The Scramble for Africa

Photo by Nothing Ahead

On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Africa Colleges of Bishops issued a statement condemning the Africa Initiative and the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA). The bishops accuse the Africa Initiative of having “lost its original goal of helping the United Methodist Church in Africa,” and alleged that the Africa Initiative is working to destroy the United Methodist Church (UMC). Previous statements from the African Bishops call for unity in the UMC, while expressing opposition to homosexuality. The Africa Initiative responded to the African Bishops with their own statement, accusing the bishops of not communicating with them to try and resolve this matter privately before making a public statement, which is contrary to previous practices of the bishops. Two weeks prior to the African bishops’ statement, the Rev. J. J. Warren released a documentary of his trip to Kenya for the dedication of a new sanctuary at First United Methodist (FUMC) Moheto in southwestern Kenya. FUMC Moheto voted unanimously to become the first church on the African continent to affiliate with Reconciling Ministries Network in 2019. In higher education we are taught to think critically, raise questions, and to analyze situations. In that spirit, I want to address the following question: Is the African bishops statement connected to the visit of Reconciling Ministries Network, or was the timing just a coincidence?

Divide and Conquer

The Africa Initiative began at the 2008 UMC General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, to connect African delegates with each other, and to train them in the processes by which General Conference operates. The Rev. Forbes Matonga stated that most of the African delegates to the 2004 General Conference were invited to free breakfasts and lunches to listen to each side of the American theological divide. Most Africans decided to align themselves with the Confessing Movement and Good News. Let me unpack that statement for you. The Americans rolled out the welcome mat for their African guests, to convince them to join their team, and the African delegates made their choice. Now it appears that there is some animosity over the decision that was made, and the opposition groups arose.

First came Africa Voice of Unity formed in 2021, and it wasted no time in attacking the Africa Initiative for its partnership with the Wesleyan Covenant Association. Yet, it looks as though this unofficial caucus group of the UMC is no longer in operation. Then came the United Methodist Africa Forum (UMAF), which was created on January 4, 2023, and is committed to fostering a spirit of unity and collaboration among United Methodists in Africa and beyond, according to the press release obtained by United Methodist Insight. UMAF moved to embrace the regionalization of the United Methodist Church, reject disaffiliation attempts in Africa, engage in Pan-African communication, and welcome American Methodists to their recent meeting in Tanzania. UMAF sees the WCA and the Africa Initiative as attempting to break up the UMC, and they want no part of it. Yet, despite its institutionalist leanings, UMAF agreed with the Africa Initiative that homosexuality is not compatible with Christian teaching and African cultural values. And in an even more stunning move, UMAF critiqued Mainstream UMC for its neocolonialism, a previous label that had been reserved for Good News and the WCA. Now it appears that the liberals in the United States are also being questioned concerning their purposes for the African UMC.

However, what is not lost on me is the fact that these opposition groups to the Africa Initiative were formed in the wake of the of the General Conference, after American liberals and progressives blamed the African delegates for being bamboozled by the WCA and voting for the Traditional Plan. One episcopal leader had previously stated that the African delegates needed to grow up, referring to their stance on human sexuality.

The Berlin Conference

In November 1884, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck invited some world leaders to come to Berlin to discuss how Europe was going to divide up Africa. Three months later, a document was signed detailing the rules of engagement. At the table, protecting their interest (Liberia), was the United States of America. The maps clearly show what the African continent looked like before and after the Berlin Conference. The European colonial powers drew artificial boundaries and divided tribes (people groups) as they desired. After the invasion of Africa began, the only major loss of the European colonial powers was at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, where the Ethiopians defeated the Italians. By 1914, the entire continent had been subdued, save Ethiopia and Liberia.      

While missionaries had been in Africa prior to the Berlin Conference, including Methodist missionaries, there is no evidence to suggest that they had a causal effect of the “Partition of Africa.” In fact, at the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, there was some division between the role of European imperialism and missionary activity, with some missionaries supporting colonization, while others were opposed to it. Yet neither conference (Berlin, or the World Missionary) invited Africans to the table. Political and religious decisions were being made by Europeans and Americans at the expense of Africans. 

African Unity

Colonial rule would come to an end in the 1960s for most sub-Saharan African nations, beginning with Ghana in 1957. While the Africans were able to re-engage in direct self-rule, they now had a new religion (Protestant Christianity), political systems, languages, customs and manners. Yet, in 1963 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed by the African freedom fighters. His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, hosted the first meeting of the OAU in Addis Ababa to set the course for Africa after colonization. This organization, inspired by the concept of Pan-Africanism, sought the unity of Africa for the purposes of political independence and economic development. 

There had been previous moves to unite Africa during the colonial period. The First Pan-African Congress was held in London in 1900, planned by the American scholar W.E.B. Dubois. DuBois and Marcus Garvey were proponents of the “Back to Africa” movement in the United States. This movement advocated for black Americans to resettle in Liberia, which began as a colony founded by the American Colonization Society in 1847. The Pan-African Congress opposed colonial rule in Africa. DuBois would call black leaders from around the globe to subsequent Pan-African meetings up to the start of the First World War. But decolonization on the African continent was elusive until a wave of nations defeated the European colonialists in 1962. It was through the diplomatic and military efforts of the OAU that Rhodesia, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and other countries would gain their subsequent independence. 

There is an opportunity for the African Central Conferences to unite and set the future course of the UMC, as they will make up 32% of the vote at the upcoming General Conference. However, the divisions between the Africa Initiative and UMAF are more political than theological and appear to be influenced by Americans. 

Civilization started in Africa. Tradition started in Africa. Liberalism and Progressivism started during the European Enlightenment and has no African influence at its origins. These Eurocentric ideas would be imported from Germany to American seminaries in the 1800s, and after the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, Methodist seminaries would all eventually embrace modernism or liberalism. Yet, these philosophies do not describe most American Methodists, or black Americans in general.

The African Central Conferences must unite and form a Pan-African alliance in the spirit of Selassie, Nkrumah, Nasser, Lumumba, Biko, Kenyatta, Nyerere, Senghor, and DuBois. Additionally, Black Methodist for Church Renewal should be a partner in this Pan-African movement in the UMC. The decisions that are made about the future of the UMC should be in conversation with the African Central Conferences, as opposed to the current practice of American United Methodists talking about Africans. To do this will require United Methodists to address American neocolonialism.     

Odell Horne Jr. has a master’s degree in African and African American Studies, is a doctoral student in Contextual Theology.