Vulnerable Mission as an Alternative
to Failing Aid Paradigms:
Facing Reality on Reaching Africa
A series of three seminars prepared for presentation at William Carey International University, Pasadena, USA, February 2007.
Basic reading for the seminars is as follows:
Seminar 1. Introduction and sections 1-2 below.
Seminar 2. Sections 3-4 below.
Seminar 3. Sections 5-6 below and conclusion.
Additional reading is given in the bibliography for each seminar.
Questions to guide discussion in the seminar are given with some further comments in the footnotes to the main reading, in bold.
SEMINAR 1. Title: The Reality of Language and the Reality of Aid
Presenter: Jim Harries
Brief Description.
A consideration of pragmatics and the foundations of translation theory in cross-cultural context applied to mission and development in Africa.
Objectives: The students will be able to . . .
1. Explain how word meanings arise from the impact of stimuli onto contexts.
2. Outline why it is that the use of a language with roots in one culture causes misunderstandings and confusion when appropriated by another culture.
3. Question the widely held assumption that poverty arises through a lack of 'things' and can be resolved by material provision.
4. Explain ways in which the impact of the West on Africa has been and continues to be 'immoral'.
Bibliography for Seminar 1.
* Language in Education, Mission and Development in Africa: Appeals for Local Tongues and Local Contexts. http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/cognition.html
* The Immorality Of Aid To The 'Third World' (Africa). http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/aid.htm
* Mission To The South, Words To The North: Reflections On Communication In The Church By A Northerner In The South. (Not in the public domain, individual copies available from the author. To be published in Exchange, Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research, 36/3, September 2007. Brill.)
SEMINAR 2. Title: The Reality of 'who they are' and of the Gospel
Presenter: Jim Harries
Brief Description
An examination of 'friendship' between African and Western peoples as illustration of the importance of understanding people as they are in cross-cultural context. Examination of the Gospel as a non-colonial or post-colonial entity in the African context.
Objectives The students will be able to . . .
1. Give reasons as to why people being reached in mission should not be considered as 'blank slates'.
2. Explain how 'friendship' works in Africa (according to Maranz), and what implications this has for relationships between foreign workers and locals.
3. Make a Scriptural case for 'vulnerable mission'.
4. Outline the pitfalls arising from mission being based on 'projects'.
Bibliography for Seminar 2.
* Power and Ignorance on The Mission Field Or ' The Hazards of Feeding Crowds'. www.geocities.com/missionalia/harries.htm
* Good-By-Default And Evil In Africa. http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/Good%20by%20Default%20and%20Evil%20in%20Africa.dwt Missiology an International Review. Vol. XXXIV, Number 2, April 2006. (pp151-164)
* Talking For Money, Looking For Money: The Donor Industry As Fulfillment Of Ancient African Religious Ideals, in Missiological Perspective. http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/talking.htm
SEMINAR 3. Title: Beginning with Reality and Adopting a Dual Identity
Presenter: Jim Harries
Brief Description.
The reality of the impossibility of accurate communication between cultures as different as those of the 'West' and many African peoples. The way this requires the missionary or cross-cultural worker to be able to interact in each context separately while attempting to translate between the two.
Objectives: The students will be able to . . .
1. Explain some of the implicit assumptions being made by proponents of secular development strategies.
2. Explain why translation between languages may be impossible.
3. Explain what is meant by, and the importance of, missionaries from the West having a 'dual identity'.
4. Discuss the moral implications of missionary 'dual identity', in terms of Western morality.
Bibliography for Seminar 3.
* The Effectiveness Of Short-Term Mission To Africa: In Respect To Westernising, Christianising And Dependence Creation http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/Effectivtiveness%20of%20Short%20Termers.htm
* 'The Name Of God In Africa' And Related Contemporary Theological, Development And Linguistic Concerns http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/nameofgod.htm
* The Prerogative Of Imitation In Cross-Cultural Mission: Discussion In An African Context http://www.jim-mission.org.uk/articles/imitation.htm
Vulnerable Mission as an Alternative
to Failing Aid Paradigms:
Facing Reality on Reaching Africa
By Jim Harries
Personal Biography
The present author (born in 1964) has been a missionary in Zambia, and then Kenya since 1988. Sent by a Baptist church in England, seconded to Kima International School of Theology of the Church of God in East Africa, he also works with a lot of indigenous churches primarily in Bible teaching. He is fluent in Kiswahili and Dholuo (of Kenya) as well as English and German (and at one time Kikaonde of Zambia), and is currently a part time student on a Ph.D. programme by extension in the school of theology at Birmingham University in the UK.
