Br Paul Noonan Formation Centre, Tamale: African Traditional Practices

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

African Traditional Practices

As we discussed why witchcraft remains strong among Africans, I remember that it is not only witchcraft but some African traditional practices are also strong though the church is trying to suppress them.
For a example in my Luo culture (Kenya), the practice of wife inheritance is common and it is highly rated irrespective of HIV/AIDS prevalence. At the same time, the church is fully against it and trying by all means that the wind of St.Monica blows very strong. St. Monica is a group of women in the Catholic Church especially in Luo Nyanza that have said no to wife inheritance.
To my surprise, this group who do not agree to the custom of wife inheritance, is only recognized in the church. Outside the church, they have strong regulations that the society have set for them. Just to mention a few, they are not allowed to enter any home-stead as they are considered unclean. When they die, nobody is allowed to dig their graves or bury them. That is where St. Monica’s comes in to perform all the burial rites.
To avoid this saga, a number of women have given in to the traditional custom and have allowed themselves to be inherited and later returned to church, while others have lost their Catholic faith and joined other denominations. I therefore feel that there is a great struggle amongst people and it is ranges from witchcraft to African traditional practices and to Christianity. (Otieno)

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What do we want this novitiate to be?

There is a saying that goes something like this: “If we don’t do what we believe in, then we’ll end up believing in what we do”. Without a vision that is authentic and alive to guide our actions, then we can settle for rationalizing the status quo or what is convenient and comfortable.
One of the first things the new team in Tamale did was to spend time beginning to articulate its vision of a novitiate beyond the basics laid down in our Constitutions. Here are some elements of what we came up with:
Novitiate is a journey, a process that involves KNOWING, EXPERIENCING and CHOOSING.
It is an INITIATION into Christian Brother religious life, so a “rite of passage” into a new identity, a time of learning and testing.
Novitiate confronts the novices with the Brother’s vocation as a call to brotherly solidarity and community, not to privilege, status and security.
It involves exploration of the basic values of faith and vocation, and the challenge to embrace these out of personal conviction and free choice.
Novitiate means understanding that a religious vocation makes a claim on the whole of the person and his life, including his inner life, his relationships and his professional activity (ministry). Furthermore, it challenges the novice to see the dynamic inter-relationship of these areas and to learn what their integration means.
Novitiate is a time of DISCERNMENT. The novice learns more deeply who he is, and what this Christian Brother life is. There is a constant back-and-forth movement between these two poles as an answer is sought to the question, “Is this where I am meant to be? Is this the life that will enable me to find my true self in God?”