Africa's Enigma
There are two distinct paradigms in regards to Africa. The first paradigm sees Africa as an affectionate, attractive, admired, fascinating relationships, interdependent community, colorful culture, a collective and coherent family of amazing and abundant continent. The other paradigm sees Africa as an afflicted, faulty, faint, ragged, raw, ignorant, illiterate, catastrophic and anguished continent.
There is basis for perception in both paradigms, but it remains that Africa is a fantastic, coherent community of loving people. It is an environment where care, love, and respect are the norm and value. Africa is a place where outsiders are ever welcome and greeted with a warm hand and an open heart. Yet besides this wonderful heritage, Africa is still a continent in crisis.
Though the African crisis is not uniquely African, the rampant corruption, social injustice, and unrest with political instability that presently characterize many of the African nations manifest an apparent lack of a Christian impact. The Christian presence on this vast continent is more often celebrated than it is evidentially felt. After 200 years of Christian missions that have brought this Christian presence, we inevitably continue to ask: where is the Christian impact? Yet it remains that Africa’s heritage still renders it pliable to flourish under Christ’s amazing grace and light.
With 906 million people, Africa is also the richest in natural resources. But Africa has some of the poorest communities in the world. Poor leadership, corruption, civil war, unemployment, greed, selfishness, disease, and mismanagement of resources continually characterize the continent. Social problems such as crime, drugs, immorality, and HIV/AIDS, are on the rise in most African cities.
Africa is losing 20,000 skilled professionals every year because of economic hardships. It has less than 10% of the world’s population but carries a 70% burden of the world’s total HIV infection. The 1999 world financial report indicated that the entire 39% of all Africa's GDP is taken and deposited at foreign banks by selfish and corrupt leaders of Africa. The continent of Africa is full of paradoxes that cannot easily be explained.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo estimates that "corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion from their people in the decades since independence." Advisers to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Africa commission wrote, "From the start, ideas about development generally overlooked the role of religion … in Africa. Africa's development in the 21st century will be shaped largely by religion." Does this imply that there not enough religion on the African continent?
By the end of the year 2000, Africa saw 354 million out of 800 million people claim to be Christians. This accounted for 44.3% of the continent’s population. At 852 million people in 2004, Africa had 395 million Christians, or 46.4%. Now at 906 million people, Africa’s Christian presence could be steadily growing towards 48%. But by the year 2000 this heavily Christianized continent had experienced 56 successful military finalities since the independence era.
In this way and other ways, the African society is to a greater extent, a perfect mirror to the African church, and a wider analysis is needed for a deeper solution. Paul Freston, an authority on Christian politics around the world, says, "The failures (in fighting corruption) are attributed by African preachers to personal failures." With this charge, he is surely pointing to the unsatisfactory character of God's messengers.
The generally accepted view is that Africa has multi-dimensional problems such as its own socio-cultural and political dynamic (internal problems), its colonial past (historical problems) and the pressure of the outside world at present (external problems). Many solutions have been tested in Africa including socialism, structural adjustment programs, sustainable development, liberalization, privatization, and now globalization. But any prescription has yet to be effective in healing Africa’s crisis. This is because Africa’s problem is deeper than that; it is a problem of the heart. Unless there is charge of heart, Africa's problems cannot be compensated or overcome, however much "Christianized" Africa may be.
Some who are beating the drum for more aid for Africa claim that hard lessons have been learned in the field. Many leaders think new strategies will help in beating corruption, but that optimism is still questionable.
What is the reason for the failure of Christians to end corruption, maintain good government, and reduce poverty in Africa? It is because the only solution to the heart of Africa, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has remained skin deep. The Christian faith has been warmly embraced by millions on the continent, but it is only radically lived by a very small minority. As Bishop Desmond Tutu remarked, political leaders have often been let down by a sycophantic church leadership, who should provide moral and ethical guidance, but who are content to be timeservers. The church in Africa is faced with this challenge and has no option by to fulfill its prophetic vocation or seriously call in question its claim to be the church of Jesus Christ.
Why can’t the situation change in such a “Christianized” populace? Who are the Christians in Africa and what are they doing?
Next: Our Response