Contents
Introduction
Section 1. The Reality Of Language
Section 2. The Reality Of Aid
Section 3. The Reality Of 'Who They Are'
Section 4. The Reality Of The Gospel
Section 5. Beginning With Reality
Section 6. Dual Identity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
This short essay provides a brief review of the reasons for ensuring the vulnerability of development workers and missionaries from the West in their interaction(s) with the 'poor' world, particularly Africa. The blurring of the distinction between development workers and missionaries is intentional, as the 'development' project is assumed to be motivated by Christian values, and the true Christian missionary to be concerned for the holistic well being of those s/he is reaching.
Section 1. The Reality of language
An incredible thing happening in much of Anglophone Africa (and beyond) today is that Westerners are busy laying the foundations for their own deception.
Where do people's understanding of who they are, who God is, and what the World is, come from? Clearly not from spoken (or written) words alone. How can lower order inputs or 'mechanical matter' such as varying wavelengths of sound or 'little dark marks' on paper (Sperber and Wilson 1995:1) produce higher order comprehension like human consciousness? (Gunton 1985:29) Human intelligence and self-understanding cannot arise from such mechanical effects alone.
Put a newly conceived fetus into a motionless state alone in a silent white spherical room, feed it and empty it by tube and allow it to mature. Now talk to this baby/child/person, giving no other stimulus apart from a monotone voice through a speaker. Neither a smiling face, sun, other people, sky, trees or fields are in view. What will the child understand?
Understanding will certainly be very limited, because it will be impossible to give a context to the words spoken. Whatever understanding that child will acquire must be rooted only in his / her mind, unlike normal people who learn through the interaction and interrelation between words and contexts! The interaction between social and physical contexts and the human mind are foundational to the development of human understanding. Separate human language from context, and it is meaningless. The use of particular language (sounds) in an unfamiliar context, will result in its meaning and impact arising according to that context.
What happens when African children are brought up in familiar (to them) contexts, but are fed a diet of language that comes from vastly foreign (unknown, invisible) contexts? (This of course is nowadays happening up and down the continent.) Because the contextual rules / connections assumed by the new language do not connect to 'real life' for the African child, they are learned by rote. Because that new language does not connect to real life, it is put into a separate mental category labeled 'foreign'. This 'foreign' category must be handled with care, it not making sense in the local context means that applying it in or to the local context creates confusion and even pandemonium - as in much of Africa today. (Hence Chinua Achebe's famous novel is entitled: Things Fall Apart. (Achebe 1958))
This new language, in our case typically English, while of little use in African homes, is found to have value in the formal sector. It can in fact be extremely lucrative, if used in the right places at the right times. Those words (sounds) that are pointless at home, clearly have a point of reference somewhere, because if pronounced boldly to white people from Europe or America they result in smiles, pleasure, visits and even gifts of lots of money!
I may be exaggerating above, but I think not all too strongly. What the West has done by subsidizing its language and education around the world (devoid of course of its context) is to create a global (almost) screen of apparent comprehension and communication that conceals what is really going on in different communities. The language is powerful, so people want it. It generates enormous funds for them, by means apparently akin to magic. Unfortunately the original owners of this language are deceived if they think that the use of familiar (to them) terms demonstrates familiar meanings. (English words used by African people will be implicit translations of African terms.) Because millions of children around the African continent are spending 4, 6, 8, 10 or more of the prime years of their youth and childhood rote-learning these mysterious codes, relations between Africa and the rest of the globe are being built on weak foundations rooted in deception.
Limited space prevent me from further unpacking the vagaries of so called 'translation' that occur on the margins and junctions of African and Western linguistic worlds. Suffice it to say that as a result when it comes to discourse on Africa, it is hard to know what to believe (or - it is hard to know how to believe what).
