Seventh-Day Adventism in Africa (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies) 9781032344874, 9781032364582, 9781003332107, 1032344873

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Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM IN AFRICA A HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION, TRADITIONS, AND CULTURE Gabriel Masfa

‘Dr. Gabriel Masfa has provided a much-needed history of the advent movement in Africa in the longue durée, and this will prove an invaluable resource to lay and scholar alike.’ Benjamin Baker, University of Maryland ‘In this book, Dr. Masfa addresses an important, much-needed, but difficult topic: the development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa over time. It is important because Adventism has grown rapidly in Africa, to the point that there are now more Adventists there than in any other region of the world. It is much-needed because no one has previously addressed an overview of Adventists in Africa. It was difficult because of the absence of histories of Adventism in many of the countries of Africa, so that the author was obliged to do original research rather than just pull the work of a lot of researchers at the country level together.’ Ronald Lawson, Professor Emeritus, Queens College, The City University of New York ‘This is a concise but indispensable source about the trajectory of the origin, exploits and challenges of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. I highly recommend it to readers who desire a succinct book on Adventism in Africa.’ Sampson M. Nwaomah, Adventist University of Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, Editor-in-Chief, Pan-African Journal of Theology ‘While the oral narrative is key in Africa, the changing times dictate that the written word cannot be wished or washed away. Present and future generations of Christians, SDA adherents and scholars on African history and Christianity will find this volume a useful resource and reference, consequently, much appreciation to Masfa for this “mini library” on the SDA Church in Africa.’ Mary N. Getui, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya ‘In this book, Dr. Masfa navigates uncommon terrain to uncover the untold stories of the emergence, challenges and potentials of Seventhday Adventism in Africa. The author’s skill, unconventional approach and contributions make this book a must-read for all.’ Theodore U. Dickson, Acting Head, Department of Religious Studies, Babcock University, Nigeria

Seventh-Day Adventism in Africa

This book examines the complex history of Adventism in Africa, situating it within the context of African traditions and culture. From a small movement with origins in the United States, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown worldwide. It is one of several Christian denominations present in Africa and yet the history of Seventh-day Adventism in the global South has been largely unexplored by scholars. The book highlights the discrepancies between western traditions exhibited in the missionary enterprise and African religious systems. It also explores the intricate relation between colonialism and African Adventism in line with established studies in African Christianity. It will be of interest to scholars of religion and theology, particularly church history and mission studies, as well as African studies. Gabriel Masfa is a Senior Lecturer in Church History at the Adventist University of Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He is the author of Seventh-day Adventist Historiography: An Introduction (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021), and has published articles in Brill and Sage Publications.

Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies

The Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies series brings high quality research monograph publishing back into focus for authors, international libraries, and student, academic and research readers. This open-ended monograph series presents cutting-edge research from both established and new authors in the field. With specialist focus yet clear contextual presentation of contemporary research, books in the series take research into important new directions and open the field to new critical debate within the discipline, in areas of related study, and in key areas for contemporary society. The Calling of Global Responsibility New Initiatives in Justice, Dialogues and Planetary Realizations By Ananta Kumar Giri The Virtual Liturgy and Ritual Artifacts in Medieval and Early Modern Studies By Katharine D. Scherff Theology and Survival Movies An Orthodox Christian Perspective By Ioan Buteanu Transhumanism, Ethics and the Therapeutic Revolution Agents of Change By Stephen Goundrey-Smith The Third Spaces of Digital Religion Edited By Nabil Echchaibi, Stewart M. Hoover Among the Gods An Archaeological Exploration of Ancient Greek Religion By John Ferguson For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/religion/series/RCRITREL

Seventh-Day Adventism in Africa A Historical Survey of the Interaction between Religion, Traditions, and Culture Gabriel Masfa

First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Gabriel Masfa The right of Gabriel Masfa to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-34487-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-36458-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-33210-7 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107 Typeset in Sabon by MPS Limited, Dehradun

Remove not the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set (Proverb 22:28). Dedicated to Ellen G. White for her contribution to the rise and development of African Seventh-day Adventism.

Contents

Foreword Acknowledgements

1 2 3

4

5

6 7

xi xiii

General Introduction: The African Christian Context

1

African Seventh-Day Adventism’s Roots: The Western Background

12

The Uncertain Context: Multiple Challenges and the Rise of African Adventism (1880s–1920s)

27

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One: Seventhday Adventism in Africa and the Pre-Independence Era (1887–1960s)

51

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two: Personalities, Moving Stories, and the Progress of Adventism in Africa (1886–1990)

92

Early African Adventist Evangelists: African Adventism and Indigenous Contributions (1940s–1990s)

112

Adventism in Africa: The Statistical Centre of Global Seventh-Day Adventism (2008–the Present)

135

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa and Its Relations with Other Christian Denominations

146

x Contents

8 9

Identity Crisis: Traditions, African Religions, and African Adventism

155

General Conclusion

174

Appendices Bibliography Index

178 204 227

Foreword

It is a privilege to pen the foreword for Dr. Gabriel Masfa’s volume, Seventhday Adventism in Africa: A Historical Survey of the Interaction Between Religion, Traditions, and Culture. Masfa’s effort is a rich resource that provides an overview on the African Christian context; the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church in America, the spread of the SDA Church to and in Africa amidst several challenges; mission in the age of colonialism; early African Adventism and indigenous contributions; the growth of the SDA Church in Africa; the SDA Church in Africa and its relations with other Christian denominations; the identity crisis as Adventism interacts with and relates to the diversity of African religion/culture. The appendices capture useful information on the chronology of the development of Adventist missions in Africa and the pioneer missionaries; the early Adventist schools in Southern, Central, Eastern and Western Africa; the Maps of the three (administration) divisions of the SDA church in Africa; the Fundamental Beliefs of the SDA church (2015 Edition); and Spiritualism and the SDA Church in Africa: Guidelines and Recommendations. The volume is an informative piece of work especially for the general reader who would like to have an idea on the beginnings of the SDA Church, the spread to the world, and more so Africa, before colonialism, during colonialism and in the post-independence period. The volume, thus, provides answers for those who wonder who Ellen G. White is for the SDA Church, whether the SDA Church is a Jewish sect, a cult or a new religious movement. Indeed, there are many SDA adherents in Africa and elsewhere who may not have a broad picture of the history and spread of their denomination, and for such, this volume gives a connection to the beginnings as well as the spread of the Church in other regions of the continent. Colonialism and Christianity are often regarded as bedfellows, Masfa has ably covered the key eras of Christianity and Adventism. It is commendable that Masfa has consulted several sources - both archival/ primary and secondary sources. This diversity of sources enriches the diversity and authenticity of the information. Some of the archival sources bring to the fore some critical aspects of evangelization/ mission that are often ignored. Some of these aspects include the contribution of indigenous

xii Foreword missionaries and evangelists; the contribution of women missionaries, the role of wives of the missionaries and the contemporary role of women in the Church; and that today, Africa is the greatest missionary sending region. These points should ignite appreciation of the sacrifice and ‘blind’ faith of the early African adherents of Christianity and Adventism; motivate women and the Church family on the need to recognize and promote the participation of one and all in Church and society; as well as each adherent recognizing that they are missionaries in their own right. The content of this volume is of significance in several ways: It provides a brief background to Christianity in Africa, and also highlights on the strongholds of Christianity in the continent. Further, Adventism and its due space within the wider circle of Christianity in Africa, is also clearly spelt out. The distinctive features of African Christianity and Adventism in Africa are also addressed. The inevitable reality on the interface between African Traditional Religion/culture and Christianity are also addressed. These are issues that are of interest to historians, sociologists and those interested in balancing between Gospel and culture. Masfa notes that as of 2020, 44% of world Adventist membership was in Africa. This is in line with the general prevailing trend that the hub of Christianity is the global south. Masfa has highlighted some of the factors that have contributed to these growth, some of which are unique to the African space. These are factors that can guide the Church, the Church leadership and even laity on the calling one and all have in propelling the Gospel in the continent and even beyond. In line with the adage that no wo(man) is an island, the SDA Church is not an island, hence the relations with other Christian denominations cannot be ignored. Masfa has given a historical survey on ecumenism, and a balanced analysis on the guarded approach of the SDA Church to ecumenism, but at the same time, noted that the SDA Church stands out in providing essential health, education and other community services through which there is interaction with other denominations and the wider society. Useful counsel on how an Adventist should and ought to relate to those of other denominations and faiths is given. While the oral narrative is key in Africa, the changing times dictate that the written word cannot be wished or washed away. Present and future generations of Christians, SDA adherents and scholars on African history and Christianity will find this volume a useful resource and reference, consequently, much appreciation to Masfa for this ‘mini library’ on the SDA Church in Africa. Prof. Mary N. Getui Professor, Department of Religious Studies Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya August 2022

Acknowledgements

This book is a product of extensive study that spanned several years. There are several individuals whose contributions have been significant to the manuscript. Foremost amongst them is my wife, Abigail Masfa, a graduate of International Law and Diplomacy, whose penchant for critical thinking and perfection made me commit considerable time to revising and rewriting the manuscript. Dr. David Trim, director of the General Conference Archives of Seventh-day Adventists, challenged me to explore vast primary sources, which he made available online. Without his support, this book would not have had the content and the depth it currently has. Michael W. Campbell, director, of Archives, Statistics, and Research at the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, and advisor for my PhD at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS), encouraged me to provide a substantive history of Adventism in Africa. On a special note, I would like to thank Mrs. Wendy Trim, a professional copy editor, for her excellent work. Her skills improved the quality of this book. I would also like to thank Dr. Soyombo Gbemisola and Mr. Ayotunde Opakunbi for the editorial assistance. Other important individuals who assisted with reading through the manuscript for editorial purposes are Pastor Okoro U. Peacemaker and Pastor Oluwaseyi O. Olayemi. Several other individuals helped me shape my views and reflections on African Adventism. They are, among others, Dr. Benjamin Baker, Prof. Sampson Nwaomah, Dr. Theodore U. Dickson, Dr. Michael Sokupa, and Dr. Chigemezi N. Wogu, who all provided considerable insights, and whose critical feedback improved the manuscript. Prof. Safari Wa-Mbaleka, Dr. Melak Tsegaw, Dr. Watson Mbiriri, Dr. Clifford Sibanda, and Prof. Awodele Oludele provided needed encouragement as senior colleagues, brothers, and friends. My colleagues from the Department of Religious Studies, Babcock University (Nigeria), created a positive environment within which I was able to write my book. Special thanks to the president of Babcock University, Prof. Ademola S. Tayo, for providing a conducive environment for research and writing. Also, I express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Adam Ezinwanyi,

xiv

Acknowledgements

Dr. J. A. O. Babalola, Dr. Evans Nwaomah, and Pastor Abel Akinpelu. Special thanks to all my Adventist friends from AIIAS in the Philippines, with whom I had interactions on Seventh-day Adventism in Africa between 2015 and 2019, when I was a student I thank the committee for McAdams Adventist History Research Grant. Their financial support helped me edit the manuscript. I express my sincere appreciation to the editors of Routledge, namely, Katherine Ong and Mayank Sharma, who assisted me through the process of the publication of this book. Finally, I would like to also say thank you to my family members: my parents, siblings, and in-laws. Their earnest prayers were instrumental in the completion of this work. To my God, I owe my existence.

Early Twentieth-Century Map of Africa

General Introduction The African Christian Context

This book presents the story of how an offshoot of a tiny religious movement, with American roots, developed its centre in Africa. This movement grew to become a remarkable worldwide Christian denomination known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was itself a marginalized American church of the nineteenth century that was rooted in Millerism. The Church is one of the several Christian denominations that are present in Africa. It originally began with a few individuals who sought to shake off the bitterness of the Great Disappointment when Jesus did not come on 22 October 1844 as predicted by the Millerite Movement in North America.1 Hiram Edson and other Millerites believed that William Miller, the originator of the movement, was right on the date, but wrong on the event that took place.2 They reinterpreted the text of Daniel 8:14 and became convinced that on 22 October 1844, instead of His Second Coming to earth, Christ entered into the Most Holy Place in the heavenly sanctuary. Based on this belief and other similar ones, such as the Biblical day of rest and worship, the unconscious state of the dead, and the imminence of the Second Coming of Christ, Edson and a few Advent believers progressively built a theology that kept them together and promoted their group.3 Although unpopular at its inception, on 1 October 1860, it became a denomination bearing the name Seventh-day Adventist Church, with approximately 3,500 followers in 1863, and an estimated 26,112 by mid1868.4 More than 20 years after the adoption of its official name, this church remained concentrated in America. It was not until 1874 that the first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries were sent abroad. In this particular year, an official action was taken to exhibit the driving philosophy of conquering the whole world for Christ. With this motivating vision, coupled with strong commitment, the movement soon spread like wildfire to reach the corners of the world. As Clyde Hewitt, an Advent Christian historian, predicted: ‘the tiniest of the Millerite offshoot groups was the one which would become by far the largest’.5 This movement became a worldwide church by 1900. The internationalization of the Church led to an increase in membership that stood at 756,712 in 1950, and 9,702,834 in 1997. In 2006, the Church recorded over 15 million members, operating institutions, hospitals, schools, DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-1

2 General Introduction and publishing houses across the globe.6 In 2018, it recorded over 21 million members, 88,718 churches, 72,843 companies (branches), and 20,434 ordained ministers. The Church has been established in more than 213 countries in the world, speaking 557 languages, and employing 321,410 people.7 It has become a worldwide church indeed! While the Church has been experiencing a steady growth worldwide, a large percentage of this growth is recorded in the Global South: Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In particular, Africa has registered phenomenal growth for the past 60 years. From an insignificant beginning in Southern Africa in the 1890s, with a few converts, it has now become the hub of Adventism worldwide in terms of membership. Shaking off all setbacks, Adventism in Africa would ultimately experience a prosperous growth in membership. The Church rose against difficult circumstances that rendered its success in Africa implausible. These uncertain settings put Seventh-day Adventism largely on the margins of constructing foundational beginnings as a Western denomination in Africa. But, as of today, having surpassed its challenging incipience, Seventh-day Adventism has been fast growing in Africa. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa, as of 30 June 2020, records over 44% of the world membership.8 Therefore, it is not an overstatement to say that Seventh-day Adventism is becoming predominantly African. At the current growth rate, the number of Adventist adherents in Africa would represent well over 50% of the Church’s membership in the world by 2050. This estimate is in line with the General Conference (the highest hierarchical body in the denomination) Secretariat’s presentation at the 2020 Annual Council of the Church’s Executive Committee on 7 October 2020.9 This presentation highlighted the rapid progress of Adventism in the Global South. This growth is illustrative of Philip Jenkins’s analysis of Christianity today. He states that the majority of Christians is now found in Africa. According to his prediction, the number of African Christians grew exponentially from 10 million in 1900 to half a billion in 2015, and it is due to reach a billion no later than the 2040s.10 This development in membership in African Christianity is, in itself, demonstrative of the expansion of Christian denominations in Africa, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In view of the foregoing, this book attempts the description and analysis of the trajectory of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. It explicates how it weathered the storm and grew within African cultural and traditional contexts to be at the centre in terms of membership in worldwide Adventism today. To this end, it is necessary to provide an overview of Christianity in Africa within the setting of which African Adventism took its shape.

African Christianity: The Earliest Historical Context This section briefly provides a synopsis of the development of Christianity in Africa, focusing on its emergence in North Africa and its spread to East, South, Central, and West Africa.

General Introduction 3 North African Heritage Christianity began in the Middle East around the Mediterranean Sea, in the first-century AD, following the teaching of Jesus.11 It spread from this Mediterranean region to other parts of the world, including Africa. So, Christianity entered Africa in the first century, gradually moving to North Africa and the Arabic Peninsula by the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century. The Christian communities in North Africa in the second century were among the earliest Christians in the world. According to the legendary narrative, Evangelist Mark took the gospel, around 60 AD, to Alexandria in Egypt, where he converted many pagans to Christianity;12 this was around the same time that Christianity spread to Northern Europe. Christianity first grew and took its shape among the Copts of Egypt, and then moved to other North African countries. North Africa became increasingly Christian, with major centres of Christian worship in Alexandria, Alger, Tunis, and also in the major cities of Morocco and Libya. By the fourth century, North Africa became one of the influential centres of Christian theology. Key theologians such as Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Augustine of Hippo, Athanasius, and Origen shaped the Latin tradition of Western Christianity. Christians were ostracized during the first three centuries of the existence of Christianity. Worship was practiced in secret, mostly in house churches.13 Christians were persecuted for their faith, and it was not until the coming of Constantine into power in the fourth century that the Roman Empire granted freedom of worship to Christians.14 With the coming of Constantine, Christianity spread its influence to gain more ground in North Africa. By the early sixth century, Christianity became one of the major religions in North Africa. But the tide changed with the coming of Islam. Islamic conquests swept across North Africa, with military tactics that resulted in the conversion of thousands of Christians to the Islamic faith.15 ‘By the end of the eighth century, the entire expanse, from Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli, all the way to Egypt, had changed from being predominantly Christian to becoming primarily Muslim’.16 A major reason for Islam’s success was that Christians were divided over doctrinal issues.17 Christians, who were initially united, soon started confronting and insulting each other over doctrines such as the divinity of Christ, belief in the Trinity, and the nature of the Holy Spirit, among other controversial issues. Islam benefited from the Christian divide through effective missionary and militant tactics to conquer Christian territories. From the seventh century, Christianity and Islam have co-existed in Africa and, at some point, both religions enjoyed some form of good relationship. However, this peaceful co-existence later turned sour as they clashed over the number of converts from African traditional religion;18 the rate of conversion to Islam was especially high in North Africa.

4 General Introduction Christianity, which had been the major religion, became the minority. In the remaining regions of Africa, with the exception of Nubia (modern-day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan), and the Kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia, Christianity had very slow, even non-existent, progress up to the fifteenth century, when the Portuguese entered the sub-Sahara. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a new wave of missionaries in Africa, the growth of Christianity became more visible. Nubia and Axum Some 200 years after the collapse of the kingdom of Meroe in the fourthcentury AD, Christianity moved to Nubia from the North of Egypt when traders from Egypt and Axum (Ethiopia) travelled to Nubia. They spread the Christian faith and converted the people of Nubia to Christianity. By 580 AD, Christianity was established in Nubia, and the Coptic Church from Egypt oversaw its organization. When the Islamic conquest swept through North Africa, Nubians sought help and counsel from the Christians at Constantinople. Nubians resisted attempts to convert them to Islam, and Christianity flourished in Nubia for 700 years before the region finally yielded to Islamic invasion. In the fourteenth century, churches and cathedrals were converted to mosques, marking the acceptance and victory of Islam in the region. Christianity disappeared and the few Christians who could have resisted Islam had no voice; thus, Islam rewrote the history of the region. On the other hand, the kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia embraced Christianity as early as the fourth century. This kingdom soon became a major centre for the new religion in Ethiopia.19 King Ezana of the Axum kingdom was among the first traditional rulers to make Christianity the religion of their kingdom. Axum became home to Orthodox Christianity.20 The missionary who brought Christianity to the Axum kingdom is said to be Frumentius, a trader, philosopher, and theologian. Legend says that Frumentius was on his way to India when he was kidnapped in Axum, where King Ezana made him his personal tutor. Through Frumentius’s evangelistic approach, Ezana made Christianity the official religion of his kingdom in 333 AD. Frumentius was made the bishop and was ordained into the ministry during a solemn ceremony at Alexandria. When the dynasty of Axum collapsed, the Christian influence moved to the South and East of Africa. However, Christianity did not have many converts, as Islam redoubled its efforts to repress Christianity in order to favour the growth of the religion of Mohammed. A popular legend associated with the rise of Christianity in the Axum kingdom was that of the queen of Sheba. Early traditions in Ethiopia assumed that the queen was from the Axum Kingdom. As she heard about the wisdom of Solomon, she travelled to Jerusalem to meet the king of Israel.

General Introduction 5 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the Wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed (2 Kings 10:1–5). The Bible does not state that the queen came from the Axum Kingdom, so there is no explicit evidence to back the popular story in the Ethiopian Christian tradition. However, the belief that she was from Axum defined the identity of Ethiopian Christian collective memory. In spite of the success of Christianity in the Axum kingdom, there is no evidence that Christians from Ethiopia were sent as missionaries to convert non-believers in other African kingdoms during the golden age of Islam, until the arrival of the Portuguese in sub-Saharan Africa in the fifteenth century. Early Missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa The first attempt to introduce the Christian gospel in sub-Saharan Africa dates back to the early fifteenth century through the efforts of the Portuguese. Under the aegis of Prince Henry, the Portuguese launched their multi-faceted exploration along the West Coast of Africa. Henry sought opportunities to take part in the commerce of slaves, gold, and other important West African products. Thus, the Portuguese, under the pretext of economic, scientific, political, and religious orientations, sought to reach Africans.21 Henry’s policy on missionary exploration and expedition to Africa was developed in an attempt to Christianize Africans on the West Coast: a strategy that benefitted the Roman Catholic Church.22 The Padroado, an arrangement between the Holy See and the kingdom of Portugal, according to which the Vatican had to delegate the administration of the local churches and grant important ecclesiastical privileges to the Portuguese monarchs, would give new direction to the monarchs’ vision for Africa.23 The first church built by the Portuguese in the area was at Elmina in 1482, under the direction of Dom Diego de Azambuja,24 a skilful missionary. Dom Diego sought to preach the gospel to the local chief, who accepted the Catholic faith; and so, his kingdom was Christianized.25 Sierra-Leone accepted the Christian faith in the seventeenth century. Father Borgerius and his colleagues, the Jesuits, baptized the king, his sons, and his immediate supporters. Shortly after his baptism, the king received a new name,

6 General Introduction King Phillip III of Spain. Such a symbolic gesture was a strong signal of religious and political ties between the Sierra-Leonean kingdom and the Spanish. In line with missionary achievements, the Danes and Dutch also sent missionaries to West Africa, while the Italian missionaries, known as the Capuchins, settled in Congo. Nigeria also received missionaries from Portugal, Spain, and Italy between 1480 and 1807. While the Portuguese pursued their endeavours on the West Coast, they also sought to expand their influence in Kongo.26 In 1490, missionaries from Portugal arrived in Kongo at the request of King Nzinga. Among them were people of talent who rebuilt Manikongo (the Kingdom of Kongo) and baptized the king. A relationship between Nzinga of Kongo and Portugal was built. The king’s son, Nzinga Mbemba, who later took the name Afonso under the sponsorship of Portugal, studied in a Portuguese university. He was a brilliant student who amazed both his teachers and the priests because of his dedication, piety, and love for God. A Franciscan missionary, Rui d’Aguiar, wrote of him, It seems to me from the way he speaks as though he is not a man but rather an angel, sent by the Lord into this kingdom to convert it; for I assure that is he who instructs us, and that he knows better than we do the Prophets and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the lives of the saints and all the things concerning out Holy Mother the Church. … For he devotes himself entirely to study, so that it often happens that he falls asleep over his books, and often he forgets to eat and drink in talking of the things of Our Lord.27 The piety of Afonso determined the importance that his kingdom accorded the new religion called Christianity. His whole family and many people of his kingdom joined him in the Christian faith. Afonso’s son, Henry, became the first Black African bishop in the Catholic Church, at the age of 26.28 Unfortunately, the Kongo Kingdom was ruined by the slave trade, a practice that led to its disintegration in 1665. By the eighteenth century, the Christian faith in Kongo was already fading, although attempts were made to revive it. In 1704, a young Kongolese woman, Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, claimed that she was possessed by the spirit of St. Anthony. She sought to restore the preeminence of the old Kongo kingdom in the Christian traditions, but she was burnt at the stake for heresy. Benght Sundkler and Christopher Steed noted in their study of Christianity in Africa that in this period, ‘the Kongo Church slowly but inevitably faded away and in the end, only a few sad traces and ruins remained, leaving the impression that it had perhaps throughout been nothing but an illusion, a pious phantasmagoria in the bush and never more than a thin veneer over a groundwork of solid traditional religion’.29 The Portuguese did not limit their travels to Kongo and West Africa. They also landed at Mpinda in Soyo, and at Luanda in Angola. They travelled South and East. Dominicans and Jesuits penetrated Mozambique;

General Introduction 7 they mingled with the Tonga people along the Zambesi and converted several of them to Christianity. In their search for favourable land for economic purposes, the Portuguese befriended the Malindi population and annexed Mombasa in 1591. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Roman Catholics were the most prominent in spreading the Christian gospel in Africa. Mostly from Portugal, they endeavoured to preach the Christian message with the intention of expanding the political and economic agenda of the king of Portugal.

