4-19 Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 136 (March 2010)

The Theologian as Missionary: The

Legacy of Jean-Marc Eia
David T. Ngong

ABSTRACT
This article is a preliminary look at the theological and missiological legacy of one of the
foremost African theologians, the Cameroonian Jean-Marc Eia (1936-2008). It argues
that, for Èia, the theologian is a missionary because it is the missiological context that
frames the language of theology. This is especially the case because, born among the
forest people of southern Cameroon, Éla's theology was honed among the Kirdis, a
despised and exploited people in northern Cameroon. Reflecting on this missiological
context led him to be one of the first to see that there should be no conflict between the
theology of inculturation and liberation in Africa, as had appeared to be the case. It also
led him to stress that theology should be done under the "shade-tree" in enduring missional
communities. The article also argues that in spite of some weaknesses in his theology,
Éla's influence can be seen especially in recent African theology.

Introduction
When Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to Africa in March 2009, he first
went to Cameroon, where he was received by President Paul Biya, the country's
dictator for about twenty-seven years now. In his welcome address to the Pope,
Paul Biya (a Roman Catholic) struggled to give the impression that he was
concerned about the well-being of the African peoples. While emphasizing this
point, he wondered:
how can one fail to subscribe to the call of the Church for more justice for African
populations which are being decimated by pandemics, misery and hunger, [populations]
which are sometimes deprived of their basic rights and subjected to degrading living
conditions? How can one fail to hear "the cry of the African", to use the words of a
Cameroonian Priest and Sociologist?1

1 For the speech, see "Cameroon: Official and Pastoral Visit of His Holiness Benedict XVI to
Cameroon (17 to 20 March 2009), Welcome Address by the Head of State," http://allafrica.com/
stories/200903180854.html. March 18, 2009. Accessed March 19, 2009.

David T. Ngong Lectures in Religion and African Studies at Baylor University, Waco,
Texas, USA. < David_Tonghou_Ngong@baylor.edu; dvdngng@yahoo.com >
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Èia 5

The "Cameroonian Priest and Sociologist" Biya quoted was Jean-Marc Eia and
the words quoted came from one of Éla's earliest and very influential theological
works entitled African Cry? Biya's wonder was profoundly ironic given that his
autocratic regime had driven Eia into exile because he advocated for the rights
and well-being of the Cameroonian people. In fact, at the time Biya was making
his speech, Eia had just died in Canada, where he had been in exile since 1995.
When his body was brought back to Cameroon, most high ranking members of
government were conspicuously absent from his funeral; but "the little people of
God" ("le petit peuple de Dieu"), whose voices he had struggled to bring to the
fore, celebrated him.3
Èia was born in Ebolowa in 1936, in the South of Cameroon and ordained as
a Roman Catholic priest in 1964. He earned a doctorate in theology from the
University of Strasbourg (France) and another doctorate in sociology from the
Sorbonne in Paris. He worked among the Kirdis of northern Cameroon between
1971 and 1985. As we shall see, this period was significant in his realization that
Christian theology must address the continuous pauperization of the common
people by a ruthless and greedy ruling elite and their international collaborators.
It was in the process of making the voice of the voiceless heard that he came
into conflict with the Cameroonian ruling authorities. First, after the 1984 bloody
but unsuccessful coup d'états in Cameroon, his name was found on a list of
those who were to be eliminated as "bothersome" people by the Biya regime.4
Another dreadful point came in 1995 when the Cameroonian Roman Catholic
priest, Father Engelbert Mveng (a fellow priest and partner with Èia in the struggle
against autocracy and oppression in Cameroon) was found strangled in his home.
Fearing for his life, Èia fled to Canada where he maintained residency until his
passing in December 2008. Èia taught sociology at the University of Yaounde,
Cameroon, and during his exile he taught in universities such as the University of
Quebec at Montréal (Canada) and Boston University (USA). His work among
the Kirdis and around the world has led some to refer to him as "missionary of
the world" (missionnaire du monde).5 Thus it is that Éla's name is intimately
connected not only to African Christian theology but also to the missionary call
of the churches of Africa.6
2 Jean-Marc Eia. This work was originally published in French as Le cri de l'homme africain
(Paris: Editions L'Harmattan, 1980) and later published in English as African Cry (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books, 1986).
3 For the report about his funeral, see Jean-François Channon, « Obsèque: Jean-Marc Eia repose
pour l'èternitè à Abang » Le Messager, accessed on Cameroon-info.net: http://www.cameroon-
info.net/cmi_shQW_news.php?id=24466. Accessed on June 20, 2009.
4 Valentin Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal in African Christian Theology (Nairobi, Kenya:
Acton Press, 2003), 224.
5 Channon, "Obsèque."
6 Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 249-250.
6 Ngong