Section 2. The Reality of Aid
Reading early (or even later) accounts of life in Africa, or visiting the continent, should make it clear that the way of life of African people results in their living in what in Western English can be termed 'poverty'. This is not confined to isolated pockets of the continent. Whatever influence physical contexts such as soil and climate have on it, they clearly do not cause it, because it is found across vast varieties of vegetation, rainfall, altitudes and soil types. That it is a feature of the life of the people is further evidenced by the fact that different peoples (such as Europeans or Indians) do not automatically 'become poor' when they go to live in Africa.
Peoples have chosen to live in certain ways. These are not usually conscious rational choices made at a moment in time in the light of some set of 'total options available', but choices made from limited sets of interconnected alternatives handed down through generations, that determine and limit the inclinations of living cohorts. Choices have been made (and continue to be made) in the light of contexts (real and perceived), deeply held values, understanding of what it is to be human, and the god(s) that influence the human state. Choices made by African fore-fathers have been extremely successful in many ways, in preserving the continuation of life over many generations and populating a vast continent. Few would deny the beauty of the deeply held values of brotherhood and respect held by many African people. At the same time, the lifestyle perpetuated is one referred to in the West as 'poverty'.
The likely effect of the provision of outside 'aid' to Africa is an increase in wants or greed. Then follows the problem of how to meet the resultant increasing cravings? The common answer is more aid (and dependence on charity and all that it implies) and corruption, usually the two in combination. This is the impact of the West on Africa today, an immoral impact devaluing what it is to be human, ignoring God, accentuating immoral values of greed and (see above) propagating ignorance through promoting foreign languages over and above those that are locally understood. Contrary to popular (Western) naivety, the production of greed does not in itself undo centuries of deeply ingrained cultural habituation.
Section 3. The Reality of 'who they are'
People are defined by relationship. Who to you may be 'an old lady' to me can be 'mum! My boss, may be your nephew, and so on.
An excellent readable and graphic rendering of who Africans 'are' in their interaction with Westerners living on the African Continent today has been produced by David Maranz in his book African Friends and Money Matters. I highly recommend it as reading for any Westerner wanting to work with African people. (While there are vast regional differences between parts of Sub-Saharan Africa there are also, as Maranz points out, many similarities. (Maranz 2001:11)) African peoples and societies are not blank slates, waiting for Westerners to write on them. Consideration of impacts on Africa that only take into account the Western side, are inadequate. The dynamic of interaction arises through the meeting of great civilizations, and not a civilization with a tableau rasa!
Maranz explains many aspects of these interactions, helping us especially by focusing on economic issues, in relation to friendships. Friendships, Maranz tells us, are in Africa formed around economic interdependence. (Maranz 2001:65) The subjection of clients to wealthy patrons is not a system introduced by 'the West'. The system was already there and deeply ingrained. The role frequently given to Westerners in Africa is clear, they are patrons. Falling into this African category has many implications. The category brings pre-existing expectations into effect. As any other relationship such as 'teacher / student' or 'father / child' imply obligations as well as privileges on both sides, so also the relationship of patron to client in Africa. There are privileges that should be welcomed, and obligations that should be fulfilled by patrons and clients. Failure to properly meet these will cause misunderstanding and tensions.
Whereas true friendship is in the West valued if it is not linked to material or financial dependence, friendships in Africa frequently imply dependence. ('A disinterested friendship is [in Africa] something without sense' says Maranz. (2001: 65)) He who 'has' is expected to help a friend who hasn't, if he is to be a true friend. ('Friendships are [in Africa] maintained with gifts.' (Maranz 2001:72)) He who has in turn receives praise. Loans are not repaid until the giver of the loan is poorer (worse off) than the original beneficiary says Maranz. (2001:52) Debts are collected by the person who is owed, and the debtor is not expected to repay unless or until demanded. (Maranz 2001:154) Many more illustrations of 'African friendships' could be added.
This is not to say that Maranz is absolutely correct. There may well be deficiencies in his book. Yet I add my voice to those who verify that he has hit on important truths that ought to be much more widely known.
