Abstract
This chapter focuses on the particular effects of urbanization on women’s leadership in an African independent church in the semi-informal settlements of Kayole and Matopeni, in Nairobi, Kenya. It provides an example of recording marginalized experiences of colonized women which is indispensable to the post-colonial theological program. By focusing on the role and place of Moderator Bishop Jane Akoth in the African Israel Nineveh Church, the divergent views of the church teachings and the predominant views about the roles of women are brought to light. The agency in leadership of Bishop Jane Akoth in contrast to her marginalized experience, as a woman in this church, presents a hybridized theology which destabilizes Western forms of hegemony and African patriarchal hegemony.
Mabati is Kiswahili for ‘iron sheets’. Mabati churches are made of iron sheets.
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Notes
- 1.
Publications on the position of women in the denominational and African Instituted Churches in Kenya are among others: Philomena Njeri Mwaura, “Gender and Power in African Christianity: African Instituted Churches and Pentecostal Churches,” in African Christianity: An African Story, ed. Ogbu Kalu, vol. 3, Perspectives of Christianity Series 5 (Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 2005), 410–45. Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit: History, Faith, and Gender in Roho Religion in Western Kenya (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Esther Mombo, “The Ordination of Women in Africa: An Historical Perspective,” in Women and Ordination in the Christian Churches: International Perspectives, ed. Ian Jones, Kirsty Thorpe, and Janet Wootton (London, New York: T&T Clark, 2008). Isabel Apawo Phiri, Devarakshanam Betty Govinden, and Sarojini Nadar, eds., Her-Stories: Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2002). Maggie Madimbo, “Supportive Leadership Behavior Key to Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Religious Communities in Malawi,” The Journal of Pan African Studies 5, no. 2 (April 2012): 27–42. Jane Wakahiu and Mary Salvaterra, “Sustainable Leadership: Lessons and Implications of a Leadership Development Program for Women Religious in Africa,” The Journal of Pan African Studies 5, no. 2 (April 2012): 150–68. Damaris Parsitau, “Agents of Gendered Change: Empowerment, Salvation and Gendered Transformation in Urban Kenya,” in Pentecostalism and Development, ed. Dena Freeman, Non-Governmental Public Action (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012), 203–21. Musimbi R.A. Kanyoro, In Search of a Round Table: Gender, Theology & Church Leadership (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1997).
- 2.
The name African Israel Church Nineveh (AICN) is used as well.
- 3.
Jane Owur Akoth was the first woman appointed as Moderator Bishop in the AINC in 2012. This chapter is written as part of a wider book-project about the AINC in which Jane Akoth is involved as co-editor.
- 4.
Mabati or ‘iron sheet’ churches are often found in informal settlements. The roof and walls of these churches are built of iron sheets with an earthen floor, without amenities. The Mabati churches are either empty or with some simple furniture, especially in the front where there is a slight elevation or platform. In the AINC people call this the pulpit or the Synagogue.
- 5.
See results of the census of 2009: 82.5% of the Kenyan population is Christian (47.4 % Protestant, 23.3% Roman Catholic, other 11.8%), 11.1% is Muslim, traditional religionists 1.6%, other religion 2.4%. See: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/religious-beliefs-in-kenya.html and https://www.knbs.or.ke/category/census-2009-summary-of-results/ Accessed August 24, 2018.
- 6.
These churches initially were designated African Independent Churches, as they were founded by Africans in response to the ways in which Western forms of Christianity were being established. When in the 1960s the missionary churches became independent, the name African Instituted Churches came into vogue. See about the terminology of the AICs: Afe Adogame and Lizo Jafta, “Zionist, Aladura and Roho: African Instituted Churches,” in African Christianity: An African Story, ed. Ogbu Kalu, vol. 3, Perspectives of Christianity Series 5 (Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 2005), 310–13.
- 7.
See the typologies: Allan H. Anderson, “African Initiated (Independent) Churches,” in Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition [6 Volumes], ed. J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, vol. I (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010), 30–36.
- 8.
Also referred to as ‘Spirit churches’ or ‘Spirit type churches’. Similar churches elsewhere in Africa are designated Zionist churches (in South Africa), Aladura or ‘praying churches’ (in Nigeria) or ‘spirit churches’ (in Ghana). These churches arose in Kenya from 1915 till the late 1960s. Mwaura holds that this type of churches is still emerging: See Philomena Mwaura, “A Spirituality of Resistance and Hope: African Instituted Churches’ Response to Poverty,” in A New Day: Essays on World Christianity in Honor of Lamin Sanneh, ed. Akintunde E. Akinade (New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 122.
