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THE CHALLENGE OF ANCESTOR

There are few places in the world where one will find the unique fusion of traditional religions and Christianity as in Africa. There are considerable juxtaposed points of view in terms of doctrine between Christianity and traditional religions in African Churches and yet in some cases the tensions are less apparent because of the attitude of assimilation which some of these communities have assumed. For at least three decades, the notion and culture of ancestor worship has been assimilated into Christianity in African Churches in South Africa, in both rural and urban areas. Studies such as Manona (1981:34) and Pauw (1974:104), which refer to a resurgence in ancestor worship among Xhosa Christians in South Africa, support this. This appears to be the case in most countries in Africa, irrespective of the effects of urbanisation and Westernisation of African culture (Coertze 2004:347). Interestingly enough, some African scholars themselves advocated the reinstatement of ancestor worship while others attempted to establish a form of Africanised Christianity by referring to Christ as the Supreme Ancestor in their churches. This chapter will attempt to answer the following questions: • How do African churches cope with ancestor veneration? • What is the nature of ancestor worship in Africa? • How is ancestor worship articulated within contemporary African Ancestral Theology? Later, this will be compared to Biblical and theological viewpoints set out in Chapters 6 and 7.