One could add that even those African people who were not in the past accustomed to patron/client systems have since adapted to them. Foreigners coming from the West almost invariably seek to fill patron roles. In places where hunger is endemic, and 'needs' have been multiplied (by provision of education, medical services, consumer goods etc. etc.) it is not difficult to find people who are ready to be (or even desperate to be) clients.
The fact that this system of living may be unfamiliar to or even despised by the West does not prevent it from continuing in Africa. Much more could be said of it. One important thing for patrons to realize is that the dependency of clients easily restricts communication. 'You don't bite the hand that feeds you!' This is not so bad if all parties are from the same or a similar culture i.e. they already understand one another well, but results in the perpetuation of ignorance of patrons who are of a foreign ethnicity.
Section 4. The Reality of the Gospel
Roland Allen argued profusely for a separation between missionary work and colonial interests almost 100 years ago. (In asking which missionary methods we should use, St. Paul's or Ours? (Allen 1927)) 'Paul did not work that way' he said, in reference to colonial (or neo-colonial) models of mission. (Allen attacked particularly the practice of doing Christian mission with money, emphasising that Paul never used finance to forward his mission. (Allen 1927: 66ff)) That Allen continues to attract the attention of missiologists, is shown by Wickeri's writing about his contribution as recently as 2005. (Wickeri 2005)
But I suggest that Allen has not been taken sufficiently seriously by the missiological fraternity. The Scriptures clearly promote non-colonial models of mission. The temptations demonstrate Jesus' refusal to follow conventional routes to the acquisition of power. He refused to feed people, or to acquire followers by amazing them through miraculous acts, or through following Satan's methods. (Matthew 4:1-11. Luke 4:1-13.) Jesus' ministry was always carried out from a position of vulnerability and weakness. He had no political office. There is scanty evidence for the organisation of any sort of administration or means for handling or dispersing funds on Jesus' part.
There is certainly no Biblical basis for recent 'project' orientations to mission. We find no hospitals, no (formal) schools, no bore-holes, no orphanages, no provision of dairy cows or chicken projects, no advocating of hybrid crops, no teaching of foreign languages and no complex administrative structures set up in the Scriptures. However these things may or may not have arisen; there seems to be no Biblical basis for them. (These are considered by Westerners to be means to the expression of Christian love and care, the role that many such institutions fill in Western nations. I am questioning the legitimacy of such a Scriptural hermeneutic.)
While it may not be appropriate to argue from negatives, perhaps there is a case to be made for doing mission in a Biblical way, in lands where life is after all often said to be much more 'biblical' in its basis than it is in the West. Certainly this could avoid many of the pitfalls that 'mission' tends to fall foul of today (see above).
Section 5. Beginning with Reality
Mission and development initiatives these days rarely begin with reality on the ground. The reasons for this already explored include the use of other than local languages in all planning, and an assumption that 'the poor' of the world will be passive recipients of whatever they are offered. Other underlying assumptions of classic development projects include that the world's problems are caused by and therefore can be resolved by material provision of some sort. People's cultures are implicitly assumed by the development fraternity to be equally capable of economic and material advance, if only certain obstinate but clearly visible barriers (such as poor farming methodology, ignorance of hygiene, lack of water) could be overcome. This grossly over-simplistic view of life is to blame for much blundering by Westerners in the Third world today.
I suggest that it is time to get back to a realization of the actual complexity of life, and for the need for effective change to be generated from the inside. The key starting point for success in mission or development activities is to get into the inside. Connections between spiritual, social and material life can only be ascertained from the inside. Challenging these in the light of God's revelation and the nature of the church requires a foreign missionary to remain vulnerable to the people. Any failure to remain vulnerable will result in an inability to attend to and listen carefully to what is going on, especially in cultures accustomed to patron/client systems in which clients become 'yes-men'. Only ongoing vulnerability to their host community will prevent missionaries from forcing practices onto people that are frankly unhelpful or impractical.
