Shap Journal 2001/2002

Living Community

I am Because We Are:
Community in Africa

Clement Katulushi

Africa is the world's second largest continent.
Its religions include Islam in the North and
on the east coast as far south as Northern
Mozambique. Below the Sahara, African
Traditional Religions survive alongside Christianity
(both Catholic and Protestant) in many central and
southern areas. In 1988, Africa's population was
estimated at 610 million; more than double the 1960
population of 278 million, and rising to an estimated
900 million by 2000. It has an annual growth rate of
3% (10 times greater than Europe). However, 27% of the
world's undernourished people live in sub-Saharan
Africa, where an estimated 2 5 million are facing famine.
Due to poor economies struggling under a huge debt
burden, and a growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, most
African communities have suffered high infant mortality
rates, low life expectancy and strenuous living
conditions. In this article, I shall make specific reference
to my own home country Zambia - a totally landlocked
country, sharing borders with Angola, Botswana,
Namibia, Zaire, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. This is
where I was born, grew up and worked as a teacher
before undertaking doctoral study at Leeds University.

There are over 1,000 languages spoken in Africa. These
belong to the Niger-Kordofanian languages (e.g.
Mandinke) and Bantu spoken over half of Africa from
Mauritania in the West to South Africa (e.g. Bemba,
Zulu); Nilo-Saharan languages (e.g. Nuer, and Masai),
spoken in central Africa from the bend of the Niger River
to the foothills of Ethiopia; Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic)
languages, (e.g. Berber, Ethiopian, and Amharic),
spoken north of the equator; and Khoisan languages
with 'click' consonants spoken by the Kung, Khoikhoi,
and Nama people of Namibia. In Zambia, there are 73
languages spoken. Whilst English is the official language
and medium of instruction in schools, Zambian peoples
are mainly Bantu speaking.

Communities and Big Men

There are three discernible social groups which
formed the framework of the African ancestral
society. In particular among the Bemba of Zambia, these
were (a) 'ing'anda' or house, the smallest unit of co-
operation, (b) 'umushi' or village, the unit of defence.
and (c) 'icalo' or the district, the unit of settlement. Each
ing'anda freely chose which village its members wanted
to belong to, in turn each village chose other villages as
allies to make up a district. Each house was led by
abakalamba, big men or recognised leaders. Abakalamba
were chosen because of their achievements and their
positions were not inherited. Their deeds were talked
about, they had many wives, attracted friends, clients
and other dependants to join their ing'anda. Ing'anda
varied from 10 to 40 people depending on the ideal
labour force for agriculture, trapping or hunting in the
area. Abakalamba were not always male. Phiri (1997:
30) describes how women such as Makewana performed
the role of chieftainship in Malawian traditional society.

The basic idea of community in most African societies is
generally based on the philosophy of ubiintu. Ubuntu,
from the Bantu people of Sub-Saharan Africa, simply
means being human. It may be used to denote the
essence of humanity. Depending on the context, ubiintu
may refer to an individual's quality of life, as perceived
and approved by the community. [I have to add here
that African communities have changed and that
certain traditional practices such as polygamy, wife-
inheritance, belief in spirits, which were crucial in the
past, are either changing or disappearing.]

An African community includes not only one's
immediate family, the extended family and other blood
relations, but also the spirits of the ancestors, the 'Living
Dead'. Such a broad application of the African
community means that the community has roots in the
past which maintain both the present and the future.
Thus the African community lives in time past, time
present and time future. This is made possible by the
continued reverence of the spirits, who link the living
and the dead together in a symbiotic relationship.

John Mbiti's (1990) comment, 'I am because we are,
because we are. I am', sums up the African
understanding of community. Individuals find meaning
and security because they belong to community.
Community bestows on its members identity,
recognition, personality and worth. The socialising
nature of community, especially by means of an
indigenous education system, ensures that African
peoples are bound by a sense of belonging and obligation.

Through a process of implicit and explicit teaching
methods, African children were continuously taught
about the importance of the family, respect for elders
and authority, the value of experience, social obligations
and knowing one's place in society (Katulushi, 1999:
106). Rites of passage, which varied from people to
people, were crucial stages to fuller admission into
community. From birth, death and beyond, the
individual was in a process of transition and
acceptability into the community. Death was merely a
culmination of the maturing process whereby the
individual could join the sub-community of ancestors.
Victor Turner in The Forest a/Symbols: Aspects ofNdembu
Ritual (1967), and other works, explored the
complexities of symbolism in ritual. His concept of
'communitas', illustrated a bonding social relationship
that occurs in 'liminality'. Liminality occurs during
changes in an individual's, or group's, social status and
cultural or psychological state, for example, during rites
of passage and on pilgrimages.

