TANGAZA
COLLEGE
THE
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA
GHISLAIN INAI, SMA
SALVATION
IN ATR
Could the Mask of the Guere People be Seen as a Means
of Salvation for Them?
Moderator
Rev. Dr. Fernando
Domingues, M.C.C.J.
An Essay Submitted
in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements
for the Baccalaureate in Theology
NAIROBI
JANUARY 2004
To my “Sweet” Mother, Inaï Flyer Banseï Marthe, my Dad
Inaï Gabriel, in loving memory of Séa Joséphine and Séa Anne-Marie, also to all
my sisters: Juliette, Agnes, Virginie, Hortense, Agathe and Edwige this work is
dedicated.
When
many people have been helpful to some one and the person has to tell them how
grateful he/she is for their help, but cannot mention all of them individually,
there is a story told to say thanks to every one.
“There
is this type of lizard with red head and black body. It likes climbing walls
and goes even on the top of roofs. What happens sometimes is that the reptile
loses balance and falls on its stomach to the ground. When it falls, it looks
to its right and sees some people. Then looks to its left and sees more people.
It also looks at people in front and then at those behind. By this, it wants to
be sure that the people present have noticed how it, the Lizard, is a brave
creature.
Some
of the people present may have seen the event and others may not. In any case,
there is often no sign of appreciation from the crowd. So the Lizard decides
then to knock down its head and says to itself ‘Well! I have done well’, and
then runs back to the wall to climb it again.”
This
story is to say that many people’s efforts need to be acknowledged here, but
only, a few will be mentioned. So those who will not figure among those named
should also know that they have not been forgotten. Should they think so, the
attitude of the Lizard in the story should be theirs, and they should thank
themselves for their support.
The writing of this essay, in one way or another, was
made possible by many people. I shall mention but a few. First of all, I would
like to express my gratitude to my friends O’Brien Jeannie, Juliet C. Sakwa,
Kone Rokia, Kone Lucie and Francis Kabore.
My thanks also go to the SMA
Students of Nairobi who have supported me in this investigation and I am
grateful for that.
My gratitude also goes to
Pascal and Larissa Paroiëlle, Cécile and Koffi Kouamé the family that accepted
to represent my parents during my stay here in Nairobi. I am also grateful to
Mr. and Mrs Bah, the Inaï and Flyer. Thanks also to Jean-Camille, Zréwon
Michel, Paterson, Thomas, Mman Djaï
and a special thought for Mman Tao
Josephine.
I would also like to thank
the formation team of Nairobi Fr. Hugh, Fr. ‘Yalo’ who was a ‘Big Brother’ to
me and especially Fr. Cornelius Murphy who helped me with mastery of the
Queen’s English.
I cannot forget the priests
who have welcomed me into their parishes for mission experience. I would like
to mention in a particular way Frs. H. J. Daudé, SMA, who made me discover the
SMA, J. Haverty, SMA, with whom I did my ‘Stage’ in Kachia, Nigeria, John Dune,
SMA and F. Hevi and A. Bikini, SMA with whom I did my ‘Diakonia’ in Nairobi.
A special thanks to Fr. Fernando Domingues, MCCJ and through him to all
the Tangaza College staff. I did “drink”
from the spring of their knowledge and experience.
Above all, am very grateful to my Triune God who has called me to serve
Him. May this God who sent us the Saviour par
excellence, Jesus-Christ, Bless us all.
I, the undersigned, declare that this essay is the result
of my personal reflection, reading, scientific research, and critical analysis
of sources. It is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Ecclesiastical Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology. This work has never before
been submitted for academic credit to any other college or university. All
sources have been quoted in full and acknowledged.
Name of Student: Inaï Ghislain, SMA.
Date: 03 February 2004
This essay has been submitted for
examination with my approval as the college supervisor.
Name of Supervisor: Fr. Fernando Domingues, MCCJ.
Date: 02 February 2004
When
a child, there used to be “Festivals of Masks” in Tinhou, some which
we attended. This festival has a double function. The first one, which is the
obvious one, is to express delight about the year that is finishing
and the second is to give thanks to God for all He has done for the village
over the year. The reasons for which the village thanked God varied from one
family to another, but the common ones were good harvest, less deceased members
of the village and above all, to get into contact with Gnonsoa, who is
represented by the Mask. It is interesting to note that in western Cote
d’Ivoire, and probably in other parts of the world, Masks are associated with
ceremonies like funeral customs, fertility rites, curing of sickness, and
festive occasions.
The
rejoicing aspect is experienced through the whole liturgy of the festival,
which includes songs from a given group of women, beating of drums by a
specialist and the dancing of the Mask. After two weeks of celebrations, nan lan di
are slaughtered for sacrifice and consumption. On the very last day of the
ceremony, the oldest Mask does the libation on the public place of the village,
and prays for a successful year ahead. With the mud collected from the libation
place, the villagers make some marks on their foreheads as a sign of Pongne.
This act is done while one expresses his/her personal intentions silently. It
is also interesting to notice that it is the only time when people are allowed
to look into the face of the Mask.
Before that, one’s eyes were not supposed to meet those of the Mask because the
Mask is a supreme being and because of this, the human person owns him respect.
More
than twenty years after our childhood, here we are in Tangaza College Nairobi,
reading theology. At the end of these studies, we would like to bring our
little contribution to the building of the edifice of an African Christian
Theology. In this investigation, we would like to deal with Salvation in ATR
with particular reference to the Ceremony of Mask among the Guere people of
Western Cote d’Ivoire. More precisely, we wish to focus on how the Guere people
could have experienced Salvation through their Masks.
Masks
represent supernatural beings and as a matter of fact, are considered to be
means of contact with various spiritual powers in order to protect the clan or
the village against evil situations such as famine, plagues, failure in war
etc.
As
theology is defined as “faith seeking understanding” and “discourse on God and
anything related to God”, we would like to discourse on a specific belief of
the Guere people and how that belief can be related to our Christian faith in
God. We know that this enterprise will not be easy, but we are interested in
this topic and would like to do some research on it.
“Truly I perceive that god shows
no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right
is acceptable to him.”
It
is undeniable that one of the burning issues in theology today is the question
of knowing how do people experience God in religions other than Christianity.
In addition to this, we have the controversial topic of Salvation in these
other religions. Whether such Salvation is possible engrosses many theologians
today too.
It
is usual that when one goes to the Nairobi City Centre, he/she encounters some people
who claim to be saved and would like to know if their interlocutor is also
saved or not. Statements such as “my name is N, I was
saved since 1985 by Jesus my personal Saviour. How about you?” This is a relevant question that
needs an answer from each and every one of us. So the question that comes to
mind is, what could the answer of the ATR adherents be? Apparently, members of
non-Christian religions have no personal encounter with Christ, so who could be
their saviour?
