Circumcision Contestation Among African Christians in the Advent of a Rejuvenation of African Cultural Practices

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 Missionaries associated circumcision rituals with paganism laced with many outdated practices, thus there was need to Christenize the rites.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.