In Africa, people form the family in so many ways: "In addition to biological birth, there is a pact, the covenant of blood, marriage and so on. In each of these cases, we truly become members of a given family." However, says the Congolese theologian Sister Rita Mboshu Kongo in an article published on November 2nd in the column of L’Osservatore Romano "Women Church World," in order to understand the nuances of the concept of the African family, "we must first analyze the African conception of the human person", where "man is fundamentally a bundle of relationships, thanks to which he lives and to whom he reaches out."
The African family, said Sister Rita Mboshu Kongo, "consequently produces in the young a strong feeling of 'togetherness,' to the point that he can bind to it even if that means renouncing his ability to judge personally and to undertake anything new in his life, believing that he finds order, safety and happiness there, in absolute belonging." In this African context, "the family continues to exert its authority over the young, even when they become adults; marriage is, for every individual, a social duty, a factor of individual and collective survival, a sign of social and moral balance."
The Church must therefore "vigorously promote an evangelization that provides a solution to the strong spread of the culture of death through abortion and sterilization, which is contrary to the religious traditions. On this road—the theologian concludes—, Africa risks to lose its culture completely and to be confronted with a serious breakdown of the family."
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