This article presents Éla as a theologian whose major theological insights

developed within the context of his missionary activity rather than in the ivory
tower. Valentin Dedji makes a similar point when he points out that Éla's
"theological reflections are solidly grounded in his sociological observations about
African communities." 7 Given that Éla was also a sociologist, this is
understandable. But it must be stressed that his sociological analysis also developed
within the missionary context. In fact, he received his doctorate in sociology in
1978, when he was still working among the Kirdis of northern Cameroon. By
bringing theology and mission together, he could, therefore, be seen as a perfect
embodiment of David Bosch's insight that Christian theology should have an
"innate missionary dimension."8 Although Éla contributed significantly in bringing
about the realization that liberation theology and the theology of inculturation are
complementary rather than antagonistic, his major contribution probably lies in
the fact that he did theology, rather than simply reflect about it. That is why he
put his life on the line and suffered exile as a result.9 Thus, although he has been
marginalized by the Roman Catholic Church, he belongs in the company of
esteemed African theologians who risk their lives for the sake of the gospel. In
discussing how Éla's work brings mission and theology together, this article will
proceed as follows:first,the relation between mission and theology will be briefly
discussed; this will be followed by a description of how this is reflected in Éla's
work. It will end with a brief critique of his work and a statement of his influence
on African theology, especially as seen in the work of the Roman Catholic
theologian from Uganda, Emmanuel Katongole, and the Methodist theologian
from Benin, Valentin Dedji.

Closing the Gap Between Mission and Theology

Over forty years ago, Adrian Hastings, the British historian and one of the most
impressive commentators on Christianity in Africa, lamented the broken link
between mission and theology thus:
It may be noted that there has nearly always been a very considerable and regrettable gap
in the Church between the work of theologizing and the work of evangelizing. The
theologian sits upon his [sic] chair of theology at the center of the Church, in some well
established Christian citadel; seldom has he [sic] personal experience of the missionary

7 Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 221.

8 David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 492.
9 Éla has rightly been described as someone whose reflections happened "in the scene of disaster."
See, Jan Heijke, "Thinking in the Scene of Disaster: Theology of Jean-Marc Éla from Cameroon,"
Voices from the Third World XXIII no. 2 (December 2000), 58-77.
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Eia 7

context, while the missionary, far away on the frontier of the Church, has had little time
or inclination to express himself [sic]. There has been almost no dialogue between the
two, hence a certain lack of missionary perspective with almost all the tradition of
Christian theology.10
It is this same situation that led David Bosch to point out in his groundbreaking
and classic missiological work that mission has been marginalized in theological
studies. Unlike in the early church where theology was developed in "the
emergency situation in which the missionizing church found itself," and "mission
became the 'mother of theology'," modern theology had severed the necessary
tie between the two.11 Thus it is that Western theology came to align itself more
with philosophy than with the social contexts in which the gospel is to be
incarnated. The plea was, therefore, that for theology to be worth its salt, it had
to regain its missionary awareness. At the same time missionaries had to be
theologically literate so that they might engage the context in which they find
themselves in responsible and intelligent manner. Thus, mission and theology
have to inform each other. The missionary has to be a theologian and the theologian
has to be a missionary. In order to further clarify this connection, let us briefly
describe what is meant by mission/missionary and theology/theologian. '
Mission has to do with the way the church propagates itself in light of the
reign of God and it is thus the very being of the church. Bosch makes a distinction
between 'mission' and 'missions': while mission has to do with the missio Dei,
God's loving care and involvement in the world, missions have to do with the
participation of the church in missio Dei. In fact, the church is the people who
have been called and sent into the world in order that through them God's loving
care of the world may be made known.12 It belongs to the very essence of the
church to be missionary. This, in effect, means that all Christians are, or should
be, missionaries. However, my focus in this article is on those who are consciously
sent by the church to propagate the gospel and who call themselves missionaries.
At the same time, since the purpose of the church is to make known the loving
care of God in the world so that the world may come to know God through
Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit, it follows that all Christians are, or
should be, able to properly articulate and/or show how God wants to draw the
world into divine life. Given that Christian theology may be understood as the
reflection on, and manifestation of, how the God of Jesus Christ interacts with
the world, it follows that all Christians should be theologians. However, by
theologian I mean those who so designate themselves and have assumed the
duty of reflecting on and showing how God is related to creation.
10 Adrian Hastings, Church and Mission in Modern Africa (New York: Fordham University Press,
1967), 34.
11 Bosch, Transforming Mission, 489.
12 Bosch, Transforming Mission, 10-11, 390-391.
8 Ngong

