Written for the end of the millennium, this essay considers the future for Africa and what this means for a public Christian witness. It begins by considering Africa's experience of marginalization from the globalizing world economy, noting how this is both historically conditioned and heterogeneous. Problems of governance, power and authority rest within this history, particularly the colonial disjunction between citizenship and subjecthood mirrored in policies of mixed direct and indirect rule (M Mamdani). In such a situation, Christianity cannot confine itself to issues of inculturation and evangelization, but must enter into the public sphere more directly. This is complicated, because Africa is also a continent of contested Christianities, indigenous and exogenous. From this angle of view, the question is how one takes into account critical questions in Africa about resources (human and material), gender and well-being (or illness and disease, negatively). Without attention to such issues, a Christian (or any other) response is likely to at best naïve, at worst disingenuous. The challenges are clear. A key issue is whether African churches or Christian groups have the resources, or the will, to respond to them adequately.
