International Review Missiology

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The Family of God: An Ecclesial Model for HIV Prevention in Africa Stephanie Mar Smith and Kinoti Meme Missiology 2008 36: 417 DOI: 10.1177/009182960803600402 The online version of this article can be found at: http://mis.sagepub.com/content/36/4/417

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The Family of God An Ecclesial Model for HIV Prevention in Africa STEPHANIE MAR SMITH KINOTI MEME

The traditional means of forming human identity and shaping moral values within traditional African communities have been undermined by a Western philosophical presupposition: the conception of the self as an individual, autonomous agent. Through the forces of colonization and globalization, this conception of the self has undermined the processes of identityformution that have traditionally taken place in African communities, creating a profoundly disturbing loss of moral identity among urban youth. We will argue that efforts at HIV prevention must address this issue. SpeciJicully, we will propose the ecclesial model, “thefamily of God, ’’ as a means for promoting HIV prevention.

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hile Westerners characterize HIV/AIDS as a medical disease, African scholars often diagnose the disease in terms of its deeper causes. Though they do not deny the medical nature of this devastating illness, many African scholars recognize that the roots of HIV/AIDS reach far deeper into African societies. Roots like poverty, gender inequity, and urbanization flourish beneath the surface, enabling the deadly AIDS tree to stretch its lethal limbs across the African continent. In order to stop the spreading limbs, the root issues must be undercut by careful analysis and creative solutions appropriate to the African context. This essay will analyze the crisis in African communal identities brought about by the forces of modernization. We will argue that the traditional means of forming human identity and shaping moral values within the African community have been undermined by three factors associated with colonization and globalization: (1) Western education, (2) capitalist economies, and (3) protestant Christianity. While aspects Stephanie Mar Smith, Ph.D., is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Codrington College, University of the West lndies in Barbados. Born in the United States, she has seven years of cross-cultural experience while living in Malaysia, Scotland, and the Caribbean. She is the author of the forthcoming book Theories ojJustice: Kurl Barth and John Paul 11. Kinoti Meme, Ph.D., is the Education and Training Director for Lifewater International. Born in Kenya, he has over 15 years of experience in youth and community ministries through World Vision International and the United Methodist Church in Kenya and the USA. His doctoral research and dissertation was on the role of the church in interethnic relations in the twenty-first century city.

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Stephanie Mar Smith and Kinoti Meme

of these three factors have proven beneficial to the African context, we will limit our analysis to a critique of the Western philosophical presupposition that informs each of these factors: the conception of the self as an individual, autonomous agent. We will argue that, because they draw from an individualist conception of the self, these three factors have undermined the processes of identity formation that have traditionally taken place in African communities, creating a profoundly disturbing loss of identity among urban youth. We will suggest that efforts at HIV prevention must address this issue. Specifically, we will propose the ecclesial model, “the family of God,” as a model for promoting HIV prevention, especially among displaced youth. The reader may notice two voices in this essay: an African voice of narrative analysis and sociological description and a Western voice of theoretical analysis and theological response. Given the dialogical nature of our topic, i.e., a critique of Western influences upon African conceptions of the moral self, and the importance of engaging the problem of HIV from both sociological and theological perspectives, the authors decided to retain the distinctiveness of both voices. The essay begins with the African voice: a description of the traditional development of the African sense of self, which took place within a Kenyan tribal community. Recognizing that cultures and tribes within Africa vary widely, we have chosen to reflect upon the Meru tribe of Kenya as an example in which one can discover continuity and discontinuity with the beliefs and practices of other tribes. The main point of continuity, we contend, is the well-documented belief that African identity is formed through communal processes, through engagement with the values, norms, and relationships of communities. The second section will describe the negative influences of Western culture upon the African context, with specific interest in their influences upon HTV prevention among youth. In an effort to assess the deeper issues that must be addressed in HIV prevention, this section will seek to describe a crisis of identity that our African author has observed, which is taking place among the numerous youth who have migrated to urban areas. The final section argues for a theological conception of church that addresses these concerns by encouraging churches to become alternative communities in which displaced youth might find hope for life and strength to critique and resist behaviors that create risk.

The Traditional African Socialization Process In the traditional tribal context, the moral formation of youth took place through the intimate involvement of the community. Such an approach to moral formation can be traced to the belief, held widely among Africans, that human identity is formed relationally. At the heart of African anthropology lies this principle: “I am because we are, and because we are, I am” (Bujo 2001:24-25 and Mbiti 1991:115).’ The identity and moral formation of the person is tied to his or her involvement in community, a community of both the living and the deceased. This approach to formation of the moral identity of youth is illustrated through a description of traditional practices of the Meru tribe of Kenya, in which I (Kinoti Meme) was raised. Traditional tribal life in the Meru tribe consisted of a communal lifestyle within close-knit extended families. These families provided essential moral development for the children at various levels. First, the child belonged to the community. Although the parents were the primary guardians, everyone else was also responsible for the

