| dc.description.abstract | The idea of individual liberty has become a major issue in all societies the world over. It has been argued that liberty is an unalienable right for all human beings and that individual liberty is a necessary condition for the development of individuals and consequently their societies. Societies allover the world are therefore being urged to evolve institutions that grant maximum liberty to thear citizens. It is only in a free environment that individuals are able to exploit their talents to the full for both their individual and collective development. This fact has made it necessary that for any meaningful and faster development of any society, it must grant its citizens the maximum freedom possible. This study looks back at a traditional African society to see whether or not its social forces especially religious forces worked towards this goal, that is granting liberty to individual members of this society. Since religion played a central role in the Bukusu traditional society, emphasis is put on the examination of the impact of the major religious beliefs and practices on individual liberty. This study is based on library research on the Bukusu traditional beliefs and practices and on the concepts of liberty. These beliefs and practices are then examined to unveil their authoritarian tendencies laying bare how and where they ~iolated the liberty of the members of the society in question. It is concluded that these beliefs and practices together with the social framework that resulted from their influence, were in many ways authoritarian and as such limited the liberty of the members of this society. The thesis commences with the statement of the problem, objectives, justification and significance, theoretical framework, hypothesis and the methodology of the study. It also presents a brief introduction of the Bukusu traditional society and its major religious beliefs and practices. The second chapter makes a survey of the philosophical concept of liberty putting emphasis on definition and its necessity for mankind. Armed with this idea of liberty, chapters three and four present an examination of the Bukusu traditional religious beliefs and practices showing how each of them affected the liberty of the individual. Chapter three examines the effects of the rites of passage on liberty while chapter four, those of other religious beliefs and practices other than the rites of passage. Chapter five makes a critical analysis of the position of the individual in the Bukusu traditional society. And the last chapter draws a conclusion which shows that individual liberty was to a great extent absent in the Bukusu traditional society. | en |
