A lot has been said, and argued, about the recent document of the Catholic Church titled Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust) and the seeming approval it gave to non-liturgical blessing of persons in “irregular relationships” especially persons engaged in same-sex relationships. For me, however, none of the arguments, either for or against, has addressed the question of African traditional cultures and values and the place of Fiducia Supplicans in either explaining it or adapting them to the new thinking in the Vatican. At the last check, before the writing of this article, most episcopal conferences in the African Catholic community have disapproved of the permission granted by the document to impart non-liturgical blessings on persons in irregular relations and same-sex unions. The reason for this is not far-fetched. They are deeply rooted in traditional African abhorrence of such relationships. This is without prejudice to some kind of new education that seems to approve of certain behavioural patterns that are traditionally considered anti-social and un-African.
Growing up, such realities as suicide, for instance, are considered abominations within the African traditional context. No one is traditionally permitted to take his or her own life. In most cases, people who commit suicide are buried in the evil forest. Also, their families live with social stigma which makes them seem ostracized from the community. It is believed that persons who commit suicide have committed abominable acts for which cleansing may be required before the family is readmitted into the larger community because they abridged or interfered with the natural progression of life given by a divine being. This extends to such crimes as murder, abortion, and armed robbery. These among many others are considered abominable acts within the African traditional context. To an extent, therefore, traditional African cultural values are considered pro-life. This is why any act that cuts life short or aborts the procreation process, considered divinely instituted, is also considered an abomination.
However, there have been scholarly works by Chrysogonus M. Okenwa titled “Homosexuality in Traditional Africa”, published in African Philosophy: Whose Past and Which Modernity of Obafemi Awolowo University; Busangokwakhe Dlamini titled “Homosexuality in the African Context” published in the journal of Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity no. 67; David Olali titled “African Traditional Religion, Sexual Orientation, Transgender, and Homosexuality” published in the Palgrave Handbook of African Traditional Religion; and “Same-Sex Relationships in Yoruba Culture and Orature” by George Olusola Ajibade published in J Homosex in 2013. These scholarly works strived to show that although same-sex relationships are considered abhorrent, anti-procreation and anti-social behaviours in heterosexual societies, they are, however, not imported behaviors traits as there were pieces of evidence to prove that such tendencies existed within the traditional African society long before the arrival of foreign influence.
Despite these scholarly arguments, the growing disgust about same-sex relationships among Africans goes to show that irrespective of the foreign influence on such behavioural patterns, Africans still consider it abhorrent as they go against the natural laws of the creator and his injunction to man to “go and multiply”. This is why the holy books uphold the natural laws of “in the beginning, God made them man and woman”. Many have translated this to mean that God created them to live, relate, and procreate as Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve or Eve and Eva. In other words, whatever that strikes against this natural law of God and the laws of nature, becomes abhorrent not only to the African but also, to the conscious person who sees life as deriving from nature.
I believe that it is for these natural laws that most African parents frown, and disapprove, of irregular relationships involving their daughters and sons. Not many African parents approve of what is now popular as co-habitation of unmarried persons. Some call it live-in love. Parents are most likely to insist that such live-in lovers come open to declare their intention to formally consummate a marriage and live as a married couple. I suppose this is the reason the Catholic Church encouraged mass weddings where couples that have been living in love are made to formally take the sacrament of matrimony and be officially recognized, before the religious and social communities, as married. I also believe that this is the thinking that goes into mass weddings organized by some state governments in Nigeria for young men and women living outside religiously and socially acceptable marriage norms. Never mind that even single-parentage is now a socially acceptable practice; traditional Africa frowns at it. In many instances, parents whose daughters become pregnant and have babies outside wedlock, live with a certain level of social stigma and are often denied certain traditional rites, especially, rites of partaking in the traditional proceeds of a marriage in another family.
Therefore, understanding Fiducia Supplicans within the African context will require a journey back into traditional African cultural pro-creation-based values. These values have no place for same-sex relations. They also frown at what the Vatican now calls irregular relationships which to the traditional African translates to living in abominable relationships. As much as I can remember, Catholic parents whose daughters go to live with a man without undergoing the proper rites of marriage, are somehow, ostracized from some sacraments. That is an action to show that the girl’s action was not approved by the church community. Young men, who engage in such, are also, subject to some level of social caricature which shows that such relationships are not socially approved by the community.
This is where the prescription for the blessing (liturgical and non-liturgical) of persons in irregular relationships and same-sex unions by the Vatican document ditches Africa. This is because, for the layman, what is known is much more than what is not known. While priests can write theological exegesis on the different types of blessings, what the layman sees is simply the act of blessing itself. The different types do not matter to him as they do to the cleric. Thus, those whose business it is to propagate the gospel ought to take into cognizance the existential realities of the African person, as a person of culture, a person of positive social values which impact his life and his association with his community and larger society at large. I believe this is why African Catholic Bishops are vehement in their opposition to the impartation of blessings on same-sex unions or relationships, which, by implication, would suggest approval of the same. This comes in direct conflict with the Nigerian law known as Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2013 which states that “a person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies or organization, or directly or indirectly makes public show of same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a term of 10 years.”
Many African countries have enacted laws similar to this. In contrast, it may suggest that the Fiducia Supplicans, while not being an ordinary suggestion, is pitching priests on the continent against the laws of their countries which prohibit recognition of same-sex relationships, in any form. Non-liturgical blessings may be seen as conferring approval on such relationships. State laws and natural laws frown at this and will ultimately remain superior when in conflict with the Vatican declaration.