Missionaries of Africa

 

Meeting on African Traditional Religion (ATR)
(with Richard Baawobr - Tuesday, 8th July 2008)
Mwanza Bujora Tanzania

 

Names of those who attended the Seminar:
1. Richard Baawobr
2. Jan Dekkers (Bukumbi)
3. Pascal Durand(Bukumbi): Moderator
4. Pol Vonck (Bukumbi)
5. Jan Sommers (Bukumbi)
6. Jean Lamonde (Kasamwa)
7. Biju John (Kasamwa)
8. Max Tertrais (Igunga)
9. Nicholas Aayire (Nyakato)
10. Anselme SOMDA (Nyakato) : Secretary (on the right)
11. Vincent Tran (Nyakato)
12. Richard Ujuigowa Bikerong'a (Nairobi)
13. Martin Van de Ven (Nyegezi)

9:25 am: beginning of the meeting. Opening prayer by Nicholas Aayire.
Paschal Durand welcome Richard Baawobr and introduced the motivation of the seminar.
Richard Baawobr said that a booklet at the level of the society is being prepared in Rome about inter-religious dialogue (with Islam, African Traditional Religion, New Religious Movements and the Ecumenical Dialogue).

Photos of the Bujora Centre at the end of this page

The aim is to stimulate our awareness. He expressed how we could conduct our seminar. Few points were supposed to be considered:
1. Pastoral experiences: our experiences in the field
2. Current pastoral projects in line with ATR
3. Some proposals or recommendations to be made to be more involved in ATR at the level of our sector.
4. Conclusion of the Seminar.
5. Any other business: Some current news of the Society.
After giving the plan of our discussion, Richard Baawobr opened the floor with the observation of Cardinal Arinze. "In Nigeria we have 50% Christians, 50% Muslins and 100% ATR". It is to mean that ATR has molded people's life and we cannot neglect it.
Richard Baawobr also quoted the Statement of John Paul II: "What is noble, true, good in the culture of the people should be promoted."
Richard Baawobr said that unlike the dialogue with Muslins or the inter-religious dialogue with the great religions have got some well established and written patterns, ATR has no structured patterns. That makes the dialogue with ATR a challenge.

1. Pastoral Experiences: our experiences in the field:

Richard B. then invited Pascal Durand to share his experience and personal work as to take the discussion-seminar-sharing off.
The main challenge Pascal brought up was how to identify ATR. ATR is a reality but no officially installed leader in many cases. So who is the representative of ATR? To whom do you speak?
When we talk about ATR leaders usually we see the chiefs of the villages of local leaders, or the healers. But let us notice that the healers are not organized in a significant way.
How is ATR visible through what is happening in the contemporary events? According to Pascal some lecturers do not like the word ATR because when we use it, it is like we mean that Christianity is not African neither traditional though Christianity has been adopted by Africans and became part of them. So Christianity has been received by Africans as African religion because Christianity has been transformed, shaped by the local culture.
The actual fact is that people are not aware of their culture. In this part of Tanzania where we have Wasukuma the only centre where they promote the culture of the Wasukuma is only Bujora Centre. In that centre we see different facets of the culture: music, local medicines…In these last years the Wasukuma themselves started going to Bujora center to go back to their identity.

A problem was raised: killing of Albinos. What is new is that, these days Albinos are killed for business purposes. But according to the local people Albinos used to disappear secretly. Some people said that they used to be killed and buried in their compound.
The Church strongly condemns the killing of the Albinos. In some places, some groups really presented some dramas to fight the killing of Albinos. In some places too, people live in fear because they have been asked to keep watch over the Albinos. They themselves are afraid for they can be attacked.
Healing ministry is really a challenge to many Churches. In some places some faithful organize prayers groups to pray for the sick.

Now the floor was opened for contribution. It was noticed that some people are not happy about the terminology of Traditional (Kiswahili Kinyegi) because to their understanding it means old fashion. So nobody is ready to accept that ATR is a reality. They seem not to value it. But they go back to it as soon as they face problems.

We agree that there are no fixed structures in ATR, but it is more a way of life. So it is a dialogue of attitudes not a dialogue of concepts. Many of our Christians still remain with a ATR mind set up.