Christian Missions in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries From the second half of the eighteenth century, there was an effervescence of conquering Africa for Christ in Europe and America. Men and women, young and old, missionaries pledged to fulfil the gospel commission by taking the Christian gospel to the unreached. Religious societies were formed with a view to training their members as missionaries. They were to speak of Christ to Africans, render social services to them, and assist in the overthrow of the slave trade and the practice of slavery. Thus, these movements intended to repair the image of Europe darkened by centuries of exploitation of Africans through the evil of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Several Protestant evangelical societies were founded across Europe. Europeans and Americans would claim the whole of Africa for Christ. In Great Britain, the most prominent included the Church Missionary Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Baptist Missionary Society, and the Presbyterian Missionary Society of the Church of Scotland. In Switzerland, the Basel Missionary Society was formed, while in Germany, the Bremen Mission led missionary activity. In the Americas, Protestant Evangelical societies included the Baptist Missionary Board, and the Nova Scotian Methodists, whose members worked among the Maroons in Liberia. With the funding of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith within the Vatican, under the supervision of Pope Gregory XVI, the Roman Catholic Church formed missionary societies across Europe as well, which were intended to reintroduce Christianity to Africa from the nineteenth century. These included the Society of African Missions, the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, the Society of Missionaries of Africa, and the society of the Divine Word. These societies laboured to lay a strong foundation for Catholicism in several African countries. Unlike the missionary endeavours in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, mission in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was more organized and systematic. Catholic and Protestant missions were equipped with church buildings, schools, clinics, farms, and printing presses. Missionaries built their residences in the mission fields and paid regular visits to their converts by foot, horse, oxcart, canoe, and donkey.

8 General Introduction With the creation of Christian missionary societies among the Protestant and Catholic churches in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was a successful Christianization of Africa.30 Christian revival and the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 opened avenues for greater Christian missionary zeal.31 The abolition of the slave trade allowed the missionaries to transform Sierra Leone and Liberia into centres for mission in Africa. The freed slaves resettled in these places and opened up opportunities to propagate the Christian gospel. From Sierra Leone and Liberia, it was easy for missionaries to penetrate the entire African West Coast. With this enterprise, other Christian denominations such as the Methodists, Anglicans, and Baptists settled easily in Africa. The Presbyterian, Seventh-day Adventist, and Evangelical Churches followed. Through the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Christianity settled in East Africa as early as 1844. However, for modern historians, the missionaries were in many ways the right arm of the colonizers, despite their exploits in the spread of the gospel. The Portuguese and Spanish in the sixteenth century, and the French, Germans, British, and Belgians in the nineteenth century, are seen as oppressors who did little to defend the rights of indigenous people.32 The Seventh-day Adventist Church was among those denominations that came to Africa as the product of Adventist missionary zeal motivated by various Evangelical societies for the advancement of the gospel of Christ. Just like many other Christian denominations that are today emerging in Africa, Seventh-day Adventism had to wrestle with difficult circumstances at its inception, before its visible emergence today. Adventism in Africa had its roots in the Millerite movement. Though the history of this denomination has been explored in the European, South American, and North American contexts, it is largely unexplored in the Global South, especially in Africa. While there are a few books that have examined the story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya, no historian has endeavoured to provide an overview of Adventism, taking into account the whole African context.33 Similarly, Adventism in Africa has been hidden from scholars outside Adventism. Major textbooks on African Christianity such as, Lamin Sanneh’s West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (1983), Elizabeth Isichei’s A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (1995), Kwame Bediako’s Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (1995), Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History (1997), edited by Richard Elphick and T. R. H. Davenport, and Benght Sundkler’s and Christopher Steed’s A History of the Church in Africa (2000), do not discuss the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adventism in Africa has been an undercurrent in the African religious market. Following the denomination’s current impressive numerical growth, especially in Southern and Eastern Africa, it is essential that African Adventism is not only exposed to the global sphere, but that its emergence is equally situated within African

General Introduction 9 Christianity. This book, therefore, provides the first Pan-African attempt at examining the complex history of Adventism in Africa, situating it within the context of African traditions and culture. This book analyzes historical facts through the use of primary and secondary sources, interviews, and careful observations, and is analytical in nature. It departs from a strict chronological approach to tracing the development of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. Instead, it focuses on major overlapping themes derived from studies of Christianity in Africa that illustrate Adventist Christianity within the continent. In the course of my research and teaching experience, I have visited countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, and have interacted with Adventist friends from different parts of Africa while I was doing my PhD at AIIAS in the Philippines. These friends were from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, the Benin Republic, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Seychelles, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Egypt, and Liberia. All of them, in one way or the other, brought insights into framing, developing, and writing this book. The introduction examines the African Christian context within which Seventh-day Adventism in Africa is discussed. Chapter 1 provides helpful background, without which the reader would not understand how Adventism spread around the globe. Chapter 2 discusses the difficult beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa between the 1850s and the 1920s. Chapter 3 elucidates the intricate relationship between Adventism and colonialism by looking for themes across the African continent that can constitute helpful windows in comprehending Adventism in Africa. Chapter 4 builds upon Chapter 3 and examines the role of Ellen G. White, a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and other early pioneers of the denomination, within the context of how Westerners understood the concept of Christian gospel to Africans between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Chapter 5 builds upon the previous chapters, as local evangelists who benefitted from the support and training of Western missionaries engaged in missionary activities in their own lands to make things possible for the visibility of Adventism in Africa. Thus, Chapters 2 to 5 overlap, and must be taken as a package in understanding the beginnings of Adventism within a time of colonialism in Africa. Chapter 6 discusses the new face of global Adventism with its centre in Africa, a development that gives a voice to African Adventism within the African religious sphere. Chapter 7 examines the relations of the Seventhday Adventist Church with other Christian denominations in the African religious market. Chapter 8 reflects on the crisis of identity in the Seventhday Adventist Church and offers an historical analysis of all the previous chapters in the light of the current and critical challenges that face the Adventist Church in Africa. Finally, Chapter 9 provides a general conclusion and recommendations for the way forward.

10 General Introduction Thus, this book is an attempt to present the examination of a complex history to the reader. This historical account of African Adventism is a product of study; the author does not claim to be a specialist in the disciplines of African traditional religion, sociology of religion, anthropology, missiology, or intercultural studies, all of which provided significant insights into the crafting of this work.

Notes 1 George R. Knight, William Miller (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2010), 13, 14–15, 95, 181. 2 Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of the Seventh-day Adventists (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1961), 1:97–113. 3 Knight, William Miller, 277. 4 Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research of the GCSDA [ASTR], Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1968), 25–280; Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of the Seventh-day Adventists, (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1961), 1:303; Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, Light Bearers: A History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1995), 146. 5 Clyde E. Hewitt, Midnight and Morning (Charlotte, NC: Venture Books, 1983), 275. 6 ASTR, 146th Annual Statistical Report—2008 (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2008), 4. 7 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Church World Statistics 2018, https://www. adventist.org/articles/seventh-day-adventist-world-church-statistics-2018/, accessed 21 April 2020. 8 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2021), 181. 9 Marcos Paseggi, ‘Secretary’s Report Highlights International Reach of Adventist Church’, Adventist Review online, 8 October 2020. https://www.adventistreview. org/church-news/story15551-secretarys-report-highlights-international-reach-ofadventist-church, accessed 28 January 2021. 10 Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Philip Jenkins, ‘Christianity’s Explosive Growth in Kenya’, The Christian Century website, 3 April 2020, https://www. christiancentury.org/article/notes-global-church/christianity-s-explosive-growthkenya. 11 Joseph H. Lynch, Early Christianity: A Brief History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 13. 12 Elias Kifon Bongmba, ed., ‘Introduction’, in The Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa (New York: Routledge, 2016), 3. 13 Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, vol. 1: The Early Church to the Reformation (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 110. See also Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1995). 14 Lynch, Early Christianity, 131. 15 An insightful study on Islam is David Westerlund and Eva Evers Rosander eds., African Islam and Islam in Africa (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1997). 16 Festo Mkenda, ‘Muslim-Christian Relations in Africa: An Overview of Centuries of Personal Encounters’, in The Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa, ed. Elias Kifon Bongmba (New York: Routledge, 2016), 270.

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11

17 Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (London: Penguin Group, 2009), 277; Roger le Tourneau, ‘North Africa to the Sixteenth Century’, in The Cambridge History of Islam, ed. P. M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 2A:214. 18 John Voll, ‘African Muslims and Christians in World History: The Irrelevance of the “Clash of Civilizations”’, in Muslim-Christian Encounters in Africa, eds. John Hunwick, Rüdiger Seesemann, and Knut Vikør (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 18–27. 19 Voll, ‘African Muslims’, 235. 20 Voll, ‘African Muslims’, 235. 21 M. Duadu and J. N. Gbule, An Outline of the History of Christianity in West Africa (Zaria, Nigeria: Missions Press & Publishers, 2000), 1. 22 R. Gray, ‘The Origins and Organisation of the Nineteenth-Century Missionary Movement’, Tarikh 3, no. 1 (1969): 14. 23 Luis Saraiva and Catherine Jami, eds., The Jesuits, the Padroado and East Asian Science (1552–1773) (Singapore: World Scientific, 2008), ix. 24 E. A. Ayandele, ‘Traditional Rulers and Missionaries in Pre-Colonial West Africa’, Tarikh 3, no. 1 (1969): 23. 25 Duadu and Gbule, An Outline, 20. 26 The Kingdom of Kongo was a kingdom, but also an empire in Central Africa, located in what is now the northern territories of Angola, including the south of the Republic of Congo, the western end of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and southwestern Gabon. 27 Rui d’Aguiar, writing to King Manuel of Portugal about the piety of the Mani Kongo, King Afonso of the Kongo, May 25, 1516, quoted in A. Brasio, ed., Monumenta, Missionaria Africana (Lisbon, Portugal: Agencia Geral do Ultramar, 1953), 1:361. 28 Benght Sundkler and Christopher Steed, A History of the Church in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 51. 29 Sundkler and Steed, A History of the Church in Africa, 55. 30 S. Neill and Owen Chadwick, A History of Christian Missions, 2nd ed., ed. Owen Chadwick (London: Penguin Books, 1990), 214. 31 Gray, ‘The Origins and Organisation’, 15. 32 Edward Andrews, ‘Christian Missions and Colonial Empires Reconsidered: A Black Evangelist in West Africa, 1766–1816’, Journal of Church & State 51 no. 4 (2010): 663–691; Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff, ‘Africa Observed: Discourses of the Imperial Imagination’, in Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation, eds. Roy R Grinker, Stephen C Lubkemann, and Christopher B. Steiner, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2010), 32; Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, trans. Joan Pinkham (London: Monthly Review Press, 1972). 33 See the following books: Kofi Owusu-Mensa, Ghana Seventh-day Adventism: A History (Osu-Accra, Ghana: Advent Press, 2005); Stefan Höschele, Christian Remnant—African Folk Church, Studies in Christian Mission, (Leiden: Brill, 2007), vol. 34; David T. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History in West Africa (1888–1988): A Mustard Seed (Ilishan Remo: self-pub., 2003); Nehemiah M. Nyaundi, Religion and Social Change: A Sociological Study of Seventh-day Adventism in Kenya (Lund. Sweden: Lund University Press, 1993).

1

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots The Western Background

Seventh-day Adventism appears to be a corollary of historical and social circumstances. As stated in the introduction, this religious movement had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s. During this period, North America witnessed the Second Great Awakening in its religious context. Prominent figures of Seventh-day Adventism such as Joseph Bates, James White, and Ellen G. White were Millerite Adventists who not only experienced the preaching of Advent messages by William Miller, but also participated in sharing and preaching these messages. Therefore, this section highlights the historical context of Seventh-day Adventism, which includes the Millerite heritage that prompted its rise, and the gradual development of a theology of mission among the Millerite followers who are today known as Seventh-day Adventists.

The Great Advent Awakening in America The Seventh-day Adventist Church arose from a series of revivals popularly known as the ‘Second Advent Movement’, which took place in the United States in the nineteenth century. At this time, Bible societies sought to spread the good news found in the Bible. Different versions of the Bible were made available for purchase at affordable prices. Through the words of the Holy Christian book, these societies confronted social injustices prevalent at that time.1 Such understanding of the Bible as an agent of transformation in human society contributed to the rise and development of religious associations and religious minority movements with the intent to reduce, and if possible, to eradicate the evils of humanity, and prepare for the Second Advent of Jesus Christ. Several individuals branched off from the Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists to form different religious groups. These Christian bodies framed beliefs that led to the wind of spiritual revival in America. As believers’ minds were focused on the imminent coming of Christ to redeem the elect from the world’s tribulations, the study of Bible prophecy took a significant turn. Any event in history that could give a hint on prophecy was directly taken as a fulfilment of the prophecy of the books of DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-2

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 13 Daniel and Revelation. When the French General Alexandre Berthier arrested Pope Pius VI, Protestants in America understood that the day of the coming of Jesus was near. It was expected to take place, if not on the very day the event happened, certainly in the not-too-distant future. Many of the religious groups interpreted the end of the 1,260-day prophecy as coinciding with the religiopolitical events in the French Republic and the rest of Europe.2 Students of Bible prophecy also viewed the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 as the point of its fulfilment. The idea to reconstruct human societies was determined by postmillennialism: a Christian doctrine dominant among American Protestants of the late eighteenth century. It was based on Revelation 20, which expects the Second Coming of Christ to occur after a golden age in Christianity where Christian ethics would prosper for a millennium (1,000 years). Illustrative of this social construct was the appearance of independent prophets who believed that God visited the world and that His Spirit was poured upon them, marking the beginning of the millennium. One such prophet was Jemima Wilkinson, who went through the trauma of a near-death experience. As this enigmatic figure woke up from the troubling experience, she claimed to be neither a male nor a female, but the ‘Public Universal Friend’. She was a breakaway Quaker who preached against slavery and social injustices in America, and her followers found meaning in her sermons. Another preacher who created an irresistible impression on Americans during the same period was Mother Ann Lee. She, and a few others who became her early followers, emigrated from England to America in 1774. Through an ecstatic form of religious dancing, or ‘shaking’, they formed a religious body that was later known as the ‘Shakers’. Between 1837 and 1844, they grew in number and became established from Maine to Kentucky. They adopted temperate living as a model for the Christian lifestyle. They also emphasized celibacy and equality of the sexes.3 Lee found sexual intercourse repulsive, so the Shakers differed from Quakers on sexuality, as the Quakers did not view sexuality as disgusting within the marital sphere.4 But both religious groups claimed to have discovered new truths that could give a new impetus to Christian teachings. By 1830, a new religious body originated in America, which claimed to be of supernatural origin: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith. This individual, with little formal education, was successful in drawing huge crowds to believe in his teachings and prophetic utterances. From the age of 14, Smith received a series of visions, after which he claimed none of the existing religious bodies possessed correct teachings. He claimed that an angel visited him and directed him to a hill, where he found a stone box, from which he collected inscribed golden plates, a breastplate, and the Urim and Thummim, as a divine revelation for spotless teachings. Smith believed that God appointed him as a prophet of latter-days to declare His truth to His people. Among other teachings that the prophet claimed to have received from God was an emphasis

14 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots on apostolic doctrine. He believed Jesus was returning to establish His kingdom on earth and would put an end to social injustices. The prophet also led his followers to accept baptism by immersion, the importance of tithes for the support of God’s ministry, and the Christian lifestyle of temperance. He saw Sunday as the Sabbath day, the day of worship. But Smith’s ambitious religious reform was halted on 27 June 1844, as he was accused of treason, jailed, and later killed by an angry mob; an event which put an end to Smith’s dream to run for the presidency in America.5 Other emotional and revivalist religious organizations continued to press for religious and ethical reforms in America. In 1844, Andrew Jackson Davis had an epileptic trance at a graveyard, during which he claimed he received a message from Galen, an ancient Greek physician, and from Emmanuel Swedenborg, an American preacher who preached the spiritual meaning of the Bible. Davis took up their teachings and popularized clairvoyance and spiritualistic trance. He was the forerunner of the modern medium in America.6 By the late 1840s, American Protestantism was becoming more dynamic, but fractured into several religious groups. In Great Britain and the rest of Europe, the Napoleonic wars, and Methodist revivalism, were creating a lasting impact on people’s hearts, which led to worldwide Christian evangelism and missionary activities around the globe. Several Bible societies emerged from Europe, America, and Asia, with the aim to Christianize the whole world through the gospel of Christ. The British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society were active in sponsoring translations of the Bible into various languages. The economic situations of the United States and Great Britain were favourable, and thousands of people sponsored missionary work across the world. As wealth increased, individuals sought to improve social conditions in Great Britain and the United States. Particular emphasis was placed on temperance, as liquor and the consumption of drugs were viewed as sinful and detrimental to health. Added to a call for healthy living was another social issue: promoting racial equality among humanity. Gradually, slavery was condemned. William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), an American, spoke against the sin of slavery. Evangelists like Charles Finney (1792–1875) and Theodore Weld (1803–1895) also spoke to the minds and hearts of Americans to end the practice of slavery. The social reforms described earlier, associated with better travel facilities and the rapid development of easy communication, were important factors leading to the expeditious spread of new societal ideologies, such as social justice and purity in teachings. It was therefore logical that interest in Bible prophecy grew and the desire to see Christ coming to reward the faithful was ever strong. In the whole world, preachers reiterated Bible verses that highlight the promise of the Second Coming of Jesus (John 14:1–6; Revelation 22:1–12; Daniel 2).7 William Miller was one of these preachers, urging his followers that the Second Coming of Christ was close and that the date could be known.

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 15

The Millerite Movement (1839–1844) The Millerites were the followers of William Miller, an American preacher who believed that the Second Advent of Christ would occur in 1844. Miller was a farmer, who grew up in a family that could not afford to provide him with a good education. He nonetheless developed reading and writing skills. Later in life, he had a good knowledge of the Bible and of history. At home in Vermont, he made use of a local library to increase his knowledge of modern disciplines and philosophical thinkers such as John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Benjamin Rush, Thomas Paine, and David Hume. As he came in contact with the writings of Voltaire, Paine, and Hume, in particular, Miller became a sceptic, coming to believe that God was far away from the affairs of mankind. He found deistic philosophy more reasonable and meaningful to his life. He became critical of the Bible, deconstructed it, and considered it fraught with grammatical inconsistencies. Even though he was a deist, Miller was well accepted in his community. He was a lieutenant in the state militia even before the outbreak of the War of 1812. At this time, he saw his comrades dying, something that led him to reflect on the meaning of life. From this experience, he began questioning his beliefs in deism and the future of humanity. At the end of the war, he had a drastic change in religious beliefs. As he spent more time with his mother, they attended the local Baptist church together, where his uncle Elisha was one of the key preachers. Although he was often dissatisfied with the routine of the liturgy and the monotony of worship at this local Christian congregation, he continued to attend Sunday gatherings, where prayers were offered for the world in turmoil. Eventually, he had an encounter with Christ, and began to appreciate the Bible that speaks about the Redeemer of the world. As he rejected beliefs in deism, his former deist friends mocked him, but Miller increased in wisdom as he systematically studied the Bible. He was meticulous, slow, and patient, and he began to read the entire Bible, starting from the book of Genesis, and proceeding as far as he was able to make sense out of each verse. He viewed the Bible as its own interpreter. When he was confused about the meaning of a specific text, he sought to explain it from other Bible texts. He compared obscure scriptural texts with more enlightening texts and was able to understand the meaning of the difficult passages.8 Miller gave significant attention to the book of Daniel. This book contains symbolic language, which allowed Miller to dedicate more time to analyzing each of its verses. As he came across Daniel 8:14, ‘and he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed’, he was convinced that the sanctuary to be cleansed was the church at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This discovery, in connection with the 70 weeks of Daniel 9, led Miller to understand that both periods had their start in 457 BC. This was the conclusion at which he

16 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots arrived after two years of Bible study. Elated by his own discovery of the good news about the return of Christ, he started sharing it with people. From the time Miller began to publicly preach, he intensified his study of the Bible, but to his dismay, few people expressed interest in listening to him. At first, Miller was reluctant to preach, and he was not prepared to be a public preacher. He promised God that if an opportunity was given to him to share the good news of the coming of Christ, he would not hesitate to accept it; within an hour, his brother-in-law invited him to preach on a Sunday, in August 1831, and share with people what he had been reading from the Bible. As he received the invitation, he began to think of excuses to disregard his promise, but one can only think that the Holy Ghost spoke to him and reminded him of the necessity to answer God’s call and fulfil his promise. Miller went on to deliver an electrifying message that thrilled the hearts of his neighbours. From this inaugural sermon on the Second Coming of Christ, Miller received increasing requests from Baptist churches to talk about the Second Advent. In September 1833, his local church granted him a license to be an official preacher. As Miller persevered amidst discouraging words from his critics, he progressively won the hearts of many Americans. His sermons were scriptural, as they were drawn from Biblical texts. Soon, his detailed views about the study of Bible prophecy were printed in a Baptist paper, The Vermont Telegraph, in 1832. Four years later, he published a comprehensive version of his teachings in 16 lectures, compiled into a book. With this positive development, Miller had people who committed their time and resources to support the spread of the present truth. A number of influential personalities accepted Miller’s views and sought to endorse them. Dr. Josiah Litch, the editor of the Boston Daily Times, and a Methodist Episcopal preacher, read Miller’s Lectures, found them convincing, and wrote a book of 200 pages titled The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A.D. 1843. In his research, Miller not only explored the reading of Daniel, but also expanded his exposition of Bible prophecy to investigate and understand the prophecies of Revelation. Progressively, Miller gathered supporters who together formed an influential religious movement known as the Millerite Movement.9 One of the most prominent and effective personalities in the Millerite Movement was Joshua V. Hime. Through his leadership and skilful plans, he was able to organize a huge crowd to listen to Miller. Hime believed that Miller’s teachings deserved more publicity and became his foremost follower. Hime succeeded in opening doors for Miller to launch fruitful religious meetings that transformed the beliefs of numerous followers in America; he facilitated Miller’s visits to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. Hime also publicized the Advent movement through The Signs of the Times, a newspaper he started in February 1840. Two years later, other papers followed, with the help of faithful followers and dedicated editors such as Hime and Litch. The Midnight Cry began in New York in 1842, The Western Midnight Cry in Cincinnati, The Trumpet of

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 17 Alarm in Philadelphia, The Voice of Elijah in Montreal, and The Voice of Truth in Rochester. With such great promotion, the Advent message spread very fast from 1842. In May 1844, Hime reported that over five million copies of Advent tracts had been distributed. Advent conferences played an equally important role in spreading the message of the imminent coming of Jesus. On 14 October 1840, the first Advent conference was held in Boston, where Henry Dana Ward, the New York editor of the Anti-Masonic Magazine was the chairman. Between 1840 and 1843, about 15 conferences were organized. The core message of all the conferences was the same; they spoke about the approaching return of Jesus Christ. As followers became united in their beliefs, they developed a sense of collectivism and solidarity that made them seek separation from their former and formal Christian denominations. The Millerite Movement drew the attention of Baptists, Congregationalists, and Methodists, who found meaning in Miller’s teachings. On 18 May 1842, the Second Advent Association was formed, with elected officers and an executive committee. Another catalyst in the spread of the Advent message was the recurrent organization of camp meetings. The first one took place in East Kingston, New Hampshire in June 1842. By the end of the summer, no less than 31 other camp meetings were held across the United States. The meetings were largely emotional, in the sense that the participants expressed their inner joy by singing, shouting, reading the Bible, and claiming the promises of complete restoration in Jesus Christ. In 1843, 40 camp meetings were held, and 54 in 1844. With such effervescence, the Second Coming of Christ was not only sure, but its date could be predicted. Miller was hesitant to suggest any specific date, but, as the demand became more pressing, he had to make some clarifications that could lead to a possible date. Miller argued that to understand the timeframe of the prophecy of Daniel, the Gregorian calendar was unhelpful; hence, he suggested the Jewish religious calendar. His earliest conclusions led him to assume that Christ could return between 21 March 1843 and 21 March 1844. Although Miller made a bold step in defining the period when the Millerites should expect Jesus, some were not satisfied, as they wanted a clear date so that they could make proper arrangements to leave the earth. Soon, perhaps under pressure, the first date was set: 10 February 1843. When this date passed and nothing changed, another date was suggested; this was 14 April, the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus. Again, nothing happened on this date, but the Millerites maintained their serenity. They believed that it may have been a human factor that could not determine the proper date within the years 1843 and 1844. As they revisited their study of the Jewish calendar, they came up with another possible suggestion. Through the study of Mosaic ceremonial laws and Jewish historical events, they came to believe that Christ could come at the time of the Jewish Day of Atonement. With more studies, a definite date was fixed for that year: 22 October.10 A call was launched for the Millerites to come out of Babylon; this was symbolic

18 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots language in reference to Christian bodies that rejected the Millerite message with regards to the imminent coming of Christ. The call was derived from the book of Revelation 18, which states, ‘Babylon the great has fallen. … Come out of her my people!’ But on 22 October 1844, when Christ again did not appear, there was what is known as the Great Disappointment. Confusion was the share of the Millerites; some believed that the coming was still near, while others despaired.

