Civic Driven Change ~ Spirituality, Religion and Faith

By Philomena Njeri Mwaura

This article postulates that religion and faith are crucial to the process of development for they are part of a people’s worldview which is central to apprehending reality and constructing positive change. In post-colonial Africa, the engagement of culture in nation building and development has been part of ideological and political movements. Kwame Nkuruma of Ghana and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya for example used political symbolisms drawn from traditional leadership domains to craft the new nations. Underlying this borrowing was the conviction of the importance of traditional political values in nation building. Today, we are still confronted with the same question of whether religion, faith and cultural values can be an asset or a liability for development.