'If you are a devil, you are a witch and, if you are a witch, you are a devil.' the integration of ‘pagan' ideas into the conceptual universe of ewe christians in southeastern ghana 1

‘How to be both Christians and Africans at the same time?’ Since the 1960s this has been a crucial question for African intellectuals and theologians, which results from discontent with the way the Christian message took shape in Africa. ² It originates from the following complex of ideas. Catholic and Protestant missionaries are criticized because they held their own interpretations to be the only true ones and rigorously disapproved of African concepts and practices which they qualified as ‘heathen’ or ‘diabolic’ African critics of the missions, for example Baëta (1968), Mbiti (1979) and the authors contributing articles to Dickson & Ellingworth (1970) and Fasholé-Luke (1978), ³ counter this by claiming that the universality of Christianity can produce different expressions. At the same time they assume that no serious authentic African variant of Christianity has developed yet and it is their aim to contribute to its establishment. The African Christians' interpretation of the Christian message is a problem to those critics. The members of the orthodox mission churches, ⁴ many of whom secretly participate in non-Christian rituals, are seen as the missionaries' victims bereft of their African identity, whilst the followers of the new indigenous religious movements, who are mainly recruited from the mission churches, are not considered to be true Christians. Whereas the former have a split consciousness the latters' ideas are totally syncretistic. ⁵ According to the critical African theologians' and intellectuals' perspective both are in a position betwixt and between Christianity and ‘traditional’ African religion. They therefore find it necessary to replace split and conflict on the one hand and syncretism on the other by an appropriate synthesis. This synthesis is based on the dualism of African or ‘traditional’ versus Christian. Under the banner of africanization or indigenization a successful combination of both elements is strived after in order to provide an authentic African expression of Christianity. It is expected that through africanization the members of the mission churches will refrain from migration to syncretistic movements. This line of argument is shared by critical European theologians. They are open to African variants of Christianity and hope that these will contribute to a refreshment of the Christian praxis in Europe.