Feb. 13, 2012 issue
Kenyans write book on their history
By Debbi DiGennaro Eastern Mennonite MissionsNAIROBI, Kenya — Nine Kenyan delegates and three editors gathered at the Mennonite Guest House the last week in January to proof the manuscript of a history of the Kenya Mennonite Church.
Zsdekia Arwa, Samson Ogoye, Gordon Obado and Liz Rose proof manuscripts of the history of the Kenya Mennonite Church. — Photo by Debbi DiGennaro/EMM
The idea for the book, chronicling KMC’s 50-year history, was birthed in 2003 at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Zimbabwe, in a discussion between Kenyan Bishop Dominic Opondo and David W. Shenk, author and Eastern Mennonite Missions global consultant.
“This is the account of the acts of the Holy Spirit in calling forth and forming the Mennonite Church in Kenya,” wrote Francis Ojwang, primary researcher and author of the book, in the foreword.
“Just as ancient Israel and the early church made a very high priority of writing their history of the acts of God among them, so also the KMC needed to record their journey with Jesus Christ.”
The nine delegates were bishops, pastors and leaders, each representing dioceses of KMC. They spent three full days poring over the nearly 200-page manuscript.
They read each section aloud and then discussed whether the story it portrayed was accurate — moving on only after reaching consensus, in the African way.
There were stories to amend, adjectives to tweak and, because of the different ethnicities involved, misspelled vernacular words and place names to correct.
During the reading, David Shunkur, a Maasai pastor from Olepolos, read a section of the manuscript that described his own congregation’s story.
“It was a moving scene to see Shunkur proofing a paragraph about history he had made himself years before,” said Shenk, who served as a consulting editor.
“The delegates showed an enormous amount of ownership in the process.”
The book will be published by Uzima Publishing House, the Anglican publishing house in Kenya, early in 2013.
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