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child’s physical and moral development. The community was responsible to teach the child the necessary skills of life, Secondly, grandmothers and grandfathers played especially important roles as facilitators of moral and civic responsibility. They were also the carriers of tribal heritage and wisdom. In this setup, tribal members the age of one’s grandparents, even though not necessarily blood-related to the child, could offer instruction and discipline where necessary. As the child grew older, to teenage years, uncles and aunts became important in the socialization process. In the case that the child had no uncles or aunts, a relative or a close community member of the mother’s or father’s age took this role. Uncles worked with the boys and aunts with the girls. This uncle or aunt became the main ‘teacher’ for the child as he or she went through the different tribal rites of passage. There were no scheduled or formal classes, but every child was educated on essential mores of the society and their responsibilities in it. Instruction took place as the children regularly interacted with the grandparents and other people in the community. The process of learning took place through songs and stories, often told at the grazing fields or at the end of the day around the fireplace. This informal interaction took away the need to teach directly but still offered lessons necessary for appropriate moral development of the children. The age differences between the grandparents and the kids also mitigated shame issues, provided relaxed learning experiences necessary to address even the touchiest of issues, and helped instill trust. An important time in the development of the child was during the teenage years. During this time, many tribal societies had coming-of-age rites of passage that prepared the youths to be adults. Among the Meru of Kenya, for example, boys were initiated into manhood at puberty (ages 13-16). This rite of passage (rutuno)included circumcision and a period of seclusion for about four to six weeks. It was the most important step toward manhood since it marked the beginning of a man’s two-fold responsibility in society: rutuno initiated them into warriorhood, and it prepared them for their role as a husband and father. Girls had a similar process, carried out by their aunts and other women of the community. Before the ceremonies, the uncles and aunts would prepare the initiates by spending time with them, often teaching them about tribal life and preparing them for adult life. During seclusion, they would also teach the initiates important aspects of male-female relationships. The youth got instructions on ways to start and maintain these relationships including appropriate and inappropriate sexual conduct. All age-sets (i.e., youths of a certain age) in a particular village underwent the initiation process at the same time. They also shared seclusion time and instruction together. For some tribes, the initiates withdrew from the community and only returned after the group had ‘graduated’ into the new role. Once initiated, the group acted as a disciplinary community towards each other. An older age-set could discipline a younger one if one or several of its members were deemed undisciplined or infringing on moral or communal values. Flirting and sexual intercourse were considered significant moral infringements that warranted serious disciplinary actions against the persons and their age-set members. Pregnancy before marriage led to ostracism and to marriage as a second or third wife for the girl. Rape was punishable by death, and children born as a result of this act were cast away.

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These communal practices helped to develop moral perspectives and to preserve certain standards for sexual relations. In the Meru community, as in many other tribal communities across Africa, interactions between unmarried initiates were allowed only during communal events (maambura) (e.g. tribal celebrations, dances, and harvest festivals). During these functions, only public relations were allowed (e.g. partner dances). No private meetings were permitted until marriage. Courtship was also a communal process. The family of the initiated young adult would consult with the family of a potential spouse and get into a process of prolonged visits and gift exchanges (ruruachio) that eventually led to marriage. Hence, even the practice of marriage and its sustenance was a communal affair. These socialization and accountability structures helped inculcate identity and moral responsibility in the members. They developed identity because individuals knew who they were and understood that they were part of a group. They also knew what was expected of them because they were accountable, hence responsible, to the group (both to the age-set and to the broader society). These two aspects were foundational to effective community living within the traditional tribal societies, providing security in belonging, which regulated life within the communities. There were also strong community-based accountability structures that ensured compliance. With the breaking down of these structures, individuals have been left on their own, with little socialization and minimal accountability.

Influence of Westernization Most of the community structures described are in rapid decline in the Meru tribe of Kenya and in many other Sub-Saharan African communities, following processes of westernization brought about by colonialism and globalization. In contrast to the African communal conceptions of the self, westernization has entailed an implicit individualization through three factors: formal Western education, competitive market economies, and Western Protestantism. While we acknowledge that each of these factors has also benefited the African continent, we will focus upon the negative impact of the individualizing forces of each factor and the subsequent issues posed for HIV/AIDS prevention among youth. Western Education Formal Western education has undermined the pattern of formation that took place in tribal settings. First, systems of Western education create a progressive physical disconnection of the children from their tribal communities at a very young age. Young children are in school for most of the day, for three-quarters of the year. The average student leaves the village to attend boarding school at age 14, the age at which traditionally they would be going through their rites of passage. From this age on, most young people live separately from their families for the rest of their lives. They only have brief visits to the family during the school year. Upon graduation from high school or college, a large number of these students remain in urban centers, where they can find jobs related to their education. Through such experiences, young people find that the accountability structures associated with moral formation have been broken down, with little to replace them.* Whereas the sexual behaviors of young people were previously monitored by the community, young students are now challenged to formulate their own values and

