YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A leading African archbishop has refuted claims that cultural factors are the primary reasons behind Africa’s emphatic rejection of issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and the ordination of female deacons.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon’s Bamenda archdiocese addressed this topic during the August 23 session of the ongoing weekly synodal discussions, organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM).

Issues around gay relationships and the ordination of female deacons and priests are some of the hot-button issues being discussed around the ongoing multi-year Synod on Synodality, which Pope Francis extended to 2024.

“When we went to the Synod, it was clear that Africa had to take responsibility for its own destiny. We knew we had to make our voice heard in the first phase of the Synod,” Nkea said.

He explained that making Africa’s voice heard was “not talking purely from a cultural background.”

The archbishop said Africa was talking “from the background of the traditions of our fathers and from the background of the teachings of the Church.”

“In presenting our points at the Synod, therefore, we did not want to be seen as presenting points of Africa because of the culture from which we came. Our stand had nothing to do with culture; it was about fidelity to the truth; fidelity to what Christ taught. It was about fidelity to what the Apostles handed down to generations,” he said.

Johan Viljoen, the Director of the Denis Hurley Institute of the Bishops’ Conference of Southern Africa agrees with the Cameroon archbishop, saying Africa’s stance on the controversial issues isn’t necessarily a function of culture.

“Look back 40 years. The same debate raged in Europe and North America. But if these issues are rejected there, it is blamed on homophobia and misogyny, not culture,” he told Crux.

Nkea suggested that there has even been a perception that Africans don’t really have the mental capacity to understand their own culture and civilization.

“Theologians here, you must tell us whether the African brain is inferior when it comes to reflecting on African culture and civilization,” the archbishop said.

Nkea, who is also the President of the Cameroon Episcopal Conference, further explained Africa’s rejection of the blessing of gay marriages – an issue that came up in the synodal conversations in Rome.

“Africa was not defending a cultural idea. Africa was defending the teaching that the Church has had for 2,000 years,” and that explains Africa’s “vehement no” on that specific question.

He said that rejection includes Fiducia Supplicans, the document which came out last year after the first session of the Synodal gathering in Rome. The document was seen to authorize the blessing of “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations.”

“We are going back to the second session with the same vehement rejection of that document,” Nkea said.

Addressing the issue of the ordination of women, Nkea highlighted Church tradition to explain the stance of Africa at the Synod on Synodality.

“We therefore do not buy the idea that people tell us that we are arguing from culture. And that we come from a culture that is still developing, and that is why we do not understand certain things,” the archbishop said.

The pushback comes against the backdrop of a perception even by the leadership of the Catholic Church that Africa’s position on these issues was informed only by its allegiance to culture.

Pope Francis for one talked up this narrative, saying in an interview that Africa’s stance on homosexuality was culturally driven.

The pope had suggested that for Africans, “homosexuality is something ‘bad’ from a cultural point of view.”

One other point of discord is the image of the tent proposed in the synthesis report – the image of the tent used as a prism through which to comprehend our synodal mandate.

Nkea said Africa rejects that image for one simple reason: It portrays conquest and capture.

“We come from a broken continent, a continent where everybody comes to do fishing, yet those who live in that continent have no fish to eat. It is a broken, battered continent. It is a continent which has been harassed and dejected, and yet, this continent sees tents only in the backdrop of when we are running around carrying boxes on our heads as refugees,” the Cameroonian archbishop said.

“We are not running as refugees in the Catholic Church, and therefore, tents for us have a very derogatory meaning. For us, tents mean refugees who are running, pursued by predators and those who want to steal our wealth. We rejected the tent,” he said.

The second session of the Synod on Synodality will take place in Rome from October 2-29.