Some African communities, particularly in Cameroon, have accused the Church of disrespecting their cultures under the guise of inculturation (adapting Christianity to local customs). This has sparked a debate on balancing cultural respect with the integrity of the Catholic faith.

The Wimbum people from Cameroon's North West region recently petitioned the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. They claim that the Catholic Church is desecrating their culture by incorporating elements from their secret societies into religious processions and using secret masquerades in church ceremonies.

The petition strongly condemned these actions, stating "Our traditions are not mere rituals; they are the lifeblood of our identity, connecting us to our ancestors and shaping our existence".

Similar concerns have been raised by the Nso people in the Kumbo Diocese and Cameroon's North West region. These communities argue that the Church's efforts at inculturation are eroding their cultural heritage.

Contrastingly, in Nigeria, Catholic bishops are concerned that some priests are misusing inculturation by incorporating local customs. Some suggest that they are inconsistent with Catholic doctrine.

Father Stan Chu Ilo, a research professor of Ecclesiology and African Studies, criticised certain priests for creating a "shocking liturgical hybridity" that confuses the faithful and undermines the Church's teachings.

Ilo argued that these practices are not rooted in African religious traditions. He suggested they are instead misguided attempts to blend Christianity with local customs.

Make Gospel more accessible

The concept of inculturation, which gained prominence during the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), aims to integrate authentic cultural values into Christianity to make the Gospel more accessible.

However, the process requires a deep understanding of both the Gospel and local cultures.

Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, a Catholic observer in Cameroon, emphasised that inculturation is a "dynamic relationship between the local church and the culture of its people" requiring careful dialogue and study.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja acknowledged the challenges of inculturation, noting that many African communities have spiritual underpinnings that can enrich the Christian faith. However, he cautioned that some conflicts arise from a "colonial mindset" that views African traditions as incompatible with Christianity.

Mbuy and Ilo called for better education and the formation of Catholic priests to ensure that inculturation is undertaken correctly. Mbuy stressed that true inculturation requires collaboration between theologians and cultural experts to ensure that adaptations are appropriate and respectful of both faith and tradition.

Sources

Crux Now

The Nso Cultural and Development Association (NSODA) has written a strongly worded letter warning the Catholic Church against adulterating their culture "in the guise of inculturation".

The Nso is one of the largest clans in Cameroon's north west region.

The NSODA says social media is inundated with videos of "some of the Nso people's most dreaded and sacred masquerades".

NSODA President Tadze Adamu Mbiydzela told Bishop George Nkuo that churches and church premises in Kumbo diocese have been showing these videos "all in the name of inculturation".

It is time to denounce the Church's actions! The Nso people are angry!

The Church must stop its "provocative moot displays of our culture... under the guise of inculturation".

NSODA is threatening court action if the valueless displays continue.

Catholic inculturation abusive

NSODA is dedicated to its socio-cultural development. But the Church is eroding the Nso culture, Mbiydzela wrote.

Thanking Nkuo for the benefits the Church offers Nso people, Mbiydzela said "We remain indebted and sincerely grateful to your Lordship".

Bur Mbiydzela said he is most upset with the Church's use of Nso's sacred masquerades.

The idea of inculturation has been "wantonly and severely abused" by Catholics he wrote. It is "a shocking desecration of our culture and tradition".

Cultural erosion

To appropriate the Nso culture for inculturating Catholics might work for the Church but it will completely destroy the Nso culture, Mbiydzela told Nkuo.

"If ... care is not taken to protect our cultural heritage, which is our identity, then with the passage of time our culture will be completely eroded in the guise of inculturation."

The "body" of the Nso "is built from her cultural heritage. If it is not seriously protected it shall be lost, and Nso as a kingdom be eroded into an abyss".

Inculturation a complex process

Cameroon Bishops' Conference spokesman Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy says Cameroon "has not even started inculturation.

"We are at the stage of accommodation and adaptation" to what exists, he says.

Decisions about whether to bring masquerades to church need to answer various critical questions, he explains.

Two questions would be: What do those masquerades mean in the Nso culture? How would they help Christians become better Christians?

