THE CHURCH AS CLAN: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON AFRICAN ECCLESIOLOGY

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There is a general consensus among African theologians on the need for a genuine incarnation of the gospel on their continent. The gospel must impregnate every aspect of African culture, both at its more visible level -- institutions such as the family, law and customs -- and the deeper levels of values, philosophy and worldview. It must take expression in and through African culture, relating to the issues and context of Africa. At the same time, it must be a force to renew and transform African life. Incarnation of the gospel does not only involve a relationship between Christian revelation and culture; it requires a movement towards a transformed culture that is both Christian and African. Much has been written on the need for such an African Christian theology,(1) less on its content. It would seem, however, that two of the potentially fruitful areas of encounter between the gospel and African culture are a christology of Jesus as Proto-Ancestor, the mediator of divine life to his descendents, and the church viewed as clan, a people drawing life from its common ancestor. This article will treat the second area, considering the positive contribution that the church-as-clan can make to ecclesiology as well as some of its limitations. Explanation of the church-as-clan Western ecclesiology understands the church in the light of a number of models or images. Each model has a limited role to play in illuminating aspects of the church. At the same time, each has its shortcomings. The various models, therefore, should be allowed to function collectively.(2) Dulles has categorized theologies of the church into a number of models: institution, mystic communion, sacrament, herald and servant.(3) A possible African model is of the church as clan, a family or social group related to a common ancestor. To some extent this resembles the mystic communion model, but it also breaks new ground. It arises out of the work of a number of African writers either concerned directly with the church-as-clan or writing on Christ as the ancestor of the Christian community.(4) The mystical communion model emphasizes the community dimension of the church. Such ecclesiologies borrow from modern sociology, making use, for instance, of C.H. Cosley's description of primary groups. Primary groups, such as families, households and old-fashioned neighbourhoods, are marked by face to face association, relative permanence, a small number of persons involved and an intimacy among members.(5) Cosley writes of a certain fusion of individualities in a common whole, so that one's very self, for many purposes at least, is the common life and purpose of the group. Perhaps the simplest way of describing the wholeness is by saying that it is 'we'; it involves the sort of sympathy and mutual identification for which 'we' is the natural expression.(6) Modern sociology helps to focus on the human level of inter-personal relationships within the church; what might be described as the horizontal dimension of community. However, integral to African community life is a further, vertical dimension of communion with ancestors. Such ancestors include the recently deceased living dead as well as founding fathers of the clan. Drawing on a model taken from African life, the church-as-clan picks up that idea of human community but makes it dependant on a vertical dimension of communion with Jesus, the supreme ancestor and source of life of his people. The African clan, then, can be considered under two aspects: first, as a family or social group; and second, as a group related to a common ancestor. A family or social group John Mary Waliggo describes the societal structure of the Baganda people of Central Uganda.(7) The picture he paints is one of astonishing complexity, of a people divided into a network of fifty-two clans of varying sizes. A complex web of relationships is reinforced by exogamous marriage (marriage outside the clan) and by the fact that clans are not confined to one particular region. …