wfn.org | All Africa News Agency Nov 24 2003 Features

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>]

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands,
NAIROBI, Kenya.
Tel: 254-2-4442215 or 4440224; Fax: 254-2-4445847, or 4443241;
Email: aanaapta@nbnet.co.ke

AANA Bulletin		Bulletin APTA
  Editor -Elly Wamari	Editor - Silvie Alemba

AANA BULLETIN No. 46/03 November 24, 2003 Features

BOOK  REVIEW

African Philosophy Of Motherhood Is Disintegrating

Title; Third Millennium: African Single Mothers and Mother Widows: 
Ethno-Religio-Philosophical Touch
Publisher: Media Options, Nairobi-Kenya
Printer: Signal Press Limited, Nairobi-Kenya
Author: P.N. Wachege
Volume: 387 pages
Year of Publication: 2003
Price: Ksh. 1,000 (about US$ 13)

The author of the book under the review, Rev Fr Dr Patrick Wachege, has 
challenged the Church in Africa to find effective ways of caring for the 
numerous single mothers on the continent. He notes that single motherhood 
has been rising at a rate of 10 percent annually in the last one decade.

The Kenyan Catholic priest-cum-scholar has squarely blamed the phenomenon 
on the fast urbanisation process the continent is currently experiencing. 
He is concerned about the situation, saying that single motherhood is 
contrary to African traditional norms.

In his book, an outcome of an intensive research on single motherhood in 
Africa, Rev Wachege does not seem to openly accept that the issue did exist 
in the past, concluding that it has more or less come with the emergence of 
urban life among Africans.

Among the many ethnic groups in Africa, single motherhood was not a way of 
life. It was considered a deviation from cultural expectations, Rev 
Wachege, a lecturer at the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department of 
the University of Nairobi, argues.

The basic reason for this attitude was not only that single motherhood was 
associated with immorality, but because customarily, traditional marriage 
was a must for any normal person, so that children were borne within the 
family framework. The book has dealt with this argument in-depth in a 
chapter titled Traditional Perspective, Treatment and Mistreatment of 
Single Mothers.

In his research work, the author has established 31 cases through which 
this social phenomenon has effectively manifested itself.  The most 
prominent of these cases include feminism, ghost marriages, "red thighs" 
and education.

On feminism, for example, the author notes that extreme perception of 
gender equality can prompt single motherhood.

"Red thighs" is an interesting cause of the phenomenon.  The book explains 
that women with "red thighs" are those who keep losing their husbands 
through death, one after the other, after cohabiting for only short 
periods. Eventually, people start believing that such women posses bad 
omen, points out the author, stressing: "That is why, on discovering this, 
men run away..."

According to the book, the impact of Christianity, with its rapid and 
conservative adherence to monogamous marriage, has systematically eroded 
polygamous lifestyles and, "rightly or wrongly, contributed to the 
emergence of single mothers".  The book concludes that the African 
philosophy of motherhood, and indeed, family, is in great danger of being 
disintegrated in "our Third Millennium epoch".

"Our moral appraisal should credit single mothers for their virtues and 
counsel them for their voices. Obviously, if the former lacks elements of 
admiration, then we suffer from moral embezzlement, and if the latter is 
not accompanied with prudent contempt, then we suffer from moral 
counterfeiting," argues Rev Wachege.

Concerned about the attitude expressed by communities over situations of 
single motherhood, the author urges the Church to play a central role in 
appreciating single mothers, noting that not all fall in such circumstances 
out of their own making.

The book fits well, people pursuing social studies with a theological 
touch, and more so, from the African standpoint.

Reviewed by Osman Njuguna

FEATURES  SECTION

Are Emerging Ministries Abusing The Church?

Cinemas, theatres and discotheques in parts of Kenya are booming with 
business on the oddest of days and times - Sunday mornings.  The clientele, 
however, is not the usual cinema, theatre or disco fan, but an increasing 
influx of serious people seeking the word of God.  In this write up, Janet 
Adongo discusses different views concerning the rights and wrongs of 
holding prayer services in odd places.

I
n Nairobi, several churches and ministries now hold services and prayers at 
places once considered unsuitable for religious functions.  The reasons 
given are diverse.

While many see it from the point of view that there is increasing urge to 
evangelise, critics consider the sudden emergence of church denominations 
in all corners of the streets of Nairobi's city centre a direct result of a 
discovery that there is quick money in evangelism.

It is no longer strange to see cinema halls with prayer banners 
overshadowing movie posters, discotheques with church signs on them, and 
various walls covered with crusade posters indicating venues ranging from 
parks to restaurants and school halls.

