Comments

Bediako's engagement with the issue of African Christian identity has been very insightful. His contribution to the knowledge of African Christianity and theology of mission has been quite significant. May he rest in the Lord Jesus Christ as we wait in joyful hope for the resurrection.

I will remember his wife and children and the rest of his family in prayer.

David T. Ngong,
Baylor University,
Waco, Texas.

Rev Prof Kwame Bediako and his dear wife Mary, became known to us in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, during one of their visits to the University of Kwazulu-Natal.They became good friends of ours and used to join our small prayer group of Ghanaian friends, at our fortnightly fellowship and prayer meetings. He came across as a christian leader with a revelation knowledge of the word of God, humble and ready to witness to the love of God and Christ to mankind. During these brief periods of interactions he deeply impacted on our lives. His faith in God never wavered even at the last stages of his live. He believed God is always in control.
We all will miss him
Auntie Mary, Yaw and Kwabena, may the good Lord strenghten you.
Dr & Mrs S A koranteng

My Wife and mySelf meet Rev Prof Kwame Bediako and his dear wife Mary, at small prayer meetings in Pitermartizburg South Africa.
In Fact, i have never meet such a Humble, Honest, loyal And dedicated Person in My life before. I have also never seen a marriage like Rev. Prof Kwame Bediako and Antie Mary's is the best best marriage i have ever seen.
Prof we will always miss you.
May Your soul rest in Peace

Will it be possible to replace such a great person? we cannot understand what happens. The Lord has called our professor, his servant.it may be a great lost if we are not able to follow the path prof Bebiako started.Only Him is to be alongside auntie Mary, yaw and kwabena
kamta
douala camroun

I saw Dr. Bedyako when he came to Ethiopia for one of the annual theological conferences few years ago. I was so impressed with his lectures and appreciated his approach on having African Theology. I am so sorry to hear about his death and it is a great loss for Africans and for all who know him; however, I am proud of him because he left a legacy for generations.
Terefe Anshebo
Chicago

Rev Prof Kwame Bediako is a gift from God to Africa and to the whole world. He has gone but his legacy will continue impacting this generation and generations to come. In 2004, on my way back to Angola from Kumasi I passed by his place to know him personally. But he was out visiting the north part of Ghana. Even though I did not meet him his leadership and deep insights on Theology and Identity has been shaping and challenging our thinking as teachers and students at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Lubango, Angola. We will miss him!
May God comfort his family.

Avelino Rafael, Angola

When Prof. Dr. Dr. Bediako and Gillian returned to Ghana, I met them at CSUC when he delivered the graduation speech. I was at that time a part-time teaching assistant at CSUC. Bediako and Gillian invited me to stay with them whenever I was in Accra. Later he asked me to consider seriously joining him and Gillian at the evolving Akrofi-Christaller Centre. He was my referee when I applied for admittance to the erstwhile prestigious Rüschlikon International Baptist Theological Seminary in Zürich, Switzerland. In 1990, I visited one of the foremost African theologians, Prof. Dr. Mbiti, at home in Switzerland. He showed me a copy of Bediako’s dissertation. Then he remarked: “This is a substantial work, quite rare in evangelical circles.” Indeed, Kwame Bediako was not just Prof. Dr.; he is Prof. Dr. Dr. Yet he combined his deep love for the Lord with a deep love for his fellow human beings. That is unique in an age when all around us we find hubris of all kinds.
Bediako radically affirmed the evangelical message, but avoided the grotesque distortions of the Christian Gospel by many evangelicals, especially in America, by affirming Jesus’ insight that the “Gospel is for the poor”. The “poor”, as rooted in the revealed mind of God, are the “wretched of the earth” who the powerful have pushed into the periphery of material existence. This Christ-centred insight led Bediako to put a bumper sticker on his car in the 80s with the statement “Free Mandela”. Again, from the perspective of Jesus’ conception of the poor, Bediako pushed for redemptive categories. He used exclusively and promoted the term “The Two-Thirds World” over against “Third-Word”.
As we say in Ghana: Kwame, de yie, damirifa due, damirifa due, damirifa due! We shall someday meet in the presence of the living LORD.

I am very glad to hear such comments about my father Kwame Bediako. He was definetely a brilliant person on the intelectual point of view and has done a great job for Africa.
However, the story should be a bit rectified and written properly. He was a wonderful person with anybody he met and worked with, I have no doubt about it. Nevertheless, he never considered relevant to take care of me, to hear from me, his first child and only daughter.
We (my mother and I) always lived backside, on the second plan and were all his life considered as the mistake of the past. He doesn't have 2 but 3 children. He met my mother much more before his wife.

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame him because I have never been raised with anger (my mother did a wonderful job). I truly loved him and I know he loved me very much. However, I have never been accepted as a member of his family and I feel sadness and disappointment about that because things haven't been set up before his death. I and any member of the Bediako's side had never ever been informed about his terrible sickness.
Now, after all these years and after his death, his wife wants to hear from me, which is very strange and useless because there is nothing more to say.
On the Christian point of view, I won't add any comments.

Anne.

The "going home" of Kwame Bediako is a great loss for his family and Christian tradition in Africa. His theological perspective has always highlighted African contributions to the Christianity and its thought. His "Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion" was an inspiration to many of my students. My prayers are with his wife and family.

Elias Bongmba
The Harry and Hazel Professor of Christian Theology
Rice University.

Africa has lost one of the giant theologians. Dr. Bediako had truly been a groundbreaking thinker in matters related to African theology. A few years ago, I had a firsthand experience of Dr. Bediako's lectures in Ethiopia. I thank the Lord for his contribution and it is my prayer that God would raise up other Bediakos who would move forward his vision!

Mihretu P.Guta
Senior student of Philosophy
Biola University-California