In Zambia, long before any Christian missionary ever set foot in Africa, the Lozi people already believed in God. They, like many of the tribes in Zambia, believed in one God, the all-powerful maker of heaven and earth and the everything that exists – the seen and the unseen. Furthermore they also believed in and honoured the spirits of their ancestors in much the same way as Catholics honoured the saints. They also believed in the existence of devils and evil spirits. Every misfortune is attributed to evil spirits; just as everything good is attributed to God. So at a level of belief it was not so difficult for most of the tribes in Zambia to accept the teachings of Christian missionaries.

Like people the world over, health is something that is treasured by the people of Africa. Sickness is a threat to life and so it is greatly feared and dreaded. It is important to realise that one does not find in Africa the clear-cut demarcation that exist in Europe between the medical doctor, the surgeon, the psychiatrist, the chemist, homeopaths, the faith-healer, the exorcist etc. Because the common belief that what is good comes from God and what is not good is caused by evil spirits, there is a deep-seated tendency among most African people to attribute sickness and all other misfortunes to evil spirits.

It is commonly believed that it is only the very old who die from natural causes. So if anyone else dies, there is the immediate tendency to believe that they died or got sick because they had been bewitched. In other words, the real reason why the person got sick and died was because someone had put a spell on them.

European medicine and hospitals have as everyone knows, their limitations. So if a patient in hospital is not recovering, or if a person is living in a remote area where there is no hospital, then there is a strong tendency to have recourse to one or other of the various types of traditional healers.

Some of these traditional healers may well be simple herbalists. But more often than not, they may also dabble in the occult. They may well be diviners. If they are they then proceed to use the magical powers, which they are believed to possess, to point the finger at some poor unfortunate individual, who will immediately be branded as a witch or wizard and hence the one who is responsible for the sick persons illness or death.

It is this deep-seated and widespread belief in witchcraft and sorcery, which is the main obstacle to the growth of Christianity in Zambia. Apart from other considerations, it is because this belief is so invidious and divisive, sowing, as it does, unfounded doubts and suspicions within the community, that it is, quite patently, diametrically opposed to Christianity.

Christianity is a way of life, a way of living or more accurately still, a way of loving. So it is communicated more by example than by word. The early missionaries in most parts of Africa built hospitals and leprosariums, where they showed compassion for the sick and suffering. In their schools they helped to enlighten and develop the uneducated. In this way they were able to communicated love and compassion in a way that could not be expressed in mere words.

Moreover by inculcating the good news of Christ’s love in this way they were able to get round the otherwise insurmountable difficulty that is caused by the multiplicity of local languages. Love is a language that is universal. What people came to sense by experience was later confirmed and made clearer for them when they heard or read the Scriptures.

Most Zambians today are devoted and avid readers of the bible. The bible is much closer to their culture and way of life than it is to the more sophisticated European. The Zambian people welcomed the Good News of Christ with joy.

It was the great African saint, St Augustine when giving advise as to how to instruct people, pointed out that the main reason why the greatest missionary, Christ Himself, was sent on a mission to earth was; "so that man might know how much God loves him"(cf. Jn. 3.16).

So the work of every missionary is just the same. He or she must make God’s love known, especially for the poor and underprivileged. The Capuchin missionaries in Zambia strive to make God’s love and concern for the wellbeing of the African people tangible by the hospitals and the leprosariums that they set up to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and the afflicted. By setting up schools they help them to develop their minds. So it is by preaching by word and deed that the friars help to make God know it in Zambia.

Br Bruno McKnight OFM Cap