Levirate Marriage & Theo-doctrinal Embargo

A Kenyan Experience

Abstract

African scholars have found themselves in a theo-doctrinal embargo, especially after the nineteenth and twentieth century European missionary explosion that ushered in a vibrant protestant Christianity in Eastern Africa. This version of Christianity was largely dismissive of religio-cultural dialogues with the local Africans. One of the most contested subjects, that went beyond the missionary era and reverberates across the twenty-first century, is the wife inheritance (hereafter levirate marriage). Outside the missionary armpits, African scholars have continued to debate its efficacy to the Christian teachings or the lack of it. In view of this, the theo-doctrinal embargo that has evidently persisted across the mainstream/missionary churches and among the African Instituted churches (AIC) in Kenya is the motivating factor for this research and publication of this article. Indeed, the missionary churches have incessantly maintained that wife inheritance, especially where the male inheritor has another wife, is a sin. Conversely, some AICs have tended to support the levirate marriage even where the male inheritor has another wife. They have done this by quoting some Old Testament texts, as their reference point. The mainstream/missionary churches have insisted that wife inheritance narratives was permitted in the Old Testament especially in cases where the male inheritor was single and the deceased was childless. This article seeks to examine the biblical understanding of levirate marriage and its place in the Kenyan context. Overall, the article analyzes some scriptural texts that deals with the subject of levirate marriages and reflects on it from an African Christian perspective. The materials in this article were gathered through extensive reading of published works, interviews and via general observation of the practices therein.