ABSTRACT
The churches frame their attack on tradition in terms of morality and in terms of "progress." Conversion to Christianity is seen by many as an important step in maendeleo. The line between sorcery and divination in these stories of personal success is a blurred one. Some informants would switch back and forth, using the terms for either of these practices, yet most stuck to the term for diviner. Conversion to Christianity is seen by many as an important step in maendeleo. In ritual prayers, such as the one cited at the beginning of this section, witches are a chief preoccupation, and the elders pray to Looaa to rid them of these evil people in their midst. Despite younger Christian Iraqw's frequent and public denial of precolonial beliefs and practices, and their denigration of these beliefs as "pagan," this chapter has tried to demonstrate that even Christians do not completely abandon all the beliefs and practices of the past.
