Decolonial Approaches and Practices in African Theology

This paper surveys the main paradigms of francophone Catholic African theology from the late twentieth century until the present. It proposes that a new paradigm has emerged in the work of O. Bimwenyi Kweshi, M-P. Hebga and J-M. Ela. After outlining the development of the paradigms, this article summarizes and assesses the paradigm associated with Bimwenyi, Hebga, and Ela within the perspective of the decolonization of African theology. Relaying on Ela, he accounts for the knowledge which devalues the interpretations of the margins as defective, pre-scientific and primitive. Its aim is broad, in part to introduce these traditions to an English-speaking audience, but also to show the depth of resources within a particular tradition which is placed in the interstice between theology and social sciences, scholarly research and popularization, in a perspective of a de-occidentalization, de-compartmentalization and de-clericalization of theology. This makes it possible to point towards the shape of a decolonized African theology.