We have already found that languages do not easily translate from one culture to another. In fact, not only is it not easy, but because all the roots of a language are in a culture, a text cannot be accurately translated into a context where those roots or foundations are absent. Translation needs to be of the impact, implicatures, political (power) implications and so on of language; not only of meaning. (For different approaches to translation see for example Mojola. (2003)) Such 'translation' (in the broad sense of the term) can only be done by people who have a close understanding of the two (or more) cultures between which translation is occurring. Such an understanding of another culture can, I suggest, only be acquired by someone's being vulnerable to it. The current climate of economic and political domination by the West means that special efforts are required by a Westerner to achieve such vulnerability. A vital prerequisite for a Western person's success in promoting long-term development or the Gospel of Christ is self- de-powerment, to ensure connection with local reality.
Section 6. Dual Identity
The ways of life to which Westerners are these day accustomed, makes it difficult for them to be vulnerable to those peoples in the world who are classed as 'the poor'. A state of vulnerability to the poor has at times disparagingly been called 'going native'. Achieving it in totality may be extremely distressing, resulting in a person becoming cut off and a stranger to their own people (i.e. their culture of origin). In a world in which physical appearance is such a clear indicator of one's culture and economic status (the difference between 'black' and 'white' in Africa) becoming incorporated into a 'poor' community is especially difficult. The only practical missiological solution that I can see, is for a Westerner to have a 'dual identity'.
By a 'dual identity' I mean that a Western missionary must have access to a context in which they can express their 'Western selves', and then another ministry-context in which they deny or put aside their 'Western selves' so as to be able to interact closely and constructively (i.e. other than as a patron) with local people. The problem with the old 'mission station' approach was that the context of interaction with nationals was the contrived pseudo 'Western' one on the station. I suggest that a Western station be considered a site for retreat, but that ministry should be on local people's terms, and under their conditions, beyond its boundaries.
This way of working has parallels with the incarnational model of missions. (As promoted by John Stott, according to Reese 2005:np.) Christ himself denied the powers of his divine identity in order to minister to earth-bound people. (I concede that this analogy easily becomes unhelpful as, contrary to appearances from much of Africa, the white man is not a god.) The need for it to be emphasized to Westerners arises largely from the gross inequalities found in today's world, and the need to undo damage done by previous generations.
An intentional embracing of vulnerability by those with apparent superior knowledge of development may not seem reasonable. But, spiritual ministry has long been an apparent contradiction to material progress. Prophets and those who have served in Temples can be accused of having contributed to poverty by removing themselves from the productive sector of the workforce! Yet this is the Biblical model of mission given to us. Missionaries need to deny their ability to proffer immediate 'help' for the sake of moving closer to a people so as to acquire understanding that will in the long term be of more widespread advantage.
Making peculiar provision for oneself in one's ministry need not necessarily be ruled out in the above proposed way of operating: for example, should the foreign missionary need to insist on having a special diet, personal transport such as by motorbike, or even medication. (Local people will in my experience be considerate of the different needs of a foreigner coming from a different culture and having been brought up in a different place, providing of course that they do not suggest that these aspects of their culture ought to be universal or are superior. ) The missionary will of course realize that the more s/he leans upon such 'personal helps' the more barriers will be put up with local people. The 'personal' nature of such 'personal helps' must also be emphasized. They are not to be shared with or passed onto national colleagues. (Unless they can be shared in a way that does not lead to 'dependence', which is unlikely.) The less that these are used the better, especially by someone who is still young and fit, so as not to interfere with the progress of ministry.
Conclusion
A careful consideration of cross-cultural communication has revealed serious weaknesses in current assumptions on mutual comprehension between Western and non-Western peoples. Aid has been found to be debilitating in its impact, especially when it is realized that almost all aid and development projects assume target communities to be passive recipients having no cultural presuppositions of their own. Vulnerable Christian mission following Biblical models of social, economic and political powerlessness are advocated as the way forward for Westerners concerned to promote global Christianity, peace and well being.
The need for brevity of this essay has meant that it is only a cursory dealing with key topics that are examined in much more detail in articles and Journals found at my Webpage.
Bibliography
ACHEBE, CHINUA,
1958. Things Fall Apart. Nairobi: Heinemann
ALLEN, R.,
1927. Missionary Methods, St. Paul's or Ours? London: World Dominion Press
CRUSE, HAROLD,
1967, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: from its origins to the present. New York: William Morro and Company Incorporated,
GUNTON, C.E.,
1985. Enlightenment and Alienation: an essay towards a Trinitarian theology. Basingstoke: Marshall Morgan and Scott, p29.
