The Dialectics of Western Christianity and African Spirituality

Abstract

The spirituality of the Acholi people of northern Uganda comprises practices such as healings, sacrifices, morality and customary mores that give meaning and force to everyday social relationships. With the expansion of globalization and its pressure on the universal economy, many Acholi healers/spiritual practitioners are concurrently engaged in formal and informal occupations as farmers, artisans, merchants, instructors and traditional birth attendants, in addition to their spiritual practices, to supplement their living. The missionaries and colonial administrators have attempted to undermine the values of indigenous spirituality by presenting it as heathen, uncivilized and savage, without appreciating its usefulness and relevance to indigenous societies. Missionary schools and churches were means to implement cultural imperialism through training native catechists to evangelize in their communities. The missionary schools graduated Africans with a westerncentric outlook, often Christian who denigrated their own spiritualities.