The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa (Eerdmans Ekklesia) [Paperback]

Emmanuel Katongole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2010 | Series: Eerdmans Ekklesia

Emmauel Katongole is a Catholic priest from Uganda, born in 1960, who lived through the reign of Idi Amin and has seen the postcolonial struggles of his home country and its sub-Saharan neighbors — Rwanda, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and others — up close and personal.

Looking at this region, ravaged by war, corruption, terror, genocide, and disease, Katongole wonders at length what difference Christianity makes — or could make — in numerous African nation-states. The Sacrifice of Africa argues that in the face of Africa’s social, political, and economic turmoil, a new future truly is possible, and displays how such a new future, inspired by Christian faith, looks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (December 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802862683
• ISBN-13: 978-0802862686
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What drives Katongole, a Duke University theologian born in Uganda, is the quest to know what difference Christianity makes--or can make--in Africa. He argues that conversation on Christian social ethics in Africa is long overdue and must shift "exclusive focus on strategies for fixing the structures of democracy and development and get into the business of stories." This book tells stories, stories of political and religious leaders who share qualities: nonconformist stubbornness, touches of madness, and willingness to jettison old formulas. The author, an ordained Catholic priest, tells gripping stories of people across Africa, such as Maggy Barankitse. Raised amid ethnic hatred in Burundi, she now takes in former child soldiers and orphans and ignores ethnicity in order to raise children "beyond this hatred and bitterness that I came to see in their eyes." The story of senseless killing must be replaced by a new kind of sacrifice--one of self-emptying, as Jesus Christ emptied himself in service to others, and by determination that forgiveness and love will have the last word, not violence and ethnic hatred. (Nov.)
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Review

“Drawn from the wells of Emmanuel Katongole’s faith and faith on the ground, The Sacrifice of Africa is a work of singular importance and power. Its insights and implications are prophetic and compelling. One of the most visionary theologians of our day, Katongole helps the whole church see itself in a new way. This is the theology we need — and indeed must have.”
— Mark R. Gornik
City Seminary of New York

“The colonized countries of Africa gained independence only to fall into crisis and instability. Sometimes churches are the only viable, if inadequate, social institutions left to shoulder the burden of society. Yet the nation-state as the successor of the colonial state has stood in the way of the development aspirations of Africans. Katongole confronts this issue in a direct way. His reflections call on the churches to commit to action to change the situation and give people hope in a future that has looked increasingly bleak. The demands of the moment require the sacrifice of the churches on behalf of Africa’s long-suffering peoples. This book is a valuable installment in that cause.”
— Lamin Sanneh
Yale University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (December 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802862683
• ISBN-13: 978-0802862686
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Emmanuel M. Katongole is associate research professor of theology and world Christianity in the Divinity School at Duke University and the co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation. He is a Catholic priest of the Kampala Archdiocese, Uganda.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Guided By the Life of Resurrection May 13, 2011

By C. Christopher Smith

Format:Paperback

[ This Review originally appeared in
THE ENGLEWOOD REVIEW OF BOOKS - 22 April 2011 ]

One of my most memorable experiences of the last year was the opportunity I had to spend a week at the Summer Institute at Duke Divinity School, hosted by the Center for Reconciliation there. Some of my best memories from that week involve hearing stories of unfathomable faith and courage told by church leaders from the Great Lakes region of central Africa. Emmanuel Katongole, professor of theology and world Christianity at Duke and Roman Catholic priest of the Kampala archdiocese in Uganda, was one of these African leaders, whose lecture was one of the highlights of the Institute.

I had been familiar with Katongole's work for a couple years, particularly his narration of the genocide in Rwanda, Mirror to the Church, which I reviewed here in 2009. I was therefore delighted to see that he recently published a new theological reflection on the African context, The Sacrifice of Africa, in which he probes the meaning of recent African stories of Christian faithfulness. I can see that this book might easily be overlooked by readers who are unfamiliar or unconcerned with African Christianity. However, to overlook this extraordinary book would be a grave error. Following in the footsteps of his Duke Divinity School colleagues J. Kameron Carter (author of Race: A Theological Account) and Willie James Jennings (author of The Christian Imagination), Katongole's work here serves to spur the church to imagine what faithfulness to the Gospel will look like in a post-Western world. Katongole's work is therefore of great significance because it reflects on the meaning of those who - in the poignant words of J.... Kameron Carter - "have imagined and performed a way of being in the world beyond the pseudotheological containment of whiteness" (Race 378).

Drawing upon Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, Katongole superbly identifies and critiques the past sins of African Christianity:

1) Colonial Impact, Social Memory and Forgetfulness.
2) The Lies of Noble Ideals
3) The Politics of Greed and Plunder
4) The Wanton Sacrificing of Africa
5) The Visible, Invisibility of Christianity
(10-19)

The Sacrifice of Africa offers a whirlwind tour of stories and thinkers who help us understand the ways in which the African Christian social imagination was warped by colonialism and modernity, and concludes with the stories of three amazing African Christians - Bishop Paride Taban of Sudan, Angelina Atyam of northern Uganda and Maggie Barankitse of Burundi - whose work offers hope of a revitalized, more faithful social imagination, not simply an ethereal imagination, but an imagination that engages in the struggles of these places and begins to be realized. Katongole concludes the book with the observation that these stories offer us hope that churches can be more than merely religious communities, that they can become "a form of Christian social praxis that involves reordering geography, history, economics, politics, time, communities , relationships - in short, everything" (194-195).

In this Easter season, when we celebrate the new creation initiated in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, works like Emmanuel Katongole's The Sacrifice of Africa, give us hope that the Christian social imaginations of churches in our own places can be guided by the life of resurrection, even when the culture to which we have been so deeply embedded collapses around us. Our only hope lies in this resurrection, and we thank God for faith the faith and courage of our African brothers and sisters who are leading the way! Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read about the African reality January 1, 2013

By Noele J. Coooper

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Since 1964 I've been especially interested in the African experience, met African friends, and for some years traveled to Africa learning more about the various cultures (Burundi, Sierra Leone, South Africa). "The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology of Africa" is an informative and challenging addition to my research. It's a book I'll keep returning to and discussing with Africans.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Witnesses of Hope June 14, 2011

By Christopher Heuertz

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Father Emmanuel Katongole's newest book, 'The Sacrifice of Africa' may be his very best work to date.

His political, social and religious analysis is insightful and provocative.

His life experience and connection to the continent of Africa grounds the text, offering solid credibility.

The stories of pain and suffering, illuminate real-life activists for justice and peace, and bring the whole book alive with human passion.

More than anything, Katongole's brilliant nuances of weaving together classic and contemporary literature with thick theological and political content makes this book extremely readable.

'The Sacrifice of Africa' will dismantle many of your assumptions on the perceived hopelessness, powerlessness and chronic social problems of Africa by re-narrating a continent's struggle for an awakened and realized humanity that leads through its own witnesses of hope.