4.0 RECOMMENDATION
4.1.1 Ujamaa
as a tool for healing in a community divided by negative ethnicity.
The example of Tanzanian communities that was
founded by Mwalimu Nyerere should steer us in this research to find lasting
solutions to this pastoral challenge of negative ethnicity in the church and the
nation of Kenya. Once you fail to reach a census its good to seek a neighbour's input.
Everything depends on how the Church plays her great role towards healing the rifts created by tribal hatred within her
Christian communities, families towards renewal of human nature, witness, public proclaim, holistic acceptance, adaption to the outward sign. Nyerere, during question and Answer session following his visit at Mary knoll
address in New York in 1970, used the same criterion for implementing social
reform when he commented:
The church sometimes because of the language we
are using…wants to be on the careful side and watch us. So first of all, let me
say the church is a local church for us…The Church has methods of judging
whether this is right or wrong. If you find, you know, that what they are doing
is establishing a system whereby they sacrifice and kill men, you know it’s
wrong. But if these fellows are talking about building cooperatives, building a
new kind of society where people can live together for their own good, I think
the church can always say “it sounds all right”[1]
This distinction between principles and action
was also underlined by Bishop Christopher Mwoleka of Rulenge, Tanzania:
“But
these principles of the Church do nothing more than to point to the directions
where ACTIONS must be directed. But actions themselves must be forthcoming;
otherwise these principles remain without effect. Principles become effective
only when they are applied by deliberate actions to concrete existing
situations”[2]
Nyerere maintained that the individual and the
families were rich or poor according to whether the whole tribe is rich or poor[3]. Nobody starved from either
food or human dignity because he lacked personal wealth but he could depend on
the wealth possessed by the community of which he was a member. That is the
spirit of socialism[4].
It was from this cultural heritage that Tanzanian socialism developed. Nyerere
strongly emphasized:
We are not improving a foreign ideology in
Tanzania and trying to smother out distinct social patterns with it. We have
deliberately decided to grow, a society out of our own roots, but in a
particular direction and towards a particular kind of objective. We are doing
this by emphasizing certain characteristics of our traditional organization,
and extending them so that they can embrace the possibilities of modern
technology and enable us to meet the challenge of life in the 20th
Century world[5].
Nyerere stressed that Ujamaa as a family hood
that describes socialism not to be compared with capitalism where building of a
happy society depended solely on the exploitation of man by man; survival for
the fittest mentality. It is an extended family, seeing people as brethren, as
members of their ever-widening family. Ujamaa has a foundation that builds on
our past[6].
The Swahili word Ujamaa was chosen by Nyerere to describe his socialism because it
“emphasizes the Africanness of the policies we intend to follow” and because it
literally means family hood, bringing to mind the people’s idea of mutual
involvement in the family as we know it[7].
The church in Kenya requires a new paradigm
shift in her pastoral/catechetical strategies, where faith must be lived not merely believed, Christians should not feel comfortable zones but war zone, if the faith of Christians is not casting them nothing, its time they examined their motives and commitment.
The issues dealt with in this research are
complex and require a deep pastoral discernment involving all stake
holders in coming up with lasting solutions to negative ethnicity.
The most endangered species on earth today is the family that is being split apart by this enemy of negative ethnicity.The church in Africa finds herself entangled in
wars: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
wars, the 1994 Rwanda’s genocide, Zimbabwe with the ‘big man’ syndrome, Somalia’s
instabilities due to Islamic radicalism and terrorism menace and the list is
endless.
The challenges may be overwhelming, but these
should become opportunities for the Church to make a new paradigm shift in her
approaches to models of evangelization that purifies cultures which do not promote cultural intolerance but fundamentalism. All Christians should be led by the Holy Spirit which fills the whole family, discerning deeply the events and longing of each man, what today we call the signs of times. This should be a culture that ought to be used in the anthro-political pedagogy in the AMECEA region, more so in the context of local Kenyan Church.
