By Joseph G. Healey

1.     Two True Stories of Parish Pastoral Communication in Tanzania

                        Listen to these two true stories of parish pastoral communication in developing a Small Christian Community (SCC) Model of Church in Tanzania:

            The Iramba Sub-Parish Council in Musoma Diocese in Western

Tanzania was formed by electing representatives from the total Catholic

population in the sub-parish. These were good, dependable Catholics

irrespective of where they lived. Often most of the members would come

from only one section of the village.  It so happened that the Iramba

Sub-Parish Council members had to investigate a marriage case in a section of

the village where none of them lived.  In fact, they were not familiar with the

families and the local situation in that section.  They were completely

deceived by a boy who wanted to marry a Catholic girl from one of the

upstanding local families. They later learned that the boy already had a

"second" wife in another village.  From then on the leaders of the Iramba Sub

Parish Council said they needed a representative from each geographical

section following the Small Christian Community (SCC) neighborhood

model of church. This SCC–elected member would be more familiar with the

pastoral situations such as family relationships and marriages in his or her

local section. This was a critical incident in the pastoral life of the Iramba

Sub-Parish Council that led to a new praxis of having the geographically-

based SCC representatives make up the council from below.[1]

                        Dar es Salaam Archdiocese in Tanzania spent many years implementing SCCs as the key pastoral priority through renewing the structures of parish pastoral councils. Gradually the parishes became a “communion of communities” model of church from the bottom up. A key turning point was the implementation of the new Constitution of the National Lay Council in 1998 that required that the election of lay leaders in parishes throughout Tanzania start at the level of SCCs and move upwards to the Outstation Councils, the Sub-parish Councils and finally the overall Parish Council.  This insured that the parish council leaders would be chosen from those who were already leaders in their SCCs – thus true representation from below.  Such decisions gave more confidence to the faithful and opened new possibilities for the laity in the local church.”[2]

AMECEA is an acronym for "Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa." It is a service organization for the National Episcopal [Catholic] Conferences of the nine English-speaking countries of Eastern Africa, namely Eritrea (1993), Ethiopia (1979), Kenya (1961), Malawi (1961), South Sudan (2011), Sudan (1973), Tanzania (1961), Uganda (1961) and Zambia (1961). The Republic of South Sudan became independent on 9 July, 2011, but the two Sudans remain part of one Episcopal Conference. Somalia (1995) and Djibouti (2002) are Affiliate Members.

These Catholic bishops in Eastern Africa chose the SCC key pastoral priority as the best way to build up the local churches to be truly self-ministering (self-governing), self-propagating (self-spreading), and self-supporting (self-reliant and self-sustainable).  The three selfs are essential characteristics of SCCs as the base/basic level of the church, and by extension, of the Local Church. This is a real self-actualization of the church. The family, the SCC, the outstation, the sub-parish, the parish and the diocese reflect a “Communion of Communities Model of Church” starting from below, from the grassroots.

2.    Small Christian Communities (SCCs) Constructing Local, Contextual Theologies in Africa

The Eastern Africa model is a participatory church of pastoral, parish-based, neighborhood SCCs. As a new way of being church and a new model of church in Africa today SCCs are not a program or project, but a way of life. Bishop Christopher Mwoleka, the Bishop of Rulenge Diocese, Tanzania and one of the architects of this SCC plan, said that in the dioceses "the entire pastoral work will be carried out by means of Small Christian Communities.” American theologian Robert Schreiter, CPPS goes further in saying that local, contextual theologies can be constructed with these local communities as theologians:

The experience of those in the Small Christian Communities who have

seen the insight and power arising from the reflections of the people upon

their experience and the Scriptures has prompted making the community

itself the prime author of theology in local contexts.  The Holy Spirit,

working in and through the believing community, give shape and expression

to Christian experience.^[3]

            This is the local African Christian community theologizing.  Local gatherings of

Small Christian Communities reflecting on their lived faith and their daily lives in light of the

gospel can be a real theological locus or theological moment. SCC members try to answer the

question: “What are the different human problems in Africa that we should reflect on in our

SCC meetings in the light of the Gospel?” (based on No. 89 of Blessed John Paul II’s

Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa/The Church in Africa).