When Hastings and Bosch lament that there has been a gap between the
missionary and the theologian or between mission and theology, they are
complaining that much theological reflection is not informed by the essential
missionary nature of the church. It must, however, be pointed out that this has
been more so in Western theology than in African theology, given that African
theology developed within the context of Western missionary activities on the
continent. Éla is one of the African theologians who complain that many Western
missionaries who propagated the faith in Africa were not theologically astute to
preach a gospel that takes the African situation seriously enough. Thus it is that
African theology, beginning with works such as Des prêtres noirs s'interrogent
(1956) and Placide Tempels, La philosophie bantoue (1945) has been aimed at
taking the African contexts seriously. The contexts, which have come to be
taken seriously are socio-economic, political and cultural. Thus, African theology
has come to be characterized by the tendencies toward inculturation and liberation,
key issues in contemporary theology of mission.13
Although the theology of inculturation has been emphasized in some recent
postcolonial theologies, it is as old as the missionary activity of the church itself
because inculturation is the process by which the Christian faith learns to live in
a particular culture. The Tanzanian theologian, Laurenti Magesa, states the central
questions of inculturation thus:
What happens when the faith and the church are brought from one geographical and/or
social situation to another? What happens when they are made to move across peoples
and cultures? In other words, in their long history of evangelizing peoples, how have the
Christian faith and the church inserted themselves in different socio-cultural and economic-
political situations?14

In answering these questions it becomes clear that the process of inculturation

was at work as soon as Christianity moved from its Jewish context to the
Hellenistic context; it was at work when Christianity spread into medieval Europe
and the New World; it was supposed to be at work when European missionaries
brought the faith to sub-Saharan Africa. But European missionary work largely
failed to inculturate the faith in the African context. This failure to promote the
process of inculturation could be blamed on some Western missionaries'
Eurocentrism and lack of theological sophistication. However, African theologians
have insisted that the gospel must be given an African color by being expressed
13 Bosch, Transforming Mission, 432-455. For more on African theology as a combination of
inculturation and liberation see Emmanuel Martey, African Theology: Inculturation and liberation
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993); Benézét Bujo, African Theology in Its Social Context
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992); Cf. John Parratt, Reinventing African Christianity:
African Theology Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 122-36.
14 Laurenti Magesa, Anatomy of Inculturation: Transforming the Church in Africa (Maryknoll,
New York: Orbis Books, 2004), 1.
 The Theologian as Missionary The Legacy of Jean-Marc Éla 9

in African accoutrements and idioms.15 As we shall see, Éla's has been one of the
leading voices in this regard.
Apart from the notion of inculturation, the idea of liberation has been crucial
in African theological discourse. Given that the encounter between Africa and
the West has been characterized by domination, exploitation, and the degradation
of African peoples, some African theologians have contended that it is the
prerogative of the African church to advocate for, and bear witness to, the dignity
and well being ofAfricans. Thus liberation theology has insisted that the salvation
Christianity preaches does not only have to do with the salvation of the soul for
a life hereafter, as missionary Christianity taught, but also deals with the
improvement of the lives of the African people here and now. This was the case
that South African Black theology of liberation made in apartheid South Africa
and the case that theologians such as Éla made in Africa north of the Limpopo
River. It is this same case that African women theologians, especially as
demonstrated by those in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,
are making on behalf of the African women and peoples today.16 For African
theologians, therefore, Christian mission must deal with the missionary degradation
of African cultures and the colonial and neo-colonial exploitation of the African
peoples. However, women theologians remind us that there are some elements in
African cultures that men endorse but which are harmful to women.17 Thus,
although Éla insightfully holds together African theology of liberation and
inculturation, as a male theologian, he did not dwell on some issues that are
important to women.

Mission and Theology in Jean-Marc Eia

Going by his own confession, Éla's theological convictions were profoundly
shaped when he served among the Kirdis18 in northern Cameroon. As he tells the
15 See Vincent Mulago Gwa Cikala, Un visage africain du christianisme (Paris* Présence Africaine,
1965), Aylward Shorter, Toward a Theology of Inculturation (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis
Books, 1994), Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion
(Edinburgh. University of Edinburgh Press, 1995).
16 For more on the work of the women of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,
see their web site: http://www.thecirclecawt.org/.
17 See, for example, Musa W. Dube, ed Other Ways of Reading African Women and the Bible
(Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001), Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro, Introducing Feminist
Cultural Hermeneutics An African Perspective (Cleveland* The Pilgrim Press, 2002); Mercy
Amba Oduyoye and Musimbi Kanyoro, ed. The Will to Arise Women, Tradition and the Church
in Africa (Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books, 1992)
18 The word "Kirdi" as Eia points out, "means pagan in the Fulfulde language spoken by the
Fulani ethnic group [in northern Cameroon]. Since thQir jihad of the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, the Muslim Fulani have applied the term generally to a large number of
10 Ngong

