Revisiting The Roots Of An African Shrine : An investigation of the religion and politics of the Gikuyu people in Kenya

The Kenyan history is weaved with the interplay of quintessential religio-political factors. In the past, some of the most important agents were the imperialist, missionaries, scholars and the adherents of African religions and philosophy. The history of central Kenya underlines that the Colonial government, the Missionaries, the African scholars and the Gky elders collaborated in the forging and invention of the Gky identity as we know it today. In the construction of the history, the sacred Mgumo was shrouded with religio-political power and used by the elders for social and religio-political control of the group. It was this religio-political symbiosis which was celebrated and ritualised around this traditional African shrine. Moreover, the sacred Mgumo prepared the ground for the evangelisation in the Gky land and the political hegemony based on power-knowledge and control. Revisiting an African shrine through the sacred Mgumo tree will help the readers understand the Gky cosmology as well as current religio-political conflicts in Kenya and look for solutions which will help the Gky people co-exist harmoniously with other ethnics groups in Kenya.