From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
BONDO-SIAYA COUNTY
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011
This week I will comment on the news that made the headline recently on Mr Gordon Oyoo, a polygamist from Rabuor Village, Kisumu County whose Msanda Holy Ghost Church in East Africa with its headquarters in Butere has no problem with polygamist members.
One of the reasons given is that polygamy discourages promiscuity and guards against sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/Aids. Oyoo is only 54 with 15 children out of which 10 are in primary school, four in nursery, and his last-born child is yet to begin going to school.
Although the church follows African tradition where polygamy is not a sin, the Msanda Holy Ghost Church in East Africa teachings state that one can be polygamous but cannot marry additional women once you become a church elder.
According to the church’s Bishop Tom Oraga, his church allows polygamy marriages, not only because it is African tradition but because the Bible is not against polygamy, citing Paul in the Bible who even though later on was against polygamy, but had 21 wives.
Most of the men mentioned in the Bible he says had many wives, including Solomon, the son of King David and later King of Israel who had 700 wives and 300 concubines, arguing that monogamy is only Western concept.
Oyoo who is a freelance photographer at Kisumu’s Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground is not alone. The practice of polygamy is legal in Kenya, and such unions are fully recognized by the courts under customary law.
However, the debate as to whether the civil marriage can be legalized to allow polygamy is still pending in parliament due to political and religious resistance. Re-introduced in early March 2009, “Marriage Bill 2007”, which would effectively legalize civil polygamous marriage in Kenya.
It explains why, while Kenyans were struggling to do away with colonial rule in the country, they wanted to be free from everything that was Western. Among the things they wanted to do away with was the Western concept on religion.
The first breakaway church from the colonial was Nomiya Luo church founded by John Owalo. Owalo had just left the Church of England to become a Muslim; he later left Islam to join catholic mission on his return to Nyanza from Mombasa where he was working as a house servant. It was in Nyanza that he abandoned Catholicism to found Nomiya church in 1907. Nomiya in Luo means, “I was given”.
It then followed by Dini ya Roho (Holy Ghost Church) founded in Maragoli location in October 1927 by Jakobo Buluku and Daniel Sande after they had broken away from the American friends’ mission at Kaimosi. Buluku and Sande preached against foreign religious leadership and advocated the expulsion from Kenya of the American missionaries.
The African Israel church was the third one founded in 1940 in Nyangori location near Kisumu by Kivuli. He broke away from Pentecostal assembly and preached the expulsion of foreign missionaries, advocating leadership of the church by Africa Christians.
The foruth African independent church was Dini ya Msambwa founded by Elijah Masinde- So called Dini ya Msambwa because it adapted to African tradition, cultures and customs. The kingdom of Africa he said had been ruined by the British Empire.
The British accused him of preaching politics and wanted him being arrested and charged in court of law for misleading people. The more the British stopped him from preaching the more he had many followers. His sect became so popular, spreading all over Western Province and between the Kalenjin and some parts of Uganda.
The fifth African Independent church was founded by Bildad Kaggia of Central province. Kaggia had just come from military service in Middle East and Europe in the Second World War. He founded an independent church because he was embittered by racial discrimination and inequality between Europeans and Africans in the British forces.
Kaggia claimed that the greatest bondage on Africans was the foreign religions. His aim was to liberate Africans from such bondages. He broke away from church missionary society (CMS). The church spread fast in Central Province and Ukambani.
Some Luos who were working on the sisal estates near Kandara were also converted and later spread the church in Nyanza province on their way home. It was with this in mind that some Pan Africanism charismatic leaders abandon their Christian names in 1940’s to 1960’s.Christian names were termed as Euro-Heraic.
The first Vice President of Kenya, Mzee Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had to change his Adonija Oginga name to Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga. Johnston Kenyatta to Jomo Kenyatta, Emilio Mwai to Mwai Kibaki, James Ngugi to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Francis Kwame to Kwame Nkuruma among others.
The problem of foreign religions was not only a Kenyan problem. It was indeed entire African problem. It explains why Kabaka Mwanga II was not pleased in the manner foreign religions were brought to Africa. He saw such religions as a threat to African values and cultures.
Although polygamy is forbidden in statutory marriages, it is allowed in Muslim and customary marriages, as such according to Muslims God does not condemn polygamy, never calls polygamy adultery, wickedness or a fleshly perversion.
It is against the background that Catholic Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania),
Polycarp Pengo argues that celibacy in the form demanded of the Roman Catholic priest, namely, a life-long abstinence from marriage, is probably foreign to all human cultures.
It explains why from the social point of view, priestly celibacy seems to find even less backing from the surrounding human cultures. That is why in realizing that celibacy is unnatural to African culture, advocates of inculturation are proposing total elimination of priestly celibacy in the Church of Africa- introduction and acceptance of traditionally accepted marriages for priests.
It explains further, why in African culture, priestly celibacy considered from the religious point of view presents a theological problem just opposite to that of the Manicheans. Unlike the Manichaean dualist who wants to realize his own salvation by liberating the spirit from bodily imprisonment by abstaining from procreation, the African traditionalist in his religious faith believes that he can avoid having his life end up in a meaningless existence after his death by continuing to live in his children.
It is against the background that the African traditional believer holds that a person who dies without begetting any children has no chance for a happy meaningful life beyond the grave. Thus failure to procreate is equivalent to failure to attain salvation in the life after death. That is because humanity is through procreation.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org