story, while among the Kirdis, he developed the habit of holding regular Bible
study sessions during which topics related to some of the pressing questions of
the life of the people were discussed. It was during one of such discussions that
"an event which had since marked my life and oriented the entire process of my
reflection and research"19 happened. What happened was that he had proposed
that the topic for discussion be "God," to which one young woman in the group
retorted, "God, God, and after that what?"20 It was then that Éla realized that for
that young woman and for people like her, the question of God has to be
reformulated so that it becomes relevant to their situation. The question of God
had to be about the significance of God in a situation of poverty, drought, famine,
injustice and oppression. In fact, it was here that he came to see that a primary
theological task in Africa is to address what Mveng had described as
"anthropological poverty," "the kind of poverty which no longer concerns only
exterior or interior goods or possessions but strikes at the very being, essence,
and dignity of the human person."21 This kind of poverty renders people hopeless
and useless and destroys communities. In effect, the question of God had to be
removed from the realm of the abstractly theological to the realm of the
anthropological where the nitty-gritty of life is lived.
This theological, or rather anthropological, orientation can thus be found in
Éla's earliest works, two of which have been translated into English.22 In these
two works, Éla makes it clear that missiology is the context for theology by
placing missiological issues right at the beginning. While in African Cry Éla
begins by showing the missiological background that African Christianity would
need to overcome, in My Faith as an African, he shows how Africans should go
about doing mission in their contexts.23 The missiological background that Africans

other Cameroonian people who fled and refused to accept Islamic beliefs. See, Éla, My Faith as
an African (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), 12, n. 2.
19 Jean-Marc Éla, Repenser la théologie africaine: Le Dieu qui libère (Paris: Éditions Karthala
2003), 7. This work has not been translated into English. The above quotation has been
translated by me and in the French it reads thus: "un événement qui a marqué ma vie et orienté
toute ma demarche de réflexion et de recherché."
20 Jean-Marc Éla, Repenser la théologie africaine, 8. In the French, the above expression is as
follows: "Dieu, Dieu, et après?"
21 Engelbert Mveng, "Impoverishment and Liberation: A theological Approach for Africa and the
Third World," in Paths of African Theology, ed. Rosini Gibellini (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
1994), 156.
22 See, Éla, African Cry; Éla, My Faith as an African originally published as Ma foi d'africain
(Paris: Éditions Karthala, 1985).
23 Éla, African Cry, 9-27; Cf. My Faith as an African, 3-12. Éla is not simply dismissive of the
Western missionary enterprise as he also acknowledges some of its positive contributions to
African liberation struggle. In all, however, he sees the Western missionary enterprise as
"ambiguous."
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Eia 11

would need to overcome is the Western missionary endeavor where mission

was an arm of colonialism and relied on the money and power of Western nations.
Thus, Eia was one of the earliest theologians to call for a new paradigm of
mission which is not linked to the interest of the strong and powerfiil but rather
is directed toward those who are marginalized: mission done in weakness and
vulnerability. It is this paradigm of mission which is practised by many of the
African churches today, especially those of the Pentecostal/Charismatic
persuasion. This can be seen from the fact that Christian mission as developed
under Western imperialism has often been linked to centers of power and wealth.
However, as the Sierra Leonean missiologist, Jehu Handles, at Fuller Theological
Seminary (USA) points out, mission as practised by recent African Pentecostal/
Charismatic movements is often done in a position of weakness and vulnerability
because it is carried out by people who are not linked to positions of power and
wealth.24
Éla's missionary context also enabled him to develop what he called "shade-
tree theology," a theology that takes place "far from the libraries and offices"
and is done "among brothers and sisters searching shoulder to shoulder with
unlettered peasants for the sense of the word of God in situations in which this
word touches them."25 It is in this light that Éla's theology bridges the gap in the
distinction usually made between oral and written African theology. Where
theology is done in the library or offices, removed from the people for whom the
theological discourse should be intended, this distinction between oral and written
theology is accentuated. While oral theology is the theological ideas of ordinary
African Christians (especially those who are illiterate), written theology is the
prerogative of the educated elite. Because African theologians have come to see
that African theology can also be gleaned from the thought of ordinary African
Christians, they usually leave their citadels of learning for discussion with ordinary
Christians when they want to investigate the thought of these Christians. This
was not the case with Éla because he lived with and shared the lives of ordinary
Christians. He developed his theology in the context of the palaver, where
Christians, both literate and illiterate, attempt tofigureout what the God of Jesus
Christ, through the Bible, is saying to them. This is the context of debate and
argument where theology is seen as a communal enterprise.
24 For more on this see, Jehu Handles, "Beyond Christendom: African Migration and
Transformations in Global Christianity," Studies in World Christianity 10 No. 1 (2004): 93-
113; Hanciles, Beyond Christendom: African Migration and the Transformation of the West
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008); Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 87-102.
2 5 Eia, African Cry, vi.
12 Ngong

