The Influence and Incorporation of Christianity into Traditional African Practices

Shayla Schumacher

Minnesota State University, Mankato

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The Influence and Incorporation of Christianity into Traditional African Practices

Historically, Islam has been the more significant of world religions present in Africa,

however Christianity has since become the dominant religion throughout Africa due to mass

colonialism (Gray, 1982). Thus, Christianity has had great social and political influence in

African societies. Christianity has been popular throughout Africa for several reasons as it often

catered to society’s minorities such as women and children. It also provided answers and

explanations for their spiritual needs and wants. Christianity, both directly and indirectly, has had

“probably the most fundamental, widespread, and creative effect of any element entering Africa

south of the Sahara in modern time” (Ross, 1955, p. 168). It has fundamentally changed the way

African societies are built, the course of politics, and people’s overall outlook on life. In many

African cultures, Christianity has been integrated with traditional beliefs and practices as it

provided additional teachings and practices that filled the spiritual needs of their communities.

According to Jack David Eller (2015), Christianity has become an indigenous religion to

many parts of the world. This includes Africa as it has blended with the traditional local religions

and practices. It arrived in Africa with colonialism as many colonists saw Christianity as the

“modern religion and as key to having a modern society and to being a modern individual in that

society” (Eller, 2015, p. 191). Along with colonialism, Christianity changed many of the

fundamental parts of African cultures including dress, speech, marriage, gender roles, education,

health care, etc. (Eller, 2015). As many Christian teachings and practices focused on little

everyday things, society as whole started to change as people incorporated these ideologies into

their lives.

According to anthropologist Jonathan Benthall (1982) from University College London,

Christianity has become “intricately fused with traditional religions and, despite the parallel
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penetration of Islam, Christianity is now irrevocably set to become the major religion of the

continent” (p. 2). Christianity was introduced to most of Africa as part of colonialism. For

example, in Congo, Catholic missions introduced and implemented Christian doctrines, this

included initiatives for education and grammar (Benthall, 1982). Anthropologist Jean Comaroff

(1991), analyzes missionary work in South Africa in the essay “Missionaries and Mechanical

Clocks: An Essay on Religion and History in South Africa”. According to Comaroff (1991), part

of colonialism is the ability to control the processes at which they are taught Christianity and

“western thinking” to ensure that they practice it the same way the missionaries do. Religious

colonization was not done by military or political conquest. Missionaries often found it difficult

to overcome language and culture barriers as they did not always try to learn their cultures and

traditions (Comaroff, 1991). African Christianity did not conform directly to that of Western

ideologies. Missionaries focused their efforts on converting “outer” transformations first in hopes

of converting the “inner” ideologies and beliefs of the people. They started to transform African

dress, bodies, and subsistence production (Comaroff, 1991). Since the beginning, Christian

missionaries have been involved in the politics of colonization and have aided in changing the

class structure found in African societies (Comaroff, 1991).

Between 1900 and 1970, Africans who identified as Christians rose from four million to

126 million (Gabbert, 2001). The success of Christianity depended on several factors and

missionaries were more “successful” in some regions over others. Factors included different

conflicts between the sexes, generations, social classes, and the various political fractions

throughout the communities the missionaries were in (Gabbert, 2001). Christian missions also

brought innovation and advancement to Africa. They were committed to both Christianity and

commerce, they worked to eradicate the slave trade, and to improve contact within the Christian
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world (Gray, 1982). However, one of the biggest contributions missionaries made was improving

literacy throughout Africa. To many Christian missionaries, it was extremely important that the

converts were able to read and understand the bible, they therefore had to focus on education. In

order to teach literacy, they had to commit to and establish schools (Gray, 1982). The idea of

education grew popular quickly throughout Africa and governments saw an increasing demand

for schools. Missionaries were often able to fulfill these demands first as they could work outside

the limitations of the colonial rulers. As a result, the colonial powers started to see more

resistance from educated Africans due to the missionary education system (Gray, 1982).

