| History of Kenya |
|---|
 |
 Kenyaportal |
Mumboism, also known as the Mumbo cult, was a new religious movement founded by Onyango Dunde in the early 20th century. Followers of the religion, known as Mumboites, were most active in the Nyanza region of Kenya near Lake Victoria. The movement had anti-imperial teachings and was suppressed by the colonial government of Kenya.
Mumboism began during the British colonial era in Kenya, when Christian missionaries were active in the region. In 1913, Onyango Dunde began to preach that he had been swallowed by a serpent in Lake Victoria. The serpent spit him out, and gave him a prophecy that he would spread to his followers:
I am the God Mumbo whose two homes are in the sun and in the lake. I have chosen you to be my mouthpiece. Go and tell all the Africans.... that from henceforth I am their God. Those whom I choose personally and those who acknowledge me, will live forever in plenty.... the Christian religion is rotten.... All Europeans are your enemies, but the time is shortly coming when they will all disappear from the country." [1]
In keeping with the prophecy, Dunde condemned European culture, Christianity, and the influence of colonialism. He also prophesied a golden age that would arrive with the end of the European presence in the region. Mumboism was popular among the Luo and Kisii people, but its influence spread beyond Africans who were formally followers of Dunde. [1]
Mumboism's teachings have been characterized as a strain of millennialism, anticipating a golden age, perhaps influenced by Christian teachings of a cataclysmic end to the current world's existence. Some teachings were that "water would turn into blood, and only Mumboites would have drinking water, all white people would disappear leaving only Africans as sole survivors, or the Germans would come and cut off the arms of those in clothes (i.e., Europeans and Westernized Africans). [...] The projected utopia would be a time of role reversal, healing, and plenty that could only be effected by traditional sacrifices and rituals". [2]
In the years following the end of World War I, many of the Kisii (AbaGusii) became followers of Mumboism in growing numbers. Some factors contributing to this were frustration with the colonial government due to deteriorating agricultural, trade and health conditions among the Kisii people, fluctuating currency value, and the colonial administration's increasingly burdensome demands concerning taxation, labour owed to the colonial government, and requirements for registration. [3]
The golden age prophecy of an end to European government appealed to the Kisii, who had openly revolted against the colonial administration in 1905, 1908 and 1914, only to be defeated by the Europeans. Its appeal among the Kisii people was small during times of prosperity, when meeting the colonial administration's demands was easier. During times of economic hardship, its religious and political appeal grew among the Kisii. [3]
The Bogonko clan, the wealthiest and most influential among the Kisii, were adherents of Mumboism. Their position had been undermined by the European presence, and they were leaders of Mumboism particularly among the Kitutu subclan. [4]
The colonial administration was threatened by the anti-European message of Mumboism. The colonial government ultimately banned Mumboism in 1954. Much earlier in 1921, it had exiled Dunde and other Mumbo leaders to the holy Islamic island of Lamu in the Indian Ocean. [1] A 1919 government report had listed important leaders of the movement, some of whom were openly opposed to the colonial government: Mosi Auma of Kabondo, Nyakundi of Kitutu, Omwenga of Wanjare. [3]
The colonial administration had a tendency to conflate Mumboism with other indigenous religious beliefs, such as the cult around the late prophet Sakawa (Zakawa), who it was said had prophesied European rule, the building of the railroad and the site of Kisii. Mumboism was not the sole religious movement in Central or Eastern Africa to reflect anti-European sentiment. The Kamba people around Machakos, Kenya, had a millennial cult that developed in the interwar years around the prophet Ndonye wa Kauti, which had parallels with Mumboism. [3]
Dini ya Msambwa or Nsambwa (DYM), "religion of the ancestral spirits", was another rejection of Christianity that developed during the early 20th century in Kenya. It was founded by Elijah Masinde, among the Babukusu. [5] Yet another new religious movement was the Karing'a movement, influenced by Agikuyu religious ideal concepts similar to democracy. [6]
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
A part of Eastern Africa, the territory of what is known as Kenya has seen human habitation since the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic. The Bantu expansion from a West African centre of dispersal reached the area by the 1st millennium AD. With the borders of the modern state at the crossroads of the Bantu, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic areas of Africa, Kenya is a truly multi-ethnic state. The Wanga Kingdom was formally established in the late 17th century. The kingdom covered from the Jinja in Uganda to Naivasha in the East of Kenya. This is the first time the Wanga people and Luhya tribe were united and led by a centralized leader, a king, known as the Nabongo.
Jomo Kenyatta was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first president and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and a conservative, he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.
John Frum is a figure associated with cargo cults on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. He is often depicted as an American World War II serviceman who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him. Quoting David Attenborough's report of an encounter: "'E look like you. 'E got white face. 'E tall man. 'E live 'long South America."
The Abagusii are a Bantu ethnic group and nation indigenous to Kisii and Nyamira counties of former Nyanza, as well as parts of Kericho and Bomet counties of the former Rift Valley province of Kenya.
Kisii is a municipality and urban centre in south-western Kenya and the capital of Kisii County. Kisii Town also serves as a major urban and commercial centre in the Gusii Highlands—Kisii and Nyamira counties—and the South Nyanza region and is the second largest town in formerly greater Nyanza after Kisumu City. Kisii municipality sits right at the centre of the western Kenya tourist circuit that includes the Tabaka Soapstone Carvings, Maasai Mara, Ruma National Park and part of the Lake Victoria Basin.
