Reconstruction 10.1 (2010)
Return to Contents>>
The Cohesive Role of Music, Dance and Traditional Artifacts in African Independent Churches in Western Kenya / Susan M. Kilonzo, Ph.D., Maseno University, Kenya
Abstract
The Kenyan society has since 1970’s been characterized by a wave of religious renewal, in which African Independent churches (AICs) sprouted up in response to people’s quest for a renewed tradition of African Culture. These movements endeavor to fulfill the people’s socio-cultural needs that are thought to have deteriorated with the advent of colonization and European Christianity. The paper subsequently examines how music, dance, and traditional artifacts used by AICs in Western Kenya have enhanced unity among the adherents in these churches. The paper also discusses how these churches, through music, dance and other artifacts survive amidst the quest for modernity by the younger generation. In this regard, the AICs aim at rejuvenating original religious practices that appreciate African people’s culture. The churches sampled for the study include African Israel Nineve Church, African Divine Church, Legio Maria, Dini ya Msambwa, and, Roho Israel Church. The findings of the study indicate that these churches use African music, dance and ‘traditional’ instruments as a way of expressing the lost glory of their traditional religions and in some instances, fuse this music with modern technology to ensure their survival, in terms of membership, and especially to attract the younger generation who value ‘Western’ culture and who form the greatest percentage of the population in Western Kenya.
Introduction
Christianity as brought to the Africans by the missionaries was thought to be an “eye-opener” to the “salvage” Africans. It came along with goodies such as the ‘medicine of the white man’, education for the ‘uncivilized’ Africans, and Church for the pagan Africans. This form of Christianity was then likened to a three-legged stool providing a place of worship, school and hospital for the converts. It is only the converts who enjoyed these services. In most missionary founded churches, the system of worship was inflexible and the services followed a laid down procedure as dictated by the mother-churches abroad. The Africans were evangelized to follow these forms of worship, though some still retained their ancestral and indigenous beliefs and practices. Those who defied the conversion procedures of the “white man” could not access the goodies that accompanied it and consequently their children were not educated in missionary schools nor treated in the missionary hospitals. The missionaries thought that the African ways of worshipping were barbaric and so tried to completely change the kind of religiosity practiced by Africans. Africans had therefore to abandon their kind of religious music, dance and places of worship, including the shrines.
I realize that this was not only a negative effect felt in Africa but also in Latin America. Writing on the effects of liturgies, dance, resistance and a hermeneutics of the knees, Cláudio Carvalhaes (2008:2-3) explains the pains of European Evangelization which stripped most communities of their innate beliefs and practices. He observes:
Our evangelization in Latin America, both from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, taught us to be careful, suspicious and even hateful of our bodies. We learned that there was a proper (civilized) way of moving, believing, acting, singing, looking, gesturing, touching within the worshiping space and in the world. Silently the Christian evangelization targeted first of all, our knees. They were taken from our own control and educated by priests and pastors to behave accordingly. This education began when Latin America became the hosts of missionaries, but in no time, we suddenly became the guests of our once guests, now our hosts.
Cláudio refers to this gospel by the missionaries as liturgical proper, which removed the Latin Americans from what they were familiar with and introduced that which was thought to control the body and the mind for proper gospel. He therefore proposes that ‘to dance is to become the owners of our bodies, to become responsible for them, but, to do that we must get our knees loosened up and take action from sexual, bodily faith.’
In Africa, and specifically in Kenya, after they thought that their mission was accomplished, most of the European missionaries returned to their mother countries leaving most of the mission stations in the hands of African leaders who had been tutored to follow the missionaries’ culture. The situation then gradually changed. Whereas some of the churches readily accepted inculturation (incorporation of African forms of worship in churches through dialogue of churches and African culture), others remained faithful to the missionaries’ approach of religiosity. The culture of the West has however not 100 per cent been maintained in the mainline churches. In this perspective, Kalu (1995:48), while examining the dilemma of grassroots inculturation of the Gospel in Igboland, Nigeria, wonders what a church does when a cultural form is central to life of a community and when the church perceives that cultural form to be inimical to the affirmation of the gospel and ecclesiastical tradition. How does “dialogue and integration” operate in the heat of conflict? To negotiate these predicaments, Kalu uses the centrality of an ancestral cult known as Odo among the Igbo and the Roman Catholic Holy Ghost Fathers to clearly outline how to date, the church exists as a stranger to the cultures of the people. Kalu suggests that for the Church to be adapted, it has to indigenize, contextualize, incarnate and inculturate the African belief systems in its systems of worship. For this research, belief systems include African artifacts, such as buildings, dress codes, music and dance.
To a great extent, the failure of most mainline churches to contextualize their gospel has led to mushrooming of AICs, and this took root especially after the leadership of the mainline churches had been left in the hands of African leaders. People founded churches that would befit their livelihoods- though this is not the sole reason for the diversity as I discuss elsewhere (Kilonzo, 2008). Formation of these churches has continued up to date and as opposed to Mbiti’s (1973) conception that the diverse occurrence of religious groups is a messy soup in the African context. The study proves that this is a rich way for Africans to express their religiosity. The existence of these religious groups is accompanied by assorted expressions in dance, music, worship, evangelism, and artistic representations in a bid to capture both modern and traditional cultures. These cultures have been used to develop a sense of unity at community’s grassroots. Some of the AICs are able to prove that Christ’s work was within people’s culture and not against culture. The study therefore later, highlights the three prepositions by Richard Neibuhr (1951) on Christ above, within, and, against culture to explain how AICs versus mainstream churches explain their positions on inculturation.
