Conversion in an Akurinu Church. The Choice of a Non-Exclusive Network

Conversion in Akurinu churches if not a way of escaping an increasingly harsh reality; it is about the reactivating the identity of the new believers who are facing often painful contemporary challenges. The Akiranu are rebuilding the stages which give them access to evolving statuses and combine them with new rituals while integrating them to the laws of pre-colonial Kikuyu communities. There is a distinction between the conversion of the leaders and that of other followers: it is God who chooses the leader through His repeated appeals. Thanks to the "baptism of God", examined here in a diachronic approach, the leader becomes a founder. But Akurinu churches, which used to be communities of pure followers", have now become more structured communities since the leaders baptise the other believers. The Church thus becomes the group of priority affinities and exchanges: even though some Akurinu keep a certain distance with blood ties, the family network is not completely ruled out and Akurinu affiliation becomes one more network amongst all the possible networks in the city.