ABSTRACT
Most African Initiated Churches (AICs) are expressions of a Christian faith rooted in an enduring struggle for the defence of positive African values. Two of these key values are localism (not surrendering the definition and articulation of Christian faith to others, especially those from another culture or continent) and communalism or ubuntu (bearing one another’s burden). It is these shared values that allow differing types of AICs, as factored in their founding visions and theological emphasis, to work together. However, considering the categories of AICs, it is easy to point out divergent and convergent issues, which are woven together by their foundations and theological areas of prominence/emphasis. The fact that AICs were initially and to some extent even currently discriminated by Mission Churches, unites them to counter such discrimination.
