Martyrdom: An Investigation into Issues of Religious Violence in North Africa

Aims: The paper aims to clarify the relationship of martyrdom between two religious organizational structures, the Donatists and the Catholic Church. It proposes modeling a social transformation process by stressing a homogeneity of martyrdom between these two realms.
Study Design: It is a theoretical construct based on historical data.
Place and Duration of Study: Although this paper is a modern day text (constructed from December 2012 till November 2014), its literature sources is historical by nature. Religious violence in North Africa dated back to 340 BCE and found its culmination in 429 CE.
Methodology: The research is based on a theoretical (desk top) and exploratory study. The data required are complemented by documentary analysis. This study poses a clear database which the author generated and on which he draws. This article is a serious inquiry based on original data and the writings are universal.
Results: This paper purports to enervate the polemical views of Catholic sentiments against the Donatists. Two prominent Catholic scholars, Optatus and Augustine have divulged that martyrdom status is only to be afforded to Catholics who have suffered and died for their faith. The outcome and implications of this paper is that there should be no indication of prejudice and enmity in a literary work and that the researcher should not be afraid to transcend cultural boundaries in search for the truth or to present the view of the “other” objectively. These ideas, in the context of North Africa, where almost all of the historical writings on martyrdom accounts have been produced by Catholic writers, have been challenged.
Conclusion: This study stresses the axiomatic notion that to be a martyr one has to suffer and eventually dies for your faith. It is true that both the Donatists and the Catholic Christians were subjected to martyrdom in North Africa and both of them have also conformed to the Gospel requirements for such a status. As such both religious groups can be afforded martyrdom status as per this study. Certain claims, for example by one of these religious sections that they are the “true” Church and the bringing about by the other section the method of exclusion that the other is not Christian, must be regarded as not important. The research wants to dwarf the polemical atmosphere that surrounds these two important groups and wants to elevate the concept of martyrdom they have forged in North Africa.