wfn.org | African Traditional Religion Contributes to Peacemaking

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Regional Inter-Faith Conference: African Traditional Religion
Contributes to Peacemaking
Through UBuntu Individuals Become Aware that They All Share a
Common Spirit

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa/GENEVA, 3 October 2003 (LWI) -
African leaders like former presidents Dr Kenneth Kaunda
(Zambia), Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and his successor Thabo
Mbeki, and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan, have all
been peace mediators on the continent and other parts of the
world. Africans have the philosophical and spiritual ability and
skills to deal with conflict. These were the remarks of Ntate
Kgalushi Koka, director of the Karaites Institute of Africology,
South Africa, when he led a workshop at the first follow-up
regional gathering of the 2002 continental inter-faith summit,
jointly organized by the Lutheran World Federation and other
faith-based organizations. 
 
Koka was one of more than 50 religious leaders from eleven
Southern African countries who gathered September 30-October 1 in
Johannesburg, to review efforts of different inter-faith groups
to respond to the Johannesburg Inter-Faith Declaration
Embracing the Gift of Peace, a joint affirmation to uphold
peace on the continent. 

The African Traditional Religion (ATR) has only recently been
welcomed into the family of recognized religions, Koka told
participants in a workshop that focused on ATRs different
approaches to conflict resolution. So now we have to ask: what
is the contribution of African Traditional Religion toward the
establishment of peace? And what are the cultural and
philosophical roots of our skills and talents to make peace?

He answered this question by referring to the African concept of
UBuntu or humanness. UBuntu is a universal concept that
recognizes the equality and inherent spirituality of every human
being. This humanness is instilled in our bodies through the
divine spirit, converting them into living souls.

According to Koka, the African basis for bringing about peace is
the fundamental belief that there is nobody without humanness or
UBuntu and that through UBuntu individuals become aware that they
all share a common spirit, even with their greatest enemy. If we
know this, we cannot avoid seeing in every other human being our
brother or sister. The being-ness of the other person is
mirroring my own humanness.

As this philosophical foundation is only a potentiality, it has
to be actualized in practical ways to bring about peace. In
concrete conflict situations in Africa, the administration of
rituals is recognized as a traditional way of putting the
philosophy of UBuntu into practice. Rituals make the spiritual
forces visible in actions and gestures, Koka explained. 

As an example of a peacemaking ritual he demonstrated the
Ceremony of the Ashes. During the ritual two persons or
parties in conflict are gathered by community elders. The two
adversaries have to face each other, while ash is placed in their
hands. They then have to lick the ash from each others hands and
spit it out. The washing of hands, a handshake and embracing
follow the action. 

The ash is a symbol of something that has burned but whose
energy has been spent, Koka explained. By licking up the ash and
spitting it out, the quarrelling persons symbolically act out
that the evil energy of their quarrel has been used up. 

It is important that this ceremony does not take part in private
but within the community, Koka noted. Conflict isolates people
from the community, while the healing ritual accepts people back
into the group. 

Koka pointed out that there are many ways of resolving conflict.
His country, South Africa, has partly demonstrated this: after
the end of
apartheid, reconciliation between blacks and whites
became a reality. Unfortunately we do not use our skills enough
to make peace, he concluded.
(604 words)

(By LWI correspondent Erika von Wietersheim, Namibia)

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