Professor Kalamba Nsapo, an eminent specialist in African theology, has brought to the attention of students and researchers as well as the general passionate public a work on the history of theology entitled: African Theology: The major currents of thought of antiquity to the 21st century.
African theological discourse cannot be reduced to its exclusively Judeo-Christian and Arab-Islamic configuration. It should find its native country: this is the whole point of the Egyptian-Nubian paradigm and that of Negro Arabia. It is to the honor of some Afro-Christian and Muslim theologians to have taken the measure of the Egyptian-Nubian background of their studies. But it remains to be seen whether Afro-Christians, to name a few, and theologians of the contemporary world as a whole, have sufficiently understood that Nubia and Egypt constitute a condition of possibility for the understanding of their spiritual heritage. Hasn't the time come to take a further step: restore the Egyptian-Nubian paradigm to its historical anteriority and recognize its sublimity and its unsurpassability? We have not ceased to identify this one, in particular through the erudition of the great hymn of Akhenaton, at the same time carrying all the cardinal attributes of the thought of the Nile valley and the Egyptian-Nubian perception of the universe in its entirety, and ontological base of the rebirth of the black Nilogen peoples, in search of reconnection with their multi-millennial stock. Through our theological corpus, we are delighted to have given African theologians the opportunity to become acquainted with it in order to show young people the theological importance of the three-dimensionality of African Antiquities without making the economy of the Judeo-Christian contribution.
This is the summary of the content of this publication which poses, in a way, the problem of the origin of theology beyond stereotypes and preconceived ideas. Generally and wrongly, the uninformed tend to trace theology back to Africa from its contact with the Western world. However, whether we like it or not, we must now consider the different theological thoughts, whatever they are today, as being emanations from the original African theology. That is to say, creations from the Egyptian-Nubian concept as it was fundamentally thought and established in the infancy of orderly human thought.
In his preface to the book, the eminent Professor Mubabinge Bilolo, Egyptologist, and head of the Center for Egyptian Studies (Kinshasa-Munich) who is also one of the best African specialists in this discipline, makes no mistake point when he writes:
“By identifying the major currents of thought in African theology from antiquity to the 21st century, Professor Kalamba Nsapo is giving a new direction to the African theological movement. There is no longer any question of reducing it to its Judeo-Christian configuration. It is out of the question to inaugurate the idea of an African theology of 1956 or 1960. Ancient African thought is pregnant with an African theology of rare fruitfulness and great complexity. This book presents some trends. It also honors the Muslim theological tradition which the schools never speak of in the heart of the whole of Africa.
We recognize the author for his decisive contribution to the elaboration of the history of the theological discipline from his Egyptian-Nubian founding intuitions. The interest of the book goes beyond the framework of theology. We thank the author for having shown not only to theologians of all persuasions, but also to all scientists, the importance of a real rooting in the matrix of their disciplines.
May we hope that the publication of Professor Kalamba Nsapo's book can revitalize African theology and the sciences that are developing in Africa and in the world, far from any questioning of their major postulates! ”
Once again, Professor Kalamba Nsapo returns through his book to one of the favorite and major themes of his research: theology. As if to repeat at will what he used to say during his various conferences. Namely that: “Originally, there were the “Medu Neter” or “the words of God… The “Medu Neter” are therefore the soul of all theology”.
Author: KALAMBA NSAPO; preface by BILOLO MUBABINGE
Title: THEOLOGE AFRICAINE : Les grands courants de pensée de l’Antiquité au 21ème siècle (African theology: the major currents of thought from antiquity to the 21st century)
Place of publication: Douala
Publisher: Editions Cheikh Anta Diop (Edi-CAD)
Release Date: 2016
Pages: 370
Collection: (Egyptological Sciences and Development)
ISBN: 978-9956-657-04-2
By Serge Félix N'Piénikoua
