Overview

In many communities across the world traditional beliefs and practices are passed down generations and are a feature of day-to-day life, despite the influence of outside sources. Focusing on Luo Muslims in Kenya, Dr Lawrence Oseje looks at the interaction of Islam and traditional Luo practices, especially those around death and burial. Dr Oseje's research with Luo Muslims in Kendu Bay investigates the impact of the traditional Luo conceptualization of death with their current views, and provides new understanding of fundamental issues that affect the lives of ordinary Muslims. From his observation of this community, Oseje encourages a celebration of traditions and customs, showing that an appreciation of traditions and beliefs can help develop ministry to local communities. Dr Oseje's findings result in a deepened understanding of cultures, how they develop from a blend of influences, and provides anthropological and missiological guidelines for cross-cultural ministry, particularly in times of bereavement.

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9781783685431

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Dr Lawrence Oseje has carried out an unusual phenomenological research into a local Muslim culture. His descriptions and analyses of Luo-Muslim funeral practices in Kendu Bay, located in the western part of Kenya, reveal the complex nature of religio-cultural expressions of Islam in Africa. The kind of Islam that Luo Muslims uphold is a result of the integrative synthesis of two human realities: Luo traditions and Islamic ideas. Dr Oseje takes painstaking effort to present the insider's religio-cultural perspective of life and death among the Luo Muslims. His work provides us with many insights into intriguing realities of ordinary Muslims. I am certain that this book will be a source of invaluable information on cultural features that have been missing in the field of Islamic studies. I recommend this rare volume on Muslim culture to cross-cultural missionaries, inter-religious academicians, and organizational leaders, who intend to understand cultural concepts and values that ordinary Muslims hold, particularly in Africa. Caleb Kim, PhD Director, Institute for the Study of African Realities Coordinator, Centre for the Study of Religions Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya A study into cultural issues of death such as this is indeed a milestone into seeing the very fabrics that hold, guide and inform the day-to-day experiences of the life of ordinary Muslims in Africa. From the beginning of his writing to the very end, Dr Oseje has demonstrated that the real fear that faces ordinary Muslims is not mainly found in the major issues of life, such as joblessness, economic deprivation and national governance, but mostly in the very basics of life, such as disease, sickness, natural disasters and death. The funeral, as he has discussed it, is the converging point where both tradition and Islam meet. The similarities and the differences between Luo traditions and Islam thus define the kind of identity to which these ordinary Muslims ascribe. His research has no doubt demonstrated the need to understand every culture from its own context. By so doing, the temptation to generalize cultures will be avoided. Josephine Mutuku, PhD Senior Lecturer, Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya This study on the impact of Luo traditional views on the contemporary Luo-Muslim conceptualization of death is simultaneously relevant and articulate. Part of the strength of this work is the manner in which it utilizes religiocultural images to clarify important theological justifications. The story of the late S. M. Otieno that Dr Lawrence Oseje writes about exemplifies this reality. His focus on Luo-Muslim funerals narrows the larger conversation to one ethnic extraction's point of view in respect to the question of death. The solidarity and the unity that the Luo Muslims demonstrate when one of their own or any other member in the Luo community dies, is itself very insightful. The Luo-Muslim community discussed here not only presents the significance of the place in which one should be buried, but it also provides meaning and value attached to one's ethnic identity. Oseje has thus reminded us that our traditions affect our religious beliefs, our practices and ultimately our theology. James Kombo, DTh Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Daystar University, Nairobi, Kenya

Author Information

LAWRENCE OSEJE earned his PhD in Interreligious Studies from Africa International University (AIU). He is currently a lecturer and adjunct professor in missions and intercultural studies at a number of universities and seminaries across Africa, including Africa International University, Nairobi, Kenya and Africa College of Theology, Kigali, Rwanda. His travels in many nations of the world training pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders has given him a richer appreciation of people and their cultural values. Lawrence is married to Dorcas, and together they are blessed with three children, Jael, Emmanuel and Rosebell.

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