In residential areas, even tea kiosks become "church halls" on Sundays. 
Others hold their services in stadia. Also emerging are home churches, 
which hold their services at the pastor's residence.

Does this development indicate that the need to spread the word of God 
supersedes the means and even the place it is spread?

A member of the Legio Maria sect, Daniel Okoth Owuor, blatantly speaks out 
on the matter. "You cannot mix light with darkness. Those places are 
demonised! You cannot expect God to be in a place like that with all that 
evil," he says, referring mainly to cinema halls, discotheques and the like.

This phenomenon is not exclusively Kenyan. In Sierra Leone, which has a 
smaller Christian population, only the mainstream denominations have their 
own church buildings.  Most of the other evangelical ministries meet in 
school halls, restaurants and in some extremes, in bars.

Samuel Turay, a member of one such church blames it on the lack of 
infrastructure caused by war.  "Many churches and meeting places were 
destroyed during the war, and this is the best we could find.  I have no 
problem with the place. I go to hear the word of God and that is my focus, 
nothing else," he explains.

One of the major points being argued in this situation is whether "church" 
is the building or the congregation.

With scriptural backup, many dispute the conception that the word "church", 
was used to depict a building or meeting place. To these people, "church" 
is the historical movement that arose from the life and ministry of Jesus 
of Nazareth.

They believe that God founded the Church through the work of Jesus and that 
it is sustained by the continual presence of the Holy Spirit.  The major 
biblical verse used to support this contention is: "Where two or three are 
gathered in my Name, there I am in their midst."

Pastor Ezekiel Kayeli, a Baptist Youth Pastor reiterates this when he says, 
"So long as the message of Jesus is being preached, it really does not 
matter where it is." Pastor Kayeli is one of the few mainstream church 
leaders who accommodate this idea.

In New Testament Greek, the most common word for church is ekklesia, 
meaning "assembly."  In the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word 
ekklesia was used to denote the gathering of people for worship.

The English word, "church", is a corruption of the Greek adjective, 
kyriakon, meaning "the Lord's."

Barbarian tribes invading the region in the 4th and 5th centuries 
understood the word to refer to the church building (the Lord's house) in 
the towns they occupied. They later applied it to the Christian people.

Duncan Muchiri, founder and leader of the House of the Rod Ministry in 
Kiambu, supports Pastor Kayeli's argument.  "It is just a building.  If you 
can pray in your house and God hears, why not in the bar or restaurant?" he 
argues.

For Muchiri, God is omnipresent.  Says he:  "If he only appeared in 'holy' 
places, we would all suffer because there is no such place on the earth. 
The Body of Christ should stop fighting itself and instead come together in 
unity."

Muchiri adds that some of these small churches come about as a result of a 
lack of satisfaction with the mainstream denominations.

He believes that a much needed personal relationship with church leaders 
can only be attained in a small setting such as his. "In our church, small 
as it is, true fellowship exists, unlike those with almost 10,000 people," 
he says.

Critics say that the use of such buildings as cinema halls for church 
services is hypocritical and an easy way of diverting congregational funds 
from important projects like church construction, to the leader's personal 
needs.

One such critic, law student, Olando Olembo, argues: "The pastor or leader 
would rather pay a few thousand shillings each week to a cinema hall, than 
invest in his own church, which will mean tightening up his belt and making 
a painful, yet worthwhile investment for his congregation."

He continues: "I can assure you that 95 percent of the sermons preached at 
these services are about 'giving to the Lord'.	The other five percent will 
be a justification for remaining in the cinema hall."

Others who echo Olembo's sentiments say that the use of these venues 
undermines the holiness and sanctity of worship.

Yet others have no particular objection. Lina Tonui, who attended the 
Nairobi Lighthouse Church for almost four years, said it was just like any 
other church, if not better.

"We met at City Stadium because we did not have our own church 
building.  However, I believe by now, construction of the new building has 
started."  Lina states that the venue was only inconveniencing because of 
the various public functions that would be slotted in at any time.

"Like [a few months ago], the mayor (of Nairobi) told hawkers to meet there 
on a Sunday morning, so there was no service and people instead met in cell 
groups at home."

Due to the public functions at the stadium, the church sometimes has to 
customise their services to fit in.  This has not deterred the church from 
having an almost 10,000-strong congregation.

Indeed, the emerging ministries are usually well attended and supported, 
with several of them holding daily morning, lunchtime and evening prayers.

A Tale Of Uganda's Forgotten 'Night Commuters'

Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, thousands of 
children in northern Uganda are running scared - fleeing their homes every 
night to avoid abduction and conscription into rebel forces. The problem 
has peaked again. Our writer, Oscar Obonyo, delves into one of the world's 
forgotten emergencies.

