{"id":13645,"date":"2017-06-23T08:27:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T15:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2017-06-23T08:27:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T15:27:29","slug":"kaikenys-story-christian-theology-and-african-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/kaikenys-story-christian-theology-and-african-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaikeny’s Story: Christian Theology and African Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An old Turkana man agrees to wed his daughter, Kaiikeny, to a friend, as his third wife. Kaiikeny\u2019s new husband agrees on the bride price (two hundred goats, dozens of donkeys and sheep, and ten camels). Kaiikeny then participates in the akinyonyo<\/em>, a women-only celebration in her new husband\u2019s emachar<\/em> (brand, clan), initiating her out of her father\u2019s 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<\/em>, 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<\/em> (traditional religious specialist, diviner) to receive protection for the new baby. The emuron<\/em> gives her a small leather pouch filled with \u201csecret things\u201d to tie around the baby\u2019s neck. This will protect her from the ngipean<\/em>, the ancestors. Both Kaiikeny and her old husband are active in the community church\u2014his entire family has been baptized, and he even allows Kaiikeny and his second wife to attend literacy classes.<\/p>\n

Like other African theologians before him (Kwame Bediako, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, and Tite Tienou come to mind), Matthew Michael writes Christian Theology and African <\/em>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\u2019s family, and how to relate to the world, must be asked and also transformed (cf 2 Co. 5.17).[1]<\/a> Yet there is a tension\u2014what does it mean to be Turkana? Is a Turkana identity incompatible with following Jesus? Do the Turkana ngitalio<\/em> (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]<\/a> This aligns with missiologist Paul Hiebert\u2019s concept of the \u201cexcluded middle,\u201d the place within a culture that questions about \u201cthe uncertainty of the future, the crises of present life, and the unknowns of the past\u201d are asked, and which Western empirical dualistic thought ignores.[3]<\/a> As Western missionaries shared the gospel in Africa, questions within the \u201cexcluded middle\u201d were not addressed and African Christians continue to find those answers in the traditions of their past.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Hiebert suggests that new believers must evaluate the traditions of their own context:<\/p>\n

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<\/em>.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This aligns with Michael\u2019s call that \u201cChristian theology should encourage taking on the positive elements of the African traditions and positioning these elements in dialogue with the teaching of the scriptures.\u201d[6]<\/a> (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).<\/p>\n

For Kaiikeny, her church community must critically evaluate the traditional Turkana practices. In \"\"<\/a>our case, the church leaders\u2014working alongside missionaries\u2014 determined that akinyonyo <\/em>ceremonies were compatible with Christian scriptures and orthodoxy. The akuuta<\/em> 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<\/em> (plural of emuron<\/em>) continues to be discussed and no clear answer has emerged, although Kip\u2019s doctoral research on the roles and functions of ngimurok<\/em> has significantly furthered the discussion. The church leaders continue to teach that Jesus is the great high priest (Emuron Ekapolon<\/em>), and that his \u201cmighty power\u2026protect[s] the believer from the powers of witchcraft and evil spirits\u201d and that followers of Jesus need no longer to live in fear of the ancestors.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Matthew Michael, Christian Theology and African Traditions<\/em> (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2013), 8.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 12-13.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> http:\/\/hiebertglobalcenter.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/29.-1999.-The-Flaw-of-the-Excluded-Middle.pdf<\/a>, p419.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> cf. Michael, 224.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/hiebertglobalcenter.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/108.-1987.-Critical-Contextualization.pdf<\/a>, p110.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Michael, 224.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 98.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An old Turkana man agrees to wed his daughter, Kaiikeny, to a friend, as his third wife. Kaiikeny\u2019s 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\u2019s emachar (brand, clan), initiating her out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[991,920],"class_list":["post-13645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-michael","tag-turkana","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13646,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions\/13646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}