The Rise and Fundamentals of Seventh-day Adventism After 22 October 1844, the Millerites’ faith was shaken. Their critics viewed their belief in the Second Advent as ridiculous, and several Millerites abandoned the movement, while others organized themselves into fragmented groups. Three major groups emerged with re-interpretations of what really happened on 22 October: the Spiritualizers or fanatical groups; Albany Adventists; and Sabbatarian Adventists, or the future Seventh-day Adventists. Major leaders of the Spiritualizers included Apollos Hale and Joseph Turner, who promoted the view that the Second Coming of Christ had actually taken place on 22 October, but spiritually, not literally. This belief resembled the teachings of the Gnostics in the early church, who believed that Christ revealed Himself to His followers only in a spiritual sense. To this group, both the date and the event had their fulfilment. As George R. Knight noted, ‘the bridegroom’s coming, in the thought of Hale and Turner, would precede the coming in power and glory to earth. There will be an interval between the two comings.’11 As such an interpretation developed, it became more fanatical. Some followers supported extreme interpretations and radical practices, which led to the rise of ‘prophets’ who thought that they had entered the ‘Millennial Sabbath’, and therefore, it was wrong for them to be working; others believed that they had reached a state of ‘sinless perfection’.12 Other Millerite groups kept their distance from the Spiritualizers, as they developed beliefs that did not support their teachings. The second major group was referred to as the Albany Adventists. They believed that the time of the event was wrong. Himes was one of the leaders and he and the group admitted their mistake in fixing a definite date for the return of Christ. The Bible says, ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’ (Matthew 24:36). These believers continued to teach that Christ’s coming was nonetheless at the door. They encouraged each other to get ready to welcome the bridegroom of Matthew 24. To help themselves cope with the disappointment, in April 1845, they organized a conference held in Albany, New York, under the leadership of Himes. This group was a reaction to the more fanatical group. Miller, the founder of the movement, joined the Albany group. Himes, by calling upon Miller to join him, sought to stabilize the group.

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 19 The third, and smallest, group was the Sabbatarian Adventists, who saw themselves as the true heirs of the Millerite Movement. They believed that the time was correct and that something happened on 22 October 1844, though the event was wrong. The Sabbatarians distanced themselves from the Spiritualizers, as well as the Albany group. According to this group, the Albany group denied the validity of Daniel’s prophecy about a major event that took place in 1844, and the Spiritualizers misinterpreted the Bible by inserting an unscriptural method of understanding it. The Sabbatarians developed doctrines that made them distinct from the other groups. They went back to the Bible to answer two important questions: What took place on 22 October 1844? What did the cleansing in Daniel 8:14 refer to? As they sought answers to these questions, they reconstructed their understanding of the impending coming of Christ, and came to believe that the sanctuary in Daniel 8 was not the earth, but the heavenly sanctuary. This was the result of careful and prayerful deeper study of the Word of God. Hiram Edson, a Millerite follower who lived in New York, persevered in prayer on 23 October 1844. He had the conviction that God could and was willing to reveal what really happened. Was there any disappointment at all, or could it be that the Millerites did not seek God’s guidance enough to have known exactly what was to happen on 22 October 1844? As he meditated in prayer upon the meaning of the cleansing in Daniel 8, he had a vision. He later wrote, After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, ‘Let us go and see, and encourage some of our brethren’. We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly, and clearly, that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2,300 days, that he for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that he had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth. While I was thus standing in the midst of the field, my comrade passed on almost beyond speaking distance before missing me. He inquired, ‘Why I was stopping so long?’ I replied, ‘The lord was answering our morning prayer; by giving light with regard to our disappointment’.13 Edson and two other brethren, O. R. L. Croisier and F. B. Hahn, invested significant time and effort to the study of the Sanctuary doctrine. They interpreted Daniel 8:14 in the light of Hebrews 9:23–24, and Leviticus 16. Their conclusion confirmed the vision of Edson, that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not on earth, but rather in heaven. This enlightening response provided meaning to the Great Disappointment. The three brethren agreed to publicize their view in an article titled ‘The Law of Moses’, published in The Day-Star Extra, on 7 February 1846. In this paper, they clarified that

20 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots the earthly sanctuary was a representation of the heavenly sanctuary. Therefore, the heavenly sanctuary has a two-phase ministry as illustrated by the earthly ministry service. On 22 October 1844, Christ entered the Most Holy place to start the second phase of His sacerdotal work in the heavenly sanctuary. The first phase began at His ascension, with a focus on the forgiveness of sins. The second phase, even though it assures the continuity of the first one, focuses more on the blotting out of sins. The cleansing of Daniel 8:14 was the cleansing from sin effected by the blood of Jesus Christ, not by fire. The Second Coming of Christ will happen at the end of the second phase of Christ’s ministry in the Most Holy Place. Such beliefs became increasingly popular among the Sabbatarian Adventists. Ellen White, herself a devoted Millerite follower who came from a Methodist background, supported the views Croisier presented in the Day-Star Extra. White wrote: ‘the Lord showed me in a vision, more than one year ago, that Brother Crosier had the true light, on the cleansing of the Sanctuary … and that it was his will, that Brother C. should write out the view which he gave us in the Day-Star, Extra, February 7, 1846’.14 White’s vision played the role of confirmation. True to this vision, the belief in the doctrine of the sanctuary grew stronger among the Sabbatarians. With extensive study, they linked the doctrine of the Sanctuary to the investigative judgement or pre-Advent judgement, which means that prior to the coming of Christ, there must be a work of blotting out of sins. This work began in 1844, which means that the Second Coming will occur when Christ finishes His work in the Most Holy Place. As early as the 1840s, Miller and Josiah Litch had presented their study on the necessity of the pre-Advent judgement. Thus, the connection of the doctrine of the Sanctuary to the investigative judgement was not necessarily new. However, the doctrine was reshaped to make it more comprehensive. In 1847, Joseph Bates regarded 22 October 1844 as the beginning of the preAdvent judgement, linking it to the message of the first angel, that ‘the hour of his judgment has come’ (Revelation 14:7). During this period, when the Sabbatarians needed more providential guidance as they developed their doctrines and consolidated their beliefs, Ellen White was called to the prophetic office. She had her first vision in December 1844, where she saw a group of people on a narrow path leading to heaven. A bright light was behind the Sabbatarians as they progressed toward heaven, and Jesus was before them at the other end of the path. This vision shaped the collective memory of Sabbatarians by granting them more perseverance in the search for the meaning of 22 October 1844. They encouraged each other to fix their eyes on Jesus as they progressed towards heaven. Thus, White’s vision further affirmed that something happened on the day of the Great Disappointment. Prior to her calling to the prophetic office in order to provide more guidance to the tiniest Millerite group, William Ellis Foy, a Black American from the Baptist denomination, received several visions.15 Unlike White, who overcame her struggles to accept the prophetic mantle, Foy was reluctant to share his visions. Foy

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 21 never became a Seventh-day Adventist, but did believe that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent. Not all the Sabbatarians easily accepted the prophetic role of Ellen White. They had concerns about her visions, as there were prophets from the Spiritualizers who brought more confusion than guidance. But, as time passed, her prophetic calling became clearer to the Sabbatarians, although never overemphasized her role. Her visions confirmed the doctrines of the Sabbatarians but did not initiate them. The Sabbatarians gave a prominent place to the study of the Word of God, from which they developed their doctrines and beliefs. She, however, through her dreams, reaffirmed or settled controversies over the developing doctrines among the Sabbatarians, especially between 1844 and the 1860s. Gradually the Sabbatarians developed their distinctive doctrines. Among the most prominent ones were the Second Coming of Christ, the Sanctuary, the gift of prophecy, the Sabbath, and conditional immortality. Each doctrine was derived from a careful study of the Bible. The Sabbatarians also benefited from the input of other Christians (Baptists, and other Millerites who never joined them). For instance, with regards to the Sabbath doctrine, The Seventh-day Baptist Church had a periodical, the Recorder, which was read by the Millerites. Frederick Wheeler, a Methodist pastor, was the first Adventist to keep the Sabbath, who was himself challenged by Rachel Oakes, a Seventh-day Baptist, to keep God’s commandments, including the Sabbath. As Wheeler began keeping the Sabbath, several of his members followed him as early as the spring of 1844. Soon, more people from various backgrounds opened up to the Sabbath message, including some Millerites; T. M. Preble was one of these. In February 1845, almost half a year after the Great Disappointment, Preble published an article about the Sabbath in Hope of Israel. Later, he wrote a pamphlet of 12 pages, titled Tract Showing That the Seventh Day Should Be Observed as the Sabbath, Instead of the First Day. Joseph Bates, a former Millerite who would be one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, read the article and accepted the Sabbath. In August 1846, Bates published his own tract, The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign. Bates was instrumental in introducing the Sabbath to the two other founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ellen and James White. Ellen wrote, ‘in the autumn of 1846, we began to observe the Bible Sabbath, and to teach and defend it’.16 The Sabbatarian Adventists then connected the Sabbath message to the doctrines of the investigative judgement, to the third angel’s message in Revelation 14:9, 10, and the Sabbath as the ‘Seal of God’. Bates further developed the doctrine of the Great Controversy theme in Adventism and connected the Sabbath message to eschatology. By the early 1850s, the Sabbatarian Adventists developed their distinctive doctrines more comprehensively, something that helped to reflect upon the significance of evangelism, mission, and organization.17

22 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots

Gradual Development and Understanding of Universal Mission among the Sabbatarians The understanding of mission among the Sabbatarian Adventists was progressive. After a period of doctrinal development, they adopted the name Seventh-day Adventists in 1860, and an organizational structure with a visible shape in 1863, but the awareness of a universal approach to mission was slow. Gottfried Oosterwal argued that there were three phases in the development of global mission awareness among the Seventh-day Adventists.18 The first phase ran from 1844 to 1851. After the Great Disappointment, Sabbatarian Adventists believed that the door of salvation was closed to those who rejected the doctrine of the soon coming of Christ. They based their understanding of mission on the interpretation of Matthew 25:1–3, that the bridegroom had come, not to this earth but to the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. The parable in the book of Matthew 25 teaches that when the bridegroom comes, the door will be shut. Therefore, the early Sabbatarian Adventists separated themselves from other adherents of Christian denominations to focus on preaching to former Millerite Adventists about the validity of the fourth commandment and its connection to the Sanctuary doctrine and the third angel’s message. Revelation 14 points to the necessity of worldwide mission, but this was not well understood by the early Sabbatarian Adventists. George R. Knight wrote: ‘In fact, the early Sabbatarian Adventists might best be thought of in terms of anti-mission rather than missions. Their mission theory and practice can be accurately described as a “shut door” on mission outreach’.19 He added that ‘the Sabbatarian Adventists, including Bates and the Whites, continued to hold on to both an October 22 fulfilment of prophecy and the “shut-door” teaching. Thus, they came to be known to other Millerite Adventists as “the Sabbath and shut-door people”—derogatory terms signifying their doctrinal distinctives’.20 While the period of ‘shut door’ theory contradicted the gospel commission, ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations’ (Matthew 28:19), it marked a period of seclusion for doctrinal development and extensive Bible study that led to the progressive discovery of truth.21 The second phase of the development of mission awareness covered the period from 1851 to 1874.22 These years opened the eyes of Adventists to a new approach to mission. They realized that not all Christians in North America rejected the doctrine of the coming of Christ in 1844. In addition, Ellen White’s vision in 1848 pointed to missionary work of a global nature. In this vision, she saw the future of Adventist publications covering the world ‘like streams of light that went clear round the world’. In spite of this divine insight, White did not fully understand the implication of this revelation. By 1849, she had tied the ‘shut door’ terminology to the doctrine of the heavenly sanctuary. She wrote, ‘Jesus had shut the door of the holy

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 23 place, and no man can open it; and that He had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it’.23 She believed that those who did not accept the truth of the coming of Christ in 1844 would not benefit from God’s redeeming grace. Later, in the early 1850s, White and other Sabbatarian pioneers corrected their view; this was a major turning point in the ministry that led to a worldwide approach to mission. Knight noted that ‘thus the shut-door people became the open-door people as they slowly came to see that the opening of the final phase of Christ’s ministry in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary included the opening of a new message on the Sabbath and the third angel’s message’.24 The Sabbath doctrine and the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 would be the most identifying marks of Adventist approach to global mission. Until the early 1870s, Seventh-day Adventists believed that North America, where people from different countries lived, represented the setting for a global mission. But this geographical view of missionary work changed as immigrants who accepted the Adventist faith began sending literature about the Adventist message to their relatives in Europe. By 1874, there were several companies of Sabbath-keeping believers in Switzerland,25 and M. B. Czechowski had gone to Europe on a self-sponsorship adventure to convert his people to Adventism. The first official missionary to be sent abroad was John N. Andrews, in response to the request of Sabbath-keeping Adventists in Europe. This official act marked the third phase in the new Seventh-day Adventist mission approach. The way had been prepared by Czechowski, who went to Europe against the will of the Church leadership (who believed that he was not suitable for missionary work in Europe). Andrews, who built upon the work of Czechowski, settled in Switzerland. He learnt the French language and began the monthly publication of Les Signes des Temps. His mission strategy was to invest in literature evangelism. Although he did not achieve much success in converting Europeans to Adventism, he laid a strong foundation for subsequent work. In 1886, an energetic young German, Ludwig Richard Conradi, opened a new chapter in European Adventism. [He] possessed precisely those missionary talents that Czechowski and Andrews lacked in their work in Europe. He combined excellent organisational skills with an innate charisma as a preacher and public evangelist. Conradi was pragmatic, with an almost unstoppable drive for action and outreach, demonstrating first of all, the compatibility of the Adventist faith with various Protestant traditions in Europe.26 Under his leadership, the Adventist Church developed so fast in central Europe that, in 1914, it recorded approximately 15,000 members in Germany alone. With such a vision and missionary skills, Conradi looked for foreign missions, and through his leadership dexterity, the Adventist

24 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots mission in East Africa began. As early as the 1880s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church established its presence among the White miners in South Africa and the Copts in Egypt. It was not until 1903, however, that the mission was directed to Black Africa. Thus, the late nineteenth century was the beginning of a golden age in Adventist mission. The most dramatic growth was recorded in the first third of the twentieth century. In 1921, the combined number of Seventh-day Adventists in non-North American fields surpassed that of North America. Although up to the 1960s, North America was still the division with the largest membership in any continent, the growth of the Church was more impressive outside North America.27 By the early twentieth century, Adventist missionaries from America and Europe (especially Germany) had opened mission fields in foreign lands such as Australia, New Zealand, and East Africa. During those years, A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer, both from North America, and Conradi from Europe, worked hard to open new fields in several parts of the world. Daniells, the General Conference president, encouraged Adventists in North America to support the Church’s mission to the rest of the world through tithes and offerings. Ministers were dispatched from North America and Europe to take the gospel to millions of unbelievers. In 1920, 310 evangelists began mission work. Germany had taken the lead by sending missionaries to Brazil as early as 1895. Later, Conradi helped pioneer the work in the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Work was also undertaken in Beirut, Jerusalem, and East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia). As the General Conference sought to be more efficient in its strategies for opening new fields, Australia was made the base for mission outreach in the Pacific, while South Africa was the base for mission fields in Africa. Ellen White’s years of service in Australia gave a special impetus to the mission and its branches overseas. Avondale College was established and was one of the earliest Adventist centres of education that was highly regarded for its efficiency. Although White did not physically set her feet on African soil, as she did in Europe and Australia, she supported the establishment of the Adventist mission in Africa. She worked closely with missionaries from the United States who laboured among the English and Afrikaans population in South Africa. As Australia was the centre for mission fields in the Pacific, South Africa was the centre of Adventist mission in Africa, from which people of different tribes in the continent could be reached with the Adventist message.28 Thus, while the Church’s efforts outside North America were first concentrated in Germany, England, and Australia, the positive economic situation of these countries meant that they could rapidly claim their independence and support North America in financing missionary activities in the whole world, especially in Africa.

African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 25

Conclusion This chapter examined the historical development of Adventist mission from the birth of the denomination in North America to its spread to different parts of the world. By the early 1920s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church had become an international denomination with significant membership outside of North America. Europe, Australia, and South Africa developed centres from which to spread the Seventh-day Adventist message. Several missionaries who laboured in the early days of Seventh-day Adventism, between the 1860s and the 1940s, were pioneers who took the Adventist message to places not previously entered.

Notes 1 Timothy L. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1957). 2 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 23–34. 3 On general reform movements in the early nineteenth century in America, see Alice F. Tyler, Freedom’s Ferment: Phases of American Social History to 1860 (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1944); Robert E. Riegel, Young America, 1830–1840 (Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1949); Edwin Gaustad, ed., The Rise of Adventism: Religion and Society in MidNineteenth-Century America (New York: Harper & Row, 1974). 4 Louis J. Kern, An Ordered Love: Sex Roles and Sexuality in Victorian Utopias: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1981). 5 For more on Joseph Smith, see Steven Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration, 4th ed. (Independence, MO: Restoration Research, 1990); Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971). 6 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 16. 7 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 23–100. 8 See Sylvester Bliss, Memoirs of William Miller, Generally Known As a Lecturer on the Prophecies, and the Second Coming of Christ (Saskatoon, Canada: HardPress, 2020); Robert Gale, The Urgent Voice: The Story of William Miller (New York: TEACH Services, 2006); Francis D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry A Defense of the Character and Conduct of William Miller and the Millerites, Who Mistakenly Believed That the Second Coming of Christ Would Take Place in the Year 1844 (New York: Teach Services, 2000), 17–74. 9 Knight, William Miller, 13–56. 10 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 35–50. 11 Knight, William Miller, 210. 12 George R. Knight, Millennial Fever and the End of the World: A Study of Millerite Adventism (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1993), 250–253. 13 Quoted in Ellen G. White and Her Critics: An Answer to the Major Charges That Critics Have Brought Against Mrs. Ellen G. White (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1951), 172. 14 James White, Ellen G. White, and Joseph Bates, A Word to the Little Flock (Fort Oglethorpe, GA: TEACH Services, 2014), 12. 15 See, Delbert W. Baker, The Unknown Prophet, rev. and updated (Hagerstown, MD: Review & Herald, 1987, 2013).

26 African Seventh-day Adventism’s Roots 16 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948), 1:75. 17 For more reading, see LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1954), 4:443–851; Paul A. Gordon, Herald of the Midnight Cry (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1990); Gary Land, ed., Adventism in America: A History (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 1–35; C. Mervyn Maxwell, Tell It to the World: The Story of Seventh-day Adventists, 2nd rev. ed. (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1977), 9–33; Marvin Moore, The Refiners Fire (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1990), 41–89; Francis D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1944). 18 Gottfried Oosterwal, Mission Possible (Nashville, TN: Southern Publ. Assn., 1972), 23–35. 19 George R. Knight, Anticipating the Advent: A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1993), 37. 20 Knight, Anticipating the Advent, 38. 21 For a systematic approach to the issue of shut door and mission awareness in early Adventism, see, P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission (Grand Rapids,MI: Eerdmans, 1977, reprinted by Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, MD, 1988); Paul A. Gordon, The Sanctuary, 1844, and the Pioneers (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1983); Frank B. Holbrook, ed., Doctrine of the Sanctuary: A Historical Survey (1845–1863) (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1989); Land, Adventism in America, 36–65; Maxwell, Tell It to the World, 40–94, Arthur L White, Ellen G. White (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1981–1986), 1:45–138. 22 A recent book that examines the historical development of Adventist mission history is A. L. Chism, D. J. B. Trim, and M. F. Younker, ‘We aim at nothing less than the whole world’: The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Missionary Enterprise and the General Conference Secretariat, 1863–2019, General Conference Archives Monographs, vol. 1 (Silver Spring, MD: Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research, 2021). 23 Ellen G. White, Early Writings (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1882), 42. 24 Knight, Anticipating the Advent, 53. 25 Daniel Heinz, ‘Origin and Growth of Seventh-Adventist in North America and Europe and Their Outreach in Africa’, in Seventh-day Adventist Contributions to East Africa, 1903–1983, ed. Baldur Ed. Pfeiffer (Frankfurt, am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, 1985), 32, 33. 26 Heinz, ‘Origin and Growth,’ 3. 27 For more insight, see, Land, Adventism in America, 125–138; Barry David Oliver, SDA Organizational Structure: Past, Present and Future (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1989); Gilbert M. Valentine, The Shaping of Adventism: The Case of W. W. Prescott (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1992), 113–184; A. White, Ellen G. White, 5:70–110, 198–222, 243–258, 271–306, 359–380; 6:11–32, 270–290. 28 For more reading, see Land, Adventism in America, 139–207; Howard B. Weeks, Adventist Evangelism in the Twentieth Century (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1969), 11–245; A. White, Ellen G. White, 6:302–448.

2

The Uncertain Context Multiple Challenges and the Rise of African Adventism (1880s–1920s)

Seventh-day Adventism is a Christian denomination that had a difficult beginning in the African continent. From the East to the West, and from the North to the South, there were teething issues that threatened the emergence of the American-based movement when it began in 1844; not only in Africa, but in other parts of the world. One remarkable event was the nonappearance of Christ on 22 October 1844, which brought about the falling away of some from the faith and the denial of some others’ belief in the imminent coming of Christ. In the midst of this unfavourable situation, Ellen G. Harmon (White), James White, and Joseph Bates believed they were divinely guided to begin a movement, whose growth would surpass the imagination of the founders if they were alive today. Adventism in Africa has a history within the history of the worldwide movement. Its early days in Africa were fraught with uncertainties, distress, anxieties, and hopelessness. This was also the experience of Jesus’s movement that led to the birth of Christianity. It appeared to the Pharisees and their comrades, the Sadducees, as a tiny movement whose death was predicted in their lifetime. But how the followers of Jesus have been recorded in the billions from the time He came is what surpasses the understanding of secular historians; so is the story of Adventism in Africa. Today, Adventism has millions of adherents in Africa. Therefore, this chapter aims at retracing its difficult beginnings as a way of appreciating its emergence on the world stage. The chapter begins by highlighting the start of the movement from Southern Africa, to the East Coast, the West Coast, and to Northern Africa.

Southern Africa’s Experience The Seventh-day Adventist Church began in Africa as early as 1878, when William Hunt shared the Adventist faith with J. H. Wilson, a former follower of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in South Africa. Hunt was a North American gold miner who lived in Nevada before coming to South Africa in 1871.1 He was a Seventh-day Adventist who was familiar with early Adventist publications and Adventist doctrines. As Hunt exposed his Adventist faith to Wilson, the latter quickly accepted it and delighted to DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-3

28 The Uncertain Context share it with others. Soon after, two Dutch farmers, George Van Druten and Peter Wessels, became convinced, through the means of dreams and the study of the Bible, that the true day of worship was Saturday, not Sunday. The two Dutchmen soon met William Hunt, who informed them about the Seventh-day Adventist organization in America. As a result of this discovery, the two Dutch farmers sent a letter to Battle Creek informing them of their intention to belong to this organization. The letter was read at the General Conference, and, on 24 November 1886, the General Conference Executive Committee voted to send D. A. Robinson and his wife, C. L. Boyd and his wife, and J. F. Stureman to South Africa.2 To their delight, these missionaries observed that a handful of people, not less than 40, expressed their intention to keep the Sabbath as Druten and Wessels preached to them. Gradually, the Church took off in South Africa, leading to the building of several churches across Cape Town. Both the missionaries and the new converts were committed to the advancement of the mission of the Church in South Africa and in a short time an Adventist college, a sanatorium, a publishing house, and an orphanage were constructed.3 In addition to these facilities was a home that provided lodging, food, and medical care to the needy. Such encouraging beginnings led the Wessels family to request that the General Conference expand the mission in the north of the Cape colony. Six thousand morgen (more than 12,000 acres) of land was granted in 1894, in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, through the help of Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, the representative of Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.4 The mission struggled to settle due to a succession of difficult events: tribal revolt, which led the missionaries to retreat for five months; famine; outbreaks of malaria taking the lives of missionaries; and an outbreak of rinderpest that destroyed the mission cattle. In the midst of these difficult beginnings, there was a steady conversion of Africans, which granted more hope for the advancement of the gospel. The most difficult social reality that made the success of Adventism in South Africa very unlikely was racism. Adventist institutions in South Africa accommodated racial discrimination. For instance, Claremont Union College, which is today Helderberg College, was established in 1893, and its population was almost entirely White until 1974. Also, at Plumstead Sanitarium, opened in 1903, a ward was built to accommodate only Blacks. According to Crocombe, ‘From 1909, the Seventh-day Adventist church [in South Africa] also operated a separate school for Black students. The institution operated under various names and in various locations—most recently as Bethel College. It was also grossly under-resourced, understaffed, and underfunded.’5 By the 1960s in South Africa, political struggles, combined with cultural and racial differences, became defining marks of a rising Seventh-day Adventism in the African continent. The Church’s administrative structures were divided following racial lines, as were churches and

The Uncertain Context 29 members. Apartheid was ubiquitous in Christian church settings in South Africa. As Matsobane J. Manala writes: ‘Apartheid, as a church-supported and legislated reality, brought not only separation between the South African people but also serious and sustained oppression and suffering of the black masses in their country of birth.’6 Discriminatory practices defined Adventism in its early days in South Africa. In a stimulating publication, God or Apartheid: A Challenge to South Africa Adventism, the authors argue that Adventism was a casualty of intentionally nourished discrimination. They called upon South African Adventism to ‘define its precise role in the dramatic process of national rebirth either as part of the problem or as part of the solution’.7 Regrettably, the Church in South Africa in the early 1990s ‘stood on the periphery of social issues, merely observing them and sometimes even benefiting from spoils of oppression’.8 South African Adventism refused to weep with the distressed and preferred to preach the ‘gospel of meekness, obedience and humility’ in the face of social injustice.9 Fortunately, Adventism showed signs of growth amidst gloomy discriminatory practices, thus defying the negative impact of its challenging inception in the African continent.10 The mission of the Adventist Church was expanding against all expectations in other parts of Southern Africa. In 1894, Solusi Mission station was founded in what was then Southern Rhodesia. The General Conference supported Elder W. H. Anderson and two of his colleague missionaries to Solusi and gave them $5,000 for one year.11 Against all odds, such as the hot climate, famine, deadly diseases, venomous insects, and lack of good roads, these men did not give up their journey. They travelled to Solusi and worked there, holding their church services under the trees. Such unprecedented missionary zeal was encouraging. Many missionaries from Solusi and others from Western countries followed in these sacrificial footsteps to reach other corners of Africa. Thomas H. Branch was in Malawi/Nyasaland in 1902; W. H. Anderson travelled to Zambia in 1905; W. Ehlers and A. C. Enns arrived in Tanganyika (Tanzania) in 1903; A. A. Carscallen and E. C. Enn founded the Adventist mission in Kenya in 1906;12 Christopher Robinson arrived in the Belgian Congo in 1920; D. E. Delhove, H. Monnier, and A. Matter arrived in Rwanda between 1920 and 1921; D. E. Delhove travelled from Rwanda to found the mission in Burundi in 1925; and by 1930s, many Southern, Eastern, and Central African nations were receiving the Adventist message.13 The growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa became very impressive from the early twentieth century. In January 1908, in South Africa, the South Union Conference was formed, with two conferences of European people, and four missions among the Blacks.14 With W. S. Hyatt as its first president,15 the membership was about 800. This time was significant in the sense that the early converts began to sow the seed of the gospel with much commitment through ‘literature, preaching, teaching, and medical work’.16 The progress was thus positive amidst difficulties.

