Celebrating Faith and Culture

Aculture is the way of life of a nation. Nation here is understood as a people who share the same customs, language, and way of doing things. One of the most conspicuous cultures in the world is the Maasai culture found in East Africa mainly in Tanzania and Kenya. This is because of certain aspects of their life that have remained almost intact even amidst the wake of globalization. Though there are certain things that any culture needs to revise and adjust according to the changing times and positive civilization for the sake of posterity and prosperity, there are other things that need to remain unchanged for the same reason. I am referring to such things as the spirit of sharing and respect for the family unity among the Maasai people. However, polygamy, which is largely based on discrimination of women as well as the marriage of small girls to old men as second, third, fourth, and fifth wives are those things that need rapid change.

Here in Simanjiro we celebrate the good aspects of our Maasai culture as well as sensitizing our people to change those aspects that go against the will of God and the rights of women and children. This is why the theme of our Parish Feast celebration here is “Imbelekenya” which means change. We celebrate our patron “Jesus the Good Shepherd” with a Mass, a Singing competition that brings together choirs from our 30 outstations.

The celebration this year took place on 05/09/2021 at Lenaitunyo outstation and was presided over by His Lordship Prosper Lyimo, auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Arusha. On this day also raise funds to build a permanent Church in the outstation where the celebration takes place because many stations still do not have churches and others have small churches built with mud. All the other outstations put together their contributions to assist the one that has been selected after fulfilling a set of requirements in the spirit of faith responsibilities of the faithful. These include faith instructions to the children helping the development and sustenance of the parish by tithes and offerings.

During the same celebration, four couples blessed their marriage, a really big step in our efforts to preach monogamous marriages and blessing of the same in the Church.