            Retired Archbishop Anselme Sanon of Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso stresses that in

a truly African church "theology becomes again a community affair.  African theologians

must work with and within the Christian Communities."[4]  Small Christian Communities are

indeed theologizing from their own experience and context.  Once given a start, these local

groups make the connections in a process of participatory theology.  Creative ideas emerge in

the group reflection process. Our research has also discovered that doing contextual theology

with local people on the ground can lead to practical, pastoral solutions.

The local African community doing theology based on its experience and context is called by many names: African Conversation Theology. African Palaver Theology.[5]  Baobab Theology. Mango Tree Theology. Story-telling Theology. We use a very African participatory process and methodology that prioritizes “African palaver.”  This African ethic of communication is a patient and sustained process of mutual speaking and listening to one another, sharing a cross-fertilization of ideas and arriving at decisions and solutions through discussion, dialogue, consultation and consensus rather than monopoly and confrontation. The local people try to build relationships and harmony and avoid confrontation at all costs. Also the community or group is more important than the individual. 

In describing how SCCs are one of the new pastoral experiences, one of the new ways of living Catholicism today, American theologian of pastoral communication Father Robert White, SJ states:

One of the challenges to theology today is to articulate the ecclesial identity of our time—a major aspect of which are Small Christian Communities—and the new theology of communication that is expressed in these communities.  Given the fact that the SCCs have flourished especially in the churches of the Global South, the theology of the Church in the Global South will certainly play a major role in generating a new sense of ecclesial identity in the Church as a whole. The SCCs have summed up well the new forms of communication emerging in the Church—participatory, aimed at consciousness-raising, from the grassroots up, dialogical, peace building.[6]

White goes on explain the task of theologians:

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, then Archbishop of Westminster in London, in his brief introduction to the book edited by Joseph Healey and Jeanne Hinton, Small Christian Communities Today, called Small Christian Communities the heart of renewal in the Church today.  Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor further referred to the SCCs as a “global moment” of renewal.  It is up to theologians and especially theologians of pastoral communication to articulate what this global moment of renewal means and how we are to live in union with the 2000 year old history of the Church.[7]

The newest theological challenge is to explore more fully how all the above fits into the “theological framework of addressing key issues and challenges of ‘New Evangelization in Solidarity in the AMECEA countries’” as recommended by the AMECEA Plenary Study Session in July, 2011.

3.    Case Study of Small Christian Communities Using the "See,” “Judge” and “Act" Process or Methodology of the Pastoral Spiral

The last 10 years has seen the slow, gradual shift of SCCs in Eastern Africa from being small prayer groups that are inwardly focused to active small faith communities that are outwardly focused including justice and peace issues. This may be the number one challenge to SCCs in the AMECEA Region. Many are still prayer groups (emphasizing especially the rosary and popular devotions) and not concerned with the wider pastoral and social issues. Many SCCs still shy away from justice and peace concerns. The challenge of theologians Father John Waliggo from Uganda (who died in 2008) and Father Laurenti Magesa from Tanzania encourages the SCCs in Africa to become more involved in justice and peace issues and social action.

These shifts to SCCs in Africa that are more out-going and more involved in justice and peace issues in the public life can be described in a term borrowed from the SCCs in the USA: “The Public Life of Small Christian Communities.”  American theologian Bernard Lee, SM, American psychologist/theologian Michael Cowan and others have written about the inner life of SCCs (when SCC members gather) and the public life of SCCs (when SCC members are sent).[8]  While social concern is a high value, actual social involvement is low. There is a need to focus more intentionally on the relation of faith to the larger world and its needs. There is a power in small communities to help transform the world. SCCs members are responding more to the radical message of the Gospel and its call for social justice. A clear challenge to African SCCs is found in the famous quotation from No. 6 of Justice in the World, the final document of the 1971 World Synod of Bishops is: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of preaching the Gospel or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”

One important reason for this positive shift is the use of a Pastoral Theological Reflection Process/Methodology such as the "Pastoral Circle"[9] in SCCs that helps the members to go deeper. The Pastoral Circle (also known as the Pastoral Cycle and Pastoral Spiral) uses the four steps of Insertion, Social/Cultural Analysis, Theological Reflection and Action/Pastoral Planning and is well known in pastoral theology, social ministry and formation programmes. We prefer the term spiral to circle because it is indicates an on-going process of action and pastoral planning. This is an inductive process starting with experience.

