Zambezia (2002), XXIX (i).CONTRASTING ASPECTS OF AFRICANDECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONS INWEST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA: GHANA AND ANGOLAAS CASE STUDIESFRANS J. VERSTRAELENFormer Professor of Religious Studies, University of Zimbabwe"When God wants to test his angels, the only thing He has to do is tosend them to govern a newly independent country".(Dennis Austin)"Colonialism was a social process that decolonisation continued".(John Lonsdale)AbstractA major result of the Second World War was a radically new worldconstellation. In 1945, Soviet Russian and American troops in Torgau at theElbe shook hands over the ruins of an old Europe that never would dominatethe world as it had done before. A bipolar world order had come into being,now dominated by anti-colonial superpowers. Yet, many European nationswere still clinging to their overseas colonies in the hope that they couldcontribute to repairing their diminished political and economic position andprestige in the new global context. New approaches had to be developedand choices made regarding the worldwide changes affecting also thecolonies still under European control, and affecting, likewise, Catholic andProtestant Missions operating there.This article deals with the decolonisation processes of the British colony,Ghana, and the Portuguese colony, Angola, and how churches and theirmissions were involved in these processes. The year 1992 has been chosenas the terminus ad quem because, in that year, elections took place in bothGhana and Angola, though in quite different circumstances and with quitedifferent results.GHANAMissions and ColonialismThe Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in the Gold Coast ŠGhana in 1471. Along a coastline of 300 miles, thirty major forts were builtby various nations and used as trading posts. When the Dutch left in1872, the British Colonial Office proclaimed the Gold Coast a Britishcolony two years later.1 After the Berlin Conference (1884/85), Britain38F. J. VERSTRAELEN 39began to take its colonising task more seriously by extending effectiveoccupation into the Ashanti area (making it a Crown Colony) and into theNorthern Territories (declaring them a Protectorate). These three partswere to form, in future, the territory of independent Ghana.2British colonial administration in West Africa was characterised by'indirect rule' which tried to make use of traditional authorities to coaxAfrican societies into 'civilisation'; it was, however, mainly based onsparse resources, and contributed to an image of 'old Africa'.3 DuringWorld War II, discussions took place on the future of colonies, with twoclear options emerging: either reform or demise of the colonial Empire.Consensus on the latter was achieved in Britain only in the late 1950s4.Under external and internal pressures, the British government finallydecided to grant its African colonies independence. It now wished tomake the Gold Coast an exemplary model of decolonisation which should,moreover, contribute to restoring Britain's diminished internationalstanding.5Christian missions started their work in the Gold Coast effectively inthe second quarter of the nineteenth century, after the abolition of theslave trade but before the formal establishment of the colony. The BaselMission arrived in 1828 and the Methodists in 1835. The Catholic Churchreturned in 1880, with missionaries of the Society of African Missions(SMA). The first 'pioneer missionaries' showed great interest in Africanculture and promoted African leadership in the church, but the 'post-partition missionaries' stressed their 'civilising mission' and kept controlof the church in their own hands.6Missionaries generally had no problem with colonialism as such,since they concentrated on the good things the new way of life they1. See Douglas Coombs, The Gold Coast, Britain and the Netherlands, 18501874 (London,Oxford University Press. 1963).2. Ivor Wilks, One Nation, Many Histories: Ghana Past and Present (Accra, Ghana UniversityPress, 1996), 52 claims that what the British had done was to bring tribes' together tocreate the Gold Coast, but they had destroyed a nation, namely, Greater Asante. Wilks'question whether he appears to be taking a too Asante centric view' (42) might receivea positive answer.3. R. F. Holland, European Decolonization 19181981: An Introductory Survey (London.Macmillan. 1985). 31 32.4. H.S. Wilson, African Decolonization (London, Edward Arnold, 1994), 54 56; Holland,European Decolonization, 66.5. Holland, European Decolonization, 191 200, dealing with, for Great Britain, the humiliatingSuez Crisis. 212 220.6. Harris W. Mobley, The Ghanaian's Image of the Missionary: An Analysis of the PublishedCritiques of Christian Missionaries by Ghanaians, 18971965 (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1970), 2122, 25 and 170. See also Frans J. Verstraelen, "Missionaris Boodschap Cultuur in Ghana"in Wereld en Zending, 15. 3 (1986), 213-221.40 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSpropagated brought to the African people. In this respect, they stillechoed a conviction expressed by Henry Venn, in his West African Coloniesof 1865, in which he links the British colonies on the coast to the blessingsof Christian civilisation.7 The missionary approach at the time was one ofreplacement not of integrating valuable aspects of traditional insightsand methods in their educational and health care activities. Missionariesalso propagated Christian values like the uniqueness of each humanbeing and his worth before God, which clearly distinguished their workfrom the official colonial system.8Paul Gifford has aptly summarised the significant role of colonialChristian missions in the process towards independence by saying:"important in the creation of Ghana were the Protestant missions ... andGhana's history cannot be understood apart from the elite they created".9This elite became the main actors in the political decolonisation process.They also contributed to the decolonisation of missions by criticising themissionaries inter alia, for their superiority thinking notwithstanding thetwo shameful world wars, and by rejecting the wholesale imposition ofthe Western culture in the name of Christianity.10Missions and NationalismWhen Europeans first arrived on the Gold Coast, they met smallindependent states, which never voluntarily gave up their sovereignty. Inthe so-called Bond of 1844, it is true, some local chiefs acknowledgedsome form of British jurisdiction pertaining to judicial and police mattersbut that did not imply, in their view, renouncing sovereignty.11 Theiralways-present spirit of independence became manifest when, after theBritish intended to completely withdraw from the Gold Coast in 1865,educated men from the Fante States started planning a national form ofgovernment. In 1871, they formed at Mankesim, the Fante Confederationand prepared a rather progressive constitution.12 But after the abrupt7. Henry Venn, West African Colonies. Notices of the British Colonies on the West Coast ofAfrica (London, Dalton and Lucy, 1865), 14.8. See "The Church and African Culture" for an analysis of "replacement" and "evangelisation"in F. J. Verstraelen. An African Church in Transition: A Case Study on the Roman CatholicChurch in Zambia (Leiden. Interuniversity Institute for Missiological and EcumenicalResearch. 1975). 