Category: African Worldview Page 2 of 3

10 Myths About Africa Many Americans Believe

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On February 7, 2017

In African Worldview

1.  Africa is a country.

Geography is a lost subject from where I come from, so let me just remind everyone that Africa is a continent.  A large continent, in fact, as you can see from the diagram below.

Source: Kai Krause, “The True Size of Africa”

Africa is also an incredibly diverse continent, made up of 54 countries. Those countries north of the Sahara tend to be more Arab, those south of the Sahara tend to be more “Bantu” (what you would traditionally picture as African), and those on the Horn (Ethiopia, Somalia, etc) tend to be a fascinating mixture.  But even then, I am being incredibly general, as there are thousands of African tribes and ethnicities that are as diverse as as a European would be from an Asian or South American.

I am going to debunk the following myths with what I have learned by living in Tanzania, since that is the country I am most familiar with.  However, keep in mind that I will be speaking broadly, and knowingly countering the stereotypes about Africa with more stereotypes (albeit, hopefully more accurate stereotypes).  In any culture or country, people live along a spectrum, and it’s important that we don’t ever lump an entire group (or continent) of people under any particular label.  My main goal is to use what I have learned in Tanzania to change the mental picture many Westerners have of Africa.

2.  Africans are all poor.

Yes, poverty is a huge problem in many African countries.  (Of the 25 poorest countries in the world, only 4 are not African.)  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any middle-class or rich people.  Even though Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, there are many rich people here.  Economic class distinctions are huge, and since the concept of equality is not valued the way it is in the West, rich people are usually treated better and with far more respect and privilege than poor people.

3.  Africa is not clean.

It’s true that public areas in Tanzania are often trash-filled and untended.  However, that says more about a lack of infrastructure than the character of your average Tanzanian.  Tanzanian homes, vehicles, and businesses tend to be very clean–much cleaner than what I have often seen in America.

4.   Africans do not have access to clothes or shoes.

Maybe that was true in the past.  Maybe it still is true in some war-torn countries.  But in Tanzania, it is absolutely not true.  Fabric is locally designed and printed and plentiful.  Hundreds of tons of cast-offs from American and European thrift stores are shipped over and sold in the local markets.  I buy most of our clothes here now.  There is no lack of clothing–and therefore, no need for you to send over your shoes or clothing.  If you are supporting an organization that needs clothes, send money instead and support the local economy.

5.  Africans dress in rags.

I have found that Tanzanians dress far more professionally and formally than those from my home state of “casual” California–and this is regardless of their economic status.  Women hardly ever wear shorts in public, and you rarely find a woman in the supermarket wearing the equivalent of yoga pants with unkempt hair.  Dry cleaners and salons are everywhere and people regularly have their clothes individually tailored.  Even those who work manual labor dress professionally for the bus ride and change into work clothes when they arrive at their job.  In social situations, I often feel under-dressed.

6.  Africans all live in villages.

Like most of the world, Tanzania is rapidly becoming urbanized.  We live in a fast-growing city of five million people, and it is predicted to reach 20 million in the next 30 years.

7.  Village life would be perfect if white people weren’t messing it up.

So I’m not going to get into the complicated mess of colonialism, but let’s just say that yes, I agree that white people have done a lot of messing up in Africa (to put it mildly).  But let’s not swing in the other direction and assume that village life was or is peaceful and idyllic.  Of course, beauty can be found anywhere, but female circumcision, child marriages, polygamy, alcoholism, albino murders, women who walk miles to find water, illiterate children, lack of basic health care and high infant and maternal death rates are not to be sugarcoated by some convoluted notion of the “noble savage.”

8.  All Africans are black.

If all Africans are black, then all Americans are Native American.  Colonialism happened on both continents.  However, European diseases managed to wipe out most Native American populations, and African diseases managed to wipe out most European settlers….and the rest is history.  South Africa probably has the most well-known white population, but I also have white African friends from Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Tanzania, whose families have lived here for generations.  There are also hundreds of thousands of Indian (Asian) families who have been East African citizens for over 100 years.

An Indian (Hindu) wedding ceremony in Tanzania.

9.  Poverty is Africa’s biggest problem.

Absolutely, poverty is a huge problem.  But I am convinced that worldview is a bigger problem, and specifically how that plays out in governmental corruption.  Which is why sending “aid” to Africa (in its many forms) is really just sticking band-aids on a cancerous tumor….and why the gospel offers real hope.

10.  Africa has been evangelized.

Northern Africa?  Definitely not.  Sub-Saharan Africa?  Partially.  There are still thousands of villages in Tanzania without a church.  There are still dozens of languages in Tanzania that don’t have a Bible translation.  However, it is true that Christianity has spread like wildfire throughout sub-Saharan Africa in recent decades.  Unfortunately, it’s often a version of the Prosperity Gospel.

