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Definition of Purification in Kenya

Purification ceremonies in Kenya are designed to cleanse an individual
and/or community from impurities, sins, taboos, and other acts that violated
societal boundaries. Purification ceremonies, like the Mau Mau oath ceremonies,
varied in its structure, form, and meaning, but knowledge of the outcome from the
ceremony was most important. In the case of purification, the goal was to
transition an individual or community from an unclean to a clean state. An
unclean condition was the result of offenses attributed to illness, contact with
evilness, association with murder, or indecency. The reason for purification was
to clean the community from offenses committed against it. There were a variety
of offenses and the list of offenses changed over time.

There are two fundamental aspects of offenses and how they were
perceived in the society. First of all, it was natural for periodic misbehaviors or
mishaps to occur in the society, and these practices had to be addressed. This
leads to the second element; it was necessary to provide redemption and to
reinstate the individual into society. The ultimate goal of cleansing related to
offenses was to restore the individual and community back to harmony from
death or other disorderly conduct. This meant allowing the individual to once
again function as an individual in the community and also allow everyone else to
move past the offense.

Purification oathing is its own complicated and dynamic system. It is
necessary to understand purification at a high level to understand its relationship
to the Mau Mau oath even though the small details of the process are beyond the

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