There is an ongoing challenge in defining African theology because of two important reasons:
(1) the quest for a definitive African theology is a fairly recent pursuit and (2) the vastness and
diversity of the African continent. Given this, this article presents the complexity of defining
African theology and its methodological approaches through a background sketch of the
development of African theology. Regardless of many definitions of African theology and its
purposes, the article acknowledges African Christian theology as theology that should be
derived from the interplay between Scripture, Christian tradition and African cosmology.
In deriving theology from the aforementioned aspects, African theology should also seek to
develop contextual African theologies with global relevance. In this way, African theology can
claim its space in the universal church. Although we are conscious of the values and challenges
associated with the task of doing African theology, we argue for its necessity. We further argue
that if the centrality of Scripture is maintained in the African theological endeavour, it will
cause African theologies to have some shared reference point with other Christian theologies
and hence engaging globally, while contributing unique African perspectives to global
theological discourse.