PRAY UNCEASINGLY (1 THESSALONIANS 5:17): A REFLECTIVE NON-COMMENTARY

Abstract

Africa is like a punching bag. It does not matter how hard you hit it, the bag will swing away, but it will always come back to you for more punches. Africa is being hit very hard. This paper attempts to break Africa’s commitment to embracing views of the world which are foreign to Africa. Focusing on prayer in Africa, and using historical and descriptive methods, I argue that the European perception about prayer in Africa has been misleading since Europeans first intruded. Because the African way of communicating with God is different from, and more efficacious than the prayer of Western counterparts, European church leaders have never understood African prayer, which is rooted not only in reason but in African traditions and cultures, and the very basic of human needs and capacity for transcendent harmony, fulfillment and balance. I conclude by suggesting that the African way of praying is a legitimate way of being in communion with God. Instead of ridiculing it, church leaders should be investigating it, to see what Africans can offer through prayers to the rest of Christianity.

Key words: prayer, African Christianity