Abstract
The Kenyan Quaker church lays emphasis on singing in their meetings. Singing is part of the liturgical expression of the church. Through singing, the main church doctrines are rehearsed. Singing forms part of the celebrations of life from birth to death. This chapter traces the reasons for the emphasis on singing and argues that singing was one way the first Western missionaries used to gain entry to the indigenous population, as it was innate and a medium of communicating the life within the community and the divine. Using the case of Gideon Mweresa, this chapter indicates how he was a mystic of a different kind.
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Notes
- 1.
Margery Post Abbot, Mary Ellen Chijioke, Pink Dandelion, John William Oliver, Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 201) 2, 39–240.
- 2.
Quoted by Zablone Malenge in Early Christianity Revived in the Perspectives of Friends in Kenya, 32.
- 3.
Alfred Tucker, Eighteen Years in Uganda (London: Edward Arnold, 1908), 102.
- 4.
John S. Pobee, Skenosis: Christian faith in an African Context (Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 1992).
- 5.
John S. Ukpong, “Towards a Holistic Approach to Inculturation Theology,” Mission Studies: Journal of the IAMS 16, no. 2 (1999): 100–24.
- 6.
Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Introducing African Women’s Theology (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001). Musimbi Kanyoro, “Engendered Communal Theology; Africa Women’s contribution to Theology in the 21st Century,” in Hope in abundant, Third World and indigenous Women’s Theology, ed. Kwok Pui Lan (New York: Orbis, Maryknoll, 2010), 17–33.
- 7.
Ane Marie Bak Rasmussen, Modern African Spirituality—The Independent Holy Spirit Churches in East Africa 1902–1976 (London: British Academic Press, 1996).
- 8.
Bware Yearly Meeting, Central Yearly Meeting Chavakali Yearly Meeting, Chebyusi Yearly Meeting, Chwele Elgon East, Yearly Meeting, East Africa Yearly Meeting North, Highland Yearly Meeting, Kaimosi Yearly Meeting, Kakamega Yearly Meeting, Lugari Yearly Meeting, Lugulu Yearly Meeting, Malava Yearly Meeting, Musingu Yearly Meeting, Nairobi Yearly Meeting, Tuloi Yearly Meeting, Tongaren Yearly Meeting, Soy Yearly Meeting, Vihiga Yearly Meeting, Vokoli Yearly Meeting.
- 9.
John S. Mbiti, African Traditional Religions (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1969), 1.
- 10.
Gideon S. Were, A History of the Abaluyia of Western Kenya (Nairobi: EAPH 1967), 99; J. Osogo, Life in Kenya in the Olden Days (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1965), 95.
- 11.
John S. Mbiti, African Religions & Philosophy (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1969), 166.
- 12.
George Senoga-Zake, Folk Music Of Kenya (Nairobi: Uzima, 1988), 29–49.
- 13.
Edna Chilson, Arthur B. Chilson: Ambassador for the King (Wichita, KS: 1943), 40; Irene Hoskin, Friends in East Africa (Richmond, Indiana: American Friends Board of Mission, 1945), 28. Alta Howard Hoyt, We Were Pioneers (n.d.), 31; African Record, vol. 2 (April–July, 1907), 6.
- 14.
KNA: Letter from Arthur Chilson 3rd February, 1921.
- 15.
Joseph Galgalo, African Christianity, the Stranger Within (Limuru, Kenya: Zapf Chancery, 2012), 24.
- 16.
Fifteen Years in East Africa (Richmond, IN: American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, 1917), 9.
- 17.
Lamin Sanneh. Translating the Message: Missionary Impact on Culture, New York: Maryknoll, 1989; Ype Schaaf, On their way Rejoicing: The History and Role of the Bible in Africa, Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1952.
- 18.
Elizabeth H. Emerson, Emory Rees, Language Pioneer: a Biographical Sketch (Richmond, IN: American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, 1958), 15.
- 19.
East Africa Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Tsinyimbo Tsyo Kwidzominya Nyasaye (Tiriki. 1966).
- 20.
The songs were put together by his children Jerry Masidza Mweresa and Micah Mulembani Mweresa 2018. They have produced one CD to accompany the music.
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Mombo, E. (2019). The Singing Mysticism: Kenyan Quakerism, the Case of Gideon W. H. Mweresa. In: Kershner, J. (eds) Quakers and Mysticism. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mysticism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21653-5_11
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