Browsing by Author "Musyoka, Wasswa"

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    Kamba Concept of God and Christianity
    (Tangaza University College, 1996-02) Musyoka, Wasswa
    In my life as a student. I have done several courses on African studies. The first time I dealt with this course in school was when I was in secondary school. The course at this time was treated under the title 'African heritage'. In my training as a priest,I did this course in philosophy and again in my first year in theology. I have also done an elective course under the title "African theology" During these periods I have come to realise that many books, articles, and papers have been written on the issues related to african heritage. The key theme on this course has always been "African Traditional religion". Whatever the topic being treated about african these three words have always dominated the discussions. A wide research on african traditional religions has been done by scholars both africans and foreigners alike.From this wide complex field they have come out with different titles on their works. Such titles are like African Theology,Black Theology. African Christian Theology etc. Whatever names they entitle their works, they have a common and central theme namely, to try to dig deep into the african culture. The way of thinking, the way of doing things, religious practices and the perception of God by the at The aim of these works is to find a way of evangelizing the African people so that christianity can be received well in the minds and hearts of the people. The reason why such efforts have been made is that many people have come to realize that something must have gone wrong somewhere when christianity was preached to africans in the beginning.The missionaries and other European writers on african traditional religions bladed it as animism, ancestral worship,full of superstition which was incompatible with christianity. It had therefore to be done away with. This was a big mistake which dealt a terrible blow to christianity for although the Africans embraced christian faith they remained deeply Africans in their. These people who write on this topic try to correct the mistake by trying to understand the African mind and to construct a systematic kind of an idea which makes the african mind understandable and to find a right and effective method which can be used in evangelization. My aim in writing this paper is not to try to do something different from what they have done. It is the same thing but done on specific people of a particular area where I have experienced the same problem. My aim is therefore to try and penetrate deep into the religious beliefs of the Kamba people especially their notion of God with the purpose of discovering some positive values in their beliefs with a purpose of making christian faith more rooted and planted in the minds of this people. The ultimate purpose therefore is pastoral hence the paper is pastorally oriented. It aims at showing the possibility of intermarrying the African traditional religions with christianity.