My “Post-Colonial Theory and African Literature” students are currently writing
essays on different facets of community in African literature.

How can community support the flourishing of African children? How do natural communities of flora and fauna in African landscapes interact with the human communities that populate those landscapes? How does a community’s spirituality affect its ability to find forgiveness and reconciliation?

Duquette interviews colleagues

These are questions raised by the African novelists we have been
studying – such as Sembene Ousmane (Senegal), Miriam Tlali (South Africa), Alexander
McCall Smith (Zimbabwe), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) – but they are
also questions central for all Christians.

What can we, in the North American church, learn from African perspectives? To further explore this question, I interviewed four Africans currently studying and teaching on our campus: Rosemary Mbogo, Stephen Mbogo, Evanson Wamagatta, and Faustin Ntamushobora, and also drew on my own memories of worshipping in a small village near Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia.

Defining “Ubuntu theology”

While serving in Zambia, I noticed a strong sense of social responsibility in the
rural community within which we lived. We were there to build a home for teachers; and
as the schoolchildren saw how hard we were working, they gathered around and began to
help us. I became friends with a nine-year-old boy with the surname Momba. He would
come by every day and help me with small tasks, such as carrying stones. This was very
encouraging to me as I labored under the African sun!

In summarizing Ubuntu theology Desmond and Mpho Tutu write, “Ubuntu recognizes the interconnectedness of life. My humanity, we say, is bound up with your humanity. One consequence of ubuntu is that we recognize that we all need to live our lives in ways that ensure that others may live well. Our flourishing should enhance the lives of others” (Made for Goodness 47). Young Momba was not trained in theology, but he certainly understood, and lived out, Ubuntu.

Mbogo explains “Ubuntu theology”

I was curious to see what differences African Christians living in California may
have noticed between church culture in their countries of origin and that of the U.S.
Rosemary and Stephen Mbogo study here, Rosemary at Talbot Seminary and Stephen at
the Cook School of Intercultural Studies, but they return to their home in Kenya during summer and inter-term to develop their ministry for orphans: By Grace Children’s Home.

Ms. Mbogo summarized the Ubuntu philosophy by saying “I am because we are.” She described Kenyan church services as slower, with people lingering and socializing much longer after worship. Mr. Mbogo explained the importance of singing as a means of passing on wisdom in African culture; he stated that in North America people debate rationally about the gospel, in Asia they meditate on it, but in Africa they sing it. This matched my experience of beautiful, rhythmic, moving Bemba songs and dances in the Zambian church.

Wamagatta starts Gikuyu church

Next, I interviewed my colleague Dr. Evanson Wamagatta, professor of world and African History at Biola University. He spoke of how in the 1960s, with independence,the foreign missionaries handed over churches to African elders who at first maintained very traditional styles of worship. Dr. Wamagatta explained how that has changed now and “even traditional churches are clapping their hands.”

Here, in Southern California, Dr. Wamagatta has started a church with a Kenyan pastor. They wanted to worship in their own language, Gikuyu, and within the church, called Kanitha wa Ûtugi wa Magegania, all the preaching is also in Gikuyu. Included in the church’s mission statement is the value of language: “The church was started for people who would like to worship in their vernacular and for those who do not understand English, especially the elderly.” The services also help teach the youth the importance of familiarity with their own family’s language and culture.

The ministry of reconciliation

Finally, I interviewed a Rwandan Talbot PhD candidate and professor of French at Biola University, Faustin Ntamushobora. The title of his PhD dissertation
is From Transmission to Transformation: An Exploration of Education for Wholistic
Transformation of Africa. Mr. Ntamushobora returns to Rwanda every summer, where
he is involved in a ministry of reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi people groups.

Within this ministry, when cattle owned by Tutsis give birth to a calf they give it to a Hutu family, and when cattle owned by Hutus give birth they give the calf to a Tutsi family. This is a very important, concrete, and constructive, physical manifestation of forgiveness and reconciliation after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Mr. Ntamushobora defined Ubuntu with the phrase “I am a person only among other persons” and Ubuntu theology with the statement “Because of the triune nature of God which does not suppress individuality in community, we need to enjoy our differences as Christians and understand that difference is empowering, not weakening, to community.”

Beauty in being different

Ubuntu theology provides a beautiful model for faculty, students, and staff at
Biola University. Only through slowing down and taking time to truly appreciate the
beauty and strength of our differences will we be able to function optimally as the body of Christ seeking to share His love with the world.