r religious and communal beliefs. Missionaries tried to break up the any polygamous relationships that existed between Kikuyu men and women without any concern to what it meant to the two sexes and the community. The need for women to be mothers and wives was rooted deep in traditional collective beliefs. In Kikuyu communities the raising of a family is great cause for rise in social status. The larger a mans family the better it was for the community as a whole. This principle now being thwarted by the white missionaries was hard on the whole family unit. Men would have to send away some of their wives and children whom were a part of the community. Without polygamy, women would be driven away and risk being unmarried then shunned out of the community. The Kikuyu people tried to show the missionaries that the bible itself had polygamy prevalent throughout and that some of the most religious men had several wives. Kikuyu men even tried to take on name of biblical men who practiced polygamy to help prove themselves in front of God and the missionaries. To the dismay of the clan these attempts to prove that polygamy was just, were ultimately ignored and thrown out by the missionaries.In order to keep their cultural and religious heritages existent new adaptations of religions begin to form after the invasion of the Europeans. The Kikuyu people formed a religious sect called the Watu Wa Mngu or People of the God. They developed a religion in which aspects of both Christianity and their old religion could survive. The Watu Wa Mngu prayed to god with animal cries instead of scripture they also worshiped their ancestors, not unlike the Europeans worshiped their ancestors as in Saints. In this religious order polygamy was allowed explaining that the Europeans interpreted the Bible to suit their own needs and to decrease the Kikuyu population. The tribe believed that if people were to accommodate the notion of monogamy then their p...
