Lausanne World Pulse – Urban Articles – Niamey—What Is Its Context for Christian Service? Part Two

By Martine Audeoud
October / November 2009

The purpose of this two-part article is to study the various elements that influenced the context for Christian service in Niger and more specifically in Niamey, its capital city. In part one, we looked at the historical context—namely, the origin of the dichotomy of the presence of Muslims and Christians in this part of West Africa. Here, we discover some of the characteristics specific to the worldviews prevalent in Niger, and more specifically, in Niamey. We also examine the different elements that can affect Christian service in Niamey.

Worldviews
A superimposition of various worldviews is prevalent in Niger, due to both past and present influences. These worldviews greatly affect the context in which church leaders operate. In order to better understand these worldviews, we will look at their characteristic stories, at their fundamental symbols, at their associated habitual behaviors, and at how they answer the deepest questions of life.

The Traditional African Context
Historically, African people and tribes were fairly self-sufficient and lived in isolation from each other. Each people group’s history and values were passed from one generation to the next through the stories of their elders. The village played, and continues to play, a role similar to that of the family unit in the Western world. Extended family members and the village community are strongly bound to each other and will generally support each other in times of need. Finally, African villages are marked by extraordinary hospitality, regardless of their visitors’ home countries or regions.

The two largest people groups in Niamey, the Yoruba and the Zarma, each have their traditional stories of a great ancient past, telling of battles between groups under control of the Malian empire. The cola nut was their symbol of both commercial and covenantal transactions. The size of a man’s herd of cattle indicated his wealth. Time was non-essential. The position of the sun or the length of a shadow told the time of day. People observed nature very closely and could thus tell when it was time to take the cattle for a month or more to find water and grazing land.

Social rituals varied from tribe to tribe, but some of their values remained constant, such as utmost respect for elders or a chief who may also be the spiritual leader of the community. People lived with the continual awareness of omnipresent spirits, with no dichotomy between the material and the spiritual worlds. The physical and spiritual aspects of their lives were completely integrated, and nature was a dynamic part of their spiritual world. Their lives were in the hands of their gods (i.e., the forces of nature that controlled their lives). Nowadays, this is still very much the case, especially in Nigérien villages, where spiritual life is inseparable from physical and emotional life.

Something else to note is that children are seen as one’s only security for the future. Therefore, families tend to have many children, which leads to other challenges when these families move to the city. The typical African framework of thought is geared toward the present, the challenge of daily survival, leaving little room for planning for the future.

The Islamic Context
Coming from the north of Africa in the eleventh century, first to the rich Sahelan traders, and later to the poorer sections of the population, Islam offers the security of a strong, tight community and a life governed by rituals. The main stories passed on from generation to generation are those of Mohamed’s life and struggles, and of some of the major prophets mentioned in the Qu’ran.

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Martine Audeoud has served for over twenty-five years in Africa and Haiti. She has helped coordinate urban consultations in Abidjan and Haiti and is presently in Niamey (Niger) with her family. Beside her regular teaching job at an American school, she teaches and serves as an administrative consultant at the École Supérieure Privée de Théologie in Niamey. Her vision is to empower francophone African church leaders with contextualized tools that will empower them to respond effectively and creatively to the challenges of the twenty-first century urban francophone African context.