And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-27).
Today the Kamba people are one of the largest of the 43 tribal nations in Kenya. Once part of the great Bantu empire, they began migrating from western Africa around 1000 AD. The fierce Kamba warriors and their families moved eastward, taking the wealth of those they conquered and keeping and selling other Africans as slaves to Arab traders. Invading the rich pasture lands of modern Kenya and northern Tanzania, the Kamba warriors shifted from fighting and hunting to farming.
It’s easy for us to fall into the politics of division, forgetting that the history of every people on earth, including the Kamba, is one of conquering and being conquered, fulfilling God’s eternal plan.
The first Kamba chief in recorded history was Kivoi Mwendwa (1780s – 1852). Kivoi rose to prominence, power, and wealth by trading elephant tusks, minerals, and slaves to the Arab, Indian, and Chinese colonizers on the African coastline. Contemporary Kamba language and culture are highly borrowed from these interactions nearly a millennia ago.
Although Roman Catholic monks from Portugal arrived on the coast of Kenya in the 1400’s, they were largely rejected by the overwhelmingly Muslim population. It was Chief Kivoi who guided the first Christian missionaries, Johann Krapf and Johannes Rebmann, into the heart of Kenya in 1849.
The traditional religion of the Kamba centered on an invisible, all-powerful sky-god called Ngai or Mulungu who was far removed from the daily cares of his creation. The Jesus of the missionaries was different. He was a visible God who lived, loved, and gave His life for the Kamba; yet the evangelistic efforts of the two missionaries were considered unsuccessful.
Feeling defeated, Krapf left Kenya in 1853, counting only a dying cripple and a social outcast as converts. Within 35 years, however, Kambas not only embraced the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, but were sending out their own evangelists deeper into Africa.
Click here to read about the Kamba living in Paraguay and how the arrived in South America 200 years ago.
Where Living Begins 
Kambas are not in URUGUAY but in PARAGUAY.
Thank you for the correction!
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