Study Gap
Various literature has explored the issue of religious diversity and how this diversity is manifested in the society (see Barrett, 1968; 1973; Blakely, 1994; Petersen, 1978; Mugambi, 2002; Newbegin, 1994, among others). These researches among others depict the diverse nature of religiosity in various geographical, cultural and economic settings, and thus the practices are structured to suit the contexts of the adherents in one way or the other. It is without any daunting doubt that the role of music and dance in many of these religions is eminent. This is especially so in Africa where the culture of music and dance has a traditional and cultural attachment, and, where there is a wide diversity of cultural beliefs and practices. The two (music and dance), have been used by diverse religious groups as a way of expressing gratitude to God/gods as well as a way of worship and entertainment. It is in this regard that these two modes of worship have distinctly featured in AICs to counteract the shortcomings of worship practices in mainline churches. A gap that therefore exists in most of the researches done on AICs is how these groups use music, dance, and traditional artifacts as mechanisms of cohesion and unity. The researches do not also focus on the types of music used by AICs as compared to the mainline churches. This paper therefore endeavors to explore questions such as: What type of music and dance is commonly used by AICs? How do AICs use the aspects of music and dance in their worship? What is the role of the two aspects? How has this music influenced, or, been influenced by African culture? Has modern technology influenced music and dance in AICs? What are some of the traditional artifacts that appropriate the spread of the ‘gospel’ in AICs besides music and dance?
Study Area, Samples and Methods
The study was conducted in Western Kenya in Emuhaya, Vihiga, and Tiriki regions. The samples for the study were drawn from African Israel Nineve Church (AINC), African Divine Church (ADC), Legio Maria, Dini ya Msambwa (DYM), the Holy Spirit Church (HSC), and Roho Israel Church (RIC). These groups were purposively sampled because of the distinct role played by the three aspects of focus in this research. The chief church leaders as well as choir/worship leaders in all the churches were purposively interviewed through in depth oral interviews. Ten church members from the five churches were randomly selected and a non-structured questionnaire administered to them. The researcher also conducted focus group discussions with the already sampled church members.
Concepts
Acculturation
Culture according to Kornblum (2005:51) is all modes of thought, behavior and production that are handed down from one generation to the next by means of communicative interaction. A people’s culture can be modified, or can either accommodate/tolerate or resist encroachment from other cultures. Acculturation therefore necessitates the taking on material and non-material attributes from another culture as a result of prolonged face-to-face contact. It is the interaction of cultures. Such contact in religious circles may be as a result of missionary activity, cultural exchanges and technological advancement (Vago 2000:87). Acculturation may be voluntary or involuntary.
Diffusion
This is the process by which innovations spread from one culture to another or from a subculture into the larger culture. It is a theory that emerged as an alternative to the evolution (Vago 1996:77). 90% of every culture known to history has acquired its elements from other people. A considerable amount of borrowing therefore goes on in human societies and as Vago argues, the processes of diffusion, reinterpretation of borrowed or introduced elements, innovations and synthesis of the old and new are ongoing and are present in all of them to varying degrees. The paper therefore propagates the fact that in as much as some AICs are emerging in Africa to recapture the traditional beliefs and practices, this cannot be done in utopia since the contemporary society on the other hand is changing. Technological advancement influences the cultural changes and vice versa.
Inculturation
Gumo (2004:167) briefly defines inculturation as the on going dialogue between faith and culture or cultures. It is the creative and dynamic relationship between the Christian message and a culture(s). By accepting inculturation, we allow a renewed formulation and interpretation of the existing religious doctrines to suit people’s cultural contexts. Whereas acculturation and diffusion may only emphasize on cultural changes of the absorbing group, inculturation on the other hand is aimed at incorporating cultural views to the foreign cultures, e.g. Christianity as a foreign culture incorporating African worldviews in their doctrines. This in the long run modifies the imported worldview to capture the natives’ beliefs and practices and when this happens in a given religion, it becomes in the words of Welbourn and Ogot (1966), “a place to feel at home”.
Inculturation Theology
This refers to processes that allow for incorporation of African beliefs and practices in Christian doctrines. This allows for integration of what is held indigenous to what is thought to be foreign and/or of Western culture. In Africa, this has been a platform for the appropriation of African Theology. The formation of All African Conference of Churches (AACC) in 1963 gave an impetus to this quest and the 1966 AACC convention provided space for African theologians to map out Christian theology for African people by drawing from the grassroots movements, African Traditional beliefs, and African cosmologies (Nthamburi 1995). This was a strong foundation for Africans to take initiatives to propagate their religiosity, and inculturate their theologies into the Christian doctrines.
African Theology
To Mugambi (1989:9), African theology has two meanings and/or implications: First, the discourse which Africans conducted among themselves before their contact and influence by Christians and Muslims; and secondly, the discourse which is being conducted by Africans in orders to relate their own cultural and religious heritage to Christianity. While quoting Kurewa (1975), Nthamburi (1995:4) corroborates that African Theology is a study that seeks to reflect upon and express the Christian faith in African thought forms and idioms as it is experienced in African Christian communities and always in dialogue with the rest of Christendom. This therefore implies that inculturation of African beliefs and practices to Christianity is an on-going process.
African Independent/Initiated Churches (AICs)
Barrett (1968:50) explains that “independency” in African churches is:
The formation and existence within a community unit, temporarily or permanently, of any organized religious movement within a district name and membership, even as small as a single organized congregation, which claims the title Christian in that it acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord, and which has either separated by secession from a mission church or an existing independent church, or has been founded outside the mission churches as a new kind of religious entity under African initiative and leadership. An African Independent Church is, then, a church that has been founded under African initiative and leadership to contextualize its operations as directed by the people’s needs (also see Adogame 2007, Pobee 2002, Pobee and Ositelu 1998). To be recognized as a Christian movement, it must acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord; otherwise, it will fully assume the characteristics of African Indigenous/Traditional Religion (ATR).