O
rdinarily, sunset ushers in calmness and a deserving rest for children 
after they have engaged in daylong games. But for thousands of children 
living in Gulu District in northern Uganda, nightfall marks the beginning 
of anguish.

Confronted by fear, thousands of them, now popularly referred to as "night 
commuters", pour into Gulu town and its outskirts every night, in the hope 
of avoiding abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious 
rebel group operating in this part of the country.

After trekking for hours, they settle on verandas, in bus parks, on church 
grounds, and within hospital compounds.  They make the same journey back 
home the following morning.

Not all have been lucky though. Since June 2002, nearly 8,400 children have 
been rounded up and forcefully conscripted into the LRA.

The child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks, and 
"wives". Those who fail to comply or attempt to escape are brutalised and 
slain crudely. The atrocities have now reached frightening levels, yet, 
according to observers, the international community continues to remain 
apathetic.

"I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on 
the scale of Uganda's, and it is getting such little international 
attention," remarked the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for 
Humanitarian Affairs, Mr Jan Egeland, after a four-day visit to northern 
Uganda (November 7-10) to assess the crisis.

Saying that it was "a moral outrage" that the world was "doing so little 
for the war victims, especially children," he called on the UN to play a 
greater role in scaling down the LRA-perpetrated violence by having a more 
sustained presence in the East African country.

The war by LRA, which began 17 years ago, and which has intensified in the 
past 12 months, has been termed as one of the world's "forgotten
emergencies".

According to the Mayor of Gulu town, Mr Charles Ojera, there are over 
13,000 children within Gulu District alone, who cover long distances on 
foot every night in search of a safe place to hide, not to sleep.

Fred Owigiwu, for example, is willing to "walk the whole world" to get away 
from the brutality of LRA.  Appearing on a recent edition of a weekly 
Reuters television documentary, Africa Journal, Owigiwu said: "We must just 
keep moving on, whether it is down, up, or wherever, whatever the hour, 
otherwise we shall surely get killed."

While some humanitarian agencies have come up to assist the distressed 
children, most offer nothing more than open tents for the "night commuters" 
to sleep in. There is still no arrangement for them to get meals.

In one year alone, more than 800,000 people -- 80 percent of the local 
Acholi population in the three northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader 
--  have been forced from their homes and are living in camps, with little 
food and poor sanitation, as a result of LRA invasions.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced due to the conflict.  It is now 
feared that a major humanitarian crisis faces the country.

The great majority of the LRA fighters responsible for the mayhem are 
children.  According to the Human Rights Watch, LRA forces have so far 
abducted over 30,000 children under the age of 16, and forcefully 
conscripted them into their army to fight against President Yoweri 
Museveni's government.

The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, a mysterious man who reportedly wants to 
overthrow Museveni in order to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten 
Commandments.

Incidentally, government forces appear to be having trouble crashing the 
seemingly smaller LRA, neither has it been possible to strike a deal 
through peaceful means.

Previous attempts by Catholic clergymen to set off talks between the two 
parties hit a snag when LRA representatives became suspicious of the 
endeavour, arguing that the priests were being fronted as bait.

Nelson Ojok, a teacher in northern Uganda, speaks of the hopelessness of 
the situation: "Sadly, this war may take another 18 years. There are very 
many government soldiers, yet they cannot eradicate the rebels. They are 
increasing more soldiers, but the rebels are still killing (people)."

Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, Uganda's poor 
children continue to serve as soldiers in a conflict they do not understand 
or believe in.

They are maimed during training or while trying to escape.  Others get 
killed at the battlefront. It is unlikely that all the 30,000 young 
captives will come back alive.

The situation of girl-child soldiers is even more pathetic. In addition to 
combat duties, they are subjected to sexual abuse, and often taken as 
"wives" by the rebel leaders.

The Human Rights Watch reports that three out of every 10 children in Gulu 
area have been infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, a situation attributed to 
the conflict.

As the rebels continue to spread terror in villages of northern Uganda, 
locals have now taken to the streets to pray and demonstrate against the 
movement and the government's inability to protect them.

"I do not understand this.  I wonder what happened to Operation Iron Fist 
that was set up by the government to eliminate the LRA," complains an 
anguished Ugandan resident.

Latest reports now indicate that LRA fighters have now turned their guns 
against civilian communities in Eastern Equatoria in Southern Sudan, where 
their bases are.

During an interview with BBC radio last week, President Museveni expressed 
optimism that the rebels will eventually be defeated.

Meanwhile, the young "night commuters" are still running scared, and 
probably wondering why the world seems not to be doing much about their 
plight.

