3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE IMPACT OF THE REVIVAL MOVEMENT IN THE NORTH WESTERN DIOCESE OF THE
3.6. The Impact of the Revival Movement in the North Western Diocese
3.6.1. The Historical Background of the Revival Movement in the North Western Diocese
The geographical position of Buhaya and the inter relationship of Western Lacustrine Bantu area of Lake Victoria had enabled the people of Buhaya to be easily influenced by the neighbouring countries. Kajerelo points out that Buhaya was influenced by the Revival Movement which was taking place in Rwanda and Uganda (1959:68-69).
Compared to other areas in Tanzania, the Revival Movement in Bukoba spread faster and stayed longer. To explain why this was so, there was a common language, Kihaya, which most of the people could understand and which was related to Luganda of Uganda. There was also Kihangaza of Ngara, which has similarities with the languages of Rwanda, Burundi. The Revival Movement had put therefore the words of the Bible into people's beloved mother tongue.
3.6.2. Background
The East African Revival Movement had its roots in the English and American revivals of the 18th and 19* centuries and especially in the English Keswick movement at the end of the 19l century. Sundkler adds that this movement moulded the development of a greater number of missionaries, many of whom went overseas in the service of the Church Missionary Society (1980:114).
Historically revivalism can be traced back to the time of the Montanist movement of the 2nd century, the Anabaptist and Pietist movements of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Great Awakenings in America of the 18th century leading into Holiness movements of the 19l century and the Azusa Street revival of the 20l century (Balcomb 2001:4).
In the history of the Revival Movement in Uganda we are told that George Pilkington, a CMS missionary, motivated some African Christians to do mission work amongst their fellow African Christians in the year 1893 (Taylor 1958:64).
Pilkington emphasized that a person's conversion to Christianity should simultaneously imply inner convictions and urged people to 'choose new life (Anderson 1988:37-38). Such emphasis strengthened the challenge that people were facing with respect to their Christian faith as that was the period of Ugandan Martydom (1988:28-32).Taylor asserts that Apollo Kivebulaya and Sedulaka expanded the work already begun by Perero at Mboga in Congo (1988:28-32)).
Hannah Kinoti says that the Revival Movement in East Africa started in the 1900's at Gihini in Rwanda and then Uganda. She says that in 1937 the movement reached Kenya (Kinoti 1998:66). Samson Mushemba, the third Bishop of the North Western Diocese says that the movement became stronger in Uganda at the end of the 1920's.
In September 1929 Dr. Joe Church visited Uganda from Rwanda and held a Bible study in Kampala with the theme "surrendering all to Jesus" (Mushemba 1979:24;
1982:48).
It is said that in 1928 (Kibira 1984: 10-1 l)at one of the Mission hospitals in the neighbouring territory of Rwanda there were two co workers (a European and an African) who could not tolerate each other. After intensive prayer for God's guidance, each one of his own, they were commanded by God's Spirit to go and ask forgiveness of each other. Obeying the command, they discovered each other as Christian brethren, and as a result of this experience they went out with new joy and fresh testimonies to tell people about it. The assurance of being forgiven brought new joy, which led to a realization that full salvation in Jesus Christ could be obtained through true confession. As a result of this experience, they went out to other people with the new joy and fresh testimonies. As they testified about this 'new life' many people were convicted of their sins and confessed. Their message started "a repentance movement" which spread all over East Africa crossing denominational, educational, racial, and national frontiers among Christians (Kibira 1964: 99).
3.6.3. Revival in Bukoba
The first known contact between the Revival {Abalokole Movement) and the Church in Bukoba was in the mid thirties, when some Christians from Rwanda visited the Annual Conference of the Evangelical Church of Buhaya. They had come to hand back goods which they had acquired by dubious means during their stay in Bukoba.
They confessed in public their wrongs against the Lord and their fellows and by doing so, they felt peace and happiness in certainty of God's forgiveness. They said "we
have received the Holy Spirit. We have come here to confess before all missionaries that we were serving them at Ndolage (South of Bukoba), we were stealing from them" (Hellberg 1972:21). Bernander says that their witness and the fact that they had walked from afar impressed the Haya Christians. People began to confess in public (1968:108). At the Church Synod in 1938, Kroeber preached repentance and the need to change life style in connection with his report about the health situation in the area because venereal disease had become rampant (Sundkler 1980:118). This was an important event preparing people for the Revival. At this Synodal meeting, members beseeched God to revive the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit (Niwagila
1988:286).
In 1939 a preaching team led by Joe Church visited the Anglican Teachers Training College at Katoke in the South part of the North Western Diocese. This visit is considered to have sparked off the Revival. After his visit, two African pastors Yoel Byemerwa and Sylivester Machumu were sent to Bugufi in Rwanda to give a report about the revival which had spread there from Rwanda (Manson 1973:111-112).
These are two of those who became the leading figures in the Revival in Buhaya and took part together with a German missionary Friedrick Caesar (Sundkler 1980:116).
Small revival groups were formed in Ihangiro and Kiziba. They preached and witnessed in public, at market places, at work, among relatives, and outside the Church on Sundays (Larsson 1991:147).
Bengt Sundkler wrote his article "Bilder aus Buhaja" in 1949 and commented that the Revival Movement came into the area of Buhaya in 1938 (Niwagila 1988:286).
Although Sundkler in the first existance thought that the year was 1938 later when he wrote his book "Bara Bukoba," does not tell the exact year. What he says is that from the end of the 1930's the Evangelical Church neighbouring Bukoba was exposed to the effects of these streams of spiritual power from Uganda in the North, Rwanda in the West, and Urundi, Bugufi in the South West (1980:115).
Josiah Kibira makes the year 1939 as the beginning of the revival in the area of Buhaya and Karagwe (1964:99). Niwagila interviewed Pastor Friedrich Caesar on 18th April, 1985. In 1939 Pastor Caesar was a Missionary and President of the Church of Buhaya. In this interview, Caesar supports Kibira by saying that "in 1939, Buhaya experienced a strong revival. Missionaries were forced to repent our sins" (Niwagila 1988:247).
At this stage we can say that through the Revival Movement, the Church of Buhaya was awakened. The Church received a new impetus to make her growth become more meaningful and more responsible to Christian daily life. There was of course and is even today, an idea of spiritual growth in the Church. Confession became the only possible means for curing sins and overcoming conflicts and starting a new life.