The full process has been tested in SCCs and found to be too complex to fit the needs of the short time frame of a weekly SCC (one hour to one and a half hours at the most) and the educational background of lay members. But it has been successfully adapted to the three steps of the well-known "See,” “Judge” and “Act" process/methodology[10]  starting from concrete experience.  Many SCCs begin with the step: “Brief reports on the members’ lives during the past week (called a ‘touchdown period’).  This includes a report on the SCC’s actions/tasks (community response) carried out during the previous week.” Other SCCs take a concrete experience as the starting point of a weekly meeting.

Now more and more SCCs in Africa are using various faith-sharing reflection

processes and methodologies to pastorally and theologically reflect on their experiences, often using the tools of social analysis. This includes both identifying the new signs of the times and creatively responding to them with concrete actions.[11] Through their use of the “See,” “Judge” and Act” process small communities move out into the world in a dialog with daily life. Using this methodology SCCs are well suited to make real changes and have a real impact in transforming our world.

Three specific examples of the successful use of this "See,” “Judge” and “Act" process are the booklet in English and Swahili for the annual Kenya Lenten Campaign produced by the Kenya Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, the ministry of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) in Lusaka, Zambia and the various reflection methods especially related to social justice in the Lumko programme based in South Africa. One concrete fruit is to develop a spirituality of justice and peace in all our apostolic activities. [12]

Let us look more closely at the participatory process of the Kenya Lenten Campaign. The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission was established in 1988 as an arm of the Kenya Catholic Bishops Conference. The annual Lenten Campaign is its best known programme of justice and peace advocacy, peacebuilding and conflict resolution and transformative civic education.

The campaign gets down to the grassroots in Kenya through the over 45,000 Small Christian Communities that are mainly parish based and lectionary based. They meet in the middle of the week to read and reflect on the Gospel of the following Sunday and connect it to everyday life. Here are highlights of how SCC members reflected on the First Sunday of Lent (26 February, 2012) on the theme “General Elections: Our Country, Our Leaders, Our Responsibility” in the Kenya Lenten Campaign 2012 Booklet:

1.      Analyzing and discussing the striking drawing (cartoon) on page 8. The left panel depicts an overweight politician in Kenya carrying a bag labeled “Our Time to Eat” with money sticking out. He is thinking to himself, “Vote buying. I’ll give them money and buy them alcohol.” The right panel shows a cross-section of people listening to a woman explaining her Political Party Manifesto. There is another drawing of a woman happily and freely voting.

2.      Reading the fictitious African story in Step One (“See”): “Another Season is Here for Songa Country” about good and bad politicians.

3.      Reading part of the Situational Analysis in Step Two (“Judge”). This includes a quotation from Pope Benedict XVI’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Africa’s Commitment (Africae Munus) and other documents on the social teaching of the Catholic Church.

4.      Reading the Gospel (Mark 1:12-15) and a scripture commentary. There is a clear parallel between the Devil tempting Jesus in the desert and politicians tempting Kenyan citizens to sell their votes.

5.     Answering the five questions in Step Three (“Act”) including: “How can you participate in the next General Election as an individual/Small Christian Community/Community?  What is your role to ensure peaceful elections as an individual/Small Christian Community/Community? 

Training Sessions were conducted throughout Kenya for Christians including SCC members on the process or methodology of the Kenya Lenten Campaign 2012 Booklet and the importance of civic education. Train the Trainers” (TOT) Workshops are being facilitated in the parishes and schools. An important new resource is Lent: Let Light Shine Out of Darkness… Kenya Lenten Campaign Training Manual for Small Christian Communities (Nairobi: KEC Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, 2012).

Research shows that the use of these three steps has created a paradigm shift in the faith reflection, practical action and theologizing of SCCs. Using the Pastoral Spiral (See-Judge-Act) is a new paradigm for promoting justice and peace in Africa today. A key part of the newness is the new results — the new pastoral and social actions taken. SCC members are much more involved in grassroots campaigns related to peacebuilding, restorative justice, civic education (voter responsibility), gender equality, marriage counseling, ecology (tree planting) and food security (both the availability of food and the accessibility of food).

