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Prayer circle for Tshanda
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Tshanda, in ruffles and white, poses with our team, Rev. Mukendi (far left) and her Mom (standing) and Dad (far right).
Is a prayer sufficient for Tshanda?
If you are a member of the Luba tribe in Congo, a girl with three older brothers, your parents would name you Tshanda. This traditional name highlights the perceived uniqueness to a family of having a girl after three boys. Many Congolese hold deep beliefs that ancestral spirits influence their daily lives, and because of these beliefs, “Tshanda” and her family will live in fear of an obligation to ancestral spirits. To release them from this fear, the family must accomplish a prescribed ritual. One night, the family will harbor Tshanda inside their home while the community performs ritualistic dances outside all night. The family will be obligated to provide the dancers with palm wine or other strong beverages, and at daybreak, during frenzied dancing, Tshanda will be brought into the dance, symbolizing her emancipation. The family must then kill and prepare a goat for all to partake, with the uncles being served the most esteemed pieces of meat.
Luba tradition explains rare or unusual events by assigning names or developing customs. Twin births, a breach delivery, a live birth after a still birth, these children receive special names according to ancestral directive. Tradition obliges the family to perform rituals and give offerings to release the family from obligations to the ancestral spirit world, requirements which can be of significant financial hardship to a family. Yet, they make great effort to comply lest they provoke the wrath of the ancestral world. Any disease, misfortune, even death, that falls on a marked family is perceived as ancestral revenge for non-compliance.
Last month, as part of our work in Community Health Evangelism, our team went back to Kananga (the capital city of the West Kasai province) on a follow up visit. Rev. Mukendi, our host and the team coordinator in Kananga, asked us to join him in a brief errand for a family that worshiped in his church. So, we serendipitously participated in a ceremonial prayer for Tshanda. Understanding the deep beliefs and fears surrounding this “Christian” family and their little “Tshanda” Rev. Mukendi, their pastor, sought to walk beside the family with the word of God, by helping them understand God better, and releasing them from the fears associated with their traditional beliefs. Like many, belief in and fears of ancestral ways tangle their understanding of God.
We arrived in Tshanda’s yard and the circle enlarged as neighbors recruited chairs from neighbors. Tshanda’s parents organized a place from which Rev. Mukendi could preside, and church leaders living near there also attended, as did friends and neighbors. The group sang a Tshiluba hymn (the local language), and Tshanda’s father welcomed us. Tshanda (and her inseparable friend) were brought out of the house. Rev. Mukendi read from the Tshiluba bible, Heb 1: 1-3, “In the past God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son … the Son (who) is the radiance of God’s glory … sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Pastor Mukendi knew God’s word, yet understood the people’s on-going struggles with tradition and fear, so his mission that late afternoon was to accomplish an emancipation ceremony according to God’s word that Tshanda’s family might now raise her, and her three older brothers, with confidence in the living God, author of life and hope. After sharing from his heart, Rev. Mukendi, perched Tshanda (and her friend), on the table, placed his hands upon them, and in the presence of the many witnesses, prayed for her.
In Congo, servants like Rev. Mukendi and the other trainers, while not medically trained, play pivotal roles in the health of their communities because people’s ideas have consequences. The environment and the poverty in Congo make children like Tshanda extra vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. If parents come to faith in the living God, grow in their understanding of God, and experience that God speaks to them through God’s word, not through ancestral traditions, they will then use meager resources and energy to raise their children without fear and in better health. A prayer will be enough for Tshanda because Rev. Mukendi continues to walk beside his people teaching them all God commands, though he left the circle of prayer without eating what might have been his share of a goat.
Word version of this document available at the bottom of this site.
If you are a member of the Luba tribe in Congo, a girl with three older brothers, your parents would name you Tshanda. This traditional name highlights the perceived uniqueness to a family of having a girl after three boys. Many Congolese hold deep beliefs that ancestral spirits influence their daily lives, and because of these beliefs, “Tshanda” and her family will live in fear of an obligation to ancestral spirits. To release them from this fear, the family must accomplish a prescribed ritual. One night, the family will harbor Tshanda inside their home while the community performs ritualistic dances outside all night. The family will be obligated to provide the dancers with palm wine or other strong beverages, and at daybreak, during frenzied dancing, Tshanda will be brought into the dance, symbolizing her emancipation. The family must then kill and prepare a goat for all to partake, with the uncles being served the most esteemed pieces of meat.
Luba tradition explains rare or unusual events by assigning names or developing customs. Twin births, a breach delivery, a live birth after a still birth, these children receive special names according to ancestral directive. Tradition obliges the family to perform rituals and give offerings to release the family from obligations to the ancestral spirit world, requirements which can be of significant financial hardship to a family. Yet, they make great effort to comply lest they provoke the wrath of the ancestral world. Any disease, misfortune, even death, that falls on a marked family is perceived as ancestral revenge for non-compliance.
Last month, as part of our work in Community Health Evangelism, our team went back to Kananga (the capital city of the West Kasai province) on a follow up visit. Rev. Mukendi, our host and the team coordinator in Kananga, asked us to join him in a brief errand for a family that worshiped in his church. So, we serendipitously participated in a ceremonial prayer for Tshanda. Understanding the deep beliefs and fears surrounding this “Christian” family and their little “Tshanda” Rev. Mukendi, their pastor, sought to walk beside the family with the word of God, by helping them understand God better, and releasing them from the fears associated with their traditional beliefs. Like many, belief in and fears of ancestral ways tangle their understanding of God.
We arrived in Tshanda’s yard and the circle enlarged as neighbors recruited chairs from neighbors. Tshanda’s parents organized a place from which Rev. Mukendi could preside, and church leaders living near there also attended, as did friends and neighbors. The group sang a Tshiluba hymn (the local language), and Tshanda’s father welcomed us. Tshanda (and her inseparable friend) were brought out of the house. Rev. Mukendi read from the Tshiluba bible, Heb 1: 1-3, “In the past God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son … the Son (who) is the radiance of God’s glory … sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Pastor Mukendi knew God’s word, yet understood the people’s on-going struggles with tradition and fear, so his mission that late afternoon was to accomplish an emancipation ceremony according to God’s word that Tshanda’s family might now raise her, and her three older brothers, with confidence in the living God, author of life and hope. After sharing from his heart, Rev. Mukendi, perched Tshanda (and her friend), on the table, placed his hands upon them, and in the presence of the many witnesses, prayed for her.
In Congo, servants like Rev. Mukendi and the other trainers, while not medically trained, play pivotal roles in the health of their communities because people’s ideas have consequences. The environment and the poverty in Congo make children like Tshanda extra vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. If parents come to faith in the living God, grow in their understanding of God, and experience that God speaks to them through God’s word, not through ancestral traditions, they will then use meager resources and energy to raise their children without fear and in better health. A prayer will be enough for Tshanda because Rev. Mukendi continues to walk beside his people teaching them all God commands, though he left the circle of prayer without eating what might have been his share of a goat.
Word version of this document available at the bottom of this site.