Our
brothers and sisters from other churches, and probably some Catholics also,
often tend to demonise ATR, its practices and adherents. This could be due to
the missionary mentality of old which believed that all African religions and
religious practices were evil, if at all they existed. Some of the philosophers
and anthropologists said that Africans had no religions.
Investigating this latter statement would seem like beating a dead horse.
However, it is important to know that this statement, some would think, had
shaped the missionary mentality of old. For example, “[Christians] have too, often (…) seen their mission narrowly as persuading or
reinforcing their particular religion, sometimes even to the extent of imposing
it on others.”
How
could an ATR adherent answer the question, “Are you saved?” To find an answer
to this question is a real puzzle.
While
as an individual this question arises, we believe that it could also be the
case for the millions of ATR followers. Consequently, we would like to try and
find an answer to the question whether or not there is Salvation in ATR with
special reference to the Guere people of West Africa and their Masks.
Precisely, we would like to know whether or not the Mask could be seen by us
Christians as a means of Salvation for the Guere people. This also means that
we are going to highlight the religious function of the Mask. How are we going
to reach this goal?
To
achieve our target, we have divided this work into five parts including the
introduction and the conclusion. In this introduction, we will try to give the
definitions of some key terms such as ATR, Mask and Salvation, terms which we
are going to use throughout this investigation. By this, we want to be sure
that there is a clear understanding of these concepts should any reader come
across this essay.
After
the definition of those concepts, we will present briefly the Guere people.
Perhaps, a chapter should have been reserved for them, but since this paper is
not an anthropological or ethnological study, we decided to mention them in the
introduction so that the reader will have a succinct idea about this group of
people.
In
the second chapter, we will try to see how ATR members, specially the Guere
people could experience Salvation. Also, we would like to see if the presence
of the Mask could be seen as a divine presence. For us to be able to answer
this question, we will tell a story that portrays how the Mask came into the
lives of these people.
In
the third chapter, we will examine what the Catholic Church says about
Salvation in other religions. Before reaching that point, we will have
presented the view of some theologians on the matter.
Our
fourth chapter will deal with some propositions on the relationship of
Christians with ATR, particularly the Guere people and their Mask. Also, we
shall try to look at the possibility of using some elements of these peoples’
religion in our Catholic liturgy.
It
is after these four parts that we will be able to draw the conclusion which will
contain an attempted answer to the question that stimulated this investigation.
In other words, the conclusion will contain a tentative answer to the question
whether or not the Masks of the Guere people could be seen by Christians as a
means of Salvation for them.
This
is any traditional religion which originated in Africa.
Usually, followers of these religions
have “belief in a Supreme Being, the Creator and Father of all that exists;
belief in the ancestors and spirits; belief in two worlds, the visible and
invisible, their interaction, their community and hierarchical character, the
way of celebrating.”
In ATR, God is not absent from ordinary life. God is neither abstract,
indifferent nor solitary. God is a being of relationships whose actions in the
history of humanity and the universe pass through the spirits that take care of
daily life.
The
Mask that we are talking about here is not that likeness of a person’s face or
that of an animal made either in clay, wax or wood to conceal the faces of
people during a masked ball. What we are talking about here is a human person
dressed in a costume. This costume is believed to make a new being out of the
person that wears it. This new being is imbued with symbolism and ascribed spiritual powers.
According
to Nilson, Salvation is “the condition of the ultimate restoration of
fulfilment of humanity and all creation effected by God’s action in
Jesus-Christ through the Holy Spirit.”
Christian tradition says that human capability alone cannot bring about the
needed reconciliation and restoration. Only God can do so. The CCC is more categorical “Salvation comes
from God alone.”
There
are two ways of understanding Salvation in ATR. On one hand some ATR adherents
consider a saved person one who lives life in its fullness in this present
life. Salvation is concerned with people’s present life. It is something of the
present reality. Krong says:
One can describe
African religion as a this-worldly religion of salvation that promises
well-being and wholeness here and now. It is a religion that affirms life and
celebrates life in its fullness; this accounts for the lively and celebrative
mood that characterizes African worship in all its manifestations.
On the other hand, some
other adherents of ATR believe that Salvation is the fact that one lives in the
community of the Ancestors after one’s death. It means that one becomes an
Ancestor too after death.
The
Guere
or Wè also known, as Wègnon, is an ethnic group found in West Africa, precisely
in eastern Liberia and western Côte d’Ivoire, an area of rain forest. In
comparison with other African people, we can say that this group has not been
studied a lot. They live principally by agriculture and hunting. These people
uphold their ancient tribal customs against Islam and Christianity, although
recently the Christian faith has been spreading among them. “Their cosmology is
quite complicated,” says Kovach.
Having
presented the state of the problem that led us to embark on this investigation,
we tried to present what the objective of this investigation is. Now, how we
were going to tackle the problem? In other words, we presented our methodology
of work and then we gave the definitions of some terms so that the reader will
be informed on the meaning of the concepts that we are using. In the process of
giving the definitions, we presented the Guere people including where they are
found. And now we would like to tackle our next chapter, which consists of
studying a possible experience of Salvation in an African Traditional Religion:
the Guere people and their Mask.
“Whether
articulated in a great or in unsophisticated conceptual pattern, or not
articulated, our knowledge of god (…) is the form in which ideationally god
appears to each of us, less or more richly.”
A
pastoral letter of the late Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, former Archbishop
of Nairobi, concerning salvation was published as an appendix in the book written by P.N.
Wachege. This letter was a response to some Christians who criticised his
homily of Easter Sunday at the Holy Family Cathedral in the year 1993. What His
Eminence said in his homily was not reported in this book. However, in the
response to his detractors, the Cardinal did say: “If you
are asked: ‘Are you saved?’ answer in this way, ‘Yes I have been saved. Through
faith and baptism, I have received forgiveness: I am a new creature and I share
in the new life. I have the firm hope of heaven (…) see Phil 3:12-16” This answer provokes a question:
What could be the answer of the people who are not Christians? This part of the
essay will not aim at helping the followers of African Traditional Religions to
answer the question whether they are saved or not. It will rather be presenting
how some elements in the African Traditional Religion could be means of
salvation for its followers for indeed, “a study of the beliefs and practices
of the African peoples leads to the theological observation that African
traditional religion is a religion of Salvation and wholeness.” We shall be more specific by
referring to the Guere people and their Mask. In order to help us reach our
objective, a story will be told. This story will show the salvific role played
by the Mask in the life of the Guere people.
Because African
Traditional Religions are usually handed down orally from one generation to the
next, we would like to write a story that was told by an elderly person from the
village Tinhou. This story portrays
the role of the Mask in the life of the Guere people and to an extent how it is
experienced as a means of salvation for them.
