African theologians critique post-colonial states for hindering synodality

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – African theologians have criticized the post-colonial state in Africa for fostering a culture of greed, tribalism, sectionalism, and clannishness.

They argue that these issues hinder the Church’s ability to embrace synodality and walk together during a weekly synodal conversations on August 30.

In a meeting organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM), the theologians emphasized the importance of understanding the challenges faced in various African contexts.

“To embrace co-responsibility in the Church in Africa and the wider African society, there is the need to understand the challenges we face in many settings in Africa in working and journeying together fruitfully for the common good in both the Church and state,” they said during the August 30 online event.

“We cannot deny the sad reality that sometimes we have not worked and walked together,” they said, and blamed the post-colonial state for that reality.

They said African leaders are, unfortunately, guided by a “it is our time to eat” mentality which undermines the public good, leads to exclusion, and consigns the values of peace and social cohesion to the dustbin.

“We are still burdened in the Church in Africa by the scandal of tribalism, sectionalism, clannishness, xenophobia in our dioceses, religious communities, and Church institutions. These negative tendencies make co-responsibility difficult to implement in many ecclesial settings,” they said.

Clerics across the continent have told Crux that the limitations to the sense of synodality in the African Church cannot be pinned down to the legacies of the post–colonial state alone.

“Surely there are problems of greed and tribalism, but the blame should not immediately or exclusively be attributed to the colonial state. We are all responsible for our woes even if we can explain the pivotal role our governments play in promoting them,” Bishop George Nkuo of Cameroon’s Kumbo Diocese told Crux.

Father Moses Lorapuu – Director of Communication and Vicar General Pastoral for the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi in Nigeria’s Benue State – said there is always a temptation for African politicians and theologians to point the finger at the postcolonial state as the cause for the politics of greed, tribalism, and graft.

“We have had our independence, and we could have done away with these vices if they were the products of colonialism,” he told Crux.

However, he also noted that greed, graft, and tribalism are universal tendencies, not unique to Africa, and argued that Africa could as well tackle these vices the way others equally afflicted by them have done.

“European nations were able to tackle them for sustainable growth, and Africa could do the same if there is the political will and moral courage,” he said.

He therefore insisted that the obstacles to a synodal Church in Africa aren’t just linked to the legacy of colonialism, but are also a function of cultural and linguistic diversity, patriarchal ideologies, and socio-economic realities.

“The rich heritage of culture and linguistic diversity of Africans has remained a threat to a Synodal Church in Africa, posing a communication barrier instead of communality,” Lorapuu told Crux.

“This has affected the Church in Nigeria, reducing it to a tribal church in some regions,” he said.

“Being a patriarchal society, many of the leaders of the Church in Africa continue to act as first-class chiefs unwilling to give more voices and leadership to the women, who in most parts of Africa are the majority.  The traumatized displaced persons and those dehumanized by other socio-economic realities, living in subhuman conditions, have not been brought to a state where they can experience true synodality,” the priest explained.

Father Mathew Charlesworth of Zambia agrees.

“It is the patriarchal culture and clericalism and, more especially, hierarchicalism, that prevent the Church in Africa from recognizing the gifts in the laity and the Spirit speaking to them, and seeing the clergy as servants to the laity in the inverted pyramid insisted upon by Vatican II and resisted within the Church – not just in Africa,” he told Crux.

The priest agreed that “greed, tribalism and corruption are problems in Africa – not helped by the relative silence of the hierarchy and betrayed by some of the brazen partisanship of some hierarchs who curry favor with one party instead of working for the common good.”

Charlesworth said these problems pose “more present dangers that distract from the focus and work needed to implement synodality – but fundamentally the adage ‘where there is a will, there is a way’ must hold true, and if no way is found to implement synodality, it is because on various levels, there is no will, and the true obstacles would be found in those whose duty it is to implement it.”

“In my experience, where one engages in genuine conversations of the spirit, there is grace, conversion, co-operation and the excitement for synodality as a way of being Church,” he added.

While these problems are real, Nkuo prefers to look at the brighter side of things.

“[Synodality] calls for a sense of community and solidarity which we have in Africa. Our people have a great sense of belonging and are ready to listen to an authority figure who has their good at heart,” the Cameroonian bishop told Crux.