In the story of Ngeti, there are several rituals practiced by the traditional Taita community in Kenya as well as rituals practiced by the catholic community from the region. In addition, there are also rituals practiced by the Protestants1. This paper seeks to identify at least one particular ritual in Ngeti’s story that is similar to or different from the rituals identified by Emile Durkheim and understanding of rites passage.
With the myriad rituals in the story of Ngeti, the one that stands out especially with regards to traditional practices in the Taita community is the ritual to protect a family from the forces of witchdoctors and witchcraft. It can be noted from the story that Ngeti used to experience a lot of scary cases of witch craft especially from night runners during his childhood. The family would specifically get “protection” from the bush doctors. The bush doctors would perform numerous rituals for a specific period to protect their properties and family from the witches2.
Even though, the family was a “Christian” family, the old folks were so deep into the traditional practices that they had to consult the bush doctors. Some of the practices included “anointing” the compound with sheep blood, an ordeal of lacerating their bodies with blade so as to put medicine inside their bodies, and drinking of a concoction made from local beer and herbs. Even as catholic, Ngeti found himself performing several ritualistic practices for the same reasons that his family would seek traditional divine council such as bush doctors and witch doctors. All these rituals were performed for the same reason of getting success in life. In order to be successful, there is a need to access deep historical and invisible source of power. Catholicism teaches that people have to pray for everything including the homemade beer that adults binged on. Other ritualistic practices in Catholicism included learning the litany and rosary. As Christians, it would not be fair to freely interact with those who still practice traditional religion because of the potential to fall victim of their witch craft. Considering Catholicism to being non primitive and a mind set of capitalists, it is clear that it taught people to be deviate from the old traditional religion and their practices. However, despite these teachings, it was hard for the family of Ngeti to deviate completely from the traditional practices and rituals. Occasionally, they would find themselves seeking advice and counsel from the bush doctors who were far much not different from the witch doctors3.
According to Victor Turner, there are two principles that govern the social structure of a society. He particular made references to the Ndebu society in Africa. The two principles work jointly4. The first one is matrilineal descent, and the other one is virilocality. Virilocality is a term used in social systems describing a situation where a couple either lives near or with the husbands parents. Matrilineal descent, on the other hand, refers to tracing the descent through the female or maternal line. Matrilineal descent is dominant and when combined or joined with virilocality, it explains why different communities are organized into villages. It can be noted in the Taita community, there are villages that perform certain rituals while others that perform different rituals. Ngeti’s village used to seek “protection” from the witch doctors by going to the bush doctors. Even though, there was no significant difference from the two, but there was a clear distinction between those who sought the services of either of the two.
According to Turner, rituals are regarded as processes. From what he noted to be performed by the Ndebu community, there are two successive rituals that are performed at different periods5. In between, there is seclusion from the outside life or the secular life. This means that the consumers of the rituals may really not be able to understand anything secretive about the rituals or even be able to develop criticism on the practices. Rites of passage according to Turner only occur whenever there is a need for change of place, position, and state. Therefore, he proposes three stages of the process of rituals. The first stage is when a person gets detached from an early point in the structure of the society. The second stage as identified by Turner is where a person is no longer in the previous fixed point and also has not reached the new state. The final stage is where the subject of the ritual finally gets into a new state that is stable with its own obligations and rights.
This process can be seen in the case of Ngeti. During his childhood stages, he used to perform the rituals without any understanding of the reasons behind them. He was basically secluded from the secular world that presented different perception about the traditional practices. He participated in the rituals at the early age from a passive point of view. However, during high school, Ngeti began to seek an explanation for the way his life is becoming. For instance, he could not understand why he did not like books and school at the same time. Despite believing the concept of being bewitched, Ngeti began to question why the bush doctors could openly reveal the people behind the bewitching, but no one could take any necessary action against them. This is when Ngeti challenged his father to confront the people behind the bewitching of the family which caused him not to like school.
Tuner also presents a distinction between rituals of afflictions and life crisis rituals. Life crisis rituals would mark a transition from one phase to another in the development of an individual. Ngeti could not understand the reason behind some occurrences in his family and himself. It was easier to believe the witches stories regarding these issues.