Christianity looked more desirable as time went on because it portrayed a life that some

people wished to have. For example, some societies were based heavily on a generational and

social class, where the elders controlled the cattle and thus were able to control the bride-prices

(Gabbert, 2001). However, with the introduction of colonial rule, and subsequently Christianity,

alternative sources of power, prestige, and wealth emerged, giving the younger men a chance to

depend less on the older generations (Gabbert, 2001). This allowed them to advance in society

with the introduction of the middle class. This weakened the power and authority of the elders as

society started to rely and value other forms of wealth, instead of the traditional control of cattle.

In some cultures, the village elders were believed to have control over parts of life such as

fertility in both humans and cattle, and the fruitfulness of their fields (Gabbert, 2001). However,

these practices changed when colonizers came. They worked to minimize war and conflict and

introduced commercialized crops which diminished the need to rely on lineage. Christianity had

early influence in African societies by stressing the idea of individual choice and power,

something that was unique among most relationship and lineage based cultures (Ross, 1955).

With the diminishing reliance on lineage, younger members of communities had opportunities to
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become equals in the villages. Christian churches gave these people the possibilities of holding

administrative and authoritative positions both within the churches and within the community.

Christianity also changed the role of women in society. Traditionally, women were

considered subordinate to men and had to obey them at all times. With the introduction of

Christianity, women were able to become both full members of the church as well as elders

(Gabbert, 2001). For example, women opportunities to obtain social status and independence

from their husbands in Zambia (Bond, 1987). With the introduction of capitalism and

commercialization, men started to go into more industrial work while women mainly did

agricultural labor. In the Church, women were allowed to have more authoritative roles and

gained some power. This included becoming deacons and elders and obtaining responsibility

with administrative roles (Bond, 1987). Because of this, the Christian church saw more women

join and be active members, while men (especially elders) stayed with their traditional religion,

the ancestral cults.

The Church also advocated for a woman’s right to choose to get married and condemned

domestic abuse (Gabbert, 2001). According to David Livingstone, the husband must become a

“jack-of-all-trades without doors, the wife a maid-of-all-work within” (as cited in Comaroff,

1991, p. 13). To change the role of women, converts were to wear constricting clothing and

remain indoors doing domestic work (Comaroff, 1991). The African anthropologist Absolom

Vilakzi observed that in Zululand, Christian men would do agricultural work such as weeding

and other typical domestic duties of women (as cited in Porterfield, 1997). In some cultures,

Christian women were expected to go and work to meet ends meet, encouraging them to become

teachers, nurses, domestics, and factory workers (Porterfield, 1997). In Zulu culture, traditional

African women worked in the field.

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American missionaries often thought that Zulu women should be held to Christianity’s

standards in terms of marriage and family life (Porterfield, 1997). This provides an example of

how the implementation of Christianity hurt an African culture. The missionaries never

considered the negative impact of the Christian’s idea of patriarchy to the Zulu culture and the

Zulu practice of polygamy. One of the problems that missionaries can face is the

misinterpretation of a culture’s practice. Such as the Zulu tradition of exchanging cattle for

marriage. American missionaries viewed this exchange as the Zulu culture treating women as

nothing more than cattle and that they are considered property (Porterfield, 1997). However, in

Zulu culture, this exchange, known as lobolo, was a complex religious ritual of social

importance, as the exchange of cattle represented the loss of the bride’s future children to her

family (Porterfield, 1997). This simplistic view of this ritual by the missionaries aided in Zulu

women losing status, protection, and respect in the Zulu culture (Porterfield, 1997).