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to moderate their own behaviors in this distant context, with little help from their teachers. Through this physical separation, formal education has reduced the amount of interaction with the extended family and changed the role of the grandparents and other relatives. Children have less time to learn about themselves or the community. Additionally, formal education takes the child away from home and family, without providing adequate life-training or moral education. This disconnection is irreversible, especially with the pursuit of higher education and employment. Second, international languages, mainly English and French, have replaced local ones as the lingua franca in schools, communities, and businesses across Africa. In his book, Decolonising the Mind, Ngugi Wathiong’o (1986) describes language as a means for people to understand themselves and to describe their world. The loss of one’s language erases important memories of culture and history. According to Ngugi, expression of one through another person’s language, when this becomes primary, is a loss of identity. Chinua Achebe (1958) supports this argument as well. He feels that the disintegration of the African communal processes, the loss of their languages and culture through the embrace of Western ones, is a tragic loss, one that has led the society to “fall apart.”3 Many African children grow up within this confusing milieu. They are taught to be ‘Western’ through foreign language acquisition, education, and culture. This Western style of socialization begins at a very early age, since that is the new way to survive in the global context. In Kenya, for instance, children attend school from about four years of age. In most rural schools, children learn in their mother tongue, as well as in English, up to third grade. After this, English replaces the tribal language in the curriculum. Additionally, from then on, most schools impose prohibitions of the use of the tribal language in school. Children can only speak and write in English. While this requirement is meant to help them master the language, it undoubtedly decreases memory and development of one’s native language. The loss of the tribal language represents a shift toward individualization, as the communal values and moral norms traditionally communicated through stories and parables become meaningless. Language barriers separate students from the formation that takes place through the conveyance of oral histories and the narratives that define the community. A sense of rootlessness takes place as these young people struggle to discern their identities. A third factor contributing to this crisis in moral identity has been the undermining of African structures of authority. In the Western structure of education, regard was given to the ‘most learned,’ rather than to the existing order that recognized age and the wisdom of elders. This shift birthed the view that practices of the tribal community were not good enough, and needed to be replaced with new Western systems. Hence, over the last half a century, systems of government, religion, societal mores, and education have since become increasingly Western. These structures, even though inadequate to address all the issues of the African context, have been embraced wholeheartedly. Traditional systems have been replaced as outdated, leading both to the individual and communal crisis of identity. Together with the disconnecting effects of formal education, there is a salient perspective beginning with colonialism that “all things foreign” are better. Hence,


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imported goods, language, and foreign cultures are sought as better than their African counterparts. It is also regarded as increasingly backward to identify with traditional African cultures. Therefore, in the process of embracing the foreign, many cultures have lost otherwise important practices. As a result, we have a generation who are unsure of their identity, trying unsuccessfully to imitate someone else, and at the same time missing valuable molding from their communities because they do not belong. Peter Berger et al. describe this sense of alienation as similar to that which migrating students experience because of modernization: “Not only is the world redefined, with others reclassified, but the individual literally no longer knows who he is. At this point, all of reality becomes uncertain and threatened with meaninglessness-precisely the condition that sociologists call anomie” (Berger et al. 1974:153). Western approaches to HIV/AIDS education and prevention may prove ineffective in such a context if they fail to appreciate this form of alienation among urban youth. While educators seek to rescue African youth from infection, they may simultaneously be reinforcing the breakdown of African identity and culture by propagating Western moral ideals, such as autonomy. The contemporary ideal of autonomy, influenced by Immanuel Kant, is the belief that normal adults are self-governing in matters of morality, i.e., we impose our own values or requirements on ourselves (O’Neill 1992). For Kant, the sign of mature moral identity was the capacity of the individual to determine his or her own moral action through reason, free from the authority of neighbors or elders: Autonomy has become a fundamental concept in Western minds, especially with regard to ethics and rights (May 1998:13).’ Such autonomy has translated into AIDS education through the emphasis on safe sexual practices. Many Western-based NGOs assume that the way to prevent HIV is by convincing individuals to protect themselves from HIV through condom use. Many Western-based FBOs assume that HIV prevention must come through educating youth to choose to abstain from sex or to choose be faithful to marriage partners. While we do not suggest that such methods of prevention should cease, we do want to raise the critical question of the contextual appropriateness of the educational methods employed. Both approaches may operate out of a set of assumptions associated with a Western liberal tradition that conceives prevention in terms of autonomous individual choice. In other words, telling youth that they are free to decide upon their own moral values and leaving them to make autonomous decisions reinforces the impact of Western individualism and proves problematic by breaking down the communal strength of African societies. Likewise, an overly moralistic approach that does not meet basic needs for identity and community may prove equally ineffective. Cut off from their extended families, African youth need new communities that will help them to develop moral identities and behaviors. In the final section, we will argue for a model of church that can become such a community for dislocated youth. Globul Market Economies A second area that has reinforced the moral identity crisis among youth in Africa is the global market economy. Most nations in Africa have shifted to competitive market economies, a change that has impacted African youth both positively and negatively. On the positive side, market economies have consistently demonstrated the capacity to create wealth in manners that traditional or socialist economies are unable

