In a candlelit room in western Kenya, worshippers dressed in white gathered to celebrate Christmas and the birth of the “Black Messiah.” They prayed before a photograph of Mama Maria, the African woman who co-founded the Legion Maria religious movement in 1966.
Earlier, AFP reporters met self-described prophet Stephen Benson Nundu, carrying a framed image of Baba Simeo Melchior, the movement’s so-called “Black Messiah.” “Today is a great day, because the Virgin Mary gave birth to King Jesus in the world of black people,” he said.
Legion Maria traces its roots to 1938, when a “mystic woman” reportedly appeared to Roman Catholics with messages of God’s incarnation. Baba Simeo Melchior, one of its co-founders, is revered as the “returned son of God” and the church’s eternal spiritual leader.
The movement now claims millions of followers in Kenya and eight other African nations, including Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Deputy head Timothy Lucas Abawao insisted the church “is not a cult” and emphasised followers’ devotion to Jesus Christ and God.
He told AFP, “Baba Messiah came for Africans. He took on the colour of the Black man to bring salvation.” Legion Maria is part of a wider African tradition of religious movements with black messianic figures, such as South Africa’s Nazareth Baptist Church.
Similar movements include the Kimbanguist church in the former Belgian Congo and Nigeria’s Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, venerating founders as divine. Speaking at a Legion Maria gathering, Odhiambo Ayanga said God’s incarnation as black demonstrates that divine salvation extends to all races, including Africans. “He went for the Asian, as he went for other races. In Africa, he has to be black,” Ayanga added.