Another ritual in the story of Ngeti that stands out is the ritual of taking identifying the ritual of seeking divine explanation behind the life misfortunes6. Everyone within the Taita community would seek the attention and counsel of witch doctors in the event that something bad happens to the society. For instance, Ngeti’s uncle was successful and prosperous. However, he constantly experienced misfortunes such as car accidents. Visiting the witch doctors gave him a message of the source of all his misfortunes. This is where Tuner’s two principles that govern social structures would apply. The witch doctors make a lot of references to the maternal descents to explain the sources of the misfortunes. With cases of polygamy being common in the traditional societies, rivalry among wives would always be a common thing.
On the contrary, according to Smith and his analysis of the Luo culture in Kenya, rituals concerning the Omieri snake would be associated with development in the society7. The snake Omieri, which is a python, is believed to an incarnation of an ancestral spirit which occasionally makes visits to the region. Every time the snake would make a visit, a lot of positive development would occur in the region. This means that despite the fact that modern thinkers would consider modernism to have nothing to do with rituals and traditional religion, within the Luo traditional culture, any positive sign of modern development, be it technological, economical, or political, is attributed to traditional practices and beliefs.
Marisol de la Cadena argued that Latin America’s turn to the Left away from neoliberalism in the past few years has been in part due to the revival of indigenous movements (indigenismo) in the Andean countries of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. This same argument can be seen in the case of Ngeti8. Despite the family and Taita community being predominantly Christians, they still embrace traditional practices and rituals. Basically, there is a revival of indigenous practices. The concepts of witchcrafts are strongly condemned in the Christian faith; whether it is in Catholicism or Protestantism. Modern politics on the Left can accommodate these movements when they are concerned with capitalist exploitation, protection of the environment, cultural autonomy and land reform, although it shares the same modernist and rationalist assumptions as the liberals and supporters of free trade and laissez faire capitalism.
Unlike modernist thinkers, Tuner did not regard such beliefs in religion and rituals as primitive. Modernist thinkers would define modernization to include things such as technology, urbanization, industries and science. They would fail to consider the social and cultural beliefs. However, the reason behind the turning back to traditional beliefs, customs and rituals is because the society may fail to understand certain phenomena that still remain evident in the modern society9. Durkheim specifically advocated for a society that make perpetual progress towards socialism and social democracy. This is the direct product of capitalism according to Durkheim and Max10. Despite capitalism creating individualistic people who are self centered, one thing is clear, that the society would not return to traditional religion, tribal past and feudal past. However, considering the case of Ngeti and his story, it is pretty much clear that the society can easily return to traditional religion and practices especially in Africa. Emile Durkheim’s most important claim was that the urban, industrial society created by modern capitalism had left humanity with a deep sense of anomie, alienation and isolation.
In Ngite’s story, there are also religious rituals that are practiced by both Catholics and traditional African religion11. It is said that the prayers and practices of both are very similar. However, those done by Pentecostals are different because of the fact that there is direct communication with true power and virtue. The power and virtue being referred to in this case is a universal standard upon which all other practices can be measured. . Beyond the debates over capitalism and socialism, or even the varieties of capitalism and socialism, the indigenous movements in the Andes pose a challenge to the scientific worldview that both neoliberals and the Left share. At least since the French Revolution, the secular Left in the Western world has associated religion and spirituality with conservatism and the Right wing, and this is still true in the U.S. with the conflicts between the Left and evangelical Protestants and fundamentalists.
In conclusion, the paper has identified several ritual practices in Ngeti’s story that is similar to or different from the rituals identified by Emile Durkheim and understanding of rites passage. Ritual has been regarded as a process that leads to rites of passage. This helps to understand why people would still hold onto rituals. Rites of passage only occur whenever there is a need for change of place, position, and state.
References
Cadena, Marisol de La. Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco
Peru. Chicago: Duke University Press, 2000.
Deflem, Mathieu. "Ritual, Anti-Structure, and Religion: A Discussion of Victor Turner’s
Processual Symbolic Analysis." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion ,
1991: 30(1):1-25.
Smith, James Howard. Bewitching Development. Chicago: Chicago University Press,
2008.
