Resistant Peoples

Kenya and Tanzania are two countries where Christianity has been in general well received. Within the context of general benevolence toward the new religion, the Christian missions nevertheless have not been able to take foothold among the different sections of Maasai people who live there. In the course of the past two years, it has become more apparent that the Maasai are no longer as capable in the past of keeping themselves from the pressure exercised by the States of which they...
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Kenya and Tanzania are two countries where Christianity has been in general well received. Within the context of general benevolence toward the new religion, the Christian missions nevertheless have not been able to take foothold among the different sections of Maasai people who live there. In the course of the past two years, it has become more apparent that the Maasai are no longer as capable in the past of keeping themselves from the pressure exercised by the States of which they have become a part. They are resigning themselves to the process of change. A growing openness toward Christianity figures as one of the indicators of this new development. But the question remains why they have waited so long to embark on the path of change. The discovery of elements which have determined the behaviour of the Maasai may help to answer to this question. Valeer Neckerbrouck, born in 1936, Koerbeek-Dijle (Belgium), is a priest of the archdiocese of Malines-Brussels. He is doctor in theology and doctor in anthropology. After having worked as a Fidei Donum priest in Rwanda and Zaire, he spent five years as an anthropologist among the agricultural Kikuyu and the pastoral Maasai of Kenya. He also did anthropological field-work in Ethiopia, Peru and Honduras, and made extensive study tours to several other African and Latin American countries. Since 1982 he combines these activities in the field of teaching, first at the Faculty of Theology of Tilburg, later at the Faculty of Theology and at the Centre for Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Catholic University of Louvain.