318-337, esp. 318-320 and 327-329.9. Paul Gifford, African Christianity: Its Public Role (London. Hurst and Company. 1998). 57.See also J. D. Fage, Ghana: A Historical Interpretation (Madison. University of WisconsinPress, 1966). 63. On page 105, Fage gives some information about seven notable earlyexamples of this new elite.10. Mobley, The Ghanaian's Image of the Missionary, 155.11. Fage. Ghana, 74-75.12. David Kimble, A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism. 1850-1928(Oxford, Clarendon Press. 1963), Ch. VI: Fage, Ghana. 75 76: W. E. F. Ward. A History ofGhana (London. Ceorge Allen and Unwin, 1954), 237-9, 251-264. The Fante Federation wasalso meant to assist Kommenda in its war against Elmina, an ally of the Dutch.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 41reversal of British policy by declaring the Gold Coast a British Colony,there was a "tragicomical situation" as the authors of the MankesimConstitution were treated by British officials as traitors to the Britishqueen "to whom, in fact, the chiefs and people of the Gold Coast stateshad never owed allegiance".13Expectations of the educated elite to obtain self-government throughgradual Africanisation of colonial government personnel were soonfrustrated after a considerable increase of European administrativepersonnel in the 1890s. From this time onwards, an anti-colonial mooddeveloped in three stages: resistance, reform and revolution as follows:Š Coastal African lawyers and traditional rulers jointly agitated againstattempts at expropriation of land and they did form in the 1890s theAborigines' Rights Protection Society.Š The African lawyer J. E. Caseley Hayford, dissatisfied with colonialreforms, founded in 1918, the National Congress of (British) WestAfrica.Š In a volatile situation after the Second World War, a frustrated oldelite, now reinforced by a vast new class of emancipated professionals,and young men still adrift between two worlds, founded in 1947, theUnited Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) with Dr. J. B. Danquah as itsleading spirit. It was the first political party in the strict sense,demanding independence "as soon as possible".Š Kwame Nkrumah, for a while organising Secretary of the UGCC,founded, in 1949, a more radical party, the Convention People's Party(CPP) which demanded "Self Government Now". Nkrumah emphasisedthis demand with "Positive Action", which included strikes and semi-violent actions.When in the first democratic elections of 1951, Nkrumah obtained aclear majority, the British government invited him to head a transitiongovernment of limited responsibility, which he accepted.14To evaluate the involvement of Christian missions in a proper way, adistinction has to be made between the church as an institution and thechurch as a community of members, the laity. The church as an institutionwas represented by European missionaries and their African co-workers,who usually towed the line of the foreign missionaries.The missionaries shared with the colonial administrators not only asimilar cultural background but also a civilising mission, which theyconsidered not yet completed. They therefore had a concern with stabilitydue to fear about the consequences of change, the more so since they did13. Fage. Ghana, 76.14./«</., 76-85.42 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSnot experience any threat from the colonial government to their spiritual,evangelising mission. The missionary system therefore shared, unwittinglythough, the hegemonic ideology of the colonial system, which tried todefuse or reduce serious political challenges to the status quo.15The thinking and structural aspects of the decolonisation processwithin the official church did follow mutatis mutandis the decolonisationthinking and practice of the colonial government. It is therefore notsurprising that not until 1949, when the colonial government had, inprinciple, accepted the demands of the nationalists, we come across apublic statement issued by the Christian Council on "Christianity andPolitical Development", which inter alia outlined the right to self-government, and the relationship between church and political parties.16When we look at individual Christians, the church was very muchinvolved in the nationalist movement. Nearly all the main leaders of thesuccessive nationalist movements were Christians who had receivedtheir formation with Christian influence from Protestant mission schools.David Kimble, in his extensive study on the rise of Gold Coast nationalism,rightly stated that "the nationalist movement could hardly have gotunder way had it not been for the remarkable work of the Missions in thefield of education".17 That there was hardly any Catholic of stature andinfluence who got involved in the pre-independence struggle, apart fromKwame Nkrumah, has been recently explained as due to the fact thatCatholic missions did not provide higher (secondary) education beforethe late 1930s, while the Protestant missions had done so much earlier.18The Christian missions provided many services to the people, whichwere a contribution to the foundation of independent Ghana.19 Yet, it issignificant to note that independent church structures of major Christiandenominations were not established until 1950.20 The devolution ofecclesiastical power by the mission systems, indeed, took place15. For the concept of hegemony, see Jef Haynes. Religion and Politics in Africa (London ZedBooks, 1996), 5, 7-9.16. Robert T. Parsons, The Churches and Ghana Society, 1918-1955 (Leiden, E. J. Brill. 1963),184.17.Kimble, A Political History of Ghana, 166.18. Charles G. Palmer-Buckle. "The church in the African state: The Roman CatholicExperience", in Journal of African Christian Thought, 1-2 (December 1998). The authorCatholic Bishop of Koforidua. refers to St Augustin College founded in Cape Coast in 1936and Holy Child College, established in 1946.19. Parsons. The Churches and Ghana Society, Part V, 119 192.20. F. J. Verstraelen. "Ghana, West Africa: Between Traditional and Modern' in id (ed )Missiology: An Ecumenical Introduction (Crand Rapids. W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.. 1995) 71The Presbyterian Church was formally established in 1950. the Methodist Church in1961, the Catholic Church became an ecclesiastical province in its own right in 1950.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 43concomitantly with the devolution of political power by the colonialsystem.Mission Churches and Independence: The Nkrumah Period, 19511966After three elections (1951,1954,1956), the British Government felt secureenough to hand over power. In the third and final elections, during whichthere was a strong opposition from the Ashanti-based National LiberationMovement (NLM), Nkrumah's CP obtained a majority of 71 out of 103seats, and Ghana was declared an independent state on March 6, 1957.Nkrumah, now head of state, started moving fast towards socialism,stressing a strong central control of major aspects of the nation, therebyusing a rather virulent anti-western and anti-capitalist rhetoric. This was,of course, embarrassing for the British government, which expectedindependent Ghana to become a model to be applied elsewhere in British-ruled Africa.21 It was certainly also disturbing to the Christian churcheswhich were holding strong positions of influence in Ghanaian society.Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) who, as a boy, had been baptised intothe Catholic Church, now declared: "Today, I am a non-denominationalChristian and a Marxist socialist, and I have not found any contradictionbetween the two".22 Precisely, it was his Marxist leanings that worriedthe Church leaders and they became even more worried when Nkrumah'sfollowers started to extol the CPP by applying to it the Beatitudes, and,later on, by applying to Nkrumah titles like Osagyefo (Saviour) andAsomdwehene (Prince of Peace), a clear reference to Jesus of Nazareth,the Messiah.23A confrontation between Church and State was, therefore, bound tooccur. An example of an early confrontation was the protest made by theChristian Council against the inscription on the pedestal of the statue ofNkrumah erected in front of Parliament House: "Seek you first the politicalkingdom and all other things shall be added to you", a clear adaptation ofMatthew 6:33. This protest was to no avail.24 Apart from the use ofreligious language applied in a political sense, there were a number ofactions undertaken by the Nkrumah regime against which churches voicedtheir protests. Such protests were directed against the obligatory21. Holland, European Decolonization, 219.22. Kwame Nkrumah, Autobiography (London, Panaf Books Ltd, 1973). 10. According toPalmer Buckle, "The Church in the African State", 41, Nkrumah's Egyptian wife was aCoptic Christian and his children were baptised in the Catholic Church.23. John S. Pobee, Kwame Nkrumah and the Church in Ghana. 1949 1966 (Accra, AsempaPublishers/Christian Council of Chana, 1988). 140151.24. Pobee, Kwame Nkrumah, 118-120.44 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSformation of party branches in the churches; the assumed atheisticideology propagated in the Ghana Young Pioneer Movement, and thePreventive Detention Act of 1958. The churches claimed that, in thecontext of an increasing authoritarian-totalitarian state, they had to keepup the defence of moral standards and human rights as an integral part oftheir God-given mission.Were the churches always right and Nkrumah and his regime alwayswrong? There was, of course, much reason for criticism of Nkrumah's lifeand work, certainly when national politics were sacralised, a personalitycult of Nkurumah developed that took the character of religious worship,and human rights were violated. However, there were also instanceswhen churches at times demonstrated a lack of sensitivity andunderstanding regarding aspirations of a leader and his ruling party in anewly independent state as the following examples show.25When Nkrumah indicated that his government claimed control overeducation, this was understood by the churches as an attempt to keepreligion out of the school. Churches were too accustomed to having aquasi-monopoly in education. They did not realise that the people inGhana lived in a pluralistic society and that whoever controls educationcan instil their worldview at the expense of others.26 The socialistorientation and Nkrumah's 'Plan for Education' were completely foreignto most church leaders. Compromises were made but the fundamentaldifferences were never genuinely discussed.Church leaders were not always sensitive to the exuberant pathos ofpolitics in a newly formed state. Many years later, the Anglican Ghanaiantheologian, John Pobee called the protest of the Christian Council againstthe inscription on Nkrumah's statue "frivolous" because it was notsensitive to the political mood of the country as a whole.27On other occasions, church leaders showed lack of insight intotraditional cultural history by, for instance, protesting against the titleOsagyefo (saviour), a title used for Fante chiefs who went to war as"saviours in battle". Many churches at that time were still headed byexpatriates who did not realise that their criticism of national governmentwere doubly resented as imperialistic, neo-colonial interference.2825. For these examples, see Pobee, Kwamc Nkrumah, Chapters VII and VIII, and Verstraelen.'Ghana, West Africa". 84-87.2G. Haynes, Religion and Politics in Africa, 114 115.27.J. S. Pobee, "Church and State in Ghana, 19-16-1966". in id. (ed.) Religion in a PluralisticSociety: Essays Presented to Professor C. C. Baeta (Leiden. E. J. Brill. 197C), 130: Pobee,Kwaine Nkrumah, 119 repeats the same argument but the word frivolous' has been leftout.28. Pobee, Kwame Nkrumah. refers to the British Anglican bishop, Rosevaer. who criticisedthe Young Pioneer Movement (130-132) and to the Dutch Catholic bishop van cler Bronkwho criticised the sending of young people to communist Cuba (7G-77).F. J. VERSTRAELEN 45After Nkrumah had been ousted from office by a military coup onFebruary 24, 1966, an article in the Ghana Bulletin of Theology evaluatedNkrumah's regime saying: "Our first attempt to govern ourselves hasfailed".29 However, evaluations made later acknowledge that Nkrumahwas not merely a misfit and that the churches were not without blame.The Preface to the publication of papers presented at a symposium, heldin 1985 at the University of Ghana, Legon, on the merits and demerits ofKwame Nkrumah says: "His name shall endure as the leading emancipatorof Ghana, the leading protagonist of African independence and unity, anda statesman of world stature of the twentieth century".30One of the major questions discussed immediately after the fall wascould the churches not have exercised a more beneficial influence on theprocess of nation building than, in fact, they did? The answers givenclaim that, indeed, they were partly to blame because of their lack ofsensitivity, understanding and of preparedness for dialogue.31 Part of thedifficulty for the churches was that they were still firmly tied in theologyand ethos to their founding churches in Europe and America. They werealso more reactive to situations initiated by party or government andwere not proactive as spiritual and moral guides in the rapid social andpolitical transformation from Gold Coast to Ghana.32After Nkrumah, 1966 1992In the period 1966 to 1992, the people of Ghana experienced four militarycoups, two short-lived republics, while in 1992 they entered the fourthRepublic. Some new developments and approaches in church-staterelations were the following:First, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches or Charismatic Ministries,a fast growing ecclesiastical player, entered the public arena in thebeginning of the 1970s. These churches are usually quite willing to co-operate with any form of government, be it military or civil. Theyapparently do so not so much out of ideological but rather pragmaticreasons: a desire for respectability and recognition. Governments, which29. N. K. Dzobo. "Christian citizenship and politics in post-coup Ghana", in The GhanaBulletin of Theology, 3, 7 (December 1969), 41.30. Kwame Arhin, "Preface", in id. (ed.), The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah (Accra, SedcoPublishing Ltd. 1991), X. The same text in Kwame Arhin. A View of Kwame Nkrumah.19091972 (Accra. Sedco Publishing Ltd.. 1990). 2 except that in the 1991 text, "thearchitect of her economy and social revolution" has been left out.31. See F. J. Verstraelen, "Is the church to blame?" in id.. "Ghana: After the coup and VaticanTwo" in Catholic Voice (Cape Coast). 43, (v) (1968). 69-70; Dzobo. 'Christian citizenshipand politics in post-coup Ghana".32. K. A. Dickson, "Religion and society: A study in church and state relations in the FirstRepublic", in Arhin. A View of Kwame Nkrumah. 