Beyond Isirika: Problematizing and Theorizing Musimbi Kanyoro’s Communal Ethics

Musimbi Kanyoro’s communal ethics can best be summarized in the term Isirika, an all-encompassing word from her Maragoli people of Western Kenya, describing a pragmatic way of life representing charity, services, and philanthropy. The essence of Isirika is to imprint upon every member of a community that they are each other’s keepers, with mutual responsibility of caring for each other. Isirika means “equal generosity.” Kanyoro, a matriarch of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, has popularized the concept and practice of Isirika on a global stage. While Kanyoro is to be appreciated for providing the global community with another robust alternative to Ubuntu, Isirika has not been adequately problematized and theorized for global contexts. This chapter, therefore, problematizes and theorizes the concept and practice of Isirika as a communal ethic of empowerment, especially for women in Africa and beyond. It explores Kanyoro’s communal ethics of Isirika, considering its fragility, correspondence, and difference with similar concepts of equal generosity in the New Testament. Furthermore, the chapter proposes virtue ethics’ concept of human flourishing as the ethical underpinning of all forms and functions of Isirika.