30 The Uncertain Context A dreadful experience, even apart from racism in Southern Africa, was related to local diseases, which led to the death of several Adventist missionaries.17 Malaria hampered the work of valiant missionaries who did not give up until they were declared dead. Valdemar E. Toppenberg, a missionary who worked in Southern Africa reported that, During the pioneer mission days, malaria and Blackwater fever struck down about a third of our missionaries. These faithful men and women lived in the most primitive houses without adequate sanitary facilities. In 1917, when the British and the Belgians conquered Germans East Africa, there were eleven missionaries’ graves—mute witness of the faithfulness of those who had died at their posts of duty from the ravages of disease.18 In this regard, Solusi’s experience was the most fearful in this region. Added to hunger and the precarious conditions in which the missionaries lived, several of them and their children died and were buried there, yet those who were still alive requested for more missionaries to come and continue the mission. None of them ran for their own lives; they preached the Gospel of Christ with great passion and much determination. Among several missionaries who died in Solusi were George B. Tripp (7 March 1898); Dr. A. S. Carmichael (26 February 1898); and the young George Tripp (2 April 1898). Mrs. Armitage and John Ntaba also died the same year. In fact, ‘of the original seven who had arrived on 26 July 1895 [to work at Solusi], only three were still alive, and two were at the Cape recovering from malaria’.19 Solusi caused alarming distress, but the faith of the missionaries resisted the temptation to run away and leave the land to malaria. Virgil Robinson wrote, ‘the land on which Solusi was founded had indeed been a gift, but that was the only free thing about it. Everything else was paid for in toil, sweat, sorrow, disappointment, heartbreak, and death.’20 W. A. Spicer noted much earlier that ‘no missionary enterprise we have ever started since has had to endure so savage a trial [than Solusi]’.21 Such a report is a demonstration of the sacrifice, sufferings, pains, and sorrows endured by early missionaries in Southern Africa. Elder O. A. Olsen, after he left the office of president of the General Conference in 1897, travelled to South Africa.22 He spent eight days at Solusi, and conducted Bible studies every day for one hour to encourage the missionaries to persevere, showing them from the Bible the inexhaustible reward that awaits the faithful workers, diligent listeners, and doers of the will of God. While Olsen’s visit was timely and much needed, he quickly remarked with much sorrow in his voice that ‘the European women were occupied from morning till night, visiting villages and teaching the African women to sew, cook, and keep their huts clean’.23 He observed the difficulties faced by the missionaries and how the General Conference had not taken much action to ease their burdens.

The Uncertain Context 31 Among the missionaries who did not succumb to malaria and blackwater fever was W. H. Anderson. He grew up in Indiana in the United States. Through his personal research, he knew that the use of quinine was a remedy for malaria. During his missionary activities, he purchased quinine at Bulawayo that ‘he and his wife used regularly’. Quinine was the most effective treatment available for malaria. Unfortunately, not all the missionaries appreciated what Anderson and his wife were doing. Some argued that ‘quinine was dangerous and detrimental to health’. Others simply believed that ‘its use was a demonstration of a lack of faith in God’s healing power and refused to use it’.24 They ignored the remedy that could boost their immune system and fight against malaria and several other local diseases. Such an unfortunate understanding of the concept of healing, refusing to use available remedies versus the expression of one’s faith, was a misinterpretation of the Gospel. But far from accusing the missionaries who expressed their faith in the God who saved the three companions of Daniel from a burning furnace, one should rather question the perilous conditions in which the General Conference sent its missionaries abroad. The mission fields were never well explored before the missionaries were asked to venture in. However, it was not all about tales of woe in Solusi. The missionaries had faith in Jesus. They believed that if they died there, their death was no different from that of the Apostles in the apostolic era, or the faithful martyrs who suffered at the hands of Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages, or even the story of the Waldensians who were burned alive in a cave in Italy. At some point, they found a solution to their crisis. One fascinating development followed the death of Elder Tripp and Mrs. Armitage. ‘Elder Armitage invited Mrs. Tripp to share his mission career, an invitation she gladly accepted. So, they were married and subsequently spent more than twenty years labouring in the mission field.’25 Such missionary adventure helped console the missionaries and energized them for the mission they had to accomplish. Despite all unfortunate circumstances, Adventism progressing in Southern Africa. The African Division was formed in 1919, ten years after the organization of the South African Union.26 It comprised two unions, three local conferences among the European Whites, and twelve native missions. The headquarters of the division was at Claremont, Cape Province, and W. H. Branson was the first president (1930–1941). In 1929, the Central, Northern and Southern European Divisions were created, and the latter two were given responsibility for mission fields in East and West Africa. The African Division had in practice always concentrated on Southern and southeastern Africa but now this was formalized, so the name was changed to the Southern African Division in 1930.27 The total membership of the Southern African Division in 1932 mounted up to 16,018 baptized members with 13,534 natives, 2,205 Whites, and 279 coloured people, and encompassed the Union of South Africa, British Bechuanaland, Southwest Africa, Portuguese East Africa, the Portuguese Congo, the Belgian Congo, Angola, Ruanda,

32 The Uncertain Context Urundi, Nyasaland, British Bechuanaland Protectorate, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia.28 The first mission station among the natives was known as the Matabele Mission, but was later renamed the Solusi Mission, after a local chief played a significant role in the expansion of the gospel ministry among the natives.29 Many local pioneers who trained at Solusi sought to preach the Adventist faith more aggressively.

The East Coast’s Experience The East Coast of Africa was first under the control of the Portuguese in Mozambique, the British in British East Africa and British Somaliland, and the Germans in German East Africa. The Italians were very active in Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, and the French in French Somaliland. All these imperial forces, in one way or the other, played significant roles in the advancement of mission stations, but, in many ways, they also hampered the progress of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa, especially after the World Wars, when Germans were dispossessed of all African territories and German missionaries expelled. The German Union Conference sent missionaries who entered German East Africa as early as 1903. They established Adventist missions in Friedenstal, Vuasu, Kihuirio, and Vunta under the leadership of J. Ehlers, A. C. Enns, B. Ohme, E. Kotz, and W. Koelling,30 but largely settled at Pare. These missions were established among the locals, and the missionaries were able to convert them to Christianity. The missionaries translated the Bible into local languages and helped spread the Adventist faith. As the mission at Pare expanded, there was the need of another strategic location to head the establishment of Adventism in East Africa. A second field known as the Victoria Nyanza was founded, where German missionaries laboured. Several Scandinavian missionaries also came to East Africa: V. E. Toppenberg arrived in 1910 and Dr. F. W. Vasenius and J. Persson came in 1911. They all worked at Victoria Nyanza and its environs. The Adventist mission in British East Africa began in 1906 with A. A. Carscallen from England. He was assisted in the work by J. D. Baker and B. L. Morse. The headquarters of their mission was at Gendia, Kisumu, Kenya. They laboured assiduously and were able to establish seven stations in Gendia by 1915. Meanwhile, D. E. Delhove entered Belgian East Africa in 1919.31 The defeat of the Germans in World War I meant that they had to retreat from the areas they had occupied. Most of the stations previously occupied by the Germans were incorporated into the British East African missions. As the Church expanded after World War I, all the territories in East Africa, comprising Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda, became part of the East African Union, which was organized in 1928, and was part of the Southern African Division, with headquarters at Kisumu, Kenya. Membership was on the increase; there were 110 Europeans; 13,930

The Uncertain Context 33 natives; and 13,094 baptismal candidates, with a total of 27,134 adherents, half of which were concentrated in Kenya Mission. H. M. Sparrow was the superintendent of the union, and Dr. Donald E. Abbott was in charge of medical work. E. W. Pederson was the superintendent of the Kenyan Mission, and V. E. Robinson was the educational secretary.32 It was amidst struggles for hegemony and ideas of conquest between Western nations that Seventh-day Adventism progressed in East Africa. The Seventh-day Church in Ethiopia, Eastern Africa witnessed a remarkable event. The influence of Egypt as a neighbouring country was not inconsequential; several attempts by Egypt to extend its Islamic values to Ethiopia were successfully resisted. In this regard, the Christian Church in Ethiopia was able to maintain aspects of the early Christian values and heritage such as Christian buildings. By the 1880s, as Egypt gave up its dreams of conquering Ethiopia, Italy was looking for ways to obtain more colonies in Africa. Although the Italians succeeded in colonizing a small part of Eritrea, they were not satisfied. They attacked Ethiopia in 1896, at the same time that the Seventhday Adventist Church was making necessary arrangements to settle in Ethiopia. At the historic battle of Aduwa, Ethiopia demonstrated its capability to defend itself and defeat a foreign enemy. Ethiopians put all tribal divisions aside as they victoriously confronted their common enemy.33 It was an infamous defeat for the Italian army; its pride was destroyed, its armoury incinerated, and its soldiers massacred. Indeed, the ground tactics of the Ethiopian army proved successful. With this victory, Ethiopia shut its borders to any foreign influence, including missionaries, until the coming to power of Ras Tafari as regent in 1921, king in 1928, and finally emperor in 1930. As he became the emperor of Ethiopia, Ras Tafari took the name of Haile Selassie I. He was an enlightened monarch whose intelligence guided the reformation of the administration of its empire and favoured the work of the missionaries. With the positive influence of Haile Selassie I, the work of the Seventhday Adventist Church, which began in Ethiopia as early as 1907, developed steadily after 1930. Lindegren and J. Persson, brave Swedish missionaries, came to Ethiopia to pioneer the Adventist faith. Anol Grundset, a Norwegian, arrived in 1909 and was the superintendent of the mission in Ethiopia, until he was replaced in 1912 by Hans Steiner from Germany, who was evicted from Ethiopia after World War I, as the German missionaries were expelled from their spheres of influence. Dr. F. W. Vasenius and V. E. Toppenberg also arrived in 1909 from Germany and later offered their support for the Adventist mission in Tanganyika, German East Africa. The historic defeat recorded against the Italian army by an African country did not go down well with Italy, and it spent four decades of preparation to rewrite its history of war with Ethiopia. In 1935, a fearful and dreadful date in Ethiopian history, the Italian army made an unexpected landing. Equipped with modern artillery, Italians invaded

34 The Uncertain Context Ethiopia and slaughtered its soldiers and civilians in the hundreds, through a mixture of ground forces, airplanes carrying bombs, sophisticated guns, and poison gases. As the situation in Ethiopia became hopeless, missionaries were repatriated, leaving behind only those who chose to remain, especially the nurses and teachers. The Adventist hospital, known as the Dessie, an influential centre dedicated to healing and the preaching of the gospel, was in the path of Italian hostilities.34 Dr. A. R. Stadin and his wife, Hovig and Halvorsen, the committed nurses who teamed up with M. J. Sorenson, and Dr. Tesla Nicola from Zauditu Hospital, went through traumatic experiences as they watched their patients pass away, including some missionaries who succumbed to unexpected gunshots. Spalding, an Adventist historian of the early 1960s who had the chance to communicate with the missionaries who suffered in Ethiopia, wrote: The hospital compound was set on fire. The hospital itself was bombed, killing some of the wounded. Nurse Hovig, in jumping into a bomb shelter, broke her leg. The meagre staff put out the fires, and returned to work. But the planes returned and bombed again. Littered with debris, blood, bandages, swabs, instruments, and parts of human bodies, the hospital was a shambles. Still the doctors and their helpers worked on, missing much of sterile technique but substituting as best they could.35 This destruction brought about a setback to Christian mission in Ethiopia. The Adventist Church ‘suffered irreparable loss’ as Esther Bergman, the head of nursing work, died four days after the bombing of Dessie hospital. She arrived in Ethiopia in 1932, and spent only three years there before her death.36 Although she was already sick, the psychological trauma she suffered as she watched her patients die due to Italian cruelty made her health deteriorate faster and eventually led to her death. Another tragic event was the death of Mrs. Stadin. She was hit by a bullet while she was in her bed, and died on 3 May 1935. Another lady who laboured in Ethiopia and whose sacrifices were notable was Lisa Johansson. She had come from Sweden to Ethiopia when the Italians launched their hostilities. She was not discouraged, as she believed that God had called her to minister to Ethiopians and share with them the truth of the Sabbath. She also testified about Jesus through an exemplary life. She arrived on the day that Mrs. Stadin died and started working immediately. She laboured for nine years, until her health deteriorated. She was sent home, but died ten days later. Her sacrifices remain in the collective memory of Adventism in Ethiopia, and also in the annals of sacred history in Africa. By the 1950s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ethiopia finally shook off the bitter experience linked to the Italian attack. Missionaries who were

The Uncertain Context 35 nurses, ministers, teachers, and doctors, cheerfully held onto God’s protection as they advanced the Adventist mission in Ethiopia, and they were encouraged by the emperor. By this time, ‘a considerable number of native converts had developed into workers, evangelists, educationists, and medics. Moreover, under the prospering hand of God, the work in Ethiopia, consecrated by service and supreme sacrifice, was looking up and pressing forward.’37 Thus, with struggle, sacrifice, and pain, Adventism settled in Ethiopia; a dreadful experience that informed the African collective suffering in the age of Western colonialism.

The West Coast’s Experience While the spread of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was progressing in Southern Africa between 1886 and the early twentieth century, there were parallel observations on the West Coast. Western missionaries faced many of the same challenges across Africa, although they also had challenges peculiar to the regions where they worked. The first attempt to establish Adventism on the West Coast preceded the arrival of the first official missionaries in South Africa because of the early missionary work of Hannah More. Hannah More was a Christian antislavery activist, and most importantly, a missionary who preached the Gospel. Ellen G. White spoke about her in Testimonies for the Church. Her case stands as an earnest appeal to the Church to engage more fully in supporting the poor, especially those who have expressed the need to join the Adventist faith.38 More lived in the nineteenth century, a time when women could not publicly carry out missionary work abroad, especially single women. More was an exception, as her passion for missionary activity led her church to appoint her a Congregational missionary among the Cherokee in Oklahoma and the Mende in West Africa. At some point, she ran a mission field at Kaw Mendi in Liberia by herself.39 She was described as a reformer and committed woman to the gospel of Christ. Hanna More arrived in Africa in 1850 and she served for six years before returning to America. Her connection with Sabbatarian Adventism led her to accept the Adventist faith in early 1860. She preached the Sabbath message after her return to West Africa, between 1862 and 1866, when she served as a missionary for a different denomination in Africa. Thus, she was an unofficial Adventist missionary before Michael Czechowski, who preached the Sabbath truth in Europe in late 1866, and even longer before J. N. Andrews, who arrived in Europe in 1874. More was a woman with an exceptional experience in missionary work. She had come across Steven Haskell in 1861. Haskell spent considerable time with More, teaching her Bible truths, especially the one with regard to the fourth commandment. More had no challenge in spending time flipping through the pages of the Bible. She knew by memory almost the entire New Testament, and a considerable portion of the Old Testament.

36 The Uncertain Context By the time More managed to get back to Africa in late 1862, she was already established in the Sabbath truth. Haskell continued supplying her with Adventist literature. The Adventist Review arrived by packet on the West Coast of Africa. From Africa, More wrote letters that were published in the Adventist Review. In May 1863, she wrote to the editor of the magazine saying there were now Sabbath keepers in West Africa.40 More shared the truth she believed in. She preached the Sabbath message to an Australian, Alexander Dickenson. Dickenson later went back to Australia to become the first Seventh-day Adventist on the continent. Thus, More was not only the first Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath keeper in the whole of Africa, but she was also instrumental in introducing the Sabbath message in Australia.41 However, by late 1865 and early 1866, her mission hosts were dissatisfied with her. They were Episcopalians, Anglicans, or Methodists, and they did not want to see More continue to preach the Sabbath message. They gently asked her to return to the United States of America. In the summer of 1866, she returned to America. Interestingly, she went to the home of Steven Haskell. In the same year, she was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In her late fifties, after staying almost half a year with Haskell, More travelled to Battle Creek, the centre of global Adventism at the time, hoping to find employment with the denomination that preached the Sabbath truth. Despite pleas by a pastor’s wife who travelled with her to Battle Creek, no position was granted to her. James and Ellen White were not in town. More spent around eight days in Battle Creek trying to find a place to live with the people whom she cherished, but no one had a place for her. She had used the last of her money to travel to Michigan. Disappointed and filled with sadness, caused in part by the fact that she had run out of money, and also because her health had been weakened by her sacrificial service in malarial Africa, More had no other choice than to live with her relatives. She stayed in the house of George Thompson, a non-Adventist. The Whites found out about her case and offered to pay for her to travel back to Battle Creek, so that she could live with them, but she never had the opportunity to meet the Whites; before any details of the travel could be worked out, she fell sick and died on 3 March 1868. Her death was a distress to the Whites. Ellen wrote that Sister Hannah More ‘died a martyr to the selfishness and covetousness of professed commandment keepers’.42 She further stated: ‘I was shown that the neglect of her was the neglect of Jesus in her person. Had the Son of God come in the humble, unpretending manner in which He journeyed from place to place when He was on earth, He would have met with no better reception.’43 More was a remarkable missionary whose contribution to Adventism in Africa was timely, and it is fair to state that More was the channel through which Adventism came to West Africa. It was through her dedication to the Adventist faith that Adventist literature (through the support of The International Tract Society) spread from Liberia to the rest of West Africa, and most importantly Ghana, where the first Seventh-day Adventist church in West Africa was later built.

The Uncertain Context 37 There was an attempt to open a mission field in West Africa as early as 1888, particularly in present-day Ghana, through the help of The International Tract Society.44 This organization was the medium through which the gospel literature was sent from America to the rest of the world, especially in areas where Western missionaries could not have easy access. Several sea captains were real agents in the advancement of the Christian message in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this way, on the African west coast, a visiting ship’s captain, most probably, added to the legacy of Hannah More, reviving the Adventist faith that stimulated the joy for Seventh-day Adventism. In January 1888, Mr. Francis I. U. Dolphijn, of the ethnic group of Fante, received a copy of The Present Truth, an early Adventist publication that started in 1847. Dolphijn read the tract, believed its contents, and accepted the Sabbath message.45 The Adventist message on the West Coast and its connection with the main branch abroad was gradually built. With the visit of Lawrence C. Chadwick, the secretary of the International Tract Society, in 1892, the seed of Adventism was in full gestation.46 Gradually, a group of believers worshipping God on the Sabbath day in the Gold Coast, in line with other Sabbatarians in Battle Creek, was founded. West Africa presented a challenge to Western missionaries from the early 1800s Blackwater fever, along with with other local diseases, killed many Christian missionaries in West Africa. Between hesitation and commitment, amidst uncertain days on the West Coast of Africa, due to wars and diseases, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in 1894 sent Karl G. Rudolph and Edward L. Sanford, the first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries to West Africa. Ecstatic about championing the Christian gospel in Africa among non-Christians, the two disembarked at Apam in 1894. However, the scourge of malaria and other deadly diseases cut short Sanford’s dream. He became severely ill and was sent back to America only five months after his arrival in Africa.47 Rudolph had to continue the mission alone. An intrepid missionary, he relied on God for protection as he watched other White missionaries being killed by blackwater fever almost every month. He continued preaching the gospel for 18 months before the second batch of Adventist missionaries joined him. On 3 March 1895, the Foreign Mission Board of the General Conference sent D. V. Hale and George T. Kerr, with their families, and Riggs, a colporteur, all North American, to West Africa. They landed at Cape Coast on 3 October 1895.48 In his message of notification to the General Conference on their arrival in Africa, Hale wrote, ‘I take this opportunity to say that we are in our field of labour safely. We landed on Oct. 3, about noon and found brother Rudolph working away with the wisdom that God has given him.’49 They all engaged in evangelistic meetings aimed at making a lasting impact on Adventism. Hale conducted Bible studies and Kerr and his wife took care of the medical work, while Riggs sold Adventist literature. Unfortunately, amidst an outbreak of malaria, the mission had to be abandoned. Each of the Adventist missionaries in West Africa ‘experienced

38 The Uncertain Context the attack of malaria fever with resistance varying from one person to another’.50 Initially everything seemed to be fine; Hale wrote, ‘We always think, how wonderful it is that five White people who came to this coast together have been here seven months and not one of them is dead yet. How wonderful when we remember that last year [1895], there were thirty-eight deaths to every forty White people in Cape Coast.’51 But three months after Hale wrote this letter to the General Conference, the Kerrs’ two-year-old son William died of dysentery on 4 July 1896. In November, five-month-old Frances Marian Kerr also died of local diseases.52 The situation was disturbing, as the remaining White Adventist missionaries asked themselves who could be the next victim of blackwater fever. On 26 July 1896, Hale became ill; ‘There was a profuse haemorrhage from kidneys for fifty-six hours and the fever rose to 106.6 degrees’.53 But he was able to recover and attributed his healing to the divine hand. However, Riggs did not get the chance to recover from his illness when he was attacked by the deadly blackwater fever. He was sent to England for treatment, where he died on 8 January 1897. The fear of seeing all the missionaries silently wiped out weakened any strong spirit of resilience and resistance. Then, the General Conference decided, through its department, the Foreign Mission Board, to abandon West Africa. ‘There was not even a single Seventh-day Adventist missionary in [the] West Coast of Africa by the middle of June 1897.’54 The Adventist mission in West Africa was halted until the beginning of the twentieth century. The decision to withdraw Adventist missionaries from West Africa was, to some, a sign of spiritual weakness. The cross of Christ appeals to everyone to suffer for the salvation of fellow human beings. Hale, who served as the superintendent of Adventist mission to West Africa did not appreciate the abandonment of the field for which he had invested so much. He expressed his concern to the General Conference over his desire to see the work in the West Coast continued. In 1901, the General Conference voted to reopen the West African mission field. A committee of three, A. G. Daniells, I. H. Evans, and W. W. Prescott, voted ‘that the work in [the] West Coast of Africa should be reopened when proper workers can be secured’.55 The General Conference in 1903 voted to return Dudley Hale and his family, with the assistance of James M. Hyatt and his wife, who were Black Americans from Minnesota. The idea may have been that, as the Hyatts were of African origin, they might have immunity against the diseases that had been claiming countless lives of White people. Hale and the brethren from Minnesota began reviving the work in Africa upon their arrival. The fear of attack from invisible enemies was deep in Hale and the family, but they nonetheless persevered in prayer as they hoped not to go back to America until Adventism had found its solid foundation on the African West Coast. Soon, however, Hale was attacked by blackwater fever and the fear that he would die was intense. The British

The Uncertain Context 39 government was kind enough to allow him to be treated in an English hospital that took care of local miners. Soon, three of his children were infected as well. Their stay on the West Coast became bitter; the zeal to continue reviving the work became dimmed. It was a divine miracle that none of them died, but they had to end their dream to walk in the valley of death while preaching the gospel. They were sent back to America, and the Hyatts continued the work. With the desire to expand the gospel in West Africa, and to support the Hyatts, David C. Babcock and his family, T. M. French and his family, with C. E. F. Thompson, formed a group of future missionaries who vowed to continue the mission of their predecessors. Unfortunately, two weeks after the Frenchs settled in Ghana, Mrs French fell ill and died. This death, however, would not result in the departure of the missionaries. They all agreed that Adventism must be established even at the cost of their lives. On the foundation of their determination to die, if necessary, for the cause of Adventism on the West Coast, the Church was established. The price for it was heavy, as countless lives were lost, and the success of today is the reward of the sufferings of the missionaries. With the gradual work of D. C. Babcock and his colleagues, the West African Mission was formed as early as 1905.56 It was first attached to the European Division, but after World War I, it became a detached field directly under the supervision of the General Conference.57 As Spalding noted in 1962, against all odds, the mission in the African West Coast kept progressing: Despite all the unfavorable conditions of climate, transportation, and communication, and the wars, the Advent message has made good progress. The union contains the Liberian, the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, the Sierra Leone, the West Nigerian, and the East Nigerian missions, with a combined church membership of nearly ten thousand, besides an equal number of probationers, making the total number of adherents approximately twenty thousand. It has five training schools— in Liberia, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria; a mission hospital at Ile-Ife, Nigeria; and two dispensaries. There are three small printing plants and two book depositories, in the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.58 Thus, the Adventist mission in the West Coast made steady progress amidst challenging circumstances. With the partitioning in 1928 of the European Division Conference into three European divisions—the Northern, Central, and Southern Divisions—the West African missions were divided according to colonial attachments. By 1962, the West African Union Mission became a field detached from any division, answering directly to the General Conference. By this time, several countries in West Africa had received the Adventist message. Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Togo, and the Gambia received the truth of the

40 The Uncertain Context divine Sabbath. Adventism finally came to stay in West Africa, defying all the odds, and local curses.

