Missiological study on perception of ancestral veneration and death among the Iteso Adventistists - Kenya

Abstract

The study examined why ancestor veneration remains active and persuasive among Iteso Adventists in Kenya, and how beliefs about the dead continue to shape responses to death, illness, and social insecurity. The research took place in Teso North, Amagoro sub-county (Busia County) using an ethnographic missiological approach, drawing on participant observation, structured interviews, and focus groups with both Adventist and non-Adventist participants in five town centres. Data were analysed using content, narrative, and grounded theory methods to interpret the theological, social, and missiological implications. Findings show that ancestor veneration among Iteso Adventists is not just a leftover “traditional” habit. It functions as a living moral and cosmological system. Death is not seen as the end of personal agency, but as transition. It is widely claimed that “the dead are not dead”; rather, they remain present in the household, capable of influence, approval, and punishment. This is expressed in concrete ritual: food and other offerings are made to the dead, graves are visited and supplied, and misfortune or sickness is commonly interpreted as ancestral displeasure. Clergy and lay members alike explained illness in some cases as a sign that the ancestors must be appeased. Ancestors are understood as morally qualified elders who continue to oversee family well-being, fertility, social order, and conflict resolution. They are treated as domesticated spirits within the kin network, to whom the living owe honour, obedience, and periodic consultation. This relationship is seen as a reciprocal economy of protection and loyalty, not as “worship of demons,” and it normalises ongoing interaction with the dead as rational social insurance. The persistence of these practices inside an Adventist community that officially rejects them is driven by three reinforcing factors. First is ontological continuity: the line between living and dead is not final, only a shift in status within the same family, so kin obligations extend past biological death. Second is social and spiritual insurance: in a context of sickness, uncertainty, and vulnerability, ritual attention to the ancestors is experienced as a prudent strategy for securing protection, not as idolatry. Third is moral authority: the ancestor embodies accumulated wisdom, longevity, and seniority, and therefore remains a binding source of guidance and discipline. Ignoring such a figure is felt as rejecting communal ethics and even threatening family unity. These pressures remain powerful for Adventist converts, who are still embedded in Iteso kinship systems that regulate burial, naming, healing, and obligations to the dead. Syncretism, therefore, is not simply “weak doctrine”; it is also a survival strategy within tightly woven social structures. In light of this, the study argues that Adventist mission cannot rely only on condemnation of ancestral rites. Ancestor veneration persists because it gives moral order, interpretive clarity, and emotional security in crisis, and because it is fused with memory and kinship. The recommendation is that Adventist ministry among the Iteso must be biblically authoritative and culturally literate. Clergy should teach Scripture as the final reference for death, memory, and authority, insisting that loyalty, protection, and intercession belong to Christ alone, not to the ancestors. They should also present a clear, contextual theology of death, hope, and resurrection that speaks directly to fear of ancestral anger, sickness, and post-mortem presence. Finally, local congregations must provide practical solidarity in moments of illness, bereavement, and material vulnerability, so that the believer experiences the body of Christ, rather than ancestral ritual, as the first line of help and protection.