135-151. See also Pobee. Kwame Nkrumah.142144.46 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSoften experience criticisms by mainline churches, tend to court thePentecostal/Charismatic churches for affection and loyalty. However,there is, within these churches, a growing social awareness andinvolvement. In addition, with their stress on a "new birth" for theirfollowers, it could, in the long run, become a real asset for creating astrong moral nation.33Second, in today's socio-political context of Ghana, the mainlinechurches appear to be the only bodies independent of, and makingdemands on the state. They generally succeed in maintaining autonomyand integrity in the face of hostility of a given government, though someof their clergy are co-opted in a kind of hegemonic alliance withgovernment for personal benefits like obtaining tax exemption.34 TheChristian Council and the Bishops' Conferences are now working closertogether regarding national issues more than they did before.35Third, when in 1990, the Rawlings regime, under intense pressure,accepted a return to civilian rule, the churches, the Christian Council inparticular, created an alternative independent forum for expressingviewpoints on a new democratic system.36 Fourth, when the oppositiondisputed the election of Rawlings as President (November 1992), a tenseand dangerous situation was the result. The Bishops' Conference and theChristian Council, this time strengthened by the Ahmadiya Muslim Mission(unfortunately, the influential Federation of Muslim Councils declinedthe invitation) invited the leaders of all political parties to join them in ameeting. This meeting apparently saved the country from civil war,although not all political problems were resolved.37Fifth, after the return to democratic rule in 1992, the churches weretrying to redefine their position and role in public life. In the CatholicChurch, an examination of conscience took place on why the church hadfailed to groom political leaders, why it had misunderstood theiraspirations, and why the churches had often remained fragmented in33. J. Asamoah Cyadu, "The church in the African state: The Pentecostal/charismaticexperience" in Journal ofAfrican Christian Thought. 1. (ii) (1998), 51-57.34Cifford, African Christianity, 109.35. For instance, when General Acheampong tried to impose Union Government, and Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings wanted to put into operation the Religious Bodies Registration Law.the Christian Council and the Bishops' Conference took a common stand against bothgovernments' actions deemed negative. See R. Aboagye-Mensah. "The church in theAfrican state: The Protestant experience in Ghana" in Journal ofAfrican Christian Thought,1, (ii) (Dec. 1998), 45 and Cyadu, "The church in the African state". 53.36. See Aboagye-Mensah, "The church in the African state", 46, See also Kwesi A. Dickson."The church and the quest for democracy in Ghana", in Paul Gilford (ed.). Tlic ChristianChurches and the Democratisation of Africa (Leiden. E. J. Brill, 1995), 261 275.37. Aboagye-Mensah. "The church in the African state".F. J. VERSTRAELEN 47regard to national issues.38 The Christian Council started a project topromote democratic culture in the country.39 The Pentecostal/CharismaticChurches, through all kinds of initiatives and activities, seemed graduallyto be reducing the dichotomy between religion and society.40 In sum, theChristian churches in modern-day Ghana appear better prepared thanbefore to play their rightful and beneficial roles in Ghana's public life.ANGOLAMissions and ColonialismThe Portuguese "colonial" period of Angola lasted from 1483 to 1974/5.The word colonialism has been put in quotation marks because Portugalhad been present in Angola all that time, but the effective occupation ofthe whole territory started only from the 1920s. With the Portuguesecame also the Catholic faith, but after the banning of religious orders inPortugal in 1834, a revival of Catholic evangelisation of the Angolanpeople began with the arrival of the French Holy Ghost Fathers in 1866.Protestant missions arrived in the second half of the nineteenth century.Although the Portuguese were suspicious of protestant missionaries, thelatter were guaranteed free entrance due to regulations laid down at theBerlin Conference of 1884/5. After Portugal became a Republic in 1910,which opted for separation between church and state, protestant missionsobtained legal status. Portugal itself could provide only a few missionaries.While Portugal was apprehensive about the fact that the vast majority ofCatholic missionaries were foreigners, its apprehension turned into fearand hostility regarding the foreign Protestant mission societies enteringAngola, which, by 1920, were nine. Portuguese colonial officials feared adenationalising influence of these Protestant groups.41Portuguese colonial policy has clearly been defined by Joaquin deSilva Cunha in his course for students at the Instituto Superior de Ultramaras follows: "The final objective of native policy is to accomplish theintegration of the native population of the colonies into the Portuguesenation by the progressive transformation of their practices and moralsocial concepts".42 Portugal assigned these tasks to the Christian missions,which administered practically all educational and other welfare38. Palmer-Buckle, "The Church in the African State" (1998), 37-38. The bishop mentions thatout of the seven heads of state, four had a Catholic background.39. Aboagye-Mensah. "The church in the African state". 46.40. Asamoah Gyadu, "The church in the African state", 56.41. Lawrence W. Henderson. Angola: Five Centuries of Conflicl (London, Cornell UniversityPress, 1979), 112113.42. J. de Silva Cunha, Appontamenlos I. Unpublished mimeographed lesson notes (n.d), 171-172. cited in Henderson, Angola, 161.48 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSinstitutions in the rural areas until 1975. This was not unlike what othercolonial powers in Africa did, but Portugal insisted on the use of thePortuguese language, forbade the use of vernacular or, for instance in thecase of the Bible, always with a Portuguese parallel text.43 This policy wasa constant during the whole colonial period and was intensified whenSalazar took power in 1926. The policy was called Lusotropicalismo,which explained and justified Portugal's presence in Africa. Portugalconsidered itself an exception among the European imperialists by beingnon-racist in its tropical territories and by practising racial egalitarianismin both legislation and in informal human interaction.44 While manyPortuguese during Salazar's regime were convinced of this ideology, theliberation movements in Angola and many Angolans of all races rejectedLusotropicalismo as mysticism because it did not correspond to theAngolan reality.45Meanwhile, Salazar, with his Estado Novo (New State) and his ColonialAct of 1930, was binding Angola more closely to Portugal. Considerableinvestments were made in infrastructure and in production of mining andagriculture. New opportunities attracted settlers,46 amounting to 40 000in 1940 and 340 000 in 1974. The population was divided into indigenas(non-civilised), assimilados (civilised non-whites)47 and Europeans, whoformed the top rank of the imperial hierarchy. Assimilados were only 80000 as late as 1960, while the indigenas formed the majority of a populationof 4, 5 million, of