Book Book Reviews and Book Chapters

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    Something Good From Africa: Enriching World Christianity with African Wisdom
    (Orbis Books, 1999) Healey, Joseph
    Two American missionaries with a combined experience of 75 years in Africahave come up with a model of spreading the Gospel by using parallels fromAfrican oral traditions. "One who sees something good must narrate it," says an Ugandan proverb. The following true story comes from Kilimambogo, near Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa and is taken from Towards An African Narrative Theology
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    Marriage and Family In African Christianity
    (Acton Publishers, 2004) Sahaya, Selvam; Kyomo, Andrew
    Many Christian Families in Africa are in crisis. The crisis is about how to face change. Christian missionary activities, colonialism, westernization, urbanization, and other contemporary factors have destabilized African families and communities almost to destruction. The question is, will African families succumb to modernity or will they re-emerge with alternative stronger family structures? Every crisis is a challenge and an opportunity. It is a challenge because the old models are no longer feasible in the changing social environment. The pangs of this re-birth generate great anxiety. It is an opportunity because something more beautiful may eventually emerge. Our own creative reflections, discussions and assessments are vital contributions towards the reconstruction of African families. The Tanzanian Theological Colloquium (TTC) focused on this crisis during the Third session in Lyamungo, Moshi, in June 2002. TTC is an ecumenical circle of theologians. Most of them are in academic work, and the rest are pastors. The book deals with the theme of Christian marriage from both the doctrinal and the pastoral perspectives. It is both deductive and inductive in approach. Biblical exegesis is invoked at the same time that local experiences are cited for illustration and elaboration. The book takes both analysis and synthesis seriously. It is Pastoral in scope, and at the same time, biblical in emphasis. The contributors belong to a wide spectrum of Christian denominations. However, the views they express are based on their respective research, not necessarily echoing the official policy of their respective churches.
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    The African Woman as an Agent of Evangelization: Her Role and Function in the Mission Activity of the Church in Africa
    (Shaker, 2009-12) Mwania, Patrick
    In this book which is a product of doctoral dissertation presented to the Faculty of Theology of the Philosophisch-theologische Hochschule, St. Augustine, Germany, the author, Patrick Mwania, underscores the fact that African women have not only been beneficiaries of the Good News of salvation but, equally and faithfully so, carriers and agents of the same. The book reviews the Church in Africa in terms of her efforts at evangelization, especially in relation to the role women play as agents of evangelization.
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    The Ubiquity of the Character Strengths in African Traditional Religion
    (Tangaza University College/ Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2012-07-10) Sahaya, Selvam; Joanna, Collicutt
    Positive psychology has relied on world philosophical and religious traditions for its understanding and classification of core virtues and character strengths and in demonstrating their ubiquity across cultures. However, in this endeavour, reference to African traditional religion (ATR) is minimal. The aim of the present qualitative study was to discern if the ubiquity of character strengths extends to ATR. The catalogue of Values in Action (VIA) was chosen as the coding template; some anthropological textual data on the life cycle of the individual, collected in Nairobi, Kenya, were used as the data set. Using a hybrid approach of deductive data analysis and inductive theme development, thematic equivalents were identified, and further validated with the help of other scholarly sources. Evidence of convergence with one or more anthropological domains was found for 18 out of the 24 character strengths. Citizenship and spirituality emerged as stronger themes, and elderhood rites featured as the most significant anthropological domain. A case is made for the African elder being a cultural paragon of character strengths.
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    Community living in the Catholic Higher Education Institution as key component of the formation of agents of social transformation.
    (Paulines, 2013) Churu, Beatrice W.
