Doing Christian education at the edges in South Africa : a review of the work of Bongani Mazibuko as a Christian educator and missiologist

Abstract

Bongani Alison Mazibuko (1932-1997) left an infamous though very significant legacy to Christian education in South Africa.1 He was the first black person to be awarded a PhD in missiology and one of the earliest black theologians to be appointed at the University of South Africa (Unisa) as a lecturer in the Department of Missiology (Saayman 1997: 253). Mazibuko was also the founder of the Umlazi Theological Training Project (UTTP), through which he taught Christian education and missiology to township church leaders (both clergy and lay). He argued that Christian education must adapt to the African context. He also argued that the pastor’s role is to enable or facilitate ministry in the local church by empowering the laity through education. He made a significant contribution to the relationship between mission education and liberation. Although he appreciated the positive contribution of missionary education to African people, he was highly critical of its tendency to disregard African culture and experience. Although a call to do theology from an African perspective had been sounded by a number of theologians, no one had specifically tried to contextualise Christian education in the African context. He also warned against a Christian S R Kumalo education that, in fact, aims at domestication, and called for an approach that brings about liberation and transformation. In this respect, Mazibuko was a pioneer who sought to put the discipline of Christian education on the agenda of the Christian church as it sought ways of doing mission in a democratic country. This study seeks to examine his contribution to Christian education and missiology in an African context.