This study has engaged in a critical exploration of the relationship between the Church
and Culture in Ga-Marishane village in Limpopo. A Case Study of the Anglican martyr
Manche Masemola of Sekhukhune has been used to reveal the extent of tension between
the Church and culture in the same village during the Colonial-Missionary era. The topic
of this study reflects on the contestation of the Anglican rite of passage of initiation
through the baptism sacrament of adults, and the traditional Pedi rite of initiation with
special reference to the initiation of girls in Ga-Marishane. These initiation rites live in
missional-tension in what they ought to do and to be in the village and therefore an
interface has to be arrived at. Christianity as a western culture comes into contact with
African culture through the process of evangelizing the African continent, through
missionary engagement. The missionaries come into contact with African indigenous
people, who have their own system of beliefs and cultural practices, and they want to
impose their Christian tradition upon the residents who in turn oppose the teachings of
the Church, and harmony is lost. This brings a lot of controversy amongst the Christian
converts and the Pedi traditionalists. In the process of this turmoil, a family is deprived of
their daughter through death, and the Church loses a catechumen. Manche Masemola’s
parents were not happy that she wanted to join the Christian faith, more especially
because they said that her behavior was very absurd, especially when she prayed, and
they claimed that she acted like someone who had been bewitched. According to Pedi
custom, a girl was supposed to eventually get married after she had been proclaimed
marriageable. Manche’s parents were not happy when she joined the Church, as there
were nuns in the village, who had made vows of remaining celibate and only be married
to Jesus Christ. The presence of nuns suggested to them that Manche might want to be
one of them, and then they would be deprived of magadi, as well as grandchildren, which
would have been perceived by the community as their failure as parents to bring their
daughter up. Manche’s determination to be a Christian impacted a lot on her parents, and
they never considered their daughter’s desire to be a Christian, i.e. what it meant for her
and what her ultimate goal was. This study reveals that both these institutions, the Church
and the village are staunch in their practices to the extent that no one wants to
compromise their beliefs. Inculturation is found to be one of the methods to be
implemented in order to promote wholesome living in Ga-Marishane between the
Christian converts (bakriste) and the Pedi traditionalists (baditshaba), in order to
eliminate further ‘Blood baptisms.’ / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/11215 |
| Date | 15 September 2014 |
| Creators | Kuzwayo, Millicent. |
| Contributors | Moyo, Herbert., Hewitt, Roderick Raphael. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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