Anthropological Poverty

9/29/06
Anthropological Poverty

If you go into the stores here in Uganda, you can find creams that make a persons skin lighter so they will look less black and more closer to white. If someone eats well in the rural areas, they might say that I ate like a mzungu. It disgusts me. I have realized more and more why the work being done here on inculturation is so important. It is not a matter of making things African for the sake of aesthetics or appeasing culture. Rather, there is a real poverty here besides the one concerning finances. There is an anthropological poverty! People here often associate anything that is good with mzungus. People adopt the fashion of the west. Teens tell me they want to find an American girl cause they are the only ones who can understand them. Even when such talk might be in jest, it is sickening. People have been brainwashed and conditioned to think that anything from their culture is bad or outmoded. Inculturation is not just a manner of making things accessible to people, but it is an empowerment. It is a way of saying that your culture, your wisdom, your means of healing are all wonderful. It is a means of saying that you have human dignity for who you are! Inculturation must be a part of liberation. Liberation must be a part of the church. If inculturation is to truly happen it must take into account the gospel, the culture and the context of the people. What happens when this context, however, is abdject poverty and suffering. The church must also be there! It cannot ignore the suffering, but that must be its point of departure, its starting point.
That’s enough of a tirade for now.
mike