MARANZ, DAVID,
2001. African Friends and Money Matters: observations from Africa. Dallas: SIL International
MOJOLA, ALOO OSOTSI and WENDLAND, ERNST,
2003. 'Scripture Translation in the Era of Translation Studies.' 1-25 In: Wilt, Timothy (ed.) Bible Translation Frames of Reference. Manchester: St Jerome Publications
REESE, ROBERT BOYD,
2005. 'Dependency and its Impact on Churches Related to the Baptist Convention of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Christian Fellowship.' PhD Thesis. Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. May 2005. (Version that I read did not have the original page numbers.)
SPERBER, DAN, and WILSON, DEIDRE,
1995. Relevance: communication and cognition (second edition). Oxford: Blackwell
WICKERI, PHILIP L.,
2005. 'Roland Allen and the Decolonisation of Christianity.' 480-509 In: Missionalia. 33/3 November 2005.
List of Questions.
SEMINAR 1.
1. The Reality of Language.
Q (question) 1/ Why can human intelligence and self understanding not arise from mechanical effects alone?
Q 2/ Can anything be learned from words that do not have a context? Q 3/ Is education a learning of new things, or simply a re-combining of what is already known?
Q 4/ Give other examples that demonstrate the ways in which meaning arise from contexts.
Q 5/ Explain, why (according to this paper) have things fallen apart for Chinua Achebe?
Q 6/ Should school children be educated to function in their own society, or in someone else's?
Q 7/ That is, magic and witchcraft (i.e. evil uses of mystical powers) are apparently inseparable. Why is this?
Q 8/ Give examples from your knowledge of African ways of life of words whose impact must change considerably on translation from African into European languages.
Q 9/ How can, for example, an American only familiar with American contexts know that the English words of an African who only knows an African context are equivalent in impact?
2. The Reality of Aid.
Q 10/ Do African people on travelling to the West continue to be poor in their new contexts? Why or why not? How does that happen?
Q 11/ Give examples of ways in which the apparent options of living cohorts are limited by their people's traditions.
Q 12/ How can poverty be measured? Give some examples.
Q 13/ What makes aid money particularly liable to corrupt misappropriation?
Q 14/ In what sense and to what degree have foreign languages been imposed onto Africa?
SEMINAR 2
3. The Reality of Who They are.
Q 15/ In what sense and to what degree is it acceptable to consider other people to be 'different from us' in the West today? Why?
Q 16/ In what sense do many interventions into Africa consider African people to be a 'blank slate'?
Q 17/ Expand on the role of a patron. What may be its limitations?
Q 18/ How can we translate 'friendship' into African languages? What are the implications of your answer?
Q 19/ How can the patron / client system perpetuate the ignorance of the patrons? Give examples.
4. The Reality of the Gospel
Q 20/ Did Jesus operate from a position of vulnerability? Explain? Why do missionaries not do so today? Are their reasons justified?
Q 21/ What pitfalls do 'projects' bring? Why is the project approach so popular, despite the pitfalls?
SEMINAR 3
5. Beginning with Reality
Q 22/ Why have these over simplistic views remained so widespread and popular?
Q 23/ Do you agree with the necessity of working 'from the inside'? Explain.
Q 24/ How can a missionary ensure that s/he remains vulnerable?
Q 25/ Is translation between Western and African languages possible? Discuss.
6. Dual Identity
Q 26/ Why is vulnerability a prerequisite for such learning?
Q 27/ Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a missionary's 'going native'.
Q 28/ Is it acceptable for a Christian to have such a 'dual identity'? Is it so acceptable to treat people differently according to their race and origin? Why is this being advocated? What are the implications of not following this advice?
Q 29/ Expound on the incarnational model of mission, its origins, pluses and minuses.
Q 30/ Is one morally obliged to provide 'help' if one has the means to do so? What are the implications of the answer to this question?
Q 31/ Is Western medicine universal? How does that fit with an understanding of the Scriptures? How can one explain that to a people who understand their problems as arising from witchcraft, spirits and curses?
Q 32/ Ministry 'aids' are here considered as a handicap or burden. Do you agree?