Jean-Marc Ela

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Jean-Marc Ela (born September 27, 1936 in Ebolowa , Cameroon ; † December 26, 2008 in Vancouver , Canada ) was a Cameroonian liberation theologian and sociologist .

Life

Jean-Marc Ela was born in Ebolowa in southern Cameroon. His parents were small farmers who grew cocoa ; he had seven siblings. Ela attended a mission school and was ordained a priest in 1964 . He then studied philosophy , theology and sociology in Strasbourg and at the Sorbonne in Paris . In 1969 he received his doctorate in theology in Strasbourg with a thesis Transcendance de Dieu et existence humaine selon Luther . Essai d´introduction à la logique d´une théologie . In 1978 he received his doctorate in sociology on the subject of Structures sociales traditionnelles et changements économiques chez les Montagnards du Nord-Cameroun at the Sorbonne.

From 1971 on, Ela worked for over ten years as a missionary among impoverished members of the Kirdi in northern Cameroon. This activity strongly influenced the development and elaboration of his Afrocentric liberation theology. Ela later taught at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Yaoundé University , where she became professor of sociology in 1985. He also took up teaching positions and was visiting professor in Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels .

Ela was a staunch critic of the authoritarian regime of Paul Biya . In the early 1990s, he regularly celebrated mass in a parish in Yaoundé and gave socially critical sermons, which were particularly popular among students. He published newspaper articles in which he called for the democratization of the political system. In circles close to the government , Ela, who, like President Biya, belonged to the Bulu ethnic group, but kept his distance from the ruling RDPC party, was branded a “traitor”. After Ela was warned of possible attacks on his life or that of family members, he went into exile in Canada in 1995, where he taught sociology at the University of Laval in Québec and at the University of Québec in Montréal .

Compared to his fame abroad, Ela's position in the Catholic Church of Cameroon was marginal. He demanded that the African Church should undergo a process of inculturation and also become economically independent. As a result, Ela never taught at the Catholic University of Yaoundé. In 1994 he took part in the Synod of Bishops in Rome without belonging to the official Cameroonian delegation.

In 2008 Ela died in a hospital in Vancouver after suffering from prostate cancer a few years earlier .

Honor

Jean-Marc Ela was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1999 .

Fonts (selection)

  • My faith as an African. The Gospel in black African reality. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997 ( Theology of the Third World. Volume 10).
  • God delivers. New ways of African theology. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003 ( Theology of the Third World. Volume 30).

literature

  • Michel Marc Mvomo: Pastoral for Africa. Pastoral understanding of Jean Marc Ela and pastoral care in the diocese of Yaounde (Cameroon) . Shaker, Aachen 2011. ISBN 978-3-8322-9847-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Rolf Köhler-Friedrichs: Pr. Jean-Marc Ela co-founder of liberation theology died in exile . Website afrikanet.info . Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  2. ^ A b Father Jean-Marc Ela: priest, writer and theologian . In: The Sunday Times , February 12, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  3. ↑ Dibussi Tande: In Memoriam: Jean-Marc Ela, Africa's "Liberation Theologian" is Dead . Scribbles from the Den website , December 17, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Ela, Jean-Marc
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Éla, Jean Marc (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cameroonian liberation theologian and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Ebolowa , Cameroon
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2008
Place of death Vancouver , Canada