‘The River Between’: Negotiating Dual Identities in the Anglican Churches of Kenya

Abstract

The double identity of missionaries acting as both Christian and Western representatives carried a burden for their enterprise, resulting in the continuous inquiries by Africans as to whether an individual is an African Christian or a Christian African. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in his novel The River Between depicted these two worlds using Kameno and Makuyu, communities in the mountainous regions of Agikuyu land, as they tried to negotiate their religio-cultural identities amidst the tension between the missionary enterprise and irua practice (the puberty rite of passage among the Gikuyu community). Nevertheless, the river between – the river Honia – acted as a conciliatory agency for the two communities. This article focuses on the inter- and intra-dependence of irua practice and confirmation practice in the Anglican Church of Kenya in their negotiation of religio-cultural identities. Through a historical account of indigenous rites of passage, the development of confirmation practice and their encounters, the article explores the resurgence of irua practice and ‘Christianisation’ to find ‘the river between’. Using examples from three Nairobi Metropolitan Anglican Cathedrals that have adopted the various forms of ‘Christianised’ irua practices, the article will show how they act as recipes for this dual religious identity construction, contestation and negotiation.