Kikuyu Christianity and its Public Role in Kenya, 1891 - 1960

This study on Kikuyu Christianity and its Public Role in Kenya examines the engagement between the Kikuyu of Central Kenya and Christianity during the colonial period. The study sees Central Kenya’s pre-encounter martial tradition and Church of Scotland’s Mission corporeal approach to inculcating Christian values as important in drawing out the dynamics of the religious encounter between the Kikuyu and Christianity. It makes two arguments: One, the Kikuyu used Christian idioms to recast the old aspiration of growing up to responsible manhood. Two, the frustration of that aspiration fed into the private and public tensions that eventually led to the worst organised violence in colonial Kenya, namely, the Mau Mau rebellion. It underscores Kikuyu agency in the encounter, and how colonial and missionary initiatives shaped and were in turn informed by that agency. The study highlights the necessity of rethinking the religious encounter and the place of Christianity in the writing of Kenya’s colonial and post-independent histories.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Muiru, Paul

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Maxwell, David James

• Christianity
• Church of Scotland Mission
• Encounter
• Entanglement
• Ithaka
• Kikuyu
• Mau Mau
• Mount Kenya
• Presbyterian Church of East Africa
• Self - mastery
• Warrior Tradition
• Warriorhood
• Wiathi

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1f70d8b8-b46f-4d2e-b276-91ae48ae38b8/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119344

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/385902