4.    Practical Examples of How SCCs Bring About a Commitment to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace in Africa

The “African Stories Database” of the African Proverbs, Sayings and Stories Website (www.afriprov.org) contains 583 African stories. For an example of inspiring stories about women in peacemaking in SCCs in Eastern Africa, listen to “I Am a Christian First:”

           After the post December, 2007 election crisis and the resulting tribalism-related violence in Kenya in early 2008, a Catholic woman in a St. Paul Chaplaincy Centre Prayer Group (a type of SCC) in Nairobi said: "I am a Christian first, a Kenyan second and a Kikuyu third.”[13]

Another story is “Pray for Me to Forgive President Mwai Kibaki:”

During a meeting of the St. Jude South Small Christian Community (SCC) near the main highway going to Uganda in Yala Parish in Kisumu Archdiocese, Kenya in March, 2008 the members reflected on the Gospel passage from John 20:23: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Speaking from the heart one Luo man emotionally asked the SCC members to pray for him. He said: "Pray for me to forgive President Mwai Kibaki." During the post-election crisis period in Kenya he said that every time he saw the Kikuyu president on TV he got upset and angry and so he needed healing. The other SCCs members were deeply touched and feelingly prayed for him and laid hands on him. He said that he felt peaceful again.[14]

These two short, powerful stories are a ringing challenge to tribalism and negative ethnicity and can be the starting point of an African Theology of Reconciliation and Peace.

Some SCCs on the grassroots are involved in an African style of restorative justice rather than retributive (punitive) justice. The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortative Africa’s Commitment in Number 83 under “The Good Governance of States” “pastoral workers have the task of studying and recommending restorative justice as a means and a process for promoting reconciliation, justice and peace, and the return of victims and offenders to the community.” When disputes and conflicts arise SCC members use a palaver style of conversation, discussion and dialogue to resolve the problems. It involves establishing right relationships and the healing of all parties. Sometimes this process uses symbols and signs of African culture as well as songs, role plays and skits.

In 2008 Simon Rurinjah, a member of our SCCs Training Team, was invited to Tegeti Parish in Kericho Diocese, Kenya by Father Daniel, the Parish Priest, to be a mediator in a dispute between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu Ethnic Groups that involved the Kalenjin burning houses and stealing cattle of the Kikuyu during the post-election crisis. The Kikuyu fled and then came back to their homesteads. With the elders present there was a week of mediation on the parish and outstation levels of the families concerned that had intermarried over the years. Prayers were said by each ethnic group. On the last day seven SCCs gathered to participate in the forgiveness and reconciliation ceremony. As part of restorative justice the Kalenjins rebuilt the houses and returned the cattle as a fine for their original wrongdoing. Then six months later in 2009 there was a communal meal of reconciliation with both Kalenjin and Kikuyu food. Everyone agree that this violence and wrongdoing should never happen again.[15]

Some special Bible readings that are used in SCCs in an African context include Galatians3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” that is especially meaningful in the context of overcoming tribalism and negative ethnicity in our SCCs. This text from Galatiansis rewritten in Kenya and in our SCCs today to read: “There is neither Kikuyu nor Luo, there is neither Christian nor Muslim, there is neither rich nor poor, there is neither educated nor uneducated, there is neither city dweller nor rural dweller, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Other relevant texts on forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and peacemaking are: Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.”

  

5.    Case Study of Evolving a Sukuma Contextual Theology in Tanzania From Below

TheSukuma Ethnic Group [16] is the largest ethnic group (approximately six million people) in Tanzania and lives mainly in rural areas in the northwestern part of the country on or near the southern shores of Lake Victoria. They are agricultural-pastoralists whose lives focus on farming (maize, sorghum, cassava, sweet potatoes, cotton, etc.) and herding cows. The SCC Model is seen in local Sukuma communities in Western Tanzania, be they the parish-based Small Christian Communities or local chapters of the Sukuma Research Committee. A particularly active group is the Ndoleleji Research Committee in Shinyanga Diocese composed of: Justina Deus, George Edward, Peter Lugandu, John Mahona, Sospeter Mbiyung’he, Regina Nkanda and Donald Sybertz. They produced a booklet about the Sukuma myth of the clever young man Masala Kulangwa and the monster Shing’weng’we called Tears of Joy: African Story about Heroes and Monsters. John Mbonde was particularly helpful in preparing editions in Sukuma, Swahili and English. Presently the committee is writing a lengthy theological interpretation of the myth that is often narrated in a long Sukuma song. This is probably the most famous Sukuma story and is found in many versions.

