The History of African Christianity (2)

The history of the African people with regards to Christianity did not begin in the Second Century church. Rather, from the biblical text, in the time of Jesus, a man named Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry the cross of Jesus. Cyrene was located in modern-day Lybia. Some scholars do argue that Simon could have been a Jew in the diaspora whiles others are of the view that he was a black African. It should be noted that at this time, many Jews were living in the diaspora so it won’t be a surprise if Simon was a Jew. Regardless, when one assumes that because Simon was identified as someone who worships the God of the Jews and for that reason was a Jew by birth would not necessarily be true. There were Gentile who professed faith in the God of the Jews. Although the ethnicity of Simon is not known, one thing is certain that the story of Jesus was not foreign to the African continent. Whether Simon of Cyrene was a native African or a Jew who lived there, we can be sure that the gospel of Christ came to Africans in the early days of the Church.

To add to it, on the day of Pentecost, people from the African continent were present. Whether they were Jews in the diaspora or Gentiles who had converted to Judaism is not clear. Yet, it could have comprised both. That is, the people that went to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem could have comprised both diasporan Jews and Gentiles who had converted to Judaism. Nonetheless, whether they were Jews by descent or African by descent might not be necessary. Thus, after the Pentecost had passed, they surely returned to their homes in the African continent. Many of these people had professed faith in Christ. It is safe to assume that many went home with their “Christ”—thus, they spoke about what they had witnessed in Jerusalem and the power that was seen in their midst. This shows that the African soil was indeed no stranger to the gospel. Whether it be North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa, the gospel had its way there as early as the first century.

Again, in the biblical text, the story of Philip the evangelist, and the Ethiopian eunuch is widely known. What many do not know is that the Ethiopia of the Bible time comprised of what is now Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti as well as areas further south and further inland of Egypt (Phiri et al., 2016). Thus, Ethiopian of the Bible times was basically black African. So, knowing that Ethiopia in the Bible times extended beyond one country, one can only assume the impact of Christianity in the African continent. The man that Philip, the evangelist preached to and baptized was a person in authority. He was a high court official of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. His influence in the affairs of the Ethiopia of the Bible times seemed to have been greater than one would expect. That is, the Ethiopia of today is not some insignificant country, how much more the Ethiopia of the Bible times which comprised of  Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Djibouti as well as areas further south and further inland of Egypt.

The point here is that not only did the gospel made an impact in North Africa in the early centuries of the church. It also had a huge impact on black Africa. Although the records of black Africa seemed to have been lost over the years, many have assumed that black Africa was left untouched in the early days of Christianity except after it had been westernized, but history does not support this. Even today, the Ethiopian church is one of the oldest churches in the world. They have maintained their tradition for many centuries. Christianity was and is not a white man’s religion. Christianity is everyone’s religion; Africa had and is having her fair share of the cake. It is now left to us to follow the footsteps of our fathers who made sense of the Christian faith and wrote about it, sung about it, and lived for it. Once an African man can be convinced that he or she is a foreigner to Christianity, his or her history has been distorted because even before the death of Christ, the black race was present to even offer their help by carrying Jesus’ cross. Soli Deo Gloria

Michael Yaw Tano

tanomichael65@gmail.com

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Works Cited

Phiri, I. A., Werner, D., Owino, K., & Kaunda, C. J. (2016). Anthology of African Christianity. Adfo Books.