The first announcement, the catechized and the christian formation, owes a lot to do with psycho social reality of the mission. The emphasis of inspiring the faith and development of the faithful believers to embrace fraternal brotherhood. The
statement made by the bishop delegates to the African Synod from East Africa,
described the new context for the Church as marked by: global economic crisis,
poor governance, electoral violence, corruption, environmental crisis, violent
conflicts, persistence of HIV/AIDS pandemic, lack of self-reliance and the need
for capacity-building on the side of Church personnel and institution.[8]
In tracing the history of the political use of
the word Ujamaa, Fred Burke says that
Ujamaa is essentially a metaphysical
statement of humanistic value which is sufficiently imprecise and flexible to
provide justification for almost any government policy[9]. For Nyerere Ujamaa/socialism is an attitude of mind needed
to ensure that people care for each other’s welfare.[10]
A socialist society can only be built by those
who believe in, and who themselves practice, the principles of socialism.[11] It’s not the wealth a
person possess but the attitude of mind that makes them socialists. A poor
person may be a potential capitalist, an exploiter of others while a
millionaire, in theory, could be a socialist.[12]. All these have great factors of communication, not only to transmit the message but to integrate the message and interiorizing it in life. The message has to be codified and de-codified for better understanding.
Nyerere noted that whoever tries to “exploit”
another is not a true socialist, for in Ujamaa
there is no place for racialism, tribalism, religious intolerance or
discrimination.[13]
The extended family must go even further to embrace the whole human kind.[14] Ujamaa’s stress on human equality also
means Tanzania is trying to build a classless society:
We aim at building a classless society for one
reason. In no state is there enough wealth to satisfy the desire of a single individual
for power and prestige. Consequently, the moment the wealth is divorced from
its purpose, which is the banishment of poverty, there develops a ruthless
competition between individuals; each person tries to get more wealth simply so
that he will have more power, and more prestige, than his fellows. Wealth
becomes an instrument of domination, a means of humiliating other people[15].
Nyerere also categorically opposed violent means of to reaching a consus or coercion.
Sometimes it is the only way “to break the power of those who prevent progress
towards socialism.”[16] This to Nyerere is a case
of southern Africa, (Mozambique, Rhodesia, Angola, and South Africa).
Tanzania cannot deny support, for to do so would
be to deny the validity of African freedom and African dignity. We are
naturally and inevitably allies of the freedom fighters. We may decide, as we
have decided that no Tanzanian will take part in these wars; we may recognize
the fact that we cannot arm the freedom fighters. But we can’t call for freedom
in Southern Africa, and at the same time deny all assistance to those who are
fighting for it, when we know, as well as they do, every other means of achieving
freedom has been excluded by those now in power[17].
According to Nyerere, human equality as
exemplified by the extended family goes beyond the tribe, the community and the
nation. A true African socialist can look at a line on a map and say, “ the people
on this side of the line are my brothers but those who happen to live on the
other side have no claim on me; every individual on this continent is his
brother.”[18]
Because it is rooted in traditional values rather than historical necessity,
Ujamaa is a pragmatic reality.
Nyerere stated that there is no magical formula
and no short cut to socialism. We can only grope our way forward doing our best
to think clearly and scientifically about our own conditions in relation to our
objectives.[19]. Everything has to be interiorized in the mind, heart and in the true understanding of christian community which has integrated the message into human development. The sense of life, motivation and orientation of each individual within a community. The catechetical science has to go in line with evangelization with clear themes of proper evangelization skills, catechesis contextualized, illumination and purification of culture and mystagogy in a manner that is pedagogical, systematic and anthropological in nature of the Kenyan local Church.
[1] Wlliam
Redman Duggan, et John R. Civille, Tanzania
and Nyerere, a Study of Ujamaa and Nationhood, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New
York, 1976, 169
[2] Christopher
Mwoleka, Nation- Building in Vatican II
as Applied to Tanzania, Rulenga, Tanzania, Bishop’s House, September 1970,
12
[8] www.mafrome.org/Cisa18_synod_africa.htm-
“Kenya: Statement of East Africa Bishops- Delegate to African Synod,” no. 2-3
[9] Fred
G. Burke, “Tanganyika: The Search for Ujamaa,” in African Socialism, (ed) William H. Friedland, and Curl.S Rosberg,
Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1964, 195-204
[17] Julius
K. Nyerere, Stability and change in
Africa, Toronto University, October 2nd 1969, Vital speeches 36
November 1, 1969
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