Abstract
The title says it perfectly: this book is a comprehensive – 646-page – analysis of Africa’s socio-religious context. It attempts to understand the determining structures, decisive trends and dominant principles that define African identity and life. To get to this understanding, Randee Ijatuyi-Morphé engages with the deepest essence of the African soul, that seeks both wholeness and harmony in society, to locate the spirituality of Africans. He argues that spirituality in Africa is not abstract but a living reality experienced in everyday life. In this reality, Africans try to balance their understanding of and interaction with natural and spiritual forces in a way that enhances human life and brings harmony between the living, ancestors, nature, spirits and the supreme being. This then provides a framework for daily social, political, cultural and economic living and relationships. As the book concludes, the examination of the African socio-religious landscape ‘reveals a dominant interest in achieving the good life, often narrowly defined as the good things in life during one’s human existence’ (p. 605). Cultural values are enlisted to achieve this.
To understand the social and religious aspects of African life, Ijatuyi-Morphé considers broader dimensions that influence African religiosity. He therefore interacts with various academic fields, including anthropology, sociology, African studies, literary studies, political science, economics and philosophy. Four broad themes are explored:
Culture and religion in African society.
Political, economic and social development. This includes reflecting on issues related to community and individual identity as well as the historical, social and economic context in Africa.
Religion, social history and ethics that engage especially with African worldviews and values.
The understanding of God (as revealed in the Bible but also as the supreme being), humanity and the world in a way that reflects in particular on issues that determine African spirituality. This includes the understanding of God’s role in the world, humanity’s place in history and what spiritual salvation means to Africans.
The study argues that the good life in Africa, as expressed through the highest or common good, must have virtuous ends to especially help the collective community. Where the virtues are promoted and flourish in human society, they prevent the deterioration of institutions in society. But the good life also means being liberated from internal and external historical forces that bind Africans. A more integrated approach to religion, society and civilisation that goes beyond mere human existence is needed to re-signify life and wholeness as the true end of Africans’ quest for the good life.
The author argues that traditional African religion does not provide such an integrated approach because it can become too focused on spiritual forces. He believes that Christianity does offer this approach, but argues that for Christianity to flourish in Africa, the issues that define Africa’s quest for life, including freedom from spiritual forces, should be addressed. He concludes by discussing 12 facets of an emergent African societal life through which Africans can achieve fullness of life – intellectual life, political/economic life, business life, family life, work life, sexual/social reproductive life, moral/ethical life, nature/environmental life, cultural/communicative life, recreational life, personal/communal life and civic life. Each of the facets is explored in the relevant chapter in the book.
Ijatuyi-Morphé calls for an integrated economy through which different sectors of society develop: a work-based economy that gives priority to job creation, ensures the security of jobs and encourages the participation of faith-based organisations such as churches in the provision of social welfare (p. 411). The weakness of this approach is that he does not reflect on theologies of liberation and reconstruction, 1 nor with issues such as property rights and the interface with justice as reflected in jubilee theology. As Felix Chingota indicates in his reflection on Leviticus 25 in the Africa Bible Commentary, in traditional African society the chiefs owned the land and gave it to whoever needed it: that person then owned that land as long as they were using it productively. 2 The commercialisation of land is foreign to most African societies, but is treated by Ijatuyi-Morphé as important to economic development. Property taxes, for example, can generate funds to provide security to communities. The danger with the commercialisation of land is that, despite possible increased productivity and food security for communities as a whole, many people might lose the land they have lived off for generations. They could become economically and socially marginalised and impoverished as a result.
The Bible’s jubilee laws gave the Jewish people legal protection against such developments, as well as liberation for the marginalised. That helped to break the vicious cycle of exploitation, debt and enslavement. The concept of the jubilee could be explored as a response to Africa’s quest for social and religious life. The jubilee prioritises the common good instead of individual profit. The common good would therefore be the driving force for all human activities without stifling individual contributions. 3 The jubilee also deals with the complexities of land ownership and the commercialisation of land. In the end, the land does not belong to the individual, to the community or to the chiefs. The land belongs to God. Individuals and communities only steward the land. There is therefore a direct link between land ownership or better land stewardship and our relationship with God. This perspective might have significant implications for land ownership and use in Africa.
The book could be criticised for treating all African spirituality as the same, rather than taking the specific contexts in which various spiritualities have developed into account. African spirituality is not mono-cultural but has developed out of the interaction of various communities with their environment and their understanding of how spiritual powers influence that environment. The understanding of the supreme being therefore differs even from community to community or ethnic group to ethnic group. This plays a significant role in the identity of communities, and is essential for understanding the broader spiritual context in Africa. However, Africa’s Social and Religious Quest provides a framework to explore the various African spiritualities further, and as such provides the needed tools for further research and engagement.
The book might also be too ambitious, as it engages with so many academic fields; and with six divisions, eight parts and 30 chapters, the format can be very confusing. But I doubt whether it is possible to write a more in-depth overview. This book is therefore not an easy read! Another concern is that only English-speaking institutions and leaders are able to access the book, as it is written in English. African students and scholars need to engage with the material in their own languages, otherwise the theological discourse, being mainly English, could end up being foreign to the context it intends to understand. In addition the book is so theoretical in nature that theological practitioners might have difficulty in moving from an academic discourse to practical action to address the multiple challenges in Africa. A more praxis-orientated follow-up to the book might therefore be useful to increase the book’s impact. For example, I would welcome more practical interaction with the 12 facets of the emergent societal life that Ijatuyi-Morphé concludes with. Just to give one example – how would we equip African entrepreneurs based on Africa’s spiritualities? Would that be different from Western or Eastern models of entrepreneurship? And in a globalised world how would these African-equipped entrepreneurs interact with entrepreneurs from other regions of the world?
Despite my concerns, Africa’s Social and Religious Quest is a ground-breaking work for understanding Africa’s complex social and religious situation. Since the book is so comprehensive and lays the foundation for further reflection and research on the nature of African spirituality, I believe it is essential that all theologians and theological students in Africa engage in the analysis and reflections in the book. I would suggest that it is prescribed as supplementary reading on all theological courses in Africa, and perhaps in other regions of the world as well. This is indeed one of the stated aims of the book. I therefore hope that it will be used for further research and for finding practical solutions for Africa’s social, economic, political, theological and religious challenges. I would highly recommend this book as foundational reading in all African theological institutions, and for use in theological and other discussions.