Kaikeny’s Story: Christian Theology and African Traditions
An old Turkana man agrees to wed his daughter, Kaiikeny, to a friend, as his third wife. Kaiikeny’s new husband agrees on the bride price (two hundred goats, dozens of donkeys and sheep, and ten camels). Kaiikeny then participates in the akinyonyo, a women-only celebration in her new husband’s emachar (brand, clan), initiating her out of her father’s family traditions and into the traditions of her husband. After a few years of living together, her husband finishes paying her father and they celebrate with an akuuta, a spearing of the bull, a wedding. Her first child, a boy, is born, but only lives a few days. When her second child, a girl, is born, she visits the emuron (traditional religious specialist, diviner) to receive protection for the new baby. The emuron gives her a small leather pouch filled with “secret things” to tie around the baby’s neck. This will protect her from the ngipean, the ancestors. Both Kaiikeny and her old husband are active in the community church—his entire family has been baptized, and he even allows Kaiikeny and his second wife to attend literacy classes.
Like other African theologians before him (Kwame Bediako, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and Tite Tienou come to mind), Matthew Michael writes Christian Theology and African Traditions as a way to see faith through African glasses. Tradition, like culture, is dynamic and always changing. As Africans are introduced to the good news of Jesus, questions about what it means to be human, to be part of God’s family, and how to relate to the world, must be asked and also transformed (cf 2 Co. 5.17).[1] Yet there is a tension—what does it mean to be Turkana? Is a Turkana identity incompatible with following Jesus? Do the Turkana ngitalio (traditions) align with what God desires? Michael suggests that transformation primarily occurs externally or along parallel lines, rather than a fully transformed African worldview.[2] This aligns with missiologist Paul Hiebert’s concept of the “excluded middle,” the place within a culture that questions about “the uncertainty of the future, the crises of present life, and the unknowns of the past” are asked, and which Western empirical dualistic thought ignores.[3] As Western missionaries shared the gospel in Africa, questions within the “excluded middle” were not addressed and African Christians continue to find those answers in the traditions of their past.[4]
Hiebert suggests that new believers must evaluate the traditions of their own context:
To involve the people in evaluating their own culture in the light of new truth draws upon their strength. They know their old culture better than the missionary, and are in a better position to critique it, once they have biblical instruction. Moreover, to involve them is to help them to grow spiritually by teaching them discernment and by helping them to learn to apply scriptural teachings to their own lives. It also puts into practice the priesthood of believers within a hermeneutical community.[5]
This aligns with Michael’s call that “Christian theology should encourage taking on the positive elements of the African traditions and positioning these elements in dialogue with the teaching of the scriptures.”[6] (Of course, the reality is that this call is not simply for African Christians, but for each Christian community in all contexts, including our own).
For Kaiikeny, her church community must critically evaluate the traditional Turkana practices. In 
our case, the church leaders—working alongside missionaries— determined that akinyonyo ceremonies were compatible with Christian scriptures and orthodoxy. The akuuta was not incompatible, but needed to be modified to recognize the full humanity of the women and the covenant of marriage before God. The respected leadership role of the ngimurok (plural of emuron) continues to be discussed and no clear answer has emerged, although Kip’s doctoral research on the roles and functions of ngimurok has significantly furthered the discussion. The church leaders continue to teach that Jesus is the great high priest (Emuron Ekapolon), and that his “mighty power…protect[s] the believer from the powers of witchcraft and evil spirits” and that followers of Jesus need no longer to live in fear of the ancestors.[7]
[1] Matthew Michael, Christian Theology and African Traditions (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2013), 8.
[2] Ibid., 12-13.
[3] http://hiebertglobalcenter.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/29.-1999.-The-Flaw-of-the-Excluded-Middle.pdf, p419.
[4] cf. Michael, 224.
[5] http://hiebertglobalcenter.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/108.-1987.-Critical-Contextualization.pdf, p110.
[6] Michael, 224.
[7] Ibid., 98.
About the Author
Katy Drage Lines
In God’s good Kingdom, some minister like trees, long-standing, rooted in a community. They embody words of Wendell Berry, “stay years if you would know the genius of the place.” Others, however, are called to go. Katy is one of those pilgrims. A global nomad, Katy grew up as a fifth generation Colorado native, attended college & seminary and was ordained in Tennessee, married a guy from Pennsylvania, ministered for ten years in Kenya, worked as a children’s pastor in a small church in Kentucky, and served college students in a university library in Orange County, California. She recently moved to the heart of America, Indianapolis, and has joined the Englewood Christian Church community, serving with them as Pastor of Spiritual Formation. She & her husband Kip, have two delightful boys, a college junior and high school junior.One response to “Kaikeny’s Story: Christian Theology and African Traditions”
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Thank you, Katy. Your story takes us out of the purely cerebral realm and makes us realize that we are talking about real people. Their lives were “decent” before the missionaries showed up – just not what we teach.
Your examples are always so helpful as we think about how to interact with other cultures.
And I love your stories and hope to hear more in the fall in Cape Town!!!!