Njega wa Gioko and the European missionaries in the colonial Kenya: A theo-historical recollection and reflection

Njega wa Gioko (1865–1948) was one of the pioneer Chiefs in Kirinyaga county of Kenya. The other pioneer Chief in Kirinyaga county was Gutu wa Kibetu (1860–1927) who reigned in the Eastern part of Kirinyaga county. Gioko reigned in the western part of Kirinyaga county (Ndia) that extended to some geographical parts of the present-day Nyeri county and the present-day Embu county. Njega also became the first paramount Chief of Embu district, which refers to the present-day Embu and Kirinyaga counties. As colonial hegemony and the protestant missionary enterprises, and its resultant evangelical theology, began to shape up in the present-day Kirinyaga county and the surrounding areas between 1904 and 1906, it found Gioko and Kibetu as the Athamaki (the most revered leaders). The evangelical European missionaries (Church Missionary Society [CMS]) who were comfortable with the colonial expansion, as it provided western governance structures that favoured their enterprises, employed Calvinistic theology in their dealings with the colonial government, and they dealt with the local leaders (Athamaki), who were eventually ‘promoted’ to the post of Chiefs in 1908 by the new rulers. Nevertheless, the missionary’s emphasis on unrealised eschatology (future concerns) differed sharply with those of Athamaki who were the custodians of African indigenous religion and its resultant emphasis on realised eschatology (present concerns). As an agent of African religion, how did Gioko relate with the early 20th-century evangelical European missionaries and their Calvinistic tendencies that favoured the Church–State relationship as the way of God? The data for this research article are gathered through oral interviews, archival sources and extensive review of the relevant literature.Contribution: This article contributes to the journal’s vision and scope with its focus on the early protestant theologies of the European Missionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries, and their resultant clashes with the theologies of African indigenous religion. As a multidisciplinary article that builds on a theo-historical design, the article contributes to the ongoing discourses on gospel and culture.

‘I Am an African’

The question, who is an African? in the context of understanding African identity has biological, historical, cultural, religious, political, racial, linguistic, social, philosophical, and even geographical colourations. Scholars as well as commentators have continued to grapple with it as it has assumed a syncretistic or intersectional characterisation. The same applies to, “what is Africa?” because of the defined Western construct of its geography. This foray of concepts appears to be captured in ‘I am an African’, a treatise that exudes the telos of African past, present and the unwavering hope that the future of Africans and Africa is great in spite of the cynicism and loss of faith that the present seems to have foisted on the minds of many an African. Through a critical analysis, it is argued that African religion has a value that is capable of resolving the contentious identity crisis of an African.

Primal or Indigenous?

Indigenous religions have been demonised, eclipsed or ignored ever since the advent of modernity. However, in the wake of the decolonial turn they are enjoying a revival of interest and restoration. In Africa this has led to a renewed interest in African Religion. Five approaches are made to the topic by its non-practitioners – that it does not exist, that it is evil, that it is inadequate, that it is preparation for the Christian gospel, or that it is a form of indigenous religion and has integrity in its own right. A particular debate has emerged over the past twenty years concerning nomenclature. How should African Religion be understood and what should it be called? Two possibilities have emerged, the primal and the indigenous. The primal discourse emphasises the role that African Religion plays in the shaping of religion generally and Christianity particularly. The indigenous discourse has developed in opposition to this and emphasises the particularity and uniqueness of African Religion as a species of indigenous religion to be understood in its own right.

Lost to Presence: The Entanglements of Writing, Protestant Christianity, and Empire in the 19th-Century Southern Africa

This essay takes interest in a dialectical relationship between writing as affirmation and writing as a system of codification. It explores this dialectic as it relates to the interaction between Sotho-speaking communities and Protestant Christian missionaries in the 19th-century Southern Africa. It shows that this dialectical relationship dissolves truth as a construct of writing as affirmation because it is informed by an ontology of force that conceives of truth (Christian truth in this case) as an outcome of victory over an adversary. This ontology of force, in which Christianity participates, is a consequence of a modern metaphysics that splits individual and divine will. Cut off from participation in divine will, the autonomous will of Protestant Christian missionaries became the basis for organizing the world of the 19th-century Sotho speakers. This opened doors for Christianity to participate in the broader imperial project of the racial subordination of colonized people that Sotho speakers resemble. The consequence of this was not only the delegitimization of personhood as a construct of indigenous African religion, but also the introduction of conceptions of personhood that partook of race and racism.

The Role of the Ancestors in Healing: A Zululand Follow up Study

Ancestral consciousness, reverence, beliefs, and practices, forms an essential foundation for religion and healing. African religion and healing are based on the interconnectedness of all life, including ancestral heritage linked to an original creative Source, usually known through dreams via the extended family, community and collective unconscious. People only exist because of their ancestors’ gift of life and nurturance. Zulu people traditionally recognize and honour ancestors as the existential foundation for all humanization and socialization. Motivation for this study arose because of the popularity of a previous Zululand study on the role of the ancestors in healing, as well as the more recent one on coping with COVID-19. A convenience sample of twelve participants was asked to describe their understanding of the role of the ancestors in healing. Respondents indicated that although ancestors are typically not healers, unless they occupied healing roles in life such as Shembe, in their closer connection to the Creator/God, they play various roles in healing. The most important roles were of guidance, protection, direction, advice, warning, presence, communication, mediation, and intervention. The implications of these healing roles are discussed with special reference to Zulu indigenous healers. In addition to common components of healing found throughout the planet, Zulu healing is holistically interconnected with everyday life and death, as facilitated by indigenous healers through ancestors (amadlozi) breath/soul (umphefumulo), spiritual energy (umoya), humanity (ubuntu) and coherent communication (masihambisana).

Spirits and Healing in West and Central Africa: A New Synthesis

Though seemingly innocent, descriptive, and even commendatory, both “spirits” and “healing” are problematic terms in the history of African studies. Rather than identifying well-bounded domains of African life, both of them have evolved from the history of European attitudes toward Africa. “Spirits” often give rise to problems of well-being that “healing” is called upon to solve. Despite this close connection, spirits have been the primary subject matter of religious studies, whereas healing is among the concerns of anthropology. The study of African religion has thus come to be divided between two disciplines embodying the distinction between “belief” and “knowledge,” the irrational and the rational, developed in Europe during the Enlightenment. Anthropology itself has long divided social life into the separate domains of religion, politics, and economics, assigning the study of each to a different discipline with its own preoccupations and specialized vocabulary. This ethnocentric template misrepresented African societies whose institutions were unlike those of Europe. In the forest zones of West and Central Africa a particular set of beliefs and practices regulated the use of power for personal and collective well-being. Power, or the ability to effect change for good or ill, was and is still thought to be derived from forces called “spirits,” which are in fact as much material as spiritual. Following special procedures, gifted persons obtain power from an otherworld that is simultaneously the earth itself and the land of “the living dead,” who are buried in it. The uses of such power to kill or to cure, for collective or private benefit, define a contrast set of four roles—called for convenience chief, priest, witch, and magician—whose functions are simultaneously moral, political, economic, and therapeutic. This system is open to novel revelations within a stable cognitive framework, and adapts to new conditions. Different ideologies and practices of social regulation are found in other parts of Africa.