The Surprising African Jesus: The Lost Prayers and Praises of Afua Kuma
Ebook
Overview
Afua Kuma's Jesus will surprise, even astound, you. This illiterate Ghanaian woman felt something was missing when she prayed. She dreamed of an angel who opened her mouth to praise the Lord from her heart, and she awoke to find herself praying in ways that no one had ever heard before. When she prayed over people in hospitals, the doctors, nurses, and visitors left their patients to be charmed by her praises. Afua leads us to see God's glory in the rivers, seas, forests, farms, villages, and even the chief's royal court. Her Jesus is the hearth preparing our food and the hunter who brings home hunks of hippo. His farm is between the sun and the moon. He is the chief's golden regalia, his musketeers, drummers, and horn-blowers. His arm is a cannon that blasts the soul-eating bomote and roasts the devil on a charcoal grill. He has anointed his priests to lift us out of the mud. Now thousands in cities, villages, and student campuses are enthralled by her praises. Why? It is as simple as life itself. For her, everything glorifies Jesus. Little Afua invites us to feel the glory that is all around us.
“This is a fascinating collection of supplications, praises, and
prayers that rings eloquently and hauntingly with enchanting
images, symbolisms, and the natural worldview of Africa. The earthy
and ecological renditions serve as a reminder of the rich soil of
African religious cosmology in which Christianity continues to
nourish its Christology, pneumatology, and spirituality.
. . . But the context of Afua Kuma offers valuable
resources for appreciating Christianity’s long march to
inculturation in Africa.”
—Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, author of Religion and Faith in
Africa
“The Surprising African Jesus is a real treasure. Afua
Kuma’s prayers are powerful, sometimes violent, but at other times
deeply heartfelt, tender, and beautiful. I couldn’t help thinking,
as I was rereading them, that they make up a genuine African
psalter. . . . Readers can only be grateful for
Jon’s beautiful, rhythmic translation, but especially for Afua’s
vivid African imagination and shining faith.”
—Stephen Bevans, SVD, Catholic Theological Union, emeritus
“Afua Kuma’s prayers will endorse for African Christians the
ongoing effort to find Jesus in their own environments and to not
be ashamed to converse with him in their own languages, born of
their own observations and experiences along the path of life. For
the rest of the (Christian) world, the value lies in empathy
understood as ‘fellow feeling’ and expanded wisdom.”
—Laurenti Magesa, Jesuit School of Theology, Hekima University
College
“I recommend this book very highly as the witness of an amazing
African woman whose voice is unmatched in contemporary theology.
Theologians, scholars of African Christianity, and students of
women and religion will welcome this remarkable volume with awe and
gratitude. Kirby and his partners deserve hearty thanks for making
it widely available.”
—Dana L Robert, Boston University School of Theology
“In this new collection of Afua Kuma’s prayers and praises lies a
treasure trove of good things, especially the glimpse into the
arresting and vibrant spirituality of a woman ‘grassroots’
theologian in love with Jesus, which is both deeply African and
deeply Christian. We are indebted to Jon Kirby for this labor of
love in once again making her prayers and praises accessible to a
wider audience.”
—Gillian Mary Bediako, Akrofi-Christaller Institute
“As all who have read Jesus of the Deep Forest (1981) know,
the prayers and praises of Afua Kuma are a gift to the worldwide
church. Now, in The Surprising African Jesus, the
‘grassroots’ voice of West African Christianity once again springs
to life on each page through words and images that will draw
readers into the experience of faith with a freshness and vitality
seldom expressed.”
—Jeffrey W. Barbeau, Wheaton College
Afua Kuma (1906–87) was a rural Ghanaian woman whose amazing
prayers and praises confirm her as a prophetess, healer, and oral
theologian.
Jon P. Kirby, SVD, is a missionary-anthropologist who knew Afua
Kuma and put her praises into a poetic English form that captures
the beauty of the original Twi. He worked in Ghana for thirty-six
years and later taught at Washington Theological Union.
Joseph Kwakye is a retired Ghanaian schoolteacher who lived in Afua
Kuma’s village in the 1970s and consulted with her when doing the
transcription and translation for Ghanaian readers of the first
collection of her praises. Now, he has transcribed this second
collection from newly discovered recordings.