CONTENTS
1. Abbreviation of Old Testaments Texts Gen. The Book of Genesis
1.6 Literature Review
1.6.1 Literature on Tanzanian Church History
We have noted in the preceding pages that Uamsho is connected to the history of Christianity in Tanzania that goes back to the 15lh century when the Portuguese preached the Gospel at the East African Coast and Islands.
Roland Oliver and Gervase Matthew provide much information on the coming, the settlement and the departure of the Portuguese.8 Their work
s Roland Oliver and Gervase Matthew (eds). History of East Africa, Oxford: Clarendon Press, Vol.1, 1963.
also provides more information on the interaction between the Arabs and the Africans prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. However, the Arabs with their Ustaarabu (Arabic civilization) dominated much of the Coastal area leaving the Interior under the control o f African chiefs whose emphasis was African Traditional Religious practices.
Elizabeth Knox and Jerome T. Moriyama fill a gap that the work o f Roland and Matthew has left.9 Knox explains that the target o f the CMS missionaries was not Tanzania but Uganda where they were responding to the invitation o f Kabaka Mutesa I. However, the difficult route to Uganda they followed that crossed over Mpwapwa on Central Tanzania, forced them to break their journey. This short stay at Mpwapwa necessitated the building o f a mission station there. Mpwapwa became the mother o f the CMS mission centres in the Interior leaving the Coast area under the domination of the U M C A . Moriyama's Thesis analyzes the UMCA mission work on the Coast and Islands of Tanzania." Knox and Moriyama present us not only with information on the arrival and establishment of the Anglican missions in Tanzania, but also the effect o f colonial domination on these missions.
Elizabeth Knox. Signal on the Mountain. Canberra: Acorn Press. 1991, Jerome T.
Moriyama, The Evolution of an African Ministry in the work of the Universities' Missionaries to Central Africa, Unpublished PhD Thesis, London University, 1984.
' Knox, Signal on the Mountain, p. I.
" Moriyama, The Evolution of an African Ministry in the work of the Universities' Missionaries to Central Africa.
According to Anderson, these colonial influences on mission activities and the interaction between Western Christianity and Tanzanian traditional values have the root for the emergence of Uamsho.'" Sundkler and Steed add that the effect o f the Arabic Slave Trade on the traditional life, prepared Tanzanians to accept Christianity but the Western missionaries' presentation of the Gospel was problematic. •' According to Sundkler and Steed, the rise o f different denomination and the resulting denominational pride increased separation between people o f the same origin instead of uniting them. Neil shows that this is the root o f the difficulties the Anglican Church in Tanzania is facing to this day. 4
Two books of Kwame Bediako help us to interpret this Tanzanian situation.
In his book, Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African Histoiy and Experience, Bediako states that the African pre-Christian religious practices are the memories that underlie the identity o f Christians in the present.'""' This explains that the current wave of Uamsho is an attempt to discover that identity which was suppressed by foreign domination.
Accordingly, Bediako shows that although human beings differ in their traditional values, the Gospel that is universal unites their Christian
13 W. B. Anderson. The Church in East Africa: 1840-1974, Dodoma: CTP. 1988. pp.53.
118-120.
' ' Bengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed. A History of the Church in Africa, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. 2000. pp.510-1017.
14 Stephen N e i l , Anglicanism. London: Mowbray. 1977. pp.344-348.
> Kwame Bediako. Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience, Cumbria: Paternoster. 2000. p. x i .
thinking. He clarifies this position by showing a continuity o f thought from the Graeco-Roman Church Fathers o f the Fourth Century to the African Scholarship.16 Tertullian's aim of protecting the Gospel against the demonic world, for example, is reflected by some Africans such as Byang
Kato.17 Like Tertull ian and Kato, Wanauamsho consider pre-Christian (African) religious experience to have no contribution in the process of salvation. This negative affirmation o f African heritage reflects a destruction o f the people's past. Therefore Tertullian and Kato represent one side of the Uamsho proclamation. Kato's strong affirmation o f the centrality o f the Bible (as discussed by Bediako) that is also observable in the Uamsho proclamation is also a help to our study of the impact of the Bible on the lives o f the wanauamsho.
It is very clear in Bediako's book that Tertullian's theological posture is distinct to that of Justin and Alexander of Egypt who advocate their Graeco- Roman culture.1 Similarly. Kato"s theological standpoint distinguishes him from John S. Mbiti and Idowu Bolaji who perceive their African pre- Christian heritage as an integral part o f African Christian consciousness.'4 Therefore, Mbiti, his predecessors (Justin and Alexander), and Bolaji are a great help in our attempt to identify the role of "African culture" in the emergence and spread o f Uamsho in Tanzania.
16 Kwame Bediako, Theology and Identity. The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and in Modern Africa. Oxford: Regnum, 1999, pp. xvi-xviii.
1 For more detail, see Bediako, Theology and Identity, chapter three and ten.
IS For more details see Bediako. Theology and Identity, chapter four and five.
