A Cultural Appropriation of the Concepts of Ubuntu, Ujamaa, and Deou for Trinitarian Theology

Abstract

This thesis argues that in the History of the Church the question of the Trinity has been influenced by cultures, languages and ways of life. Despite these differences, there is a common understanding of the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The thesis argues that the Trinitarian relationality as it was understood by the fathers of the Church and by subsequent theology is fundamental in appreciating human beings' relationships with each other. This thesis uses the historical investigation method to understand Trinitarian relationality and its impact on African Christianity today. The first chapter will elaborate the Trinitarian relationality approach in the cultures and the languages of the early centuries, the Cappadocians in the East, Augustine in the West, and in the sixteenth century, Ignatius of Loyola. The thesis seeks to demonstrate that each approach was meant to respond to heretics denying the factuality of the three distinct Persons in one God and emphasizing the Trinitarian relationality. The second chapter will focus on an African theological vision for togetherness. The key concepts will be the Ubuntu and Ujamaa. Ubuntu is a concept used in the context of South Africa to resolve the wounds of apartheid in its three periods of pre-, during, and post-apartheid. Ubuntu is the term used for togetherness. In Tanzania, during the post-colonial period, a relative concept is used in terms of "familyhood" to explain togetherness and its implications, the concept of Ujamaa. The third chapter will introduce the concept of Deou. Deou is a word for human being or person in one of the Chadian languages called Murum; this concept expresses the inter-relationality that exists in the life of Murum people. this inter-relationality is a cultural model of living that binds Deoudje (plural of Deou) together. The theological consequence of the concept of Deou is to allow the people of Chad to experience themselves as one despite their diversity. This model for Trinitarian relationality is the aim for this work.