We Are But One Body

Black History Month and Mission

Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined,” where we dream about mission in a postcolonial world. Every Thursday, I share one thought that has spoken to me in the week, some resources I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission. I pray one of these will energise you in the coming week.

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1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off

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October is Black History Month here in the UK. While the month is generally used to highlight and celebrate the stories and achievements of black people and their communities in the country, we must talk about the plight of growing up black in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and many cities across the UK. This has been forcefully on my mind after the stabbing to death of a young Malawian boy aged 14 in Manchester two weeks ago. A few days after this loss, a Ghanaian 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death in Croydon. Black young people are suffering. If the Police are telling the truth, the greatest danger to a young black person in the UK is a fellow young black person.

I wrote this paragraph in 2018 in Roots and Wings, and I feel it is relevant today just as much as it was back then.

First, for the entire first half of 2018, there has been constant news in the papers and on the TV about violent crimes in London. By June 2018, it had become clear that London was seeing a significant rise in knife-related crimes, especially among young black men. Many of the victims were of African descent; Oluwadamilola Odeyingbo, Yaya Mbye, Kwabena Nelson, Lewis Blackman, Rotimi Oshibanjo, Sadiq Mohammed, Kelvin Odunuyi, Julian Joseph, Lyndon Davis, Abraham Badru, Reece Tshoma, Promise Nkenda, Israel Ogunsola, Kwasi Anim-Boadu, Abdulrahman Nassor Juma, Osman Shidane, Joshua Boadu, Oluwaseyi Dada, among many others. Most of these were under 25 and died at the hands of black young men. Of course, this 2018 rise in violent gun and knife crimes reveals a long tragic history of young black bloodshed that has gone on for years. Indeed, before there was Harry Uzoka, there was Danielle Beccan, Damilola Taylor, and Stephen Lawrence, plus a very long list of young black men and women who have lost their lives prematurely in our cities.

If I included all black boys and girls who have been stabbed or killed on our streets since 2018, this list could be several hundreds long. Of course, we must add Nathaniel Shani and Elianne Andam, the Malawian boy and Ghanaian girl mentioned above.

There are many factors to this sad reality. And there is a lot we could say about this. But today, I want to ask all Christian communities in the UK to think of this plight of young black people around us as their problem too. It is not just a black people’s problem. You will not be well until we are all well. We are one body. When one part suffers, the whole body suffers. This problem needs all of us working together.

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2. Resources I am Enjoying

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Podcast: Peterson Wang’ombe on African Churches Sending Out Missionaries

There are myriads of non-Western mission agents also actively involved in God’s mission, both within their locality and abroad (whether these missional activities receive enough attention and support is another discussion). So, on this episode of the Meet an African Pastor podcast, host Anthony Sytsma sits with Rev. Peterson Wang’ombe of Deliverance Church Kahawa Sukari in Nairobi, Kenya, to reflect on how the African Church and mission agents are carrying out God’s mission among the unreached people groups in Africa. Issues surrounding the training and financial support of the mission agents also came up. Thus, Peterson had the opportunity to share some insights on how western churches can partner with their African counterparts, especially in church planting, without a posture of superiority or creating a skewed relationship of dependency to foster God’s mission. This is one podcast to listen to.

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3. Quotes I am Pondering

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• … any successful cross-cultural missionary enterprise requires the translation of the Gospel into the new environment, taking into consideration the worldview and existential realities of the receptor community. — Isaac Boaheng

• Women missionaries themselves bring together and embody these three notions – religion, space and gender – very explicitly and powerfully, by the very fact of leaving their homes, their own familiar space and place, and moving away, generally abroad, to share their faith in a gender-specific way with the women and girls of the unconverted or nascent Christian communities there. — Deborah Gaitskell

• Our purpose is to serve the Church as the Church serves the mission of God. — John Jusu

I pray that you will be faithful to the mission God has for you this week.