The Gikuyu and Mumbi are two tribes in Kenya that have a unique belief system, and in a framed piece entitled “WHAT THE GIKUYU AND MUMBÍ BELIEVE,” their beliefs are captured. The creed was first recited from memory in 1952 by the Gikuyu Mau Mau during their meetings countrywide, in forests, prisons, and detention camps. It was used to strengthen their faith that the God of Mt. Kenya would defeat the colonizers and enemies. The creed is as follows:
“I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. And I believe in Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi, our first parents who were created by God Almighty and who gave them the land of the Gĩkũyũ.
They were persecuted by the white race during the time of Waiyaki wa Hinga according to the prophecy of Mũgo wa Kibirũ. The leadership and land were taken from them; they were made into useless creatures.
They were educated against their faith in MweneNyaga and their traditional culture. Their children, the Mau Mau, became enlightened, awoke from the slavery of the whites, and reinstalled their parents back into the seat of their original blessing. I also believe in the holy ceremonies of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi. And the oneness of all the races, those that worship the One everlasting God. And the two ruling generations of Mwangi and Irũngũ within the wider Kingdom of the country, Kenya.
And the perfect unity of the Nine-Full clans. And the everlasting Gĩkũyũ Nation, forever and ever. Peace! Peace unto thee Oh God!”
What is most interesting about the Gikuyu creed is that, rather than working out the question, “What is the distilled essence of Gikuyu religious belief system?”, they took the easy way of riding on the back of the Christian ass. This method of appropriating the oppressor's tools and turning them into weapons of struggle is well-documented by Paulo Freire in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Similarly, colonizers usually appropriate the belief systems of the colonized to make their new creed easily accepted. In this mutual sharing and cross-pollination, the end result is that the enemies begin sharing the same bed.
However, the experience of this European/pagan Christianity in Africa has been to inculturate, to use their own words, to adopt deeply embedded African practices like death and ancestral worship and turn them into an African/Christian hybrid. Just like the so-called European Christianity, this African hybrid Christianity has little if any authentic Christianity as preached by Christ in Palestine.
If one were to enter many of those dens or churches that litter our modern African spiritual landscape, what hits you is the pompous dress, ostentatious living, and verbosity of their self-serving priests. Far from the Christ! Many of these priests of non-sense speak in an exaggerated holier-than-thou cant and caricature. Their peacock-strutting stage brouhaha often takes absurdity to the heights of the ridiculous. Most can and should be dismissed as a bunch of posers, usurpers, or charlatans.
It is, therefore, important to note that there is a need for a return to the authentic African spiritual heritage. African spirituality should be grounded in the realities of African lives and not borrowed from other cultures. It should be seen as a valid and valuable source of wisdom, knowledge, and guidance, rather than a second-class spiritual option.