Sub-Saharan Africans share a similar ancestry, similar languages, and a similar traditional culture, belief, and worldview. Sometimes these traditional beliefs are in conflict with the Bible. In other instances, these beliefs are closer to a biblical worldview than to the secularism coming from the Western world. Some things about African traditional beliefs are good and should be treasured. Other beliefs are in conflict with the Bible and should be rejected by Christians.
The Bedrock of Ubuntu
This common African heritage produces a sense of personhood or humanity that is known in South Africa as ubuntu. The word means “human” or “person” and forms the basis for African culture throughout the continent. This traditional African philosophy affects industry, home-making, education, health, religion, and all other areas of life. A person who has the characteristics of ubuntu is a person who is respectful, honourable, industrious, generous, disciplined, responsible, and pious. Ubuntu is the guiding principle by which a person reaches full potential, both as an individual and as a necessary part of society.
Continue to hold onto the strong family and community bonds characteristic of African culture.
Community, group identity, and relational obligations are a very important aspect of African culture. The most noticeable examples of ubuntu are in the areas of hospitality, generosity, care-giving, humility, and hard work. God gave a wonderful gift to Africans in our strong bonds between people and within the community. Concern for others is one of the key evidences of African personhood. However, these values are diminishing as individualism and secularism infiltrate our continent. The African church must beware of self-centred lifestyles and disregard for one’s neighbour. The church today must reinforce a concern for others amongst its members by being a close-knit, welcoming community where hospitality and care-giving are experienced.
Ubuntu and the Bible
African cultural values such as unity, character, neighbourliness, stability, and continuity sustain a community and give it a strong future.
In many ways, Christian community is similar. Jesus’ teachings are filled with exhortations to live in peaceful and loving communion with all people, including one’s enemies. “I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). The apostle Paul exhorted believers to be united: “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). “And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace” (Colossians 3:15).
1. Community
In Africa, people belong to a community first. Married people belong to their partners’ extended family. In turn, the whole community is responsible for the well-being of its members’ marriages, families, and family groups. Marriage or family breakup is aggressively opposed so that the network of relationships does not crumble. The African church must support this sense of community by strengthening marriages and families, caring for orphans, and helping members to live in peace.
2. Character
A second example of African ubuntu that agrees with biblical teaching is the concept of a well-rounded character that is temperate, self-controlled, and respectful. “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). In the African ideal, a person earns honour by living out these character qualities.
3. Hospitality
A third example is generosity, hospitality, or attending to one’s neighbour. The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:32-37) illustrates this perfectly, although it is also a rebuke to all who divide humans into competing groups. African cultures traditionally hold hospitality and generosity in high esteem. We can admit to different flaws but not to that of being ungenerous or inhospitable. The church must encourage and further develop this practice.
4. Hard Work
A fourth example is hard work, being industrious. In traditional African cultures, individuals, families, and the larger community assisted each other in farming, building, and other projects. This industriousness needs to be encouraged. Unfortunately, “asking God to provide by miracles” is over-emphasised today in many churches and should never be a substitute for hard work. “And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labour” (2 Timothy 2:6). “Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: ‘Those unwilling to work will not get to eat'” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). God does not want church members to be lazy or half-hearted at work and then ask him to provide miracles.
Christian personhood and African ubuntu share the same ideals of community, well-rounded character, generosity, and hard work. These ideals build stable and productive people, which will enable the African church to carry out its Christ-given mission. Such principles are our cultural heritage. We need to build on them with Christian virtues empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Don’t Deny the Supernatural
African myths and tales tell of gods, divinities, mysterious spirits, and ancestral spirits. The divinities were the creators of life or were sometimes the first products from which humanity and nature arose. Belief in the supernatural forms a basic part of African personhood. Traditionally, all physical things were believed to have spiritual energy or power.
Belief in the supernatural forms a basic part of African personhood.
Indeed, it is a magnificent heritage to hold in higher esteem that which is spiritual than that which is physical. In this respect, traditional African beliefs are much closer to the Bible’s teachings than the secular denial of the supernatural. The difference between traditional African belief and the Bible is that the African belief in the supernatural was frequently based on fear. On the other hand, the Bible says our relationship with the supernatural is based on love. Because of the African heritage of a belief in the supernatural, it is frequently easier for Africans to embrace the Christian faith than for people in Europe and America to accept it.