whom 97% were classified as illiterate. During the 1950sand 1960s, expropriation of land took place leading to the expulsion andforced cultivation of cash crops.48 In a revised Constitution, the term"colonies" was replaced by "Overseas Provinces of Greater Portugal".43. Henderson. Angola, 151.44. Wilson, African Decolonization, x. The term lusotropicalismo is coined by the Braziliansociologist Cilberto Freyre. who argued that miscegenation had been a positive force inBrazilian history, creating a unique fusion of races and cultures. Salazar's New Stateadopted the ideology of Lusotropicalismo as a vindication of their unique "civilisingmission".45. Manfred Kuder and Wilhelm J. G. Moehlig (Hrsg), Angola: Naturraum, Wirtschaft.Bevolkcrung, Kullure, Zeislgeschichte und Entwickelungsperspektiven (Miinchen Weltforum1994), 181.46. Wilson, African Decolonization, 82, mentions that only few settlers were of the SouthAfrican or Rhodesian type. Most came to make money and returned to Portugal asquickly as possible.47. An assimilado had to have competence in the Portuguese language, be economicallyindependent through having a formal job, and had abandoned the traditional way of life.However, he was not really integrated into the Portuguese nations (Henderson Angola2628).48. Inge Tvedten, Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction (Boulder Westview Press1997). 26-28.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 49A Concordat between Portugal and the Vatican in 1940 gave theCatholic Church a favoured position, while the Mission Statute of 1941officially entrusted all missions with the task of rural education. This taskwas, however, far beyond their capabilities as shown by the fact that, in1960, only 9% of school-age children received primary education. TheProtestant missions, apart from promoting the vernacular in Bibletranslations, were sometimes instrumental in providing higher (university)education through scholarships for studying abroad. All top leaders ofthe nationalist movement in the 1960s were, in one way or another, linkedto protestant missions, which were, therefore, often linked to the liberationstruggle.49 There is, however, also a geopolitical reason for this linking.Each nationalist movement had a regional and ethnic base which, moreor less, coincided with a region and an ethnic group in which one of themajor Protestant mission societies was operating. However, BenedictSchubert, author of a very detailed study of the involvement of thechurches in the Angolan predicament during the period 1961 to 1991,qualifies the too generalised equation of Bakongo = Baptists = FNLA;Kimbundu = Methodist = MPLA; and Ovimbundu = Congregationalist =UNITA, by rejecting, as a propagandistic opinion, that "the" Protestantswere on the side of the fight for freedom, while "the" Catholics continuedto support the colonial status quo.50Missions and NationalismIn 1961, the war of independence started in Angola, as Portuguesenationalism violently defended its overseas province of Angola, andAngolan nationalism violently reclaimed Angola for its people as anindependent state. Although Angolan independence came almost fifteenyears later than most African countries, Angolan resistance, in fact, had along history. There is the impressive figure of Nzinga Mbandi, for fortyyears queen of Ndingo/Matamba (1623-1663), who withstood thePortuguese when the sovereignty of her kingdom was at stake and who is,today, honoured in Angola as a proto-nationalist. There are many examplesof early active resistance to intruding Portuguese presence and control.There were, for instance, the Carnaval-type celebrations, which, inthe 17th century, but also in recent times, mocked the overbearingPortuguese conquerors. There was the Bailundu war of 1902 to defendthe rights of local kings and their caravan trade. There was also the revoltof 1917 in protest against forced labour. Because these forms of violence49. Kuder and Moehlig, Angola. 179.50. Benedict Schubert. Der Krieg und die Kirchen 19611991 (Luzern, Exodus Verlag. 1997).190-206. For a review in English, see Frans J. Verstraelen. in Neue Zeitschrift fiirMisslonswisscnschaft. 56 (2000). 245-246.50 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONStook place in areas where Protestant missions were active, the colonialauthorities accused them of having instigated the people to revolt and,thus, made missionaries scapegoats.51After the Second World War, there was acceleration toward anorganised opposition to colonial rule. In Angola, associations emergedthat were interested in local history and culture. The politicalconsciousness of the assimilados, who before were more or less cut offfrom the broader society, was growing. Angolan students in Portugalestablished in Lisbon the African Study Centre in 1951, from which thebest-known nationalist leaders, such as Neto, Mondhlane, and Cabral,emerged.52 Several young aspiring Angolan politicians were eitherimprisoned for some time or prevented from returning home.53The earliest political group with independence as a declared goalwas PLUA (Party of the United Struggle of African Angola), founded in1953. In 1956, it combined with other organisations to form the MPLA(Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) with Antonio AgostinhoNeto as leader and with the Mbundu and assimilados as the main supportbase. The main alternative was the FNLA (National Front for the Liberationof Angola), founded in 1962, with the Kongo in the northern regions asbase and Holden Roberto as leader. In 1966, UNITA (National Union forthe Total Liberation of Angola) was established, with Jonas Savimbi asleader. Its main bases were the Ovimbundu of the Eastern Highlands.Each movement had its own political outlook, namely: MPLA was Marxist,FNLA had an ethnic orientation focusing on the Bakongo, UNITA waschameleon like, changing successively from a Maoist, to ethnic, andfinally, Western orientation. Although all movements emphasisednationalism, they were, from the start, strong ethnic and regional divisionsamong them, which were worsened by strong personal ambitions of theleaders.54When in 1961 there was the first outburst of violent anti-colonialism,the colonial government reacted with severe repressive measures, using,for instance, napalm bombs against suspected villages. Later, thegovernment improved certain conditions, such as abolishing forced labourand making efforts to improve African education. Only small pockets ofthe country, such as Cabinda and districts of the North were directlyaffected by military action. In 1966, UNITA opened a new front in the east.By the mid-1970s, Portugal could not cope with the three colonial wars51. David Birmingham, "Asking the historical questions: Angola and the Church, 1491-1990"in Neue Zeilschrift fiir Missionswissenschaft, 54, 4 (1998), 266-267.52. Kuder/Moehlig. Angola. 187.53. Tvedten. Angola, 29.Si. Ibid, 29-31.