as he walks away, they all see that he has one leg badly damaged by polio which causes him to lean greatly to one side. The point of the story is this: many can see a leaning load, but only those that look well can see why!

To see if the system is broken, we have to know the reason that it was built. I have found that nothing explains the heart of a culture more than its main religion. This will determine the focus of the whole; the goal that it was made to reach. In every people group, the people in that group are trying to get to their 'heaven' and trying to follow the rules that gain its enterance. Unless you know this, you will never really understand those people.

In the West we have had one dominant religion for over 2,000 years. For about 1,400 of those years, all thought, all religion was controlled by one group - the Catholic church. The rules of the Catholic church were the key. If an individual kept these rules, they gained eternal life, or at least the chance of Heaven after Purgatory. This system of belief became very deeply ingrained in us in the West. It became a core belief that what one does with a set truth (or faith) will determine one's fate.

But in Africa, this has not been the case. In Africa, from time unknown, the religion has been one without written rules. African traditional relgions have never had holy writings, but not having holy books does not mean there are no rules. It is a religion of very few but very important rules. Not to oversimplify a continent of peoples with thousands of languages and many cultures, but all traditional religions have at their heart this one truth. In Africa we are Animists. This means that we worship our ancestors. So you are thinking, ok, great, so what. Well, here is the point of it all. The key for eternity is not a written rule, creed, or faith, it is PEOPLE! People are the key to eternal life. Traditional African religious beliefs state that the only way your soul remains in this earth, in the present spirit world, is that it is venerated (worshipped) by its descendents. So what does this mean in plain English? Relationship is key. If you are my son, and you do not like me - to the point that when I die you do not worship my spirit - then my spirit ceases to exist. In Western terminology, that is tantamount to going to hell. To secure eternal hope, I must secure earthly realtionships.

This is the difference: the West has been formed around the belief that a faith or a set of rules is most important, while the African world has been set up around the belief that relationship is most important. What seems so broken to you, is in fact working perfectly for the African! You cannot, would not, risk relationships over such small things as traffic rules, city laws, and church doctrines. These are minor in the African mindset, relationship is king!

So, for those Westerners that live in this misunderstood system, it helps to know why the whole thing works the way it does. Once the missionary understands the system, he can move on to fix the real problems, not waste time on the surface. If you want to help Africa, you must reach its people, for people are the key!