Abstract:
The African Independent Churches (AICs) phenomenon also known as ‘independency’ appeared in the African continent in the late 19th century and early in the twentieth century. It occurred as a result of the Africans being dissatisfied with the way Christianity was introduced by the western missionaries. The missionaries did not understand the African worldview and assumed that Africans were irreligious. They therefore disregarded anything African. They required the African believers to discard all their cultural practices not knowing that the African religion was embedded in their culture. The missionaries who were leaders in these churches were also seen to collaborate with the European colonizers, something that did not please the African Christians. Some of them also misinterpreted the bible. These and other factors resulted in the Africans initiating their own churches where they would feel free to express Christianity the African way and also to champion the liberation movement which was the major political issue at the time. The interesting thing is that the independency did not end with the political independence of African nations from their western colonial masters. The independency is a common reality up to today. However, the orthodoxy of these churches was put to question from the onset and these churches were criticized for practising syncretism by the missionary churches from which they had separated and also by some theologians. This criticism necessitated that a sympathetic study be carried out to establish the relevance of the Bible in African Independent Churches with a view to determining whether these criticisms were justified. It is in this spirit that this research study was conceived and carried out. A case study of the Akurinu Church in Kenya was carried out toward this end. Nyandarua County of the Republic of Kenya was selected as the location of the study. A total of 100 respondents were sampled from five sub-counties out of the seven in Nyandarua County. 71 out of the 100 questionnaires were returned which translated to a questionnaire return rate of 71%. The data from the questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS computer software. The findings were presented in frequency distribution tables, bar graphs and pie charts. The findings from this study have revealed that the criticisms leveled against the African independent churches are not always justified. Recommendations for the reforms of the Akurinu Church and further research have also been made.