Missions has most definitely changed in Africa in recent years.  Gone are the days of pith-helmet-clad white men tromping through the jungle to preach the gospel to remote villages.  In fact, there are far fewer white missionaries who are engaged in church planting and evangelism.  Instead, western missionaries are narrowing their focus to equipping and training Africans to do the job themselves.  I don’t have statistics, but I’m quite confident there are many more African missionaries in Africa than there are western missionaries.  And that’s how it should be.

The Witchdoctor’s Goats and Halloween

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On October 25, 2016

In African Worldview

There’s a herd of goats that lives on the main road by our house.  I see them every day, often eating scraps of grass that manage to poke through the hard-packed dirt, or sleeping under the broken-down bus by the police station.

I never thought much about these goats, since farm animals tend to be everywhere in this city, comfortably cohabiting with the five million people who share this space.

One day, the students in our theological training program told us the story of those goats.

Have you ever noticed that those goats don’t have a herder?  

Well, no, I guess you’re right.  I have never seen a herder with those goats.

Those goats used to be owned by a witchdoctor.  The witchdoctor died.  But he put a curse on the goats so that no one will steal them.  So now, no one will touch them, even though he is dead.  At night, a “little person” comes and takes care of the goats.  

Even after living here twelve years, there are still times when our jaws drop to the ground.  This was one of them.

Uhhh….what is a “little person?”

Those who have seen “little people” insist that they look like a miniature person.  They are some sort of supernatural beings who do evil and cause problems.  

And who, apparently, take care of the goats of a dead witchdoctor.

Remember, now, that this was not told to us by ten-year-old girls at a sleepover.  This was a group of grown-up, very sharp, theological students.

Shortly after we learned about the Witchdoctor’s Goats, we invited one of our students over for dinner.  She is a middle-aged, widowed woman who is quite educated and has lived many years abroad.  She agreed to come for dinner, but asked if she could also bring her 20-something college-student daughter with her.  Of course!  we said.  We would love to meet your daughter.  

Yeah, she doesn’t like to be home alone at night.  She is afraid of the “little people.”

I once read that Tanzanians are the most superstitious people in Africa.  And the implications are far-reaching–for government, for the safety of albinos, and even for football teams.  But I think I can safely say that this worldview reflects many people groups on the majority of the earth.

It’s easy for us educated, enlightened Americans to scoff at such stories.  Seriously?  Witchdoctors?  Curses?  Little people?

In fact, we scoff so much at these stories that we go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  Instead, we decorate our houses with witches and ghosts and spiderwebs and fake blood and guts and we say This is all pretend!  Aren’t we funny?  Isn’t this so much fun?

It’s like we’re trying to convince ourselves that evil and an afterlife and the supernatural don’t even exist.  In fact, sometimes I think we try so hard to make it all just for fun because we know we really aren’t kidding anyone.  Because as much as we pontificate about science and materialism and objective reality, we all know that there are a lot of questions that science can’t answer.

We might think that everyone knows the supernatural doesn’t really exist.  Except, not everyone.  The rest of the world just doesn’t kid themselves.  They are quite confident that evil and spirits and witchdoctors are real and they have power, and if you gave them a minute they could prove it to you.  Which is perhaps why Halloween is only celebrated as a “fun” day in countries that are supposedly “enlightened” by science.

Hey, I get that participating in innocent Halloween activities might be a really great way to build family memories and get to know your neighbors.  I’m all for that–go for it.  But in the midst of that, let’s remind our kids and ourselves that supernatural evil is not pretend and really not something to celebrate.

Tanzanians may have a misplaced fear–and they need to find the confidence that Jesus has the ultimate authority.  Americans, however, have a misplaced confidence–and a legitimate fear of unseen things might not be so bad.

Witchdoctors, Football, and Understanding Africa

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On March 24, 2015

In African Worldview

Recently an electrician (who is also our good friend) was working on our fuse box.

I was in the next room, and suddenly I heard him cry out in pain.  Thinking he had shocked himself, I quickly asked him what was wrong.

He chuckled a bit.  He held out both his hands for me to see.  One was dramatically more swollen than the other.

Our friend is a leader in his church.  He’s in his late 30’s, and he’s a strong guy.  “Well, in church on Sunday, there was this woman with a lot of problems,” he explained.  “She had a demon.  Before I knew it, she pushed back my hand so hard that it swelled up like this.”  He casually added, “It took 5 men to hold her down.”  Three days later, his hand was still swollen.

Just an ordinary Sunday in a Tanzanian church.  Our friend isn’t even Pentecostal.

A couple of weeks ago, Gil went to a football game at the national stadium with one of our former students.  The game was between two rival club teams, and almost all of the 60,000 seats were filled.  Tension was high.  This game was a very big deal.