New Religious Movements (NRMs)
As contextualized in this study, NRM may not necessarily address people’s cultural needs or necessarily be pioneered by African initiatives, but its main characteristic is that it is liberal to accommodate waves of culture and modernity and liven the gospel as demanded at a particular place and time. Most of the NRMs are charismatics and Pentecostal groups.
Modernization
This is the process by which traditional beliefs and practices are transformed into what most people have believed to be modern/Western cultures. The process of modernization has been taking place rapidly in the recent past. However, this could be described as the encounter of cultural hegemony; which would generally be referred to as Westernization of African cultural beliefs and practices, with the Western culture as “stronger” culture exerting hegemony over the “weaker” African culture. I also would assert that the African culture has seen a period of revitalization of these formerly eroded practices. This observation provides a paradoxical picture, especially in the religious circles. The paradox is that as the Africans are busy reviving their ‘buried’ cultures, the advancement of technology is taking toll in many African institutions including within religious groups.
Conceptual Orientation
The above-defined concepts provide a complexity of a structural background upon which this paper can be conceptualized. Though most of these term have Western origin and explanations for their literal meanings, they have been contextualized to fit the setting of an African study. The argument here is that a web of interaction of these ideas-diffusion, acculturation, inculturation, African Theology, and modernization- as sources of change in the contemporary society, has resulted into a revitalization of African Christianity in which AICs are founded to suit Africans’ context. The freedom to form these movements is also characterized by freedom to revitalize or invent new forms of practices such as music, dance, and a creative use of African artistic representations. This conceptual orientation enables us probe into ways in which the AICs have inculturated the African Indigenous way of life in their religious practices, and still maintain a Christian outlook. In this way, we affirm that African Theology has been used to play a liberating role to these churches, from structures that do not help in the contextualization of the Gospel to fit into the life milieus of Africans.
Discussions
A Brief Background of AICs
The advent of Christianity in Africa eroded most of the African traditional beliefs and practices. Mugambi (1989:33) rightly observes that some Africans accepted Christian faith without question and criticism. They denounced, rejected and tried to abandon their cultural heritage, of which they were taught to be ashamed. For over two centuries, Missionary Christianity reigned in the minds of many Africans with little aspects of traditional beliefs and practices only being identified in limited areas, and with few Africans in these areas readily accepting to be associated with African beliefs and practices. The few who rejected missionaries’ approaches challenged the insistence that conversion to Christianity and the adoption of Western culture were inseparable. Thus, they accepted Christian faith but rejected Western domination. The tensions between Africans and the missionaries led to the establishment of African Independent Churches (AICs) as counter-hegemonic forces to missionary Christianity. This has seen a major resurgence of African beliefs.
The initials AIC, as the designation of a genre of African expressions of Christian faith of a great variety, are themselves understood in different ways: African independent churches signifies that they are independent in their origin and organization. On the other hand, African instituted churches signify that they came into being by the initiative of Africans and may not be independent. Other groups of scholars have referred to these churches as African indigenous churches (Pobee, 2002). African indigenous churches as a terminology connotes that the churches under this umbrella retain an African ethos and their theology have developed a distinctive local flavor. These categories of definitions of African independent churches, African instituted churches, and, African indigenous churches may overlap to some extent but not completely. The official term for these churches when they emerged, as Sundkler (1961:18) insightfully argues, was native separatist churches, to imply that they were splinter groups from the mainline missionary churches. This term as Sundkler observes was not widely unacceptable especially by the South Africans because “native” was offensive to blacks in South Africa during a period of apartheid. It also meant that these churches were schisms from the mainline churches, which was not always the case. Later researchers and writers were to adopt the term African independent churches (Adogame and Jafta, 2007). The term independent implies that these churches originate from Africa, and are not dependent on any religious groups outside Africa for funding, leadership and control.
Adogame (2008:299) classifies some of the AICs as African new religious movements (ANRMs). He further elaborates that they are considered new in the sense that these indigenous religious initiatives and creativities are historically unprecedented in the African religious context. For instance, within Christianity they refer to those that succeeded mission or mainline Christianity. These include AICs and African Pentecostal/charismatic movements.
Though the AICs cannot fully claim to adopt African forms of worship per se, they are movements that endeavor to bring back the Africa’s traditional/cultural glory that was lost due to the advent of Missionary Christianity. They claim to be propagating African Theology. They widely bear an African outlook, and somewhat, a Christian position. There is now a new wave of African Christianity, which is characterized by formation of sects and denominations, which are “liberated’ to accommodate both African cultural practices and the advanced technology as a way of contextualizing the gospel to suit people’s situations and environments in the cultural as well as contemporary world. Some of these African Christian movements have either a cultural background or missionary Christianity background, but have incorporated new trends in their services to ensure that they are in a position to gain membership from the local communities. However, a greater percentage of AICs call to a return to African religious belief and practices. It is believed that these practices, especially music, dance and cultural artifacts create a sense of oneness among the adherents, and that such brings a sense of ownership within the united group.