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to do. These economies also tend to lead to greater political freedom by reinforcing democratic political processes (Nash 1986). Yet globalized market economies have added to the current crisis of moral identities among African youth by weakening traditional communities. These individualizing forces can be illustrated in five ways. First, capitalism has introduced economic competition and individual advancement as the means to provide for one’s family. In contrast to the emphasis on promoting the well-being of the whole community, individuals strive to achieve personal success, defined in terms of providing for the self and the family. This shift points toward a second factor: the emphasis on nuclear families. Either because the family is forced to migrate away from traditional communities or because of the forms of competition that have arisen within communities, nuclear families are forced to band together for economic survival, thus breaking down the traditional emphasis on the relations of the larger community. Third, in many cases, individuals are forced to leave their nuclear families in order to participate in the market economy. In the example given earlier, students migrate to the city for educational purposes and remain there so that they can acquire jobs that will support the education of their younger siblings or the well-being of their parents. Fourth, market economies have made Western education a prerequisite for successful participation, giving rise to the individuation described above. Finally, free market economies have exposed many African youth to values promoted by Western media, a source that has a powerful impact upon the moral formation of dislocated youth. Because of the breakdown of traditional communities and practices, youth increasingly turn to media to understand their sexual identities. Global access to this material is growing in most countries, with little or no censorship to restrict access to adult entertainment among youth. The media often portrays sexual promiscuity as a positive force in shaping one’s identity or fulfillment. It communicates a form of sexual activity in which one is detached from serious commitments and unencumbered by the morals of the community (Katongole 2000: 246-7). That many youth have accepted sexual promiscuity as a positive value is evidenced by the HIV infection rate, which is highest among youth, ages 15-24 (UNAIDSWHO 2005: 18-19). While the force of media works to form the moral identity of youth, the voices of parents are often absent because of the taboo surrounding sex. In most African communities, the grandparent, more than the parent, played a key role in preparing the youth for responsible adulthood, including positive sexual engagements. Together with their crucial role in training the youth on communal morality, grandparents were the main purveyors of sex education to their grandchildren. This relationship, combined with the rites of passage described above, formed the means for learning in preparation for adulthood. The shift toward nuclear families, far removed from the influence of grandparents, increasingly hinders the adequate preparation of the youths. Added to this dilemma is the inability for many parents to address sexual issues, due in part to the shame that is still part of many cultures in Africa. In the absence of sound guidance from the community or family, cheap and easy access to media replaces the cultural structures of socialization. Because of the economic forces of globalization, young people face the loss of traditional means of identity formation. With this loss of communal identity, they often trust the messages conveyed by global media, which tell them they can create their

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own moral identities through autonomous choices. As Emmanuel Katongole argues, however, this view of freedom, propagated through the media, ultimately leads to an “unstable” and “decentered” self, severing these youth from the stabilizing and humanizing forces of committed sexual relations, which were encouraged and supported by traditional communities. Because the economic forces of globalization will likely prevent Africa from returning to life in traditional communities, it becomes vital to search for new communities that can serve as stabilizing influences for dislocated and de-centered youth. We will argue in the final section that the Christian church can serve as such a community. Protestant Christianity Protestant Christianity has also been implicated in breaking down the traditional processes of moral formation in tribal communities. First, Protestant missionaries supported and reinforced the individualizing forces of Western education and economies. According to Wilbert Shenk, the missionary movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was characterized by a lack of cultural awareness. The pre-critical view set up one’s own culture as the standard by which other peoples were judged. The Protestant missionaries of the movement after 1792 continued to assume that their own Enlightenment worldview was superior. He contends, “Traditional peoples were regarded as disadvantaged and they could only make progress by becoming modern and Western. Enlightenment science, knowledge, and epistemology held the key to human progress. Advocates of Christian missions readily yoke the ‘blessings’ of Christianization with progressive modern civilization” (2005:38). According to Shenk, this approach took place well into the twentieth century,‘ thus reinforcing the issues we have described that are associated with Westernized education and econ~mies.~ Secondly, most evangelical missionaries to Africa also exported a gospel that echoed the individualism and autonomy of Western culture. David Bosch (1983500) writes, “In the Christian tradition from which the modern missionary movement has sprung, salvation was located in the inner experience of the individual. The individual stood alone before God; his choices were decisive. The church was made up of free individuals.” The focus was on the conversion of the individual and upon issues of personal morality, like drinking alcohol or cutting ties with animistic practices. Social problems like poverty were believed to have their roots in individual sin (Hollinger 1983:93). With an individualistic conception of salvation came an individualistic conception of the church community. As Schleiermacher maintained, Protestantism “makes the individual’s relation to the church dependent on his relation to Christ” (2001:24). In other words, once an individual has chosen to follow Christ, one may also choose a church body to join. The church consists in the gathering of these individuals who have chosen to follow Christ.8 While such a view may have positive implications by making salvation personal and immediate for members of the church, the individualism underpinning these conceptions of salvation and ecclesiology may contribute to the breakdown of African communal culture. Over the past thirty years, African theologians have been working to critique this Westernized gospel and to reinvent