Way, way
back, there was a small village called Tinhou.
This village had something particular that no other village had ever had. That
particularity is that all the living beings were living together. All kinds of
animals were living together with humans. All trees were covering the grasses
that could not bear the sunshine. A river called Kinniwen was flowing through the village and made sure that it gave
itself to the trees so that they grow to cover more grass. All animals went to
quench their thirst from Kinniwen and
so did the human beings. Children were running naked all over the village and
the human baby could breastfeed on any animal that was around, should its
mother go to fetch some water or some firewood. There was peace and harmony,
rejoicing and happiness. There was neither sound of weeping nor of crying.
Life
expectancy in Tinhou was one hundred
years and those who lived longer lived as long as a tortoise. The first chief in Tinhou named Kaїdgea Flyer Banhi lived as long as a tree and he saw his
children’s children up to the twentieth generation. All beings living in Tinhou spoke the same language, Gbôholu.
One day,
something special happened. Out of curiosity, the family of Bohodê, decided to
taste human flesh. Bohodê’s family
therefore killed a human baby and had it for supper. The family of the human
baby cried bitterly. It came as a surprise to all the villagers that one of
them disappeared. This never happened before in Tinhou.
Only
Gnonsoa and Kaija flyer Banhi knew what had happened. Of course, Bohodê and his family knew too.
Foreseeing that the same thing would happen repeatedly with other animals, Gnonsoa decided that Kaija Flyer joins Him in the place where He lived so that
He will take some actions against Tinhou
and its inhabitants.
When
Flyer joined Gnonsoa where He lived,
He decided to send a servant Gblôh Kalah
to separate the animals from the human beings. Gnonsoa then instructed Gblôh
Kalah (the Mask) saying: “Go and sing in Tinhou:
‘Pongné pâh oh, Pongné pâh oh.
Gblâduê.
Pongné pâh oh, Pongné chê pâh oh
Gblâduê.’
Any
being that hears this song and is not of the same being with my daughter Bah Gnompoh shall lose its voice and run into
the forest where it shall live for good.” The Mask was so ugly that no animal
could look at it and live. They all run to the forest except the domestic ones,
which include the Nan Lan di.
When
the living beings, especially the wild beasts and the reptiles left Tinhou, Gblôh Kalah remained to explain to those who remained in Tinhou why this happened and that from
now on, it will remain to protect them. “In addition to this”, says the Mask,
“you will be called Lôgnon. And you have the authority to kill
and eat any living being. Except that which is of your kind, you shall not kill
because “ka Gnonsoa nean, konoamon nien”
This
story teaches us four main points:
1. Kalah
(Mask) was sent to save Lôgnon from Bohodê’s future killing acts. Can we say
from this that Gnonsoa saved Lôgnon because Gnonsoa loved it above all else as Gn.1: 31 seem to imply in the
creation story.
2. Lôgnon (the being-in-the village) is
made in Gnonsoa’s (God’s) image. Is
this not what Gen 1:26a says about human beings?
3. Lôgnon has authority over all the beasts
as Gn.1: 26b also says about human beings.
4. Lôgnon should not kill its fellow Lôgnon like Ex.20: 13 asks believers not
to do.
After this story,
which portrays clearly the work of God among the Guere people through the Mask,
it is now appropriate to ask whether the Mask could be a way
divinity is present to us.
Having
accomplished its mission, Gblôh Kalah
remained in Tinhou. If we can recall
that Gblôh Kalah came from God, we
will quickly accept the fact that its presence among the Guere people could be
experienced as the presence of God. We have to bear in mind that God uses a
means that is understandable to a community to reveal God's self.
God
used Buddha to be present to the Buddhists; God used the Koran to be present to
the Muslims; why can God not use the Mask to be present to the Guere people? It
was the will of God that the Mask be known to the Guere people whose culture is
only transmitted orally. This, therefore, makes it difficult for the Mask be
known to other people. The Mask has no “dignity or beauty” to make people,
other than Guere, take notice of it as God's presence. There was nothing that
could draw people to it (see Is. 53:2-3), despite the fact that it was a
manifested presence of God. Take for example an ambassador. When representing
his/her country, the diplomat is not there in his or her own right. Whatever
he/she says will be considered said by his or her country. So his or her
presence in that country is the presence of the country that sent him or her.
Likewise with the Mask; its presence to the Guere people is the presence of
God. Moreover, why is it that the terrorists attacked the American Embassies in
some countries? It is because the embassy is
considered to be the country that it represents. If an embassy is seen as a
country present in another country, then the Mask is God's presence to the
Guere people. This may seem unconceivable, but Cantwell says: “Whether
articulated in a great or in unsophisticated conceptual pattern, or not
articulated, our knowledge of God (…) is the form in which ideationally God
appears to each of us, less or more richly.”
God
had been present to us in many different ways and most often, we have not been
able to recognise that presence because “our eyes were kept from recognising
him” (Lk.24: 16). Because God is God, we expect some extraordinary things from
God, and yet God uses means such as the Mask to be present to us. Lane reminds
us “God in the normal course of events and especially in the history of
salvation addresses the person in human condition.”
One
thing is sure; God manifests God's self in ways and times that we least expect.
For example, the disciples of Emmaus; their eyes were kept from recognising
Jesus because they did not expect him to appear in the form he did. Neither
were they expecting him at that time. Yet, that was really Jesus. Peoples’ eyes
may be kept from recognising God in the Mask as the disciples’ eyes were kept
from recognising God with them on the road to Emmaus. How can God manifest
God's self in a human-made piece of art? One may wonder. However, it will be
interesting to have in mind that the more a mean seems unrealistic to manifest
God's presence, the more likely it is to be God’s revelatory work. How many
times was Jesus accused of blasphemy because he called God his father? For the
people of his time, it was inconceivable. The Jews thought that the messiah
could not come into the world in the way Jesus Christ came; born of a human
person. Yet the truth was that Jesus was the Messiah. God always comes to us in
experiences, ways and time that we least expect. No one can expect the Almighty
God, Creator of everything to be present in Kalah.
Nonetheless, it is necessary to bear in mind that
The presence of
God in the world communicated through the religious dimension of human
experience, is neither a presence directly available only to a privileged few
nor a presence mediated simply through logical deduction to the learned.
Instead the reality of God in the world is a presence that is accessible to
all.
To date, there has never been an
unmediated revelation of God in the sense of God, speaking directly to God’s
people without any intermediary. In other words, there had never been “direct
epiphanies which manifest God in se.” If the previous statement is true,
and we know that before Jesus Christ came, God revealed God’s self to humanity
of which Guere people are part. Then God did not reveal directly God’s self to
the Guere people. God certainly used a means, which the Guere people believe to
be the Mask. Moreover, “It must be noted that
God is not absent from ordinary life. The God of the Africans is neither
abstract, indifferent nor solitary. He is a Being of relations; his acting in
the history of man and the universe passes through the spirits that take care of daily life.”