While missionaries had the intent on liberating the Zulu women from patriarchal

oppression, they actually degraded the importance of women in Zulu culture and limited their

opportunities. In response to this, missionaries saw African women resist and rise up against

them (Porterfield, 1997). Interestingly, most of the first people who converted to Christianity

were women as women were already more traditionally known as diviners in Zulu culture

(Porterfield, 1997). Although still patriarchal, Christianity included the freedom of expression

and more gender equality than women experienced in their traditional culture. Women would go

to mission stations to escape bad marriages or avoid getting married (Porterfield, 1997). The

Zulus were aware of the importance of tradition in their culture and resented the missionaries

that came in and changed the role of women increasing hostility and tensions. Furthermore,
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missionaries were encouraged to adopt and train native assistants to help spread their work in the

communities. This was especially prevalent with the rise of Pentecostalism Christianity.

Pentecostalism Christianity rose up in many places that were traditionally Catholic. It

started in the United States in the late 1800s and traveled to Africa in the early 1900s (Ngalula,

2017). It is not a sect of Christianity more like a style that stresses the “gifts of grace” and the

“presence of the Holy Spirit” (Eller, 2015, p. 195). Pentecostalism has been popular around the

world, including Africa, especially with women, as its membership is roughly seventy-five

percent women (Eller, 2015). This style focuses on gender roles and it is often believed that

women have greater spiritual gifts than men and that Pentecostal churches allow them to access

these powers (Eller, 2015). In many Pentecostal churches converts were expected to break away

from their African traditions and ancestral customs as they were often considered “satanic” or

“servitude to evil spirits” (Ngalula, 2017, p. 234).

One of the reasons Christianity was able to quickly spread and continue to grow was due

to the idea of “African initiatives” where African churches broke off and separated from the

original missions, “Christianity was no longer an alien intrusion but a faith that had become

indigenous” (Gray, 1982, p. 61). African initiated churches were started by Africans for Africans

and developed from the missionary movements found in Africa (Ngalula, 2017). They

incorporated both traditional African practices and Christian ideologies into their teachings.

These churches were African based, as they taught that Adam and Eve were African, the Son of

God was African, the Holy Spirit incarnated in Africans, and that the original sin was witchcraft

practices (Ngalula, 2017). Similarly, Africans created their own Pentecostal churches, breaking

away from the original churches and creating a new church with stronger African ties (Ngalula,

2017). As witchcraft and the existence of sorcerers and evil have historically played a major role
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in African cultures, these African initiated churches incorporated Christian practices along with

traditional practices against evil and witchcraft (Ngalula, 2017).

One area that has seen a big difference between African practices and Christianity

involves their beliefs after death. In many African cultures, death is greatly feared yet respected

as most value having a relationship with their ancestors (Gray, 1978.) Many Africans felt that

becoming an ancestor was highly desirable however they will eventually become a forgotten

spirit (Gray, 1978.) Africans were wearied of the Christian views of life after death; heaven and

hell. However, the idea of baptizing (and thus ensuring them of heaven after death) was

appealing to those who wished to convert (Gray, 1978.)

In Zimbabwe, the main Anglican church was initially unpopular, however Anglicans

were eventually able to create a local popularity. This resulted in the Church being removed from

the control of the bishop to that of the community (Benthall, 1982). These churches followed the

idea of African initiatives, with the local communities taking control of the churches and

incorporating traditional African practices into the Christian teachings. This allowed Christianity

to further become integrated into African cultures as it filled in spiritual gaps traditional African

practices had. This included beliefs in life after death, why misfortunes and diseases happened

and ways to combat witchcraft. Christianity also brought changes to the organization of the

social classes in many African societies.

There seems to be a correlation between the implementation of Christianity and the

creation of an “African bourgeoisie” following the idea of white middle classes that the

missionaries came from (Benthall, 1982, p.2). Along with the introduction of colonialism, came

the idea of the working middle class found in Western cultures. Colonizers, as well as

missionaries, worked to bring places such as Kenya into the global market economy.
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Encouraging the creation of a middle class. Most traditional African societies were structured in

a way that did not allow for a middle class, there were the elders and then everyone else, with

each person contributing to the well-being of the community. However, the introduction of

colonialism, and subsequently Christianity brought missionaries to these communities, which

also brought a different way of living. Most of these missionaries were middle class and

introduced the indigenous populations to the lifestyle of the white middle class. This included a

change in gender roles as women were expected to work domestically and take care of the

household. They were still considered inferior to the men but they did have more opportunities to

advance their freedoms.