Some confreres also noticed that they see people wearing charms around the neck, the waist… but when you ask them questions they do not answer. Some think that they do not want to answer. Others think that those people wearing those things might not know what is behind them. When they are asked that it is at that time that they start being aware of those things around them.
Some people stated that Jesus was a healer and might have met some famous healers from his time and might have learned from them. And maybe he tried to use the methods of those healers in his pastoral care to the sick. So even priests should learn from the African Traditional healers so that they may help the Christians. But the main problem is that people were taught that what is not Christian is pagan and therefore diabolic.

People were taught that blessings come from the Ancestors. And therefore even though they come to the Church they will always refer to the ancestors for blessing. So we have to discover the symbols used by the traditional healers so that we may be able to understand the meaning of the charms people are wearing around the neck, the waist…
It was noticed that ATR is like the Old Testament and therefore we have to transform it into the New Testament as St Paul himself helped the pagans to make that spiritual journey.

This first part was concluded as follows: We had to differentiate between ATR and other evil things happening: killing of albinos, wearing charms, witchcraft…. We also have to be aware of the conception of people: if it is not Christian therefore it is automatically ATR.

The charms and other things, which people are wearing, is a sign that people are in need of protection and we should deal with that. That is our pastoral challenge. So there is a need of acceptance culture and the importance of certain rites of purification. (cf. LG 13 and Ad Gentes 22).

2. Current pastoral projects
In the Afternoon we looked at the current pastoral projects in of encounter with ATR. Do our pastoral projects answer the need of the people?
We all noticed that real inculturation will be done by the African diocesan priests. As missionaries we can initiate something. We can throw the seed, but it is up to the diocesan clergy to strengthen it. We all agreed that true inculturation comes from those who are touched by the Gospel.
It was noticed that what Christianity did was to free us from fear. But the reality is that when people grow old in age, they feel that they should go back to where they come from. That is why after many years of Christianity, people still go back to ATR, at a certain point in their life.

What can we do?
Our local Churches are sacramental Churches, always busy to administer sacraments. So, it is sometimes difficult to find time to dialogue with ATR since we feel that we should do a lot to attend to all our Christians.
Our role is like a midwife accompanying the birth of the inculturation. We should bring our contribution about inculturation while promoting the diocesan clergy to implement it.
Our pastoral work should help our Christians to reach a strong attachment to Christ like Saint Paul after his conversion. When people are really hooked by Christ, inculturation will come from that maturity.
We should through our homilies, seminars, teachings… help people to be attached to Christ and to be converted.

3. What can you propose at the sector level: Tanzania West: Mwanza, Kasamwa, Rulenge
We all agreed to have some input on ATR during one of our sector meetings.
It was suggested to promote encounter with confreres from other parts of Africa on ATR. Some suggested that we could have a computer connected to Internet in Nyegezi so that people may be able to consult the website on ATR.
Our confrere Max Tertrais will translate his book: "Imani ya Jadi ya Wasukuma, methali, hadithi, customs of life" into kiswahili so that many confreres may read it. It can be an inspiration towards understanding more deeply ATR.
Another suggestion is take one day as a sector to go to Bujora cultural centrer so that we may learn more about ATR and the Wasukuma culture.
It was also pointed out that we could make some books available in Nyegezi like the book "I am just a Sukuma" or "Seeing a Good life" both by FRANS WIJSEN & RALPH TANNER.
In Rome we have a lot on ATR in our archives. Maybe to make it available in the website of the Society so that people can consult it at anytime.
It was suggested that an effort should be made to try to bring ATR to the awareness of the diocesan seminarians who may come through our parishes.
Finally we suggested that maybe someone in Rome could be designated to coordinate all the works on ATR.

4. CONCLUSION OF THE SEMINAR
All those who participated in the meeting felt that it was a fruitful seminar. We appreciated the sharing because we are all from different parts of the world. We discovered that we have got a lot of experiences about ATR. All felt that it is a call to do something on ATR. We are grateful to Richard Baawobr for taking this initiative to come to us and to all who contributed to assemble confreres for the seminar. This seminar brought a lot of things to our awareness.

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Photos Richard Baawobr

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