Our review will comprise of three parts. First , we will suggest the classes of people to whom this book would prove most beneficial. Second, we will offer a summary of the contents of the book. Thirdly, we will offer our assessment of how well the book accomplishes the editors’ stated goals.
Every African minister (Pastors and seminary faculty) or minister-in- the-making (Bible school student in the mother land and abroad) ought to become acquainted with the essays that make up this book. This book will breath a sense of pride to the African for it emphasizes over and over again that the dominant force, humanly speaking, behind the development of Christianity in East Africa was the African catechist for whom objective historiography has hankered for recognition in vain. By the same token, the book is bound to dissipate any misgivings about the African’s capability to minister to his own people. Church historians in the various seminaries in Africa will do well to popularize the contents of this book. The value of this book is not limited to the African minister, though. Mission departments abroad would be doing themselves a great service if they too got acquainted with this book. The missionary errors of the yester-years, which the book helps expose, need to be repeated today.
The gist of this book is a set of six phenomena or features which serve as a framework around which the various essays are organized. These phenomena, which Thomas Spear labels as “historical processes,” constitute the following: mission; conversion and popular evangelism, struggles for control; charismatic prophecy and healing; and Protestant revival and popular Catholicism (p. 4). A lucid but generalized treatment of each of these phenomena with special attention to the Buganda (from Uganda), Kikuyu (from Kenya), the Roho movement (also from Kenya) and the Buhaya (from Tanzania), is found in ch. 1. A more elaborate treatment begins in ch. 3. Chapters 3 , 4 and 5 are classified under the subtopic “Mission.” Lema’s essay (ch. 3) addresses two areas of Chaga religion: an overview of chaga religion (such as theology proper, anthropology, spirit world, problem of evil, etc) and the impact of the mission enterprise on the people. Concerning the latter, it is observed that the initial missionary efforts, marked by cultural bias and the absence of an “incarnational” approach, were met with outright rejection. Later on, the Chaga people would accept Christianity– but in their own terms. Kimambo’s article (ch. 4) traces the development of Christianity among the Zaramo. Collaboration with the hated colonizers, failure to use the vernacular as medium of spreading the message and poor exegesis of the Zaramo culture were among the errors committed by the missionaries–errors that led to the stagnation of the development of Christianity. Rise in the population of converts is attributed not only to a correction of these errors but availability of physical benefits such as schools and hospitals. Waller (ch. 5) deems the missionary efforts by AIM as a total failure. The issue of expediency, where the local’s expectation of material benefits was not met, features again as one of the factors that contributed to this failure. The other factor was the rejection of the AIM’s indigenous propagators of the gospel by the community at large since they were marginal. Falling under the category of “Conversion and Popular Evangelism” are two essays: “the creation of a Catholic Fipa Society” (by Kathleen R. Smythe) and “The Church and Cigogo” (by Gregory H. Maddox). Missionary efforts did at times reap success as is revealed in Smythe’s narration. The “why” question is readily attended to. Answers to this vital question include the mission’s emphasis on the conversion of children, the missionary’s conscious choice to take advantage of congruent elements between Catholic religion and Fipa religion and utilization of African catechists. Maddox’s essay explores the process of the domestication of Christianity in the Gogo communities through the life of a Father Stephen Mlundi. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 make up third historical process, viz., “struggles for control.” As pointed out by Sandgren (ch.8), power struggle was inevitable in light of the missionaries’ racist attitude, insensitivity to Kamba culture and humiliation of people in the name of church discipline. Omari’s essay (ch.9) captures an up-to-date struggle for independency not within a colonial context but within an African-led denomination. A more sweeping struggle is presently been waged by the “Bundu dia Kongo” group (ch. 10) whose primary focus is the “social transformation, through cultural regeneration, of African societies” (p. 225). The Church of the Holy Spirits, thanks to Githieya’s narration (ch. 11), fits all the contours of a “charismatic prophecy and healing” movement. “Protestant Revival and Popular Catholicism,” the fifth historical process, is reflected in chs 12, 13 , and 14 . Besides the Marian Faith Healing Ministry, other popular (Catholic) religion include Holy Spirit Movement of Alica Lakwena,the group by Doseo Bisaaka, the legion of Mart, and Holy Quarternity movement. Protestant revivalism, according to Mlahagwa (ch. 14), finds its exemplification in present day Fellowship church in Tanzania.
Has the book met its goal? The contents of the book certainly match the title of the book. The three East African countries are represented in the various essays well enough to merit the term “East African” in the title. The historiographical aspect of the essays, the testimonies and perspectives of the indigenous people presented in the endnotes and within the essays themselves, the authorship of some of the essays by Africans–all this go into satisfying the intended goal of the book, viz., to “probe into the experiences of African Christians and emergence of African Churches from the earliest days of mission enterprise” (p. 4)