African Proverbs Reveal Christianity in Culture

A Narrative Portrayal of Builsa Proverbs Contextualizing Christianity in Ghana

Moon

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781498275231
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In many oral cultures local proverbs are highly regarded for their wisdom and prized for their aesthetic expression. In this study Jay Moon provides an in-depth look at the use of local proverbs among the Builsa culture of Ghana, West Africa. In particular, the author's research shows how local proverbs can facilitate contextualized expressions of Christianity that are both biblically authentic and culturally relevant. The process of initiating and sustaining this form of expression is explicated with the help of an engaging narrative, providing valuable insights for those striving for genuine and meaningful expression of Christ in culture.This study will be especially beneficial to the missionary community, particularly for the purposes of appreciating oral literature in primary oral cultures, finding proper roles in the contextualization process, identifying cultural values via the window of local proverbs, training missionaries in cultural understanding, and tailoring discipleship training to incorporate significant aspects of orality

1

Searching for the Hippo

“Yala nuru ale a nya waiik zuk pein”

(The person at a distance sees the arrow in an antelope’s head)1

A young girl once longed to see a hippopotamus in the river near her house. One day, her parents informed her that a hippo was in the river and that she should hurry and see it. Excited, she ran to the riverbank looking for the hippo. Her enthusiasm quickly turned to disappointment—she could not find it. She searched up and down the bank but the hippo was nowhere to be seen. Finally, she scrambled on top of a big rock in order to get a good vantage point from which to view the entire river. Still, she could not see the hippo. Disappointed, she went home and told her parents how hard she looked but could not find the hippo. “You didn’t know it,” explained her parents, “but the very rock that you climbed on was the hippo. It was under your feet and you didn’t know it!” Often, the very things we search for are “under our feet.”2

Background of the Problem

Many writers have observed Christianity’s lack of contextualization in Africa.3 While the church in Africa is growing at a tremendous rate, the Scripture has not reached deeply into the worlview of the culture. Events like the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, considered by many as one of the most Christian countries in Africa and the center of the famous East African revival, reveal the tragic consequences when the Scripture reaches only the surface level of culture but does not penetrate into the deeper worldview level. Contextualization then, is an urgent need since Christianity has yet to deal adequately with everyday concerns, let alone issues of life and death. Missionaries and national church leaders are searching up and down the river for tools and insights that will facilitate an engagement of the Scripture and culture. So far, there has largely been disappointment.

Even the existing theological training has not often yielded the desired fruits of contextalization. During the 2001 all-Africa conference of the African Theological Fellowship held in Côte D’Ivoire, various members said that “the kind of theological formation that Africans receive in existing institutions, using existing patterns of training, does not equip for meeting the real needs and problems of life.”4 A Ghanaian pastor lamented to me, “After all of my training [in Bible college] was finished, I went back to the village and found that it did not fit!”5 His training did not address the cultural issues that he was facing in practical ministry in Ghana. Here is the mystery: Why has so much lip service been given to contextualization in Africa, yet there is still so little impact on the training of African pastors right up to today? Whiteman observed this lack of practical contextualization and concluded, “I believe the only way through this maze is to discover the tools and perspectives of contextualization and then have the courage to implement them.”6 This research seeks to discover and experiment with one of those little-used tools—traditional proverbs.

Our basic assumption is that for a deep engagement of the culture and Scripture to occur a closer look at cultural symbols is needed. Indigenous symbols can open windows that reveal aspects of the culture that are otherwise hidden. Local proverbs are an abundant and useful source of symbols that are often overlooked. Mbiti noted, “Proverbs are common ways of expressing religious ideas and feelings.”7 Proverbs, then, may serve as open windows into the worldview of the culture, thereby providing a good place to start in understanding the deeper aspects of culture. As this understanding of the culture is engaged with the Scripture in a hermeneutical community, critical contextualization can occur.8 Proverbs may be one of the tools that God has placed in African cultures to facilitate contextualization—and they are right under our feet!

African literary great Chinua Achebe noted, “Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.”9 While learning the Buli language of the Builsa people in Northern Ghana, I personally began to appreciate this oral art form as a powerful vehicle to communicate commonly held truth. This began a process where I started to collect Builsa proverbs, experiment with them in ministry, and reflect with other church leaders on how these proverbs could be useful in ministry among the Builsa people. I began to understand the potential of Mbiti’s claim that “Proverbs . . . form a bridge between traditional African religiosity and biblical teaching.”10 I wondered how far this bridge would take us if we took proverbs seriously in discipling and theological training. Could we push this even further and change the metaphor from a bridge to a well? Would proverbs allow us to dig through the surface level of culture and help us reach down into the deeper, hidden worldview level? Would this well tap into a good source that would facilitate the engagement of Builsa culture with Scripture that would result in contextualization? Would it save some lives or even some entire societies from the disasters they fall into when their Christian understanding is superficial to their culture?

Statement of the Problem

While “split-lev...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Searching for the Hippo
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3: Preparing to Run into the Open Field
• Chapter 4: An Insider’s Perspective
• Chapter 5: An Outsider’s Perspective
• Chapter 6: Engagement of Builsa Culture with Scripture
• Chapter 7: Process for Replication
• Chapter 8: Missiological Lessons Learned
• Appendix A: Photos
• Appendix B: Characteristics of Oral vs. Literate Learners
• Glossary of Buli Terms
• Bibliography