African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity

Focusing on the experiences of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, this monograph explains and complexifies the suspicion, resistance and accommodation that have characterized the interactions between European Christian missionaries and adherents of African traditional religion. The account begins with the arrival of Fr. Gonzalo da Silveira from Portugal to Shona land in the seventeenth century, but includes more recent encounters and their implications for the contemporary African religious landscape.The initial foray of the European brand of Christianity into Shona land ended in failure and the tragic murder of Father Gonzalo. Various other efforts, led mostly by Catholics or Protestants, also failed or achieved limited success. This book proffers several insightful and nuanced explanations for these outcomes. The author identifies the superiority complex of European missionaries who failed to see any value in African traditions and religious beliefs as a primary reason for the contentious encounters and limited success of many missions. As he puts it: “The early missionaries’ cultural superiority mentality hindered some of them from . . . acknowledging God’s presence among Africans, when they arrived and settled among them” (2). When their brand of persuasion failed, the missionaries amplified cruder and forceful tactics aimed to desecrate and destroy African beliefs and divide and conquer the Shona people.Chitakure describes specific encounters between Christianity and the African worldviews and provides fascinating insights into the pre-Christian sociopolitical fabric and cultures of the Shona people. Here the author seems to conclude that Christianity has not conquered Africa as its European sponsors hoped because some of its teachings and the European culture that they were swathed in diverge radically from the African worldviews. The book provides fascinating descriptions of specific rites of passage and covers themes such as ancestral relationships, traditional healers, and the status and social location of women in the Shona society. Every page seems to document an aspect of the contestations that characterized Christianity’s encounter with various facets of the African society while highlighting the accommodation and adjustments that were often aspects of the encounters or the fallout from them.The author sets out his case in the introduction where he asserts that it was erroneous, derogatory, and dangerously misleading for Christian missionaries to believe that they introduced God to Africa. He buttresses this assertion by painting a near-perfect picture of the African religious cosmos—one that worked well for the people and satisfied their spiritual needs. The version of Christianity that the European missionaries propagated intentionally and unintentionally linked the Bible’s message to European culture and values, and introduced the spirit of competition and individualism—even in relation to core Christian teachings. While some Africans willingly and critically accepted Christianity, others maintained a double allegiance—to Christianity and African traditional religion. Still, others actively resisted and fought against it.Chapter 1 traces the history of Christianity in Zimbabwe, beginning in the seventeenth century. The chapter documents three phases and covers the evangelism activities of European individuals and missionary societies. Chapter 2 provides an insightful analysis of several rites of passage of the Shona people and compares them with the Christianity-inspired rituals that the missionaries attempted to replace them with. The third chapter describes specific encounters between the missionaries of the London Missionary Society and the indigenous priests and worshippers of the God of Matonjeni in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although the missionaries succeeded in utilizing intimidation and brute force in diminishing, desecrating, and dismissing the institutions and personnel of the native religion, the author concludes that the beliefs remained ingrained in the hearts of Shona Christians and their churches.Questions about the ancestors are raised and answered comprehensively in chapter 4. The author paints a vivid picture of their centrality and continuous relevance in African traditional religion despite the persistent efforts of the missionaries to diminish their relevance. The fascinating analysis in this chapter reveals, for example, that the transition into the world of ancestors is not automatic, but it is contingent on several criteria. It also explains the ancestors’ responsibilities toward and relationship with, the living. The dynamics and relative superiority of the pre-Christianity justice system of the Shona people are discussed in chapter 5. Central to the analysis in this chapter is the role of ngozi, the spirit of the injured or deceased party whose function includes the inflicting of retribution and granting of reward. The Shona people who converted to Christianity could controversially picture an avenging spirit who is simultaneously a resident of the Christian heaven.Witchcraft is discussed in chapter 6 in the context of the reasons why evil and suffering exist while chapter 7 explores the concept of the mashavi, the dead whose spirit fails to qualify as an ancestor. This spirit, the author explains, could become an alien spirit among strangers. The two chapters include fascinating accounts of the missionaries’ demeaning assessment of witchcraft and mashavis, and the weakening effects that their attitude had on the beliefs associated with these spirit beings.Chapter 8 provides insight into the reasons why traditional healing practices have persisted despite the wider spread of Christianity and the efforts of the missionaries to demonize, degrade, and destroy African traditional religion. Chapter 9 focuses on African independent churches. Apart from providing a conceptual analysis and the historical background of these churches, the author explains that their doctrines that mimic those of African traditional religion have made them attractive to African Christians and a competitor to mainstream and heavily Euro-centric Christianity.In chapter 10 the author discusses several issues relating to the role of women in the Shona society. This is perhaps the most controversial chapter in the book, and the author’s qualified defense of several cultural practices, including virginity tests for young women, is bound to rile not only feminists but rights advocates. Chapter 11 presents a comparative analysis of Shona people’s ethical worldviews on a variety of issues with those of the Christians. In this analysis, as with many other aspects of this book, the author argues for an affirmation of the beliefs and practices of African traditional religion.Chitakure’s latest book brings together in an interesting, accessible, and nuanced way some of the themes that he discussed in his two other books: The Pursuit of the Sacred (2016) and Shona women in Zimbabwe—A Purchased People? (2016) The introduction and contextual information could be enriched by providing, or heavily referencing, the wider context of European missionary presence in Africa. This would enable the reader to match the particular experiences of the Shona people with the wider African encounters with Christianity

Christianity · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Philosophy · Religious studies

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