            The Sukuma Research Committee has developed a precise research methodology for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and applying the different types of African oral literature.  in the process of pastoral communication and applied inculturation.  The method used in researching Sukuma proverbs can apply to any type of Africa oral literature and oral communication (story, myth, song) and to any African language.  The seven steps with various examples are as follows:[17]

1.     Original Sukuma proverb: The research team spends many hours in getting the

exact oral and written text of the original Sukuma proverb including local variants since the wording may differ according to the Mwanza or Shinyanga Regions in Tanzania.  Up to 2012 over 5,000 original Sukuma proverbs have been collected and classified by theme or topic.[18] The proverb is translated into other languages (for example, English and Swahili) with both an exact literal translation and a "meaning translation."  Translations try to keep the rhythm and African cultural touch and flavor of the original proverb.

            2. Context including the history, meaning, and use of the proverb: It is essential that African proverbs be understood and used in their social and cultural contexts.  A great deal of research may be needed to trace the precise history of a particular proverb.  Often the Sukuma elders have different versions of its origin.  Some proverbs originate in a historical event.  Other proverbs come from the traditions and customs of the people.  The source can also be a story (sometimes the proverb is the final sentence or "moral" of the story), a fable (such as an animal story), a song, or a prayer.  The meaning (both the original explanation and the contemporary explanation) of the proverb in its local setting is very important.  The use (both the original use and the contemporary use) of the proverb in a specific context includes its application, frequency and relative importance.  The research team tries to choose core proverbs that describe and interpret the basic values in African culture and society.

           

            3. Theme of the proverb:  Further research leads to choosing a theme for the Christian interpretation and pastoral and religious use of the proverb such as:  benefit of work, Eucharist, God’s love for all people, joyful celebration, parental care, patient endurance, sin, and thanksgiving.  Sometimes a proverb can have two or more different themes.  The well-known Sukuma proverb "The mother hen with chicks doesn’t swallow the worm" can be used to teach the importance of parental care, family relationships, sharing, self-sacrificing concern for others, and hospitality.

           

            4. Similar African proverbs:  Different African languages are studied to find other proverbs that:

            a. Resemble the theme of the original Sukuma proverb.

            b. Are the opposite of this theme.

            c. Are similar to the verbal or linguistic pattern of the original Sukuma proverb.

            Proverb clusters are very important.  If many proverbs on the same theme (for example, the importance of community) are found in many different African languages over a wide geographical area, this strengthens the conclusion that it is a key to the Bantu mentality or the African worldview.

           

            5. Biblical parallels and connections:  Africa oral literature and traditions have been called "Africa’s Old Testament."  Five examples of African proverbs and their biblical parallels show the striking similarity between African wisdom and biblical wisdom:

            a. Sukuma Proverb:  What goes into the stomach is not lasting.           

                Mark 7:18-19: "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer." 

            b. Sukuma Proverb: To laugh at a person with a defective eye while you hide your own defects.

               Matthew 7:3: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"

            c. Fipa (Tanzania) Proverb: God’s rain falls even on the witch.

               Matthew 5:45: "Your Father in heaven sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

            d. Kuria (Kenya/Tanzania) and Ngoreme (Tanzania) Proverb: One person is thin porridge or gruel; two or three people are a handful of stiff cooked corn meal.

               Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12:  "Two are better than one…A threefold cord is not quickly broken."  

            e. Luyia (Kenya) Proverb: A child points out to you the direction and then you find your way.

               Isaiah11:6: "A little child shall lead them."

            6. Pastoral and Religious teaching:  The research team chooses a Christian teaching or teachings on the theme of each Sukuma proverb (see examples of themes above).  The proverb and its parallel biblical text together help to teach the meaning of the Christian faith and specific Christian truths, beliefs, and values.  This means moving the particular African proverb from its human value meaning to its applied Christian meaning.  In this process African culture, scripture, and the Christian tradition jointly emphasize the importance of communicating and teaching basic values. 

            There is a striking Sukuma proverb:  The unfortunate cow has to stay outside in the rain while the dog stays inside the house at the fireplace.  The religious teaching is on the theme of "Mixed-up or Misplaced Values."  The cow is very important in African culture and daily life.  It has many practical benefits such as providing milk, butter, cheese, meat, and even fuel and building materials.  It is used for ox-plowing, pulling carts, and for bride wealth (dowry).  The cow stands cold and lonely outside in the rain.  Yet the dog who has no immediate practical use stays warm and cared for in front of the fireplace inside the house.  How often do people mix up their value system and stress unimportant things rather than important things and priorities. 

