Construing Newer "Window" of Ecumenism for Africa: A Catholic Perspective

To take part in the African revolution, it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves and of themselves. In order to achieve real action you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, the progress and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with, and completely at one with, the people in the great battle of Africa and of suffering humanity. (Ahmed Sekou Toure)

The more one reads and ponders the enigmatic stories about Africa today, the more one realizes that these stories are shaped by earlier stories about Africa. Perhaps more than stories, it is worth talking about the story (singular) of divided Africa. This began with the Berlin conference in 1884-85, when European powers, having discovered and fought over treasures in Africa, decided to portion out the continent for themselves in order to avoid clashes with one another. These "spheres of influence", as they were called, were drawn on a map at a table in Berlin, taking no consideration of ethnic, socio-cultural, linguistic or otherwise natural frontiers. That was the first story, and it shapes our context as we ponder the ecumenical exigency of bringing the people of Africa back together, this time using a religious map.

Arguably, the first story is a political story and it could seem out of place to begin with it when the real issue at stake is religious. But indeed, missionary activity in Africa worked hand in glove with political activity. This collusion between the mission station and the colonial state will shape the second story of Africa, just as it originally shaped the first. The wisdom in Sekou Toure's words above points to the direction to follow to regain the equilibrium which was lost because of the first story. The key to its recovery is the rediscovery of the primeval song.

This paper will therefore take a stance that is not the usual one in matters of ecumenical diplomacy. It will start from a different angle, one from which Africa is taken to be the starting point, and from there will argue for an African ecumenical unity in diversified religious perspectives. The basis of my stance is analytically retrospective and prospective, arguing from the former story to the possibility of a different, hopefully more promising story. Prior to imperial colonization, African indigenous peoples possessed certain values of unity, values which need to be recaptured as Africans ponder the feasibility of a renaissance on and in their continent. Because this paper should reflect a Catholic perspective, this will be achieved by quotes or citations of competent magisterial statements which seem to bear on the arguments I will be advancing.

Pope Paul VI and Populorum Progressio

At the time of their independence, many ex-colonies in Africa were in a state of confusion. Writing in 1967 after the Second Vatican Council, and a few years after a number of African states had gained independence and while others were trying to gather equilibrium, Pope Paul VI wrote in Populorum Progressio:

   The development of peoples has the church's close attention, particularly
   the development of those peoples who are striving to escape from hunger,
   misery, endemic diseases and ignorance; of those who are looking for a
   wider share in the benefits of civilization and a more active improvement
   of their human qualities; of those who are aiming purposefully at their
   complete fulfillment. Following on the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council a
   renewed consciousness of the demands of the gospel makes it her duty to put
   herself at the service of all, to help them grasp their serious problem in
   all its dimensions, and to convince them that solidarity in action at this
   taming point in human history is a matter of urgency.(1)

The words of Paul VI are as valid today as they were in 1967. The church has continued to plead for justice to the poor; the documents doing so abound. What is worth pondering is the impotence of the church to transform the content of the documents into action. The "good ethos" of these good church documents has not changed the conditions of the world nor made it a better place to live in. The gap between the rich and the destitute has continued to widen. Ecumenism has not succeeded in developing dialogue beyond the level of common dogmatic understanding; more documents always remain to be produced. It is hard to implement the vision of life in common, sharing the produce of the world in common, even as we profess the same God and argue that we "belong" to the same church. In the same encyclical letter, Paul VI continues on the contribution to this state of affairs made by the "colonizing powers":

   Though insufficient for the immensity and urgency of the task, the means
   inherited from the past are not lacking. It must certainly be recognized
   that the colonizing powers have often furthered their own interests, power
   or glory, and that their departure has sometimes left a precarious economy,
   bound up for instance with the production of one crop whose market prices
   are subject to sudden and considerable variation. [...].(2)