Abstract
Rites of passage are a universal phenomenon marked by transitions during major life changes. In the Nomiya Church (NC) circumcision and baptism as religious rites of initiation are simultaneously performed on the male infant on the eighth day after birth whereas the female infant gets baptism only but on the fourteenth day. The practice of simultaneous baptism and circumcision is hereby referred to as a double rite of passage. This double rite of passage in the NC for the male members apparently gives the male an edge over the female. The double rite of passage is connected to the purification rite of the mother after birth which demands that she is confined. The NC, the first African Initiated Church (AIC) in Kenya started among the Luo people, a community that traditionally did not practice circumcision. The socialization of the Luo community entrenched male domination and leadership while encouraging female submission. Specifically this paper explores the socio-theological grounds for gender disparity in the NC. Gender disparity in the NC is a product of various aspects of the worship and practice that exclude women from active religious participation. This system of social structures and practices manifests in a social environment where men dominate and oppress women. This study argues that the instances of gender disparity in the NC are connected directly or remotely to the double rite of passage.
Highlights
This study investigated the socio-theological context that explains the gender disparity in the Nomiya Church (NC).Circumcision and baptism are religious rites of passage and their concurrent performance on the male infant on the eighth day after birth is hereby referred to as the double rite of passage
The NC faith and practice has shown clear demarcation of women and men both in their roles and expectation as analyzed above. These practices that are manifested in the sitting arrangement, exclusion of women from the service because of their menses and expectation of women to serve at tables are further amplified in the other aspects of NC worship
Examples of these include: baptism and circumcision of male infants on the eighth day while female infants are baptized on the fourteenth, isolation of women and infants immediately following birth for forty and eighty days for male and female infants respectively, prescription for marriage of a maximum of four women for NC leaders and the acceptance and promotion of levirate marriages; the seventy days after burial of a spouse before a widow or a widower become eligible for marriage and the clear understanding that leadership is a male calling and the reducing of female members to be choral leaders
Summary
This study investigated the socio-theological context that explains the gender disparity in the NC. The socio-theological genesis for gender disparity may be traced back to the system of social structures and practices that exclude women from active religious participation In this social environment men dominate, oppress and exploit women while the belief that female sexuality contaminates and pollutes is commonplace Ndeda [3, p12]. Bishop Engineer Olali [4,p98] supporting the NC stand on ritual impurity says “The understandable fact of most women being ‘unclean’ almost monthly is not a creation of Nomiya Church and if the Bible defines this restriction, it is not for Nomiya Church to vary it as a practice.” Added to this is the common reading of the Genesis 2 creation story which connotes inferiority and subordination of the female gender because Eve is said to have come from Adam. These patriarchal tendencies that lead to repressive domination of male in societies must be the reason behind the double rite of passage in the NC and by and large the gender disparity that tips the scale on the male gender
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