Dini ya Kaggia (Kaggia's religion)

A missionary who was sympathetic to Kaggia’s case had told him that ‘Liberation must begin from the mind’. The missionary said that ‘Africans had been enslaved mentally to be submissive to the white man. The Africans had been told the white man was suited to rule them.’ These remarks had been a revelation to Kaggia. Based on this knowledge he came to the conclusion that the Christian missionaries indoctrinated Africans to the notion of European superiority. The Christian religion had taught Africans that powers and governments were ordained by God. Through this kind of teaching many people had come to look upon any disobedience or revolt against the white government as a sin against God. The Christian religion had taught Africans that everything European, customs, clothing and even food, was godly. And everything African was devilish. To liberate the mind of his people, Kaggia decided, he had to start a battle with the Anglican church.

Before starting the battle Kaggia took time to trace the origins of many so-called Christian customs and traditions. He discovered that many Christian customs were originally either English or Roman. He could see no reason why African customs should be exchanged for English or Roman ones in the name of Christianity: if Roman or English customs were good enough to be incorporated in the Christian traditions, there was no reason why our good African customs should be criticized. Kaggia felt that this more or less completed his doctrine.

Initially Kaggia preached in the existing churches. Hundreds of young men and women flocked to hear Kaggia whenever he preached. Within a short time, however, the Church was embarrassed by, and even afraid of, the popularity of his sermons. Some closed their doors to him; others reluctantly allowed him to speak. Invitations to distant areas became more frequent as his fame spread. After some time, the church leaders became hostile towards Kaggia and they decided to order the churches and schools to close their doors for him. Shortly not a single church would allow him to preach and he was forced to quit the Church. After quitting, Kaggia’s preaching became even more aggressive against the church authorities. Besides converting people to his kind of Christianity, the objective of himself and his followers was to destroy the hypocritical ‘Synagogue Christianity’ of the established Church. He compared the clergy and the whole hierarchy of the ‘mzungu church’ to the Pharisees, those who outwardly professed godliness, but were ungodly inside. Like Jesus, he changed the emphasis from ‘converting the heathen’ to ‘demolishing the citadel of ungodly formality and hypocrisy’.

The Church became so alarmed that the church leaders requesed the Government for assistance. For the first time the Government became interested in the movement. Kaggia had been preaching for about four months when a very big meeting was held in Gichugu Division of Kirinyaga District (then Embu District) in October, 1946. The meeting took place not far from the biggest church in the area. The meeting was scheduled to last three days. But on the second day the mission could no longer tolerate them: all the people around flocked to hear ‘the Kaggia’ they had heard about.

A contingent of police and tribal police swooped down on the meeting and arrested Kaggia and some of his prominent members. They were locked up at the Embu Headquarters. At the trial his friends and Kaggia were charged with holding a public meeting without a licence and imprisoned for two weeks.

After they were released, they received a hero’s welcome everywhere they went. The meetings they held after their imprisonment, had tremendous influence and in many places they had wholesale conversions. His doctrine was spreading. They were getting further and further away from the established churches. Kaggia was convinced that in order to break the missionary influence, the foreign churches had to be destroyed. Good headway was being made.

Kaggia had followers from all denominations and he continued preaching about a new way of life. This new way of life must be African, where Africans can stand on their rights, where they cannot be discriminated against.

Kaggia decided that if he gave the movement a name, it would be just another denomination. So the movement had no name. People could not accept that the movement had no name though, and Kaggia’s followers began to be known as Andu a Kaggia – Kaggia’s people. This later became known as Dini ya Kaggia – Kaggia’s religion. Kaggia’s main objectives at that time were the following:

• To create a purely African movement, divorced from European denominations and entirely independent of the European Church’s doctrine.

• To establish a holy Church, freed from all the European customs which had been preached to Africans concurrent with religious teachings.

• To formulate an independent doctrine to suit Africans, one which would include African customs and traditions:

- All converts had to be baptized or re-baptized in their mothers’ names, erasing all foreign names;

- Matrimonial ceremonies were to be conducted in a new, African way.

In 1947 Kaggia himself married and his wedding was the first Christian wedding in this part of the world without a priest or pastor from the established churches. Kaggia’s movement spread into other provinces and he went back to work in Nairobi. Gradually, he saw that the aim of his work, which was to liberate minds indoctrinated by missionaries, to make people realize their own importance and rights, was almost accomplished. It was clear that many Africans had experienced the same revelation he had. They were no longer the humble, European-fearing people that they had been: they now had the courage to attack the mzungu Government.

In the meantime the trade unions had become a militant group with a mass following and Kaggia decided to turn his whole effort in their direction. As he had many helpers in most provinces where his preaching had a following, he now left most of the work of the religious movement to others and only attended important functions. The movement continued to be known as Dini ya Kaggia (although it had no official name), and members were severely persecuted during the Emergency, when many of them deserted. Those who remained had to modify their beliefs and accept many government conditions, including registration, which they had refused to accept before. During the Emergency the group split into many factions because of the pressure against it and the differences among its leaders. But although officially these sects were known by different names in their respective areas, they were for a long period still called the Andu a Kaggia – Kaggia’s people.