CHRIST THE SCAPEGOAT IN LIGHT OF AGIKUYU GATITIKI: TOWARDS CHRIST THE GATITIKI PER-EXCELLENCE AS AGIKUYU CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF ATONEMENT

Abstract

The drift by the Agĩkũyũ people towards the cultural practices of sacrificing goats is a move experienced in our contemporary society that has attracted many people including those who confess the Christian faith. For this reason this has become a challenge within the practice of the Christian faith risking to get into syncretism where we see double allegiance on one hand one claiming to be a Christian but on the other hand one foot is in the African cultural practices.  On one hand holding to the sacrifice of Christ as the final sacrifice but still retreating to the African culture and offering the sacrifices for the purpose of appeasing the so called the ancestral spirits. This paper holds that if the Agĩkũyũ Christians understood the supremacy, finality and the efficacy of the sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross they would be freed from the challenge of reversing to their culture for goats sacrifices and instead  hold on to the atoning work of Christ on Calvary as the last and the ultimate sacrifice. The paper uses the Agĩkũyũ concept of the sacrifices particularly the use of the goat (Gatitiki) to introduce the Christian mystery of atonement. The methodology here used is Charles Nyamitis inculturation theology as one of the trends which is helpful in introducing the Christian mystery of atonement to the African context; crossing from ‘atonement’ by use of goats to the acknowledgement of the Supreme work of Christ’s Atonement.

Keywords: Gatitiki (sacrificial goat), atonement, efficacy, inculturation