From the start, the Christian African movement relied on Africans to push its agenda and

make it successful. According to social anthropologist Robin Horton (1971), Africans would also

convert to Christianity as the result of being successfully treated for disease of misfortunes by

Christian practices, gaining better protection within Christian churches, or they were encouraged

by relatives and other converts. They often saw Christianity as a benefit to society as

missionaries did work on improving social and political conditions such as the slave trade. As

some Christians believed that the slave trade was against the image of God they started to work

towards ending it (Manala, 2013). From this humanitarian standpoint, Christian missionaries

worked to apply other religious practices and ideas, including the importance of education,

medicine and health care, and agricultural advancements (Ross, 1955). They started to see a

decline (and continue to see a decline) in child mortality rates and an increase in life

expectancies (Manala, 2013). This is due to the increased practices of modern medicine that

continues to improve every year. As a result of the “success” of Christianity and modern
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ideologies, many African cultures eventually saw the reduction in the beliefs in superstitions,

fears, and other oppressions (Ross, 1955).

The introduction of Christianity into African cultures was a process of continuous

interpretations and reassessments, often with a great deal of misunderstandings early on (Gray,

1982). Most times the goals of Christian missionaries were not to learn about traditional

practices, but rather introduce Christianity and convert has many people as possible. Initially,

some of the Christian beliefs and symbols were simply absorbed into the indigenous religions

(Gray, 1982). However, Christianity eventually adopted new characteristics which allowed it to

become indigenous itself. For example, the idea of evil in African societies was often represented

by negative spiritual forces such as sorcerers and witches. Because of this, Africans, early on,

interpreted the idea of Christ as a spiritual power who can cleanse the village from the evil and

from witchcraft (Gray, 1982). Thus, some people, such as the ruler of the Yao at Masasai in

Tanzania, welcomed Christianity into their region as they believed it would drive out witchcraft

(Gray, 1982).

African Christianity latched onto the concept of prayer and incorporated it into many of

their traditional practices. They believed in God and that God had strong “moral concern” and

would punish sinners with diseases and other misfortunes, in turn rewarding the good with good

health and successes (Horton, 1971). They also strongly believed in the power of prayer and

believed that when they prayed to God, they would receive definite results and see diseases being

cured, financial success, and other life successes (Horton, 1971). They believed that for prayer to

work that had to take into account the ways of God set by the bible and observe taboos such as

not eating pork, drinking alcohol, having contact with menstruating women, and wearing shoes

in a prayer-house, otherwise the prayer may not come true (Horton, 1971). Thus, they blended
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the Christian practice of prayer with traditional superstitions and rituals. Prayers could fail as a

result of moral lapse, ignorance, or the neglecting of taboos (Horton, 1971).

In some African cultures, Christianity was incorporated and blended with their traditional

beliefs. For example, in some societies, Christ is “perceived as the medicine-man, and the

medicine-man as Christ” (Benthall, 1982, p. 3). The medicine-man is a very important member

of African communities and they consider Christ as the perfect medicine-man. Another example

is the Azande society, where Catholicism has been able to peaceful coexist with the traditional

beliefs and practices (Benthall, 1982, p. 3). In West Africa, however, Christ is often associated

with local divinities and the ideas of salvation, they also place a larger emphasis on the Holy

Spirit and believe in spirit possession (Benthall, 1982, p. 3). When it came to instances of

sickness and infertility, Africans often sought to eliminate the work of witchcraft by using

positive spiritual assistance through cults and spiritual healing (Gray, 1982). However, African

Christians found new practices in the New Testament. They found that Christ and his Apostles

also practiced spiritual healing, this lead African Christians to start practicing the Western

medicine that the white missionaries brought over (Gray, 1982). This was due to the idea that

since they practice Christianity, these medical practices were similar to what Jesus practiced.

