Is an educational PPT about the African morality.

1. By Rev. Dr. David K.
Mbugua OFMcap
African Morality

2. Search for African Moral theology
Introduction
African Morality
 In its etymological sense, African Morality is discourse on good/ bad or
moral, what is related to morality in accordance with the African
needs and mentality.
 As such African Morality comprised of Knowledge of African
moral/ethical worldview
 Morality found particularly in African traditional religions imbued with
mythopoeic, oralness, narratives and symbolic characteristics.

3. Search for African Moral theology
Introduction
African Morality Moral worldview
 Humans are part of societies which, over the generations, have constructed certain
specific ways of looking at life. These mental ways are basically assumptions on what
life is all about. They use them to assign meaning to life. It is these assumptions
that the scholars defined as a people's way of seeing or perceiving reality ( my notes
fundamental moral 1)
 Some would say that we cannot expect to communicate with a person unless we know
some things about how he looks upon the world and why he responds to it as he does
.

4. Search for African Moral theology
Introduction
worldview
 worldview is the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of Reality that ground and
influence all your perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing.
 Our worldview consists of our epistemology, our metaphysics, our cosmology, our
teleology, our theology, our anthropology, and our Morality.
 Each of these subsets of your worldview (each of these views) is highly interrelated
with and affects virtually all of the others. This concept of worldview has been
explained by different authors

5. Search for African Moral theology
Introduction
African Morality Moral worldview
 One's worldview is also referred to as one's philosophy, philosophy of life, mindset, outlook on
life, formula for life, ideology, faith, or even religion. The elements of one's worldview, the beliefs
about certain aspects of Reality, are one's

 epistemology: beliefs about the nature and sources of knowledge;
 metaphysics: beliefs about the ultimate nature of Reality;
 cosmology: beliefs about the origins and nature of the universe, life, and especially Man;
 teleology: beliefs about the meaning and purpose of the universe, its inanimate elements,
and its inhabitants;
 theology: beliefs about the existence and nature of God;
 anthropology: beliefs about the nature and purpose of Man in general and, oneself in
particular;
 axiology: beliefs about the nature of value, what is good and bad, what is right and wrong.
 .

6. Search for African Moral theology Introduction
African Morality and theology its oringin
 African theology emerged in the 1950s and gained momentum in the 1960s (Mbiti
1998:146). African theology, however, did not emerge in a historical or social vacuum.
Various factors prepared and accelerated the emergence of modern African theology prior
to the 1950s
 According to Mudimbe (1997:159-161), since the 1940s and 1950s, a new intellectual
climate has emerged in African studies: African social and religio-cultural phenomena began
to be understood from their own structural organisation as presented by their own norms,
internal rules, and within the logic of their own systems.
 During the period of agitation for independence, early African intellectuals and nationalists
recognised that there would not be genuine political liberation without cultural liberation
(Bujo 1992:51). Therefore, the cultural self-affirmation by revitalizing the African
cultural-religious heritage became a “matter of priority” to regain political self-
determination in Africa (Van der Merwe 1989:256). African culture and religious symbols
were a means to awaken the African people’s spirit of struggle towards political liberation
(Munga 1998:41).

7. Search for African Moral theology Introduction
African Morality and theology its oringin
 A move way from Western traditions
 In the new intellectual and political climate, early African theologians ventured on a
new theological course deviating from the prevailing Western image of Africa.
 They questioned the place and role of African traditional religions (ATR(s)) in
Christianity, and began to prepare an epistemological theological break with Western
traditions or discontinuity with the traditional European method of approach to
theology, because, for African theologians, it did not comply with the African needs
and mentality

8. Search for African Moral theology Introduction
African Morality and theology its oringin
 How Can Christian gospel be proclaimed a way meaningful to African?
 In scrutinising the question as to how the Christian gospel could be proclaimed
authentically and effectively to the African people in a way that is meaningful and
relevant to them.
 African theologians attempted to produce a theology that “incarnates the gospel
message in the African cultures on the theological level” (Nyamiti 2001:3).
Therefore, they started a dialogue between African culture and the Christian gospel,
and attempted to integrate indigenous values into the church and theology (Bosch
1991:451; Mudimbe 1997:93)

