Kenya --Religion
Approximately
70% of Kenyans are Christians (38%
Protestant, 28% Catholic); about 25%
are adherents of indigenous religions;
6% are Muslim. [1] Among the Asian
community there are Hindus, Sikhs,
Parsees, and Bahais.
Indigenous
Beliefs Although traditional beliefs
and practices vary in detail among
Kenya's ethnic groups, they share
many general characteristics. Almost
all involve belief in an eternal,
omnipotent creator envisaged as remote
from men. The Kikuyu's god is named
"Murungu" or (more frequently)
"Ngai", a loan-word from
Masai. Ngai cannot be seen, but is
manifested in the sun, moon, thunder
and lighting, stars, rain, the rainbow
and in the great fig trees that serve
as places of worship and sacrifice.
Many indigenous religions also recognize
spiritual forces at work in the world
that are closer to the living and
more involved in their daily affairs.
If men and women please the spirits,
success is assured; if they incur
the spirits' anger, illness or evil
may occur. For many indigenous believers,
ghosts form a distinct category of
ancestral spirits are thought to return
to seek revenge on the living. Beliefs
in sorcery and witchcraft play important
roles in many indigenous belief systems
and often persist after conversion
to Christianity or Islam even when
other elements of traditional religions
have faded.
Christianity
Christian missionary activity began
in Kenya's hinterland when its interior
was opened to rail travel between
Mombasa and Uganda at the end of the
nineteenth century. Churches were
founded in the 1920s and 1930s, especially
in areas where Kikuyu, Luo, and Luhya
predominated, some of which sought
to combine Christian and indigenous
beliefs. Most churches tended to be
ethnically homogenous since colonial
authorities maintained a policy of
allocating a mission to a particular
territory, though this tendency has
changed with increasing communication
and mobility.
In
Kenya there are also several independent
Christian churches that have broken
ties with other Christian or Protestant
denominations. The largest of these
independent churches was the Nomiya
Luo Church, whose founder, Johana
Owalo, was an early convert to Christianity
in 1900. In 1907 he had a vision in
which he was taken up into heaven
by the angel Gabriel. He saw that
Europeans and Asians, and even the
popes,were not allowed to enter heaven.
Later, he converted to Islam and began
to preach that mission churches were
in opposition to traditional beliefs.
His mix of Christian, Anglican, and
traditional practices attracted many
followers. In Kenya today there are
still many mission churches. Many
worldwide religious groups have a
strong presence. The number of Kenyan
clergy has grown in the past years
and most of the Roman Catholic and
Church Province of Kenya hierarchies
are Kenyan.
Islam
Over half of Kenya's Muslim minority
are of Somali origin. The remainder
is largely made up of Galla-speaking
peoples and the Swahili-speaking community
on the coast, which has maintained
uninterrupted contact with Muslims
from the Arabian peninsula since the
fourteenth century. Most Bajun are
Muslims, as are some members of the
Mijikenda and Pokomo groups.
[1]
Kurian, George Thomas 1992. Encyclopedia
of the Third World, fourth edition,
volume III, Facts on File: New York,
N.Y., pp. 970-71.
Resources researched
by
Abdelaziz Marhoum, & David A. Samper
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