African Beliefs Research Articles

How far can African Ceremonial be Incorporated in the Christian System?

Opening ParagraphThe direction from which I wish to approach this problem is rather different from that apparently implied by the phrasing of the title. As it stands, it suggests that it is possible for us, knowing what we now know on the subject of African beliefs, to select and reject among them in order to produce a body of practice and ceremony that will be at once Christian and at the same time firmly rooted in African assent. I do not think this is possible. Indeed, I have a feeling that of all missionary activities under present conditions none is more likely than this to be a waste of time. It is true that we do know to-day immeasurably more about African belief than we did even fifteen or twenty years ago, but it is very doubtful indeed if that increased knowledge is being translated into any new sort of relationship with the peoples concerned which would permit us to be allowed by them to undertake activity of this sort. What is our aim? In what ways have we qualified ourselves in African eyes for such intrusion into their intimacies? Is it our desire to arrive at an ecclesia of shared beliefs, involving ourselves and the African? Are we aiming at something in the nature of a community, sharing in varied racial experience and mutually comprehending each other's religious heritage? If not something of this sort, then what is our object?