            An important feature is that we have thoroughly tested these Sukuma proverbs and themes in practical, pastoral situations such as homilies, sermons, catechetical instructions, religious education talks, Small Christian Community Bible Services and discussions, catechist training courses, and leadership seminars.  This is the praxis model of integrating the African proverbs and Christian religious teaching on the grassroots level and developing a practical inculturation and a genuine functional African Christianity.

            7. Suggestions for use in religious education: As a help to pastoral or practical evangelization the research team gives concrete suggestions on how to use these Sukuma proverbs (and any other type of African oral literature) in religious teaching such as:  homilies and sermons on particular Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year, teaching the sacraments and the commandments, and our Christian responsibilities in society and other areas of Christian life.  Many audiences and training situations are included such as the adult catechumenate, apostolic groups such as youth, Small Christian Community Bible Services, and updating courses for catechists and religious education teachers.

The Sukuma people’s way of doing contextual African theology is also a local African narrative theology of inculturation – one of many types of African Christian Theology. It can be called cultural theology. The starting part is African culture, but specifically African oral literature and the wide range of narrative and oral forms — proverbs, sayings, riddles, stories, fables, myths, plays, prayers, songs and dreams — explained in their historical and cultural contexts. Kenyan theologian John Mbiti points out that African oral theology is a living reality.  We must come to terms with it.  We must acknowledge its role in the total life of the church.  It is the most articulate expression of theological creativity in Africa.  This form of theology gives the church a certain measure of theological selfhood and independence.

Ghanaian theologian John Pobee presents an ongoing challenge:

            The urgent task is the collection of myths, proverbs, invocations, prayers, incantations, ritual, songs, dreams and so on.  The collections made so far are rather haphazard and are part of sociological and anthropological studies.  We are asking for the specific theological mind to be brought to bear on the vast materials of the sources of African Traditional Religion.[19]

In theological circles today there is a lot of discussion on the special ways of interpreting scripture, or on a particular approach to scripture.  This view proposes that there are many different and authentic ways of a contextual "reading" the Bible.  These can vary according to sex (from the perspective of a woman or a man), economic class (poor or rich), and geography (Global South or Western World) and so on.  One example is some of the basic questions explored in Searching the Scriptures, Volume 1: A Feminist Introduction edited by American theologian Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza.  Do men and women read the scriptures differently?  Do they bring different concerns and presuppositions to the text, use different methods, read with different eyes?  And should they?   So popular today are a feminist reading of the Bible, a black reading of the Bible, a justice and peace reading of the Bible, etc.

Following the deepest meaning of inculturation there is an African way (or many African ways) of reading and interpreting scripture. This is called a contextual “African Reading of the Bible.” In our ministry with the Sukuma people in Tanzania especially in Shinyanga and Geita Dioceses and Mwanza Archdiocese we asked the local lay Christians to choose a specific story from the New Testament that they like to interpret within their own African culture and values. This would be different from the standard biblical commentaries, most of which have come from the West. After a lot of discussion they chose “The Parable of the Friend in Need”[20] inLuke 11: 5-8. Here is the Sukuma people (living in small villages in rural Tanzania)’s African cultural reading and interpretation of this story of hospitality:[21]

           

            There are actually three main characters in this story. The first character is the original friend-traveler-guest who probably arrives unexpectedly at a friend’s house and the cupboard is bare.  The second character is this friend who has no food so goes to wake up another friend at midnight to borrow three loaves of bread.  This third character is the householder who grumbles about being woken up.

            This parable can be interpreted on different levels.  One level is whom do people of a particular culture identify with in the story.  Westerners probably identify with the householder who is in bed with his children and with the door locked.  The person grumbles about being disturbed.  A Western interpretation might include a series of practical questions:  "Why didn’t you come earlier?"  "Why didn’t you telephone?"  "Why didn’t you plan ahead?"  "Why didn’t you buy extra bread in advance?" 

