Cultural practices are only judged against the clear dictates of faith

Due to several dynamics in my personal story, I have engaged with the question of the relationship between tradition, culture and faith in the last one year more than ever before. Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s first book “The River Between” exemplifies this tenuous relationship in when Muthoni, one of the characters in the book, dies after undergoing circumcision, a cultural practice vigorously preached against in those days.

Her last words are a message to her sister Nyambura, that in her death she could see Jesus and that she was “a woman, beautiful in the tribe...”. In decades since the European missionaries landed in Kenya, this relationship has been the cause of much personal and societal tension. Interestingly, the missionaries had different approaches to the issue of indigenous culture in different parts of Kenya, ruthlessly annihilating some while accommodating others.