Having
tried to show that the Mask is the presence of God, we are led to the question,
could the Mask be considered a sacrament?
The
quick answer that comes to one’s mind after having gone through the previous
section, which showed the mask as the presence of God, is yes!
However, this
question needs a thorough study before giving any answer. Consequently, the
first step we are going to take here is to
know what a sacrament is.
This
question has been dealt with from different aspects. Here, we would like to
deal with it in the sense of its definition. The word sacrament is broader than
the seven different moments of liturgical celebration that we have in the
Catholic churches. Schmaus puts it clearly: “Neither in the New Testament nor
in the early Church is [the term sacrament] limited to those actions which we
call sacraments [today].”
This
word sacrament is the Latin
designation of the Greek word mysterion designated.
There was a great leap from the use of the word mysterion to that of sacramentum.
In the early Church and in the time of the New Testament era the expression
that was used to describe what we call today sacrament is mysterion. This word could express three
different things in the New Testament.
As we know a
word used many times loses its original meaning, so too, the word mysterion was used a lot especially in
the cultic milieu and it had a rather negative connotation. Tertulian being an
apologist used a new word to transliterate
the concept mysterion. He therefore talks of sacramentum, a word he picked from the Roman
culture.
As
time went on, and reflection deepened, the concept sacramentum, brought into theology by Tertulian, underwent many
changes, major and minor. Today, sacramentum,
can be defined as: “A presence that is the result of the divine communication
with human through God's word of revelation and the human response in faith to
that word.” Theologians estimate that this
divine relationship that is established by God (sacrament) must change the life
of the person, who receives it. A sacrament has three elements in itself:
1-The
ultimate meaning of human experience, which is the element in it, is perceptible
to human beings. Schmaus called it Sacramentum
Tantum.
2-The divine
saving presence is expressed through that element, which in itself is still a
sign (Res et Sacramentum).
3-The
transformation of humanity brought about by the sacrament. “This is exclusively an effect; the final reality caused by that which is
both reality and sign.” (Restantum).
After
this definition of the sacrament, can one say that the Guere Mask is a
sacrament? The answer to this question will constitute our next part.
From what
had been said, nothing can make someone who knows the role of the Mask among
the Guere say no. From the story, we learned that the Mask was sent by God,
therefore it is the visible manifestation of an invisible reality. In view of
this, the Mask is a sacrament since the sacrament is also defined as a visible
sign of an invisible presence and reality of God.
A sacrament
is sometimes seen as that which makes us experience the love, power and
presence of God. We think that Kalah
or the Mask has satisfied this condition. For example when we refer to the
story, we realise that it was out of love that God sent Gblôh Kalah to the Guere people so that they may be saved from the
future malice of Bohodê. God's
presence and power expressed through the presence and action of the Mask,
delivered the Guere people. The Mask had expressed God's love, power, and
presence through its actions and presence. Could it not, therefore, be regarded
as a sacrament?
From the
principle of sacramentality, one can say without fear that the
Mask is a sacrament. However, does it have the three elements that a sacrament
has in itself?
The Mask is
present and anyone around can touch and see it (Sacramentum Tantum). This presence expresses something more than a
human being can perceive or understand. Here we can refer to its work of
salvation (Res et Sacramentum). The
deeper element that is expressed through the presence of the Mask brings Pongné to the Guere people and, more so,
to anyone who is around when the ceremony of the “coming out” of the Mask is
being held (Res Tantum).
Can Kalah still not be considered as a
sacrament after having fulfilled all these conditions attached to the notion of
Sacrament?
Here,
we have to understand that salvation for the Guere people is double edged. On
one hand, salvation takes place in this earthly life: “The
experience of salvation [for the ATR followers] is a present reality,” and on the other hand, in the life
after death. This is expressed by the use of two different words Pongné and Léo. It may sound bizarre that for some people salvation takes
place during this present life and then in the life hereafter, but is this not
the idea of integral salvation? If we recall Nyamiti’s statement, we will
understand what salvation in this earthly life is all about. For this African
theologian, the African Traditional Religions are “centred
mainly on man’s life in this world, with the consequence that religion is
chiefly functional, or a means to
serve people to acquire earthly goods.” The acquisition of life, health,
fecundity, wealth, power and the like are Pongné.
Any one present in the village can attain this kind of salvation, Pongné, when the festival of the Mask is
taking place. This is the gaining of good luck
and success.
When
the Mask “comes out”, it makes sure that people have a better life. This means that the farms will be productive
in the year ahead. Additionally, children will be healthy and there will be
fewer deaths in the village. As was mentioned earlier, this is made possible
only by the fact that the Mask is out.
The
Guere people think that the wandering about of some bad spiritual powers
called, Ku tsun, brings forth bad
life. So because “the Mask has the function of a power which directs
the movement of spiritual powers scattered around the world [this is the Ku tsun]. It traps them in order to
prevent them from wandering about [so that Lôgnon
may have a peaceful life].” That salvation begins on earth.
If
this kind of salvation that the Guere people experience in this present life
demands passivity from them because the Mask provides it, or that God provides
it through the Mask, salvation in the life hereafter demands activities from
them.
To
live in Léo the Guere person needs to
perform some activities such as offering of Nan
Lan di, to participate fully in the ceremony; to do good works and repent
from offences that one might have committed. The ideal time to carry out all
these acts is when the Mask is out.
When
the festivities end, usually, the Mask makes an enormous libation in the public
place and people come one after the other and offering some prayers, they
collect some sludge made out of the libation, and looking into the eyes of the
Mask, each one makes some signs on the forehead. Right from this ritual, all
the family heads go to offer Nan Lan di.
The women will then cook food and bring to the public place where all the
villagers share it under the vigilance of the Mask.
Any
one who partakes in this meal and has had previously participated in the
marking of oneself with mud of the libation will join the community of the
living dead, the ancestors, if the person dies in the interval between that
moment and the next coming out of the Mask.
For
the people who can afford it, when one of their family members dies, they can
call the Mask out before the time when it was supposed to come out. Once out for the funeral ceremony,
the aim of the Mask will be to join the soul of the deceased person with the
ancestors. Kovach writes, “The Mask, the secret
language spoken during the ritual, music, dances and the offering, are the
media through which community members communicate with ancestors. The aim of
the ritual is to join the soul of the deceased with the ancestors.” In fact, “Many
African societies see masks as mediators between the living world and the
supernatural world of the dead and other entities.”