Thus, we see that Éla's theology is missiological. It is missiological because

it developed within the context of those with whom he was trying to share the
life of Christ. It is for this reason that for him theology is an itinerary for this
journey of shared life, "an itinerary of self-discovery on a road traveled with
others, in the direction of Christ, toward whom all converges."26 What this means
is that, according to Éla, the missiologist must also be a theologian who carefully
reads the context in which the mission of God is to be made manifest and tailors
his/her work to that context. The missiologist as a theologian must be well versed
in the message of the gospel so that he/she would be able to relate its message to
the intricacies of the life of the people among whom she/he works. In fact, for
Éla, theology cannot be satisfactorily done if one is not immersed in the life of
those for whom one intends to communicate the message of Christ.
It is therefore from mission that the language of theology should emerge.
That is why he urged theologians to immerse themselves in the lives of their
people, so that they may be able to effectively communicate the message of the
gospel to their people. He writes: "A theologian must stay within earshot of what
is happening within the community so that community life can become the subject
of meditation and prayer. In the end, a theologian is perhaps simply a witness
and a traveling companion, alert for the signs of God and willing to get dirty in
the precarious conditions of village life."27 Missiology and theology merge as one
becomes part of the life of the people among whom one has been sent to share
the life of Christ. Thus it is that the aloofness and brevity (especially as seen in
short-term mission projects) that sometimes characterize contemporary mission
is repudiated in favor of building more enduring relationships and accompanying
people in their daily lives. That is why community is central in Éla's missiological
discourse. For him, community is a sacrament, which is indispensable for the
salvation being wrought in Christ. He does not focus so much on the number of
people who confess their faith in Jesus Christ or the number of people being
baptized but rather on whether or not community is being created when the life
of the gospel is manifested.
The perspective of our mission is no longer to baptize as many people as possible, to
count the number of Easter communions, to settle marriage problems, or to play, as
priest, the role of a big shot in the village. I care little for the tangible results or the
statistics of my work. It is not so much of completing a list of tasks, as it is of being and
living with people, of finding them where they are. In every pastoral program I undertake,
I ask myself: Does a community exist here? What must be done to help it come into
being? What are the essential concerns in the life of this village that can bring people
together and help the gospel take root?28

26 Eia, My Faith as an African, 3; Cf., African Cry, 23.

2 7 Éla, My Faith as an African, 11.
2 8 Eia, My Faith as an African, 6.
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Éla 13

Thus, Éla believes that without creating communities around which the gospel
message of salvation can be made manifest, the power of the Christian faith is
undermined. This is because there are many people who will never be baptized
and who will never receive the Eucharist but who can nevertheless be participant
of the reconciling communities that the gospel creates. For these people,
"community is perhaps the only sacrament they can share."29
This community, as we have seen, is found in the context of a village. This is
because Éla's missionary context is the village where people cultivate the land
for their daily survival. The village is the place where many of Africa's peoples
have been thrown away by the elite leadership structure, which is concentrated
in the cities. One of Éla's enduring missiological and theological legacies is that
he constantly brought the story of the impoverished peasants to the fore. In a
context where theologians constantly speak about lofty ideas such as globalization,
African Renaissance, and the New World Order, which is incomprehensible to
many people wasting in African villages, Éla focused on the life of the rural
communities. For him, those who need to be empowered are these villagers who
are being exploited by both the national and international elite.30 It is for this
reason that he was one of the first theologians to see that there need not be a
dichotomy between the theology of inculturation and liberation in Africa, as seems
to have been the case.31 For him, theology of inculturation attempts to restore
the dignity of a people whose culture has been abused by the colonial experience
- this is an aspect of liberation.32 On the other hand, liberation is not complete if
the appalling socio-economic and political situation in which the people live is
not challenged and addressed.
It is for this reason that Éla addresses the despoliation and alienation of Africans
from a theological perspective, drawing attention to an activity, which is central
to ecclesial life: the Eucharist. Believing that the kind of theology that could
properly address the alienation of Africans in a world which oppresses them, is
one that makes a mélange between inculturation and liberation,33 he shows that
such a combination will demonstrate that Africa's problems can be located in
2 9 Éla, My Faith as an African, 6.
30 This exploitation is captured especially when villagers are made to plant cash crops such as
cotton instead of food crops that they could consume. See Éla, African Cry, v; Éla, My Faith as
an African, 87-101.
3 1 For the apparent distinction between theology of inculturation and liberation, see Desmond M.
Tutu, "Whither African Theology?" in Christianity in Independent Africa, ed. Edward Fasholé-
Luke et al. (London: Rex Collings, 1978), 364-369; Emmanuel Martey describes the dichotomy
as a "false dilemma." See his African Theology: Inculturation and liberation, 2.
32 Éla, African Cry, 39-54.
3 3 For more on African theology as a combination of inculturation and liberation see Emmanuel
Martey, African Theology: Inculturation and Liberation; Benézét Bujo, African Theology in its
Social Context. Cf. John Parratt, Reinventing African Theology, 122-36.
14 Ngong