In African tradition, when people die, they continue to live as spirits that exercise power over people. They bring good or evil, depending on people’s regard or disregard for them. Thus, in African tradition, it is a serious mistake to displease or break ties with “people without bodies.” In contrast, the Bible says that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) has all power (Matthew 28:18). The apostle Paul wrote, “In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).
Recognise the Critical Differences
There are important differences between Christianity and traditional African religion and beliefs.
The African church must decide whether to follow African tradition or the Bible.
African religion believes that ancestral spirits continue to be members of the earthly community, but have the new task of going to God for us. But the Bible teaches that only Jesus Christ is the Mediator, and dead family members have no power over the living. “There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). The Bible is against consulting the dead, but African religions often involve asking the spirits of ancestors. God told Israel, “Do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12; see also Isaiah 8:19-20).
The African church must decide whether to follow African tradition or the Bible. You cannot believe in consulting the dead and not consulting the dead! As Joshua challenged Israel, “Choose today whom you will serve…As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). True Christianity holds that the authority of the Bible is greater than that of any culture’s belief, including African belief. Christians must stick to the Bible and not try to follow two religions at once.
Fear in Traditional African Beliefs
According to traditional African thinking, all misfortunes must have mystical origins, deliberately caused by someone or something. What causes the appearance of strange objects, harsh weather, illness, death, or unusual behaviour of people, animals, or things? These could be the result of witchcraft, or it could be a message from the ancestors or gods, or perhaps even an unexplained force bringing displeasure or death.
To get help, people go to a diviner. The diviner usually gives a supernatural explanation and prescribes a mystical remedy. The remedy could include smearing magic potions on the body; sprinkling mysterious medicines on livestock, crops or pets; burying magic objects; sacrificing animals; wearing strange garments; muttering incantations; or performing some ritualistic movements. Those things are done to defeat the power of the witch responsible for the mishap or to appease an angry spirit.
Don’t let fear drive you to follow diviners. Christ frees us from fear.
Unfortunately, some African church members continue to have the fear that comes from these beliefs. They attend church, but their fear still drives them to follow diviners. Appealing to the fear of demons, witches, generational curses, and curses spoken by another is also used by “deliverance ministries,” which may actually increase a person’s fears. Christians should guard against habitually seeing curses in normal conversations. They should stop worrying about dreams, being suspicious of unpleasant occurrences, or fearing cats and owls.
Christ Sets Us Free from Fear
Let us realise that one of the greatest joys of the Christian life is to understand that Christ frees us from the bondage of fear. “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
One of the greatest joys of the Christian life is that Christ frees us from the bondage of fear.
The Bible is filled with promises that God watches over us. “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). The apostle John tells us that “God is love…Perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:16, 18). We should fear only God. “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment” (Proverbs 9:10).
Remember that if a church member trusts the rituals and divinities of traditional African beliefs, he or she is serving two masters. But God is “a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods” (Exodus 20:5).
When church members allow fear to take them to a diviner or sorcerer, they are denying the power of God. Perhaps without realising it, they are saying that the sorcerer or diviner has more power than almighty God to protect them! The truth is that the Creator of the universe has all power and can protect us against our enemies. “I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching over me. I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side” (Psalm 3:5-6).
Points to Remember
- Value ubuntu, the African philosophy for a well-rounded character in all areas of material and spiritual life, but refine it with biblical teaching.
- Continue to hold onto the strong family and community bonds characteristic of African culture.
- Continue to believe in the supernatural, but believe in the God of the Bible and reject the traditional supernatural forces and beings.
- When African belief disagrees with the Bible, choose the Bible.
- You cannot believe in both consulting the dead and not consulting the dead!
- Don’t let fear drive you to follow diviners. Christ frees us from fear. Leave the old life of doing mystic rituals. Choose to trust our all-powerful God to protect you.
- Dead family members do not go to God for us. Only Christ goes to God for us.
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Contact Oasis Regional Directors to order your Africa Study Bible:
- Regional Director East Africa: WhatsApp: +27 79 572 4877
- Regional Director West Africa: WhatsApp +234 809 111 1184
