Page 171 - A People Called Afrika

Afrika’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems

of divination. Whilst divination is intended to cure life’s ill-
ness and restore wholeness, its performance enacts the
wholenes of life and gives visible expression to how life is
when lived in its fullness. For example, participants in the
ceremony of divination sit in a circle singing and clapping.

Many other creations and rituals are circular. For example,
men and women in a rural village sit in a circle, drinking home
brewed beer out of circular utensils, and circulate the uten-
sils among themselves. Abakhwetha (initiates at the circumci-
sion school), during their period of separation, live in round
shaped structures (ibhuma) which symbolise their birth into
new life through their passage from boyhood to manhood.
And so, a circle symbolises birth into new life, complete-
ness which is associated with the Creator. The circle is
also a symbol of inclusion and interconnectedness with
all creation. When people meet in a circle, everyone occu-
pies a front-seat. In a circle everything is interconnected.

However, it is hugely regrettable that most churches in Af-
rika reflect a feudal, hierarchical and European architecture,
with oblong buildings, long aisles, sanctuaries set apart from
the place “ordinary” worshipers. However, if missionary
Christianity had, from the onset, taken traditional African
spirituality and its symbols seriously, a dome-shaped struc-
ture for a place of worship would not only be more familiar,
but would also give expression to the idea of new life, new
possibility, which is what resurrection is about. The building
itself would represent a story of hope, the story of the resur-
rection. It would also represent the completeness of God’s
creation as well as an act of praise for what God has done
in creating. Round altars and pulpits with people seated

146