           

            Africans identify with different characters in the parable for different reasons.  Unifying factors are person-centered values, hospitality and flexibility.  First they identify with the original friend-guest who probably arrived either unexpectedly or late.  With the many problems of transportation and communication in Africa travel is very uncertain, delays are common, and notifying a friend when you are coming is often very difficult.  So Africans find themselves in a situation of arriving at any hour, even late at night, and needing to adapt to different contingencies.  This is real life in urban and rural Africa.

            Then Africans identify with the second person in the story when he or she probably dropped everything to welcome the original friend-guest.  Hospitality is a "given" in African society.  Recall the African proverbs A guest is a blessing and A guest is never an interruption.  In the Sukuma culture everyone would likely get up to welcome the newly arrived person. When the host or hostess person discovers there isn’t enough food, it is quite natural and common that he or she would go to another friend for help. The woman of the house who does the cooking would go next door with several others to ask for extra food.  It is not good for a guest to go to bed hungry.  When you have a problem you ask help from your friends.  This is a daily occurrence in the African reality. Even late at night a person may need to borrow water, salt, flour, or even medicine.  Friends and neighbors help and are helped.

            Finally Africans identify with the specific action of the householder when he or she opens the door and helps the friend.  In the African relationship circle, going out of one’s way to help a friend is both expected and common.  Africans would be cautious about opening the door at night for a stranger, but for a friend or neighbor this is part of friendship and mutual help.  A Swahili proverb says A trusting friend brings fullness of life. The person who gets one has a treasure.

            The Sukuma people’s traditional interpretation is that Jesus uses this parable in the context of teaching about perseverance and persistence in prayer.  In light of so many physical, material, and spiritual uncertainties, Africans certainly identify with the need for perseverance and persistence in prayer and life in general.  In many parts of Africa there is a basic struggle for survival.  Patient endurance and resiliency are the themes of many African proverbs.  Patience is the key to tranquility (Swahili, Eastern and Central Africa).  Patience is the world’s medicine (Hausa, Nigeria).The patient person eats ripe fruit (Haya, Tanzania).  The person who is willing to wait drinks the rich new milk of the heifer (Oromo, Ethiopia).Patience can cook a stone (Fulfulde, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and Togo).

            But Vietnamese Scripture scholar vanThanh Nguyen, SVD’s interpretation sheds new light when he states that this parable is wrongly commonly linked with the “Parable of the Persistent Widow” (Luke 18:1-8): “This is a common erroneous assumption for in this parable there is no implication of persistency at all. The friend did not ask repeatedly, but rather, he asked only once. He doesn’t even knock, but instead he calls out loud.”[22] The Sukuma people would be very flexible to adapting to this more accurate interpretation.

            On another level this story can be seen as a microcosm of today’s world.  In one contemporary interpretation of this parable, the original friend-guest symbolizes the poor, those who do not have many material goods, people of the Global South. The friend-visitor who comes knocking is God, or conscience. The householder is the rich, those who have many material goods, especially people of the Western World.  God challenges the rich to help the poor, the Western World to help the Global South.  God keeps knocking until God’s pleas are answered. Another interpretation is that the friend-visitor represents the people of the Global South who should be self-reliant and help themselves and not depend on help from the Western World.

6.    Practical Suggestions and “How To” Guidelines for Pastoral Personnel/Agents

 

Here are some practical pastoral suggestions and “how to” guidelines for seminarians, young priests and other young pastoral personnel/agents.

1.     Homilies, Sermons and Religious Talks. Traveling around the world I’m sure that I

surprise many priests (and parishioners alike) when I say that in Eastern Africa we find it “easy” to preach on Sunday if we use the “SCC process.” During the week the priest participates in various SCC meetings of lay people in his parish that listen to, and reflect on, the Gospel of the following Sunday. Then the Sunday Parish Eucharist becomes the “communion of the SCCs.”  During his homily the priest reflects back the experiences, insights and applications that he has learned from the Bible reflections that have taken place in the individual SCC meetings. Much of the content of his homily come from the life experiences and Bible–life connections of SCC members that members of the Sunday congregation can easily relate to and feel are relevant to their lives.[23]   

There are concrete examples of this approach. One priest in Bariadi Parish in Shinyanga Diocese, Tanzania tried to visit three SCCs during the middle of the week. By listening carefully to the SCC members’ reflections on the Scripture readings he found that over half of his Sunday homily was already “written” for him. The priests in St. Theresa’s Parish, Eastleigh in Nairobi Archdiocese, Kenya joined with lay members of the parish to use the Lumko “Group Response Method” of Gospel Sharing to prepare their Sunday homilies together.

