Actually it is Kenya I want to write about. Not everything about Kenya applies to all Africa, but some things do. I have been there a total of three times in 2015, 2017, and 2018. The last two visits were spent at a Bible College for a three month term as a volunteer teacher of Pastoral Theology and Biblical Preaching. I make no pretence to be an expert on Africa, but I write about my impressions as I experienced them, and some things I have researched a little more to understand them better.
1. Religion in Kenya. In the 2009 census, 84.8% of the population identified itself as Christian. Of these, 23.3% are Roman Catholic, and the rest are Protestant churches which include The Anglican Church of Kenya, The Africa Inland Church (AIC), Presbyterian, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and Pentecostal churches. Other groups that fall neither into the Roman Catholic or Protestant groups include the New Apostolic Church, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, United Pentecostal and Branhamism. The Islamic faith was identified by 9.7% of the population. Only 2.5% said that they identified with “no” religion or faith. As you drive through the cities or the countryside, you will notice the many churches of various sizes. Architecturally some are impressive, but most are very primitive metal edifices. Many are simply “store-front” operations. I am told that it is not difficult in Kenya to start a new church of whatever description, which raises the suspicion that many exist simply to make money. Many of these churches, arising like mushrooms out of the ground are led by men (or women) with no academic credentials, and few qualifications other than being able to market their brand of religion as the “one true” faith.
The school that I worked at is a denominational school of the Africa Inland Church (AIC), which was founded by the Africa Inland Mission (AIM). It is an evangelical denomination with a Presbyterian form of church government: local churches are led by pastors and elders; each church is represented in a regional presbytery known as the “District Council”, overseen by a bishop, and there is a national council for the national church, and led by a “presiding” bishop.
But it isn’t as simple as that. Most of the above mentioned religions were brought into Africa in general and therefore to Kenya, from elsewhere, either by various churches or missions organizations. There is also an indigenous religion, also known as “Traditional African Religion” which is often mixed in with either the Christian or Islamic religion. African society is still very tribal. People fiercely hold on to their tribal background and heritage, and often with it the religion of that tribe. While describing indigenous religion is beyond the scope of this blog post, suffice it to say that it involves the belief in a supreme being, along with many other lessor deities. The supreme being is thought to be unapproachable and disinterested in the affairs of human life. So one consults a myriad of lessor deities and spirits, including the spirits of deceased ancestors. Because Africans generally revere their ancestors, some will resort to the religious practice of those ancestors when in difficulty, and many see no contradiction in practising the Christian, or some other religion together with their tradition religion. This of course ignores Christianity’s claims of one exclusive God, who tolerates no other gods before or beside him. Christian churches who proclaim the God of the Bible are often faced with the challenge of dealing with or helping people who have opened themselves to other spirits.
2. Culture in Kenya. North American feminists would not feel at home in Kenya. Women have a very distinct place in African society, which becomes visible at the very latest when a woman wishes to marry. While men and women date and fall in love in romantic relationships, if they wish to marry, the man needs to deal with the family of his intended bride and negotiate a bridal price which he must pay to the bride’s father and or family (the bridal price is often divided among relatives of the bride). I was shocked to learn that this happens even in Christian families and weddings. Seeing that through North American eyes, even I as a man am appalled by this reduction of a woman to a chattel that belongs to her father until marriage, when “ownership” is transferred to the husband. The women that I have talked to about this however don’t see it that way. “This is the way we have always done it.” Again, the issue is too complex to discuss here, but doing something because it has always been done that way is a poor reason for doing anything. Despite this inequality, I was surprised to learn that while the church proclaims the biblical truth of the equality of men and women in Christ, and have managed to push back by allowing women to be pastors, it has not managed to change this bizarre wedding ritual.
Another cultural difference is polygamy. It is legal for a man to have more than one wife at the same time, but a woman cannot be married to more than one man. Having several wives, is a status symbol for men. I was interested to learn that members of parliament in Kenya were demanding expense allowances for their additional wives or mistresses. The Christian church however holds to the biblical value of one man and one woman for life. However when polygamous men become Christians and join the church, they are asked to support their several wives but they are not allowed to marry additional ones. However, such men do not qualify for leadership in the church..
3. Politics. I am a political “junkie” and politics is my favourite spectator sport. During my time in the previous year (2017) I experienced the “re-do” of the presidential election. The incumbent president Oruhu Kenyatta had been re-elected, however the opposition challenged the outcome in court, claiming that the election had been rigged. The Supreme Court of Kenya noted that there were in fact “irregularities” and declared the election null and void, requiring that Kenyans go back to the polls within 60 days. That fell into the middle of our fall term at the Missionary College. Kenyans are passionate about their politics, even to the point of violence. While there are political parties, tribal relations also come into play as to whom Kenyans will support and vote for. Most citizens see themselves best served if the government is run by someone of “their” tribe, or one of us as it were. Many will stop at nothing to make that happen, even things like setting fire to polling booths to prevent people from voting. Often there is more passion than reason in Kenyan politics. For example, although the opposition had claimed that the outcome of the election was not valid, they opposed the do over election, saying that it is was not being properly run either. They urged people not to vote, and in many cases prevented voters from doing so, resulting in no returns sent in from many ridings. Then of course, they refused to accept the new result, which again declared Kenyatta and his party the winners. So back to court they went, but this time the Supreme Court declared the second election to be valid. Coming back to Canada, as I watch the bizarre things that happen in our Canadian federal and our Ontario provincial government, I still think I would rather live in Canada than Kenya when it comes to politics.
4. Every Day Life in Kenya. This is what I have been asked about most often. Let me begin by saying that if you have money (and that is the key thing) you can buy anything in Kenya that you can get here in Canada. I’ll just mention the grocery store: when I went shopping I saw very little difference, except that some things were in shorter supply, i.e. there was not as much variety. But I was able to buy pretty much whatever I needed or wanted, in some cases even the same brand as at home. It’s hard to say whether things are more expensive (gasoline or “petrol” as they call it definitely costs more), and other things cost less than they do here. The currency in Kenya is the Kenya Shilling (kSH or KES). Presently $1 CDN is worth 75.50 kSH). I was able to use my Canadian Bank card to obtain Kenya Shillings in cash, or my VISA card to pay for things.
There were other things about every day life that seemed odd, or at least getting used to (such as traffic drives on the left side of the road, and cars have steering wheels on the right, roads can be terrible, electricity is a different voltage to name just a few). On the other hand that very thing of electricity was a sign that we live in a global village. My electronic devices that I had with me from home, all work on either our Canadian voltage and the African 240V. All I needed was an adaptor so the plugs would fit. However the frequent power outages were annoying!
There is one other thing about every day life that I found challenging, and that is having a different skin colour than everyone else. At the school where I taught I was the only white man on the campus, (until two more visitors came for graduation). Most of the time that was not a problem. Nobody made me feel uncomfortable because I was different. But I was annoyed by the misconception that white people from North America have lots of money. I was hit up for money more than once and asked if I could “bless someone” with a financial gift. One person asked me to bring him an iPhone from Canada. He was shocked to learn what that would cost, and had assumed they are easy to get “in your country”. Some found it incomprehensible when I told them how hard we work for our money, and that while some people in North America are wealthy, most of us, especially those of us in ministry are not.
Well this is a longer post than usual, but even so I feel like have merely scratched the surface. If anyone has questions, just send them my way and I will do what I can to answer.