Derided and obstructed by their menfolk, many women began developing a spiritual sickness called orpeko, which was caused by an evil spirit. It turned out that the only sure-fire permanent cure for orpeko was Christian baptism. There was not much that men could do in riposte to this: Catholic Christianity had arrived, but it was over-whelmingly female. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most Maasai Christians are inclined to think of the Christian God as a woman, which is not calculated to please the Spiritan Fathers.
religion as engaged with social reality