Brief History of the Selected Churches
Almost all of the selected groups for this study are splinter AICs from the mainline churches. AINC split from Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) in 1932 after the leader, the late David Zakayo Kivuli, differed with the appointment of his younger brother as a church leader by the European missionaries in the church. To Zakayo, this was culturally wrong. His younger brother could not lead him. He therefore quit and founded AINC, whose adherents claim that the founder was called in a vision by God to start the church. In 1948, another splinter group from PAG known as ADC was founded in a neighboring village. This was led by Saul Chabuga. Legio Maria on the other hand was among the first splinter groups in Western Kenya. This is a charismatic sect split from the Legion of Mary introduced in Western Kenya by Miss Edel Quinn in 1949. Gaudencia Aoko and Simeo Ondeto deviated from the Legion of Mary to start Legio Maria because they felt that they were not given enough room to practice the spiritual gifts of healing and praying for the sick given to them by God through visions. They then thought that they needed to pray and baptize the African converts without charge. It started in Nyanza Province and later spread to other parts of the country including Western Kenya. There are other groups that have split from Legio Maria including RIC mainly due to leadership wrangles (Kilonzo, 2008:84-91). The HSC is a splinter group from the Friends Church started in Kaimosi in 1905. The group split in 1930 due to their insistence on the power of Holy Spirit and worship through speaking in tongues (Rassmussen, 1996:23). Besides the splinter groups, others were founded to attack colonial regimes and the practices “forced down their throats” by the colonialists. One of the AICs purely linked to counter hegemonic reactions to colonization is DYM which was formed in the 1940’s by the late Elijah Masinde in Bungoma District of Western Province. Just like the founders of many AICs, he insisted on a return to African culture and religion. He attracted quite a number of followers because he tried to revive traditional music that had been lost through Western evangelization and in addition rebelled against the government which seemed to be oppressive of certain ethnic groupings including Masinde’s.
The history of the formation of these groups has been documented elsewhere (Barrett 1968; 1973, Kilonzo 2008, Rasmussen 1996, Nthamburi 1995, Kasiera 1981, Nandi 2003, among others) and therefore it is not in the mandate of the paper to give detailed history. The paper delves into the cohesive role of music, dance and traditional artifacts of these groups.
Music
Conant (1917:370) observes that music, as well as architecture and painting has always been the handmaid of religion; the one owes much of her growth and development to the other. To Conant, music may aid the expression of worship and prayer, lending wings to the upward striving soul. It may deepen the impression of scripture and other religious instruction. It may even add stimulus to the will when associated with words of noble resolve. This is the role of music that AICs try to recapture. Andrews (1916:331) while writing on music as an expression of religious feeling, explains;
Music is a means, a vehicle. It is not an end in itself. Its harmonies, melodies, rhythms, and tonal colors have a certain charm in themselves, but if combined according to the laws inherent in these elements and after the pattern seen in the vision of the creative artist, there are results: an aesthetic and spiritual reality, which responsive souls will realize and in which they will rejoice… Other arts have power thus to act upon the soul, but probably none so intensely and universally.
In the African context, music plays a great role in the lives of people. For the missionaries to dictate that Africans had to abandon their culture of music and dance, this was detrimental. The singing and dancing culture was part of their everyday life and so there were consequences in withdrawing what held the communities together.
Services in most missionary founded churches were formalized and standardized to minimally include African forms of worship. The structure was hierarchical and inherited from mother churches abroad. Prayers in most of these churches was (and still is in some) said word by word without the slightest alteration. A distinct example is the Catholic Church. Both prayers and songs were fixed and followed a certain unaltered order. This has of late, greatly changed with the advent of AICs in the modern Kenyan society. The schisms, renewals and novels that are currently mushrooming in the society have a new way of worship, through Western and indigenous music. AICs are known to have revived indigenous music in Kenya. Field data showed that most of the AIC leaders acknowledge that the indigenous religious songs that existed before and those that have been composed to speak of African experiences always have a contextual meaning in the communities where they are used, as compared to the popular gospel music that has mushroomed in Kenya. The later, as the leadership of ADC, AINC, and DYM explained is money making business that has been used especially by the youth to attract as many “westernized” masses as possible. Indigenous music on the other hand according to the church leaders serves to propagate the true African worship and African theology in African Christian churches, creating a sense of ownership and feasible communion with the divine being.
Legio Maria affirmed that singing, which introduces people into worship, is a sure way of welcoming the Holy Spirit. They claim to meditate on the songs, which transits them to the spiritual world where one can speak in tongues. Besides, the oneness of the worshipers is realized when the Holy Spirit descends upon them to communicate to them. This is evidenced by the spirit possession which is explained as sweeping through the “church” and transiting members to the spiritual world to communicate with God in a language that is “foreign” to second and third parties. They believe through this, the spirit-filled worshipper is able to have visions and receive gifts such as of prophesy and healing. This is quite similar to the Tongan dance in which the concept mafana or “inner exhilaration” introduces the Holy Spirit which is actively corporeal. The Spirit which is the agent of mafana enacts change through the physical means of the dance (Johnson-Hill, 2008:26). From a non-participant observation in one of the Legio Maria prayer meetings, it was clear that the music leads worshippers to get into an ecstatic trance and speak in unknown (spiritual) language, thus appropriating a communion with the supernatural world. The music is accompanied by traditional drum beats and sounds of cymbals and at times horn blowing.
Besides the use of the music to mediate worship, this mode has also been used as a way of evangelism especially in villages and market places. This is very common with AINC, ADC, and Legio Maria adherents. The singing starts from their worship station (church) as they move through the neighboring villages and towards the market places. They believe that besides the door-to-door evangelism and crusades, which are common with Pentecostal denominations, music is a way of evangelizing and therefore attract a large number of followers along the village streets. This is especially so with the traditional music, which to them has ‘untainted’ message that suits people’s spiritual and material needs. It is a form of music thought to bind people together through a message of oneness in the “African church”. The Indigenous churches have therefore at times condemned “extreme” westernized music in the mainline churches by noting that it “dilutes” and compromises the gospel. They have labeled the reggae-hip-hop gospel music produced by the youth as secular, which lacks spiritual fulfillment and thus the emphasis is on a return to their meaningful traditional music.
