Johan Cilliers AFRICAN SPIRITUALIT1

This paper attempts to define African spirituality as being imbedded in culturalcontextual settings, and uses three keywords to do so: ubuntu (community), ubunye (holism) and amandla (vitality). Some African art works are introduced as aesthetic embodiments of these concepts. A short account is given of the three keywords, coupled with an indication of certain indigenous connections with Christian spirituality. There is also a discussion of some movements that have taken place in African Christian spirituality as a consequence of urbanization. 1. AFRICAN (CHRISTIAN) SPIRITUALITY? It is impossible to even begin to talk about African Christian spirituality without trying to say something about African spirituality. The dynamic interaction between African and Christian in this regard indeed provides much food for thought. But it is no easy task to try and define African spirituality as such. As a matter of fact, it is near impossible. It is certainly impossible to do justice to the richness of this concept within the limitations of this paper. Actually, one cannot speak of African culture and spirituality in the singular. Africa is a vast continent, incorporating a wide variety of cultures and ethnic groups. Northern Africa differs totally from Southern Africa. The term “Africa” does not denote one homogenous group. In the previous paragraph I have already made a link between culture and spirituality, as the two cannot be separated. Spirituality is always culturally formed and informed. The formation of spirituality is always cultural-contextual. Culture could, of course, be defined in many ways. According to Raiter and Wilson, it is “those ideas, beliefs, feelings, values, and institutions, which are learned, and by which a group of people order their lives and interpret their experiences, and which give them an identity distinct 1 Associate Professor in Homiletics and Liturgy at the Faculty of Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. 2 I am in the curious position of being a white, Afrikaans-speaking (South) African. I am part of Africa and all that is African. But my religious and theological tradition is also Dutch Reformed, still operating with many Western and specifically European presuppositions. Therefore my attempt to describe “African spirituality” must inevitably be biased and could even be construed as arrogant. This endeavour should, however, not be seen as judgmental, originating from an “outsider”, but as an effort to learn once again from the wisdom and richness of the continent that I am part of.