The presence of the Mask
at any funeral has a double advantage. First, the Mask is present to join the
soul of the deceased person with the ancestors and secondly it is to “dispel evil powers from the home of the deceased so that positive
energy can be directed through the Mask and the sacrificed animal from the
ancestors to the members of the family of the deceased.”
It
has been shown that the Guere people experience salvation at two different
levels, in this life and in the life hereafter. While the former is called Pongné the latter is known as Léo. In the two cases, the intervention
of the Mask is necessary for one to attain salvation.
If
Pongné consists in a qualitative
life, the Guere people are aware that “one
cannot assure the full enhancement of life by oneself. (…) This depends on the
life forces of other (…) beings, including those of the ancestors and,
ultimately, God [who is
present to them through the Mask].”
Since
after death one has the possibility of becoming either an ancestor or a
pervasive spiritual element, the Mask is needed to make the deceased person
live in Léo. That is to become an
ancestor. However, the person should have lived an exemplary life during
his/her earthly life because “‘salvation’ or religious
fulfilment for any religious community is integrally related to a comprehensive
pattern of life. Any particular religious tradition would regard someone as
‘saved’ whose life had been most fully shaped by the distinctive pattern it
fosters.”
From
examining this understanding of salvation and the role the Mask plays in it, we
would now like in our next chapter to dealt with what the Catholic Church says
about salvation in other religions? Though this chapter will include the
position of some theologians from other Churches, it will mainly deal with the
Catholic position.
Chapter Three: What
does Christianity say about Salvation in other Religions?
“Those who, through no fault
of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who
nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart (…) may achieve eternal salvation.”
Lumen Gentium 16
It
is a real challenge to examine this part as it deals with many controversial
positions. Schineller summarised them in four paradigms.
However, what is to be noticed in general, is that on one side, some
theologians such as Karl Barth and his disciples and some might say even some
Church documents, have denied the possibility of salvation in other religious
traditions, while on the other hand, some theologians and other Church
documents have accepted such a position.
Amazingly, both positions are backed up with some biblical quotations. Our task
therefore, in this part, will be to present the two different positions and
present what the Church teaches now on this issue.
Reading the New
Testament, one may have the impression that the mission of Jesus was geared
principally, if not solely, towards Israel. This was because Jesus states, “I was sent only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt.15: 24). Moreover, while sending
the twelve on mission, Jesus instructed them neither to go “among the gentiles”
nor to enter any “town of the Samaritans” (Mt.10: 5-6). Are these elements not
enough for someone to think that there is no Salvation Outside the Church?
Dupuis says of this text, (Mt. 10: 5-6), that its data has every chance of
being substantially authentic.
If, effectively, these
data are “substantially authentic”, then the theologians who think there is no
salvation for people who are outside the New Israel, the Church, might have a
point to make. However, we have to bear in mind that Catholics have always
believed in the possibility of salvation “for those who, through invincible
ignorance, do not know the fullness of the Catholic faith, and yet live fully
in light of the truth that they (…) have.”
Who are these
theologians who think there is no salvation outside the Church? And what do
they say? It would be doing injustice to this question by answering that; these
are the theologians and they say this. In fact, there is a litany of
theologians who argue that there is no salvation outside the Church.
However, we shall refer only to a few of them
and then mention their counterparts who think otherwise.
This
position maintains that Salvation is made available by God only to people who
belong to the Church and share in her faith in Jesus Christ. This position led
to the quest of “Substitutes for the Gospel” as Dupuis
will say and to the “development of the theology of ‘implicit faith’ as a way
to allow for the possibility of non-Christians to be saved in virtue of some
sort of ‘belonging’ to the Church.”
After
the Second Vatican Council, this position is still being held. For example the
Evangelical Churches through the Manila Manifesto, say that there is “no
warrant for saying that Salvation can be found outside Christ or apart from an
acceptance of his work through faith.”
Even
in the Catholic Church, some theologians still hold to this idea of no
Salvation for people who are outside the Church. For example Straelen writes:
“The Church has always taught that, in order to be saved, one must accept the
Gospel message, reject false gods, and turn toward the living God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob as he revealed himself in Jesus Christ.”
As
for Karl Barth, religion represents the human person’s demonic attempt at
self-justification,
and as such it cannot be a means of Salvation. A person is only saved by
his/her faith in Jesus Christ. This faith is professed in the Church. Barth’s
later position was developed by his disciples, one of them being Kraemer,
and applied only to religions apart from Christianity.
For
Barth and his disciples, the only valid knowledge about God is that which human
beings receive in Jesus Christ. Consequently, the gods of the “pagans” are
idols and their devotees are idolaters. The religion to which the “pagans”
belong is the work of evil and vain human attempts at self-righteousness. We
can notice here that for Barth and disciples, Salvation is not attained through
religions, but
through our faith in Jesus Christ professed in the Church.
The
Inclusivist theologians are a group of theologians who hold that the Salvation
“which
is available through their own tradition is also available within or through
other religious traditions because the truth known in this home tradition is
effectively (…) active there.”
Vatican II is the forerunner of this position. The key argument of the
Inclusivists is that the universe and the history of Salvation are centred on
Christ and not on the Church. They use this biblical passage to support their
arguments: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Tim2: 5). One of the
prominent theologians in this trend is Jacques Dupuis.
It
is not a secret that Dupuis had his book Toward
a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism investigated by the Vatican
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In his book Christianity and Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue, he
tries to cover the same ground he covered in the former book but this time in a
more accessible way to non-specialist readers. In the later book, Dupuis “studiously avoids
what he calls the ‘pluralism’ or ‘pluralistic inclusivism’ based on a ‘constitutive
Christology’.”
For Dupuis,
Grace has both a Christological and Pneumatical aspect so that even where the
action of the divine Word is not explicit, the Spirit is bringing about
Salvation. This applies not only to individuals, but to religions too.
“While Dupuis
concedes that Vatican II did not explicitly acknowledge the salvific efficacy
of other religions, he argues that in the post-conciliar period this conclusion
has become inescapable.”
And so, he proposes a “progressive and differentiated” concept of revelation,
which envisages a “mutual ‘asymmetrical’ complementarity” between religions.
It is
interesting to note that for the Inclusivists in general and Dupuis in
particular, the incarnation is central to the mystery of salvation and yet the
saving action of the Word is not circumscribed by it. Therefore, we can say
that all religions have their source in the self-manifestation of God through
the Word, Christ. From this line, we could say that even the Mask of the Guere
people would have its source in the Word, in Christ.
In addition to
the centrality of the incarnation in the mystery of salvation, we can say that
Inclusivists assert both the universality and uniqueness of Christ’s mediation
while avoiding any suggestion of absolutism.