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African forms of Christian thought and practice. Yet the legacy of Western evangelical missionary work in Africa continues to influence congregations throughout Africa. As an example, African churches have often approached social issues like HIVIAIDS through the lens of individual sin, i.e., the sexual immorality of the infected person.’ Yet if individual sexual morality is the only lens through which AIDS prevention is viewed, efforts at prevention may be rendered less effective. By focusing on individual sin, churches may fail to address the larger social, cultural, and economic sins driving the pandemic. For example, as African feminist theologians have pointed out, many women are innocent victims of the disease. Numerous faithful wives have been infected with HIV because of the unfaithfulness of a spouse. In contrast to the Meru tribe described above, some African cultures promote multiple partners for African men. Madipoane Masenya gives the example of a northern Sotho proverb that says, “Monna ke thaka, o a naba, literally, ‘a man is like a pumpkin plant, he spreads.’ The tenor of the proverb is that a married man can have women partners other than his wife” (Masenay 2004:38). At the same time, many married women, especially young women who are married to older men, are unable to demand condom usage, due to sexual disempowerment and societal pressures to conceive children. While this issue involves individual morality, it muddies the waters of judgmentalism, because in the northern Sotho context, the church must also confront the cultural morality which promotes the disempowerment of women and male engagement in high-risk behavior. Simply preaching an individualistic moralism will not address the complexities at hand, because the underlying problems are located in the culture and in harmful community networks of gender relations. Can an individualistic gospel underpinned by Western assumptions about free moral choice address such complexities? We believe that they cannot. For that reason, we are seeking to argue that attempts to address moral behaviors must be intrinsically relational and communal in order to be more effective in the African context. The spread of HIV/AIDS demands thoughtful, multi-faceted, and culturally appropriate responses that account for the complexities of modern African societies. Thus far we have examined three factors associated with modernization: Western education, global market economies, and protestant Christianity. We have argued that the forces of individualism, which are inherent in each of these factors, have been working to undermine the identity formation that has traditionally taken place in African tribal settings. Youth who are displaced by these forces often suffer the alienation of modernization and find themselves challenged by Western value systems that reject traditional values and individualize moral behaviors. Because of these alienating forces, “a yearning for reintegration is one of the most powerful realities of modernizing societies” (Berger et al. 1974:158). We have suggested that HIV prevention among youth should address this alienation and yearning for integration, in order to promote risk avoidance and risk reduction behaviors. In the next section, we will argue in favor of an ecclesiological model that can provide hope for a new integration: the church as the family of God. This model can provide a means to conceptualize a church that more accurately reflects the communality of African culture, while preserving the capacity to speak prophetically within African culture.

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The Family of God as a Metaphor foe HIV/AIDS Prevention Contemporary usage of the metaphor of the church as the family of God has primarily been developed by Catholic theologians (Dulles 2002:4 1-44).“’ African Catholic theologians like John Mary Walligo, Benezet Bujo, and C. Nyamiti have developed the concept further, arguing that such a model of church is especially meaningful within African contexts. Leaders of the Catholic Church affirmed this development in a recent document, Instrumenturn Laboris, which stated that this image is “particularly relevant for Africa” because of the correspondence between the African understanding of family and the Church as the family of God. I This final section will explore the metaphor of the church as the Family of God in three phases. First, we will examine the New Testament precedents for the metaphor. Then we will briefly look at the meaning and usage of the metaphor in an African context. Third, we will examine the meaningfulness of the metaphor for HIV prevention and care in African protestant churches.

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( a ) Family of God as Metaphor In the first century. the family was a key structure for the organization of Roman and Jewish societies. The family (or kinship group), which was defined by descent from a common ancestor, served as the primary source for a person’s status and location in the world and “an essential reference point for the person’s identity” (DeSilva 2000: 158). Similar to the African tribal context, the Roman family served as a powerful community, in which socialization and identity formation took place. Perhaps for that reason, the common life of the early church was most often characterized in terms of kinship (Wright 1992:448). In contrast to the Jewish and Roman definition of family as natural lineage from or blood relations to a common ancestor, the New Testament re-conceptualized family Christo-centrically: attachment to Christ determines participation in the family of God. Arguments for this redefinition focused on two themes: determining the “true” descendents of Abraham and adoption into God’s family.” In Galatians 3, for instance, Paul argued that those embedded in Christ were likewise embedded in both the family of God and the family of Abraham (DeSilva 2000:203): “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.. . . And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). According to this passage, Christians became more than descendents of Abraham and part of the people of God, they also became children of God, through adoption. Through the redemption of Christ (Gal. 4:5), Gentile Christians were no longer aliens but members of the family: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:9). In this manner, the metaphors of the church as the family of God were utilized to provide an alternative identity and allegiance within Roman society. DeSilva explains, “Birth into God’s family signals the potential for a radical break with everything connected with one’s natural birth and becomes a powerful image with which to drive ethical exhortation and to reinforce group integrity and solidarity” (DeSilva 2000:207). In this manner, the early church became a powerful force for the socialization of Christians. The ethos of kinship created a basis for the instructions to love one another,

