MARYKNOLL INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES
OF SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
AND TANGAZA COLLEGE, NAIROBI
INTRODUCTION
The Maryknoll Institute of African Studies is engaged in the
publication of academic works by its students and faculty. This is done
under MIAS Books, a publishing company of MIAS that has been registered
with the Government of Kenya. The company was founded to publish a journal
on African studies and books on African cultural reality.
MIAS JOURNAL
The "Journal of African Cultures and Religion" which is produced
bi-annually, publishes papers that students are required to write for each course. In these papers, students demonstrate their ability
to search out the cultural patterns underpinning the anecdotal material of
their field research, and then interrelate these patterns with the material of
the lectures and readings. The
papers are edited and compiled by course; the course lecturer writes a brief introduction.
AFRICAN CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE:
THEMES AND EMBEDDED BELIEFS
 This
book consists of fifteen
chapters each dealing with a primary theme of
African cultural knowledge. These themes are the embedded values, ideas,
beliefs, symbols and outlook that bring wholeness and coherence to a
culture and are appropriated through a process of socialization. Published in 2005, the book is
the result of fifteen years of research and two years of editing. This one-of-a-kind
book offers a comprehensive, holistic understanding and explanation of how
African cultural knowledge promotes behavior and interprets the
experiences of African persons from birth to death and beyond. Also the beliefs
embedded in these themes have common characteristics with the beliefs of many spiritualities
worldwide including those of Christianity and Islam. The fifteen-theme
structure of cultural knowledge is presented in a way that it can be applied to any culture worldwide. Details on how to purchase a copy of the book
online are found at www.africancultures.org.
PUBLICATIONS IN PROCESS
A second volume of the MIAS Journal is in the final stages of
editing. Also, a book describing the meaning of the cultural domains of African cultural
reality is in a manuscript form. Cultural domains are the
specific events, rituals, activities and attitudes that accompany major
events in the lives of ordinary people. These domains are given their meaning
by the specific cultural knowledge of an ethnic group. The domains have been delineated
into thirty-five categories, with the categories grouped
into four cycles of human life namely, 1) individual, 2)family and interpersonal relationships,
3)community and communal activities, and 4) religious rituals.
The book deals with the first group of domains, 'the life
cycle of an individual.' Furthermore, as with the book on the themes,
the written responses regarding the domains by participants from various
parts of the world indicates that these domains are also functioning in
non-African cultures.
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