Northern Africa’s Experience In North Africa, the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church had been very slow due to the strong presence of Islam. There was no seriously planned mission to enter the area, as individuals were encouraged to ‘take personal initiative to extend the frontiers of the mission’.59 These individuals preached within their vicinity or acted part time as itinerant preachers. They were never asked to be preachers, but drew their example and encouragement from the lives of the disciples of Christ, Peter, John, and the Apostle Paul. They were also motivated by their understanding of belonging to a remnant church. The remnant identity was a direct catalyst for the prompting of individual initiative in mission fields. Thus, in early Adventism in North Africa, once an avenue was established, ‘the mission’s strategy was not determined by headquarters, the home-base, but was like in many other instances of mission history, the product of the mission itself, the result of the spontaneous understanding of an individual, daring to depart from existing patterns and established practices, a step requiring self-denial and sacrifices’.60 Thus, in the early 1920s, North Africa seemingly adopted a contextual approach to mission, although this attempt to communicate Christ to Muslims never bore abundant fruit. Nonetheless, using a variety of methods to communicate the love of the Christian God to the adherents of other world religions was regarded as a sign of commitment. Egypt was the pioneering centre of Adventism in the Middle East. In 1877, Seventh-day Adventists in Naples, Italy, shared the Adventist message through the French Adventist paper Signes des Temps established by J. N. Andrews, the first official Adventist missionary in Europe. These tracts fell into the hands of their Italian friends in Alexandria. They also frequently corresponded to them about the peculiarity of the Adventist faith. In the spring of 1878, Romualdo Bartola, an Italian Adventist trader, and self-sponsored missionary, visited Alexandria on business.61 He eventually baptized seven people among the foreigners, who formed the first Adventist community in Egypt.62 This promising activity was later reinforced by another pioneer, a former Methodist medical-missionary layman, Dr. Panmure Ribton, who arrived in Egypt in 1879, and preached to foreigners and natives in English, French, Italian, and Arabic. He operated ‘a language school to stimulate Bible reading, translating literature in Arabic, and administering medical care’. Unfortunately, on 11 June 1882, during an anti-Western uprising, Colonel Arabi Pasha killed Dr. Ribton and two of his converts. This event was a setback to the Adventist mission in Egypt and the Middle East in general.63 The glimpse of hope was not totally lost. The mission progressed silently as more missionaries joined hands to advance the Adventist mission. A few

The Uncertain Context 41 American Adventist families who were fleeing Turkey chose to settle in Cairo in 1896. These individuals apparently had no missionary-minded activities, as there was no report of anyone they brought to the Adventist faith. However, at this time, against all expectations, the Adventist mission showed some signs of progress in Egypt. The Oriental Union Mission was formed as early as 1901, with W. H. Wakeham as director, and its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. From 1907 to 1916, the union mission expanded to include a few European countries.64 It was renamed the Levant Union under the direct supervision of the General Conference. With the arrival of George Keough from Ireland, a handful of individuals were added to the Adventist community in Egypt. In total, he baptized 24 people: 17 men and 7 women. He then organized them into the first indigenous Seventh-day Adventist church in Egypt in 1913. In Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Libya, the few Seventh-day Adventists found in these countries were directly attached to the European Division. In 1886, there was a small group of French and Spanish Sabbath keepers in Algeria, but they migrated to South America. Seventh-day Adventism disappeared at that time and reappeared only in 1905.65 The growth of the Church in this part of the world was more difficult. As Spalding wrote that ‘all North Africa, having in the seventh century succumbed to the Arab conquest, is dominated by the Moslem religion’.66 He then added, ‘North Africa, by virtue of its Mohammedan character, was linked to the always difficult mission to the Moslems of the East; only in Egypt was there appreciable progress, and that far less than in Africa below’.67 Seventh-day Adventism in North Africa remains scanty and unsettled because of the resistance of the Islamic people. While the East, the South, and the West have made progress by confronting their difficult past and have converted hundreds of thousands to the Adventist faith, Adventism in North Africa remains very precarious, even today. The total membership in North Africa was less than 2,500 as of 2019. After 120 years of Adventism in North Africa, the hope of tremendous achievement may remain an unrealistic dream.68

The Great War The First World War was a setback to the expansion of Christian missions in the 1910s and 1920s. It did not allow for an easy movement for missionaries. Several Christian denominations that were ready to send missionaries across the globe, especially to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, had to pause because the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans became unsafe for travellers. The fear that enemies’ ships could attack passengers was intense. World War I, known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder led to war across Europe from 1914 to 1918. During these years, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, which were the Central Powers,

42 The Uncertain Context fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States, which were the Allied Powers. Because of new military technologies, this war led to the unprecedented destruction of human lives and property. An estimated 16 million people, soldiers and civilians, died. Horrific killings among these warring parties were recorded, which made the world lose a sense of cooperation for missionary activities. The countries that once cooperated to advance the expansion of mission establishments across the globe became sworn enemies and began fighting each other, especially those who did not belong to the same coalition during the War. In Africa, Adventist missionaries suffered isolation throughout the period of the Great War. D. C. Babcock, an American missionary who worked in West Africa, wrote about his sad experience. He said: ‘Scarcely had we planted our first mission station, when the war broke upon us. And with it came some trying perplexities.’69 At this time, the Adventist missionaries in West Africa were from the United States. It was a logical consequence that the contact between America and West Africa was lost at that time. The General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church asked the European missions to be in charge of the Adventist missions in West Africa. It was based on this directive that E. Ashton of England was sent to Nigeria to replace D. C. Babcock.70 In Eastern Africa, the British and the Germans were involved in a bitter struggle. Even among the Seventh-day Adventist missionaries, not everything was admirable. The Germans were evicted from the mission fields they had established. The British authorities made sure that all the Germans were held captive; as long as they were Germans, it did not matter to their captors whether they were missionaries or not. The relationship amongst the Whites became very strained, since they did not all belong to the same coalition during the war. After the war began, everyone became suspicious of the Germans. In Nigeria for instance, because there were some few Germans before the war started, one of D. C. Babcock’s workers who was put under church discipline for a case of adultery ‘sought to avenge himself by telling one of the British soldiers that Elder Babcock was a spy for the German government’.71 This news fell like a bombshell on the ears of the British. Quickly, a group of soldiers came to Shao mission headquarters and ransacked the whole compound. The soldiers met only his wife and children, Elder Babcock being away at Ipoti-Ekiti where a group conversion to the Adventist Church from the CMS had recently taken place. The soldiers checked through the letters, books, and any suspected objects in the houses at the station. Some of these were removed from their barracks for thorough examination. They damaged some of the mission property like the buildings and books.72

The Uncertain Context 43 The British authorities took some days to examine the documents after which they returned them. The English government was satisfied that the accusation against Babcock was false and unfounded. Even though the war created a setback in the expansion of Adventist mission in Africa, missionaries did not stop preaching. They continued to persevere in the mandate of the Great Commission, which includes preaching the gospel to every tribe.

Other General Negative Factors Other negative factors that constituted hindrances to a rapid establishment of Adventist missions in Africa included inefficient transportation systems, language barriers, African cultural challenges, and Islam. Transportation With regard to transportation, the means and system of spreading Christian messages from one place to another were difficult. Transport at that time were by land and water. Until the 1950s, cars, roads, and railways were not very common in Africa. The few railways that existed in those days served to connect some countries in Africa at a time when major roads were not tarred. Missionaries had to adjust to available African systems of transportation to achieve their goals of preaching to Africans. They had no choice than to travel many miles on foot to get to villages. Most of the towns and villages in the early twentieth century in Africa were linked by narrow foot paths. Some of the foot paths were intercut by rivers, which missionaries had to cross to get to their destinations. In some places, bridges of wood and rope were made to facilitate mobility, but they never lasted; they were constantly degraded by flood, destroyed by termites, and even burned up by bush fires. As a result, Adventist missionaries helped build bridges to ease their mobility across important centres of evangelism. Although most of them possessed some sort of truck, these could only be used on motorable roads. Therefore, missionaries had to abandon their vehicles at the end of these roads and continue their journey either by bicycle or foot to reach some of the hinterlands. The use of animals as a means of transportation was also common in African countries. Missionaries used horses and donkeys to reach villages where cars could not reach. Most of these roads were unsafe. They were filled with tsetse flies, venomous snakes, and other dangerous insects and animals. Language Barriers Concerning language, missionaries were confronted with a diversity of dialects. Sometimes, having learnt a single language, missionaries could only preach the gospel to a specific community. This is because, in some

44 The Uncertain Context African countries such as Cameroon, there were hundreds of dialects used when the missionaries arrived for the first time. Therefore, it was always difficult to learn languages that could be used across two or three regions of some African countries. An Adventist missionary recounted his language issue in Africa this way: ‘Many times the opening of a new mission field is attended with new and untried experiences, a strange language to be learnt, new customs among the people to be encountered and in fact, an almost entirely different way of living to be adopted.’73 Fortunately, almost all the missionaries mastered the languages of their mission fields. They learnt fast and became people’s instructors. William H. Anderson learnt Shona in Zimbabwe and D. B. Babcock learnt Yoruba in Nigeria, while Ruben Bergström learnt Fulfulde in Cameroon. These languages were efficient only across specific regions of their mission fields. It is equally important to note that Adventist missionaries were some of the first Europeans to work on certain African languages. Certainly this was the case in Kenya and Uganda, while the publishing work in West Africa very early on began publishing in diverse languages. It is worth acknowledging that many Adventist missionaries, including early ones, were not reliant on interpreters, but learnt (and even mastered) local languages.74 The few missionaries who could not speak local languages made use of interpreters. Clever interpreters were missionaries’ associates and collaborators, and were often among the first converts. For instance, Jacob Alao, who interpreted for Babcock, was one of his early converts. Some missionaries were satisfied with the translation done by interpreters and expressed no serious need to master local languages. Thus, not all of them could preach in local African languages even after they had spent 3–5 years in some African countries.75 African Cultural Challenges With regards to African cultural challenges, one can refer to practices from African traditional religions that were hindrances to the acceptance of the Christian message. The practice of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft conflicted with the teachings of Christianity. The adherents to these practices often opposed the establishment of Christian missions in their territories. Adventism in Africa began within all the unsettling factors in Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Also, tribal wars, local slavery, and oppression of the poor by the rich were additional distressing circumstances that upset the work of Western missionaries. From the North to the South and from the East to the West of Africa, there were obvious challenges to the establishment of Adventist missions. Spalding captured the situation when he wrote: The vices and violence of heathenism offer a sufficiently stout resistance to evangelization; yet because they are the product of ignorance, they

The Uncertain Context 45 fall and fail before the assault of enlightened and ministrative Christianity. On the other hand, religious systems like Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and degenerate Christianity, which have some philosophical foundations, are entrenched much more strongly against the gospel. The battle for truth and righteousness takes on different complexions in heathen countries and in lands more civilized and sophisticated. In Africa, Mohammedanism and spurious Christianity have ever proved more formidable than rank paganism, and progress in their territories has been comparatively slow.76 Thus, Christian missions faced difficult circumstances at the beginning of their activities in Africa. Several religious distortions, such as animism, fetishism, witchcraft, voodooism, and social injustice, such as racism, were factors that hampered the Christian mission in general and the Adventist message in particular. Through the commitment of missionaries who defied the threat of death, Adventism came to Africa, prospered, and has become a dynamic religious Christian organization in Africa. In addition to the above-mentioned natural inconveniences, there were other factors that threatened the work of missionaries. These were ancestor worship and allegiance to various deities; Africans practiced syncretic religion. The practice of polygamy also constituted a major hindrance to Western missionaries. Europeans instructed Africans who wanted to become Christians to keep only one wife; if they refused to send all but one wife away, they were denied Christian baptism. All these issues and the lack of concrete responses created problems of religious identity in the lives of the missionaries’ converts, as described later in Chapter 8. Islam Christians and Muslims built schools throughout the continent of Africa, teaching missionary beliefs and philosophies. Since the Quran must only be recited in Arabic, it is necessary that a practitioner of the Muslim faith reads and understands the meaning of Arabic words in order to recite and/or memorize the Quran. As a result of the nature of Islam in Africa, Muslim missionaries were not prompted to translate their sacred text into the native language. Unlike Islam, Christian missionaries were compelled to spread an understanding of their gospel in the native language of the indigenous people they sought to convert. Islam appeared after almost all the major world religions. Its spread and development was rapid in the seventh century, and by the fourteenth century, Islam had conquered several Christian territories and established itself as one great religions of the world. Historically, it is a religion that clashed with Christianity and conquered many of its spheres of influence. Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, derived some of his teachings from his knowledge of Judaism and Christianity, and there are common elements of faith between the three religions, including monotheism (belief in one God);

46 The Uncertain Context the coming of a day of judgement that will lead to the punishment of the wicked; the reality of the coming heaven; and reverence of God’s prophets and the Holy Scripture. Mohammed also taught that Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian, but a servant of God and the father of Ishmael. Mohammed claimed to be in the line of Abrahamic genealogy through Ishmael. As Christian missionaries brought Christianity to Africa in the nineteenth century, Muslims often made their work more difficult. In most parts of Nigeria for instance, Adventism, like other Christian denominations, was not welcome. ‘Christian missionaries were forbidden to establish in any emirate by the British government which signed an agreement to that effect in the first half of the first decade of the twentieth century when British took over the emirates.’77 When the British government conquered Northern Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard was made the governor of the British Protectorate from 1 January 1900. Perhaps for the purpose of peaceful governance, ‘Lugard signed a treaty of non-interference with the Muslim religion’.78 Even though the meaning of non-interference was intensively discussed by Christians and later governmental authorities, Muslims understood it simply as Christian missions were not to be implanted among the emirs’ territories. In the northern part of Nigeria, it was obvious that Islam posed a threat to the establishment of Adventist missions. In Southern and Western Nigeria, African traditional religion, especially the Yoruba’s worship of pagan gods, constituted obstacles to accepting Seventh-day Adventism, while the Eastern part of the country, the Igboland, was receptive to the Adventist message. In territories with a strong Islamic presence, local authorities opposed the establishment of Christian missions. P. Gifford, for instance, writes that ‘Guinea (Conakry) under Sékou Touré (1961–1984) took a very harsh line towards Christian missions; at the time of Sékou Touré’s death in 1984, only the Catholic and Anglican churches were tolerated’.79 Such an attitude of non-cooperation was an obstacle to the expansion of the missionary work. As Islam is fast growing in the world, and is the second-largest religion in Africa after Christianity, it is necessary for Seventh-day Adventists to develop strategies that will enable them to share the Adventist faith with adherents of Islam, in order to reveal the present truth of the Sabbath and the importance of accepting Jesus as the Redeemer of the world. In this regard, Ralph S. Watts wrote as early as 1964 that, If we are to reach Muslims we must be divested of our settled prejudices and preconceived erroneous concepts and take a different look at Islam as a religion. We must probe deeper into the areas of agreement in our beliefs and strive to establish more firmly the points of agreement between our religions, and thus avoid making prominent the points on which we differ. We should stress Adventist brotherhood with Muslims by pointing out to them that we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. We must show them that we believe all the prophets, and

The Uncertain Context 47 that today we are the people who are striving to adhere to the great principles they enunciated.80 The difficult beginning of Adventism in Africa was an illustration of the challenges and difficulties encountered by Christian missionaries in general. White people vowed to complete the mandate in order to bring all ‘pagans’ to Jesus during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, as expressed in the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. There was an optimism about ‘completing the evangelization of the non-Christian world within a generation’.81 Such a positive spirit in the spread of God’s word was met with unbelievable difficulties that cost the lives of countless missionaries across Africa. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Africa was devastated by various types of diseases; the White men who came to champion the Christian message were not well equipped to face local diseases. There was no cure for most of the illnesses they contracted, which often cost them their lives. Sometimes they relied on traditional medicines, which helped to relieve their pain and suffering, but it was much later, after medical missionaries increased in number, that medications and drugs were progressively developed.

Conclusion The beginning of Adventism in Africa was difficult due to human and natural factors unfavourable to the spread of the gospel. But the Christian message made its way in Africa. Through unsettling circumstances linked to diseases, climate, tribal wars, and hostility of various degrees, Adventist missionaries sought to spread the Christian gospel. This was only possible partly because these missionaries worked with determination even in the midst of colonialism that overshadowed their missionary enterprise.

Notes 1 L. Francois. Swanepoel, ‘The Origin and Early History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa, 1886–1920’, (MA diss., University of South Africa, 1972), 1. 2 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 24 November 1886, General Conference Archives, 313, 321, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCSM/GCB1863-88.pdf, accessed 2 May 2021. 3 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 10 July 1911, General Conference Archives, 23, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/ GCC1911-A.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 4 R. C. Porter, ‘History of Solusi Mission’, South African Missionary 12, no. 13 (1913): 2. 5 Jeff Crocombe, ‘The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Southern Africa-Race Relations and Apartheid’, (paper, Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians, Oakwood College, Huntsville, Alabama, 19–22 April 2007) 2, https://h0bbes.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/sdas-in-south-africa-j-crocombe. pdf, 17 November 2020.

48 The Uncertain Context 6 Matsobane J. Manala, ‘The Impact of Christianity on Sub-Saharan Africa’, Studia Historiae. Ecclesia 39, no. 2 (2013): 11. 7 Thula M. Nkosi, ‘South African Adventism: An Apartheid Church’, in God or Apartheid: A Challenge to South Africa Adventism, ed. Thula M. Nkosi and Pule B. Magethi (Braamfontein, SA: Institute for Contextual Theology, 1991), 10. 8 Nkosi, ‘South African Adventism’, 10. 9 Nkosi, ‘South African Adventism’, 10. 10 Gabriel Masfa, “The Paradox of the Margins: The American-Based Seventh-day Adventism’s Story in Africa,” Journal of Religion in Africa 52 (2022): 292–316. 11 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 28 July 1904, General Conference Archives, 47, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1904-01.pdf, accessed 3 May 2021. 12 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 15 August 1906, General Conference Archives, 194, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1906.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 13 C. W. Bozarth, ‘Report of the Central African Union Rendered at the ‘Division Council’’ The African Division Outlook 27, no. 20 (1929): 1. 14 For more on the South Union in South Africa, see General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 21 April 1908, General Conference Archives, 460, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1908.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 15 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:9. 16 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:9. 17 O. O. Fortner, ‘The Death of Our Missionaries’, South African Missionary 1, no. 9 (1903): 1–2. 18 Valdemar E. Toppenberg, Africa Has My Heart (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1958), 36. 19 Virgil Robinson, The Solusi Story: Times of Peace, Times of Peril (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1979), 65. 20 Robinson, The Solusi Story, 66. 21 W. A. Spicer, quoted in Robinson, The Solusi Story, 66. 22 For more details about O. A. Olsen’s trip in Africa, see General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 20 December 1897, General Conference Archives, 3, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1897.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 23 Robinson, The Solusi Story, 62. 24 Robinson, The Solusi Story, 62. 25 Robinson, The Solusi Story, 62. 26 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 16 October 1919, General Conference Archives, 443, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1919.pdf, accessed 3 May 2021. 27 David. J. B. Trim, A Passion for Mission (Binfield, UK: Newbold Academic Press, 2019), see Chapter 2. 28 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, Southern African Division, ASTR online, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/YB1932.pdf, accessed 24 June 2020. 29 Foreign Missionary Board, Meeting minutes, 30 March 1898, General Conference Archives, 67, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ FMBM/FMBM18970316.pdf, accessed 3 May 2021. See also, Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 4, 9.14. 30 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1920. 31 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1920.

The Uncertain Context 49 32 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1930. 33 Everett N. Dick, ‘Wars in Africa’, Signs of the Times 62, no. 46 (1935): 1. 34 The hospital was established through the help of the emperor. See L. H. Christian, ‘Gathering God’s Dispersed in Ethiopia’ The Advent Survey 3, no. 9 (1931): 1–2. 35 Spalding, Origin and History, 37. 36 General Conference Executive Committee, December 14, 1932, p. 859, General Conference Archives, accessed May 03, 2021, https://documents.adventistarchives. org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1932-12.pdf 37 Spalding, Origin and History, 40. 38 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, 1:666–680. 39 For a recent and fascinating biography of Hanna More, see Isabel Weigold, Hannah Moore: A Biography of a Nineteenth-Century Missionary and Teacher (New York: iUniverse, 2007). 40 Hannah More, quoted in William M. Knott, ‘Foot Soldier of the Empire: Hannah More and the Politics of Service’, (PhD diss., George Washington University, 2006), 379. 41 Stephen N. Haskell, ‘Tract and Missionary Work’, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 41, no. 1 (17 December 1872): 8. 42 White, Testimonies for the Church, 1:674–675. 43 White, Testimonies for the Church, 1:140. 44 J. K. Amoah, ‘Brief History of the Gold Coast Mission’, West African Advent Messenger, February 1951: 2. 45 For more insight on the beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism in West Africa, see Owusu-Mensa, Ghana Seventh-day Adventism. 46 C. Chadwick, ‘From the Mission Field’, The Bible Echo 8, no. 8 (1893): 125. 47 Agboola, Seventh-Day Adventist History, 10. 48 D. U. Hale, ‘African West Coast’, Review and Herald 72, no. 48 (1895): 762; F. M. Wilcox, ‘Our Gold Coast Mission,’ Review and Herald, vol. 73, No. 18 (1896): 283–284. 49 D. U. Hale, ‘African West Coast’, Review and Herald, vol. 72, no. 48, Nov. 1895, 762. 50 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 14. 51 D. U. Hale, ‘Gold Coast Mission’, Review and Herald 73, no. 21, (May 26 1896): 331. 52 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 14. 53 D. U. Hale, ‘West Africa’, Review and Herald 73, no. 47, (24 Nov. 1896): 751. 54 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 14. 55 GC Foreign Mission Board, Meeting minutes, 29 October 1901, General Conference Archives, 53, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ FMBM/FMBM19010424.pdf, accessed August 2021. 56 For more on the work of D. C. Babcock and the mission in West Africa, see General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 25 November 1906, General Conference Archives, 229, accessed 28 April 2021. 57 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 8 June 1905, General Conference Archives, 32, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1905.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. For more insights, see General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 8 June 1905, General Conference Archives, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1906. pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 58 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:28. 59 Baldur Ed. Pfeiffer, The European Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the Middle East, 1879–1939 (Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 1981), 49.

