Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to participate in the 6th Pan-African Conference of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The conference was hosted by Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra, Ghana, from 1 to 5 July and its theme was Sankofa 2024: Earth, Pandemics, Gender and Religion. I had expected the conference to be a multicultural event, but the reality was even more diverse than I had imagined. This diversity was enriching, but also challenging at times.
The multicultural nature of the conference was evident from the moment I arrived. I was picked up from the airport together with a Portuguese-speaking delegate from Brazil, a Spanish-speaking delegate from Colombia and an English-speaking delegate from Zimbabwe. I was surprised to discover that the Circle had a significant following in South America and was planning to start a new chapter there. The opening ceremony of the conference further underlined the Circle’s South American connections. The Rev. Dr. Cleusa Caldeira gave her keynote address “‘The Future is Ancestral’: Towards an Eschatology of Ancestry” in Portuguese with live English translation, which opened up a whole new world of theological reflection to the audience. Furthermore, during the sessions there were lecture rooms set aside for presentations related to Francophone and Lusophone Africa.
The inclusion of Portuguese in the opening ceremony was enriching, but there was no live French translation, which meant that the French-speaking delegates were left to follow along as best they could. There was also no French translation in the afternoon plenary session “Sankofa: Liberation Theologies of West African Women.” This lack of French translation prompted a fiery protest by a delegate from the Central African Republic who complained that if she could not understand what was being said, there was little point in attending the conference. Furthermore, she observed that it was all very well having a lecture room for Francophone Africa, but the result was that English speakers were not participating in the French sessions and French speakers were not participating in the English sessions. Finally, she pleaded for more to be done to try to overcome the language barrier.
The conference convenors explained that unfortunately the coordinator for Francophone Africa was unable to attend the conference, which had left them at a serious disadvantage when planning for translation. Although they had the technology in place to provide translation through earphones, they lacked the womanpower to make it happen. They tried to address the issue by asking for volunteers, but there were only a couple of women with the necessary linguistic skills, so their success was limited. English to French translation was provided in the remaining plenary sessions and closing ceremony, but not in the individual sessions.
Sankofa 2024 was truly an intercultural experience and highlighted some of the opportunities and challenges for intercultural exchange. The Circle has flourished under the leadership of Musa Dube, growing in number and attracting engagement from a variety of different regions. These developments have generated exciting opportunities for intercultural dialogue on key topics that are highly relevant, both in Africa and around the world. Could the Circle eventually replace the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) as the leading platform for theology from the Global South? Time will tell. Nevertheless, growth also brings challenges: How to ensure that funds are distributed fairly to encourage equal representation from different parts of Africa? How to organise conferences in a way that overcomes social and linguistic barriers and enables participants from very different backgrounds to understand and learn from each other? How to engage with other world regions in a way that generates fruitful intercultural dialogue? These are just some of the questions that the Circle will need to address as it seeks to empower African women to make valuable contributions to both African and global conversations.
Samuel K. Bussey is a doctoral student in Intercultural Theology at the Protestant Theological University in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Photo: Sankofa 2024 Banner