Inculturation doesn't mean bringing anything to Church, or singing any songs, he says - though some songs being sung in Church have nothing to do with praising God.

Successful inculturation

Successful inculturation needs anthropologists' expertise so the selected cultural approaches align to fundamental Gospel principles.

Professor Nathan Chase from the Aquinas Institute of Theology says inculturation was fundamental to the early Church but always provoked disagreements.

"In every case, those in favour of inculturation ... won the argument" he says.

Religion and culture are inherently connected: Jesus was a Jew, many early Christians were Greek, he says.

"The fingerprints of Jewish and Greek culture are all over the Church. The issue is not whether they are connected, but how they should relate to one another.

"They must always be mutually informing one another, learning from one another."

Source

• Crux Now

In his address at the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon on April 9, Cardinal Sarah (pictured) emphasised the pivotal role of the African Church in preserving the Word of God.

He contrasted it with what he sees as Western Christians being swayed by misleading notions of enlightenment and modernity.

Cardinal Sarah said "At the next session of the Synod, it is vital that the African Bishops speak in the name of the unity of faith. And not in the name of particular cultures."

Fragmented truth

Cardinal Sarah applauded the commitment of African Church representatives to traditional teachings.

This was despite facing disregard and ridicule from those he accused of catering to Western interests.

"Your voice has been ignored and mocked by those whose only aim is to please Western lobbies" he said.

He urged African Catholics to continue opposing what he termed a "fragmented truth" and a "dictatorship of relativism" during the synod.

Cardinal Sarah lauded Catholic Bishops in Cameroon for their collective stance against Fiducia Supplicans.

The controversial declaration permitted the blessing of same-sex couples. He said this was the latest example of a push for "the culture of relativism" rather than the "universality of faith".

Fiducia Supplicans buried

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, a member of the Council of Cardinals, voiced agreement with Cardinal Sarah.

"I followed with much attention Cardinal Sarah's address and I think what he said is true.

"Fiducia Supplicans wasn't primarily about cultural aspects; rather, it was best approached through the perspectives of theology, morality, the Bible and the Magisterium" Cardinal Ambongo said.

"The Church in Africa is united in communion, there is no division. I think that all over the world, people agree and are in one accord with the Church in Africa" Ambongo said, adding "This is the reason why we shall no longer talk about Fiducia Supplicans; it has been buried".

Sources

Katholische

ACI Africa

CathNews New Zealand

The Republic's Public Health Ministry authorised sales of Archbishop Samuel Kleda's medicinal recipes as an "adjuvant" or supplementary aid to fighting COVID-19 infections.

"This is in response to your application for a Cameroonian marketing authorization for your improved traditional medicines called 'Adsak Covid, bottle and Covid elixir of 125 ml'," the Ministry said.

"I have the honor to inform you that your file has received a favorable opinion by the National Medical Commission, which met in session from May 17 to 19, 2021.".

This authoriszation is valid for a period of three years.

Kleda, 62, was named coadjutor archbishop of Douala in 2007 and became ordinary in 2009. He has practiced traditional medicine for 30 years.

During the past year Kleda has been offering people ill with the COVID-19 virus the medication he developed using medicinal plants from the African savannas.

The medicines' main elements are Trichilia emetica, a plant from the savannas of northern Cameroon, supplemented by a variety of aloe vera. It is not toxic,

A number of prominent Cameroonians, including those in the government, have acclaimed the archbishop's treatment.

In May last year, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute met with Kleda to inform him that President Paul Biya supported his traditional medication.

The government has also sought his advice. A month after his meeting with Ngute, Kleda was invited to a special session of parliament that discussed the use of traditional medicines in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

A few months later in September, Kleda held a press briefing to assure people his remedies are safe and effective.

"The protocol effectively treats the coronavirus with respect for standardization norms and the manufacturing process," he said.

"The mixture is not toxic and does not produce any side effects. No patient has ever presented any discomfort after taking the treatment," he added.

Nor has anyone he's treated with his herbal mixtures died. "Even patients on respirators have been saved," he said.

Cameroon's COVID-19 Response Fund has been criticized by the supreme court's audit bench, which highlighted the "erratic management" of drugs used for treatment. The government has also been overcharged for screening tests.

