Sunday, October 19, 2003
Informal churches spread the word in Africa
A group of uniquely informal churches that marry African traditions with Christian beliefs is experiencing phenomenal growth among black South Africans and is rapidly becoming the new mainline denomination.
"Some of us worship under trees, others in garages or sitting rooms or schools or flats. Our aim is to bring the people together. That is what made the African people survive oppression," Bishop Mshengu Tshabalala said.
Tshabalala heads an umbrella organisation called Ikhaya Leziyoni, meaning Home of the Zionists, who are among the three main groups - Apostolic, Ethiopian and Zionist - that form the emerging African Independent Churches (AICs) in Africa.
South Africa has the single largest grouping of AICs on the continent with an estimated 6 000 congregations.
"There are literally thousands of these churches and it can consist of 20 or 10 000 congregants," said Francois Swanepoel, a professor at the University of South Africa's Bible Centre which is actively involved in the training of AIC leaders.
"It is not this large structured movement but the way in which they work together is unknown to us," he added.
The Zionist Christian Church (ZCC) is the largest of the AICs and achieved a 400 percent membership growth between 1980 and 1996, according to an independent research body, the South African Institute of Race Relations, in its 2002/2003 statistical survey.
The bulk of the dramatic rise happened between 1991 and 1996 when apartheid South Africa was making its transition to a non-racial democracy. The ZCC officially has about four million members, but it is believed to be far more.
The Afrikaner's protestant Dutch Reformed Church is the second largest with about 3,6 million members, but it experienced a mere 1,4 percent growth between 1980 and 1996, marginal compared to that of AICs.
"Fact is, with the political change in South Africa, blacks can now be open and proud about their culture and traditions. The door has opened for them to belong to these churches with dignity and without any stigma," Swanepoel told AFP.
"It is becoming the new main church; half of the (44,8 million) population is now estimated to belong to AICs."
A member of the Zionist church, Ntombi Kayise, said she believed the unique mix between African traditions and Christianity was a major drawcard.
"You don't have to choose between tradition and God," she said. "People have now seen that salvation does not mean you have to leave your culture."
Dawid Venter, who wrote a research paper at the University of Western Cape on the rise of AICs agreed.
"AICs represent the emergence of a new African identity which spans traditional and modern cultural practices," Venter stated.
"AICs flourish because they present a vigorous, indigenous and 'symbolically intelligible' alternative religion which does not reject all traditions out of hand."
AICs originally resulted from a number of breakaways from various mission churches. The first person to break away was Nehemiah Tile, a Wesleyan minister, who pleaded for the independence of the Xhosa-speaking Thembu people.
The turning point came in 1884 when Tile presented an ox at the circumcision ceremony of the son of a tribal chief.
"The church did not really like that and he then broke away. He still maintained a strong Methodist theology, as well as a strong Thembu nationalism. That was the first independent church," Swanepoel told AFP.
AICs hold cheerful services in any available place, they can continue throughout the night with their singing that take preference above preaching, and their holistic approach to religion is in true ubuntu (meaning humanity) style.
"The African is a very strong spiritual being. They help each other enormously. They truly address the needs of their people and have an absolute policy of sharing," Swanepoel said.
"When the leaders started taking classes at Unisa, we had to explain to them what orphanages and old age homes are. They did not know the meaning because in their culture you just take someone into your own home and care for them. Their religion encompasses their whole life."
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