Christianity found most of its success in Africa by blending and incorporating traditional

practices with it, as the “change from one religious community to another does not necessarily

imply a change in fundamental convictions” (Gabbert, 2001, p. 292). Many Africans took to

Christianity because it filled some of the spiritual needs their societies demanded (Gray, 1982).

In many ways, Christianity complimented indigenous religions and practices. In Zambia,

Christianity has blended and coexisted along with the preexisting religious ideologies. The

existence of ancestor cults in Zambia created a society based off of structural relationships
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(Bond, 1987). Christianity, on the other hand, emphasized autonomy and self-interest. The

introduction of colonialism, and therefore capitalism, brought the ability for someone to have

more autonomy and mobility within society (Bond, 1987). Social order started to develop around

industrial complexes and the introduction of education. The commercial economy was also

introduced, changing the dynamic of agriculture. “Productive units” consisted of a man, his

wives, and their children, and they started to grow maize and beans for both their consumption

and for commercial use (Bond, 1987).

Rather than completely converting to Christian practices, Zambians instead incorporated

Christian ideologies into their traditional beliefs and practices. For example, African ritual

practitioners would claim they were possessed by Christian spirits and they believed that through

singing, chanting, and using Christian symbols such as the cross, they could harness powers.

According to anthropologist George C. Bond (1987), they “opened themselves to the Christian

God, Chiuta, and received his word and special powers” (p. 62). Through these powers, they

claimed they could both heal and better interpret the word of God. This allowed Christianity to

catch on and help spread it throughout Africa. Similarly, Zambians used Christian practices to

ward off evil and witchcraft. Instead of relying on traditional diviners, Zambians looked to the

Christian practices of baptism and prayer to cleanse the church of witchcraft (Gray, 1982).

Interestingly, African anthropologist Peter Pels (1997) from the University of Leiden

found that Christian missionaries are partially responsible for the emergence of ethnology and

anthropology in African colonies as missionary education played a role in the spread of language

and ethnic identities. In many ways missionaries are responsible for most of the information and

studies done on the effects of Christianity in Africa. Missionaries likely had more substantial

records of unknown languages throughout Africa than anthropologists as colonial relationships

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require a “language of command” (Pels, 1997, p. 171). These practices have helped

anthropologists better understand religion and the blending of multiple religions, both indigenous

and new, in Africa and how it has permanently changed the foundations of African cultures and

practices.

Christianity was able to find success in Africa as it filled the spiritual needs of traditional

African religions as Africans integrated Christian teachings into their lives. Christianity saw

more success when it worked with the local religion rather than trying to replace it. For many

Africans, Christianity filled gaps in their spiritual needs and brought practices and beliefs that

embraced their traditions and help them to better understand their environment (Gray, 1982). In

many African societies, Christianity looked appealing as it provided people an opportunity to

create a new social and economic status for themselves (Gabbert, 2001). It allowed people to

have more mobility within their community and rely less on their lineage. Christianity also

benefited the minorities of society (the women and children) by creating a standard of ethics and

giving women more freedom. In many areas, Christianity gave women more status in society and

allowed them to have authority, rights, and privileges (Bond, 1987). It is possible for two

different religions to coexist. For example, in Zambia, their ancestor cult persisted even after the

introduction of Christianity. It remained as a “lived-in domain” and focused on both individual

and collective experiences by remaining rooted in the power of relationships (Bond, 1987, p. 70).

The ancestral cult was able to remain as the introduction of capitalism was uneven and more

focused on economic transformation in the rural parts of the region. Without the introduction of

Christianity into Africa, African societies would be shaped differently than they are today. Since

the introduction of Christianity, it has become an indigenous religion similar to that of traditional

African practices.
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