To counteract the challenge of the condemnation that they are playing secular music, and in an effort to have a wide acceptance of in both “modern” and “indigenous” set ups, some youth popular gospel music singers and producers have resulted into African lyrics but the music is always fused with modern tunes and accompanied by modern instruments. They have also fused African traditional moves into the songs such as the shaking of shoulders and hands. To deepen the relevance, the shooting of videos for this kind of music is done in local community setting to contextualize the message, but again this is diffused with modern features. This kind of music has not only found acceptance among most youths but also the old generation. The songs have further been popularized by the media who not only play them in most of the “ethnic” (local languages) FM radios, but also find a wide coverage of live shows by these musicians. An relevant example that suffices here in the murembe FM in Western Kenya which broadcasts in most Luhya dialects and plays indigenous music, including the traditional gospel songs.
It is clear that the erosion of African culture from most mainline churches has created a void. The need for an inculturation of this music is seen in ceremonies like marriages in these churches, where most couple have tended to invite indigenous music groups who crown the wedding ceremonies with their traditional jingles, whether gospel or secular. This is in most cases done after the official church wedding, and especially at the reception. Evidence is also signified by the efforts of both AICs and mainline churches to translate “modern” songs introduced by the European missionaries into African languages, and fusing African tunes to them to enhance an African outlook. This explains the relevance which these forms of music and dance still hold in the African context. In most AICs, unlike in the mainline churches, most of these songs are accompanied by clapping, traditional instruments (especially drum beating), and African dance rhythms, a concept which I would like to explore further in the section that follows hereunder.
Dance
Lischner (1958) appreciates the role that music and dance played in the lives of “our ancestors” and this is no different with the present African generations. He explains that dance goes to the marrow of the bone of meaning. Not only does dance employ the senses of sight and sound, but it rests most heavily on the tactile sense, the most primitive of all. He notes that:
Thousands of years ago, our remote ancestors danced, sang and prayed to their gods. The words, music, and movement were used to communicate with God who was warm and close to his people. As the millennia rolled by, this God became remote and withdrawn, direct communication was lost and ritual continued…from habit, or tradition (52).
Although dance and music was to make a re-entry in Christian religiosity of Europe after hundred of years after they had been abolished in the destruction of the second Temple of the Jews, the Cathedral, the Temple, and the Mosque, in especially European nations, dance was, and still is in some of these places of worship still unacceptable (Lischner 1958: 54, [emphasis added]). This was later to spread to Africa as European missionaries tried to spread Christianity worldwide.
Despite the fact that history shows a re-entry of music and dance culture into the European and African contexts, it is noted that some of the mainline churches were very inflexible and did not allow inculturation of African music and dance cultures. This fact is emphasized by Andreas Heuser (2008) who narrates Bengt Sundkler’s (1976) experiences in Zululand with an elderly woman who complained that she could not accompany a church hymn with body movement because people were not allowed to shake their bodies in the church. It is from this loophole that AICs saw the need to pursue and regain the culture that has been lost in the Christianization of Africa. They used AICs as a platform upon which they could attract masses that had been deprived of their cultures and more specifically the music and dancing cultures.
In the locale of this study, the “Isukuti” and “Lipala” dances, which are traditional, are quite acceptable in most churches, especially in the AICs. Traditional drum beating (sukuti) and dancing accompany traditional and modern-translated gospel songs. This makes the churches “a place to feel at home” in the words of Welbourne and Ogot (1966). To the AICs and, Christianity in its mission form was not radically united to the rational structures of African society. The society appeared to be threatened by modern changes (Shorter 1974:49). AICs as well as NRMs are therefore transposing the social problems on to a mythical plane, helping the Africans “to feel at home” in the changed plane. Shorter’s observations helps us strengthen our argument on the need for African churches to liberate themselves from the structures of cultural oppression through establishment of more viable Church structures.
Dance has not only been used in AICs to make Africans feel the sense of ownership for their churches, but also as a way of expressing the joyous moments of communalism and oneness. The Lipala dance which is very common in these churches entails a choreograph of coordinated hand and leg movement, and which climaxes with ululation signifying the joy of culture in these churches. The dancing enables worshippers to move and mingle in the church as they express the joy of dancing to the divine. Both men and women interact as they share the joy of music, the beats and sounds of indigenous musical instruments, and, dance movements.
Dance has been an accompaniment of the African songs and tunes. It has also been appropriately used in the AICs as a worship tool. There is a belief among the ADC and AINC worshippers that music and dance mediates between the worshippers and the Holy Spirit, enabling them to go into trance and into the spiritual world to communicate with the divine. Similar to these experience is the Tongan dance mafana in which all dancers experience a sense of unity of communal living regardless of their social status (Johnson-Hill 2008). Johnson explains that:
The concept of mafana introduces to us a Holy Spirit which is actively corporeal. The Spirit which is the agent of mafana enacts change through the physical means of the dance. It is usually revealed in the fakateki, or the tilt of the head. It brings about emotional changes in dancers and audience alike. It initiates physical changes, as those previously stationary are moved to join in the dance. It has the potential to bring about social changes, as it is the one equalizing factor in the otherwise hierarchical structure of the Tongan dance. This is not different in most AICs in Kenya. Music and body movements have been used to “welcome” the Holy Spirit. Among the Legio Maria, the type of body movement (dance) explains the trance into which the worshippers are in. For worship (prayer), the dance is usually less vibrant unlike the praise songs. The drum beat and the rhythm of the music also changes. The leadership of ADC and HSC noted that African lyrics are better understood by worshippers and they mediate people easily from praise into worship and vice versa. They also determine the type of body movements.