this crucial activity of fellowship. According to him, Africans are estranged

from being full participants in the Eucharist when the elements that are used,
bread and wine, are foreign to them. He sees the insistence on using elements
that are foreign to the geography of the people as characteristic of a church (the
Roman Catholic Church), which insists on imposing a Eurocentric interpretation
of the Christian life on people everywhere and thus alienating them from
themselves. "[T]he case of the Eucharist," he writes, "reveals the domination at
the heart of the faith as lived in Africa, within a Christianity that refuses to
become incarnate in our peoples."34
The cry here is one of inculturation so that Africans may be made to identify
with the Christian faith. The insistence on using foreign elements in the Eucharist,
he notes, also has an economic implication in that it discourages Africans from
producing crops that can serve the same purpose; even where such crops are
produced, they are not used. In terms of trade, Africans are on the wrong end
of the deal because they are made to import the Eucharistie elements of bread
and wine, elements that could be replaced by viable African alternatives such as
millet and beer. If this continues, the Eucharist in effect becomes a site which
does not serve the liberation of human beings which the resurrection of Christ
engendered but perpetrates neocolonial exploitation and domination of Africa by
the West.35 Here we see that inculturation and liberation lead to the same end.
This situation of Western domination and alienation of Africa does not happen
only in the Eucharist but also in the lives of rural communities in Africa, especially
among the Kirdi of northern Cameroon. The Kirdi endure a life of hunger,
penury and desperation caused by the replacement of the production of food
crops with cash crops, which are good only for export, making money for
multinational companies, but leaving the people with an empty granary. Eia
wonders how the peasants can survive in a context in which even their ability to
provide for themselves has been hijacked by the international economic system
that goes to enrich the few at the expense of the many. It is in this light that he
calls for a "ministry of the granary" ^'pastorale du grenier") because the granary
of the African peasants is empty (le grenier est vide).36 This is a ministry that
recognizes that feeding is a political problem especially in the villages of Cameroon,
where the lands of rural peasants have been seized for purposes of planting cash
crops. The ministry of the granary attempts to refill the granary of these deprived
villagers so that they may not die of starvation. Thus, rather than using the land
of the people to plant cotton, as is the case in northern Cameroon, millet should
be planted because it is the lifeline of the villagers. The life of the church in these
34 Jean-Marc Éla, African Cry, 5.
35 Éla, African Cry, 1-8.
36 Jean-Marc Éla, My Faith as an African, 87-101; Ma Foi d'africain, 117-32.
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Éla 15

situations should therefore be grounded in providing the ministry of the granary,

taking care of this immediate need of the people. It is only in participating in this
ministry of the granary that the church participates in the cross of Christ, which
is located, in a hidden way, among the poor of the Third World. In fact, "today,
the oppressed is Jesus Christ," he writes.37
Éla's perspective therefore calls for a radical rethinking of the gospel in Africa
so that the church's very existence is put on the line for the well being of the
oppressed people of the continent. For him, a church cannot play this role if it
sees its life as that of providing "visas for eternity,"38 thus abandoning human
material well-being here on earth. As a matter of fact, a church that sees itself as
a soul-saving organization is not only practising the faith counter to the gospel of
Jesus Christ, but is also acting counter to African anthropology which, like biblical
anthropology, asserts the concrete unity of body and soul, the spiritual and the
material.39
It is this radical rethinking of the Christian faith, which is basically a search
for a new paradigm for understanding salvation, that he pursues in his recent
theological work, Repenser la théologie Africaine (2003). This work describes
the modern history of Africa (from Africa's first encounter with Europe to the
present), as a history of various forms of slavery (esclavage), ranging from the
slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism, to the present era of the market
(ère du marché) called globalization.40 It is within this broader context of virtual
enslavement, a situation that has exacerbated the poverty and oppression of
Africans, that the gospel has to be reread and a new paradigm for doing theology
developed.
Thus, he insists that African theology has to abandon Western missionary
theology, heir to a Western method of doing theology that can be traced to Saint
Augustine. Central to this theology is a soteriology based on an understanding of
salvation derived from the Augustinian view of original sin. Here emphasis was
placed on the doctrine of ransom (rachat) or redemption that resulted in
Christianity becoming a religion for the salvation of soulsfrometernal damnation
in hell. This, together with an aspect of Neo-Platonism, which was embraced
by the "Fathers of the Church" (Pères de VÉglisë), led to a devaluation of the
world. According to Éla, the aspect of Neo-Platonism that was embraced by the
Fathers of the Church and which in turn influenced western theology and the
37 Éla, Ma Foi d'africain, 193. "Aujourd'hui, Jesus-Christ, c'est l'opprimé."
38 Éla, African Cry, 7.
39 Éla, African Cry, 90.
40 Éla sees globalization or the market (the dictatorship of money: "dictateur de l'argent") as a
continuation of the history of slavery already begun in Africa. It is part of the new forms of
slavery (nouvelles formes de servitude) that confronts (Black) Africans, who are "the forgotten
of the earth" (les oubliés de la terre). Éla, Repenser la théologie africaine, 67, 99.
16 Ngong