9. Search for African Moral theology Introduction
African Morality and theology its oringin
 Question of identity
 Bediako (1989:59; 1992:xvii) states that a key for “understanding the concerns of Christian
theology in modern Africa [is] the question of identity” (Bediako 1992:1), and that modern
African theology emerged as a theology of African Christian identity.
 The negation of African culture meant to deprive African people of their identity. The
revitalisation of African culture meant to recover African identity (Munga 1998:41).
Therefore, with regard to the quest for identity,
 African theologians maintain that “conversion to Christianity must be coupled with cultural
continuity” (Fashole-Luke 1975b:87). In this sense, modern African theology emerged as a
response to missionaries’ derogatory attitude towards the African cultural-religious traditions
and the imposition of Western ecclesial-cultural values on the church in Africa.
 The emergence of African theology shows African theologians’ theological reaction to the prevailing and
dominant Western interpretation of the Christian gospel in Africa, keeping pace with political-cultural
ideological critics of the nationalist movements, on the one hand, and a process of the quest for Christian
identity with a self-awareness of being simultaneously genuinely African and authentically Christian, on the
other

10. The Development of African Theology
 In order to have a better picture of the development of African theology an
outline of the different phases of the spread of Christianity in Africa is
necessary (I am sure from your Church History this is Clear)
 Three phases of Christianity
The first phase was during the time of
the early church, when centers like
Alexandria and Carthage were important
Christian centers. It is the phase where
we meet some important African
theologians like Tertullian, Augustine and
Cyprian in the West and Clement and
Origen in the East.
The second phase was the 15th century,
when the Portuguese imperial activities
spread to Africa.in Kenya we know of
Augustinian missionary in the coast.
Second evangelization.
European and later American
missionaries in 19th and 20th
centuries.

11. Context and task of African Christian theology
 context and development of African theological thought, as Bediako (1997:426–443)
points out. Has twofold. Liberation and inculturation theology
 Struggle for the social and political transformation of the conditions of inequality
and oppression which, in his view, is a theology of liberation in the African setting.
 Liberation Theology is considered to be a theology that developed in Latin America in
the late 1960s with Gustavo Gutierrez as its father. But strictly speaking, liberation
theology has to be perceived as a variety of theologies with the same intention to
liberate the people who are oppressed in different ways.
 In Africa the development of liberation theology began with the passing of the
independence era in the 1970s when it was becoming clear that the double aim of
„decolonization‟ was failing. When the nationalists were fighting for independence
their aims were liberation from the colonial rule and empowerment of the people
through development. A decade or two after independence it was noted that little
progress had been made. How?

12. Context and task of African Christian theology
 Theology of Inculturation
 The second approach to African theology dwells on faith that.
Communication between human cultures can only take place effectively
through dialogue and participation, through listening and through readiness
to learn (Shorter, 1975: 132).
 Dialogue between Churches, religions and religious based countries leads to a
better self identification and hope for convergence or growth towards a
common horizon of truth. It is only through interdependence in corporation,
and congruence that conversions can successfully take place.
 There is an emerging consensus that culture is a developing process in which
there is and there must be a continuous dialogue between faith and culture.
Practical inculturation is relevant to the African nations, which have been
Christianized and areas where the Gospel has been proclaimed. As long as
faith is present to a culture, then inculturation dialogue must take place

13. Context and task of African Christian theology
 Morality in African Thought
 Understanding morality in African thought is complex. This is because there is no definite
term of what could construe morality given the diverse nature of people’s ideology, culture,
values and tradition.
 However applying Kant’s Universality in his categorical imperative, one may see that even
though people’s cultures differ, there could be cases of similarity and replication of moral
principles. In sorting out what could count as morality in Africa, one should also bear in
mind that the continent of Africa is made up of different people of different background,
with different cultures and value, though with a definite correlation.
 However, it is this co-relatedness that may construe and define the African Morality. In
terms of the Oxford Dictionary, morality refers to the moral principles pertaining to a
distinction between right and wrong or good and evil.