- 9.
Sometimes referred to as Neo-Pentecostal Churches (NPCs). These churches are oriented toward international Pentecostalism and ‘on the whole, in style, language, theology and structure, these churches look to the North and urban society rather than to African tradition’. See: Mwaura, 122.
- 10.
Philomena Njeri Mwaura, “The Use of Power in African Instituted Churches,” Wajibu. A Journal of Social and Religious Concern 14, no. 3 (1999). See the thesis of Peter Wilson Kudoyi, “African Israel Nineveh Church: A Theological and Socio-Historical Analysis” (Thesis, Kenyatta University, 1991), 49, http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/4983. Padwick lists the AINC as a ‘second generation’ Roho church. Timothy John Padwick, “Spirit, Desire and the World: Roho Churches of Western Kenya in the Era of Globalization” (PhD, University of Birmingham, 2003), 7, 89, http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/264/.
- 11.
Information about the AINC is derived from: African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church. Translation John M. Kachili” (Nairobi, August 5, 1993). Frederick B. Welbourn and Bethwell A Ogot, A Place to Feel at Home: A Study of Two Independent Churches in Western Kenya (London; Nairobi: Oxford U.P., 1966). Peter Wilson Kudoyi, “African Israel Nineveh Church: A Theological and Socio-Historical Analysis” (Thesis, Kenyatta University, 1991), Marko Kuhn, Prophetic Christianity in Western Kenya: Political, Cultural and Theological Aspects of African Independent Churches (Frankfurt am Main, etc.: Peter Lang, 2008). Nyahela Caxton, “The Influence of Luyia Traditional Religious Rituals on Christianity: A Case Study of African Israel Church Nineveh in Vihiga County, Kenya” (University of Nairobi, 2015). Timothy John Padwick, “Spirit, Desire and the World: Roho Churches of Western Kenya in the Era of Globalization” (PhD, University of Birmingham, 2003).
- 12.
Initially, the name of the church was Huru Salvation African (huru means ‘free’). Although this name ultimately expressed what Kivuli and his followers felt, in the context of colonialism (both religious and political) the name huru was problematic. Therefore it was changed to African Israel Church Nineveh.
- 13.
African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church. Translation John M. Kachili,” 3.
- 14.
Archbishop John M. Kivuli II, “The Modernization of an African Independent Church,” in Freedom and Interdependence, ed. Stan Nussbaum (Nairobi, Kenya: Organization of African Instituted Churches, 1994), 58.
- 15.
This was due to the fact that Kivuli I didn’t have a suitable hereditary successor. The son who was destined and theologically trained developed mental health issues.
- 16.
Archbishop John M. Kivuli II, “The Modernization of an African Independent Church,” 59.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
There are no recent estimations of total numbers of members. Archbishop Kivuli II in an interview in Limuru, on 28 October 2016, estimated the membership worldwide at three million people. Padwick estimated the number of members of the AINC in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2003 at 178,800. See: Padwick, “Spirit, Desire and the World,” 94.
- 19.
An overview of informal settlements based on the population census of 2009 is given in: Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, “Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project,” 8–17, accessed February 1, 2017.
- 20.
See http://www.kibera.org.uk/facts-info/, http://aphrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/NCSS2-FINALReport.pdf. See also: African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), “Population and Health Dynamics in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements: Report of the Nairobi Cross-Sectional Slums Survey (NCSS)” (Nairobi: APHRC, 2012), http://aphrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/NCSS2-FINAL-Report.pdf.
- 21.
The Assemblies of the AINC in Nairobi are located in Mathare, Ngei, Kariobangi, Korokocho, Kayole, Matopeni, Imara Daima, Riverside, Jerusalem, Kiambiu, Maringo, Langata, Ongata Rongai, Satelite, Kenyatta, Siranga (in Kibera).
- 22.
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London, New York: Verso, 2006), 22.
- 23.
See Esther Mombo, “Religion and Materiality: The Case of Poverty Alleviation,” in Religion and Poverty: PanAfrican Perspectives, ed. Peter J. Paris (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009), 216.
- 24.