50 The Uncertain Context 60 Pfeiffer, European Seventh-day Adventist Mission, 58. 61 Kenneth Oster, ‘Thrust for Evangelism among Muslims’, Review & Herald 150, no. 4 (1973): 3 62 Shawna Vyhmeister and Melanie Riches Wixwat ‘Arab Republic of Egypt’, in Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists [ESDA], https://encyclopedia.adventist. org/article?id=DDYY, accessed 21 January 2021. 63 Pfeiffer, European Seventh-day Adventist Mission, 58. 64 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1920. 65 For more about the origins of the SDA Church in Algeria, see D. T. Shireman, ‘Encouraging Correspondence’, Review and Herald 63, no. 17 (1886): 262; General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, July 1911, General Conference Archives, 39, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1911-A. pdf, accessed 28 April 2021; Spalding, Origin and History, 4:8. 66 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:8. 67 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:8. 68 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1920, 2018, 2019. 69 D. C. Babcock, Review and Herald 96, no. 48 (27 November 1919): 24, 26. 70 SDA Encyclopedia, p. 867. 71 David T. Agboola, A History of Christianity in Nigeria: The Seventh Day Adventists in Yoruba Land, 1914–1964 (Ibadan, Nigeria: Daystar Press, 1987), 86. 72 Agboola, Seventh Day Adventists, 86. 73 D. C. Babcock, ‘Trials and Victories,’ Review and Herald 96, no. 48 (29 November 1919), 24. 74 Trim, A Passion for Mission, see Chap. 12. 75 Agboola, Seventh Day Adventists, 66. 76 Spalding, Origin and History, 4: 8. 77 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 43. 78 Ayuba Mavalla, Conflict Transformation: Churches in the Face of Structural Violence in Northern Nigeria (Oxford: Regnum, 2014), 37. 79 P. Gifford, ‘Some Recent Developments in African Christianity’, African Affairs 93 (1994): 517. 80 Ralph S. Watts, ‘The Attitude of Seventh-day Adventists Toward Islam’, Ministry, June 1964: 14. See also Abner Dizon, ‘Issues in Adventist Muslim Ministry’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 8, no. 2 (2012): 6–17; E. W. Bethmann, The Bridge to Islam (Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Assn., 1950); James Thayer Addison, The Christian Approach to Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942). 81 D. B. Barret, ‘AD 2000: 350 Million Christians in Africa’, International Review of Mission (1970): 39.

3

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Seventh-day Adventism in Africa and the Pre-Independence Era (1887–1960s)

In 1807, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed The Slave Trade Act 1807 for the abolition of slave trade in the British Empire.1 The United States adopted its own Acts Prohibiting Importation of Slaves on 2 March 1807. By 1838, The United Kingdom voted and took a final bold step to end slavery and slave trade within its colonies. With ex-slave repatriation from Europe and America to Africa, especially to Liberia and Sierra Leone between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries, the world witnessed a great social and religious reform movement. There was a renewal of Christian beliefs and a rejection of atheism and deism across the globe. By the 1840s, this spiritual revival led to the creation of the Millerite Movement in America, whose eminent leaders were abolitionists.2 With such a religious effervescence, American Christian denominations sought to tell the world about the love of God for all human beings, including the poor and the coloured people. American missionaries left their continent with the clear intention to spread the good news of the redeeming grace of Jesus as far as the unpenetrated and uncharted territories. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was an abolitionist Christian movement that sought the good of the coloured people.3 Adventism, just like other American Christian movements, followed the general trend of spreading the good news of the Cross of Jesus.4 In 1874, the Church expressed the official intention to send one of its ablest workers, John Nevins Andrews (1829–1883), to Europe; in subsequent years, other missionaries were sent to other parts of the world. Europe and Australia were among the places where Seventh-day Adventists decided to send early missionaries. These areas then served as centres not only for making new converts, but also for training these new converts as gospel carriers to other countries. It was in this regard that many Europeans who accepted the Adventist faith committed themselves to preaching the same truth they had received to others around the world. From all over Europe, North America, and Australia, Adventists volunteered to face adventures and uncertainties linked to missionary work in unknown communities. Their work coincided with the social injustices of colonialism, which made Africans regard the missionaries as mercenaries instead of sons of God bringing them DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-4

52 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One good news. This chapter focuses on the influence of colonialism on Adventist mission in Africa between the 1890s and the 1980s. It provides a setting for the exploration of Adventist missionary work during the colonial period: first by examining the relationship between colonialism and missionary enterprise; and then by exploring the Church’s administrative structure, its affiliations to European fields, and the impact of colonial subsidiaries such as education and medicine on the expansion of mission in the continent.

Colonialism and Missionary Enterprise in Africa Adventist missionaries under the aegis of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church formed a force, likened to that of Christian missionary societies, to enter African hinterlands in South Africa (Southern Africa), Tanzania (East Africa), Sierra Leone (West Africa), and Egypt (Northern Africa).5 South Africa, because of its rich multi-racial nature, was viewed by Adventist missionaries as a door to the vast continent of Africa. As early as 1652, the Dutch penetrated Cape Town through the skilful leading of Jan van Riebeeck, but, by 1805, the British had invaded Cape Town (South Africa).6 Between 1795 and 1806, there was a massive influx of Europeans, particularly the Dutch, the Germans, and the British, into South Africa, mainly for economic reasons and the favourable climatic conditions. The discovery of mineral resources such as diamonds and gold thrust the region into the limelight; the world’s economic competitors settled in the different localities that make up the country. By the nineteenth century, South Africa joined the ranks of societies with good prospects of industrialization and unprecedented urban and infrastructural development. The country adopted a governmentenforced separatism policy in 1948, known as Apartheid (‘separateness’, in Afrikaans), and from 1948 to 1994 it affected all aspects of South African society. Apartheid theologians developed a theology that supported its practice, arguing that the Bible taught that humankind was separated into different races in ancient times, and that therefore Apartheid was not condemned by the Scriptures. This theological development was connected to the political ideology that led the White minority to rule abusively and suppress the indigenous peoples, until the sustained political demonstrations of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, as well as international opposition to Apartheid, resulted in the democratic election of Nelson Mandela, the first Black president, into power in April 1994. The African National Congress gained a historic victory that officially marked the end of Apartheid. Unfortunately, the racist policy of segregation was manifest in the denominational policies in of churches in South Africa, including the Seventhday Adventist Church.7 In the north, British missionaries such as David Livingstone and William Oswell travelled to the Northern Cape Colony, crossing the Kalahari in desert 1849. The Royal Geographical Society awarded Livingstone a gold

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 53 medal for his ‘discovery’ of Lake Ngami, in what is now Botswana.8 As early as the eighteenth century, the exploits of missionaries and explorers helped to usher in a new era of the annexation of African nations. After the treaty of Berlin (1878), and the partition of Africa at the 1884–1885 European conference in Berlin, this continent became the most competed for and coveted after territory by European countries. By 1895, the only independent states in Africa were Morocco, Liberia (founded with the support of the United States), and Ethiopia (which had resisted the invasion of an Italian army), and by the time the majority of African nations began to regain their independence, between the 1960s and 1980s, they were largely fragmented. Explorers, anthropologists, and European missionaries entered Africa and favoured, in most instances, the protection of the European empires, at the expense of the native population.9 The Seventh-day Adventist Church started sending missionaries to Africa at a time when Africa had become a coveted territory among the European powers, and, in the minds of the colonized, Christianity was already associated with colonialism. The major Christian branches, Catholicism and Protestantism, were considered the religions of the White men, who were fully invested in the exploitation of Africa. It was difficult for Africans to see any difference between the foreign religion and the colonization of Africa: at least, not immediately. Brave and skilful men who were serving as missionaries were solicited by the colonizers and would, in some instances, join hands with the countries they came from to explore and exploit Africa. It was a process that was built on the denigration of African culture and the African way of life, which were viewed as demonic and as representing the most barbaric people of the human race. Missionaries served as advisors to African kings, facilitating the signature of treaties between the colonizers and the indigenous peoples. Most recent narratives of missionary activities in Africa are very critical, and denounce the hegemony of the White race. Modern historians have aligned most mission endeavours with the goal of under-developing Africa and showcasing the cultural superiority of Western Civilization. The Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in the sixteenth century, and the French, German, British, and Belgian missionaries in the nineteenth century, were mostly viewed as oppressors doing little to defend the rights of indigenous people. Edward Andrews, observing the historiography of colonialism, wrote, By the middle of the twentieth century, an era marked by civil rights movements, anti-colonialism, and growing secularization, missionaries were viewed quite differently. Instead of godly martyrs, historians now described missionaries as arrogant and rapacious imperialists. Christianity became not a saving grace but a monolithic and aggressive force that missionaries imposed upon defiant natives. Indeed, missionaries were now understood as important agents in the ever-expanding

54 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One nation-state, or ideological shock troops for colonial invasion whose zealotry blinded them.10 The missionaries advanced, in some ways, the agenda of their home countries. Norman Etherington noted that, Like the explorer, the missionary arrived in regions barely touched by Western influences, preaching the superiority of Western religion, technology, and cultural practices. Perversely, missionaries resisted the attempts of their converts to assume an equal social and clerical status in the Church until, in an act of spiritual decolonization, mission churches broke free from foreign control.11 Against such a critical view of Western missionaries, it is worth noting that the traditional historiography of Western missionaries, which depicted the missionaries as true agents of truth, proved to be constructive. Many missionaries were truly consumed by the spirit of Christ to work for the salvation of people; they impacted Africans who later viewed them as saints of the Bible. Indeed, most traditional accounts of the missionaries’ activities, until recently, were hagiographical in nature. Edward Andrews noted that Christian missionaries were seen as ‘visible saints, exemplars of ideal piety in a sea of persistent savagery’.12 The trend was evident in the work of famous explorers and missionaries like David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley. They were intentional about entering the hinterlands of Africa to spread the good news of Christ’s redeeming grace.

Colonialism and Western Adventist Missionaries From the 1870s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed an acute interest in mission. The General Conference became intentional in its policy to spread the Adventist faith to the world. Financial contributions from its members (the 10% tithe of income), as well as generous gifts and offerings, opened opportunities to support Adventist missionary enterprise outside North America. Church members who could not leave their countries to travel abroad opted for assisting with their finances. The words of Matthew 28: 19–20, were more compelling to them than ever: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen’ (KJV). Church members believed that this gospel commission spoke to them individually. From North America, Australia, and Europe, Adventists expressed their passion for missionary work not only by contributing financially, but also by giving themselves bodily to the cause of the gospel. In this spirit, by the 1870s, early Adventists had travelled to Africa to explore and

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 55 evaluate the possibilities for missionary work. Consequently, by early 1892, Western Adventist missionaries expressed a clear engagement to break contemporary barriers by considering Africans not as slaves, nor as inferiors to the Whites, but as brethren for whom Christ came and died. Each of these missionaries portrayed the missionary zeal of J. N. Andrews, who left North America for Europe as the first official Adventist missionary, while S. N. Haskell and J. O. Corliss helped to establish a base in Australia that was foundational to evangelism in the South Pacific. In Europe, Andrews’s missionary fervour influenced several individuals who later pledged their commitment to take the gospel to foreign communities.13 Before any Adventist missionary was sent to Africa, J. N. Andrews had prepared the way through research on faithful Seventh-day Sabbath observers in Ethiopia. In his book, The History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week (1859), he stressed that there were faith communities in Ethiopia that kept the Sabbath before the arrival of Adventist missionaries. Ellen White later made use of Andrews’s research in her influential work, The Great Controversy.14 Until the late twentieth century, the Coptic Church of Ethiopia observed the seventh-day Sabbath. At the same time, groups of Sabbath keepers had been growing in Ghana and Nigeria, and probably several other African countries as well, because of the deep historical and scriptural roots of the Sabbath in Africa.15 Africans were familiar with a seventh-day Sabbath prior to the coming of Adventist missionaries to Africa. European Adventist missionaries, perhaps partly encouraged by the findings of Andrews, came out en masse to travel to Africa, some as commissioned missionaries, some as independent missionaries, and others as medical or gospel ministers. As a result of such an effervescence of the transforming power of the gospel in the hearts of Adventists in Europe, and across other parts of the Western world, in 1886, missionaries led by D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd were sent to South Africa. And a few years later, every corner of Africa, from the south to the north, and from the east to the west, was penetrated by Western missionaries, amidst struggles linked to colonialism. In East Africa, the first Adventist missionaries were sent into what was then called the Abyssinian mission, opened in 1907 and including territories such as the Italian colony of Eritrea, Abyssinia, and British and Italian Somaliland; among them were Emery Lorntz, N. Lindegren, and Hans Steiner, who headed up the mission. In British East Africa, the first missionaries entered in 1900 and the first mission was organized in 1912.16 Missionaries of different backgrounds were sent to work in different stations, including Gendia, Kisumu, Karungu, Rusinga, Kaniadodo, and Kamagambo. A. A. Carscallen was the director of the British East Africa mission, the secretary was B. L. Morse, and they were assisted by J. D. Baker and Peter Nyambo. Arthur Carscallen and an indigenous evangelist, Peter Nyambo from Nyasaland, who graduated from Newbold

56 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One College in England, settled in Kenya among the Luo tribe in 1906.17 J. C. and Mrs. Rogers and S. M. and Mrs. Konigmacher served in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi), in British Central Africa (a British Protectorate from 1891).18 German East Africa (GEA) was established in 1903, and included the current countries of Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.19 Following the expansion of the German empire in East Africa, German missionary activities were in accordance with colonial organization. By this time, the Seventhday Adventist Church in Germany was at the heart of European Adventism. L. R. Conradi, the regional president, supported foreign mission activities. Adventist mission in the GEA was divided into two major fields: South Pare Mission and Victoria Nyanza Mission. South Pare was led by B. Ohme, who resided in Post Shirati, Victoria, and was assisted by E. Kotz, who settled in Friedenstal. These missionaries worked in cooperation with other licentiates in mission work such as A. C. Enns, H. Drangmeister, M. Poenig, and M. Kunze. Abraham C. Enns and Johannes Ehlers arrived in Tanganyika from Germany in November 1903 and chose to reside in the southern part of the Pare Mountains among the Wapare community.20 Victoria Nyanza Mission was led by J. Persson, W. Kolling, F. W. Vasenius, K. Kaltenhauser, F. Winter, H. Palm, O. Wallath, E. Dominick, V. Toppenberg, R. Stein, W. Seiler, F. Bornath, R. Munzig, B. Schurich, and L. Aberle.21 The West African mission, known at the time as the Gold Coast Mission, was organized in December 1913, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and was occupied by the British and the French. Among the pioneering missionaries who worked under the governance of British and French authorities included Karl G. and Mrs. Rudolph, Edward L. and Mrs. Sanford, D. V. and Mrs. Hale, and George T. and Mrs. Kerr, G. P. Riggs, J. M. and Mrs. Hyatt, D. C. and Mrs. Babcock, T. M. French, C. E. F. Thompson, J. A. Fife, J. B. Kenney, and Ruben Bergström, among others. South Africa was predominantly occupied by the British, so British and American missionaries served together. The South African Union was organized in 1902 and was led by R. C. Porter, H. J. Edmed, M. C. and Mrs. Sturdevant (based at Solusi Mission), F. B. and Mrs. Armitage (at Maranatha Mission, Cape Colony), S. C. Austen, R. C. Honey, J. C. Baumann, and J. V. Wilson. These individuals were assisted by several others such as W. H. Anderson, based at S. D. A. Mission, Pemba, Northwest Rhodesia; W. G. Walston, at Somabula Mission, Gwelo, Rhodesia; M. E. Emmerson, at Kolo Mission; Miss E. Edie at Victoria Street, Germiston, Transvaal, South Africa; and R. Moko and Debe Nek at Cape Colony, South Africa; among others22 In Northern Africa, the Egypt mission was opened in 1902. The territories for this mission field covered Egypt and Sudan and were under the direction of French authorities. The mission was led by a team of missionaries that included G. Keough, A. A. Elshaheed, O. Bezirdjian, and Wilhelmina Muller,

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 57 among other key missionaries. The Algerian Mission was organized in 1905; the missionaries labouring there included P. Girard, W. Ruf, R. Birckel, R. Dunkel, and M. Lafourcade. The Morocco Mission was organized in 1928 and was served by W. Fuchs, J. J. Hecketsweiler, A. Rebsomen, and Y. Roullet. The Tunis Mission was organized in 1937 with the help of R. Meyer, Maria Renouard, Roland Esposito, C. Galdeano, M. Khalbous, and R. Senty, among others.23 During this colonial period, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was not ignorant of directives dictated by the colonizers for their colonies. The General Conference Executive committee, in a letter to the local church authorities in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) wrote: We are one church with brethren in every land who are bound by the gospel principle to be loyal subjects wherever they may be, and every phrasing used in speaking of international affairs should be scanned to avoid any use of words that might be misinterpreted. As public speakers and writers, we should choose our words so that no one can mistake what we say as lacking in respect for civil governors or rulers.24 Adventist missionaries were admonished to obey all civil or governmental authorities and abide by the laws imposed by the imperial powers that regulated lives in the colonies, without contravening instructions given by the Home Missionary Board. The committee pointed out that ‘our missionaries in Tanganyika will relate themselves to political questions in such a manner as to fully satisfy both the government authorities and our home Board’.25 Adventist missionaries were more concerned about their missionary work than their involvement in the political affairs of the countries where they worked. However, when missionaries came, there was little contextualization, mainly due to differences in worldview. Gordon R. Doss writes that, Many early missionaries assumed that African Traditional Religion did not need to be understood or engaged in dialogue because it would disappear with the acceptance of Christianity. Some missionaries did not see African Traditional Religion as a ‘Religion’ at all because it often lacked features they associated with religion. There were no written scriptures, defined doctrines, ordained priesthoods, or sacred architecture. If African Traditional Religion was not seen as a religion, engaging it in dialogue was not possible. The common assumption was that these ‘pagan superstitions’ would simply fade away as people became Christians and adopted a ‘real’ religion. Africa was a tabula rasa (clean slate) upon which Christian mission would write.26 African’s experience was part of the ‘flaw of the excluded middle’.27 According to Paul Hiebert, the cosmos is divided into three different

58 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One spheres: the High or Upper Zone, the Lower Zone, and the Middle Zone. The first constitutes the realm of the Ultimate God, the Supreme, and Creator God. This is an invisible zone. The Lower is the visible one, inhabited by physical human beings. The Middle Zone is the realm of spirits, demons, ancestors, and angels; it is also an unseen zone like the Upper one. African traditional religions operated in the world of the lower sphere, through a life of prayer, sacrifices, and meditations. Missionaries who came to Africa in the early twentieth century considered the African traditional religion as entirely ‘irreligious’. As Africans were asked to join Adventism, no consideration was given to their African religious backgrounds in order to contextualize the Adventist message. Early missionaries who pioneered the Adventist message in Africa failed to do this. Efforts to readjust their legacy have not yet been successful, as so far the Church is not ready for a critical contextualization. In the midst of these challenges, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries were also confronted with social prejudice due to colonialism. Some Christian missionaries advanced the agenda of the colonial administrators in the oppression of Africans.28 Christianity became a subtle tool in the hands of the colonialists, whose primary mission was to civilize the Africans, whom they thought of as heathen and pagans.29 Perhaps this was the reason why an Adventist, E. W. Dunbar, reported the resolution of a conference on Christian mission in Africa held at the University of Chicago, 15–18 February 1960, that missionaries were to go to Africa ‘not to westernize but to Christianize the people’.30 Although not all missionaries were bent on seeking the interests of the colonialists, Africans viewed them as exploiters. Considering the incessant prejudice against the Whites, Adventist missionaries were mistakenly viewed as people who belonged to the colonial enterprise, which preached submission to colonial injustice, and dehumanization of Africans. According to Nehemiah Nyaundi, an Adventist scholar of religion in Kenya, ‘Africans regarded Adventist missionaries in the same manner as all other missionaries and, generally, all white people’.31 As a result of these prejudices, the arrival of Adventist missionaries in Africa was met with hostility from some populations, thereby rendering the early work difficult.32 It was against these tumultuous beginnings that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa rose to become a respected and emerging denomination in Africa, spreading to every corner of Africa. It is thus noteworthy to sketch the expansion of the Church after its difficult inception. How did colonialism influence Adventist mission? The answer is complex, as it is still difficult to collect data in Africa in order to establish how colonialism reshaped the vision of Christian mission. One can say that Adventist missionaries were victims of vestiges of colonialism at the time of their arrival in Africa. They did their best to portray the life of Christ; they also heeded the instructions given by the mission board and counsels of Ellen G. White with regards to seeing Africans as their own brethren. But

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 59 the popular account of Christianity in Africa today depicts an intricate relationship between the colonial masters and the missionaries of all denominations. White colonialists had meted out the most dreadful evils against the Black race and, in an attempt to re-write the past shaped by the slave trade, they courted the missionaries to help in portraying them in a positive light to the Blacks. Some of the missionaries were accomplices in their colonies and helped to under-develop Africa by focusing on its mineral resources through ‘re-drawing its boundaries, re-shaping its political arrangements and structure and considerably re-ordering its economic orientation and its vital institutions’.33 On the other hand, the colonizers were unhappy about the missionaries’ activities that included educating the Africans, because ‘the colonial administrators saw education as strategic and key to changing the consciousness of the people. They projected that an educated class would be very problematic to govern, at the very least, and would have the capacity to jeopardize their continued stay in the territories’.34 The missionaries were interested in spreading the gospel; therefore, they sought to offer formal education to Africans, even though the colonists were unhappy about the development. In the end, both the missionaries and the colonial administration worked together and maintained a working relationship that was diplomatic and tactical. Adventism in Africa reflected the pattern of such complex relationships. In the French colonies for instance, Adventist missionaries operated under the supervision of France. As the missionaries withdrew from Africa in the 1960s, they were appreciated by the French government for their contributions to their colonies. Ruben Bergström, an Adventist missionary from Sweden working in Cameroon, was given a medal called ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre de l’Étoile Noire’, translated in English as ‘Knight of the Order of the Black Star’, by the French authorities in Paris.35 Bergström received this medal in 1954 ‘in recognition of his outstanding contribution … in French Cameroon’.36 It was a confirmation of the French religious and political system. Christian missionaries were not only preachers of the Christian gospel but helpmates in the cause of colonialism. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was referred to in French official documents as part of the ‘Association de Mission Française au Cameroun’, translated in English as ‘Association of French Mission in Cameroon’. The term ‘mission’ here is ambiguous. It denotes not only political mission, which is synonymous with political manoeuvring, but was also a way to hide French political machination under the guise of Christianity. All Protestant denominations in Cameroon were grouped under this generic name, including the Seventhday Adventist Church. The Church, like any other Christian denomination in Cameroon, was tangled in high-level political intrigue.37 Another missionary who received recognition from the colonial authorities was D. E. Delhove, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two weeks before his death, he was given a medal called ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold II’ by the Royal Prince Regent of Belgium. This intricate relationship exposes the

60 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One closeness between the colonizers and the missionaries; the missionaries worked in the colonies, and the authorities assured their security. In Ethiopia, V. E. Toppenberg, an Adventist missionary, was graciously told that, ‘His Majesty[‘s] government has complied with a request from [the] Danish legation in London to extend their protection to you and your family and other Danish Citizens who may be in Ethiopia. In the consular office you will find your passports properly cut, stating you are British-Protected subjects’.38 In Zambia, missionaries were asked to collaborate with the colonial administration in order to control the agitation of Africans against colonialism. Cecil Rhodes confessed to William H. Anderson that ‘he found missionaries to be much better for keeping the natives quiet than soldiers, and certainly a good deal cheaper’.39 Chief Monze of the Batonga tribe was the leader of Kalomo when William H. Anderson was serving as a missionary in the region. The colonial administration at Kalomo instructed W. H. Anderson to monitor the works of Monze and to ‘report any disorders that might occur in his district’.40 This was the backlash to the purported protest organized by Monze in an attempt to destabilize the activities of the colonial authorities. Following the instruction of the colonial authorities, W. H. Anderson went to Chief Monze who, as the authorities envisioned, was very kind and supportive of Anderson’s work. Although there is no proof that Anderson reported any ‘disorders’ sustained by Chief Monze, these incidents are evidence of the synergy between the missionaries and the imperial forces, whether British, Belgian, Portuguese, or Spanish. As far as the colonial masters were concerned, the missionaries served as their aides-de-camps in achieving their goals; even though Adventist missionaries never acted nor viewed themselves as such.