world-denying Christianity that was brought to Africa is that which "neglects

not only the values of the person, the body and sexuality, but also the consistency
of the world, of creation, and the history which constitutes the structures of
Christian thought."41 This world-denying tendency in soteriology, he points out,
with its long history in the church, must be combated with a rereading of the
gospel (l'Evangile). Such a rereading will find an understanding of salvation
(salut), which neither evades nor surrenders the world. This is a gospel, which
calls us neither to get out of the world nor to conform to it but to transform, or
more radically, to participate in the transformation which God is undertaking
(entreprendre) in the world. This understanding of the world makes it incumbent
on theology to make the present its site (foyer) of discourse because the God of
Hope (Dieu de VEspérencé) can only be made sense of in daily trial (épreuve du
quotidian). "In Christianity," Éla insists, "salvation does not exist outside the
world and history and outside service to the other," for the gospel does not
simply preach an eternal rest (repos eternal) but announces joy (Joie) and happiness
(bonheur) for today.42 His reading of the Gospels of Luke (2, 10-11, 4, 21) and
John (15, 11, 17, 18) leads him to conclude that when Jesus talks of salvation,
joy and happiness, he is not talking about the future but the present. Thus, for
the African, salvation has to be understood in its relation to the world and history.43
Although some may question Éla's reading of the theology of the Fathers and
the degree of Neo-Platonic influence on it, there is little doubt that his reading is
colored not by a detached reflection but rather by participating in the lives of
people who appear to be experiencing the adverse effects of a faith that leaves
much to be desired. Ela's cry is therefore that theology should not forget its
missiological locus and mission should not forget to be theologically rigorous.
Theology that does not take the lives of people seriously is not worth having and
mission that is not immersed in the lives of people is a waste of time. Mission
and theology should be about creating enduring relationships, not tentative ones,
because we participate in the life of the God who endures forever. The Christian
faith is about making communities that are characterized by love and justice and
that enable human flourishing "in the direction of Christ, toward whom all
converges."
41 Éla, Repenser la théologie Africaine, 79. In the French the above quotation reads: "... néglige
non seulement les valeurs de la personne, du corps et de la sexualité, mais aussi la consistance du
monde, de la creation et de l'histoire qui constituent les structures de la pensée chrétienne." My
translation.
42 Éla, Repenser la théologie Africain, 80-1.
43 Éla, Repenser la théologie Africain, 81.
 The Theologian as Missionary The Legacy of Jean-Marc Eia Y7

Critical Analysis and Influence

Éla's missional theology, however, has at least three weaknesses. The first is his
problematic equation of the oppressed with Jesus Christ as we have seen above.
It is correct to say that God demonstrates profound concern for the oppressed,
especially as seen in the Exodus, the prophets, and the life of Jesus, but to equate
the oppressed to Jesus Christ is a theological misnomer. Bosch rightly sees this
as the granting of "messianic qualities" to the oppressed and so blurring the
distinction between humanity and divinity.44 It could be argued that by becoming
human this distinction is blurred but we must not confuse any person or even
group of people, not even the oppressed or the church, with Christ. A second
weakness of Éla's theology is his extreme historicizing of the eschatological
hope. He rightly recognizes that the Christian life is moving in the direction of
Christ in whom all converges but he then goes ahead to insist that salvation does
not exist outside the world and history. It is correct to insist that salvation must
be made visible in the here and now but to limit it to the here and now negates an
important aspect of the Christian faith. Bosch has correctly pointed out that
"Christianity, as a religion, proceedsfromthe premise that there is another reality
behind and above the visible and tangible reality around us; its reference is not
only to this world."45 A third weakness with Éla's theology is what Dedji has
described as Éla's calumniation of Western Christianity as a "decadent and
decomposing Church."46 This marks a tendency, common in African theological
discourses, to pit the West against Africa. Because of the historical problems
that have characterized the relation between Africa and the West, many African
theologians came to think that authentic African theology must repudiate Western
theology, especially Western rationalism. It is indeed correct to insist that
Christianity must be given an African color, but pitting African Christianity against
Western Christianity insists on a false dichotomy, which, as Aylward Shorter
points out, does not strengthen the case for African liberation.47
In spite of these weaknesses, Éla has been an important voice in African
theology and has influenced at least two young theologians. He has been described
as one who gives liberation theology "an African face" by rooting it within the
context of African realities of oppression.48 He has also been seen as one whose
44 Bosch, Transforming Mission, 443-444
45 Bosch, Transforming Mission, 441
46 Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 242
47 For more on the claim that to pit African thought against Western thought is a false dichotomy,
see, Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
(Oxford* Oxford University Press, 1992) Shorter is cited in Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal,
242
48 See Simon E Smith, "Foreword," in My Faith as an African, Jean-Marc Éla (Maryknoll, NY.
Orbis Books, 1988), ix
18 Ngong

