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RSM 220, 221, 222 Exam Summary
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- University Of Pretoria (UP)
This is a summary for the RSM 220, 221, 222 exam based on the material presented and discussed in class. Good luck!
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RSM 220/221/222 EXAMSUMMARY
Graham Smith
, SECTION A (ANSWER 2 OF THE 3)
EXPLAIN WHY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TO AFRICA WERE/ARE CALLED CULTURAL
IMPERIALISTS
The missionary is accused of cultural imperialism and intolerance because of the uncompromising emphasis on
the supremacy of Christ, an emphasis that seems somewhat arrogant and intolerant at the present time when the
value of other third-world cultures and religions is being rediscovered. The history of missions in Africa is full of
cultural insensitivity, petty denominational rivalry, and unfair attacks against African tradition. The missionaries
could have used a completely different approach with different results.
Indiscriminate denunciation of African customs in preaching is merely mischievous and foolish. Christianity comes
to Africans with greater power when it is shown to be not destructive but a fulfilment of the highest aspirations
which they have tried to express in their beliefs and rites. It is supposed to be fully possible to embrace
Christianity and yet remain fully African. It is not necessary for the African to become denationalized in order to
become a disciple of Christ. The acceptance by Africans of Christianity does not mean – at least, it ought not
mean – that they cease to be Africans.
The missionaries failed to appreciate the culture of the African, among other areas of an African’s life. The
African whom the missionaries found on arrival in Southern Rhodesia [Africa], was by no means without
education. Within his own system, the adult African was an educated person with his own system of law
sanctioned by his religious ideas, his totem system and his taboos. The African kinship system was so
complicated that it took a long time for the European intruder to understand it, and the African had a wide
knowledge of the natural world. The African’s insight into human life was deep, and his infinite number of proverbs
revealed a profound human understanding.
The missionaries saw themselves as ambassadors of (the) ‘Good News’ of salvation. They were ‘lights’, shining in
the obscuring ‘blackness’ of heathen ignorance. This attitude affected their work on the ground. The Ndau
[African] were described as ‘ignorant’, ‘uncivilised’, ‘idlers’, being of “the lowest type, socially and morally. Kidd (a
missionary), in 1904, saw the mental state of the Ndau [African] as incapable of developing and as one to be
pitied. The Ndau [African] was a ‘misgrown child’. The missionaries perceived the Ndau [African] as being
completely dependent upon the ‘white man’, incapable of implementing any original initiatives aimed at
development. The ‘native’ was a ‘tabula rasa’, a ‘clean slate’, possessing no history, no culture, simply awaiting,
from the missionary, his or her salvation.
Given this reality, the Christian missionaries, who may have had good intentions, can be deemed as vessels
through which the colonial and imperial states gained a strong grip on Africans. They subsequently propagated
the superiority of their own cultural ideas and beliefs above those of the African people groups. Therefore, they
are to be classified as cultural imperialists
DEFINE AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CHURCHES AND EXPLAIN HOW SUCH CHURCHES MEET
THE NEEDS, LIFE-VIEW AND LIFESTYLE OF BLACK PEOPLE
To define the term ‘African Independent Church’, each constituted part necessitates consideration. The term
“Independent” refers to their independence in organization, leadership and religious expression from Western-
oriented historical (also called “mainline”) or mission churches. Because of the diversity of the thousands of
movements we are speaking about, the use of the “church” does not imply a rigid value-judgment but is mainly a
general characterization of religious groups, the representatives of most of which regard their organization as
“churches of Christ.”
In using the term “church” instead of such derogatory qualifications as “sects” or “separatists,” we acknowledge
the fact that, with the exception of a minority of non-Christian groups, we are dealing with the very real and
genuine heartbeat of indigenized African Christianity. This is not merely, as has been popularly assumed, a
movement on the periphery of or even outside so-called “mainline Christianity”.
1 © Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith ©
Compiled from the RSM 220/221/222 2024 slides
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