The Theocentric view has been cultivated mainly among thinkers who want
to make a sincere theological opening to other religions so as to establish a
sound theological basis by looking at all religions as valid ways for humanity
to journey towards the ultimate common goal, God Himself.
In this trend of soteriology, there
are two other positions: The “Normative Christology”, which holds that Christ
is the best self-revelation of God and as such is the norm of authenticity for
other events of revelation of God in history. When studied well, this position
accepts other revelations from God, but holds that Christ is the best one.
The other position under
the Theocentric Christology is the “Non-Normative Christology”. It argues that
Christ is the Saviour of Christians. The “Non-Normative Christology” dilutes
the uniqueness of Christ by saying, for example, that if Jesus is the way
through which his followers, Christians, journey towards the ultimate common
goal, God Himself, it does not mean that the Guere people cannot journey
towards the same ultimate common, God through their Mask. For example, a
spotlight is used in two different instances. A theocentric theologian may say,
first, the batteries are weak and therefore, the light is not bright. In the
second instance, only new batteries are put into the same spotlight and then
the light becomes brighter. Does the same spotlight not produce these different
lights? This image is to portray that even if through Jesus we understand in
some way the mystery of God, the other means used by God to reveal God’s self
to people other than Christians, should not be rejected. For the Guere people,
the Mask could be the means that God used to be present to them. And if
salvation is the presence of divinity to people, then the Mask could be seen as
a means of salvation for the Guere peoples.
For these theologians,
it is God’s self that makes Salvation available to people in ways that please
God. We do not have to limit God’s activity to a limited group of people.
One of the most vocal
theologians of this trend is Paul Knitter. He says: “religious consciousness
(…) tells us that divine reality and truth is, by its very nature always more
than any human can grasp or any religion can express.” For him God does such great things
that the human mind cannot grasp them. Therefore, they cannot be expressed in
only one religion. He says this in other words: “The divine love and transformative
justice that have become so powerfully and persuasively present in Jesus cannot
be contained or limited by Jesus; God’s self manifestation is rather, meant for
all, available for all, operative throughout history.”
When Acts 4: 12 says, “There is
salvation in no one else”, Knitter suggests that we consider the context
in which this affirmation was made because it “warns us against using this
passage to rule all other witnesses out of court before we can present Jesus.”
The context according to Robinson
was to know in whose power Peter and John had just healed the crippled man. For
Knitter, it is neither by the power of John nor is it by that of Peter that the
crippled man was healed. It is by the power of the name Jesus-Christ and by no
other name. Moreover, this phrase “‘No other name’ as a performative, action
language, is really a positive statement in its negative couching: It tells us
that all peoples must listen to (…) Jesus; it does not tell us that no one else
should be listened to or learned from.”
What one can note from
this trend of theology is that God alone is the one at the centre of the
mystery of Salvation and not Christ, for like any other religious figure Christ
too is a means of Salvation for his followers, the Christians and not
necessarily for the whole of humanity.
After having mentioned
these different positions, the question that comes to mind is what does the
Catholic Church say about them? What is her recent teaching?
While
it is to be acknowledged that, the Church has issued many documents to teach
her children how to look on other religions and to ask whether or not these
religions have in themselves, some means of salvation, it also important to
underline that Vatican II did not sanction any particular one of the
theological theories. Neither did it give one definitive answer, on the
salvific value of world religions, nor on their relationship to the mystery of
Christ. However, we can say that the theocentric theology is not gaining much
ground.
LG 16:
Those who through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of
Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and
moved by the grace, try in their action to do his will as they know it through
the dictates of their conscience may achieve eternal salvation.
Under the chapter entitled “The
People of God”, this article defines the different groups of people who enjoy
God’s salvific power. Clearly, this article leaves no one outside God’s saving
power. From the Jewish community in which Jesus took flesh, through the Muslims
who share with Christians the same forefather Abraham, up to those who through
no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ, no one is excluded.
Could the latter group include the followers of ATR?
If for example, the
Guere people do not know the Gospel of Christ, nor do they know his Church, it
is not their own fault. God decided that God’s only Son would be born among a
given people, who probably were most in need of God’s epiphany. Notwithstanding
the fact that the Guere do not know Christ and his Gospel, they do know God,
because God wrote a law on their hearts (Cf. Rm. 2: 14-15). It is this law
written in their hearts that makes them try to do God’s will in their lives.
NA 2 “The
Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in [other] religions.
She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, which, although
different in many ways (…), nevertheless, often reflect a ray of that truth
which enlightens all men.”
This article could be saying that any thing regarded as holy in other religions
deserves respect from Christians. Basing our arguments on the definition of
what something holy is,
we would like to say that the Catholics cannot deny that the Mask is holy, this
because it came from God and has participated in God’s life.
EN 80 “God can indeed effect the
salvation of whomsoever he wishes by extraordinary means known to him alone.”
The Pope, in this statement means that the responsibility for one’s salvation
depends on God.
While
we cannot exhaust what the Catholic Church says vis-à-vis this matter, we can at least note the Vatican II is the
first of its genre to speak positively not only of non-Christian individuals,
but of non-Christian religions as such: A positive role in the salvation of
their members.
Even
though the intention of Vatican II was not always dogmatic, but pastoral as it
teaches us that there is a possibility of Salvation for all in Christ. It
teaches that other religions have positive values (Cf. AG3, LG16, NA2, AG9) and
these values are to be brought to fulfilment by the Church (Cf. LG16-17). We
Christians have to have esteem and love for our brothers and sisters of other
religions.
We would like to
conclude this part of the work with this saying of Moran: “Revelation is a
reality always present. Since it is fundamentally an interpersonal communion,
its formulation in concept and words is not primary.”
After
investigation of the different positions on Salvation in other religions and
what the current most authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church is, we
would like to deal in the next chapter with our own position. For example, how
can the Catholics look on the Mask? could the Mask be integrated into the
Catholic liturgy?
“Since
the plan of salvation embraces all people, there is basis for fraternal and
peaceful exchanges between Christians and non-Christians.”
John Paul II
In Nostra aetate, the Second Vatican Council teaches,
The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in
non-Christian religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and
conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from
her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens
all men (NA 2).
Though this statement says that the
Catholic Church does not reject what is positive in the other religions, it
does not tell us explicitly what our relation with members of those religions
should be. However, it gives us an idea about where to begin, by not rejecting
elements that are holy in those religions.
As well as this passage,
there are other passages from the same Second Vatican Council that tell us how
to relate to the other religions.
Here we can now present some proposals on how the Catholic Church could look on
Mask. In other words, what could be the attitudes of the Catholics towards the
Mask? When we have dealt with this question, we will try to see whether the
Mask could even be integrated into the Catholic liturgy.
Bishop
Anselm Sanon in his doctoral thesis tried to go from the Mask as a Master of
Initiation to give Jesus the same title, Christ the Master of Initiation.