The basis of an African community was primarily the
family. In a broader sense of the word abantu (people).
one's family included all those one was related to by
blood and through marriage. Blood relatives were one's
children, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, nephews,
parents and grandparents, and by extension all those
related to these relatives. Emecheta (1976: 68) shows in
The Bride Price how 'nearly everyone in Ibuza was
related. They all knew each other, the tales of one
another's ancestors, their histories and heroic deeds'.
Kinship was strengthened in various degrees by
marriage, so that various categories of in-laws became
members of the greater extended family. The family was
the crucial link to the clan. The key function of the clan
was to provide protection and stability to the families
and family members. Clan members shared a name and
story of origin. Clans were permanent and the members
were spoken of as a people descended from a single
ancestor.

'Belonging' in African communities was made possible
by blood ties or relationships forged through the
extended family and encompassing the wider
community and ancestral spirits, the Living Dead. While
the traditional ways of ancestor veneration may have
changed or disappeared in the present, it is still possible
to find traces of the African sense of community, identity
and obligation sustained in subtle or modified ways. The
late Zairean president Mobutu Seseseko encouraged his
people to reject Western names in favour of African
names. In modern African societies, people trace their
membership to communities through blood ties and
clan names. Name dropping partly serves to state a
claim to the aspect of belonging. Tribalism, bias in
favour of one's ethnic group, also survives as a link to
the greater extended family.

The Village

Early African villages displayed a nomadic feature.
They moved on instead of dying and in this sense
they lived and had an impression of permanence and
security. On average, a village consisted of just over 100
people. The earliest village sites date back to the stone
age. There was a central village square with rectangular
huts along the side. The square was a place of authority.
The village headman was given due respect, he received
a portion of every hunt. Each village had its own area
which it defended against outsiders. There were two
types of war often declared between villages, 'restricted
war' and 'destructive war'. Restricted war was
controlled and damage was limited, once one or two
people were injured, the fighting was stopped and the
conflict settled. Destructive war had no rules as it was
intended to destroy or chase away the enemy. In Kenya,
up to 2,000 Kikuyu people were killed and 50,000
made homeless between 1991 and 1994 in attacks by
Masai and Kalenjin peoples attempting to oust them
from the Rift Valley. Land is still an emotive concern in
most African societies today. It is an issue which divides
the sense of community identity and belonging in present-
day Zimbabwe.

In the village, everyone knew their station, accepted it
and lived according to expectations (Katulushi, 2000:
48). As Emecheta (1976: 68) says, 'Nothing was hidden
.... It was the duty of every member of the town to find
out and know his neighbour's business'. Conformity
generally meant performing the predominant activities.
For example, the Dinka, who inhabit the lands around
the river system that flows into the White Nile, are
primarily cattle herders. The Sotho of Lesotho, living in
small village groups, are mainly farmers. The Kikuyu
are primarily cultivators, although many are highly
educated and have entered the professions. The Yoruba,
the majority ethnic group living in South West Nigeria,
established powerful city states in the 15th century.
They are known for their advanced culture which
includes sculpture, art, and music. Yoruba religion puts
'Olonm' as their Supreme god, who supervised the
creation of human beings and gave them life. Orisha Nia
is the first of the lesser gods and subject to OJorun, on
whose orders he undertook the tasks of the creation of
the earth and living things. There are other gods, such
as Orunmila, the benevolent god of divination whose
name means 'Heaven knows Salvation', Oya the Mother
goddess, who controls storms, and Shango the thunder
god and fourth king of the Yoruba, whose symbols are
an axe and a ram. Another African people are the
Shona of Zimbabwe whose main activity is farming.
They lived in scattered villages but their heritage, the
Great Zimbabwe are extensive stone architectural ruins
near Victoria in Mashonaland. The structure was
probably the work of the Shona who established their rule
about CE 1000 and who mined minerals for trading.

Obligation

Belonging to the community carries with it the
benefit of security and stability in times of need.
However, the consequences of neglecting to fulfil certain
communal obligations and the failure to observe societal
values could result in severe punishment for the
offender. Achebe's Things Fall Apart describes two forms
of punishment typical in most African societies. The first
is the type of punishment which is visited upon the
entire community, for example in the aftermath of defeat
in war, owing to disharmony in the village, or failure to
venerate the spirits of the ancestors. The killing of a boy
Ikemefuna is the sacrifice made upon the entire village
although it has specific effects on individuals. Among
the Dinka, sacrifice was not always meant to placate
angry spirits, but also served as a channel of
communication. The sacrifice of oxen formed a central
component of the faith, carried out by leaders known as
the 'Spear-Masters', powerful figures guiding the
people's destiny.

The second form of punishment is that which befalls an
individual. Okonkwo's banishment is an individual
penalty although it affects his immediate family
members, his wife and children and household for
whom he is directly responsible. In modern Africa, the
sense of communal punishment is not as strong as it
was in Africa's earlier history. As the family patterns
have changed, so have communities. The extreme forms
of punishment, such as killing a young girl who has
become pregnant out of wedlock, as used to be the case
for example in Uganda (Tiberondwa, A.K. (1978), is no
longer the case (although most African families still
experience a deep sense of shame and despair when this
happens). It is from the sense of going back into time
that one needs to read much of Africa's early literature.

