PRINCIPLES OF KENEZIANISM a.k.a. INTEGRATIONAL SPIRITAN MOVEMENT General Introduction The theory and practice of Kenezianism started in 1970, at the end of the civil war when its originator Major Kenechukwu Nzeogwu Mbaezue; BA/6532, of the Degema Strike Force, 12th Commando Brigade, Biafra, returned from the war front with multiple injuries and artillery shock! He felt shattered by the outcome of the fratricidal debacle of three years that abruptly postponed his post-secondary education at C.K.C. Onitsha. THE AUTHOR AS AN UNDER-AGED BIAFRAN SOLDIER The Nigerian civil war started in 1967 when Nigeria’s Eastern Region, due to excessive pogroms unleashed on the Igbos in the north seceded and proclaimed itself the Republic of Biafra. Here, this author as a youth of nineteen years participated in the defence of Oguta, converted to a river port and used to import medical necessities as blockades by land, sea and air became a weapon of war by the Nigerian government. Starvation, hunger and disease; malnutrition, kwashiorkor, marasmus and hepatitis took their toll on children, refugees and soldiers on the Biafran side before it eventually capitulated. The brave leaders of the dislocated Biafran forces then surrendered to the Nigerian armed forces in January 1970. Photo by; Hulton Deutsch/Corbis & © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. “Why did we lose the war of survival? Should Nigeria the aggressor defeat us the victims of their cruel and premeditated pogroms? Of what use were the prayers to a god that never answered us? Or did our leaders commit unpardonable war crimes or indulge in sacrilegious absurdities? Is the Muslim religion more authentic and reliable than Christianity? If yes, then let us join them and go on pilgrimages to Mecca!” Finding answers to these existential questions drove the young war veteran crazy. He could not comprehend how an unjust war ended in favour of the aggressors. For him it meant that we wasted all our time and youthfulness in the war fronts praying to the God of Christians! He truly deserved veritable explanations!He withdrew from all religious engagement for a period of ten consecutive years, from 1970 to 1980. That gave him enough time to reflect on some existential questions about all he had learnt from the Christian missionaries that moulded his early life in the junior and senior seminaries. FAMINE IN BIAFRA During the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970, the Nigerian government imposed blockades around Biafra, effectively cutting off the secessionist state’s food supply. The resulting famine in Biafra was devastating, as upwards of one million people died of starvation. The swollen bellies and ankles of these Biafran children are symptoms of kwashiorkor, an extreme form of protein-energy malnutrition. Culled from Archive Photos & Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. There arose the need for him to re-evaluate his belief system, moderate his scrupulous orientation to social life and thereafter, formulate a realistic code of conduct that could guarantee his survival in the conflicting world of the Nigerian society he found himself trapped in! He lived as a war captive for the next 30 years! Within this period, he fully practised the introverted meditative lifestyle of Viktor Frankl or that detached life of a research scientist reminiscent of the great Austrian monk geneticist, MacGregor Mendel. He earned four university degrees that spanned a period of 15 years, with breaks here and there to assist his eight younger brothers and sisters, siblings of the same humble family of a school teacher/catechist! To achieve this, he again joined the armed forces of the nation he lived as an exile, the fallout of which was that he neatly sandwiched a military diploma, pjsc, from the Nigerian Air Force in between the four degrees! A bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, sponsored by the Catholic missionaries in1970, then another bachelor’s degree in Psychology, self-sponsored and partly aided by a Federal Government Loans Bursary award in 1975. This loan was later paid in full after his NYSC, which he served at the Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan and Lambo’s Aro-Village System, Abeokuta from 1975- 1976! This was followed by the three-year stint as an Air Force Medical Officer,NAF 759. Upon winning the Anambra State Ph.D. Scholarship Award in 1977 he resigned in 1979 and later earned a Masters in Clinical Psychology, from the School of Medicine, University of Benin, in 1982. He rounded his training with a Doctor of Science degree in Research Psychometrics, earned by innovative researches in personality evaluation, organisational psychology and family counselling in 1993! This doctorate degree qualified him to join the prestigious African College of Research Scientists, Addis Ababa Campus, of which he is now, a Fellow! A rare feat of academic achievement for anyone to obtain through self-reliance, ingenuity and resourcefulness! For the next phase of his research/academic life he combined family roles and clinical duties, churning out psychological tests for guidance/career counselling, personality evaluation and marriage/family counselling. In the interim he got married and to date has two boys and a girl, who became the well-deserved consolation for his long years of ambivalence! Today he is a retired Flight Lieutenant in private clinical practice as a HUMANISTIC-EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPIST. He still does extensive research in Family Counselling, Existential Family Therapy and Community Medicine. His published psychological tests and books exceed fifteen, as at the last count. He is a respected authority in Psychometrics, a Member of the National Association of Clinical Psychologists and the Founder/Animator of three world-wide NGOs; i. KENEZ HEALTH KLINIK, an Interdisciplinary Therapeutic Organisation for Family Health, ii. HAPPY FAMILY NETWORK an Inter-ethnic CBO for grooming healthy & successful families, iii. INTEGRATIONAL SPIRITAN MOVEMENT, a Spiritual Fellowship for Modern Scientists! Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, D.Sc. A.k.a. Rev. Prof. J. J. Kenez, the Animator of I. S. M. Written and up-dated under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the Almighty Creator of us all over a period of thirty-five years! The greatest contribution he has made so far seems to be in the area of family counselling and existential therapy where he has developed, constructed, validated and standardised more than thirteen psychological tests for school career guidance, pre-marital counselling and crises intervention in families that need help! In addition, he has written nine books covering such areas of knowledge as: social ethics, theosophy, cosmology, social and community medicine. The manuscripts of these inspirational works are, in the real sense of the phrase, begging for funds to print them. Can anyone publish these books so that others may benefit from the information stashed away in them? His religious involvement in early life became an asset as this book in moral ethics has turned out to be the best outcome of his contemplative lifestyle. Below are some of the verses he wrote that kept him mentally alive and hopeful that his children would have a better future! You may benefit from reading and practising some of them in your daily living! There are existential truths rather than theological jargons! Establishment of Universal Truths and control of one’s tongue and selfless service summarises ISM.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:26:27 +0000
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