If Sanon was able to give Christ this title, it could be because the Mask has
some positive values that could be seen as having been provided by God. If so,
we Catholics could have an attitude of respect and esteem for the Guere people
and their Mask.
Catholics
could have an attitude of respect for the Guere people and their Mask because
the Mask could be, not only for the Guere but also for us, a possibility to
experience some revelation of God and make a genuine human response in faith.
The document Dialogue and Proclamation
is clear on the matter. It says:
These traditions are to be approached with great sensitivity, on account
of the spiritual and human values enshrined in them. They command our respect
because over the centuries they have borne witness to the efforts to find
answers `to those profound mysteries of the human condition’ (NA1) and have
given expression to the religious experience and the longings of millions of
their adherents, and they continue to do so today (DP14).
For example, in the letter Pastoral Attention to African Traditional
Religion, Arinze
says: “Many [Africans who are] Christians, at critical
moments in their lives (…) tend to join sects called ‘independent Churches’
where they feel that certain elements of their culture are more respected.”
Why should we lose some of our brothers and sisters to other Churches because
they feel that we do not respect elements of their culture? We have the
possibility of doing so. So what stops us? One thing is sure, “ATR is the religious and cultural context from which most Christians in
Africa come.”
So we should try to show them the respect that they deserve.
The
Guere people and their Mask can be regarded as our interlocutors in a religious
dialogue. This dialogue is to be done in two ways. First, we dialogue with
those who have not yet embraced the Christian faith. We have to create an
atmosphere conducive to mutual understanding, respect and mutual searching for
the will of God. Secondly, we dialogue with the Guere people who, though
practicing their traditional religion want to become Christians. As well as
with those who have already embraced Christianity. This dialogue should include
an “adequate presentation of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, so that the Church will have deeper roots in [their lives so that they
will stick to Christianity and not leave it in times of crises].”
Accepting
to respect and have esteem for the Mask means that we have to recognise the
presence of God in it in some ways. In other words, we can consider the Mask to
be a “ray of that truth that illuminates all humankind” (NA 2). And so, a question comes
to mind, whether the Mask could be integrated into Catholic liturgy? This is
the question we would like to present in the following part of our
investigation.
It
is a legitimate question to ask, “What significance
[could] the (…) pagan Masks have for African Christians?” This question is relevant because
Masks have always held a prominent position in the history of some African art
and religion. So could it be integrated
in the Catholic liturgy?
Certainly
there could be some good elements that could be looked at and experimented
with. For example in building and decorating the Churches, we could adapt the
architecture of the houses where the costumes of the Mask is kept after the
ceremony. This is a special house and is different from any other house in the
village. It is round in shape and surrounded by shoots of the raphia tree
like curtains. The architecture of the church buildings could be, for example,
round in shape. Now instead of surrounding it with raffia shoots at all times
of the year, it could be so decorated only on the solemnity of Palm Sunday.
These shoots could be removed after they have sufficiently dried so as to be
used on the Ash Wednesday of the
following liturgical year.
In
the book of Baur, there is a
plate of Jesus carved on a cross. The carving was done in such a way that there
was resemblance between Jesus and a Mask.
Could we not develop this carving for the Guere people? As Pope Pius XII says,
[Art] is not in any way confined or destroyed by being made subject to
God’s law. Rather, it finds its excellence and achieves its perfection through
this subordination to God. [This is more true for the religious art], (…)
consecrated to God and to furthering His praise and glory .
“On
the stand for the Easter candle are carved a large number of people from
different times and cultures who are illuminated by the overwhelming Easter
light. The masks of the gule wamkulu
constitute significant segment of this ‘paschal congregation’.” This carving could be interpreted
as Christ illuminating the whole human race no matter what time they lived in
or in what part of the globe. Basing ourselves on the carving mentioned now, we
would like to suggest that instead of making Masks part of “a large number of people from different times and cultures”, the Easter candle stand would be
carved in Mask. This carved Mask will be holding the Easter candle. The
interpretation that could be given to this is that through the action of the
Mask in the lives of the Guere people, which in the carving is the holding of
the Light that illuminates the whole humanity, Jesus
is offering them Salvation.
Another
element of the coming out of the Mask that could be taken into consideration by
the Catholics, is the ritual of libation and benediction. Could it not be
possible, for example, that after the Eucharistic celebration of the 31
December that the
Catholic priests pour libation? When he has poured the libation, people would
come to make some signs on their foreheads, as was the case when the Mask
poured it. In this case, the cross would be there so that people look at it
while making the signs and prayers. We make this suggestion of the presence of
Jesus on the cross because it could be the act par excellence that provides Pongné
and Léo to all humanity. Here again,
the carved Jesus on the cross that we took from Baur’s book
could be used for this ceremony.
To
conclude this chapter, we would like to remember that having quoted John Paul
II: “Since the plan of salvation embraces all people, there is basis for
fraternal and peaceful exchanges between Christians and non-Christians”, we tried to
find out what elements of the Mask could be integrated into the Catholic
liturgy. However, before that enterprise, we suggested some attitudes, such as
respect, esteem and love that Christians could have for those elements. We
suggested these attitudes because according to Nostra aetate (article 2), there are some rays of that truth in
other religions which illuminate all humanity. If this is so, then the attitudes
that we could have towards those positive elements of other religions could be
respect, esteem and love. Also, we should try to integrate them into our
liturgy. That is why we tried to suggest some of the elements that would make
Christianity appealing to Guere people if they were used in the liturgy.
Having
finished our investigation of the three Chapters, we would now like to draw our
general conclusion. In it we shall attempt an answer to the question that led
us to this work, which is “could the Mask of the Guere
people be seen as a means of Salvation for them?”
“Is God the God
of Jews only? Is he not the god of gentiles also? Yes, of gentiles also.”
At
the end of this investigation, we would like to bring to mind first of all what
was said in the previous chapters before suggesting a possible answer to the
question.
In
the general introduction, we tried to present the situation, that if followers
of the ATR encounter Christians who ask them “Are you saved?” what could be
their answer? And can a Christian also see God’s salvation present at work
through the Mask?
In the process of
attempting an answer to this question, we presented in the second chapter
whether the Mask could be a way by which divinity could be present to the Guere
people. To be able to attempt an answer to this question a story was told
portraying the origin of the Mask and how it came to be part of Guere peoples’
life. According to the story, the Mask came from God. It was sent by God, (Gnonsoa) to save Lôgnon from evil, (Bohodê).
If Gnonsoa, God, was the one who sent Gblôh Kalah, the Mask, to save the Guere from evil, could we not
say that the Mask acted by the power entrusted to it by God? Because of this
power, “[The Mask] functions as the medium through which, (…), communication is
established between the world of the living and that of their ancestors,
expected to protect the community from bad influences.”
