“Before delving into this essay let me set the record straight on a few facts. (1) Whereas missionary societies in the late 1800’s indeed traveled to Rwanda and Africa to set up shop, they neither brought Jesus, nor Christianity to Rwanda. (2) Whereas Colonization and Christianity, in an African context, are usually seen as two sides of the same coin, they are not. Christianity has to be grasped and evaluated on its own merit in order to be fully comprehended. (3) Whiteness within this piece is used to denote the historical Europeans who are believed to have brought Christianity to Africa.” In this book, Whiteman’s Gospel, Craig Smith examines the false notion that the gospel – or Christianity – is the religion of the ‘Whiteman.’ As a Native American, and vocational evangelist, Smith elaborates that the toughest part of his job is endeavoring to convince his people that Christianity is not a religion that was invented by, or for, the white people. Throughout the entire corpus of his book, he demonstrably builds his argument that Christianity was not founded on the shoulders of Europeans, despite them being part of those to whom it was for. Smith’s argument, in my view, is very relevant for Africans, and Rwandans inparticular. As a deeply religious country, Rwanda has always presented itself as a nation that adores God, and honors the church. We build expensive sanctuaries and cathedrals, go on holy trips to Kibeho, and greatly commemorate Christmas and Easter; we even refer to each other as brother and sister, while jointly dancing together when the chorali or worship team leads us in songs of joy. We are deeply religious. However, we too, just the Native Americans that Smith describes in his book, somehow believe that Christianity is a religion that was gifted to us by the western world. This is a false belief. In this short essay, the first of a three-part series, I intend to argue, and demonstrate, that Christianity is not a western religion, nor was it brought to Africa -and Rwanda – by the Europeans. In fact, the opposite of this is true. Christianity was taken to Europe by the Africans – a bold statement which holds truth. The understanding of Christianity and Africa has to be established on a historical foundation. The beauty of history is that whereas it is almost always written by the victors (quote attributed to Churchill), it never completely dissipates. There is always hope that history can redeem itself because it leaves factual traces behind. Such is the case for Christianity in Africa. If one were to study history of the church, the most prominent and authoritative names in the first five centuries were Augustine, Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Origen, Athanasius, Perpetua, and Felicity to name a few. One common feature exhibited by all these folks, is that there were all African, north African to be precise. However, their African heritage is rarely mentioned when dealing with the topic of early Christianity and its beginnings. These giants of the Christian faith are ascribed to the Roman empire, because their countries (Egypt and Tunisia mainly) had been captured by Alexander the Great, before falling to Romans and being annexed to its empire. This, however, does not erase their naissance as African. The theology gifted to the church universal by these Church fathers and mothers (named such because of their influence in the birth of Christianity), are the foundation upon which Christianity; western, eastern, and African, came to be. The bible and theology (study of the doctrines embedded in the bible) have their foundations in people that were born and bred on the mother continent. So, no! There is no way in which the European missionaries brought God to the continent of Africa. However, it is important to distinguish between schools and hospitals, and Christianity. Missionaries did bring education and hospitals with them. They initiated novel ways of modern science and also taught us, Rwandans, how to speak the language of the West. This is true and factual. But, it is very important to parse the introduction of schools and hospitals with the introduction of Christianity. This is the crux of my argument. So, the questions that now arise, which I will continue to elaborate on in the next two series are; (1) how then did Christianity come to us, if not from the Europeans missionaries; and (2) how did the Europeans own Christianity, which is now hugely ascribed to them? Stay tuned for the next part in which I answer these questions. Having been raised in the church, Darius has always had a passion to study theology/Christianity and its effects in an African context. He is currently a pastoral assistant at Christ Anglican Church in Phoenix, Arizona as he pursues a Masters Degree in Divinity. Darius is married to Diane K Kayiteta, and they live in the phoenix area. The views expressed in this article are of the author.