Robert Neuwirth, Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World (New York: Routledge, 2005), 89. ‘Kibera is an old-style shantytown, still made from mud. The city’s newer shantytowns are made from corrugated steel sheets set into thin concrete foundations. These communities—Mukuru, Kwa Reuben, Sinai, Kwa Njenga, Gitare Marigu, and scores of others follow the Nairobi and Ngong rivers as they run south and east from town, stretching for miles along the edge of the city’s industrial area, through abandoned rock quarries, past the massive garbage dump and stretching on towards the international airport’. Ibid., 72.
- 25.
Neuwirth, Shadow Cities, 89.
- 26.
Caxton in her thesis describes the initial organization of the AINC as being structured around Departments: Caxton, “The Influence of Luyia Traditional Religious Rituals on Christianity: A Case Study of African Israel Church Nineveh in Vihiga County, Kenya,” 118–20. In 2017 there were 16 different Departments.
- 27.
See African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church. Translation John M. Kachili,” 22–24. Women are the majority in the church and are expected to provide for the material welfare of the church and of their families. While economic empowerment is strongly emphasized the attitude toward material wellbeing is ambivalent. Money is important as far as the daily needs are concerned, but it is not for hoarding, as for AINC-members, richness is primarily sought in heaven and not on earth.
- 28.
Ibid., 7–9.
- 29.
Kudoyi, “African Israel Nineveh Church,” 78.
- 30.
African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church. Translation John M. Kachili,” 4.
- 31.
Ibid., 27–28.
- 32.
It is in rare occasions that single people are appointed to leadership positions. Those who are widowed can remain in office, especially widows depending on the age and the skills they have. Widows may be appointed to the position of the late husband. This, however, is not a common practice.
- 33.
This flexibility in co-leadership is spelled out in the legislation of the church: ‘They will work together and recognized equally by the church. They are the ones to determine how they will work without any friction or collision and without shame before the congregants’. African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church. Translation John M. Kachili,” 28.
- 34.
Kudoyi, “African Israel Nineveh Church,” 18.
- 35.
Jane Akoth, Role of Women in African Israel Nineveh Church from 1942–2009. A historical analysis of the role of women leaders, challenges and opportunities in ministry. Research Paper, SPU 2010, 19.
- 36.
All the above-mentioned offices are strictly forbidden for women when they have their period.
- 37.
African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church” (Nairobi, August 5, 1993. Transl. J.M. Kachili), 8, 19–20.
- 38.
African Israel Nineveh Church, “Sheria za African Israel Nineveh Church,” 17, 19.
- 39.
See Akoth, ‘Role of Women in African Israel Nineveh Church’, 20.
- 40.
The wearing of white robes and caps/headscarves by all members (both young and old) with the signs A. Israel N. on the chest and front part of the caps and scarves expresses the unity of the members.
- 41.
The service is opened by singing three songs and simultaneously confession of sins, followed by prayers? And exorcism (kush, kush), greetings of visitors, announcement of leaders, collection, handing over to the leaders in the pulpit, readings from Bible and sermon, song and blessings.
- 42.
The colors of the flag are green, white and red, symbolizing the fertile African land, the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins of all people. The white is above gender, race, class and age.
- 43.
This is required only in the rural areas, not in Nairobi.
- 44.
The story of Jane Akoth as a student at St. Paul’s University is recorded in the book: Esther Mombo and Heleen Joziasse, If You Have No Voice, Just Sing! Narratives of Women’s Lives and Theological Education at St. Paul’s University (Limuru, Kenya: Zapf Chancery, 2011), 57–63.
- 45.
She completed secondary education.
- 46.
From conversation with Jane Akoth 1-2-2017, paraphrasing Matthew 16:26.
- 47.
The geographical areas of Ruiru, Kiambu and Thika. These are satellite towns of Nairobi.
- 48.
A harambee (Kiswahili) is an event organized in a community to raise funds.
- 49.
For instance, in the Nomya Luo Church, the Mowar Roho Israel Church, and the African Divine Church, women are not allowed to lead the congregation.
- 50.
Since in the AINC leaders work on voluntary basis, Jane Akoth is a full-time employee of a company.
- 51.
Robert S. Heaney, From Historical to Critical Post-Colonial Theology: The Contribution of John S. Mbiti and Jesse N. K. Mugambi (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015), 29.
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Joziasse, H., Mombo, E. (2019). Worshipping God in a Mabati Church: Bishop Jane Akoth’s Leadership in the African Israel Nineveh Church. In: Dunn, J., Joziasse, H., Patta, R., Duggan, J. (eds) Multiple Faiths in Postcolonial Cities. Postcolonialism and Religions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17144-5_6
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