Theological education with informal settlement leaders in Nairobi : pedagogy from below

Abstract

Over two billion people live in slums and informal settlements globally. The statistics reveal an increase instead of reducing by 2050. Rapid urbanisation continues to intensify urban challenges around the world, including urbanising poverty. Most urban dwellers live in informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, implying that since over 70% of sub- Saharan Africans are Christians, most Christians within the religion live in informal settlements. Moreover, although the church is the salt and light of the earth, the Church of Jesus Christ in the region is poor and live under economic injustice, political oppression, poverty, and marginalisation. The task of transforming informal settlements into places of hope, human dignity and flourishing, requires a corresponding leadership model and educational process. This dissertation contends that institutions related to theological education have failed to play their role in transforming informal settlements. Instead, their educational processes and frameworks prepare students for the city's more affluent, formal areas. Furthermore, through their responses, church and community leaders lamented a lack of access to relevant theological education for the context in which they live and work. The dissertation focuses on theological education with leaders in the Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi. My argument is that the transformation of the informal settlement is, among other things, connected to the type of theological education that church leaders and their members receive. A transformative theological education must pay attention to the context under consideration and appreciate a multi-pronged and interdisciplinary approach in developing a working curriculum, epistemology and methodology. Such an exercise is possible through decolonising and Africanising theological educational curricula, epistemology and methodology and aligning them with the urban context. The Research seeks to invite the church and theological education processes to focus on the plight of the city's poor and break loose from colonial shackles by reexamining and re-imagining themselves. It should result in missional leadership and ecclesiology. I have applied the pastoral cycle's four moments (Incarnation, Social analysis, Theological Reflection and Missional Response) as the theological framework and structure for the thesis. I have used the cycle as a participant-observer in the Kibera community, having lived and worked there. Within the cycle's centre is a spirituality of struggle, resistance and liberation to reclaim beauty, morality, and creativity within informal settlements. It contends that the church in Kibera should not sit as a bystander and observer; instead, it should actively seek the community's welfare. Their engagement should affect policies and practices to the global levels through ecumenism and collaborative initiatives.