Letter From America: Christmas among the Masai!

Archbishop Manasseh Mankuleyo

Is man a material or a spiritual being? This is an ancient question  which all religions have struggled with.

Christians solved this question by asserting that man has two natures, one spiritual and the other material, one good and the other bad. The two natures are in constant struggle with each other.

Christmas signifies the marriage between the spiritual and the secular. And God became man.

Now, an arrogant foreigner would assume that the Masai were ignorant of such complexities.

I sat with the Masai elders, who explained to me in very simple language the meaning of life. Their explanations would have put the greatest Eurocentric philosophers to shame.

The month of Christmas coincides with the twelfth lunar month of the year and the end of the short rainy season. There are two rainy seasons in Masai land, one shorter than the other. This short season also coincides with the calving season. The young herdsmen are ready to break camp and follow their herds to pastures in the lower grasslands.

The Masai are nomadic.

Christmas is a European invention but very easy to understand. Married to the end of one season, coming at a time when the cattle men must break camp, watching the stars around their campfire, the message of Christmas is easily understood.

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”(KJV)

But the Masai understand the marriage between the spiritual and the material at a deeper level. When elders pass their golden age (55-65 years) they enter the twilight zone. In the twilight zone, as each child is born, they search the face of the child intensely in order to find out which of their ancestors has returned.

“The birth of a child is the return of an ancestor.” They say. In modern English, it is simply a rebirth.

The Masai are grouped into clans, a patriarch presiding over a few families or village that can number as many as 100 souls.

It was the genius of the Evangelical Free Church to combine the “transitional ceremonies” that mark the end of the short rainy season when the Masai break camp in search of new pastures for their flocks.

The patriarch will authorize the slaughter of one fat beast for Christmas and New Year festivities. For the young herdsmen, the permission to handle some “internals” (liver, kidneys, some intestines, and to boil some blood stew, which the Scots call haggis) at their bush camp, brings to them exceeding joy.

But there is a catch. A vial of wild honey is kept nearby for upset stomachs. Boys will be boys.

Of course, these festivities are accompanied by exchange of gifts. In today’s Masai land, gifts usually include clothes suitable for school, which comes a few weeks after Christmas.

Nevertheless, the issue here is that the combination of these activities, and the general movements between families as they seek a feast, or some muti for upset stomachs, exchange stories and gifts, brings exceeding joy.

“When they saw the star (the Magi) they were filled with joy…they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” (KJV)

 Wishing to leave some gifts for the children, I lost count of the children coming in and out of Mama Bishop Mankuleyo’s house that I asked. “How many children do you have?”

I counted as many as ten children. They were visiting from the neighborhood. We sat around a fireplace and shared stories until mid-night. The children then shared blankets and slept on the floor.

Verily I say unto you, the fellowship and love shown here is a premonition of the Masai being perfected in Christ.

Theological issues

Archbishop Manasseh Mankuleyo purposeful life, after living in Sweeden and the US was to bring his people, the Masai into the perfect love of Christ, without destroying their identity and customs.

The issue of whether the Masai can remain nomadic for long does worry him. Already, there are “has beens” (Diasporas) who are returning to Masai land, carving out acres of land for themselves, fencing them off and building mansions.

The Cape to Cairo interstate highway passes through the heart of Masai-land. Towns are mushrooming along this highway. In an earlier study, published by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1984) I identified this as a highway by   which HIV-AIDS spread from one country to another.

There are 17 official television stations in Kenya and 30 other nondescript pirate stations. Among the pirate stations, I identified seven stations devoted entirely to Hip-hop music and other genres which have no cultural value.

The US State Department has chosen East Africa as a battleground for their gay and trans-gender foreign policy. Already the Kenya Supreme Court ruled in favor of registering such sub-groups as civic societies deserving equal protection under the law.

Masai society gravitates around the patriarch. A family can easily have as many as 100 cattle besides goats and sheep. Under western influence, the pressure is growing to monetize this wealth.

This is going to be a burning issue among the Masai.

As it stands, any member in this extended family can benefit from the herds, milk, skins for warmth, meat and milk are shared according to need. If the patriarch sells the animals and deposits the money in his bank account, he, as an individual (and his immediate children) will benefit.

It is very unlikely that the patriarch will pay for the education of his brother’s children from his personal bank account.

This monetization is the beginning of the destruction of the extended family-and community responsibility for the weak and infirm. It brings about individualism to the destruction of the extended family.

The Masai society, as it stands, is an ideal society. While Christmas, married to Masai ceremonies of new life brings about exceeding joy and excitement the challenges of modernisation are knocking at the door.

Merry Christmas to all our readers. .

 (Ken Mufuka is a Zimbabwean patriot. He writes from the US.)

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