No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Ecclesiastical Cartography and the Problem of Africa1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2014
Extract
There is a natural assumption that maps offer objective depictions of the world. The message of this book is that they do not, and that the innumerable ways in which they do not, serve to place maps as central and significant products of their parent cultures.
For [post-Columbus] cartographers, maps became ephemera, repeatedly redrawn to new information. The sea monsters and ornamental flourishes disappeared to make way for new landmasses of increasingly accurate shape.
Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed onto us by those who from the very beginning were eye-witnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.
Among the better-known medieval maps is the Hereford Mappa Mundi, ca. 1300, a striking example of historical and theological projection onto an image of the physical world. The map provides an abundance of European and Mediterranean detail, and is congested with familiar towns and cities from Edinburgh and Oxford to Rome and Antioch. It is onto this familiar terrain that all the significant historical and theological events are projected—the fall of man, the crucifixion, and the apocalypse. As for the rest of the world, the greater part of Africa and Asia blurs into margins featuring elaborately grotesque illustrations of prevailing myths and savage demonic forces.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © African Studies Association 2005
Footnotes
1An earlier abbreviated version of this paper appeared in Missiology 27(1999), 71–83, under the title “The Dictionary of African Christian Biography: A Proposal for Revising Ecclesiastical Maps.” The dictionary's URL is: www.dacb.org.
References
2 Whitfield, Peter, The Image of the World: 20 Centuries of World Maps (San Francisco, 1994), viiiGoogle Scholar.
3 Landes, David S., The Wealth and the Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some are so Poor (New York, 1998), 99Google Scholar.
4 Luke 1:1-3 (NRSV).
5 Whitfield, , Image of the World, 20–21Google Scholar.
6 Ibid., 26
7 Ibid.
8 Sanneh, Lamin, Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West (Grand Rapids, 2003), 16Google Scholar.
9 Johnstone, Patrick and Mandryk, Jason with Johnstone, Robyn, Operation World: 21st Century Edition (Carlisle, 2001), 20–21Google Scholar. According to Operation World figures, Muslims constituted 41.32 percent of Africa's population in 2001. Annual growth rates for Christians and Muslims in Africa are estimated to be 2.83 percent and 2.53 percent respectively. See also “Profiles of the 270 largest of the 10,000 distinct religions worldwide” in The World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Survey of Church and Religions in the Modern World, ed. Barrett, David B., Kurian, George T., and Johnson, Todd M. (2d ed.: 2 vols.: New York, 2001), 2:3–12Google Scholar.
10 Froehle, Bryan T. and Gautier, Mary L., Global Catholicism: Portrait of a World Church (Maryknoll, NY, 2003), 5Google Scholar.
11 Balmer, Randall, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism (Louisville, 2002), viiGoogle Scholar.
12 Larsen, Timothy, editor, with consulting editors Bebbington, D. W. and Noll, Mark A., and organizing editor Carter, Steve, Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals (Leicester, 2003)Google Scholar.
13 Ibid., 1.
14 Barrett, David B. and Johnson, Todd M., “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 2003,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 27(2003), 25Google Scholar; Isichei, Elizabeth A., History of Christianity in Africa (Grand Rapids, 1995), 98–99Google Scholar.
15 Walls, Andrew F, “Structural Problems in Mission Studies.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 15(1991), 147CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 Ibid., 150.
17 One example is Christian History 22/3(September 2003)Google ScholarPubMed. The subtitle of this issue is “The African Apostles: The Untold Stories of the Black Evangelists Who Converted Their Continent.” Information on the journal is available online at: www.christianhistory.net.
18 Walls, , “Structural Problems,” 151Google Scholar.
19 Even a figure as significant as William Wadé Harris, hailed in 1926 as “Africa's most successful evangelist” in consequence of his astounding impact on establishing the Christian faith among the peoples of the Ivory Coast “left no writings except half-a-dozen short dictated messages.” See Shank, David A., “The Legacy of William Wadé Harris,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 10(1986), 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 The consultation was underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Research Enablement Program.
21 Bauer, John, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa (Nairobi, 1994), 17Google Scholar.
22 As J. F. Ade Ajayi observed in a personal letter dated 9 April 1998, the issue of just who is and who is not a “Christian” is not always so clear cut in Africa as it is in some parts of the world. He mentioned as an example a well-educated woman, a devout Christian, “who moved from the Christ Apostolic Church to Jehovah Witness without necessarily realizing that she had thereby lost her initial focus on Christ.” It seems better to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion, allowing end users to exercise their own judgment regarding the appropriateness or inappropriateness of subjects.
23 A. F. Walls identifies six persisting continuities within the varied emphases characteristic of Christianity across time: worship of the God of Israel; the ultimate significance of Jesus of Nazareth; the activity of God where Christians are; Christian membership in a community which transcends time and space; use of a common body of Scriptures; and the special uses of bread, wine, and water. In instances where a subject's ecclesiastical orthodoxy might be doubtful, these criteria will be employed. See Walls, Andrew F., “Conversion and Christian Continuity,” Mission Focus 18/2(1990), 17–21Google Scholar.
24 Since professional translation costs are prohibitive, the rendering of all biographical entries into the five stipulated languages must be voluntary, perhaps undertaken by religious studies or history departments.