According to official figures, the overall vaccination rate of its about 26-million population is just 15 percent.

There may be hope on the horizon, however, in the shape of support from donations from other countries.

The Africa Report says the US is planning to send additional vaccine stocks to seven African countries, including Cameroon.

The US will be sending Cameroon 303,050 doses of J&J vaccine, the newspaper says.

During the past year, Cameroon has been simultaneously dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and cholera outbreaks. There are currently over 81,000 confirmed cases and have been about 1,330 deaths.

Source

• La Croix
• The Africa Report
• Image: Reuters

Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala made the announcement on September 10 during a press briefing in which he claimed that the herbal potion he concocted several months ago had saved several thousand people from the disease.

The 61-year-old prelate, who has headed the Atlantic coastal archdiocese since 2009, has been practicing phytotherapy for about thirty years.

His treatment for COVID-19 is based on medicinal plants from the African savannas — mainly Trichilia emetica, found in northern Cameroon, and a variety of aloe vera. Read more

On 16 February, unidentified gunmen came into the campus of Saint Augustine's College, in the northwest region, and 170 students, two college security guards, one teacher and three of his children. Read more

The nuns were abducted last week when they were travelling through the country. None of them knew their captors.

They spent the day and night with their abductors as negotiations went on for their release. They were released the next day.

According to the United Nations (UN), ransom payments by some parents and the intervention of the Catholic diocese of Kumba secured the nuns' release.

The UN says besides the 13 nuns, in the past two weeks eight students and a teacher have been kidnapped in the southwest of the country. The nuns were kidnapped in the northwest.

The UN is thus urging all parties to refrain from acts of violence that have forced residents to live in fear, unable to exercise their fundamental human rights for more than a year.

Press briefing notes issued on Tuesday from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, say the UN is deeply concerned about the worsening violence in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon.

The UN is continuing to receive reports of abductions and killings by armed groups, as well as extrajudicial killings by State armed forces.

The press briefing notes say the UN is urging "all sides to refrain from acts of violence that have, for more than a year now, left the population in these regions living in fear, unable to access their basic human rights."

Source

• La Croix
• Africa News
• Relief Web
• Image: The Independent Uganda

Noting the Church is the largest religious group in the country, the International Crisis Group says there are few alternative prospective peacemakers.

They say if the peacemaker role is not filled, the Anglophone separatist movement in Cameroon will continue to grow.

This will fuel further violence and exacerbate the ongoing insurgency in the Anglophone regions. The country's elections late this year will act as "a flashpoint" for further violence.

The Church - representing about 40% of all Cameroonians - has been a vocal civil society group all through the crisis in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest (Anglophone) regions. It has repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

The roots of the crisis are nearly 60 years old. Put simply, there are two factions in Cameroon. One group speaks and is educated in English, the other in French.

The linguistic differences are a result of two territories with different colonial legacies being united into one state in 1961.

Since 2016, English speakers - constituting 20 percent of Cameroon's over 24 million people - have been protesting. They say they have been grossly marginalised by the Francophone-dominated administration.

They have complained about the use of French in Common Law courts and Anglophone schools. They are accusing the government of razing villages and extrajudicial killings in their hunt against separatists.

Protests, strikes and other activities arguing for federalism or separation from the union are being sought by the Anglophones.

Separatists have also been accused of atrocities, have attacked Cameroonian security forces and have kidnapped opponents for ransom.

On 30 April, separatists kidnapped Father William Neba, the principal of a Catholic college, in the middle of Mass, although he was released later.

The International Crisis Group estimates at least 100 civilians and 43 soldiers have been killed in the conflict in the last seven months. It is not known how many militants have been killed.

There are also about 34,000 refugees "sheltering in precarious conditions in Nigeria and about 40,000 persons are displaced in the Southwest Anglophone region."

Equinoxe TV reporters say the Cameroon government has banned the Catholic Church from extending humanitarian aid to persons fleeing the security crisis in the restive Anglophone regions.

Source

• Crux Now
• Africa News
• Image: Quartz

It could help break the stalemate between separatists and security forces, the Group says.

"Other than the Catholic clergy, there are few prospective peacemakers." Read more