Christian Nationalism, Tribalism, and Ubuntu in African Christianity
The rise of Christian nationalism and its influence on African Christians has implications for us here in Europe. There is an ongoing migration of African Christians into various European countries. It will be helpful for European Christians to have some understanding of what their new African neighbours believe. In addition, the entanglements between Christianity and nationalism, both in North America, in Africa, and here in Europe will be something we can all learn from, especially if we can learn together—from one another.
The African Nation-State
It is no exaggeration that Africa, as it is today, is a creation of Europe (1). It is a brainchild of Europe’s political manoeuvrings, largely those that have taken place in the past 150 years, even though they have been in the making since the 1400s. The borders that divide almost all African countries today were arbitrarily negotiated by fourteen European governments (plus the United States) in Berlin in 1884. Not one African was present in the room. King Leopold of Belgium had worked with the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, to invite European leaders to Berlin to set some ground rules for what would otherwise be a chaotic scramble for Africa. Leopold himself had set the scramble in motion when he grabbed the Congo—a country almost eighty times larger than Belgium—as his personal colony in 1879. Without the ground rules, a European conflict over Africa was almost inevitable. The British, for instance, warned Portugal in the late 1880s to stay away from Southern Malawi (the land where David Livingstone helped establish British missionary work) or risk a war. By 1900, all African countries, apart from Ethiopia and Liberia, had been carved out and colonised by seven European powers: Great Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Belgium. Without delay, African colony-states came into existence. They were named and ultimately governed from Europe. They generally grouped several ethnic communities under one national identity. Not only were foreign and strange governance systems and structures put in place, but new national boundaries were formed. Some of those boundaries were drawn right through a community, splitting it into two—one part living in one country and the other living in another. A Yoruba person might find themselves to be a citizen of Nigeria or Benin. An Ewe woman could belong to Gold Coast or Togo. A Lhomwe man belonged to either Nyasaland or Mozambique. All this depended on what side of the border they happened to live on.
“The borders that divide almost all African countries today were arbitrarily negotiated by fourteen European governments (plus the United States) in Berlin in 1884”
The era of European colonisation of Africa came to an end in the1960s when more than three-quarters of the colonies gained their independence, yet the chaos of ethnic distrust has continued until today. Given a chance at independence, most African leaders opted to keep their colonial borders. Those borders are, to a very large extent, still in place today. Europe itself has gone in the opposite direction by forming the European Union and bringing down trade barriers to strengthen its economy. African countries have remained separated and, in some cases, isolated. Travel among African countries is more cumbersome than between Europe and Africa.
The African Christian Nation-State
In 1991 when the Pentecostal preacher, Frederick Chiluba, became president of Zambia (taking over from another Christian, Kenneth Kaunda), he declared the country a Christian nation. Zambia had to be governed by godly principles because “righteousness exalts a nation” (Pro. 14:34).(2) Most Christian leaders across Africa celebrated this development. Malawi, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, all of which have around 80 per cent of their populations identifying as Christians, say they are God-fearing nations while behaving like Christian nations.(3) In the past five years, presidents of all three countries have called for and participated in the “National Day of Fasting and Prayer,” organised by Christian leaders. Other countries with higher Christian percentages simply expect their citizens to behave Christianly. For instance, the Christian faith plays a critical political role in the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than ninety-five per cent of its 100 million citizens follow Christianity. In other countries like Nigeria and Tanzania, where Christians and Muslims share equal influence, they are forced to co-exist—more so in Tanzania than in Nigeria — where politics and geography affect their relations adversely.
Christian Tribalism and Nationalism in Africa
In all fairness, sub-Saharan Africa has converted to Christianity in the decades following the 1950s. The explosion that has led to this sudden growth of Christianity in Africa is still ongoing as people of many tribes and nations turn to Christ. Unlike in Europe and North America, Christians in Africa are largely still working out what it means to be a Christian and an African at the same time, and by Africa, their ethnic communities are implied. For instance, what does it mean to be a Christian Yoruba or Gikuyu?
