The decolonising content of African theology and the decolonisation of African theology reflections on a decolonial future for African theology

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the decolonising content of selected African Christian theologians, namely; Kwame Bediako, John Mbiti, Jesse Mugambi and Mercy Oduyoye. Given their self-conscious and deliberate critique of western and missionary theologies, these African theologians were not only in the vanguard of theological decolonisation but also initiated a species of post-colonial African theology. Given the limitations of these theologies and on the basis of the African critique of the myth of postcoloniality, contemporary critiques of postcolonialism and recent calls for the decolonisation of theology and theological education in Africa, this contribution argues for the significance of the decolonial epistemic perspective in African Christian theology. In charting a decolonial trajectory, the article further highlights possible challenges which decolonial imagination may pose to a traditioned discipline such as theology.