Artistic Representations
The leadership of ADC and AINC argued that though they are concerned with the people’s cultural and situational contexts, they cannot ignore the advent of modernity in issues like artistic representations. The use of shrines for them is outdated in spite of their efforts to propagate cultural beliefs and practices. They claimed to have over 300 and 100 churches respectively, in Vihiga district only. They also claimed to be establishing a nursery school in every church they build in the district as a way of evangelizing even to the little children. The argument of using churches (buildings) was evidenced by the number of churches that exist from the various denominations in the district. The table below shows the number of churches in some of the mainline churches as compared to AINC and ADC.
| Denomination / Movement | Year Established | Current No. of Churches |
| African Divine Church (ADC) | 1948 | 330 |
| Church of God (CoG) | 1905 | 325 |
| Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) | 1926 | 241 |
| Legio Maria | 1952 | 184 |
| African Israel Nineveh Church (AINC) | 1949 | 172 |
| Roman Catholic Church | 1915 | 4 |
* Source: Field data, Vihiga district, Western Kenya
The incidental sampling of the mainline churches (which were not part of the initial sample) was meant to compare their number of churches with those of AICs. The church leaders from both sides claimed to be using buildings as a way of attracting people for their services. To them, the more the churches, the greater the number of faithful, but this is not always the case. ADC, CoG, and PAG had the greatest number of churches in the district. A tour through the locale of the study depicted a great variation of church buildings. The mainline churches of course had more modern and permanent buildings. It is believed that since most of these host the headquarters, and were the stations where the European missionaries were based as they spread the gospel across Western Kenya, this gave them an advantage over other churches to have elaborate buildings. The mainline churches are also believed to source funding from their mother churches abroad. AICs on the other hand are largely believed to depend on the contributions of their members. Where members generously contribute money in form of tithes, offerings, and fund raising, they are able to put up stable buildings unlike in churches where membership is limited.
The modern artistic representations in form of church building in AICs have been complemented by other traditional artifacts as interior décor e.g. wooden crosses, wooden pulpits and carvings, and, traditional musical instruments. In most Pentecostal NRMs, this is however, the opposite with most interior décor furnished with modern artistic representations such as wall draperies, glass pulpit, modern seats, national flags of different countries, modern instruments, and artificial floors, among others. The artistically decorated buildings with golden decorated alters, expensive statues have also been used to attract faithfuls. The use of art in both mainline and AICs as well as Pentecostal NRMs as a way of attracting followers was evident from the field research.
For dressing codes, most of the mainline church leaders (priests, reverends and bishops) have official clothes and collars, generally referred to as vestments. These codes vary from one denomination to the other and their colors symbolize different things and occasions. Some of the AIC leaders also use vestments whose designs differ according to the positions held in the church. It was however, observable that the Pentecostal NRMs leaders rarely have official clothing. Most of them wear modern suits. In the AICs, the church leaders, most of whom are men, wear robes. In ADC and AINC, the leaders wear white and purple robes respectively. The faithfuls in some AICs such as ADC, Legio Maria, and AINC, as well as in some mainstream churches (e.g. Salvation Army) also have uniforms. Some mainstream churches however insist on “conservative” form of dressing, especially for women who must cover their heads and wear long, loosely fitting skirts. The opposite of this is found in some Pentecostal NRMs who are not strict on dress codes. The youth therefore have a wide variety of churches to choose from. It is observed that the Pentecostal NRMs have been attracting a huge following of the youth because of their flexibility in terms of music, dance, and dress codes. Most of them adopt modern approaches and the youth tend to identify with them. To suit in the context of AICs, the youth are re-designing and restructuring the kind of gospel music, they produce to suit the contexts and demands of AICs, especially on the call to return to African culture.
African Culture Versus Modernity
Vago (1996:19) opines that competition and conflict are characterized by an attempt of two or more parties to reach certain objectives. To Vago, parties in a conflict believe they have incompatible goals, and often it involves attempts by adversaries to threaten, injure or otherwise coerce each other. The emotions of distrust, hatred, suspicion and fear are accentuated in conflicts by emphasizing the differences between parties and minimizing their similarities. This is exactly the case in Western Kenya, among the AICs, Pentecostal NRMs and mainstream churches. AICs and mainline churches are somehow strict on dressing codes unlike the Pentecostal NRMs. On the other hand, in music and dance, the Pentecostal NRMs and AICs are flexible and encourage the culture of African dance and music as modes of praise and worship. A common belief of the two is that music and dance mediates people into spiritual world. This is different from the mainline churches such as the Catholic Church, where songs only feature at certain phases of the mass. To justify their practices, AICs, Pentecostal NRMs and mainstream churches arguments could be placed in the prepositions propounded by Richard Niebuhr’s contribution to Christ [ianity] and culture debates. Though Neibuhr articulated his thoughts in early 1950’s, his arguments still remain relevant for they give a distinction for the practices of mainline churches, NRMs, and AICs. Richard Neibuhr (1951) propagated the Christ within Culture, Christ against Culture, and Christ above Culture arguments.