    Social transformation is a necessary part of the Church’s mission to help bring about the reign of God in the world. Catholic Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) take their inspiration and guidance from the Gospel of Christ, and have an obligation to help the Church to better understand and attend to the need for transformation in the social settings in which they are active. Such institutions may approach the task in multiple ways, key among which is the formation of the agents of the said social transformation. Social transformation is here understood as a process by which a critical mass within a community commits itself to constantly discerning, agreeing and renewing the living of their values. Such commitment is not static, nor is it a destination that can be reached once and for all. It is, rather, a way of engaging the processes of history though which the community lives. Social transformation raises questions touching on universal principles of human dignity and eco-justice, but needs to be applied locally. It is not enough to subscribe to general principles. We need to be committed to an ongoing effort to understand and live these with due regard to the social and cultural realities of the particular situation in which we find ourselves. Resilient and focused leaders are needed. A Catholic HIE, such as Tangaza University College, aims to contribute to the formation of such leaders, the agents of the hoped-for social transformation. This paper underscores that the mission of formation of the agents of social transformation is primarily a communitarian one. A conscious and cultivated community approach is necessary as a component of the overall formation of graduates who will participate actively, with an evangelical spirit, in communities that, with their contributions, will become increasingly open to transformation. This paper focuses on the community in the HEI as a locus of preparation of the agents of social transformation in future ministerial settings. In brief, it posits that the Catholic HEI itself needs to be a community open to social transformation in order to succeed in its mission. While this paper takes Tangaza University College as its example of a HEI, it is hoped that the reflections it poses are applicable to many African Catholic and indeed Christian HEIs. The paper uses the terms “Catholic” and “Christian” interchangeably. Tangaza University College is committed to preparing agents of social transformation in line with the Gospel. As stated in the mission statement of the College, it is anticipated that these agents will minister in various social and ecclesial settings since the College “reaches out into the world”. For a person to be an effective agent of social transformation, ongoing personal transformation is essential. In tandem with social transformation, personal transformation is the genuine and continuous openness of an individual to choices that lead him/her to be more open to the fullness of life. Such fullness of life includes, but is not limited to, personal development and service to society. It is presumed that the career of the student in the College is organized to facilitate openness to such personal transformation. To this, the quality of community life lived in the college inevitably makes an impact, whether positive or negative. It is therefore imperative that the community life of the College be the subject of reflection and action in the self- assessment and self-improvement plans of the College. On this occasion of the Silver Jubilee, it is an opportunity to look back on various ways in which the College community has grown, at the numbers of students, and at faculties and programs in the College. It is also an opportunity to assess the inner life and culture of the College insofar as this can be done. A look at the community life lived in the college and its impact on members of the College, can be fruitful in positioning curricular choices in the future. To contextualize our subject, we can begin with a look at some of the cultural, historical and socio-economic background, and at the opportunities and impacts of these on community living in Africa and in HEIs there.
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    Adoption and Impact of OER in the Global South
    (African Minds, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project., 2017) Edited by Williams, Cheryl Hodgkinson; Edited Arinto, Patricia
    The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project was proposed to investigate in what ways and under what circumstances the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) could address the increasing demand for accessible, relevant, high-quality and affordable education in the Global South. The project was originally intended to focus on post-secondary education, but the scope was expanded to include basic education teachers and government funding when it launched in 2013. In 2014, the research agenda was further expanded to include the potential impact of OER adoption and associated Open Educational Practices (OEP). ROER4D was funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Open Society Foundations (OFS), and built upon prior research undertaken by a previous IDRC-funded initiative, the PAN Asia Networking Distance and Open Resources Access (PANdora) project. This chapter presents the overall context in which the ROER4D project was located and investigated, drawing attention to the key challenges confronting education in the Global South and citing related studies on how OER can help to address these issues. It provides an abbreviated history of the project and a snapshot of the geographic location of the studies it comprises, the constituent research agendas, the methodologies adopted and the research-participant profile. It also provides an overview of the other 15 chapters in this volume and explains the peer review process.
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    Socio-Cultural Factors Contributing to the Spread of HIV and AIDs in Homa Bay County, Kenya.
    (Catholic University of Eastern Africa and Center for Democracy Research and Development, 2017-05) Otieno, Edwine Jeremiah; Okuku, Michael Tedd
    Kenya is still battling with the prevalence of HIV and AIDS and the disease has threatened her social and economic fabric. It has been estimated by National AIDs and STI control Programme that 1.6 million people live with HIV in Kenya. Most affected is Western Kenya which has the highest HIV prevalence in the country. The epidemic in this region has been seen to be propelled by the socio-cultural practices such us wife inheritance and other risky sexual behavior. The overall objective of this paper is to unravel the socio-cultural factors contributing to the spread of HIV and AIDs in Homa bay County, Nyanza Region, Kenya. It also investigates Meta factors behind traditional practices associated with sexual norms of the community. The theoretical framework for this study is founded upon the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) and Bandura’s Social Learning theory. The study adopted mixed research methods, both qualitative and quantitative. The research designs employed were explorative, descriptive and contextual. Purposive sampling and simple random sampling was used to select 250 participants aged between 15-70 years in Homa Bay County, In-depth, individual interview and focus group interviews were used to collect data using semi-structured and open-ended questions. Data were analyzed thematically by identifying and expanding significant themes that emerged from the informants’ responses, include wife inheritance, setting up of new homes, youth entertainment, preparing to launch planting, harvesting, polygamous marriage and ritual performance. The findings revealed that social cultural practices lead to HIV infection, in most cases most are accompanied with sexual intercourse. Other issues which emerged include: lack of information about HIV/AIDs, poverty, substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, Ignorance and cultural beliefs. The study also revealed that practices are practiced for fear of traditional curses which include taboos which may result to death and stigmatization from the society socialization. This study recommends that, youth need to be well informed about the pandemic, know its contributory factors and the consequences. The paper also challenges the actors involve in HIV preventive to include elders in negotiating the traditions to find cultural alternatives, this paper also acknowledges the involvement of local channel for fight against HIV.