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to share resources, and to seek harmony, cooperation, and reconciliation (Towner 1993:418). Like the Roman culture of the first century, African cultures tend to place a strong emphasis upon the structure of the family as the location of socialization processes. Although modernization threatens such structures, the works of contemporary African theologians demonstrate that such structures have not lost their meaning altogether.” Theologians like John Mary Walligo have argued that the clan system is a fruitful point of departure for African ecclesiology. Essentially, the clan is an extended family, having a common founder who is remembered and respected as the common ancestor. Using the clan or extended family as a metaphor for church reinforces the image of Christ as Ancestor, also a common image among African theologians. Through shared faith in Christ as the Head or the Ancestor, the church may picture itself as a large family that lives and works together as a team, caring for those within and extending hospitality to those outside of the family (Walligo 1990:122-124). As an alternative social unit, then, the African church, as the family of God, may provide a powerful community for the re-integrating of displaced youth. The following section will explore the potential of this metaphor for HIV prevention among youth. (h) An African Ecclesial Model jor HIV Prevention among Youth Utilizing this model of the church as the family of God, churches might provide the necessary communal element for HIV prevention among African youth for two reasons. First, as “the family of God,” participants in the church recognize themselves as a community formed through faith in Christ. The termfamily refers not merely to the nuclear family, but to the biblical idea of those who share in a common ancestor, the founder of the church who is Christ. Because the structures of extended family and community carry such depth of meaning and solidarity within most African societies, the metaphor makes more sense than Western models of ecclesiology, in describing the church life for African people (Walligo 1990:117). As described in section one of this essay, mutual care and comniitment to one another are natural within the extended family. With regard to HIV prevention among youth, this model upholds a commitment to youth by members of the congregation. As the African proverb says, “It takes a whole village to raise a child’’ (Healey and Sybertz 2000:114).This village, or family, can be found in an African church. Given the breakdown in the traditional African village through the forces of colonization and globalization, the Christian church can re-envision itself as the family of God who helps to promote the lives of the youth in their midst. Those youth who have been displaced from their physical extended families might find a new community within this family of Faith: a community that provides for their social and moral formation through relationships with new brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, or grandparents. By recognizing and responding to what we have described as a crisis of identity among African young people, African churches can become communities that enable youth to develop meaningful relationships that provide positive influences, instruction, and accountability. Such communities are not limited simply to instructing youth on the importance of HIV prevention. The community is responsible to be involved in the lives of youth through committed relationships


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and care, which ultimately may work most effectively to decrease high-risk sexual behaviors. Secondly, as “the family of God,” the church believes that the ways of relating are formed by the relation of God toward them. This clan promotes a certain sort of morality that is decided by God’s action toward them in creation and in salvation. For this reason, the morality promoted both affirms and critiques cultural norms. God’s self-revelation provides the critical critique by which cultural norms are judged as good or as harmful. With regard to HIV/AIDS, we will explore the moral implications of the church’s allegiance to this revelation on three points. As the family of God, the church has allegiance (a) to the God who creuted and promotes life. Thus, members of the church are called to discern danger in their midst and to speak prophetically about cultural practices that endanger the lives of their fellow members.I4 Within many African contexts, sexuality is a taboo subject. The taboo may prevent pastors from addressing sexual issues from the pulpit. The reality of HIV/AIDS challenges this cultural norm, because silence about sexual issues threatens lives, especially the lives of the young. Given the threat of AIDS, church leaders face the challenge of speaking prophetically for life through AIDS education and prevention programs. In addition, church leaders and participants are called to speak and to act prophetically regarding dangers like the disempowerment of women, spousal unfaithfulness, economic desperation, or postmodern nihilism that threatens young people. Practices like widow inheritance, which endanger entire families, must be carefully assessed and addressed with wisdom by church communities. Numerous African church leaders are speaking boldly with a prophetic voice. Two examples are Canon Gideon Byamugisha and Musa Dube. After his wife died, Canon Gideon discovered that he was infected with HIV. As a teacher and practicing pastor in the Anglican church of Uganda, Canon Gideon became the first HIV+ priest in Africa to declare his HIV status publicly, in 1992. He has since dedicated his life to working on behalf of HIV victims by combating stigma, founding ANERELA+ to support victims of HIV,” and advocating on behalf of those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Affirming his contribution, the Swazi people gave him the name “Sipo,” which means “Gift from God.”’6 As a professor of New Testament at the University of Botswana, Musa Dube has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS education in both churches and educational institutions. She described her own shock upon realizing that up to half of the students in her classes might not be alive in ten years. “I began asking myself what was the point of teaching the synoptic gospels to this group of young people if it could not help them stay alive or live and operate in an HIV/AIDS context -if they could not even live long enough to utilize this knowledge” (Dube 2004: 13). Since this realization, she has written and spoken powerfully to pastors and educators throughout the world on HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and care. These two Africans’ voices represent many in the family of God who are working prophetically to promote life within a context overwhelmed by death. As key men and women promote the value of life and speak about sexual realities, young people have the opportunity to be formed by these adopted aunts, uncles, and grandparents and to discover and protect the value of their own lives and the lives of others.

