Monday 17 June 2013

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

The mandate to preach the Good News comes in different forms and shapes. Our Lord through his death and resurrection gives us His Good News to preach to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and to release the oppressed.

In this post, Abukari writes about how the reality of Romans 10:15 suddenly dawned on an aggrieved woman when she was reading her Bible during a church service:

One of the people groups that we work with are the Konkomba of Northern Ghana. For many generations, the Konkomba practised an exchange and betrothal marriage system. This is where a brother from one family gives his sister in exchange for the wife he has taken from another family. The sister is betrothed to the whole family from which a wife has been taken, pending any male from that family being interested in wanting her as his wife, whether he is young or old. Whether the girl given in exchange is in love or not she must be obedient to the decision of the family. Sometimes the sister is still very young and will only learn of the family she has been given to when she grows older. Love here is a demand and not a requirement. In fact a man negotiating for a wife on behalf of his children does not have to say at the outset which son the girl is meant for.

According to Ghanaian law women have the freedom to marry whom they wish and as such this old practice has been an infringement on the rights of these young girls. However, some traditional Konkomba feel that their culture stands above this law. Implementing the law, therefore, sometimes causes tensions in communities and between families to rise so high that the police have to be called in to rescue girls from being forced into marriage. Some parents are even reluctant to send their daughters to school fearing that their education will cause them to reject an arranged marriage. On the other hand, more voices are being heard that speak against the practice.

In the early days of sharing the Good News with the Konkomba villages it somehow complicated the matter. Girls and boys who became Christians felt that the traditional marriage practice could no longer be imposed on them; they did not want to be forced into a marriage with somebody of another faith. Even if the man the girl had been given to was a Christian, the girl believed she had the right to make her own choice. The girls (and boys) wanted to be free from the bondage of certain cultural practices that would have a negative impact on their lives. As with education, Christianity too was seen as a threat to these traditional practices.

As a church we therefore engaged ourselves in discussions with chiefs and opinion leaders to talk about this practice. The church also mediated in many cases where tensions had risen so high that girls were being kidnapped by the families they were promised to. Gradually we are seeing the number of forced marriages decreasing and the practice dying out, thereby bringing smiles on faces of many young people, especially the young girls.


'A Christian wedding'


In a recent church service, a lady who was reading the Bible came across Romans 10:15 and, with excitement, she began to read it aloud for everybody to hear.  Then she exclaimed, ‘I thank God for the life of the church. I was a victim of the traditional marriage system but thank God, my children who are now Christians will not have to go through this dishonourable marriage system any longer. Indeed, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News!” If the Gospel had not been brought to our village, this cultural practice would not have been redeemed or liberated.’

Pray that the Good News will permeate every aspect of our culture and release people from such practices it contains, paving the way for holistic transformation.

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