Without Exceptions: Envisioning Ubuntu Churches Confronting Abuse in Africa

Abstract

Abuse is an ever-present and growing reality on the continent of Africa, even within the church.  The Church should be a place of healing and belonging.  So the Church must actively protect the vulnerable and relieve them of the shame and burdens placed on them by abuse.  The Church must also hold abusers accountable and call them to repentance. When interpreted biblically and theologically, the traditional values of African people reflected in the philosophy of ubuntu can empower the Church to accomplish this task.  Ubuntu, when practiced without exceptions, can enhance and deepen the Church’s theology and praxis so that she responds well to abuse in her midst.  Bias plays a significant role in the global failure to adequately address abuse; thus ubuntu’s insistence on recognizing the humanity of others offers a significant African contribution to the global efforts to eliminate abuse.