| dc.description.abstract | This study addresses the subject of death and dying which has plainly
haunted people in both religious and non-religious institutions. Each
person nurses a conviction that death is imminent and inescapable and
though one may not, and probably never, know when s/he will die, the
reality is certain and beyond doubt. This mindset affects the value and
attitude of ones daily living and communal interpersonal relations.
Individuals find themselves anxious in life because of this
overwhelming presence of death and dying.The above triggered investigation into the Akamba Traditional Religion and Philosophy on the conception of death and dying and how it continuously affects the Christian perception of death and dying
among the members of Africa Inland Church in Machakos district.
This study aims at elaborating that, despite the many years of Christian
evangelisation, a considerable number of Africa Inland Church
members in the Machakos district of Kenya are still influenced by the
Akamba Traditional Religion and Philosophy in their belief and
understanding of death and dying" and phobia thereby.Christian evangelisation in Ukambani has a long history. As early as1850 a missionary called J.L. Krapf had already translated and published a Kamba version of the gospel according to St. Mark that ignored the Akamba Traditional Religion and Philosophy in its
interpretation and presentation. Nevertheless, the effort was
commendable since as Robert Sarah asserts in his introduction to The
African Bible: "The word of God is the centre of everything. It impregnates and gives life to the faith of God's people. It inspires,directs, and guides the existence and history of humanity to snatch humanity from sin and death and enable all people to live a new life.
Moreover, around and after this time many more foreign missionaries came to Ukambani where in 1895 an American missionary, P.e. Scott, came and founded the Africa Inland Mission which eventually founded the Africa Inland Church in Kenya.
It is now just over hundred years since, Africa Inland Mission, missionaries evangelised Ukambani. The missionaries were dedicated in converting and catechising the Akamba into Christianity.Unfortunately, they preached the Christian doctrine ill a way that
condemned, rejected, dismissed, and 'demonised' the Akamba traditional way of life as primitive, pagan, and incompatible with the gospel. It was required that for any Mukamba to be a Christian, one had to first denounce ones traditional ways, religious beliefs, and cultural values one is socialised in otherwise s/he would not be allowed
to benefit from the favours, the Christian converts were given by the missionaries like formal schooling,medical care, food stuffs, and other handouts. Many people thus became Christian converts for the purpose of improving their living conditions and benefiting from the missionaries while the Christianity they embraced remained superficial.This study therefore intends to show how this missionary attitude and
method of evangelisation has impoverished the Christian
understanding of death and dying among the members of Africa Inland Church in Machakos district on the one hand. On the other hand, the study aims at explaining that the Akamba Traditional Religion and Philosophy still influences the above people's belief and understanding of death and dying.With this in mind, the study endeavours to use INCULTURATION approach with the aim of helping to understand, interpret, and present, the Christian teaching on death and dying in a more relevant and
meaningful way to the Machakos district members of Africa Inland
Church in particular and the other Africans in general. To accomplish
this, the research will use four mediations suggested by Leonardo Boff
and Clodovis Boff for its methodological approach namely, Participation,
Socio-analytical, Hermeneutical, and Practical mediations
In view of the above the study will also take into consideration the
insights of Pope John Paul II regarding Inculturational endeavour
namely:One of the aspects of this evangelisation is the inculturation of the
Gospel, the Africanisation of the Church .... That is part of the
indispensable efforts to inearsate the message of Christ. The gospel
certainly is not identified with 'cultures, and transcends them all. But
the Kingdom that the gospel proclaims is lived by man deeply tied to
a culture. And also It is important to carry out a thorough investigation of the cultural
traditions of the various populations and of the philosophical ideas
that underlie them in order to detect elements that are in contradiction with the Christian religion and contributions that enrich theological reflection. | en |
