AN INQUIRY ON THE RELEVANCE OF LATIN AMERICAN LIBERATION THEOLOGY TO WEST AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY THROUGH A CAMEROONIAN CASE STUDY

An examination of the relevance of Latin American liberation theology from an African stand-point results in an African liberation theology. This mode of theologizing helps in the identification and interpretation of precedents of God's saving activity in Africa's history, culture and religion, and specifically rediscovers God's presence in the poor and exploited.;Liberation theology takes the world seriously because God has done something extremely important for loving it. God's risky expedition on behalf of the world's poor and oppressed puts an end to political neutrality by the churches in Africa. Effective prophetic witness in African society requires fundamental structural and ideological changes in African churches. For the African theologian, this implies a suspecting attitude at attempts to spiritualize or reify in the way that some missionaries did, at the expense of socio-economic and political realities. The inductive methodology of Latin American theology requires a scientific analysis of these realities. The use of the dependency theory helps to unmask the exploitative character of international capitalism in the Third World, and scholars like Walter Rodney('1) and Daniel Offiong('2) have demonstrated its applicability to Africa. Although this and other analytic tools from the social sciences are indispensable in naming the structural and collective sins of the modern world, they contain flaws. This thesis goes beyond the dependency theory to demand liberation from African thinking that suffocates freedom or human rights and practices of injustice and exploitation done in the name of religion or the nation. Cameroon is the mirror for such reflection.;While the victims of sin in our times are the poor and powerless, the thesis contends that refugees are the worst victims. They are embodiments of God's redeeming presence and therefore the rightful subjects of a liberation Christology. Liberation for refugees.;requires cooperation between government, humanitarian and ecclesiastical agencies at the policy and structural levels.;African liberation theology is the most appropriate form of God-talk, which presupposes the valency of African philosophy and popular culture in the communication of the gospel. This implies a selective reaffirmation of the African precolonial heritage and the active resistance of its negating forces in a dialectical process.;('1)In How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1981). ('2)In his book, Imperialism and Dependency: Obstacles to African Development (1982).