  The Congo Genocide That Lies Under The Carpet

In the course of the two wars the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has 
undergone since 1996, there have been two genocide incidences - one under 
the glare of international community, and the other swept under the carpet. 
Nernlor Gruduah reports.

A
part from its current peacekeeping role in the DRC, the United Nations (UN) 
appears to have forgotten a commitment it made to the people of Congo and 
Rwanda on the one hand, and the international community on the other.

The UN had undertaken to investigate the disappearance of nearly 300,000 
Rwandan refugees, allegedly killed by the Rwandan army during the first 
war, that brought Laurent Disiri Kabila to power in May 1997.

Such an undertaking was obviously going to be difficult, given that Kabila 
was used as a face by both Rwanda and Uganda, to execute their dual 
objectives in the DRC.

The first objective was to invade the country in pursuit of former Rwandan 
army personnel and the Interahamwe Hutu militia, who fled there after the 
infamous Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which up to 800,000 Tutsis and 
moderate Hutus were slaughtered.  These people were believed to have been 
behind the genocide.

The second mission was to occupy the land, with the help of powerful 
external backers, notably the United States (US) and Britain, to extract 
its vast mineral resources.

As a camouflage, Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation 
of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) sprung out of the blue to make the foreign invasion 
of DRC appear like a Congolese rebellion against Mobutu.

A former guerrilla leader in the failed Katanga uprising, Kabila proved an 
opportunistic ready tool to be used as a puppet by the external aggressors.

A planned UN investigation mission to DRC aborted after it was denied 
permission by Kabila, shortly after Rwanda and Uganda helped him overthrow 
long-serving president, Mobutu Sese Seko.

Analysts suspect that Kabila's backers, who are said to be behind the 
massacre of the refugees, masterminded his refusal.

The UN mission failed also because the Kabila-led government enjoyed 
enormous American support, for as long as he commanded the confidence of 
Washington's allies - Uganda and Rwanda.

The US had ditched its long-time friend, Mobutu, when newly baptised 
confidants, presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and Paul Kagame of 
Rwanda, entered the stage.

But the honeymoon between Kagame, Museveni and Kabila was short-lived as 
Kabila, under pressure from his own people resentful of the Rwandan 
presence, told Kagame that the job was complete and that it was time to 
leave DRC.

This declaration, which was made in August 1998, infuriated Kagame, who 
instantaneously turned the guns against Kabila, using his (Kabila's) 
enemies and Rwandan exiles in DRC as a cover.

The backlash of Kabila's decision saw the emergence - at the behest of 
Rwanda and Uganda - of rebel groups like the Congolese Rally for Democracy 
(RCD).

To his former masters-turned enemies, Kabila had not only bitten too much 
than he could chew, but had also bitten the hand that fed him.	Telling the 
Rwandan army to pack up and leave was unacceptable to Kagame.

Kinshasa, DRC's capital, nearly fell in the ensuing assault by Rwandan and 
Ugandan troops as well as splinter rebel groups.

The city, however, survived by a whisker, thanks to the intervention of 
Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, to stamp out a pattern that was developing, 
where Rwanda and Uganda were bent on changing government at will in Kinshasa.

Political analysts attribute Kabila's violent death in January 2001, when 
he was shot by his own bodyguard, to this fall-out.

He was to be succeeded later by his son, Joseph Kabila, through whose 
leadership the country has finally formed a transitional government, after 
signing a peace accord with the rebel groups in April this year.  The deal 
was brokered by South Africa.

This development notwithstanding, does the UN's long silence over the 
failed investigation on the killing of 300,000 refugees mean that it is no 
longer worthwhile?

These massacres were believed to have been an orchestrated move to effect a 
counter-genocide.

The first wave targeted Rwandan Hutu refugees, mixed with former soldiers 
and Interahamwe militia fighters, largely blamed for the Rwandan genocide.

The UN was forced to act by nearly forcibly repatriating hundreds of 
thousands of Rwandan refugees.

At the time, journalists who visited the Kivu region of eastern DRC 
reported the existence of a number of mass graves.

This is what prompted the UN to set up the investigation team.	But then, 
the powerful hands working behind the scenes deliberately stalled the
process.

Observers note that under normal circumstances, Museveni and Kagame could 
pass for war criminals.

Compared with former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, indicted for war 
crimes by a special court in Sierra Leone and now living in exile in 
Nigeria, the two men have played a more direct role.

Taylor, under pressure from the US, is accused of supporting Sierra Leonean 
rebels in exchange for diamonds, whereas Museveni and Kagame sent their 
armies to DRC to maim, kill, rape and plunder.

Ironically, though, every now and then, these two leaders dine with 
President George W. Bush at the White House.

Could this explain why the genocide committed in DRC has not attracted 
international attention on the scale the Rwandan genocide did?