Mapping African Christianities within Religious Maps of the Universe

Abstract

hinua Achebe's symbolism of a masquerade becomes a useful starting point for mapping African Christianities.He suggests that in order to describe a dancing masquerade you have to move with it.According to Achebe: I believe in the complexity of the human story and that there's no way you can tell that story in one way and say, this is it.Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing; the same person telling the story will tell it differently.I think of that masquerade in Igbo festivals that dance in the public arena.The Igbo people say: If you want to see it well, you must not stand in one place.The masquerade is moving through this big arena.Dancing.If you're rooted to a spot, you miss a lot of the grace.So you keep moving, and this is the way I think the world's stories, and the story of Christianity should be told-from many different perspectives.[1]The late poet and novelist Chinua Achebe's premier novel, Things Fall Apart [2] has drawn local-global attention and received worldwide acclaim and recognition, having been translated into at least 50 languages.It has also sold more than eight million copies.This perhaps makes Achebe the most translated African writer of all time and Things Fall Apart considered to be the book that launched the modern canon of African literature.[3] As Donna Urschel puts it, "the author gave Africa its first authentic voice."[4] While Things Fall Apart undoubtedly represent the book that parachuted Achebe to a global literary icon, he nevertheless wrote No Longer at Ease; A Man of the People; Chike and the River; Arrow of God; and Anthills of the Savannah [5] as well as short sto-ries, poetry, essays, criticism and political commentary, and children's books.In Things Fall Apart, Achebe best describes the robust culture and complexities of Igbo society in Nigeria, articulating an insider's sense of the African experience, and the book is the greatest work of literature to come out of Africa.[6] The author's original intention was to counter the depiction of black Africa in Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson [7] and other related biased European colonial and Eurocentric discourses on and about Africa.One also calls to mind Achebe's infamous critique, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", [8] that accused the novel of stinking xenophobia.[9] In July 1989, Chinua Achebe visited Iwalewa Haus and the University of Bayreuth as a guest lecturer of the "Sonderforschungsbereich."The text of the conversation which took place between Chinua Achebe and Ulli Beier, was entitled "The world is a dancing masquerade: A conversation between Chinua Achebe and Ulli Beier."[10] This description of the world in terms of a dancing masquerade is very illuminating.Almost six decades after Things Fall Apart was published, it continues to elicit literary, cultural, religious, historical, anthropological, economic, political imports and reverberations locally, but also globally.Achebe's unique appropriation of the English language is evidenced in its vernacularization, invoking Igbo language, imagery, and cultural idioms; as well as Nigerian proverbs, metaphors, and rhythmic speech.[11] It is against this backdrop that I picked a concept from this religio-cultural reservoir to draw a road map for my lecture.While masquerade as a typical phenomenon is used in representing and invoking African cultural and indigenous values, metaphorically I find it useful beyond its aesthetic, artistic significance to represent the dynamism and fluidity of African Christianities as a "faith on the move." Interrogating the Complexity of African ChristianityThe story of African Christianity is one of a faith in motion.This mobility depicts dynamism and innovation; it portrays creativity and relevance.The texture and stature of the faith can be described as a buffet of Christianity in Africa and African Christianity.One cannot fully understand Africa without its diaspora, neither can we understand the African diaspora in isolation.This is more so as the African Union (AU) now characterize the Africa diaspora as the sixth region of Africa.[12] This nexus has religious, cultural, political, economic, social, and strategic import that cannot be undermined.Thus, a pictorial image of a masquerade with multiple colors depicts the different shades of Christianity in Africa and African Christianity in the diaspora.This is why I talk about African Christianities, in a sociological rather than a theological sense, to capture the unity in diversity, the different colors of Christianity in Africa and its diaspora.Christians in America and Europe are often surprised to learn that the largest Christian continent is Africa: there are more Christians in Africa (some 520 million) than in the United States, Canada, and Mexico combined (380 million).Estimates are that in 1900 Africa had around 10 million Christians, but by 1945 there were about 30 million Christians in Africa.In 2008, Africa had around 500 million Christians, which was around 47% of the continent's population.[13]Put another way, in 1900, only 2% of the world's Christians lived in Africa.[14] In 2005, nearly 20% of the world's Christians lived there.What triggered this rapid demographic shift?It does not seem to be driven by missionary or colonial impulses,[15] but by local African agency.Indeed, once the European colonial and missionary entrepreneurs left Africa, Christianity grew fantastically: "Africa's most dramatic Christian growth … occurred after decolonization."[16] This is especially the case with Protestant/Independent churches, where growth rates are staggering.In the 1960s, there were already over

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