Hope for Africa

... and what the Christian can do
A book by George Kinoti

Last week I attended a course, "Mission to the poor" at the Akademie für Weltmission in Korntall in Germany. We were given George Kinoti's book to read.
George Kinoti is an African, he is a professor for zooology at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. This little booklet has a sharp cutting edge.
He doesn't seem to have an axe to grind, but does put the blame for much of Africa's misery in the lap of the colonial powers. However he goes on to claim that the problems have been perpetuated by the African mindset. "Independance" wasn't really what it seemed. African countries were just given a longer leash. They are still very much dependant upon the the West.
This is a call for African Christian to stand up and be African but also be all that God wants them to be.

He calls Africans to :

1. GET A VISION OF A PEACEFULA DN PROSPEROUS AFRICA
"The most important first step ist to get a vision of a better Africa... where all the people enjos human dignity, spiritual and moral wllbeing, peache, freedom, justice and material prosperity."

2. TAKE CHARGE OF AFRICA
"We live in a whiteman's world ... this domination enriches the West and impoverishes Africa and other poor nations. African mismanagement of the encomy has played right into the hands of the West who now dictare economic policies and supervise their implementation. ... We (the Afircan peoples) must continually remind ourselves that God has given us the same measure of intellectual, spiritual, moral and physical abilities as He has given other peoples."

3. GET ORGANIZED
"Afircan governments must become competent, efficient, just and free from coruption. And they, and the people as a whole, must become disciplined, making rules and ensuring that tey are kept strictly; saetting goals and making sure they are acieved. Christian have a crucial role to play in bringing about good governance in Africa."

4. FOLLOW THE WHOLE WILL OF GOD
"The greatest challenge facing the church in Africa today, I believe, is how to teach and live by the whole Word of God. What we need is a holistic theology that is God-centred and that treats man and the creation in the integrative manner that Scripture does."

5. MAKE THE CHURCH THE CHRUCH OF JESUS CHRIST IN AFRICA
"The African people everywhere urgently need to know that the Christian God is a God of justice, righteousness and kindness. African Christian need to make this God known through proclamation, by their own lives, and by active participation in the political, social and economic live of their nations. White Christians, too, need to know the God of justice, righteousness and kindness."

A very challenging book, published in Nairobi by the International Bible Society
ISBN 9966-837-61-2