Seventh-day Adventism’s Colonial Administrative Structures One of the factors that can inform about colonial heritage and its influence on Seventh-day Adventism in Africa is the administrative structure of the Church from its early years up to recent decades. African territories were attached to different European fields in line with their colonial structure. Missionaries usually travelled to the colonies controlled by their home countries. Thus, the Adventist missionaries who left Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and France were deliberately supported by the political leaders of their home country to take the gospel first to their colonies. As the Seventh-day Adventist Church grew in Africa, each of its territories was attached to specific divisions with respect to colonial links. In the early part of 1910, as missions were founded in the southern, northern, eastern, and western parts of Africa, they were first attached to two specific fields: the South African Union and the European unions, specifically between the British and the German unions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.41

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 61 The South African Union covered territory such as Cape Colony, NatalTransvaal Barotseland (Rhodesia), Basutoland (Kolo), Malamulo (Nyasaland), Maranatha (Kafir) Umkupuvula (Rhodesia), Solusi (Bulawayo), and Somabula (Gwelo). Other African fields were attached to the European unions, covering territories that were part of Africa but not included in Rhodesia, British Central Africa, and the Union of South Africa. Also included were British West Africa, British East Africa, German East Africa, Abyssinia, the Italian Colony of Eritrea, British Somaliland, and the North African mission.42 By 1930, the structure had changed.43 Up until 1919, Germany was the centre of Adventism in Europe. In 1910, it had two unions, the East German Union and the West German Union. As World War I broke out, Germany lost all of its colonies, German missionaries were evicted from Africa, and its territories were shared between the British and the French. The Central European Division, to which most African fields were attached, was divided into four: the Central, Southern, Northern, and Russian Divisions. At the same time, the African Division was created.44 African territories formerly attached to European unions were now attached to two European divisions in line with colonial links. The Northern European Division, organized in 1928, covered a large territory of African fields, including Abyssinia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, British Somaliland, French Somaliland, and Italian Somaliland, Zanzibar, Pemba, French Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Dahomey, Upper Volta, French Sudan, Togo, Fernando Po, Annobon, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, the East African and Ethiopian Union Missions, and the detached missions (Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria).45 The Southern European Division, organized in 1928 supervised the African fields in Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, Tangier, Senegal, Mauritania, French Equatorial Africa, Madagascar, Comoro Islands, Mauritius and Dependencies, Seychelles Islands, and the North African Union Missions. The detached fields included the Equatorial African mission, established in 1928 and headquartered in Yaounde, Cameroon, covering Cameroon, Ubangi-Shari, Middle Congo, Gabon, Spanish Guinea, Fernando Po, St. Thomas, and neighbouring islands,. The mission was led by M. Raspal, Z. Yeretzian, B. P. Feuilloley, and their wives.46 The African Union was organized into a division as early as 1920, administering mission in the Union of South Africa, British Bechuanaland, Southwest Africa, Portuguese East Africa, the Belgian Congo, Angola, Ruanda (now Rwanda), Urundi (now Burundi), Nyasaland (now Malawi), the British Bechuanaland Protectorate, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).47 By the 1950s, the structure had changed again, but still showcased the struggles with colonial alignment. The African Division became the Southern African Division in 1930.48 Its territories did not change, but it was important to align the name of the division with the territories it

62 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One covered. The name African Division appeared as if it covered all the mission fields in Africa. Such was not the case, as illustrated in the previous pages. The administrative structures to which African territories were attached persevered to the 1970s.49 With the winds of independence moving among African nations, church structure was adjusted. The Southern African Division became the Trans-African Division.50 It covered Botswana, Rhodesia, Zambia, Malawi, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Pemba, and St. Helena, comprising the South African, Central African, Congo, South-East Africa, Southern Tanzania and Zambesi Union Conferences. The Southern European Division expanded, with new African nations. From the 1970s, among other fields, the following African mission fields were attached: Algeria, Angola, Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoro Islands, Congo (Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea (Fernando-Po and Rio Muni), the Federal Republic of Cameroun, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Madeira Islands, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Portuguese Guinea, Prince Island, Reunion, Rodrigues Island, Saint Thomas Island, Senegal, Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara, and Tunisia.51 In the 1960s, the Northern European Division (as well as its European nations) included the African territories of Ethiopia, Eritrea, French Somali Coast and Somalia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Liberia, Togoland, Côte d’Ivoire, Upper Volta, and Dahomey, and West African Union missions. In 1970, as many European missionaries left the African mission fields in the hands of the natives, the General Conference restructured the administrative units, creating new divisions. The Eastern African Division was organized in 1970 and reorganized in 1981. Its territories included Ethiopia, the Republic of Djibouti, the Republic of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Djibouti, Malawi, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. At the same time, the African-Indian Ocean Division was organized in 1980, constituting Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde Islands, the Central African Empire, the Chad Republic, Comoro Islands, Congo (Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, the Niger Republic, Nigeria, Principe, Reunion, Rodrigues, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Senegal, Seychelles Islands, Sierra Leone, Togo, the United Republic of Cameroun, Upper Volta, and Zaire. These new organizations did not shake off the colonial links completely as Algeria, Angola, Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira Islands, Morocco, Mozambique, and Tunisia were attached to the Euro-Africa Division, formerly known as the Southern European Division. The division was renamed in 1971.52 The Trans-Africa Division territory remained unchanged. The rest of the African territories were integrated into the Eastern Africa Division, the Africa-Indian Ocean Division, and the Euro-Africa Division. The Middle

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 63 East Union, organized in 1970, added the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Sudan mission fields to its territory. At this point, the Northern European Division was stripped of all African territories. More broadly, the reorganization of the world Church in 1970 reallocated large parts of the African continent, in order to create opportunities for Africans to be leaders, and to limit the amount of the continent that was in the Northern and Southern European Divisions (with both being renamed to include Africa in their titles). This was down to GC President Pierson’s initiative, but was a reaction to the ‘winds of change’ and decolonization of the 1960s, of which Pierson was especially aware because he had been working in Africa in that decade. A further reorganization in 1980 took West Africa away from Northern Europe and created divisions focused on Africa.53 From the 1980s, African territories had major reorganizations as a response to the growth of the Church in the continent, and as a reaction to the struggles linked to racial, regional, and cultural diversities. This was an expression of struggle against the Apartheid regime that perpetuated racial segregation. The General Conference made the South African Union an attached field for close monitoring until early 1994, when the Apartheid system was dismantled. By 2003, there was another reorganization of administrative structures. This reorganization was necessary owing to the unexpected growth in membership in East Africa and Southern Africa. SubSaharan Africa was reorganized into three divisions, the West-Central Africa Division, the East-Central Africa Division, and the Southern AfricaIndian Ocean Division, shaking off completely any colonial links.54 Today, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa has seemingly overcome all colonial setbacks. Its growth has been steady and impressive. Instead of Europeans coming to evangelize Africans, Africans have now taken the lead in moving to western countries, where they are pastors, heads of departments in conferences and unions, and prayer warriors. In a way, this change is the corollary of early missionaries’ activities that focused on the education and wellbeing of the indigenous people in Africa.

Education and Medicine: Subsidiaries of Mission in the Era of Colonialism Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in Africa, just like their colleagues in other Christian denominations, viewed educational and health institutions as a means to support, expand, and advance the gospel. Although they did not want to interfere in the politics of the liberation of Africa from the oppression of the colonizers, the training received by African elites largely contributed to their rebellion against their masters of the Western world. When they arrived in Africa, Adventist missionaries were specialists in their different fields of need. Some were licensed ministers and some teachers, while others were medical personnel. Together they worked to prosper the

64 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One mission of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, preaching, teaching, and healing, as a holistic approach to the divine mandate they felt they were commissioned to accomplish. L. H. Davidson, who worked in the Gold Coast mission, reported in 1952 that the Church possessed mighty weapons through which prejudices were broken.55 These weapons were the sum of activities that shaped the missionaries’ daily labour: building churches, establishing sanatoriums and hospitals, constructing orphanages and homes for the elderly, assisting the poor, and carrying on with charity works.56 Thus, the weapons in the hands of Adventist missionaries were potent and viable for the destruction of ‘prejudice while it repairs the breach between God and man, bringing them into a closer relationship’.57 Most missionaries were genuine in their activities. They had only one goal: the Christianization of Africa and the spread of the good news of Jesus’s redeeming grace towards humanity. Such missionaries sought to educate Africans by all means. They demonstrated their love for Africans as their brethren in Christ. While imperial forces ‘tried to discourage the missionaries from doing so until this campaign against education became increasingly untenable and impractical on their part’,58 the missionaries continued with the education of Africans by constructing not only schools for the education of men and women, but also clinics and hospitals for the treatment of Africans. It is in this light that one can better appreciate the mission schools and medical institutions founded by Adventist missionaries in Africa. The first part of the next section will focus on the impact of Adventist mission schools during the time of colonialism, while the last part will examine the medical missionary work, a neglected field in the investigation of historical works.

Education A strong subsidiary branch of missionary contribution to Africa was education. Educational institutions were established and remained largely in the hands of Western missionaries up to the independence of the African nations. These endeavours were important in the development of African nations. It is interesting to note that, ‘when European states had barely begun to assume responsibility for public education, missionaries provided free schooling to people who had yet to grasp the benefits of literacy’.59 Missionaries built schools, inviting parents to allow their children to attend, and did not request fees. In the case of ‘British private schools’, they ‘held out inducements for parents who would allow their children to be taught’.60 It was through wise steps that missionaries succeeded in promoting schools. Missions sought girls as pupils as well as boys and in many places introduced the first co-educational schooling. Missions were also among the first in the world to offer the services of medical practitioners free of

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 65 charge. In some cases, advances made in missionary education and medicine were exported back to the mother countries. Missions figure prominently as pioneers of modern welfare states and international philanthropy.61 Mission schools were not viewed as an end, but a means to achieve mission work. The primary cause of founding mission schools was Christian evangelism. Mission schools, which began within the colonial setting, were mostly favourable to the emancipation of Africans. These schools educated people who opposed colonialism. The schools’ ideals avoided politics, but created political elites that demanded freedom from the imperial powers who had brought Western education to Africa. For instance, Lovedale, a missionary school in South Africa, taught Thabo Mbeki, who became South Africa’s president after Nelson Mandela. Steve Biko, a South African anti-Apartheid activist, African nationalist, and African socialist, went to a Catholic school; Kwame Nkrumah, a founding member of the Organization of African Unity, a Pan Africanist, and the first prime minister and president of Ghana, attended a Catholic mission school at Half Assini. The first mission school in Nigeria opened in 1859, well ahead of government schools; therefore, early politicians were trained in these Christian schools. Several missionary schools became great educational institutions that shaped the new African nations. These leaders became ‘ambivalent towards the missions that had nurtured them, they embraced nationalist and socialist ideologies. More often than not, they ignored the mobilizing potential of the churches, preferring to work with other institutions within the civil society. If Africa had a Christian future, it seemed to lie with the so-called African Independent Churches’.62 Dominant narratives in African Christianity depict the contribution of mission schools to African societies from different approaches. While some of these narratives are very critical, other ones remain balanced. Three major approaches can retain one’s attention. The first approach looks at the motives of Western missionaries. Missionaries built schools primarily with the aim of advancing the gospel. They wanted Africans to read, interpret, and help translate the Bible into local languages. They were not so much concerned about the development of mental skills that would make Africans rebel against the Whites, as they were about helping them to understand the teachings of the gospel and the implication of its expansion. Second, Western education gave rise, perhaps unexpectedly, to African nationalism through the training of new elites who demanded equal treatment with the Whites, and most especially, the clamour for the independence of African nations from European colonialism. Third, Western education was viewed from the perspective of the colonists, who sought to educate Africans mostly in industrial schools and did not wish to develop the intellect of Africans through grammar schools. This last approach served the purposes of colonialism by producing goods (cotton, cacao, and other crops) on a large scale for exportation to Western countries.

66 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Among the three approaches, the first approach was archetypal of Christian missionaries’ activities. The majority of mission schools built by the Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Catholics were primarily to advance the cause of Christ. In most instances, the connection of these schools to colonialism was the scheme of the colonialists. Seventh-day Adventist missionaries followed the mainline Christian denominations in founding schools as instruments for reaching the Africans. They rooted the mission schools in the Adventist philosophy of education, which is to restore human beings into the image of God through the perfect revelation of Jesus Christ. For this reason, they combined the ideals of grammar and industrial schools into a system of education representative of their belief system. They sought the mental, physical, spiritual, and social development of Africans, something rooted in Adventist ideals of education.63 They came to Africa at a time when the White man’s educational system was receiving gradual acceptance. Instead of begging Africans to join the schools they founded at mission stations across Africa, African chiefs and government authorities were the ones who invited them, in most instances, to found Adventist educational institutions in their territories. In Namibia, it was ‘Chief Chikamatondo of Caprivi Strip who asked missionaries to establish schools in his area’.64 In Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, the emperor, was very encouraging. ‘The emperor and the royal family’ showed their appreciation and favour to teachers and other mission workers.65 On a special note, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Herbert A. Hanson, having joined the mission staff as teachers, and the emperor becoming acquainted with them, he engaged Mrs. Hanson after the war as the housekeeper and steward of his palace’.66 In Tanzania, the Adventist mission schools were appreciated by the government. During his visit to an Adventist school at Kihurio, the Protectorate governor offered a gift of books worth US$150, praising the school for its efficiency.67 On the West African coast, D. C. Babcock and his collaborators founded schools among the Kiriyos people in Sierra Leone. Although there were other mission schools prior to Adventist mission in this area, the Mendi did not want to go to school. Babcock remarked that ‘most of these tribes are strongly opposed to education, and if one begins to learn to read, he is marked as an enemy to his people’.68 In January 1907, Babcock succeeded in starting a school that later educated hundreds of Africans who subsequently became leaders in West Africa, through the mentorship of Mr. and Mrs. T. M. French of Union College, Nebraska, United States.69 In Ghana, W. H. Lewis founded a school at Agona through the support of King Nana Kwame Boakye.70 In Nigeria, Babcock opened a school with the support of Chief Oyelese, the Baale of Erunmu, who began to keep the Sabbath with his household.71 In West Africa, several schools also served as centres of evangelism. Baptisms took place among the student population, as well as the staff. These other schools included the Adventist school at Cape Coast (Gold Coast, 1907), the Sierra Leone Adventist school at Freetown (1907),

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 67 the Ghana Adventist school in Axim (1908), the Adventist school at Erunmu (Nigeria, 1914), the Adventist primary school at Divo (Côte d’Ivoire, 1951), and Adventist College of West Africa (Nigeria, 1959; today, Babcock University). These schools also helped the Seventh-day Adventists to secure a positive reputation among Islamic communities and adherents of African traditional religion. There was an explosion of educational institutions in West Africa between the first decade of the twentieth century and the 1950s, but by the 1960s, following the independence of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and other West African countries, local government authorities had taken over several of these institutions, including health-related ones. In December 1947, the General Conference Executive Committee noted that, [a] request was presented from the West African Union for counsel as to whether they should close our schools on the Gold Coast, or cooperate in the plan of the government, which provides for the various denominational mission schools in any one locality to be combined in a union school, we being permitted to place one of our teachers in each union schools the government paying the teacher’s salary as a special grant to the mission.72 The General Conference counselled ‘the West African Union to cooperate with the government plan on a temporary basis, but that they be advised that the plan is not in harmony with our denominational standards and practices’. The union was therefore told that ‘they should withdraw from it as soon as possible, and establish schools of our own, equipped and maintained from our own funds’.73 The Church was very cautious about its identity. The government takeover could mean a betrayal of the Church’s standards with regards to maintaining a clear separation between religious and state affairs. The protection of religious freedom and religious independence is significant to Adventism. The first takeover of educational institutions in Nigeria occurred in 1970, immediately after the Nigerian civil war. The areas that were victims of the governmental decisions were Imo, Anambra, Cross River, Imo Rivers, and Akwa Ibom. The second phase took place in 1972, when the western region of Nigeria was affected. Finally, the third phase of government takeover of educational and health institutions in Nigeria occurred between 1974 and 1975. This takeover was caused by the inability of private schools to pay the salary of the schools’ personnel. During this last phase, the Seventh-day Adventist Church lost several of its institutions.74 Adventist teachers who previously worked in these institutions were allowed to keep teaching by the government authorities. These educators therefore continued to impact the lives of students by integrating faith in their teaching methods. The early schools in Southern Africa were strategic in the development of Adventist missions in Africa during its early years. Among the most influential

68 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One were the training centre at Solusi and the Adventist school at Helderberg. Solusi for instance, was the mother of Adventist Christian schools for Black Africans students. Both Solusi and the Adventist school at Helderberg were influential in training the new evangelists (local pioneers). Amidst the systemic struggle against racism in this region right from the beginning of the Church, these schools helped to train indigenous people in basic leadership skills, as well as the art of reading and teaching, in order to bring their own brethren to Christ. They served as models to the rest of the schools: the Adventist school in Blantyre, the Adventist school for girls and boys in Nigeria, the Adventist school of Malamulo, the training school at Malamulo, the training school at Antananarivo, and the Rusangu secondary school. In East Africa, as in Southern Africa, schools played a significant role in educating people in order to spread the Adventist message. As a matter of fact, Tanzania, where an Adventist school was established in 1903, has had a steady increase in membership. Today, it is one of the countries in East Africa with a considerable number of Seventh-day Adventists. The Adventist school at Pare Mission was at the heart of reaching out to souls in East Africa. This early school led to the rise of other schools in the region such as Akaki Adventist School (Ethiopia), the Adventist teacher training college at Suji (Tanzania), the nurse training centre at Kendu (Kenya), Kamgambo Adventist High School (Kenya), and several other schools, including the Adventist nursing school at Gimbie (Ethiopia) and University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (Kenya).75 A. A. Carscallen, pioneer missionary in East Africa, opened up to the District Commissioner in Kenya that, ‘our primary objective and the goal towards which we work, is the evangelization of the country [and] our greatest help in evangelization work is the educational work’.76 Armstrong reaffirmed this view as he wrote that ‘our schools are not merely a literary centre, but each school is virtually a small Church and each teacher a Pastor evangelist’.77 With such an understanding of the connection between educational systems and evangelism, missionaries founded schools across East Africa. The district commissioner of the South Kavirondo in Kenya complained by arguing that ‘schools abound in every location, but they are more evangelistic than educational’.78 If the representative of the colonial administration could lament about the prosperity of mission schools in evangelism, for Adventist missionaries this was a clear indication of their success in blending mission activities with education. In Central Africa as well, missionaries built schools as a means of evangelism. They built Adventist Gitwe Mission School in Rwanda in 1921, followed by the Adventist schools at Nanga-Eboko in Cameroon in 1928; much later other schools followed. All these schools were strategically placed. Today, Rwanda has the highest number of Seventh-day Adventists in Central Africa. Among many other reasons for the growth of the Church in this country, one should not ignore the impact of early educational institutions. They served as real centres for mission, evangelism, and transformation of lives. Similarly, early Adventist educational institutions

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 69 had a huge impact on the growth of Adventism in Cameroon. They helped popularize the Church, and polished the image of the Church among the many other competing denominations. In North Africa, there were several schools in Egypt, including the Adventist school in Cairo, the Adventist training school in Seila, and the Adventist schools in Abada, Assuit, and Tataliah, in Upper Egypt. All these schools played a significant role in the transformation of Adventism in North Africa, especially in the early days of the denomination. Rooted in the Adventist philosophy of education that stressed the importance of not only head knowledge but also the transformation of the heart, Adventist missions in Africa during the age of colonialism constructed several schools throughout the continent. Altogether, Adventist schools created a favourable image of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Mission schools such as Solusi in Zimbabwe and the Adventist Seminary of West Africa in Nigeria were among the accepted educational institutions in Africa in the immediate post-colonial era. They facilitated the making of a new elite in modern Africa. Many government officials were trained in the Adventist mission schools, including Dr. John L. Nkomo, vice-president of the Republic of Zimbabwe (2009–2013); Ude Oko Chukwu, governor of Abia State, Nigeria; Enyinnaya H. Abaribe, Senate minority leader in Nigeria; and Charles Ndongo, director general of Cameroon Radio Television. These public officers not only popularized the Seventh-day Adventist Church by encouraging their children to join the Adventist educational system, but also spoke positively of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. For instance, in Nigeria, Seventh-day Adventism had a profound impact through Babcock University. Most Christian churches in Africa promoted formal education, vocational training, and the study of indigenous languages. Seventh-day Adventist missionaries followed this tradition. They collaborated with local pioneers, whom they trained in languages to assist them in spreading the gospel. This step was important because it opened the door for Africans to read the Bible and translate it into their dialects for intelligibility.79 Due to the practical benefits of educational institutions, by the 1940s, there was ‘a crying need for more and larger schools’.80 This initiative also opened up ‘scholarly interest in indigenous history and languages’.81

Medicine The second strong subsidiary branch that helped in the establishment of Adventist mission across Africa was the health institutions. Although early Adventist medical missionaries were not trained in healing many of the deadly indigenous illnesses, they often relied on traditional African doctors they encountered. When they arrived in Africa, they themselves suffered from some of these diseases, and several of them died in the mission fields. Many of them would have followed the practical wisdom of David

70 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, who ‘did not hesitate to take medicines recommended by Africans with local knowledge when he fell ill nor present himself as an emissary of European well-being to African misery. He believed that the people he encountered in Central Africa enjoyed generally better health than the urban masses he had known in Britain’.82 Medical advances in public health were recent innovations. Antiseptics and antibiotics were not yet available in Africa. In most instances, Medical services for non-Europeans concentrated on mines and plantations. Others relied, as they always had, on traditional healers and remedies. Thanks to David Livingstone and Albert Schweitzer, Christian missions acquired an outsize reputation as conveyors of European medical science. Furthermore, it was certainly true that ‘throughout most of the colonial period and throughout most of Africa, Christian missions of one sort or another provided vastly more medical care for African communities than did colonial states.83 Missionaries and Africans sometimes had to rely on supernatural healings. Missionaries related their cases of illness to God and submitted their burdens linked to deadly parasites to Christ.84 The One who healed the lepers and raised Lazarus from the dead was the hope of missionaries. Adventist missionaries also promoted health education from the outset of Adventist mission.85 They taught that a vegetarian diet was healthy and most vital for alleviating human suffering. Adventist missionaries, whether medical professionals, gospel ministers, or other missionaries trained in engineering and other fields, preached the same message with regards to health. With their commitment to the Adventist mission, added to the basic knowledge of the Adventist health system, Adventist missionaries were not afraid of entering even the most dangerous parts of Central Africa. The British Empire believed that, ‘In the early years a “call” to tropical Africa or South Asia could be a death sentence. Out of eighty-nine [Protestant] missionaries sent to Sierra Leone between 1804 and 1825, fifty-four died and fourteen returned home in broken health’.86 It was also reported that ‘sixty-two of 225 missionaries sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society between 1835 and 1907 left their bones on West African soil’.87 Yet, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries entered with full passion. In 1912, a medical centre was opened for the West Coast in Sierra Leone under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. B. B. Aldrich, who were both trained nurses.88 Later, other medical missionaries such as Dr. E. W. Meyer reinforced the medical personnel.89 Trained in Western medicine, Adventist medical professionals were able to achieve great success in fighting against local diseases. George and Eva Kerr, medical missionaries in West Africa, healed 20–25 people each day. Dudley Hale, the superintendent of the Adventist mission in this area, reported that ‘with the use of natural remedies, which the Lord has given,

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 71 they were able to benefit many who had little success with the regular doctors’.90 Health institutions became doors to entering even dangerous areas with high Islamic concentrations. By the 1930s and 1940s, both the government and the emirs in Northern Nigeria called upon the missionary societies, including Adventist medical missionaries, to confront leprosy in their areas. Such a medical call provided an avenue for the preaching of the gospel to lepers, who themselves took the good news to people in their communities.91 In Tanzania, just as in other African countries, Adventist medical missionaries transformed people’s lives. K. B. Elineema documented the work of Dr. F. W. Vasenius, a Scandinavian Adventist medical doctor. He reports that Dr. Vasenius worked at Ikizu mission station in 1912, ‘where he gave treatment to 800 people. … These were treated in malaria, intestinal parasites, bronchitis problems, amoeba, and tapeworm’.92 A. F. Bull, a British missionary doctor, who worked at Suji from 1922, ‘never travelled without a box of medicine and medical equipment. He also had dental equipment all along, giving treatment and extracting teeth’.93 These humanitarian services prospered the Adventist message. People became receptive to the gospel and more of them came for continuous healing. Elineema wrote that, in 1952, A leper colony with thirteen dwelling buildings was established in Kasulu. The leprosarium was assisted by the German Adventist donation of Shs.20,000 in 1960. In 1973, 3,100 lepers were registered in Kasulu and it was estimated that Kigoma Region had a total of 5,000 lepers. Many of these lepers had been healed.94 Missionary ‘clinical’ healing impacted local cultures and assisted in the spreading of the Adventist message. Even people who were indifferent to the Adventist message could not be indifferent and hostile to medical missionary services offered by Adventist health institutions. Through this strategy, the local people became consumers of the Adventist message. They learnt that diseases were not necessarily linked to ancestors’ curses. Also, Adventist missionaries believed that God was the source of miraculous healing, and that the doctors and other medical personnel were instruments in the hand of God for the salvation of sinners. They attributed their own healing and miraculous assistance to the love of Jesus, the Master Healer.95 Thus, Adventist medical institutions were established across Africa with the intent of not only providing healing in the footsteps of Jesus, but also providing religious conversions to the patients. Early Adventist hospitals and health centres included the medical centre at Solusi, opened in 1894; the Adventist clinic in Sierra Leone (1912); Kanye Adventist Hospital in Botswana (1920); Malamulo Hospital in Malawi (1927); Kendu Hospital in Kenya (1925); and Heri Hospital (1949) in Tanzania. These hospitals treated all kinds of diseases, ranging from malaria to leprosy. In Cameroon, Hanna Bergström, who was a nurse and the wife of Swedish missionary Ruben Bergström, was sent home shortly