Christ above culture is an argument that has been raised by most mainstream churches especially those that trace their origin and spread from first missionary activity in their various countries. An example of such churches is the Roman Catholic Church. The argument here is that Christ’s knowledge and power surpasses all other cultural authorities and for this reason, the Church should not be a partisan in cultural activities and ceremonies. The power or influence of the other cultures is therefore not relevant in Christianity context. The only culture that should be held important at all times is Christ’s culture of the Bible.
Christ against Culture argument on the other hand holds that Christ as the author of Christianity is against cultural observances and those who practice such should not be considered as ‘those of the faith”. In this particular debate, whatever may be the customs of the society in which Christians live, and whatever the human achievements it conserves, Christ is seen as opposed to them, so that he confronts men with the challenge of “either-or” decision (Niebuhr, Ibid:40). Churches that take this stand have abandoned wholly the customs and institutions of so-called ‘heathen’ societies, since Christ is against culture. Some of the mainline churches have therefore used this position to condemn the cultural activities encouraged by some AICs and have been calling on the church members to practice Christianity as brought by the missionaries. It is from this position that Kalu (1995) examined the position of cultural practices of the Igbo in Nigeria and the Catholic Church. In his piece, he highlights the fact that there is need for the mainline churches in Africa to contextualize, indigenize, and inculturate people’s beliefs and practices in the church services.
In Christ within Culture, argumentatively, Christ seems to accommodate all people irrespective of their family background, their cultural contexts as well as their weaknesses. This is the argument advanced mostly by AICs. To them, Jesus appears as a great hero of Human cultural history. To Niebuhr, the argument here affirms that Jesus’ teachings are regarded as the greatest human achievement since he confirms what is best in the past and guides the process of civilization to its proper goal. He is a part of culture in the sense that he himself is part of the social heritage that must be transmitted and conserved, thus, “Christ of Culture”. It is within this context that AICs propagate the argument that human culture should be part and parcel of their worship since Christ did not condemn culture but identified with it. They give examples in which Christ was subjected to the Jewish traditions including being circumcised on the eighth day. The need to propagate African theology that does not condemn people’s cultures in Christianity is a mandate of the AICs.
There are African scholars such as Mugambi (1989), Nthamburi (1995), and Mbiti (1986), who have made efforts to explain the role of African Theology in the lives of African people. They propagate the ideas that African Theology offers a place for African culture and African people to contextualize their religiosity while maintaining Christian outlook in their denominations and movements. These are important observations that helps maintain a status quo in African Christian churches. Despite this argument however, there continues to be debates over which cultures and theologies are best suited for the different churches in the Kenyan context. The mainline churches have argued that AICs and Pentecostal NRMs advocate for cultural practices whose effects may be detrimental to the lives of those involved, as I discuss elsewhere (Kilonzo 2008). The presence of AICs in the community has therefore, despite the effort to propagate and rejuvenate the African cultural practices, faced great criticisms from the mainline churches. They have been accused of accommodating misfits from the mainstream churches including the polygamous, and those who still uphold “dangerous” cultures such as traditional initiation, and pre- and post-burial rites including wife inheritance, and widow cleansing, which is not only seen as sinful but is also believed to endanger people’s health in an era of HIV and AIDS. They have therefore been accused of diluting the gospel of Christ.
It is however without any daunting doubt that AICs and to a certain extent the Pentecostal NRMs are playing a great role in the contextualization of Christianity in Africa. This has ensured unity among some ethnicities. In Western Kenya, most of the AICs are founded to suit ethnic quests for a return of certain cultures in a bid to expand African theology. The Luhya tribe, which is the second largest grouping in the country occupy most of Western Province and have more than 15 dialects, each with certain unique cultural practices. It would however, from my field research observations be authenticated that this particular ethnic grouping value the culture of music and dance. The AICs have therefore in the reviving of this culture enhanced cohesion among the ethnic groupings of Western Kenya. These had been abolished and abandoned following the colonization and evangelization processes by the colonialists and missionaries.
Conclusion
Conflict within and without the churches, should be, in the words of Lauer (1982:19) ‘be used as a factor in the enhancement of innovative and creative strategies of benevolent intentions’. The various forms of accommodation or adjustments in the various Christian groups should be a means of either compromising or alleviating tensions and underlying causes of conflicts for harmonious existence. The AICs have tried to recapture the lost glory of music and dance in the various churches. This should not be condemned as barbaric, but appreciated as a way of making people realize that they can build a sense of unity within their cultures. Summarily as a way of recommending, the study advocates for a deeper understanding of acculturation, inculturation and diffusion, in the African context. These terms if well conceptualized and articulated for practical application, they are likely to provide solutions to the religious conflicts. This will enhance a fertile ground for the exploration of new and better ways of expressing a people’s religiosity in the mainstream, NRMs and AICs and in turn encourage the contextualization of the gospel in a way that suits people’s socio-cultural milieus.
References
Adogame, A. 2008, “Globalization and African New Religious Movements in Europe” in Ogbu, K. (Ed) Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans.
Adogame, A. and Lazio, J. 2007, “Zionists, Aladura and Roho: African Instituted Churches” in Ogbu Kalu (Ed) African Christianity: An African Story, Trenton, NJ, Africa World Press.
Andrews, G. Music as an Expression of Religious Feeling. Musical Quarterly, 2 (1916) p.331-338, Oberlin, Ohio.
Barz, G. 2002, Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chepkwony, A. 2005, “African Religion, The Root Paradigm for Inculturation Theology: Prospects, for the 21st century”, in Ndung’u, Nahashon and Mwaura Philomena (Eds) Challenges and Prospects of the Church in Africa, Nairobi: Paulines Publications, Africa.
