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
References
Bellagamba, A. 1990. Spirituality and Liberation. In: L. Namwera, et al. Towards African Christian Liberation. Nairobi: St. Paul Publication.
Bitek, O. 1970. African Religion in Western Scholarship. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau.
Boros, L. (1965) 1969. The Moment of Truth: Mysterium Mortis. London: Burns and Oates.
De Asua Altuna, R.R. 1985. Cultural Tradicional Banto (Bantu Cultural Tradition). Secretariado Arquidiocesano de Pastoral, Angola (Pastoral Secretariat of the Archdiocese of Angola).
De Jong, A. 2001. Africans Viewed in the Missionary Mirror: Shifts in the €—black-white ' Thinking of the Dutch Missionaries on Africans and their Culture. Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research 30.1: 56-70.
Ferguson, N. 2009. Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. New York: Penguin.
Hegel, G.W.F. [1837] 2001. The Philosophy of History. Ontoario: Batoche Books.
Levy-Bruhl, L. 1975. The Notebook on Primitive Mentality. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Magesa, L. 2004. Anatomy of Inculturation: Transforming the Church in Africa. Maryknoll: Orbis Books
Magesa, L. 1997. African Religion: The Moral Tradition of Abundant Life. Maryknoll: Orbis Books
Malidoma, S. 1993. Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community: The African Teachings of the Dagara. Arkana: Penguin.
Mbiti, J. S. 1975. The Prayers of African Religion. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.
Mbiti, S.J. [1969] 1994. African Religion and Philosophy. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
Morgenbesser, S. 2004. Obituary: Professor Sidney Morgenbesser: Philosopher celebrated for his withering New York Jewish humour. The Independent. August 6. http://en.wikiquote.org
Tempels, P. [1959] 2006. Bantu Philosophy. Paris: Presence Afraine. Thomas, D. 2005. African Traditional Religion in the Modern World. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company.
