3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE IMPACT OF THE REVIVAL MOVEMENT IN THE NORTH WESTERN DIOCESE OF THE
5.2. Some Strengths within the Revival Movement
5.2.6. Childlessness and Inheritance
The East African Revival Movement spread in Buhaya at a time of growing awareness of the population crisis in the area. The Haya people had an image of themselves as a barren and dying people and the women were sure that there was a correlation between venereal disease and the decrease in the numbers of Haya people. See the following data:
Fertility rate expressed as the number of live births per 1,000 women Age Number of Women Fertility rate Years
698 1696 2556 3,087)
Source: (Larsson 1991:100) quoting Culwick. The Population Problem in Bukoba District, (1938),p. 13.
Age Distribution of the Female Population ._
14-19 20-29 30-49 (over 50)
411 852
1302
945
Age grade Percentage Over 50 years 21 30-49 years 29 20-29 19
14-19 9 7-13 10 2-6 8
Source: (Larsson 1991:101) quoting Culwick, The population Problem in the Bukoba District, (1938), p. 20.
The contribution of the Lutheran church in the 1930's focuses on the German doctor Fritz Kroeber from Bethel Mission, who worked in Buhaya from 1928-1938. He is well known for a campaign against venereal disease. Kroeber expressed his great concern over what he saw as the considerable degeneration of the Haya people. He found the spread of venereal disease especially shocking. He decided, to go out in a very open campaign with information about how to avoid getting venereal disease. Everywhere he taught about the ravages of venereal disease. At the Church Synod which met at Butainamwa in 1938, great appreciation was also expressed for Kroeber's work in Buhaya. One of the African pastors, Andrea Kajerelo, expressed the appreciation of the people in a letter:
To the helper in our need, Dr. Kroeber! Blessed be your work which you have done in our land for 10 years. It is blessed. That is why we want to honour you and your good deeds with a new name.
You may for all times be called Mujunangoma, (Saviour of the nation), by us. This name is for us a remembrance of what you have done for the Bahaya... We are the Elders of the Congregations in Buhaya through Pastor Andrea Kajerelo (Larsson; 1991:107-108).
At the Synod meeting, Kroeber challenged the Bahaya people. He was not satisfied with the result of his work:
I came here to help. But if people are going to be helped they must be healthy not only in body but also in spirit. What do we see in this country? Venereal disease has become rampant. We try to heal but it does not seem to help.. .The same people come back three or four times with the same illness. The Bahaya are a dying people.
Your country will be eaten up by another people. Hayaland stands at the door of death (Sundkler 1980:118).
The doctor emphasized his point by showing the Synod pictures that strikingly illustrated the ways in which gonorrhoea ravaged the body. He challenged the people to repent from their old sins. He said "if your spirit does not become like the spirit of Nineveh who repented at the preaching of Jonah you cannot be saved (1980:118). Kroeber preached about repentance.
According to Sundkler, Kroeber had just been in contact with the early beginning of the Revival Movement in Rwanda and Uganda and this is why his address to the Synod was coloured by the preaching of repentance.
In Haya custom, childlessness was the cause of divorce, chasing away a wife or taking a second wife. This was and is one of the difficult tests for a Christian marriage. To be without children, and especially without male children, meant being without heirs. For a widow that implies going back to her home village, to her father's house at her husband's death. The Revival brought a challenge to this misconception. Some respondents in this thesis like:
Rohoza Kagemulo, Bertha Nyabuhoro, Yudes Muguta, Jane Kataraiah and
Yustina Robert are widows and they are taking care of their farms which they had cultivated together with their husbands. Also Marja- Liisa Swantz, in her study of two villages in the Bukoba area, refer to some widows, who continued to live on the farms they had built together:
Two of these had no children. In both cases the husband and wife belonged to the Revival Movement and the husbands had remained faithful to their wives and died without heirs. One of these men had ordered his brother to let his wife continue to live on their farm or else to compensate the wife fully if he took the house and the land and his rightful inheritance.
So if a widow can inherit her husband's house and
farm and benefit from it, there must be a very special set of circumstances which allows it(Swantz;1985:69).
There are some well known couples among the Abalokole who have lived together without children of their own and who are often mentioned as examples. During the field work research, the researcher came across couples who have not had any children of their own and who said that because of the Revival they have continued to live together, often rearing children of relatives or fostering children. It should be noted however that lack of children would probably more often lead to the fall of the Abalokole. One man in the Bulembo congregation, who was very active and respected in the movement, decided to take a second wife, as he had only one daughter.
It seems therefore that life situations like poverty and marginalization that have affected mainly women are the leading reasons for many women to join the Revival Movement. For instance, barrenness or sterility, which in most cases is blamed on the women in an African marriage, has caused many women to suffer psychologically and they encounter bad relationships with both sides of the family, husband and friends. The end result is that such a woman finds herself in need of a close friend with whom she may discuss her situation.
According to the Haya customs, the right to inherit land is not extended to women. But nowadays things have changed. There are some cases among the Abalokole and other Christians where daughters are allocated ebibanja (farms). Another example is from the researcher's father. Before he died in the year 1994, he allocated his farms to his wife and his children including two daughters. Swantz also describes another example of a man who had two female children only and who due to his Christian principles did not want to take the second wife.
Before his death (he) allocated his land to his wife and his second daughter, who was barren and consequently had been divorced. This right was
disputed by the brother of the man. The women were helped by the husband of the first daughter to take the matter to court and, through a court decision, they were given right of occupancy for life(1985:69).