Joseph Byamukama

Creation: God’s Image and Human Identity

Only God can tell you who you really are. It is difficult to ascertain what it means to be human. But our identity and function are tied to our being created in God’s image, as male and female. God made us finite, bound by space and time to live in community and care for creation. To lose this essential truth is to lose ourselves.

What does it mean to be human? The answers to this question are many and varied. To the robot on your computer, identifying and clicking pictures of traffic lights proves that you’re human. For others, to be human is to be wise—we are homo sapiens. What it means to be human is an age-old and puzzling question. Yet traditional African cultures affirm the Genesis story that God created mankind from the ground as male and female.
This widespread belief tells us at least five things about what it means to be human. First, we are creatures made in God’s image. Second, we’re finite, having limits and bounds. Third, to be human means to be male or female. Fourth, God created humans for community. Finally, we both depend on and have a duty towards the rest of creation. This article will briefly expound on why these five points are essential for our identity as human beings.
God Created Humans in His Image
First, to be human is to be created by God (Genesis 1:26-27). We are not accidents, but creatures made and known by supreme wisdom. We all are products of divine intentionality and owe our existence and identity to God. To be truly human is to live as God’s creatures—made by him and for his purposes.
Not only are we made, but unlike other creatures, we are created in God’s image and likeness. In ancient cultures, images of wood and stone were believed to mediate the presence of the gods. Likewise, people in places like Mesopotamia and Egypt saw kings and priests as the likeness of the gods. But the Bible teaches that all human beings are made in the image of God, a concept that connotes relational (and representational) existence.
To be human is to have the potential to consciously relate with God as his children (Genesis 5:3), thereby being like Jesus, God’s image as Son (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2-3). And only as image bearers can we have universal ‘human’ rights.
God Made Us Male and Female
Not only are we created in God’s image, but also, we are made male and female. As the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament insists, “Only in the polarity of man and woman are human beings made in the image of God.” That is, the complementary male-female qualities properly reflect the image and likeliness of God, and as such, male-female sexuality is fundamental to personhood.
To be human is to be male or female with nothing in between.
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How to Understand and Dispel the Fear of Witchcraft

Christ conquered witchcraft on the cross. Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 2:15). Jesus is greater than Moses, who defeated the Egyptian magicians and set God’s people free from fear and bondage. He defeated Satan, sin, and sorcery.
In 2016, the former Ugandan Parliament House Speaker Rebecca Kadaga raised eyebrows and caused controversy for her re-election thanksgiving to the ancestors in a shrine. Before her, the then Vice President, Professor Gilbert Bukenya, had done the same. Indeed many politically influential Africans appeal to the power of witchcraft. But what is witchcraft? Why does it persist in Africa? And how do we respond to it as Christians? Answering these questions I hope to show that Christians need not fear witchcraft.
What Is Witchcraft?
In A Biblical Study of Witchcraft, Festus K. Kavale notes a renewed boom in the interest and return to witchcraft. Ugandans, and I hear Kenyans too, love Nollywood’s witchcraft films starring the talented Patience Ozokwor. Most of us have encountered witchcraft, whether in word, life, or on a screen. And you or someone you know may be living in fear of witchcraft even now.
David Noel Freedman defines witchcraft as “the practice of sorcery or necromancy for divination or the manipulation of (generally evil) spirits.” Avraham Negev sees witchcraft as the use of occult or supernatural forces “to exert an influence over (one’s) fellow human beings or to change the course of events.” Witchcraft is when someone uses sorcery or divination to manipulate or use supernatural forces to prosper themselves or harm their enemies, or both. It is born out of our desire to control our destiny and future, do good or bad—our attempt to manipulate the gods.
The Fear of Witchcraft Pervades Time and Cultures
Witchcraft is universal. It existed in the Ancient Near Eastern world of the Old Testament. Greeks and Romans practiced it, and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians assumes it (Ephesians 6:12, 16; Acts 19:19). Salem, where our son was born, is America’s witchcraft capital. And I can recall one of my distant grandmothers practising divination in her shrine near my childhood home. 
Witchcraft is not restricted to those who don’t know God. Israel was so inclined to enchantments and sorcery that prohibitions against them were necessary (Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:10). Paul found it necessary to remind Christians that sorcery stems from the flesh (Galatians 5:19-20).
Gilbert Bukenya and Rebecca Kadaga would certainly consider themselves Christians—so did my grandmother, whose Bible and rosary never left her shrine. As such, witchcraft remains pervasive across time, cultures, and religious professions.
Why Does It Persist in Africa?
Julius K. Muthengi, in The Art of Divination, notes that recurrent family sickness that claims lives, unexplained and untimely deaths, barrenness, and pandemics are some reasons Africans visit witchdoctors. Linked to this, many fear witchcraft being used against them, so they turn to it for protection. A shrine hosts guests when a student seeks answers for her failed grades, a politician fears the next polls, and a businessman’s bank statement displeases him. In short, problems and pain tend to move people towards shrines. 
Yet for Kavale (who, as we saw, noted a renewed interest in witchcraft) some Africans explore witchcraft out of curiosity through ‘simple experiments’ until they are trapped. Others heed the call by schools for “a return to traditional practices as a way of showing patriotism.” Such a call is audible in Ugandan academic and political circles. Indeed, there remains a considerable reaction among African elites against Christianity for its supposed colonial roots, and a rallying call exists to return to traditionalism and witchcraft.

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