Comments to the communiqué

Bishop Method Kilaini (PhD)

From the many African words that were expressed in the consultation, the participants chose three key words to sum up the ideas that featured in the consultation: Sankofa, Ubuntu and Undugu.

Sankofa is an Akan word from Ghana that refers to the bird that stores fat at the tail. When the going becomes difficult or dry, it pricks at its tail to get some fat to oil its wings and fly again. In this way the consultation had seen the necessity for Africa to look back on its history and draw from the old wisdom, which today can still help her to move forward. Africa has to look for the valid values that helped her to survive the hard times of slavery, colonialism and exploitation that can give her strength to move to the future with confidence. This going back into the past was shown through different proverbs presented by Professor John Mbiti in the key note address and the rituals and ceremonies presented by Maria de Lourdes Siqueira from Brazil. It was very touching when she and Thawra Yousif from Iraq explained how they preserved the traditions and songs brought by their ancestor-slaves from Africa many centuries ago. These rituals and songs kept them together as a people and gave them solidarity and strength. This common heritage can today bring solidarity to all people of African descent around the world.

Ubuntu is a Zulu word from South Africa which with variations is a common word among the Bantu of Sub Sahara Africa. It expresses the essence of a human being and his dignity. The word differentiates man/woman from other creatures. With this word the participants wanted to sum up all that was said about the sacredness of life and respect for the human being, acceptance of the other, hospitality and family relationships. This was seen as important in a world dehumanized by consumerism. Africa though poor should bring back to the world the value of human life.

Undugu is a Swahili word from East Africa meaning brotherhood or sisterhood. This concept came through very strongly in many presentations and contributions of the participants. Communion and community were seen as a great African value starting in big families, through clans and tribes. This was seen as a value to be preserved as it gave dignity to all in the community and each had his or her role and position. Nobody felt rejected, the poor and rich, the handicapped and the healthy, the children and the aged, all were taken care of. This is a value that has prevailed in many places during the HIV/AIDS catastrophe, the orphaned children are taken over by surviving families as much as possible and are treated as their own children. This was seen as a precious value that was in danger of disappearing in the world of individualism, selfishness and capitalism.

At the conclusion the leaders of the living faiths were warned not to repeat the past mistakes when African traditional values were ignored and often debased. The same leaders of living faiths were reminded to take seriously the challenges that include polygamy which is still prevalent not only among the Muslims, human sexuality which is now surfacing in an aggressive way with the crisis of HIV/AIDS, the growing crisis of the family and the place of the woman in the African society.

The participants wanted to express the great appreciation shown by the participants of the consultation to the organisers, the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, who had the idea of bringing such diverse people of African origin together. The participants came from diverse backgrounds, they included Muslim sheikhs, Muslim women scholars; Bishops, priests and pastors both men and women of big institutional churches, protestants and Catholics; Christians from both the Western and Eastern rites; leaders of Christian Independent African churches; leaders of Indigenous Religions from Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean; professors and NGO coordinators. Already on the second day the participants had formed a great fraternal African community discussing and exchanging ideas and information at all times, during working hours, meals and recreation time. The group discussions continued even during free time due to the great interest of the participants in exchanging as much as possible in the short time available. To all the delegates, the four days passed away too fast and all gratefully wish there will be another such occasion.

Method Kilaini (PhD) is Auxiliary Bishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and was one of the drafters of the communiqué.

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