If the Mask functions as an intermediary between the people and the Ancestors
who are living with God in the same way that an ambassador is the intermediary
between his/her country and the people in the country where he/she works, then
could we not say that the Mask represents God for them and consequently it
could be seen by Christians as a probable way in which God is present to the
Guere? Here we could recall to mind the statement of Cantwell Smith, “whether
articulated in a great or in unsophisticated conceptual pattern, or not
articulated, our knowledge of God [that is revelation, which could be
interpreted as God’s presence to us] (…) is the form in which
ideationally God appears to each of us, less or more richly.”
Also in the second
chapter, we tried to show how the Mask could make the Guere people experience
Salvation. The Guere believe that in this life, the Mask procures them Pongné, and in the life after death, it
makes them belong to the community of the Ancestors.
In the third Chapter, we
tried to present the position of the Catholic Church on the issue. We first
presented the position of some theologians, which can be summarised in the
following statement of Heim:
If ‘salvation’ means the achievement of some desired religious aim, then
we can (like the pluralists) affirm that a number of paths lead to salvations:
There is an ‘any way’ sign at many forks on the religious journey. If
‘salvation’ means a religious fulfilment of some determinate nature, then we
may (like the exclusivists) affirm that it is constituted by certain features
to the exclusion of others: There is an ‘only way’ sign at many turnings. In
either case, we must (like the inclusivists) acknowledge that all these paths
link with each other, that ‘cross-traffic’ is a real possibility.
As far as the position of the
Catholic Church is concerned, we selected some articles from some Church
documents namely Lumen Gentium, Nostra
aetate and Evangelii Nuntiandi.
All the articles that we selected could be summed up in the following Church
teaching: “The Church has a deep respect for all non-Christian religions, since
‘they carry within them the echo of thousands of years of searching for God, a
quest which is incomplete but often made with great sincerity and righteousness
of heart’” (EN 53). What could be kept in mind is that God provides Salvation
to people in ways that are known to him alone (Cf. EN 80).
From presenting the
position of the Church on the issue, we tried to look at the possibility of how
we could look at the Guere and their Mask. If the Catholic Church rejects
nothing of what is holy in non-Christian religions, could this include the
possibility that she will integrate them into her liturgy? In fact, she
requests her children to respect and esteem the values of those religions other
than Christianity (Cf. NA 2).
After presenting our
possible attitudes towards the Guere people and their Mask, we tried to
investigate whether or not there could be a possibility of integrating the
positive values of the ceremony of the Mask into Catholic liturgical life. As
far as this is concerned, we made proposals at four different levels. The areas
in which we made proposals were the church buildings, the carving of
crucifixes, decoration of churches and benediction of people by libation.
Having reviewed the four
chapters, it is now appropriate to attempt an answer to the question that led
us to this work, could the Mask of the Guere people be seen by Christian as a
means of Salvation for them?
For the Guere, the Mask
could be seen as a means that God uses to act in their midst and be present to
them. So if Salvation is considered to be the restoration of fulfilment of
humanity as Nilson said,
then could we not say that the Guere experience Salvation in their Mask? The
restoration in question here, we assert, is the restoration of the “initial state” indicated by the situation
in which Adam and Eve were before the fall. God was walking and talking with
them. If restoration is being with God, and we learn from the story told above
that through the Mask God is present to the Guere people, could we not say
therefore that perhaps these people experience Salvation in the Mask? This
conclusion is based on the definition of Salvation according to Christianity.
But what could it be if based on the definition of Salvation according to ATR?
In some African
communities, Salvation is perceived as living life in its fullness. That is,
living prosperously here and now. This, for the Guere people, is Pongné and they believe it is provided
to anybody who is around when Kalah,
the Mask, comes out.
In other African
communities, Salvation is attained in life after death or more precisely when
one, after his/her death joins the community of the Ancestors. Here again when
we take the Guere people, the possibility for one to belong to the Ancestral
community, is facilitated by the Mask.
From the three different
understandings of Salvation, the Mask plays a role for a Guere to experience
Salvation. However, what is to be borne in mind is that the Mask was sent by
God to save the Guere from the evil, (Bohodê). But as Christians, especially Catholics, we
know that God the Father never acts without God the Son in the Spirit. This
means that if God acted in the lives of the Guere people, God could not do so
without Jesus-Christ through whom all things are made possible. So what we
would like to say is that if the Guere people probably experience Salvation in
their Mask, it is because God gave them the opportunity to experience such a
thing. And God always works through the Son in the Spirit, so the Salvation
experience of the Guere is through the Son as long as they receive it from God.
God never acts without the Son in the Spirit.
As William Most said,
and we would like to conclude our investigation with this sentence, “St. Paul in Rom 3: 29 asks: ‘Is He the God of the Jews only? No, He is
also the God of Gentiles.’ It means that if God made Salvation depend on
knowing and following the Law of Moses, He would act as if He cares for no one
but Jews. But God does care for all.” And
because God cares for all, God put at the disposal of all some means of Salvation
that have meaning only through the Son Jesus-Christ, who is the Universal
Saviour and all other possible means of Salvation in other religions only have
meaning through Him. He is the Saviour of the whole humanity.
Map
2: Showing the location of the Guere in Cote d’Ivoire
Map
3: A map showing the location of Tinhou village in the Canton Boo.
Acts. Acts of the Apostles
AG. Ad Gentes (7th Dec. 1965)
ATR. African
Traditional Religion
CCC. Catechism of the Catholic Church
Cf. Confer
Col. The Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians
DP. Dialogue and Proclamation (21st
Jun. 1991)
ed. Editor/Editors
EN. Evangelii Nuntiandi (8th Dec.
1975)
Ex. The Book of Exodus
Gn./Gen. The Book of Genesis
ID. Interreligious Dialogue
Is. The Book of Prophet Isaiah
LG Lumen Gentium (21st Nov.
1964)
Lk. The Holy Gospel According to Luke
MCCJ. The
Comboni Missionaries
Mt./Mat. The Holy Gospel According to Matthew
NA. Nostra Aetate (28th Oct.
1965)
Nd. No
date available
Pg. Page/Pages
PG. Patrologia Greaca
Phil. The Letter of Saint Paul to
the Philippians
Rm./Rom The Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans
RSV. Revised Standard Version of the Bible
SMA. Society
of African Missions
WWW. World
Wide Web
Knitter,
P.F., Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility,
New York 1996.
Sometimes these theologians
are called Exclusivists, because they “regard their own tradition as sole
possession of religious truth and therefore as the sole path of
salvation.” S. M. Heim, Salvations Truth and Differences in Religion,
P117.