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 51taking place simultaneously in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissauany longer.Young officers of the Armed Forces Movement (AFM) overthrew thePortuguese dictatorship of Marcelo Caetano in April 1974 in the so-called"revolution of flowers". The new leaders of Portugal were bent on givingthe colonies independence. An attempt by General Spinola, the chosenAFM leader, to keep Angola within the Lusophone Federation failed. Inthe Portuguese brokered Alvor Agreement of 15 January 1975, all threeAngolan liberation movements agreed to form a joint transitiongovernment and to hold elections before the official declaration ofindependence, fixed for 11 November 1975. Unfortunately, the nationalistleaders did not find a way to co-operate and, before elections could beheld, an inter-movement fight started, which soon developed into a bloodycivil war.55The missions were caught up in the clash between the twonationalisms. The Protestant missions, after the 1961 uprising, experiencedmore restrictions than before from the colonial regime; even thepossession of a Bible was deemed proof of disloyalty to the colonialstate. Yet, there was no co-operation among them, as each church triedto find its own pragmatic accommodation to the difficult times.56 TheChristian Council of Angola (CAIE) was established only afterindependence in 1977 as a co-ordinating co-operative of Protestantmainline churches.The Catholic Church experienced a conflict of loyalty. To understandits position, one should realise that there were, in fact, three Catholic"churches" in Angola. The Bishops, the "official church", usually continuedto support the colonial government in what they saw as its civilisingmission. The "other church", consisted of a small group of priests and laypeople who challenged the "official church" for its paternalism and culturalchauvinism and for failing to mediate between the fighting parties.57Finally, there was the "church of the masses", for whom Christianity wasa useful superstructure that assisted in social progress; only a tiny minorityof whom were conscious Christians concerned about the future of churchand nation.5855. Ibid.. 33.56. Birmingham, "Asking the historical questions", 271.57. Twenty-two Holy Ghost Fathers, missionaries in Angola, signed a statement sharplycriticising the official church's support for the colonial system. Part of the statement ispublished in IDOC International, 43 (Rome, 1972). See Henderson, Angola, 218-219.58. G. Cuppen (ed). Een nieuw volk, eennieuwe kcrk?Angola (s'Hertogenbosch. NederlandseMissieraad, 1979). 210-216. This publication of more than 500 pages is a collection ofimportant, mainly church documents from the period around independence till themiddle of 1978.52 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSThe military coup of April 25 1974 in Portugal was a decisive catharsisfor the Portuguese to end their colonial rule in Africa, including Angola.However, as early as 1958, the Bishop of Porto had sent a letter to Salazarinsisting on governmental change. This action, much publicised, led tothe Bishop being exiled. Opposition to Portuguese colonial rule wasstimulated when, on July 1, 1970, Pope Paul VI received the leaders ofliberation movements from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. Toan outraged Portuguese government, Radio Vatican made clear theChurch's attitude towards the independence of new nations by referringto documents of the recently held Vatican Council.Mission Churches and IndependenceDuring the transition period between the Alvor Agreement (15 January1975) and the date fixed for independence (11 November 1975), when itwas not yet decided which party would rule, MPLA and UNITA leadersvisited church leaders and missions. When visiting the Archbishop ofLuanda in May 1975, UNITA leader Savimbi stated, "we are convinced thatpeace cannot be achieved with arms".59 Meanwhile, heavy fighting hadbroken out between the MPLA and the other two parties, in which SouthAfrican troops supported UNITA and the MPLA received assistance fromCuban troops. The fight prevented elections from being held. On November10 1975, the last Portuguese governor transferred political power to "thepeople of Angola", without any formal ceremony being held. The MPLA,after having ejected its contenders out of Luanda, declared Angola'sindependence on November 11 1975.At its first Party Congress in December 1977, the MPLA adoptedMarxism-Leninism as its guiding principle. Religion was considered afactor of alienation, and Christian influence was curtailed by nationalisingchurch-run schools and confiscating church welfare and traininginstitutions such as hospitals, seminaries, printing presses, and theCatholic Radio Station. Neto, son of a Methodist pastor, now President,declared that "neither Catholics nor Protestants can become members ofour party. Perhaps after fifty years, there will be no church anymore inAngola".60The Catholic Bishops had already reacted to the MPLA's Marxistideological orientation in a Pastoral Note on 22 November 1976 in whichthey stated that the Catholic Church had no objection against building asocialist society as long as it remained open for human and Christianvalues. "The church's social doctrine condemned the ills of capitalism,59. Cuppen, Een nieuw volk, een nieuwe kerke?, 261, 264.60. Haynes, Religion and Politics in Africa. 91-93. The quotation is from Schubert. Dor Kriegund die Kirchen, 187. After Netos death in 1979. this restriction was lifted.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 53but she cannot accept an ideology which denies the existence of God andwhich demonstrates a radical intransigence towards the fundamentalprinciples of a Christian understanding of the human person".61The Methodist Bishop Emilio Carvalho, in an extensive address onNovember 17 1976, expressed in a positive way that a socialist constructionof independent Angola was, for the churches, not so much a problem as achance.62 The Catholic bishops referred in their note to the contradictionbetween the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Constitution and theattacks on the churches that were occurring. They were thinking in termsof confrontation with government rather than co-operation which BishopCarvalho was breaking a lance.The harsh reactions of the MPLA government were not, merely,based on its ideology; they can partially be explained on the basis that itsaw the churches as a threat - churches were in closer contact with thepeople than the government was. Though church-state relations hadbecome strained, the state needed the contributions of the churches inthe area of promoting national welfare. In 1981, Dos Santos, who succeededNeto as President in 1979, met with the Catholic Bishops and both sidesagreed to respect the position of each other and to work together for thedevelopment of the nation. As a result, responsibilities for social welfarewere gradually transferred back to the churches.63By the late 1980s, it had become evident that the centralisedgovernment structure, with its "command politics", had led to an extremelyinefficient bureaucracy which was incapable of solving Angola's problems.The government could also no longer cope with internal and externalpressures for democracy and pluralism. In June 1990, in the wake of thedownfall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the MPLA Central Committeeapproved multi-partyism and formally abandoned Marxism-Leninism infavour of "democratic socialism". It also opted for a mixed economybased on the laws of the market. The People's Assembly approved thesereforms in March 1991 and introduced a law to forestall the creation ofethnic and regional political groupings.64In this new opening towards democracy, the Christian Council (CIAE)and the Evangelical Alliance of Angola (AEA) jointly published, beginning1990, a position paper on "Peace and Democracy: A Contribution