Most popular expressions of Christianity in Africa are shaped by whatever concerns of those Western Christians they have access to. For example, the influence of US Christianity can be seen in African theology. US theological discourses often find fertile ground in many African Christian schools and universities. Christian libraries and bookshops across sub-Saharan Africa often carry more US resources than from any other part of the world, including Africa. Even though abortion, gun rights, sexuality, and politics are not issues of primary concern in many parts of Africa, they dominate some theological circles. It is for this reason that the subject of nationalism has emerged in African Christian discourse. As a result, it can potentially disrupt whatever good is developing in the continent.
Unfortunately for us (as Africans), our Christian identity is shaped, to a great extent, by our ethnic and national identities. Our ecclesiology bears witness to this. Often, the ethnic identity of the leader determines the membership of the church. Emmanuel Katongole once lamented, “The blood of tribalism in its many forms runs deeper than the waters of baptism” (4). In the African diaspora, our African tribal and ethnic identities become more visible. Of course, we have Nigerian churches, Ghanaian churches, Kenyan churches, Zimbabwean churches, and the like. However, within these nationally shaped churches, we find tribal denominations as well. Rarely do we find African churches with a mixed membership. The legacy of the colonial nation-state along with the divisions and suspicions it planted among Africans, continue.
Ubuntu Theology as an Antidote to Nationalism
Bantu communities of Africa — an ethnic group of more than seven hundred million people located in Central and Southern Africa, from Cameroon to Kenya and all the way down to South Africa — have an expansive understanding of humanity, one that recognises and celebrates a person’s tribal identity but also simultaneously understands the humanity of all nations. They affirm that all humans, as one race, belong together and as such, rise and fall together.
“The word ubuntu (which translates to “personhood” in English) suggests that one can be fully human only in communion with others”
Among the Bantu’s (and I am one of them), the word ubuntu (which translates to “personhood” in English) suggests that one can be fully human only in communion with others. In a nutshell, it says “I am because we are, and we are because I am.” Its theological underpinnings describe a God who is actually the God of all humanity, who determines the trajectories of all human life and who has caused humans to need one another to thrive. Indeed, God has made us such that we need other nations to thrive if all humanity, including our own nations, is to live life to the full. Difference and otherness are critical for human thriving.(5)
Such an understanding of God is expansive enough to include all nations, tribes, and tongues. In Him, all humans live, move, and have their being (Acts 17:28). Such a God is also generous, giving all humanity enough resources to thrive. Among Christians, there is a shared humanity in the Body of Christ that includes his followers from all nations in the world. Paul reminds us that the eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you” (1 Cor. 12:21). With a theology like this, followers of Christ are called to be hospitable and generous to others, including those who are not Christians. In Africa, Christian nationalism will be just one more bad theology exported to destroy a community that is only finding its post-colonial identity.
Here in Europe, in the context of the European Union (plus Britain and Switzerland), there is some understanding of what it means to be human in communion. However, there is also an "othering" of some Europeans and a definite desire among many to keep the non-Europeans as second-class humans. For instance, migrants from some parts of the world are more welcome in some countries than others. Ubuntu theology would demand that you treat all humans as equals, no matter where they come from. Such an understanding of the Christian life has no place for exclusive nationalism.
Harvey Kwiyani
Endnotes
1. For more on how this happened, see Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa, 1876-1912. (New York: Random House, 1991).
2. Naar M’fundisi-Holloway, Pentecostal and Charismatic Spiritualities and Civic Engagement in Zambia. (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 122.
3. God-fearing nations could be fearing any God or a combination of gods. They make no real promise to follow the Christian God. Christian nations are guided by Christian principles.
4. Emmanuel Katongole and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda. (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2009), p. 45).
5. See Mwenda Ntarangwi, Jesus and Ubuntu: Exploring the Social Impact of Christianity in Africa. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2011. A more accessible resource for Western readers on ubuntu is Michael Battle, Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me. New York: Seabury Books, 2009.