Chen Tao was a UFO religion that originated in Taiwan. It was founded by Hon-Ming Chen, who first associated it with UFOs but later claimed that the group had been misrepresented as a New Age UFO cult. Chen was a former professor who claimed to be an atheist until he joined a religious cultivation group that dated back for two generations to the original female founder, Teacher Yu-Hsia Chen. But he broke with the group, headed by the third-generation teacher, in 1993 and created, with another fellow-cultivator, Tao-hung Ma, their own groups. It was later, when he broke with Ma and decided to move to the United States, that new elements, such as the pseudo-scientific information of cosmology and flying saucers, as well as Christian motifs of the prophecy of the end and the great tribulation, etc., were introduced into the group.
The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya (14.35%) and the Kalenjin (13.37%). The Tanzanian Luo population was estimated at 1.1 million in 2001 and 3.4 million in 2020. They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northern Tanzania.
A doomsday cult is a cult that believes in apocalypticism and millenarianism, including both those that predict disaster and those that attempt to destroy the entire universe. Sociologist John Lofland coined the term doomsday cult in his 1966 study of a group of members of the Unification Church of the United States: Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. In 1958, Leon Festinger published a study of a group with cataclysmic predictions: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World.
Kenya is a multilingual country.
Leland Jensen was the leader of a small apocalyptic cult called the Baháʼís Under the Provisions of the Covenant (BUPC). Jensen was originally a member of the mainstream Baháʼí Faith until he was excommunicated in 1960 for supporting Mason Remey's attempt at schism. He later left Remey's group due to infighting and began teaching that he would re-establish the Baháʼí Faith after a nuclear holocaust, which he predicted would occur in 1980. At its peak, his movement had 150-200 followers, mostly in Montana, but declined in size significantly by 1990 and beyond.
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". These movements have been especially common among people living under colonialism or other forces that disrupted previous social arrangements.
Simeon Nyachae was a Kenyan politician, government minister, and businessman from Kisii County.
Legio Maria —also known as Legio Maria of African Church Mission, and Maria Legio—is an African initiated church or new religious movement among the Luo people of western Kenya. It emerged as an extension of an interpretation of the Three Secrets of Fátima to a new, albeit African, context. The religious movement was initiated by repeated appearances of a mystic woman to several Catholic Church members delivering messages about the incarnation of the Son of God as a black man. These appearances are said to have begun around 1938, almost simultaneous with the beginning of Edel Quinn's lay Catholic mission for the similarly named Legion of Mary to Africa.
Mnyazi wa Menza, also known as Mekatilili Wa Menza or Mekatilili (1860s-1924) was a Kenyan independence activist who led the Giriama people against the colonial administration of Kenya between 1912 and 1915.
Otenyo Nyamaterere was a Kenyan warrior who led a battalion of Gusii warriors in resisting British colonialisation. He was encouraged by his aunt, Moraa Ng'iti, to launch an attack against British forces. He is famously remembered for injuring GAS Northcote, a British colonial administrator, triggering a widespread rebellion. Northcote had first gone to Kisii as part of a military force in 1904 which massacred people and raised the Union Jack. He returned in 1907 as the areas first administrator, and was on his way back from a punitive expedition when he was attacked by Otenyo with a spear after shooting dead Okwengu K'Akala at Got Ong'ong'o presently Got Ka'Nyakworo around Ruga Market Centre. Although Northcote survived the attack, Otenyo's ambush inspired widespread resistance which took a month to quell. The warrior was arrested, tried in public, and then killed by a firing squad at Kisii Stadium. His body was then beheaded and transported to London as proof of his death. What remained of him was left on a public bridge as a warning to others.
James Nyamweya was a Kenyan politician who served in ministerial, parastatal, and political party leadership positions in both the Kenyatta and Moi governments from 1965 to 1995. He was Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Assistant Minister in the Office of the President, Minister of State in charge of External Affairs Foreign Minister, Minister of State in charge of Provincial Administration, Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Minister for Works, Minister for Power and Communication, Minister for Labour, Chairman Electoral Boundaries Commission, and National Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party.
The Kenya Social Congress (KSC) is a political party in Kenya. Its symbol is a broom. The party is currently led by Samson Atati Kengere, with Dennis Anyoka as deputy leader.
James Elvis Omariba Ongwae is the immediate former Governor of Kisii County government. He is a member of the Orange Democratic Movement and was elected as the first Governor of Kisii County Government on the ODM ticket in March 2013 - August 2022.
In the Kisii region in Kenya, soapstone is mined in the town of Tabaka. It has been at the heart of industry and culture, with its malleability allowing for the carving of a variety of items ranging from common household items to ornaments and other décor items, all of which have found their way into the commercial space, birthing the aforementioned 'industry' around the mining and processing of the ore – largely centered in Tabaka. In its finely milled form, soapstone has been found to have various commercial uses outside carving.
The Student Organization of Nairobi University was a student movement at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. SONU was founded in 1971. SONU was affiliated with the International Union of Students (IUS).