25 These simple guidelines have gradually evolved into An Instructional Manual for Researchers and Writers (New Haven, 2004), a 64-pageGoogle Scholar booklet that elaborates the essential techniques of oral history as well as providing examples of a range of stories already appearing in the dictionary.
26 While there are no major problems in academia with research into oral tradition, a number of standard, commonsense guidelines need to be observed: oral data need to be collected openly in an open forum where it can be challenged or augmented; what it told to the researcher must be told and repeated to others in the same area for cross-checking; oral traditions may provide a variety of points-of-view on the subject; oral tradition will be used to augment written sources, and vice-versa. One of the advantages of an electronic database over a published volume is the possibility of including a field for unsubstantiated complementary (or even contradictory) anecdotes relating to the subject. Such anecdotal information provides texture and depth of insight into the subject, or at least into peoples' perceptions of the subject.
27 Brockman, Norbert C., An African Biographical Dictionary (Santa Barbara, 1994)Google Scholar.
28 Failure to secure a grant in the early stages of the enterprise was fortuitous, although it meant that the project has necessarily evolved more slowly than originally envisioned. Instead of being whisked to its destination in a Mercedes-Benz, the Dictionary has trudged its way slowly but steadily on foot. Walking requires more effort than being a passenger, to be sure, but the three-mile-an-hour pace is more conducive to contact with fellow pedestrians, and the requisite exercise ensures that it will be better shape when it gets to where it is going. And because the dictionary is not money-driven but idea-driven, it truly belongs to Africa and Africans. Its stories are the result of African ingenuity and enterprise, rather than a questionable by product of foreign funds.
29 The DACB initially explored setting up an Arabic-language coordination office in conjunction with the Global Institute South at Uganda Christian University, but now anticipates locating the facility in Khartoum, the heart of Christian Arabic-speaking Africa.
30 Lynch, Patrick J., “Publishing on the World Wide Web: Organization and Design,” Sylhbus 6/9(1995), 9Google Scholar.
31 Rothenberg, Jeff, “Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Documents,” Scientific American 272/1(1995), 42Google Scholar. According to the National Media Lab (www.nml.org), “CD-ROMs have a certified lifetime of 10 years … [while] magnetic tape is good for 5 to 20 years, conventional CDs up to 50 years, and archival microfilm for 200 years. The longevity champ … [is] acid-free paper … [which] should last for 500 years.” Furthermore, “[p]rint … avoids what University of Michigan data expert John Gray calls “‘the problem of unstable technology’—the likelihood that media will outlive the devices that can read them.” See Wildstrom, Stephen H., “Bulletin Board: Data Life Span,” Business Week (17 June 1996), 22Google Scholar.
32 Rothenberg, , “Ensuring the Longevity,” 45Google Scholar. Stuart Lipoff's response to a query (appearing in the 13 November 2003 issue of on-line edition of Scientific American) regarding the life expectancy of a CD-ROM is pertinent here: http://www/sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?
33 Assistance is sometimes provided by groups with a special interest in certain segments of the African church. For example, the Church Missions Publishing Company (Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut) provided a modest one-time grant to cover the cost of making available to all ANITEPAM-related institutions a copy of the CD-ROM version of the DACB, together with a copy of the DACB Procedural Manual referred to above.
34 Some of the stories that have been submitted are entirely inadequate. In November of 2003, for example, of some 50 stories received from Nigeria, only five or six were usable. The rest had to be returned for further work. Such experience has resulted in a more robustly directive procedural manual that anticipates the inadequacies in scholarship and documentation that are to be expected from researchers who frequently lack even the most meager formal training in research and writing.
35 See Akst, Daniel and Jensen, Mike, “Africa Goes Online,” Carnegie Reporter 1/2(Spring 2001), 3–9. [http://www.Carnegie.org/reporter/02/Africa/index_low.html]Google Scholar. World Press Review (February 2004), 22–25Google Scholar, carried three reports on the U.N. World Summit on the Information society convened in December 2003, “aimed at democratizing the digital world.” 174 countries pledged universal internet access by 2015, but the challenges associated with financing the technology and ensuring the free flow of information are daunting. See also Robins, Milinda B. and Hilliard, Robert L., eds., Beyond Boundaries: Cyberspace in Africa (Portsmouth, 2002)Google Scholar. For the “first and most comprehensive assessment of the networked readiness of countries,” see The Global Information Technology Report, 2002-2003: Readiness for the Networked World, ed. Dutta, Soumitra, Lanvin, Bruno, and Paua, Fiona (New York, 2003)Google Scholar. The report is published by the World Economic Forum where it is a special project within the framework of the Global Competitiveness Programme. The GITR is the result of collaboration between the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, France. It can be viewed online at: [www.oup-usa.org/reports]. Chapter 6 (by Mike Jensen, pp. 86-100) is entitled “ICT in Africa: A Status Report.”
36 Smalley, Martha Lund and Seton, Rosemary, comps, Rescuing the Memory of our Peoples: Archives Manual (New Haven, 2003)Google Scholar. Copies of the manual, in English or French, are available for $10.00 U.S. from OMSC, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06J11.
37 Schumacher, E. F., A Guide for the Perplexed (New York, 1977), 1Google Scholar.