2.     African Proverbs and Sayings Teach Moral Values. In traditional African

society the elders used African proverbs and sayings to teach moral values to the young. In our contemporary world proverbs and saying are an important means of pastoral communication and religious teaching. Some concrete examples:

a.       There are many proverbs and sayings on the African values of unity, community,

sharing and joint responsibility. Unity is strength; division is weakness. One finger cannot kill a louse (very common in the oral style of “one…cannot”).  One person is thin porridge; two or three people together are a handful of cornmeal (the basic food in many parts of Africa).When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion. Sharing is wealth.  Many of these proverbs teach the values of SCCs and community building.

b.      Other proverbs and sayings stress the values of patience and the "slow but sure"

theme. Patience is the key to tranquility. Patience can cook a stone. Slowly, slowly is the way. Slowly, slowly porridge goes into the gourd. Hurry, hurry has no blessing. This is very relevant in the busy-ness of our contemporary, urban society.

c.      Traditional African proverbs take on new meanings in new contexts.  A popular

Swahili proverb is Heri pazia kuliko bendera.  A good English meaning translation is Better a

curtain hanging motionless than a flag blowing in the wind.  While this proverb has been used for many years, a new understanding has come in AIDS education and awareness.  The proverb is now used especially to caution young people to stay with one partner (one curtain in the house) rather than "play around" with many partners (flag blowing to and fro). Today it teaches the importance of abstinence as part of sex education.

d.      A popular African proverb is When elephants fight the grass gets hurt (Swahili, East

Africa). There are different wordings of this proverb. For example, the words on a khanga, a colorful African cloth: When elephants jostle, what gets hurt is the grass. There are many versions of this proverb in other African languages such as When two bulls [male cows, goats, sheep] fight the grass gets hurt, but they all mean the same thing: the feeling of powerlessness in the midst of larger forces. While the mating period could be one of the contexts of the trampling of the grass, it could occur at other times too, for example, when two bull elephants are fighting over a female or over the leadership of the herd. The proverb is used regularly to describe local officials and leaders whose disputes and divisions end up hurting innocent and powerless people. Village leaders can manipulate and exploit the local people in the name of government policy or ethnic group customs.  Various practices in the local community itself, such as the practice of witchcraft and the invocation of evil spirits and curses, oppress the people.  In Africa and worldwide this is probably the most commonly used Swahili proverb that is translated into English.  It is very relevant in many situations and contexts.

3.     Lectionary-based, faith sharing Catholics.  An important pastoral challenge is to

help people to be lectionary-based, faith sharing Catholics. Thousands of lectionary-based SCCs in Eastern Africa meet in the middle of the week to reflect on the Gospel of the following Sunday following the three-year lectionary cycle. Some community of religious Sisters and other groups meet together daily, especially in the evening, to read and reflect on the Scripture Readings of the following day. American theologian Father Tom Reese, SJ states emphatically: “Lectionary-based Catholics can change the world.” In other words, Catholics who seriously reflect on scripture and its application to our lives can transform themselves and their world.

7.    Conclusion: We Create the Path by Walking

            The two case studies and other practical examples mentioned above describe the content of an evolving contextual theology from the grassroots, communal experience of the Eastern Africa people.  It is important to look also at the process or methodology of this theology. It is a different way of doing African Christian Theology.  Nigerian theologian Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ points out that the nature and method of this theological reflection in Africa emphasizes the necessity of taking experience and context seriously. This means repositioning theological reflection within the context of the community called church and the wider society:

The work of theologizing, or, according to South African theologian Desmond Tutu, the “exhilarating business” of theological reflection, must spring from the forthright observation and experience of the situation in the life of the believing community [lived faith] wherein echoes the strong but gentle wind of the Spirit.[24]

There is no blueprint for building SCCs in Eastern Africa. As a new way of being church and a new model of church from below, from the grassroots, SCCs evolve, develop and grow in different ways. We follow the spirit and practice of the universal proverb that says We create the path by walking. So too with African contextual theology. From new experiences of SCC members reflecting on their lived faith in an African context, new examples and case studies of African Ecclesiology, African Christology and African Narrative Missiology will emerge as part of ongoing African Christian Theology.