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The allegiance of the church is also (b) to the God of Christ who is compassionate and merciful. Because we have received mercy from God, we are called, likewise, to extend grace and love to all who do not obey his laws. Perhaps this call to mercy is most difficult to extend to members of the church, who have been instructed in Christian standards of sexual faithfulness and purity but have failed to keep them. The extension of mercy in such cases may appear to threaten the well-being of the African community. John Mbiti explained this belief: Breaking a taboo entails punishment in the form of social ostracism, misfortune, and even death. If people do not punish the offender, then the invisible world will punish him. This view arises from the belief in the religious order of the universe, in which God and other invisible beings are thought to be actively engaged in the world of men. (199 1:41)

Some believe that to leave a guilty person unpunished will bring punishment upon the entire community. Yet the gospel of Christ revealed God’s overflowing mercy to those who desire it. The Jewish woman caught in the act of adultery was shown mercy by Christ, who did not condemn her and instructed her to leave her life of sin (John 8: 111). As a Jew, this woman was part of the community of faith and knew the religious laws against adultery. Yet Christ extended mercy. In such an act, the church finds her own call to extend mercy to those in her midst who have been sexually unfaithful or promiscuous. Christ also extended mercy to his own disciple, Peter, who was within his circle of leadership, yet disavowed him (John 21). He welcomed Peter back after Peter denied him three times. Christ’s mercy was so extensive that Peter became a key person in building the church. Likewise, even those in church leadership who have been unfaithful should find mercy in Christ and in his church. This call to extend mercy to persons infected or affected by HIVIAIDS may challenge a central African belief in the necessity of punishment for those who have broken a taboo. Yet African Christians can move beyond this belief for two reasons. First, Christ is characterized by this mercy; African Christians need not fear retribution for the mercy that they extend. Rather, to show mercy is to act in the image of Christ. To serve the infected is to serve Christ. A second reason that inflicting punishment is considered necessary is that it upholds the moral values (and thus the life) of the community. Yet leaders of the Anglican Church in Kenya have found that extending judgment toward those impacted by HIV actually weakens prevention methods, rather than strengthening them. In other words, by associating judgment and punishment with the disease, HIV+ persons are forced into silence, potentially infecting family members who care for them. Those who do not know their HIV status may refuse to be tested or to seek medical help, thus potentially perpetuating the silent spread of the disease. In March 2006, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya issued a public apology for shunning and judging those infected by HIV. Through this shift from judgment to mercy, he pledged that the Anglican Church in Kenya would work to fight stigma.” The church as family of God recognizes its responsibility to extend mercy to AIDS orphans or to those members who might have been infected by HJV through sexual promiscuity. Believing that we have all received the grace and favor of God

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through adoption into his family, the church extends mercy and love to the brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in their midst. Finally, the allegiance of the family of God is to (c) the God of Christ, wdw came to seek and save the lost. Paul Sankey has argued that the model of the church-asclan (or family) inhibits the mission of the African church to the world. He wrote, “It is altogether conceivable that a clan should be sufficiently open to welcome the odd stranger. It is quite another matter, however, that its motivating force should be to incorporate as many outsiders as possible in order to be a force for [the] transformation of the creation” (1994:445). To overcome such a weakness in this ecclesial metaphor, the growth of the church may be re-conceptualized by spiritualizing family relations, in imitation of the apostle Paul. For instance, Paul called Timothy, “my true child in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2.).“ He addressed the Galatian church as his children (Gal. 4: 19). Paul also employed the familial metaphor to refer to the church in Thessalonica: “For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you to lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2: 1 1. Cf. 1 Thess. 2:7). Likewise, African Christians may conceive of those who enter the church as spiritual sons and daughters, or sisters and brothers, who uphold the ongoing life of the church family. Using such metaphors in the context of HIV/AIDS, the church-as-family may re-conceptualize its growth as a clan through mission to the world, i.e., its witness of God’s call to life and salvation. Those who receive that call are welcomed as spiritual sons and daughters. In the pattern of Paul, such relationships involve an intentional moral formation through exhortation and encouragement to “lead a life worthy” of the Christian gospel. For displaced youth in particular, such a community may become a new family, a lifeline, in which moral identity is addressed and formed.

