Reflection on glocal worship in missiology in the context of the marginalised, yet never silenced, black African worship music from missio Dei perspective

• Published in: Missionalia Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 5 - 28
• Main Author: Muswubi, Aaron
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS) 01-01-2017
• Subjects: Black African worship music; Globalisation; Glocal worship; Glocalisation and the missio Dei perspective; Marginalised; Missiology
• ISSN: 0256-9507; 0256-9507
• DOI: 10.7834/45-1-90

This article reflects the glocal worship challenges in missiology in the context of the marginalised, yet never silenced, black African worship music. As a minister in the innercity of Hillbrow Johannesburg the researcher met and lived with many marginalised Black Africans. The concept, ‘glocalisation’ helped him to reflect more on the contestation between the official Western Psalters and hymnodies and the unofficial black African (free) worship songs. In the contestation the black African worship song are marginalised, yet they are not silenced. In this regard, the researcher became aware of the fact that the contestation is actually between the Western and African socio-historical settings or contexts of their respective worship song tunes and styles and hence not necessarily based on biblical principle. This finding pave the way toward the handling of the contestation and also towards addressing glocal worship in missiology as one of the Church’s missional calling to the marginalised people today.