of theAngolan Churches", in which they pleaded that a multiparty systemshould be a requirement and not simply a possibility as some politicianswere still advocating. The Catholic Bishops also published a pastoral61. Cuppen. Een nieuw volk, een nieuwe kerk?, 486.62. Ibid., 472-482; Schubert, Der Krieg und die Kirchen, 195-198.63. Haynes, Religion and Politics in Africa, 93.64.Tvedten. Angola, 51-53.54 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSletter on "Peace and Democracy".65 Thus, still, the Protestant and CatholicChurches could not speak with one voice, even on an issue so vital toAngolan public life.The Angolan people, weary of civil strife and its concomitant suffering,were longing for peace in a new political set up. Both contending partieshad squandered much of the public's good will as can be seen from thegraffiti on the walls in Luanda, which read: "MPLA rouba, UNITA mata"(MPLA steals. UNITA kills).Under a new agreement, the Bicesse Peace Accord, dos Santos andSavimbi agreed to demobilise their troops and to merge them into asingle army as well as to hold elections. The election took place onSeptember 29 and 30 1992 and was judged by 400 international observersto be free and fair. The MPLA won 129 seats (53, 8%) and UNITA 70 seats(34,1%) of the total 220 parliamentary seats, while, for the Presidentialelections, dos Santos obtained 49, 57%, while Savimbi obtained 40,07% ofthe votes. Savimbi soon raised charges of fraud and threatened renewedcivil war, which he, in fact, resumed by occupying several towns andattacking Luanda.66Instead of appealing to Savimbi to accept the outcome of the elections,negotiators suggested power-sharing solutions. Savimbi, however,maintained his allegation of fraud and expanded his military operations.Thus, in Angola, the struggle for power continued, but above all, thesuffering of the Angolan people, notwithstanding the pleas of both Catholicand Protestant churches for peace and democracy.GHANA AND ANGOLA'S EXPERIENCES COMPAREDColonialism and Missions in Ghana and AngolaThe Portuguese were the first European nation to come into contact withlocal African states and people in both Ghana and Angola. The Portugueseremained in Angola, while in Ghana, several other European nations wererepresented. The Portuguese were eventually displaced and the Britishbecame the only ruling colonial power. In both countries, effectiveoccupation developed from trade relations. Effective occupation of Ghanastarted in the 1890s, while in Angola, it started in the 1920s.There was a striking difference between British and Portuguesecolonial policies, for while the British in Ghana practised "indirect rule"which left some room for traditional customs and culture, the Portuguesesought to integrate their Angolan subjects into the Portuguese way of life.65. Schubert. Der Krieg und die Kirchcn. 285.66. Tvedten, Angola, 58-60.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 55insisting on the use of the Portuguese language and culture and onAfricans abandoning their old ways of life. After the Second World War,both colonising powers were concerned with keeping a certain statusand prestige within the new bipolar world. Britain tried to regaininternational, especially US, recognition by advocating speedy self-government for its African colonies and, particularly, by trying to makethe process toward independence in the Gold Coast (Ghana) become amodel for decolonisation elsewhere. In contrast, Portugal was determinedto keep up an image of a world empire by promoting its African colonies,including Angola, to overseas provinces of Greater Portugal.With respect to Christian missions, Portuguese missionaries werethe first to bring coastal people of both Ghana and Angola into contactwith Christianity. Protestant missionaries arrived in Ghana in the 1830s,before the formal establishment of the Gold Coast Colony, while Catholicmissionaries returned in 1880, after the Colony had been established.Though the British colonial government had historical and cultural linkswith British missionaries, it had no objection to missionaries of othernationalities. Portuguese colonial authorities, on the other hand,particularly under the Salazar regime, favoured the Catholic missionbecause it was expected to guarantee the lusotropical process. ThePortuguese government looked at the Protestant missions (entering Angolain the second half of the 19th century) with suspicion, if not hostility, butcould not prevent them entering Angola since the Berlin Conference hadregulated free missionary movement to all African territories underEuropean control.Catholic and Protestant missionaries in both Ghana and Angolagenerally supported the colonial agenda of "civilising" the Africans andthey did not take any overt steps to promote decolonisation. They merelyreacted by following political developments as they unfolded and wereready to accept African self-government when it came. However, indirectly,Christian missions influenced very much the process towards politicalindependence, not only through their education, but also through thepropagation of a Christian worldview and ethos, which stressed theunique worth of each human individual before God.The nationalist movement in both colonial Ghana and Angola wasbased on African popular discontent with the negative aspects of colonialrule, but was carried by a small, but vocal elite. There is, however,considerable difference regarding the type of elite and the timing of theemergence of nationalism in the two countries. In Ghana, organisednationalism can be said to have begun with the Fante Confederation ofthe 1870s, developed in the early twentieth century, culminating in themilitant nationalism of the 1940s, which now demanded independence. InAngola, on the other hand, a nationalist anti-colonial spirit found56 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSembodiment only after the Second World War, starting with Associationswhich fostered nationalist consciousness and led to the rise of organisednationalist movements from 1953 onwards. The difference in the timingof the rise of nationalism in Ghana and Angola can be explained by thedifference in colonial policy and the orientation and history of theeducation system in the two countries.It is interesting to note that, in both Ghana and Angola, the pioneernationalist leaders were almost all the products of Protestant missionschools or of Protestant influence in general. Important in the rise ofnationalism in Ghana was the early start of education, first through theCastle School, and later through other Protestant schools that wereestablished. Mission graduates were prominent along the coast in themid-nineteenth century, while in the late nineteenth century, Ghanaianswith considerable Western education (lawyers, medical doctors, wealthycocoa farmers) were able to advance their interests and articulated theircriticism of British colonial administration through, for instance, theGold Coast Methodist Times.61 The modern nationalists who started politicalparties from 1947 onwards were following in the footsteps of the earlyelite. The elite of Angola was different from the elite of Ghana, for inAngola, to be educated meant to become an assimilado; someone cut offfrom the local culture and the broader society. Only after the SecondWorld War did many assimilados get involved in nationalist movementsas leaders.It is striking that, in Angola too, each leader