“Our dream is to make Africa a better place”: An interview with André Karamaga

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

The church remains “one of the foundations of hope” in Africa, but it must never lose sight of its prophetic and reconstructive role in societies undergoing rapid change, says the newly elected general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches.

Speaking before members of the Church World Service-convened Africa Forum on Monday, April 20, at CWS offices in New York City, the Rev. Dr. André Karamaga said while it is true that the church, as a human institution, has its inevitable failings, it can still act as an agent of change and reconciliation. He noted that in recent months African church leaders had been called to help lower tensions between Rwanda and neighboring Congo, an effort he said had succeeded.

NEW YORK — The church remains “one of the foundations of hope” in Africa, but it must never lose sight of its prophetic and reconstructive role in societies undergoing rapid change, says the newly elected general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches.

“The fact that church leaders went and spoke with one voice was extremely helpful,” said the 60-year-old Rwanda Presbyterian cleric. “If the church happens to come together and speaks with one voice, there is hope and the situation can change.”

Karamaga, who assumed the AACC position in December 2008 at the organization’s ninth general assembly in Maputo, Mozambique, said the established churches of the ecumenical movement must continue to reach out to Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, as well as to those of other faiths, as part of efforts to increase security and peace for all peoples of Africa.

As part of its social and economic development work, CWS engaged in a multi-year Africa Initiative, in which AACC is a key partner. In 2006 the All Africa Conference of Churches collaborated with CWS in a Washington issue-focused Africa Summit attended by delegates from 23 African countries and Africa-vested stakeholders in the U.S.

The Africa Forum, which is organized by CWS, includes representatives of CWS-member denominations and other CWS-affiliated groups that work in Africa. It meets on issues of concern to Africa. Karamaga spoke to this week’s forum participants on the continued need for a nuanced view of Africa. “I’m not underestimating the challenges,” he said. But, he stressed, a longer view is needed. For example, Karamaga heralded the relatively rapid process, over some 50 years, of African political independence.

“If you see it that way, Africa can point to many successes,” said Karamaga, who came to the AACC from the World Council of Churches where he was executive secretary for the Africa Region.

Influenced by the currents of liberation theology in the 1970s and 1980s and, more recently, of reconstructive theology in the 1990s, Karamaga would like more African churches to embrace a clearer commitment to social change, to better the lives of Africans in enduring ways.

Karamaga also challenged churches and other African institutions to do a better job of communicating what they do and what their accomplishments are. He said the Western media need to do a better of reporting about Africa. But at the same time, the “communication mechanisms (of African institutions) need to improve.”

Karamaga also earlier served as president of the Conseil Protestant du Rwanda (CPR), vice president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC). In addition to meeting with CWS and members denominations while in the United States, Karamaga held meetings with Africans in Diaspora and African American church leaders in Philadelphia.

In an interview with CWS staff, Karamaga touched on a number of other concerns:

Africa’s youth- and brain-drain: Karamaga said the dynamic of global migration is “not an African phenomena, but a human phenomena” and can never be fully stopped, as people will always want to live in locales of security and peace. “Our dream is to make Africa a better place,” he said, “so that Africans can live in a dignified way.”

On the issue of wars in Africa: Karamaga said while conflicts, such as those in Congo and Darfur, Sudan, are an undeniable part of Africa’s contemporary situations, he does not believe enough focus has been placed on “who benefits from our wars” – particularly the small arms industry of large industrialized countries like the United States.

He said the influence of arms dealer networks in Africa need to be opposed by strengthened networks of “people caring for life.” This is a key place for alliances between African and U.S. churches, he said. “This is not something we can do alone; it is one area where we have to work with overseas partners.”

On his own theological influences: Being a Presbyterian, Karamaga said he believes there are strong links between liberation theology’s stress on social action and the Reformed tradition’s emphasis on ” the process of direction” and “seize opportunities to do good.” The Bible, he said, is a work that “highlights our dignity, the dignity of the human person. People have a responsibility to transform their situation, take a stand.”

On being a Rwandan: The 1994 Rwanda genocide is still a huge milestone of reflection, grief and remembrance for Karamaga. Though living and working in Kenya at the time as the AACC’s program executive in charge of theology, Karamaga lost family in the genocide. The experience still prompts Karamaga to ask questions about the role of a church in a world where human beings have to contend with “our double nature” and with questions of “how far human beings can go.”

“What is the church (in the context of a genocide)?” Karamaga asked. “You could say, it’s a minority of witnesses who are willing to die for their beliefs or who tried to protect others against the forces of death.” He added that the experience of Rwanda since the genocide does reveal the “tremendous power of forgiveness…. People are starting to live together again.” And that, Karamaga said, has something to do with the church — whatever its failings during the genocide – to “being a space where people come for healing.”

Still, Karamaga said the experience of Rwanda comes with a warning. “The genocide developed out of a racist ideology, and one should have had the courage to say, ‘We’re headed for a catastrophe,’ ” he said. The intervening role of the churches during the 2008 political crisis in Kenya was one hopeful sign that the lessons of the Rwanda genocide are being heeded in Africa, he said.

“The work of the church in Kenya,” Karamaga said, including foundational “civic education” efforts prior to the election crisis, “proved enormously helpful in averting a more serious crisis.”

Founded in 1963, the AACC is the largest pan-African ecumenical grouping on the continent. It brings together 173 churches, councils of churches and Christian organizations from 40 African countries.