INCULTURATION IN THE AFRICAN CHURCH
The Term in a lay man’s understanding is an effort to join Christianity to one’s culture, especially African traditional religion.N.I, Ndiokwere in his bookThe African Church today and tomorrow stated:"Inculturation is a process by which Christ is made present,Meaningfully and loveable to a people in their native cultureWith a view to enable The people Fully African and Fully native."The nomenclature has not been cleared until recently. But it must be distinguished from AGGIONAMENTO. Aggionamento means an updating, a ‘renewal’ of the church were it already existed.According to Achunike "aggionamenti refers to the renewal of those aspects of the church that can and must be renewed – the particular aspects that must be updated." Its not concerned with mere adaptation, which deals with the messenger and the individual elements of the Christian religion and church. Terms like assimilation, christianization, acculturation, Africanization, accommodation and enculturation can be used to describe Inculturation.INDIGENIZATION of all those terms expresses in a generic way what the whole enterprise is all about. Some Igbo Christians today face the dilemma of being a good Christian at the same time authentic Igbo men and women. And there are some Christians who ambidextrously go to church and consult oracle because of their tradition. Inculturation is the solution to this dilemma.Inculturation seeks to make us fully African and fully Christian. Inculturation can take many forms, it makes us an Igbo man and woman and at the same time a true Christian. However not much has been achieved in inculturating Christianity in Igboland except perhaps in ozo title – taking and in marriage when its done before wine carrying ceremony. Even this has no uniformity or universality in Igboland. It varies from diocese to diocese. Part of this problem is the lack of the encouragement and patronage from the church hierarchy. Some authors, uses Inculturation and Indigenization interchangeably. Indigenization can be seen as Inculturation, domestication or incorporation.Another big question is how do we indigenize the churches? We can indigenize the churches by bringing the traditional beliefs in the church like our traditional names, traditional titles and clothes in the church and Christianize or inculturate them. The work of the church is to fight and exterminate the social evils of our traditional beliefs and cultures. For Inculturation to take place, the evils of our tradition should be replaced with good ones fostered and enriched with Christian values. Catholic accommodates African culture than the Protestants.Inculturation is not a mixture of Christianity and African traditional religion, which can result to syncretism. It’s the task of making Christianity in all its aspects our own, truly African. It must be attractive, lively, lasting and authentic.Finally, there are some problems and obstacles of Inculturation in the African church, as NDIOKWERE rightly stated.‘Language Problems, the situation of skepticism/DivisionFear of syncretism, fear of Adulteration and distrustFor things African.' In conclusion, further areas to be inculturated includes liturgy, Igbo masks or mmamwu, and other local festivities.
NOTES: Igbo – This means a tribe from the southeastern part of Nigeria and majority Christians. IgboMasks or Mmamwu – This means a masquerade and it is a traditional dance in the southern Nigeria at which masks and other disguises are worn. Ozo – This means a traditional title taking by some chiefs or elders in the southeastern part of Nigeria. Wine Carrying Ceremony – This is the traditional form of marriage in Nigeria prior to the Church marriage.