theology holds one of the best promises for the transformation of African woes,
engendering a better future for the continent. Thus he has been appropriated by
theologians such as Katongole and Dedji.49
For Katongole, the transformation of Africa can be achieved only if the African
imagination is transformed. He maintains that the nation-state has told Africans
false stories about themselves, stories such as the claim that Africans are divided
into tribes. These stories have contributed to violence and strife on the continent
and so people need to be told new stories that are not determined by the nation-
state. This alternative story should be the story of Christianity, which is to be
made manifest in the life of the church. For him, therefore, the church should be
an alternative to the nation-state, made up of communities that live "as if the
nation-state did not exist."50 It is in this light that he appropriates Éla as an
African theologian who sees the church as representing this kind of alternative
community.51 But it is worth noting that Éla's understanding of the church is far
more complex than what Katongole describes. For Éla, even though the gospel
must generate concrete communities, these communities are not supposed to be
alternatives to the state. In fact, they are supposed to be the conscience of the
nation, "the conscience of a conscienceless society."52 Thus, Éla's theology is
done within the context of the nation-state rather than against it, as Katongole
claims. When Katongole claims that Éla's work posits the church as an alternative
to the nation-state, he is demonstrating the influence of Stanley Hauerwas of
Duke University (USA), not Éla.53
Dedji does his theology within theframeworkof the theology of reconstruction,
which has recently been championed by African theologians such as Charles
Villa-Vicencio, Jesse Mugambi, and Kä Mana.54 This theologicalframeworkholds
that what is needed in Africa now is the transformation of malfunctioning societal
structures so that the lives of the people may be improved. It is in this light that
Dedji appropriates Éla as one whose theology embraces genuine socio-economic
development in Africa. Dedji sees Éla's Eucharistie theology as very important in
this regard because, for Éla, the Eucharist is a sacrament of reconciliation. The
Eucharist is thus supposed to engender reconciliation not only within a church
community but among churches, even flowing into the wider society. This
reconciliation generates the peaceful atmosphere that is necessary for the
49 See Emmanuel Katongole, A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination
(Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 2004); Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal.
50 Katongole, A Future for Africa, 171.
51 Katongole, A Future for Africa, 153-183.
52 Éla, African Cry, 51.
53 For more on Hauerwas's influence on Katongole, see Katongole, A Future for Africa, 231-252.
54 Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 1-11.
 The Theologian as Missionary: The Legacy of Jean-Marc Éla 19

reconstruction of Africa.55 Dedji's appropriation of Éla is insightful but his claim,

like Mugambi's, that biblical texts such as Nehemiah,56 serve the purpose of
reconstruction better than Éla's stress on the Exodus, fails to take Éla seriously
enough. His further claim that African theological concern should not be so
much about culture appears to separate the theology of inculturationfromliberation
and reconstruction. As Éla insightfully saw, our world is one which is still
characterized by oppression and domination and this does not only relate to
socio-economic issues but also to issues of culture. We still need Éla's insight
that inculturation and liberation/reconstruction should be held together.

Conclusion
This article has argued that, for Jean-Marc Éla, there is a very strong connection
between missiology and theology, a conviction developed because his theological
reflection came to a crisis within the context of his missionary activities among
the Kirdis of northern Cameroon. Thus we see that, for Éla, a theologian is a
missiologist. This is because a missiologist has to be well versed in the faith so
that she/he may be able to reinterpret the message of the gospel in light of the
context in which mission is done. This led Eia to place a premium on theology
done in the context of the African village; he also became one of the first to see
that there should not be a conflict between incluturation and liberation in African
theology. The article has also shown that in spite of some shortcomings in his
theology, he has been an important voice in African theological discourse. Because
of his immense contribution in the processes of inculturation and liberation in the
African communities in which he found himself, upon his passing he was granted
the honor of an ancestor by his people in the forest region of Cameroon, even
though, as a priest, he had no offspring. The enduring communities, which he
had contributed in creating through Christ, had become his offspring. Thus, he
is remembered not only by those who call themselves Christians but also by
those who are unbaptized and who do not receive the Eucharist but who receive
the love, justice, and reconciliation made possible by communities created by the
gospel of Jesus Christ. This looks very much like the African village in which
Éla's theology and missiology developed.
55 Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 243-250.
5 6 See J.N.K Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology After the
Cold War (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1995), 13. For a critique of the
theology of reconstruction, see Tinyiko S. Maluleke, "The Proposal for a Theology of
Reconstruction: A Critical Appraisal," Missionalia 22 no. 2 (August 1994), 245-258.
 ^ s
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