On Saturday, about 250 people gathered for a choir competition as part of my postdoctoral research project. These are cherished community events which I leveraged for a way to work on dissemination of creation care messaging in this Maasai context. As on 3 May, a choir competition is a way to gather ad hoc choirs comprised of students who participated in the creation care lessons. Yet, this event was larger than the first one (see the 2025.05.03 post) with 3 research sites comprised of 2 Lutheran secondary schools, which are boarding schools in Monduli (boarding because there are so few secondary schools in the rural areas), and 1 confirmation class from a local rural village (see the 2025.03.15 Showers of Blessing post).
The Maasai trophy and certificates ready for distribution.
It was a celebration in several ways! First, a celebration of our Creator, as we all sang “How Great Thou Art” in Kiswahili (originally a Swedish hymn!). It was also a celebration of the learning through the creation care lessons, as the choir competition criteria was to take a traditional Maasai tune and write lyrics based on the main points of the lessons:
- God has commissioned humans to care for God’s good creation.
- The Maasai traditional environmental knowledge is good because it: a) contributes to creation care and 2) aligns with biblical principles of creation care (where God calls us to be stewards of the Earth [Lesson 1]).
- Climate change is impacting the Maasai community’s traditional way of life, but integrating climate science with cultural and environmental knowledge [Lesson 2] can support mitigation and adaptation for sustainable living.
- We have hope, because God has promised to never abandon the creation, and all of us doing a little can add up to a big difference.
There were 7 choirs who prepared songs. The winners were selected by the adjudicator, Rev. Dr. Sululu, the leading expert on Maasai music! The lyrics were in Maa, so the tri-lingual Sululu was the one to evaluate the content, as I can only track a few words in Maa. There were two choirs from Moringe Sokoine Secondary School who really did a great job of integrating the lessons. The winner will join the 3 May winner and come in 2 weeks to the Cultural Arts Center located on the Tumaini University Campus and professionally record the song. The students will receive copies of their song.
Though not the winner, my favorite presentation was the upper primary school confirmation students. They did a great job and used a very traditional Maasai tune. Sululu described them as “vibrant!” Indeed!
The Lendikinya Confirmation Choir
I was the teacher for the Moringe students (see the 2025.04.26 post). As I had seen all the other 4 teachers give lessons, I was able to edit the lessons to main points and streamline the content to fit in 45 minutes. Thus, I had 15 minutes for the application time, during which the small groups started to write lyrics on that lesson. Each lesson had time to focus on the main point (which was posted on the flip chart) and formulate it into their own words for developing a verse. This is not only good review, but it is so Maasai to sing!
In January 2021, when I started to develop this project proposal and had the idea of the using the local song contest model, I never imagined that it was a really good way to pull so much of this project together, reinforce learning, gather the communities to hear the core messages, as well as build bridges to further dissemination of creation care in the Maasai context.
Key parts were that my host, Rev. Megiroo (who had written and taught the confirmation lessons), invited key people:
- The local Roman Catholic priest was invited to say a few words. This became a homily, with many references to Pope Francis’s, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common Home. I had met this priest when the Wartburg students came, so we were able to strengthen our connection, which included further conversation during lunch afterwards.
- There were three people who came from the District Commissioner’s Office. I need to get the formal title of the person who gave a nice integration of both faith and science in land management. His title is something like district conservationist or natural resources officer. How great that they were able to see the students work on creation care/environmental ethics for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- The District Pastor of the Lutheran Church was also present. I had not met him before, but with the introductions of my long-term friend and former pastor when I taught at the MaaSae Girls School, Rev. Nangole, I was known to him. It was good to finally meet and talk over lunch with him.
- We also had some guest church choirs. At the end, while we were waiting for the caterer to have the food ready, the Maasai choir from a local village was singing and dancing. Father John got up and joined the choir and doing the dance moves. So, Sululu looked at Pastor Megiroo and said, let’s go too! I joined them and danced with the choir. I love that Lutherans and Catholics dance in Maasailand! Follow the link to the dance moves! https://youtube.com/shorts/hkLGKZ1w5co
Father John gives a homily on creation care.
It was a lovely day, and thanks to two trusted and gifted colleagues—Sululu and Megiroo, who managed the flow of the event—everything went well with a joyous celebration!
Final weird note: Recently, I woke up realizing that the hymn “How Great Thou Art” was going through my head, but the chorus started in Swedish and ended in Kiswahili!
Mikitamayana Engai! / Mungu akubariki! / God bless you!