14. Context and task of African Christian theology
 Morality in African Thought
 Morality is the sense and view of what is right and wrong
and that which constitutes an absolute reference for
character and behavior. It is an authoritative code of
conduct in matters of right and wrong. It is usually seen in
a broader sense than “ethics”, although the margins are
diffused. Even in this sense, however, varied traditions
occur, for example the “Catholic” tradition of moral
theology includes what other people would call ethics.
"Ethics" refers to the acts of human behaviour informed
by moral principles of good and evil (right and wrong)

15. Context and task of African Christian theology
 Morality in African Thought
 How actually does Africans view the world and Humanity’s place and
role within it? What elements make up the Universe and how do they
influence human life? What is the purpose of human existence, and
what implications does this have for practical order of things?
 Answer to these questions delineate the conception of morality in
the universe, the understanding of the good that sustains life and
the bad that destroys life. (Laurenti, 1997: 35). The hence,
establish both the context and the content of African Morality,
ethics and Religion.

16. Context and task of African Christian theology
 African Ethics is Religious Ethics
 The postulation that religion plays a foundational role in ethics is
common in African moral thought: The four books that exemplify this
concern: Laurenti Magesa (1997) African Religion: The Moral Traditions of
Abundant Life; Benezet Bujo’s (1998 & 2001); The ethical Dimension of
Community: The African Model and Dialogue Between North and South &
Foundations of an African Ethic: Beyond the Universal Claims of Western
Morality, Augustine Shutte (2001) Ubuntu: An Ethic for a New South Africa.
 For example, John Mbiti (1975 175) states –
o ‘It is believed in many African societies that their morals were given to them by God
from the very beginning. This provides an unchallenged authority from the very
beginning”

17. Context and task of African Christian theology
 African Ethics is Religious Ethics: Criticism to this assertion;
 Influential African philosophers like Wiredu and Gyekye, among others, argue that for African
ethics to be religious it requires, as a matter of necessity, to be grounded on revelation or
some form of institutional religion like Christianity (WIREDU 1992; GYEKYE 1995).
 They also observe African religion tends to lack the general feature of being revealed or
institutionalized; hence, African ethics cannot (ought not) to be considered religious. It is
true that African religion is not ‘revealed’, at least, not in the way revelation is typically
understood within the Christian tradition. Revelation, within the Christian model that Wiredu
is appealing to, serves an important epistemological function of revealing the will of God
through the means of scriptures, the Decalogue and so on. This revelation model is compatible
with the dominant Western meta-ethical theory-the Divine Command Theory (DCT)-that
defines ‘rightness’ and ‘wrongness’ relative to God’s commands (JOYCE 2012, 49). The
relevant religious institution(s) become a place for revealing the will of God.

18. Context and task of African Christian theology
 African Ethics is Religious Ethics: Criticism to this assertion;
 In answer to this criticism some Africa scholars pioneered by Magessa
observe that African moral system is based on meta-ethical system that
entirely relies on the notion of vitality, a divine property of Gods.
Within this framework, vitality (life) is considered to be the
foundational or intrinsic moral property that is crucial for making sense
of a morally sound life.
 Laurenti Magesa an expert on African theological ethics states,“For the African, life is the
primary category for self-understanding and provides a framework for any interpretation of
the world, nature, or divinity” Godfrey Onah further claims At the centre of traditional
African morality is human life. Africans have a sacred reverence for life.... To protect and
nurture their lives, all human beings are inserted within a given community.... The promotion
of life is therefore the determinant principle of African traditional morality and this
promotion is guaranteed only in the community. Living harmoniously within a community is
therefore a moral obligation ordained by God for the promotion of life

19. Context and task of African Christian theology
 African Ethics is Religious Ethics: Criticism to this assertion;
 So, we come to a meta-ethical theory of vitality that defines the
property ‘right’ in terms of more life; and ‘wrong’ in terms of
diminishing of life. If this meta-ethics of vitality of life that defines
rightness in terms of ‘positive relation to vitality’ and wrongness in
terms of ‘negative relation to life’ is correct, then it is a telling
response to the objection that a religious ethics necessarily requires
revelation.
 On this view, morality does not require any such institutions or even
revelation. All that is required is for the agent to be cognizant of
friends of life that lead to its enhancement and enemies of it that
tend towards death. Such a psychological make-up is pervasive among
African cultures that accentuate respect for life