The buzz was that a lot of witchcraft had been performed before this game.  And, apparently, during the game.  This is not a team mascot or an over-zealous fan.  This is a witchdoctor.

The teams took this very seriously.  One team was so nervous about this that they made a large banner for protection–their own talisman.  The goal keeper tried to hang it in his goal until the officials made him take it down.

So what do we do with this notion that there are supernatural spirits out there who can influence a person’s health, a person’s safety, or even the outcome of a football game?  That these spirits can inhabit a person’s body and make her stronger than 5 grown men?  

For those of us from the western world, fully indoctrinated in empiricism and rationalism, we simply don’t know what to make of this.  I’m from the “non-charismatic” side of Christianity.  I also am, by nature, an extremely skeptical person. So….are we going to claim that it’s all in their heads?  That this is all a joke?  That they just need to be educated?  

Spend a few years in Africa, and even the most rational among you may be convinced otherwise.  

Meet our friends Mark and Alyssa, who had 17 snakes appear in their house, out of nowhere.  Or spend some time at an African mission hospital, where they have “prayer doctors” for those patients who are ill with sicknesses that defy modern medicine.  Or talk to our friend “Mary,” who lost two sons at exactly 9 months old for unknown reasons, until she renounced her witchdoctor mother and turned to Jesus.  Or meet a Tanzanian albino, who daily fears for his life because (wealthy, educated) people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for his body parts.  

You cannot understand Africa until you understand this worldview.  You cannot understand African politics, African poverty, African culture, and even the African Church until you understand animism.  

In the same way, you can’t understand American culture until you understand that we are equally locked in empiricism and rationalism.  Seeing is believing.  Nothing is fact unless it can be proved by “science.”  Anything else is shoved up in the category of “values” and is therefore personal, irrational, and undependable.  This is the very philosophy that seeks to destroy Christianity in America.  But haven’t we, as Christians, even allowed it to seep into our own thinking?  Sure, Satan is real.  Demons are real.  But they aren’t actually going to manifest themselves, right?  

I understand that there needs to be balance.  I’m not saying that everyone with problems needs to be exorcised, or that there’s a demon in the sound system when it doesn’t work.  The African Church needs to root out the superstition and Prosperity Gospel that seeks to permeate it; the American Church needs to root out it’s unequivocal trust in science and medicine. 

Let us learn from one another.  And remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Our Struggle Is Not Against Flesh and Blood: The Plight of Tanzania’s Albinos

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On January 21, 2015

In African Worldview

(witchdoctor advertisement in Dar es Salaam)

In Tanzania, albinos are regularly kidnapped, murdered, and their body parts used in witchcraft rituals.

It sounds like the plot to a horror movie.  But it’s real.

Albinism is rare worldwide, occurring about 1 in 20,000.  However, in Tanzania, for some unknown reason, it occurs much more often–1 in 1400 or maybe even more.  And as you can imagine, in Africa, a person who lacks any skin or hair pigmentation sticks out a whole lot more than in light-skinned countries.

Sticking out is only one of their hardships.  They also struggle with eye problems and a prevalence of skin cancer.  But most horrifying of all, somewhere along the way, some people got an idea from the pit of hell that albino body parts can make you rich or successful or irresistible.

And the West gasps in horror and comes in with its answers.

Education!

Awareness!

We need to tell those poor ignorant Africans that albinos are people too!

Except then you find out that albino body parts sell for hundreds of dollars, and corpses are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Consider that the average income of Tanzanians is less than $1000 a year.  Consider that traditionally, albino murders go up during election years.  So who’s paying for these atrocities?  Kind of flies in the face of the “poor ignorant African who just needs to be educated” theory.

In the West, we are all about rationality and science and education, aren’t we?  And we think that’s the answer to cure All The Problems In the World.  People just need to listen to logic, right?

Maybe instead what we need to do is educate ourselves about worldview in the majority world.  It’s true that many Africans aren’t educated.  But the reality is, many of them are, and they really don’t care about the western version of rationality and science.

They know that animistic spirituality has power.  And they want it.  In America, we decorate with ghosts on Halloween and watch freaky supernatural movies and laugh because it’s all just pretend.  After all, isn’t that what science has taught us?  Or can we consider the possibility of what Africans have long known…that there actually is power in witchcraft?

A couple of weeks ago, a four-year-old albino girl was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night.  Enough anger went up that the Tanzanian government decided to solve the problem by banning all witchdoctors.  A literal “witch hunt” will begin next week.

This law will probably have the success of U.S. Prohibition in the 20’s.  Or of the New York City ban on soft drinks.  Has a law of a nation ever succeeded in changing the heart of man?