of the three mainnationalist movements (MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA) had a direct connectionwith one of the Protestant missions. The reason was not so much theProtestant education system, as was the case in Ghana, for that thatsystem was no more developed than the Catholic system, which hadeven a greater, though still very limited, range of activities. The close linkof these nationalist leaders to Protestant missions can be explained bythe fact that the three nationalist movements had their bases in the sameregion where the Protestant missions were operating and where theyexercised considerable influence, thus illustrating the cuius regio, illius etreligio principle.The struggle for independence in Ghana consisted mainly of strikesand semi-violent actions and was of very short duration (1947-1951). Thetransition from colony to independent state went relatively smoothlybecause the British government, in the end, facilitated the process towardsindependence, albeit not out of altruism. In Angola, a long war of liberationfrom 1961 to 1974 was waged mainly because the Portuguese government67. Gifford, African Christianity, 57. See also, Mobley, The Ghanaian s Image of the Missionary.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 57rejected African demands for independence, maintaining that Angola wasan integral part of Portugal itself. In this clash of two nationalisms, it wasnot, in the end, the military power of the nationalists that resolved theconflict but a military coup against a dictatorial government in Portugalthat proved decisive in convincing Portugal to hand over power in "itsoverseas provinces".Independence and Christian Mission ChurchesWhile both Ghana and Angola eventually achieved independence, themanner in which this goal was attained and the nature of independencediffered considerably. Ghana's independence was achieved throughelections in which Nkrumah's CPP won a majority of the vote, making itpossible for Britain to transfer power to a legitimate government, which,therefore, could start building a new Ghana. In contrast, independence inAngola was achieved through the MPLA's unilateral declaration of Angolaas a People's Republic, after inter-movement fighting had frustratedelections. Thus, the Portuguese Governor handed over power to 'thepeople of Angola', because the government was not, really, legitimate.Not surprisingly, Angola's independence resulted in a civil war, whichwas complicated and prolonged by the interference, in the Cold Warcontext, of international powers. Only after the demise of communism inEastern Europe did a serious effort to bring about peace in Angola getunder way. Even then, the Angolan protagonists could not reach anagreement, several internationally brokered peace accordsnotwithstanding.Christian churches in both countries were alarmed by the choice ofMarxist socialism by the Nkrumah and Neto governments. In Ghana, theclash between church and state during the Nkrumah period (1957-1966)was relatively mild, since Nkrumah's rhetoric was not always matched byactual practice and, generally, churches were allowed to continue withtheir work. In Angola, on the other hand, the Neto government pursued adoctrinaire Marxist-Leninist line according to which religion was aphenomenon of the past which should be disposed of in the name ofscience. Thus, the government nationalised church-run welfareinstitutions, although it soon discovered that it could not maintain them.In both countries, the churches tried to exercise their propheticmission in public life. In Ghana, both Protestant and Catholic churchescriticised Nkrumah and his regime for abuse of religious language forpolitical purposes. In Angola, where religion had been fully ostracised, itwas mainly the Catholic Church that voiced criticism and concern aboutthe ongoing civil war, and the violations of religious freedom. TheProtestant churches, denominationally divided, were less able to addressnational issues collectively. In a sense, it was paradoxical that the Catholic58 AFRICAN DECOLONISATION PROCESSES AND MISSIONSChurch moved from being the "official church" of the colonial state tobeing the most influential church of the national state.68In their criticism of the first independence governments in bothGhana and Angola, the churches were not always sensitive to the immenseproblems facing governments in trying to reconstruct their newlyindependent countries. The choice of a Marxist, strongly centralisedgovernment in both countries could have been understood as a symbolicrejection of their former capitalist colonial status and the system thatunderpinned it. There were also pragmatic reasons for the choice ofcentralised governmental systems, for it was felt that such a governmentalsystem could more easily deal with obstacles seen as blockingdevelopment than a Western-type democratic system, which wasconsidered a luxury in the urgent task of building a nation. Despite theMarxist rhetoric, however, neither of the two countries were ever fullyMarxist in ideology and practice; rather, what they practised was whatmight be termed semi-Marxism which left room for co-operation with theso-called free world,69 enabling the governments to take advantage of theCold War bipolar world by playing one side against the other.The fact that, after Nkrumah's fall in 1966, Marxism as an ideology ofgovernment disappeared from Ghana's political scene and that, afterNeto's death in 1979, the Marxist regime became less rigid and Marxismwas jettisoned in favour of "democratic socialism" in 1991 confirms theviewpoint that the atheistic part of Marxist ideology, which the churcheswere condemning, had not deeply entered or affected the minds of thepoliticians, let alone, the people. This could easily have been establishedhad the churches engaged in dialogue with those in power as part of theireffort to fulfil their prophetic mission. Lastly, in both countries, thestruggle continued. In the case of Ghana, reflection continued on definingor redefining the role and the mission of the Church in a country strivingto develop a "culture of democracy".70 Meanwhile, in Angola, the churches68. Birmingham, "Asking the historical questions", 272.69. Thorn Kerstiens, The New Elite in Asia and Africa: A Comparative Study of Indonesia andGhana (New York, Frederick A Praeger Publishers. 1966), 202-207.70. Maxwell Owusu, "Culture and democracy: Some persistent problems", in Insight: Quarterlyfor the Christian Ghanaian Intellectual, 2. 4 (Nov-Dec 19G7), 40-46, analyses the ingrainedcultural attitudes of authoritarianism in Ghanaian society and emphasises the crucialrole of argument and discussion in the establishment of democratic institutions. Asymposium convened by the All Africa Conferences of Churches (AACC) in 1991 discussedinter alia, democracy in an African setting, particularly the fact that "Democracy is not aready-made structure which can simply be transferred intact to Africa from abroad". SeeA. Karainaga (ed.). Problems and Promises of Africa: Towards and Beyond the Year 2000(Nairobi, AACC, 1993), 30. See also Ngoy D. Mulunda-Nyanga, La Reconstruction deI'Afrique. Foi et liberte pour tin continent en conflict (Nairobi, Conference des Eglises detoute 1 Afrlque, 1998), clips. 2 and 3.F. J. VERSTRAELEN 59had to find ways in which to effectively contribute to ending the civil warthrough a struggle for true liberation based on justice and reconciliation.