One of the most effective things that white supremacy has done is to clothe economic arguments in the language of morality. Parents being held solely responsible by the state for their children is one such narrative.
THREAD
THREAD
In Kenya, this narrative started in the neoliberal era (1980s) when World Bank SAP's demanded that government defund social services.
SAPs traumatized Nairobi middle class kids (my generation) who had grown up expecting the same social services their parents had benefited from.
SAPs traumatized Nairobi middle class kids (my generation) who had grown up expecting the same social services their parents had benefited from.
SAPs were brutal on Kenyan intellectual life. They destroyed the backbone of university education, and degraded the university and artistic community already suffering under detentions and crackdowns from the Moi government.
The charismatic churches cynically filled the gap, as @dparsitau tells us.
To cope with the cost-sharing and deteriorating social services, the new charismatic churches also offered faith as a way to wealth through "blessings."
To cope with the cost-sharing and deteriorating social services, the new charismatic churches also offered faith as a way to wealth through "blessings."
These churches also preached "family values" borrowed from white US evangelicals. Family values was a package: tortured virginity before marriage, pro-life, dysfunctional African fathers, boy child, bashing of single mothers, head of the home masculinity, and homeschooling.
What we didn't know, and most Kenyans still don't know, was that "family values" was a political narrative. It was invented in the 70s when white evangelical Christians needed a narrative to protect white racism from the Civil Rights movement without every referring to blacks.
The political origins of family values is explained here by Rev. Dr.Jonathan Wilson Hartgove in conversation with the Very Rev Kelly Brown Douglas entitled "The Spiritual Foundations of White Supremacy. and it's on YouTube. web.facebook.com/wmnjoya/videos…
Mindukrass of my generation might remember that before the 9pm news on KBC (or VoK), they used to bring clips from Dr. James Dobson called "Focus on the family" whose ideology was the bourgeois family model (Christian middle class) which even today, @KICDKenya uses to make policy
This borrowing of racist American narratives has been part of Kenyan policy making since 1924. The other day I wrote a thread about how racist education policies during the late 1800s were brought to Kenya by the colonial administration.
I'm old enough to remember, So if you were born after me, especially starting from the 90s, and you take these narratives as moral and therefore politically neutral, it's time to learn this history. Criticism of Christianity that focuses on 19th century missionaries is unhelpful.
That's because Christian white supremacy updated itself. As Rev Hartgove said, that Christianity is not about faith but about power. It is Magoha and Ezekiel Mutua who are now promoting Christianity, and clergy are simply background vocals to bring the message home.
The other unhelpful argument by the clergy is that the panic about teenage pregnancies is a backdoor route to introducing sex education and contraceptives in school.
That is probably true, but that argument is still a distraction.
That is probably true, but that argument is still a distraction.
The real issue is the state-church control over our sexual lives. The position of the church on sex is psychotic, and that of the state is violent. Both prevent Africans from allowing healthy expressions of all kinds of intimacy, from family to sexual.
For instance, the intimacy between kids and parents has been invaded by GoK through "parental involvement" in CBC. But mindukrass parents have accepted it because the church keeps preaching that kids are the property of the parents and the village has nothing to do with children.
The extreme materialism beaten into Kenyans has made them blind to the fact that
1. sexuality and intimacy are environmental. Availability of wholesome education, opportunities for arts, work and play, are crucial in addition to chemical interventions in reproductive health
1. sexuality and intimacy are environmental. Availability of wholesome education, opportunities for arts, work and play, are crucial in addition to chemical interventions in reproductive health
2. If you control people's intimate lives, you have power over them. So capitalism, the state and the church keep poisoning our minds and identities with hyper masculinity, violence, racism and rabid messages of "purity" to keep us subservient, confused and hating one another.
In summary, sex and love are political. Any time you hear clergy or GoK commenting on these issues, do not assume their positions are neutral, especially in terms of power.
We need freedom even in love and intimacy.
As my friend @MuokiMbunga said, love IS the revolution.
END
We need freedom even in love and intimacy.
As my friend @MuokiMbunga said, love IS the revolution.
END