I once saw a video of an organization in Africa who is trying to help communities with the problem of jiggers (bugs that lay eggs in people’s feet).  “People think jiggers come through witchcraft,” the spokesperson said.  “But we are educating them.”  Yeah.  Good luck with that.

Why do you think Ebola spread so fast?  Because west Africans believe that if they don’t prepare dead bodies properly, their spirits will come back and haunt them.  You can “educate” about germs and clean hands until you are blue in the face, but it’s hard to argue against ghosts. 

I mean, just think about it.  If somebody came to you and earnestly said, “Your seasonal allergies are caused by evil spirits,” would you give them the time of day?  Of course not.  Because in the West, we believe everything is Always About Science.  Just as we won’t be convinced by their animism, they won’t be convinced by our science.

Because they know better.  They are not stupid.  It’s not all their imagination.

Yeah, there’s germs and genetics.  But Evil is real too.  It has power.

Have we forgotten?

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Education isn’t what is going to protect the lives of albinos.  Nor is banning witchdoctors.  Instead, Africans need to be transformed by the One who has crushed Evil’s head, and allow His Reality to change their Reality.  Because that’s where the real power comes from, and with it, hope, courage, and love for others, which are all things witchdoctors can never offer.

And maybe, for us Westerners on the other end of the spectrum, who are always convinced that it’s just about science and education, we need to open our eyes to the Reality that there’s Something More out there than our eyes can see.

African Women Make Me Feel Like a Wuss

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On December 20, 2014

In African Worldview

Lucy (my language helper) and I were discussing the differences between housekeeping responsibilities in our respective cultures.

I told her about washers and dryers, microwaves and vacuums, and dish washers.  She was intrigued by that one.  “Don’t the dishes break in there?” she asked.  I told her about garage door openers and lawn mowers.  I told her how you could buy almost any meal, ready-to-eat and frozen in the grocery store.

Each time her eyes got big.  “Ni rahisi!”  she exclaimed.  So easy!

Each day at dawn, Lucy walks to her neighbor’s house with buckets.  She pays about 25 cents to fill up the buckets from her neighbor’s outdoor spigot.  That’s their water for the day.  She does it again in the evening.

She washes clothes by hand for her family of five, an extremely time-consuming task.  She washes dishes by hand.  Since she has no refrigerator, every day she buys fresh ingredients and cooks from scratch.

She walks a few blocks to the bus stop.  She sits on the bus for an hour and a half to get to work, with 30 other people on a bus meant for 15 (with no air conditioning).

She has a solar panel so that her family has lights in the evening.  But it cannot power fans or anything else.  Temperatures are around 100 degrees these days, with very high humidity.  It doesn’t get much cooler at night.

Her main sources of protein are beans, dried fish, and chickens which she raises in her yard.  (It was pretty funny to hear her talk about these chickens….you would have thought she was a Californian Whole Foods mom:  Those chickens at the store are full of medicine to make them grow faster, she said with disgust.  My chickens are much better.)

By Tanzanian standards, Lucy’s family is actually doing pretty well.  She and her husband own their land and built their house.  She has a solar panel.  Her children are all in school.

But she still makes me feel like a wuss.

It’s been a rough electricity week in our area.  Every day this week, the power has been off from about 9 am until 6 pm.  And when it has been on, it’s been in phases, which means that only some parts of our house have electricity.   Then the air conditioner in our bedroom stopped working.

I have been so uncomfortable.  The house is stuffy; I have sweat running down my back most of the day; I’m not sleeping well.  I baked a few batches of Christmas cookies and afterwards, looked like I had just run a marathon.  I was drenched in sweat, my hair was frizzy, and my face was as shiny as the Christmas star.

And I have been grumpy and impatient and justifying it to myself.

I realized that I am addicted to comfort.  I don’t like being too hot or too cold or too tired or too hungry or too thirsty or have any part of my body be in pain.  And when that does happen, all bets are off.  I am entitled to be a grouch.

I may have spent half my life in Africa, but boy am I American.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about the electricity problems in Tanzania, and how the animistic worldview has given Africans a fatalistic attitude that has kept them from progress.  But on the flip side, they are some of the most content people I know.  They don’t complain.  They accept.

My culture’s worldview has taught me that progress is always possible.  Don’t accept; don’t settle.  We can always be healthier, more beautiful, more comfortable, more entertained.  Except we never actually get there, do we?  We have more than any other people in the world and than any other time in history, yet we are perpetually discontent.

Just as Africa need to be transformed by a biblical worldview of progress and innovation, so my own mindset needs to be transformed.  There is a time for progress, and there is a time for trusting God with what I cannot control.  There is a time for innovation, and there is a time for being deeply content with what I have already been given.

In Christ, I can have both.

This is why I can wish for progress and development for Africa, and yet simultaneously be humbled and convicted by the brave African women who work so hard and are content with so much less than me.

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