Chitando, E. 2002, Singing Culture: A Study of Gospel Music in Zimbabwe, Uppsala, Nordic African institute
Claudio, C. 2008, “Gimme de Kneebone Bent: Liturgies, Dance, Resistance and a Hermeneutics of the Knees” in Journal of World Christianity, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp 1-18
Conant, Songs, Religious Dangers in So-Called Religious, Religious Education, 12(1917:Feb. /Dec.) p.370
Dopamu, P. 1991, “Towards Understanding African Traditional Religion” in Uka E. (ed) Readings in African Traditional Religion, Bern Berlin: Peter Lang Inc. European Academic Publishers.
Gumo, S. 2004, The Catholic Church and Social Change in Busia District, Kenya 1924 – 1995, An unpublished PhD Thesis in Religious Studies. Maseno University, Kenya.
Heuser, A. 2008, “He Dances Like Isaiah Shembe!” Ritual Aesthetics as a Marker of Church Differences”, in Journal of World Christianity, Vol. 14. No. 1, pp 35-54
Johnson-Hill, K. 2008, “Inner Exhilaration and Speaking the Truth Through Metaphor: An Exploration of the Theological Significance of mafãna and Heliaki in Tongan Dance”, in Journal of World Christianity, Vol. 14, No.1, pp 19-34.
Kalu, O. The Dilemma of Grassroot Inculturation of the Gospel: A Case Study of a Modern Controversy in Igboland, 1983-1989, Journal of Religion in Africa, 25 (1995) pp. 48-72
Kilonzo, S. 2008, Christian Diversity and Community Development in Vihiga District, Kenya, Phd Dissertation, Maseno University, Kenya
Kornblum, W. 2005, Sociology in a Changing World, 7th edition, Belmont: Thomson. Wadsworth.
Lauer, R. 1982, Perspectives on Social Change, London: Allyn and Bacon Inc.
Lischner, R. Creative Dance as a Medium of Prayer, Religious Education, 53(1958:Jan. /Dec.) p.52
Magesa, L. 1998, African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life, Nairobi: Paulines Publications, Africa.
Mbiti, J. 1973, “Diversity, Divisions and Denominationalism” in Barrett D. et. al (Eds) Kenya Churches Handbook: The Development of Kenyan Christianity 1948 – 1973, Kisumu: Evangel Press.
Mugambi, J. 2002, A comparative Study of Religion, Nairobi: Nairobi University Press.
_________ 1995, From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology After the Cold War, Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
___________1989, African Christian Theology: An Introduction, Nairobi. African Educational Publishers.
Myers, M. and Granlan, S. 1988, Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.
Nandi, J. 2003, Historical and Theological Analysis of Dini ya Msambwa in Bungoma District, PhD Dissertation, Maseno University.
Newbegin, L. 1994, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society, Michigan: W.M.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Niebuhr, R. 1951, Christ and Culture, U.S.A: Harper & Row Publishers.
Nthamburi, Z. 1995, The African Church at the Crossroads: Strategy for Indigenization, Nairobi: Uzima press.
_________ 1995, From Mission to Church: A handbook of Christianity in East Africa. Nairobi: Uzima Press.
Nyaundi, N. 2003, Introduction to the Study of Religion, Eldoret: Zapf Chancery Research Consultants and Publishers.
Pobee, J. 2002, “African Instituted (Independent) Churches” in, N. Lossky, et al, eds., The Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, Geneva, WCC, accessed through internet on 29 December 2008, http://www.wcc.coe.org.
Pobee, J. & Ositelu, G. 1998, African Initiatives in Christianity. The Growth, Gifts and Diversities of Indigenous African Churches: A Challenge to the Ecumenical Movements, Geneva, WCC.
Petersen, K. 1987, Religion, Development and Identity, Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
Rasmussen, M. 1996, Modern African Spirituality: The Independent Holy Spirit Churches in East Africa 1902-1976, London: Bloomsbury Square. British Academic Press
Shorter, A. (1973) African Culture and the Christian Church: An Introduction to Social and Pastoral Anthropology. London: Geoffrey Chapman.
Spear, T. (eds.), 1999, East African Expressions of Christianity, Oxford: James Currey ltd.
Strelitz, L. 2004, “Against cultural essentialism: Media reception among South African Youth”, in Raymond Boyle et al. (Eds) Media, Culture and Society, Volume 26. No. 5, London: Sage Publications.
Sundkler, B. (1961) Bantu Prophets in South Africa. London: Oxford University Press.
Sundkler, B. 1976, Zulu Zion and some Swazi Zionists (Oxford Studies in African Affairs), London, Oxford University Press.
Thompson, D. 1993, “Open-mindedness and Indiscriminate Anti-religious Orientation” In Batson (et al, Eds) Religion and the Individual. A Socio Psychological Perspective, New York: Oxford University Press.
Uka, E. (ed.), 1991, Readings in African Traditional Religion. Bern Berlin. Peter Lang. Inc. European Academic Publishers.
Vago, S. 2000, Social Change, 4th edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
________1996, Social Change, 3rd edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Welbourn, F. & Ogot, B. 1966, A Place to Feel at Home: A Study of Two Independent Churches in Western Kenya, London: Oxford University Press.
West, G. 2002, “Neglected Dimensions of Biblical Interpretation in the African Context: Equipping the Church to Respond to the Cries of the Poor” In Kanyandago p. (Ed) The Cries of the Poor in Africa: Questions and Responses for African Christianity, Uganda: Kisubi. Marianum Publishing Company Ltd.
Willoughby, D. 2003, The Word of Music, 5th edition, New York: McGraw Hill.
Return to Top»