Maasai Diviners and Christianity

An Investigation of three Different Clans of IlÓibonok in Tanzania and the Attitude of the Lutheran Church towards Them

Author: Christel Kiel. Series edited by: Archiv und Museumsstiftung der VEM, Wuppertal.

Series: MuG Mission – Past and Present Volume 11

The different local diviners of the Maa speaking societies in Eastern Africa are called IlÓibonok. Being mediators between the visible and the invisible in the past, present and future of their clients' life, they are regarded with reverence and some feeling of awe, but also of fear. They were always strangers, ethnically and traditionally and in the beginning the Christian missionaries regarded them as sorcerers and demon-ridden people who tried to keep the Gospel from the Maasai or the Maasai from the Gospel. Until the end of the 20th century they had a certain – maybe diminishing – influence. How did the Christians of the Lutheran Church see them? How did these diviners regard Christianity after it had been proved that the foreign religion was not just a passing fad? These two questions are considered in this work.

The author first got the idea for research about Maasai diviners and their relation to the Christian church while she worked on the history of the Maasai mission in the North East­ern Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania and noticed that the relation of the church and the diviners hitherto had not been scrutinized, although Christian pastors were expected to fulfil some of the functions IlÓibonok had performed before Christian­ity came.

Part One informs about the IlÓibonok clans present in Tanzania, the work they did until 1999 and the members of the Tilián clan the author met personally. Part Two gives a general overview about the work of then present IlÓibonok. Part Three examines history concerning the encounter of missionaries with diviners and tries to give an impression of the attitude of 20th century Christians toward them. Another chapter tries to find biblically based criteria for the relation and eventual cooperation between Christians and the diviners practising within the boundaries of certain parishes.

Under PDF documents you will find a review by Benjamin Simon.

Under these links you will find further publications on the Maasai culture and the Maa language:

Accompanying material:

• A Bibliography of the Maa Language and the Maasai People (ISBN 978-3-89645-710-3)
• The Mukogodo Maasai (ISBN 978-3-927620-86-5)

Reviews

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