African theology has become a common commodity for discussion in the past five years or so. Increasingly, one get requests to write an article on African theology; and one meets people who jump up with the request, "Oh, tell me something about African theology," or the question, "What is African theology?" for which they expect a three-minute definitive answer. There are also people who do not feel comfortable when the term "African theology" is used. At the other end of the scale are people who get highly excited about the African theology, as though it promised to bring the Kingdom of Heaven finally to this earth.

There is clearly a wide spectrum of popular expectations about African theology. But a lot of them seem to be very shallow, and founded :on wrong or naive assumptions.