The Worship of the Biblical God in the Contemporary Times by the Indigenous Turkana Converts to Roman Catholic Christianity, in North-Western Kenya.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue I, January 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Worship of the Biblical God in the Contemporary Times by the Indigenous Turkana Converts to Roman Catholic Christianity, in North-Western Kenya.

Dr. Naila G. Napoo
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology
P.o. Box 210
40610 BONDO, Kenya

Abstract
This study examined the authentic God that the Indigenous Turkana converts to Roman Catholic Christianity (RCC) worship in the contemporary time. Christianity is one of the Religions of the Book. This is the Bible that is constituted by the Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT) sacred texts. The background of this worship has its roots in the adoration of Turkana indigenous God, Akuj, and Yahweh of OT that has been shifted by RCC to the worship of Jesus in the Trinity, in the NT. Hebrew Religion (of OT) has tremendous and profound influence on RCC (of NT) which the Turkana converts to it worship its God, Yahweh. This belief has been brought to reality by the arrival and expansion of European Roman Catholic Christian missionaries in Turkanaland early 1960s and after Kenya gained independence in 1963. Gradually, over time, Catholic beliefs and values exerted an incessant influence and impact and they are diffused and infiltrated into Turkana indigenous beliefs, practices, values and culture. This study draws upon the worship of the “new” inculturated biblical God by the converted indigenous nomadic Turkana persons to “new” religion, RCC.

Key words: Akuj, Yahweh, Turkana, Hebrew, Indigenous, Religion, Christianity, OT, NT

Introduction

The ancestral home of the indigenous Turkana tribe is the arid and semi-arid region of North-Western Kenya, in Sub-Sahara Africa. They are Nilo-nomadic pastoralists whose livelihood and wealth are the “adored” domestic animals. In its very origin, their religion is indigenous, with its essential components being God (Akuj), venerated ancestors, Turkana indigenous man and the indigenous universe.
There are major basic religious elements and components of the indigenous Turkana people that are similar to OT Hebrews. They share a monotheistic belief in One God as practised in their respective religious, cultural and social functions. This belief in one God is enshrined in their respective original teachings and beliefs in God: Yahweh and Akuj. The indivisibility, unchanging, eternity, sovereignty and uniqueness of the Oneness of God has been demonstrated and singled out evidently by the fact that the only Supreme Being worshiped by these two human communities never had a child or family whatsoever. The other resemblance is seen in the geographical features of their respective environment; they live in the wilderness and the nomadic shepherds life styles. These conditions are hard since “In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes.”
Akuj is the original heritage and ancestral God of Turkana people before the arrival of RCC in Turkanaland. The “new” God that the Turkana Roman Catholic Christians (TRCC) worship today, in the contemporary time, is evolving and keeps on changing and being shaped by absorbing, to its liturgical system, some unique divine characteristics of the indigenous Turkana God, Akuj. Christianity in Turkanaland, through Inculturation of the liturgy, has assimilated a wide range of Turkana indigenous beliefs, rituals, practices and customs into their liturgical worship and other religious rituals. Consequently, the current image of God as taught by the “new” religion , RCC, and embraced by Turkana converts to it is that of the god Jesus professed in the Trinity.
Therefore, RCC is “here to stay” in Turkanaland, and continue to grow while Turkana Indigenous Religion (TIR) shrinks systematically in the course of time. This has been brought to reality by the invincible contemporary religio-politico-socio ineludible factors and other changes that are undesirably exploding exponentially in Turkanaland affecting TIR. They include the effects of religious and social interactions of TIR and culture with immigrants’ ethnic and cultural diversities; missionary work and processes of inculturating the liturgy; translation of English Bible to Turkana language; the use of English, Latin and Kiswahili languages in liturgical functions; current existing non-indigenous leadership styles; rapid urbanization and industrialization; and formal education system. Thus, resulting in combined blended and sustenance factors affecting Turkana Indigenous Culture and Religion, consequently Turkana heritage.
Research Method
I order to arrive at the desired conclusion, this paper employs a systematic analysis of secondary data that are related to this study, by exploring a repository of books.
Turkana Roman Catholic Christians in Turkanaland
The colonialists made Turkanaland a “closed” area to the rest of the Kenyans and the world, thus retaining its 100% indigeneity and identity. It was in 1956 that African Inland Mission, used their religious “keys” and “miracles” to be the first Christian pioneers to “open up” the doors of the colonial isolated region. It was then that other Christian branches found their ways into Turkanaland.

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