UNDERSTANDING AND TEACHING CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGH THREE KEY ELEMENTS OF AFRICAN TRADITION

Résumé

Africa is endowed with a variety of cultural and religious values, systems and institutions waiting to be discovered, appreciated, converted and assumed into the truth of the Gospel of Christ so that they are able to mediate more deeply graces for the salvation of the people and their world. The advent of Christianity in Africa brought about the meeting of these existing cultures and faith of Africans which have not only existed undisturbed for ages but served the needs of its people and the new Christian faith. Many people decry the fact that the early missionaries who brought the faith to Africa did not understand so much the culture which they met and consequently they did not give it the kind of attention required to have the Christian faith truly incarnated in the soil of Africa. However, the Second Vatican Council ushered in a new phase of evangelization in the continent which started to redirect attention, energy, time and other resources towards making Christianity truly African and Africans truly Christian. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Fathers of the Council were able to recognize in the diverse Cultures of the world seeds of the Good News already existing before the coming of Christ.