Authenticity

Authenticity

The Christians of Chad rejoiced to have a Christian president.

THE AFRICAN nation of Chad had been a fruitful field for missionaries. Victor Veary and his wife went to Chad in 1926 under the Sudan United Mission. Their forty-two years of ministry resulted in 258 churches and 168 chapels, forty-two thousand evangelical Christians, and a typical Sunday church attendance of sixty-two thousand. Baptist Mid-Missions came to Chad at about the same time and had similar results.

Christians rejoiced when Chad gained independence in 1960. The first president, N’Garta Tombalbaye, was even a professing Christian! He testified that he had been converted through a Baptist missionary. Before entering politics he had taught at a Baptist elementary school. Yet some encouraged caution regarding him, remembering that he had once been excommunicated from his home church for “unchristian behavior.”

Tombalbaye was a member of the Sara tribe, which constituted one-fourth of the country’s population. The Sara and other southern tribes had a background of spirit worship. The northern tribes were Muslim, and for centuries there had been friction between north and south. The southern tribes never forgot that in the past, northern tribesmen had enslaved some of their people.

No sooner had independence been declared than rebel activity began in the north. In response President Tombalbaye assumed dictatorial powers. To pacify nationalists he began an “authenticity” campaign. The first step was to replace all Christian names with African names. Muslims, however, were allowed to keep their Islamic names. The capital of Chad, Fort Lamy, was renamed N’djamena, meaning “Leave Us Alone.” Simultaneous with the political turmoil, a six-year drought led to starvation for thousands.

Next all citizens were ordered to submit to “Yondo,” an ancient pagan initiation that included sacrifices to ancestral spirits, circumcision, and a pagan “rebirth.” Secret ceremonies called for whippings, facial scarring, mock burials, and the use of drugs. Tombalbaye insisted that bizarre tests of willpower—such as crawling naked through a bed of termites—would also create authentic national unity.

This presidential decree was particularly enforced in Baptist towns. Apparently the president was trying to get back at the church that had disciplined him in his younger days.

Christians who refused to comply had their homes ransacked and their lives threatened. Some Christian children were taken by force to initiation camps. A pastor who refused to let his sons participate was killed.

A dozen Baptist missionaries and their families were arrested and deported. All Baptist churches and schools among the Sara tribe were closed. Still Tombalbaye insisted that he was a Christian, explaining that while the blood of Christ atoned for sin, the initiations completed the cleansing.

Tombalbaye next set up a state church called the Evangelical Church of Chad, headed by two pastors whom the Baptists had disciplined. Regional committees, each of which included a pastor, were set up and made responsible for enforcing the initiations. The committees also sponsored self-accusation meetings, in which punishments were meted out.

The persecution intensified, and many were buried alive with one leg sticking out of the ground. Others were buried with just their heads above ground, leaving them exposed to insects and the insufferable heat. Friends were told that the same would happen to them if they dug them out.

Finally on April 13, 1975, a group of dissident soldiers stormed the presidential palace and assassinated President Tombalbaye.

The persecution ended, and the expelled missionaries returned. Today, although the political situation continues to be tense, over one million evangelical believers live in Chad.

Reflection

For Christians in Chad, what were the spiritual implications of participating in the pagan initiations? Can you think of anything in our culture that would be analogous to those initiations?

All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft, and idol worshipers, and all liars—their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.

Revelation 21:7-8