Das Titelbild („Der Baum“) wurde auf einem ... - Afrikanet.info

5 Die Praxis der théologie sous l’arbre am
Beispiel von Jean-Marc Elas Analyse und Kritik
des „kulturellen Romantizismus“
I have discovered the real problems of Africa living for fourteen years in an African
village, with the farmers, with men and women who every day had to face the problems
of the lack of daily food, of the lack of health care, of injustice and oppression.
During that time of my life I also had the great fortune of living with one of the first
Cameroonian priests, known as „Baba Simon“. He was for me like a spiritual father,
and he opened my eyes on the real life of the rural people.
The sufferings of the African rural people have become worse in the last 30 years, the
first 30 years of African „independence“. We have seen that everything done in these
years for the development of Africa has miserably failed. Africa is now poorer than in
1960. All the models of development imposed on us by the „experts“ have collapsed.
There are precise reasons and responsibilities for this situation. In the first instance
one has to point the finger to the politicians. 1 In the majority of the regimes which took
power after independence the main objective was the accumulation of wealth by those
who had taken any part of the political power. The desperate situation in which we live
is the result of the actions of these people who have usurped power. They have used
naked force, making violence an instrument of government. In that way they used the
riches of their own countries at their will, without any kind of control on their actions.
It must be said also that these regimes have been supported by the international powers.
We have seen totally corrupted governments survive only because of the „international
cooperation“. This made the situation more serious.
What is even more crucial is that now Africa is strangled by organizations like the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The real power in Africa belongs to
these two international institutions. The great majority of the African governments
have in their financial and economic ministries some experts appointed by the IMF and
the World Bank. We see a coming back of a form of colonization. Our countries are
tutored, the real decisions affecting us are taken by the great economic powers.
Our poverty is not due to laziness. We are not afraid of work. Our poverty is imposed
to our men, women, youth: they are victims of the international structures of power,
and bring as a consequence misery and hunger. We experience this daily.
1
Dazu, was es in Afrika bedeuten kann, mit dem Zeigefinger auf einen anderen Menschen zu zeigen, vgl.
GABRIEL MOLEHE SETILOANE, Heil und Welt aus der Perspektive afrikanischer Theologie, in: DERS., Der
Gott meiner Väter und mein Gott. Afrikanische Theologie im Kontext der Apartheid, Wuppertal (Hammer),
1988, 97-109, insbes. S. 97ff. Er beschreibt diese (rituelle) Geste als eine Art „Waffe“ in den
Händen von Menschen, denen Unrecht widerfahren ist. Sie wird verstanden als ein „böser Wunsch“
oder eine Art „Verfluchung“, die nicht ohne Wirkungen auf die Unrechttäter bleibt.