Literature

Most African writers give a sense of the changes
which have transformed African communities
over the past fifty years. One feature of the African
community which has become increasingly important is
the printed word. However, African literature was
mainly oral until the 20th century and oral traditions of
proverbs (Lozi people use the term, liloko, which refers to
a traditional saying with a deeply hidden meaning),
mythological narratives, and poetry (including
'amalumbo', Bemba for 'praise poem' in southern Africa)
still persist and influence contemporary writing. Despite
Africa's enormous cultural diversity, the development of
African writing has been closely associated with a
growing sense of African ulmntu and political and
cultural identity in the colonial and postcolonial period.
The idea of negritude (belonging to a black culture), was
prominent in the 1930s owing much to writers such as
the poet and dramatist Aime Cesaire (1913- ) from
Martinique and the Senegalese poet and statesman
Leopold Senghor.

The reassertion of precolonial communal life, myth, and
tradition, associated with condemnation of the cultural
disruptions  caused  by  colonists  or  Christian
missionaries, has been a significant concern of the
Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor (1935- ) and of Nigerian
writers such as Chinua Achebe, the Ibo poet Christopher
Okigbo (1932-1967), and the novelist Amos Tutuola
(1920- ), whose mysterious and fantastic narratives
draw on Yoruba folk tales. Much of the transformation
of African communities is owed to the introduction of
Christianity and Islam in Africa in the pre-colonial era.

Religious Communities

In 1991, Zambia was declared a Christian nation by
President Frederick Chiluba. In fact, it is a multi-faith
society. The idea of imposing a state religion, which has
little to do with an African indigenous personality, tends
to divide communities rather than develop them. There
are few Christian states although several countries in
North Africa have adopted Islam as the state religion.
The Dinka, a Nilotic minority group in Southern Sudan
continue to suffer the consequences of religious and
cultural division. The Dinka's indigenous beliefs conflict
with those of Islam, the official state religion. This has
caused clashes between the Dinka and the Sudanese
army. By 1995, thousands had been massacred by one
of the warring Sudanese factions, and more than
200,000 forced from their homes.

The African Independent Churches which have emerged
over the past fifty years, are also an expression of
communities in transformation. Some of these have
been formed because their members felt alienated from
mainstream society or religious institutions. Others were
formed as protest against colonial structures and post-
independence changes. One important notion of
community is conceived in seeing the church as a
community where the weak and poor members are
cherished and cared for, where women, youth and
children have their rightful place (Katulushi, 2000:
192). This stance, taken by some Zambian churches
bestows onto the community an obligation to care for its
members. In a sense, the individual is as important as
the community. It reddresses an earlier notion in most
African societies that the individual existed merely to
serve the community.

Religion may be used to 'shut out' people of different or
no religious orientation. Indeed, this was the case in the
colonial and early independence period in Zambia where
faith communities made admission into schools or
health care conditional upon one being an adherent of
that faith. However, there are examples where religion
has served to hold people together, as was the case in the
1990 Presidential and General Election in Zambia, and
more recently, the Oasis Declaration. In Africa,
Christianity has contributed to an understanding of
community to include those outside kinship ties. For
most African Christians, humanity is now one family
under one God the creator bound together by the blood
of Jesus Christ. In Zambian School RE for example, an
aim of RE in school education has often been to enable
religious appreciation and tolerance among people of
diverse faiths. The teaching of Paul (from 1 Corinthians
12: 12-20) about the human body is a key text used in
RE and by the churches to stress the inclusive diversity
of the African Christian community. Jesus' prayer, 'I pray
that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just
as you are in me and I am in you' (from John 17: 21),
motivates the church in Zambia to strive to be united as
the new African ing'anda, the family unit of co-
operation, belonging and kinship which freely involves
itself with all bantu.

Endnotes

Emecheta, Buchi (1976) The Bride Price. George
Braziller: New York.

Katulushi, C. (1999) 'Teaching Traditional African
Religions and Gender Issues in Religious Education in
Zambia' in British Journal of Religious Education, vol.
21:2 pp. 101-111, CEM: Derby

(2000) Equity and Empowerment in Education in Zambia -
A Religious Perspective on Gender Issues. Unpublished PhD
thesis, University of Leeds: Leeds.

Mbiti, John (1990) African Religions and Philosophy.
Heinemann: London. (1991) Introduction to African
Religion 2nd Edition. Heinemann: Oxford.

Mwewa, Kapita S.  (1977) Traditional Zambian
Eschatology and ethics Confronting the Advent of
Christianity.

Phiri, Isabel A. (1997) Women, Presbyterianism and
Patriarchy - Religious Experience of Chewa Women in
Central Malawi. CLAIM: Blantrye.

Tiberondwa, Ado K. (1978) Missionary Teachers As
Agents of Colonialism - A Study of their Activities in
Uganda, 1877-1925. Neczam: Lusaka.

Turner. Victor Witter (1957) Schism and Continuity in an
African Society.

(1974) Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in
Human Society.

(1967) The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual.

Vansina, Jan (1990) Paths in the Rainforests. James
Currey: London.