circumcision Contestation Among African Christians in the Advent of a Rejuvenation of African Cultural Practices
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Date
2024
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
ijmart
Abstract
Circumcision among many African communities is a
vital and common rite of passage. Traditionally the rite was
performed on both male and female teenagers but with the coming
of the Europeans and the conversion of African communities to
Christianity, female circumcision was discarded and eventually
outlawed. Male circumcision survived despite European pressure.
Many Europeans viewed circumcision as a psychologically
hazardous exercise that was detrimental to the initiates’ physical
health and a waste of valuable time that could be better utilised
economically. Missionaries associated circumcision rituals with
paganism laced with many outdated practices, thus there was need
to Christenize the rites. The missionary fashioned the circumcision
rite of passage into what they felt was in line with Christian values.
Most of the circumcision rituals were discarded. The circumcision
rite changed from a communal affair to an individual family
affair. In the beginning of the third millennium, the church took
started organizing circumcision camps for boys in churches in a
bid to align the traditional practice to Christian values. This
became the norm as the Kikuyu community’s cultural practices
had overtime been inclined to the Euro Christian culture. At the
same time a rejuvenation of Kikuyu culture was taking shape. The
rejuvenation was given the impetus it required by the
promulgation of the 2010 Kenyan constitution. From then on
Kikuyu elders started organising their own circumcision camps
targeting teenage Christians that were also targeted by the church.
This has caused discontent among Kikuyu Christians necessitating
a search for possible remedies to the contestation in a bid to have
a spiritually fulfilled Kikuyu Christian.
Description
Research Article
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Citation
Kamau, P. M., Katola, M. T., & Waweru, H. M. (n.d.). Circumcision contestation among African Christians in the advent of a rejuvenation of African cultural practices.International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Topics