Conclusion This essay has argued in favor of the model of the church as the family of God, as a means to bring about HIV prevention among urban youth in Africa. We have suggested that such a model can provide a rich community of relationships to those youth who are experiencing alienation through their encounter with contemporary Western culture in systems of education, economics, and religion. Yet our proposal needs further research into African realities, for it raises questions that could not be addressed within the scope of this paper. In what sense will the church-as-family become a community that influences the moral formation of youth? In other words, given the influence of conceptions of autonomy and the fluidity of commitment among youth, the church cannot merely mimic the heteronomous approach of tribal communities. A new approach to moral formation must be articulated in light of the current realities. For example, if Western influences have broken down the traditional structures of authority and moral instruction, will prevention programs that are peer-based have a greater effect than those that rely upon elders? These shifting African realities require further research and careful analysis. The threat of AIDS escalates this requirement to an urgent demand.

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Notes 1. This is a translation of the Sotho saying in South Africa: Motho ke motho ka batho ka bang. See variations of the use of this principle in the writings of John Mbiti, Musa Dube, Benezet Bujo, and Desmond Tutu. 2. Most school curricula are not designed to impart civil and moral responsibilities. 3. See alsoNgugi’s other writings on the destruction of African cultures through colonialism including, Wathiong’o, Ngugi, Moving rhe Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms, East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi, 1993. 4. While influencing its development, Kant’s conception of autonomy does not match the current manner in which it is often used. As Paul Tillich writes of Kant, “Autonomy does not mean the freedom of the individual to be a law to himself.. . .Autonomy means the obedience of the individual to the law of reason which he finds in himself as a rational being.” With the postmodern deconstruction of such a ‘law of reason’ has come a deeply individualistic conceptions of autonomy. Our reason for citing Kant in this context is his essential rejection of tradition or community as the guiding force of ethical formation. 5. For an example in the field of medical ethics, see George Agich, “Key Concepts: Autonomy,” Phihsuphy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Vol. 1, no. 4 (December 1994): 267-269. 6. Shenk cites exceptions to this characterization, such as Henry Venn, John Nevius, and Rufus Anderson in the late 1800s.Yet he writes that “between 1850and I950 there was no discernible theoretical development with regard to the mission-culture nexus. Periodically, an apologist for missions would write a new book reiterating the importance of the ‘indigenous church’; but, in spite of the gathering forces of nationalism in one country after another, imperialism and visions of open-ended human progress defined the zeitgeist.” Ibid, 44. 7 . See also Dennis Hollinger’s published dissertation, Individualism and Social Ethics: An Evangelical Syncretism, which traces individualism in the development of the evangelical movement. (Lanham, MD: University of America Press, 1983). 8. As an extreme example of this ecclesiology, see the thought of John Smyth, Works, 743-144. 9. For example, see the recent apology of the Anglican Church in Kenya for taking such an approach. “Kenya Church Makes AIDS Apology,” BBC News, 16 March 2006. http://news.bbc.c.o.ukn/hi/Llfricn/4814022.slm. While we do not blame this approach entirely upon the influence of Western Christianity, we do believe that there has been a stronger emphasis towards individualism in the embrace and practice of Christianity. 10. See for example, Lumen Gentium, article 6; John Paul 11, Apostolic Exhortation (“Fumiliuris Consortio ”) (Nairobi: East African Graphics, I987), No. 49; Instrumenturn Laboris (Vatican City, 1993). No. 25; John Paul 11, Post S~~nodal Apostolic Exhortation (Ecclesia in Africa), (Nairobi: Pauline Publication Africa, 1995). No. 63. 1 I . Instrumenturn khoris. Article 25 (Vatican City, 1993). 12. For expanded treatments of these themes, see DeSilva, 2000: 199-2 12. 13. See for instance, J. N. K. Mugambi and Laurenti Magesa, Editors. The Church in African Christianity. Nairobi: Initiative Ltd, 1990; Benezet Bujo, African Christian Moralify at the Age of Inculturation. Nairobi: St. Paul’s Publications Africa, 1989-1990 and African Christian Theology in its Sociul Context. Nairobi: St. Paul’s Publications Africa, 1992. 14. Teresa Okure utilizes a hermeneutic of life in her reading of the NT. See “First Was Life, Not the Book,” To Cusf Fire Upon the Earth, (Natal: Cluster, 2000), 194-214. See also Musa Dube, “The Prophetic Message in the New Testament” and Madipoane Masenya, “Prophesy as a Method of Speaking about the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Southern Africa” in HZV/AIDS and the Curriculum, Ed. Musa Dube, (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2004). 35-58. 15. African Network of HIV-affected Religious Leaders living with or personally Affected by HIV and AIDS.

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16. See summary of Canon Gideon Byamugisha’s life and contributions on PanCaribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS, www.puncup.org/documents/who%2Ois%2Ocun~~n%20~ideon %20byumugisha.pdf#search= ’who%20is%20canon%20gideon %20hyamugisha ’. 17. See “Kenya Church Makes AIDS Apology,” BBC News, 16 March 2006. http://news .bbc.co.uwZ/hi/ufricd4814022.stmAccessed March 24,2006. 18. For other family related references, see Cf. 1 Cor. 4:17, 2 Cor. 2:19, Phil. 2:22,1 Tim. 1:18. 2 Tim. 1:2.

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