10 Bediako, Theology and Identity, p. xvii. chapter seven.
1.6.2 Literatures on Uamsho
As is often the case for many mass movements, the date and place o f birth o f the G E A R M is not known. Osborn also shows those uncertanities."'1
However, he connects the Revival with Pilkington's revival that emerged earlier in Uganda.21 According to Osborn, it was from these relatively unknown origins o f Revival that in 1922 Simon (Simeoni) Nsibambi became saved. Nsibambi also played a key role in the conversion o f his brother Blasio Kigozi as well as Joe Church. Osborn considers these three as among the pioneers of the G E A R M . "
Just as Osborn had described the beginning of the G E A R M , Joseph Namata describes an account o f the emergence and spread o f the second wave o f Uamsho.23 John Edmund, an Anglo-Catholic layman who had recognized his call through a Bible study and prayers, "swept' his church into a healing ministry that has shaped the Anglican Church in Tanzania to this day."4 Osborn and Namata's description o f Uamsho are therefore a helpful source to our study.
H. H. Osborn, Pioneers in the East African Revival. Winchester: Apologia Publication, 2000.
' Osborn, Pioneers in the East African Revival, pp. 9-10.
"" Osborn, Pioneers in the East African Revival, pp. 16-17, 25-27.
"' Joseph Namata, Edmund John Mtit \va Mungu. Dodoma: Central Tanganyika Press, 1980.
" Namata, Edmund John Mlu wa Mungu. pp. 2-6.
14
However, Osborn and Namata*s writings left a gap: the spread of the GEARM in Tanzania that Bishop Elinaza E. Sendoro describes.0 In Sendoro's book, Uamsho na Karama, Bishop Kweka describes the meaning of 'new life'26 from which this study derives the definition of Uamsho. In addition to the literatures mentioned above, the researcher carried an extensive field research work in order to bridge the gaps that the literatures
have left.
1.7 Theoretical Framework
This study adopts the methodology of Kwame Bediako. In his book.
Theology and Identity: The impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and in Modern Africa, Bediako argues that theology is called to deal always with culturally rooted questions." He develops this argument by investigating the impact of culture in the Christian thinking of the Early Church Fathers (Tatian. Tertullian. Justin and Alexander of Egypt) of Graeco-Roman Christianity as well as modern African scholars (E. Bolaji Idowu. John S. Mbiti. Mulago gwa Cikala Musharhamina and Byang Kato).
From the general perception of Hellenistic culture as seen from a 'foreign eye" for example. Bediako shows that Tatian bequeathed to Hellenistic
"5 Elinaza E. Sendoro, Uamsho na Karama: Roho Mtakatifu kalika Makanisaya Kihistoria, Moshi: Millenium Books, 2000.
Sendoro, Uamsho na Karama, p. 7
" Bediako, Theology and Identity, p. xv.
15
Christianity a chronological demonstration of the priority of Moses and the Old Testament using Greek institutions and learning in spite of his intense repudiation of Hellenistic culture. By doing so. Tatian. who belonged to Syriac Christianity, indicated that the barbarians' culture was a place to feel at home despite being despised by the Greeks. In this case, with the fact that a human being is a product of culture and culture is a product of human beings' struggle for survival. Bediako's discussion of Tatian implies that human beings cannot escape the influence of culture on their actions. Thus the Tanzanian situation can be understood by considering the history of the country that includes the effects imposed by Arabic domination. Portuguese Christianity, the 19lh century missionary activities, colonial domination, Nyerere's socialist system and the new market economic system. The fact that the Arabs despised indigenous culture by calling it .v^cnr/'-barbaric- and yet used it in the propagation of Islam implies that something good is found in African culture. This clarifies why, in spite of their intense renunciation of African values, wanauamsho still uses some of them in their spiritual activities such as in healing.
Moreover, while some of the European missionaries and their Colonial counterparts called the indigenous culture "pagan", others (European missionaries) used African values such as stories, and translated Scriptures, hymns and liturgies into the mother tongue. By doing so, they affirmed that Tanzanian culture was apreparalio evangelica despite being overlooked by the Arabs, Colonial government and some European missionaries;
something that Mulago has confirmed. Mulago has shown consistently that
"African pre-Christian tradition does posses coherent body of beliefs and symbols and interpretation of life which alone can provide the foundation for authentic African Catholic Christianity."2* A consideration of Mulago*s argument helps us in our study of the ACT's teachings that are affirmed by Uamsho.
Bediako's discussion of these two groups (Graeco-Roman and African) of Christian scholars not only shows the significance of culture, but also helps us to observe unity and diversity of thought that Christianity has been experiencing throughout history. While diversity is due to the differences in culture, unity is brought by the experience of the Gospel: God speaks to individuals who have personal encounter with the Word Incarnate. The understanding of the experience of the Gospel however does not come once and for all but rather is a continual process guided by personal hearing of Christian Scriptures. Therefore the different message that one text may send to different people is due to differences on locations and time. This is because what a person hears is determined by his/her context. What matters, in turning to God in this sense is the understanding of who you are. This is a question of identity. In this case, turning to God is a process of turning individual's identity to God. This is what brings 'new life' (new
* Bcdiako. Theology and Identity, p. xviii.
consciousness) as St. Paul says in 2Cor .5: 17: " if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come.""
In other words Bediako is saying that the contextual experience of the Gospel reveals a theological diversity depending on who you are in relation to your past. This theoretical framework helps us to identify the impact of culture upon Uamsho proclamation. It also makes possible the study of theological ideas through questioning the encounters of the Gospel in the lives and achievements of the wanauamsho who are a significant part of community (Tanzania).
1.8 Research Methodology