Honour/Shame and Oral Learning - Part 2

Continuing on from Part 1 in the previous blogpost  about how honour/shame interstects with issues associated with Oral learning......

Maybe we could say there are three 'levels' of orality: -

1. Those who are comfortable with printed literature as a primary source of education and ongoing learning and would see oral learning as secondary (essentially most of the Western World), 
2. Those who have a significant mix of both (Westerners who find reading difficult or don't like reading and gain significant knowledge through audio/video media and personal interactions, and those in the Two Thirds World who have school and even tertiary education and have access to ample printed media and who like to read) and
3. Those who are totally or almost totally oral learners (Westerners who can't read or don't like reading, and those in the TTW who have had little or no schooling and either can't or don't read and have essentially no access to printed matter).

- those in the middle category, though they may be able to read, many still prefer oral learning methods.

As we have read and discussed with others in the Education field within the honour/shame contexts of Africa that there are other ramifications of the orality and honour/shame mix, which are not immediately recognisable, but which do have a very real ripple effect.  

You see, as we look at life around us, the oral learning dynamic combined with the honor/shame dynamic seems to mean that knowledge is not seen as a life-long discovery of knowledge that is infinite (ie for us as Christians especially, knowledge has attached to it the concept of always growing in knowledge - reflecting that God is infinite and knowing Him is an ongoing never exhausted process - even in our 'secular' world more books keep being written, more discoveries made and there is always more to learn).  

It is instead seen as certain limited information that is contained in what is passed down from generation to generation and that is really all one 'needs' to know (like a cultural 'kit')- and it really is all there is to know. 

In African society in general in the 21st Century this means less innovation and creativity and seeking after knowledge in the understanding one is a continual learner.

In the church this can mean that folk are keen to 'learn' (ie copy, repeat, memorise) what they 'need' to know in order to be part of the ones accepted in the group who know the Christian 'language', with little realisation that the Bible is not there just to memorise the particular bits of 'knowledge' required to be looked on with honor in the group, but it is a wealth of life giving truth in written form, that God has revealed to be continually mined for more to enable us to grow in Christ from one degree of glory to another.....that knowledge isn't just something to attain but to continually 'grow' in. 

We see also a perspective that knowledge is not in the context of information/reality/facts already in our world and in the Scriptures because of an orderly way God created it and has revealed Himself and ready for us to learn.  Rather a cultural concept is brought into the church that the cultural elders (and in the church the Pastor), are the ones who have access to any 'extra' information needed at particular times - such as times of distress or difficulty where the cultural knowledge 'kit' seems to lack an answer.  

This extra information is also an 'after the fact' type of information...ie a person has no sense that a person may have been given 'ALL there is that pertains to life and godliness'  and it just has to be seen/understood/read, because culturally one is never privy to ALL - ie the 'kit' of knowledge is all that is given, and any other things that 'come up' along the way will be the privilege of the ancestors at their whim along the way only discernible by the witchdoctor.  

This also relates to how God has revealed to us 'ahead of time' what pleases Him so that we can 'know' that if we are prepared to study His word to know what He wants us to know.- as opposed to the cultural way in which apart from the very limited orally learnt 'kit' of knowledge, a person has no way of knowing ahead of time, all that the ancestors are going to require to be pleased.  

And to make matters worse, to ask questions about what one does not yet know is considered a massive dishonouring of the elders (who of course don't have the answers and do not want to be shown to not know) and thus dishonoring the ancestors and the cultural/tribal ways - a most shameful/sinful thing to do.  

Of course this also flows into life in the church where a person doesn't tend to 'ask' about what they don't yet know...they will only copy/repeat what the elders or Pastor of the church are saying.

It's another side-track of this same issue but Kenosi, our co-worker said how confused he was when he went to Seminary and the professor said he was going to teach them 'how' to think!  Kenosi thought that was strange as culturally you don't find out 'how' to think, but 'what' to think!  

This whole knowledge acquisition perspective of oral learners then has a flow-on of how they perceive the concept of biblical discernment and 'searching the Scriptures' to see if what they hear is true.  African churches are full of Pastors teaching their congregations 'what' to think, not 'how' to think - let alone biblically!  

And I would also add that another factor in the overlap of a mis-placed honor/shame dynamic and oral learning contexts we have noticed is that it is the witchdoctor and chief who are the ones with the most knowledge but it is kept a great secret.  Knowledge is not readily shared.  The same is true in relation to the community elders - in the 'lifetime kit' of knowledge one is supposed to 'learn', the elders must always be the ones with slightly more of the 'kit' than anyone younger.  A younger person must never have more knowledge than an older person or a person of higher status. 

The relevance of Paul instructing Timothy to not let anyone despise him (shame him) for his youth is not insignificant.  For mis-placed honor/shame culture youth, there is a freedom in Christ to not be ashamed to know something that someone older doesn't and to instruct an older person. 

Although they will still be 'shamed' by the cultural elders, the church should be a place where God's standards are paramount and everyone can learn from each other - young or old....but again if this issue is not clearly addressed, the cultural way finds itself also functioning in the church and we find church 'elders' are appointed based on their age and their secular type qualifications - Dr or Prof etc.  

There is still so much 'work' to do in relation to more careful discipleship in the honor/shame context of Africa so that the church might be demonstrating Christ.