Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Hinduism is one of the major religions that has not had a major impact in Africa at large and Kenya in particular. In the last two decades, there has been an increasing rate of African political and economic elites in Kenya who have been cremated once they passed on. This emerging practice is totally foreign in Kenyan African culture where the bodies of the dead are treated with dignity and respect. Cremation in African perspective is the worst form of violence against the deceased. This paper examines the manner in which Hinduism has been propagated among the Kenyan elite, and also the nexus between Hinduism and capitalism as portrayed in the Kenyan bourgeoisie culture. The study further discusses philosophies and rationale advanced by the Kenyan economic class for preference of cremation as opposed to African burial practices. Indeed, this paper highlights the possible threats and risks of cremation to African cultural practices and the Christian religion. The study adopts descriptive research design with purpose sampling procedure to access key informants for relevant data.Structural functionalism and social learning theories to be adopted in analyzing data. This paper in general will highlight the impact of cultural globalization in Kenya.