72 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One after she contracted malaria. She later succumbed to the illness, in 1953, but her husband was not deterred by this tragedy.96 He married a new wife, Elizabeth Heilskov-Joasson, a physiotherapist, and came back to Cameroon with her to continue the work started by Hanna. ‘Healing the sick broke down prejudice against the White strangers’.97 The Adventist clinic in Dogba was established in the days of Hanna Bergstrom. Benghazi Adventist Hospital in Libya, ‘Vie et Santé’ clinic in Algeria, and the Tunis dispensary in Tunisia likewise offered great medical care. Adventist missionaries worked tirelessly to offer proper health care to Africans. European and American women, some trained in nursing, while others never received formal training, all acted as sophisticated health-care agents while assisting their husbands in mission activities. They wore colonial helmets to protect themselves against the tropical sun. They barely had rest during the day as they were called upon to assist from one village to another. They crossed rivers and swamps to get to some of the villages where they treated their patients.98 Such incredible acts of charity offered the female missionary a great celebrity. In Nanga-Eboko, located in the Southern part of Cameroon, it became a custom to give a special welcome to Western missionaries because of the good reputation of those who had laboured before them. When Madeleine Cosendai and her husband, Aimé, came to NangaEboko for the first time, a primitive and very efficient telegraph announced their coming: ‘Baroomaboomboom! Baroomaboomboom!’ was a sort of magical sound that announced the arrival of a new missionary couple in the area to villagers. In reality, the drums announced to the sick the arrival of new ‘doctars’, meaning the health workers, who would provide cures for their diseases. The health message was truly the right arm of the Gospel in the hands of Western missionaries. For instance, the Kirdi, a tribe dedicated to its traditional beliefs and rites, usually refused foreigners, especially White men, in their land. But when they heard of the mysterious healing of the lepers by the missionaries, their chief had to tell the Cosendais, ‘We don’t like foreign people to come near us, but we know you’. You are people of peace. ‘We will give you our battleground, and you will build there a place for healing for us’. The Koza Adventist hospital was built ‘on the battleground of the Kirdi’. Next to this hospital was a church. People from near and far came and listened to the Cosendais as they told them about a Healer whose dwelling is not among human beings. ‘My African brothers and sisters’ said Aimé Cosendai, ‘you believe in the one great God who created heaven and earth. I also believe in Him, and I have a special book here called the Bible that helps me know more about Him. Would you like me to share it with you?’99 The answer from the crowd was unanimously overwhelming. Yes! After several hours of Bible study and prayer for the healing of the sick, the villagers went home not only satisfied, but with an irresistible longing to witness similar experiences the next day. With the help of interpreters, White missionaries taught the Bible through the use of illustrative images. Africans were curious to know about the story

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 73 of those people portrayed with long beards that were referred to as the patriarchs of the Christian faith. The story of Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the Children of Israel, among many other stories, attracted people’s attention. As the missionaries told the story of Jesus and how he died on a wooden cross, ‘tears flowed down the cheeks of those heathen people, and they began to converse one with another. The interpreter explained that they were upset because of the way those wicked men treated Jesus. Then the chief spoke for his people, and said, “We have heard things today which we have never heard before, and we like it. You must come again.”’100 This way, doors were opened for Adventist missionaries to reach the hearts of people. In hospitals and schools, interest in listening to great stories that created irresistible attraction towards accepting the Christian faith, was awakened. Thus, the impact of medical centres in the physical healing and spiritual transformation of lives was unparalleled in the regions where they were located until the 1990s, when more sophisticated hospitals were built. Adventist missionaries made use of the health system to reach the brokenhearted and bring them to Christ. It is never an overstatement to argue that without the support of the medical personal, the establishment of Adventism in Africa would have been more difficult than one could imagine. Through the years, Seventh-day Adventism has been a denomination well known for its achievements in medical work. The U.S. President, Richard Nixon, made a famous speech at Loma Linda in 1953, recognizing the positive influence of global Adventism with regard to the health system. He noted that, Mrs. Nixon and I took a trip clear around the world. And as we visited the countries of Southeast Asia and southern Asia, we saw several hospitals run by various organisations. The most impressive ones were the ones run by Seventh-day Adventists, people who were dedicated. There were doctors, there were nurses, there were others who were giving their lives for the purpose of helping those people in those poor countries to develop a better system of medicine. … I think of nothing that does more to make friends for America abroad than that kind of selfless service by people like those from Loma Linda who have gone out through the world.101 This celebration of Seventh-day Adventists through their work in medical fields attests to the influence that Adventism has had on the developing world. African countries have been increasingly interested in the Adventist health system. The late Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, was appreciative of the contributions of the Adventist health message. He lived an Adventist lifestyle because he believed Seventh-day Adventists live a healthier life than other people. This public recognition is deep-seated in history. In 1960, for instance, Booton Herndon noted that,

74 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One By almost any criterion of the Western world for human happiness, the … members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church … must be rated as one of the most fortunate groups on Earth. … Their children will enjoy better health, and enjoy it longer, than the children of their nonAdventist neighbors, they will be singularly free of such killing diseases as lung cancer, and they will have less than half the amount of tooth decay of their playmates (and their parents will have commensurately lower dental bills to pay!).102 Perhaps, the most popular picture of Seventh-day Adventists is drawn by the achievements of scientists at Loma Linda University. Increasing studies show that Adventists who follow the guidelines of the lifestyle they teach are relatively less affected by certain diseases, and that they live relatively longer than others.103 Altogether, the impact of Adventism through various educational and health institutions creates irresistible appreciation from wider communities. These institutions are often popularly accepted and have become agents of economic and political game-changers in Africa. Adventism in Africa has become a religious firm that provides commodities for its customers. Even those who are not interested in the Adventist faith are nonetheless interested in its products. These products contribute to the religious economy of Africa. In almost every African country where Adventism has been planted, educational and health institutions have been established. These institutions are the sort of religious firms that have been attractive. Religious economy is a composite of all religious activities of a particular society or organization, including the means through which adherents are attracted, or even the religious culture and brand offered by the organization or society. The theory is founded on the concept of religion as a marketplace, which offers important goods that promote salvation to the adherents. The adherents in their turn buy these goods based on their preferences. These religious organizations offer an array of religions and religious products on a scale of competitive religious economy that stimulates activity in a markettype setting.104 The idea of a religious economy conceives of religion as a product and those who identify with it as consumers. But when the belief system is inserted within the religious economy, the equation changes and an ideology frames the product and those who consume it. Generally, the consumers are sceptical about any belief attached to a religious market. They usually want to be consumers without necessarily accepting the ideology of the religion from which they get their products. Thus, it is complex when one wants to examine the depictions of religious identity in a global world and how it affects the religious economy.105 The theory of religious economy helps to explain the influence of Adventist institutions in Africa. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa owns more than 15 universities, spread across West, Southern, Central and East Africa. The Church also owns hundreds of nursery,

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 75 primary, and secondary schools. Added to the educational institutions are hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries. Through its educational and health institutions, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is able to reshape its image more favourably. The institutions owned by the Church are religious firms that offer religious products to their consumers. The Church in this regard is perceived as a religious supplier, offering services such as religious education and healing. The customers, students, or patients purchase these services offered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The transaction performed between the Church (a religious firm) and its members (customers) is physical. This transaction favours the Church in the sense that its relationships with its customers are positively shaped on a personal level. In this regard, religious economy theory is helpful in understanding the huge impact of major Adventist educational and health institutions in Africa.106 The public image of Seventh-day Adventism among other Christian denominations in Africa is thus informed and, at times, identified with the various institutions it has across Africa. The more the Church creates schools and establishes health and educational institutions, the more its image is positively rebranded, and its religious products, healing centres, educational institutions, prayers, and church services are patronized by the general public, including Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, and Pentecostals. The fact that Adventist religious products are popularly accepted does not, however, mean that the Adventist faith is well accepted. Indeed, students and patients who are customers of Adventist institutions avoid mixing the Church’s beliefs with its products. While they value the products of the Church, they avoid the core of the faith; while they join hundreds of Seventh-day Adventist schools in Africa, the majority of them claim that they are not interested in the Adventist faith, but in Adventist education. Students portray themselves as seekers of good religious products, offered by religious firms, for their insertion into the global market. While the image of the denomination is given value by the sale of its religious products, it has not yet succeeded in popularizing its beliefs and faith system.

Impact on Socio-Economic Life A profound implication of literacy during the early Christian missions was that adults not only learnt how to read and study the Bible in their languages, they were equally able to produce popular Adventist hymns in their local dialects. Some of these hymns were translations from the missionaries’ booklets, but others were genuine creations of the local pioneers, as they expressed their longing for the return of Christ whom they heard about; the One who would terminate their suffering.107 These hymns also embodied the message of the Adventist faith. This tradition of hymns, which is still visible in many Adventist churches across Africa, is a contribution to African culture and literacy.

76 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Vocational training was also significant. The missionaries helped the local people to produce massive architectural buildings that attracted the admiration of Africans. In Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Cameroon, and other African countries, Adventist missionaries erected magnificent constructions. The introduction of bricks and the Western style of construction had a huge influence on local architecture. Many public constructions followed the pattern of the mission buildings. Nehemiah M. Nyaundi wrote that architectural constructions were erected following the ‘creation of exclusive mission villages’, in early Adventism in Kenya. Adventist communities were identified as chillaini (from ‘lines’); ‘houses were built in straight rows’. New converts were requested to settle in these chilaini. ‘These villages were strong instruments towards the socialization of converts into the new religion’.108 Distinct communities were founded to strip the converts of their non-Christian traditions and practices. These converts were placed in the context of a ‘new worldview’ that offered them a life shielded from unwanted traditional beliefs and dogmas. K. G. Webster defended such seclusion by stating that, ‘In order to protect them [converts] as much as possible from evil that surrounded them, and to give them as much spiritual help as possible, the Kisii believers were always encouraged to form Christian villages and live in them’.109 Such separation of new converts from their kinsmen created a spirit of mental and spiritual seclusion of Seventh-day Adventists in Africa from their non-Christian brethren. While it was good to create distinct communities to nurture the neophytes in faith, it was also a danger to take them away from their close family members with whom they had been living. With regards to the economic life of Africans, missionaries helped to develop massive agricultural training in order to increase the production of crops. Nearly all the missionaries who came to Africa were interested in the development of agriculture for the well-being of their parishioners. They often financed the production of corn, cassavas, rice, and other local products in Africa. In Nyasaland, there were industrial mission stations. ‘At each of these missions they do but little more than what we would call good Christian farming’.110 The students were diligent in learning practical ways of making farming productive. ‘In the morning, before they begin their work for the day, the men are called together and a short service is held in which a few minutes are spent in reading and expounding the Bible’. W. H. Anderson founded a mission school in Tonga Plateau in Zambia where students were not only able to learn reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, and Scripture, but also received training in agriculture. ‘The missionaries established farms on their sites and used the plough and draught oxen extensively in their cultivation. These farming aids were foreign to the simple hoe culture of the Tonga. Over the years, they were increasingly adopted by the African population, and this revolutionized local farm practice’.111 The mission in this region had its own farm, where new converts learnt basic agricultural skills as they engaged in the cultivation of food crops and important fruit trees. At

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 77 Rusangu, in 1908, an estimated 400 fruit trees and vines were planted. With this massive engagement in agriculture, the mission was self-sufficient financially. Vegetables, lettuce, sorghum, millet, and several other local crops were cultivated. ‘This was in every sense an industrial Mission, and the farming and other ideas inculcated here were to become very useful to the graduates and other associates of the school in the future’.112 Seventh-day Adventists in Tonga Plateau became successful farmers with industrial techniques in production. They consequently became very influential in their communities, as they were held in great esteem. This made some of them proud and this development pressured local chiefs to adhere to their practices. Some became political figures who attempted to unseat Chief Mwanachingwala. Nathan Kabunda, a retired Adventist teacher from Rusangu SDA School, and his church mates, strove unsuccessfully to claim a throne that did not belong to them. The final result was disgrace and public clamour against the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Notwithstanding the unfortunate incident, Adventist missionaries were agents of change in African societies. They laboured for the spiritual, as well as the physical well-being of Africans. All of them engaged in charity work. From Europe, clothes were sent to indigent Africans. When our church members learned that some of the African leprosiums were in need of clothing we received many requests as to how and to whom donations could be sent. For this reason we felt it would be necessary to establish a warehouse in the seaport city of Hamburg where there are many churches as well as our publishing house and health food factory.113 Such a missionary approach made a positive impression on the minds of their followers. In a historical setting of constant conflicts and abusive behaviours in the family milieu, Adventist ministry found a prolific ground. It ensured healing and responsible behaviour, which attracted many people to the Adventist faith. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) had a focus on humanitarian services; giving food to the needy, educating vulnerable children, and providing shelter for the homeless were exemplary activities that reinforced historical achievements in Adventism in Africa. These efforts, geared towards alleviating the suffering of Africans, endeared Adventism to non-Adventists across the continent.

Adventism Taking Shape in a Colonial Setting As colonialism was winding its way across Africa, Adventism was slowly taking shape. From the south to the north, and from east to west, there were visible signs of Adventism’s growth on the continent. In this section, some notable progress, recorded in selected countries between the 1920s and the 1950s, will be highlighted.

78 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Progress in Southern Africa One of the countries where Adventism was introduced after its establishment in South Africa was Lesotho. In 1896, David Kalaka accepted the Adventist faith. He became acquainted with Adventism when he served as a guide for S. N. Haskell on a trip to Basotoland.114 Three years later, in 1899, J. M. Freeman and David Kalaka established the first Adventist mission station at Kolo; Lerothli, the chief of Basotoland, bequeathed the piece of land to them. By 1910, another mission, Emmanuel Station, was established through the service of H. C. Olmstead. In Zambia, Adventism was introduced in 1903. W. H. Anderson, based in Solusi (Southern Rhodesia), with the assistance of Jacob Detcha, an African who was fluent in the Tonga language, and other Africans, began the Adventist work in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). They travelled by train up to Mambanje and continued on foot to Victoria Falls. They continued on to Kalomo (then the capital of Northern Rhodesia). This was a dangerous trip; W. H. Anderson almost died of dysentery, but miraculously overcame the illness. Chief Monze gifted the group with a piece of land at Rusangu, where the first Adventist mission station was established in Zambia. On 1 July 1905, Rusangu mission was established. W. H. Anderson and his family, Philip Malomo, Jacob Detcha, Andrew Nyakana, Jack Mahlatini Mpofu, and several other natives witnessed the inauguration of Rusanga mission station. Two months later (in September), a school was opened, where several natives were trained for evangelism. The work showed signs of great progress amidst alarming distress. It was during this time that Mrs. Anderson died of blackwater fever. But the faith that led Anderson to Africa did not diminish. He continued leading the work until Adventism was solidly established in Zambia. In 1920, J. C. Rogers, who was at that time based in Nyasaland, went to preach the first Adventist message in Swaziland. He travelled on horseback from Nyasaland to meet a government representative, with the intention of receiving a grant of land in order to begin an Adventist mission station. Unfortunately, his request was turned down and the hope of securing a piece of land for Adventist mission in Swaziland became very dim. But Rogers solicited the help of Joseph N. Hlubi, a Swazi who lived in Ermelo in the Transvaal, who had accepted the Adventist faith two years earlier. As a native, he undertook the responsibility to begin the Adventist mission in Swaziland. He settled in Mahamba in September 1920, where he and his followers began the ministry that led to the beginning of Adventism in Swaziland. In Botswana, W. H. Anderson had an interview in 1921 with Gagoangwe, the queen mother, who acted as regent for the 16-year-old chief, Bathoen II. Anderson secured permission to open an Adventist hospital at Kanye village, but was instructed not to preach the Adventist faith. Although evangelism and Bible study series could not be carried out by the reason of this directive,

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 79 the good works of Dr. A. H. Kretschmar broke down the prejudice against Adventism. His selfless service in healing the sick spoke of the genuineness of his faith. In 1922, J. R. Campbell, an Adventist preacher, had entered Kanye and held several meetings that led to the denizens’ conversion to Adventism. By 1927, regular meetings for Bible study were possible, which led to the affirmation of Adventism in Botswana. Adventism entered Namibia in 1922. Between 1937 and 1938, J. van der Merwe preached in Windhoek and five people were baptized. Even though the progress of Adventism proved to be difficult, with little growth between 1938 and 1954, Adventism was able to maintain its presence with increasing signs of growth.115 W. H. Anderson arrived in Angola in 1922. He explored the country for the establishment of mission work. A year later, Anderson, T. M French, and J. D. Baker chose the district of Lepi as the site for the first mission station. By 1929, Adventism showed steady signs of continuing growth in Angola.116 Progress in Eastern Africa As Adventism was making significant progress in Southern Africa, parallel growth was noticeable in the eastern part of Africa. Kenya, Burundi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Seychelles were entered, along with other countries in Eastern Africa. As noted earlier, Adventism entered East Africa through Tanzania in 1903, then Kenya in 1906. Later, countries such as Uganda followed suit. The first Adventist to come to Uganda was E. C. Enns, a German who working at Pare, Tanganyika. In 1906, he preached the Sabbath message in Uganda, but his stay was brief. It was twenty years later that S. G. Maxwell, with some African evangelists, made their first official visit as resident Adventist missionaries in Uganda. With the help of W. T. Bartlett, president of the British East Africa, Maxwell established his residence northwest of Kampala, where the Nchwanga estate was purchased. Soon, several African workers from Kenya and Tanganyika arrived to preach in Uganda. The first convert was Joshua, a blind man who lived at Mityana.117 In Burundi, D. E. Delhove entered Rwanda in 1925, and established the first Adventist mission station at Buganda.118 In 1936, 125 acres of land were secured. From this time, through efforts in evangelism, significant converts were registered, and Adventism became more visible in Burundi.119 In Mozambique, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was established in 1931.120 Two African evangelists, who had returned from Malamulo Mission School, launched evangelistic meetings, during which they converted several people to Adventism. They were among the first African Adventist evangelists in Portuguese East Africa. They conducted regular Bible study with Mozambicans who discovered the Sabbath truth. O. U. Giddings and Max Webster, Western missionaries, visited Mozambique

80 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One and discovered how Adventism was reaching people there. Following such a visit, the first Adventist mission station in Mozambique was established in 1935, in the district of Lugela. In Seychelles, Seventh-day Adventist work began in 1930 through the ministry of Daniel Ignace, an evangelist from Mauritius. After a year of preaching, he was able to convert 21 persons to Adventism. In 1933, the first Seventh-day church in Seychelles was erected, and Ignace was its first elder. In 1936, a Western missionary, Karl Sturzenegger, arrived from Switzerland and established the first Seventhday Adventist school. Progress in Western Africa As noted earlier, the Church sent its first official missionary to Ghana in 1894. A few years later, Adventism advanced in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Countries such as Liberia, Togo, and Senegal joined the ranks of countries that opened the door to Adventism in West Africa during the colonial period. Others waited until their independence before the Adventist message was welcomed in their territories. The roots of Adventism in Liberia can be traced back to the late 1880s. The General Conference Daily Bulletin of 24 October 1889 noted that, ‘Bro. Gaston from Liberia, who recently embraced the truth, has gone back to his country to sow the seeds of precious truth among his kindred’. Gaston was a member of the Washington SDA Church. Even though he was not sent as an official missionary to Liberia, Gaston faithfully preached the gospel. In January 1892, when Lawrence C. Chadwick gave the report of his visit to West Africa at the General Conference session, he appealed for an official missionary be sent to Liberia to open a mission ‘at or near the home of Brother Gaston’.121 This appeal did not receive an immediate response, and it was not until 1926 that the European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church decided to send the first Adventist missionaries. Two Germans, R. Helbig and E. Flammer, accepted the call to work in Liberia. These individuals, with the assistance of L. F. Langford of England, an experienced missionary who had laboured in the Gold Coast, established the first Adventist mission station at Seahn, in Grand Bassa County. In 1927, 100 acres were secured, on which the first church and institutions (a school and a dispensary) were built. From this time on, Adventism maintained steady growth in Liberia.122 In Nigeria, the roots of Seventh-day Adventism can be traced back to 1914, when D. C. Babcock, an Adventist missionary who had worked in Sierra Leone since 1905, came to Lagos.123 He came with two Sierra Leoneans, R. P. Dauphin and S. Morgue. From Lagos, he was able to make a tour northward. He selected a mission station at Erunmu, 12 miles (20 kilometres) north of Ibadan, capital of the western region. One of their local language instructors was the son of a local chief. As he translated various sermons into the Yoruba language, he came to believe in the

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 81 Adventist message and to keep the Sabbath. By the end of 1914, three schools were in operation and seven individuals publicly accepted Adventism and declared their commitment to abide by the teachings of Adventist missionaries. After four years of service in Nigeria, Babcock had to leave because of illness.124 He was succeeded by E. Ashton, a British citizen, in 1917. This latter worked for about three years and was succeeded by W. McClement of Northern Ireland. While the Adventist mission was being established in Western Nigeria, an initiative to begin Adventism in the Eastern region was taken. British citizens, Jesse Clifford and his wife, who had previously worked in Sierra Leone and Ghana, settled in Aba in Eastern Nigera in 1923. In 1931, Adventism entered the Northern region. J. J. Hyde, with his wife and son, opened a station at Jengre. The family was successful in preaching, healing, and praying for people. They opened a dispensary at Jengre, which later developed into the Jengre SDA Hospital, with Dr. J. A. Hyde, the son of J. J. Hyde, as chief medical personnel. In Sierra Leone, the beginning of Adventism is linked to the General Conference field trip of Lawrence C. Chadwick, the president of the International Tract Society. He was the first official Adventist to visit Sierra Leone in 1892.125 As a follow up to this trip, an appeal was made at the General Conference session of 1893 for a missionary to be sent to Sierra Leone. In 1905, Mr. and Mrs. Hyatt, a Black American couple, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they were able to pioneer the Adventist work in Sierra Leone. In that same year, the General Conference also sent David C. Babcock to Sierra Leone. Babcock was an influential public preacher; among his first converts was R. P. Dauphin, who eventually became the first indigenous Seventh-day Adventist worker in West Africa. Babcock also introduced the process of making concrete blocks in Sierra Leone. With these blocks he constructed the first church building in West Africa, in 1907, on Circular Road in Freetown. Later, a school and a sanatorium were opened. Mrs. Babcock was in charge of the school, while Dr. E. W. Myers took care of the sanatorium. Apart from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana (see Chapter 2), and Nigeria, most of the countries in West Africa were penetrated by Adventist missionaries relatively late. The General Conference executive committee reported in 1945 that although the Adventist message was progressing across Africa, there were several places where missionaries could not yet enter. Earnest appeal was made on behalf of the unentered fields of West Africa. Contained in this union are the greatest unentered territories to be found in any section of the world field, French West Africa and the Cameroons have been scarcely touched with the message. French Guinea, Senegal, and French Equatorial Africa are wholly unentered territories, and these extensive countries with their millions challenge us as a church.126

82 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One By the 1950s, there were positive prospects of entering the rest of West Africa. Georges Vaysse, a colporteur, went to Togo in 1956, preaching the gospel and selling books; some of those who bought his books became interested in the Adventist message and viewed themselves as Seventh-day Adventists.127 In January 1960, H. Kempf, from Côte d’Ivoire, went to Togo to explore the possibility of settling his residence as a missionary there. Three years later, in November 1963, the West African Union Mission sent Kempf and his family to be official missionaries to Togo. Kempf was successful in establishing churches and schools, which led to the conversion of a significant number of residents. He left Togo in 1970, but by this time, Adventism was maintaining steady growth. Adventism began in Senegal, in 1951. Robert Erdmann, the first missionary in the country, supported by his family, arrived from France and settled in Dakar, the capital city. He began his evangelistic work in the theatre that he rented. Few people showed interest in his message but progressively, through the perseverance of Erdmann, some accepted Bible studies. The first baptism was recorded in 1953: a Muslim, Albert Sadio, who accepted Jesus despite the persecution of his family members and community. He became a mission worker in the southern part of Senegal. As more converts joined the Adventist Church, a primary school was opened in 1959 in Dakar. In this way, prejudice against Adventism progressively waned.128 In Guinea-Bissau, official Adventist work was begun by Francisco Cordas in 1973, although there were already two Adventists in the country, a woman and her niece who had begun keeping the Sabbath in 1955, after reading W. A Spicer’s, Our Day in the Light of Prophecy. In Niger, Adventism only entered in 1972, when a delegation of Seventhday Adventist ministers went to Niamey to meet the president of the Republic. The president granted the Seventh-day Adventist Church permission to build a hospital, which led to the opening of the first Adventist mission station in Niger in 1993.129 Other countries in West Africa that were entered much later include Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), by H. Kempf in 1971; the Gambia, by Daniel Cudjoe in 1973; and Mauritania, which was explored in 1992, with no known baptized member to date. Progress in Central Africa As the Sabbath message was being preached in West, South, and East Africa, Central Africa was also being reached. Rwanda and Cameroon were entered before their independence through colonialism, but in other countries, like Congo (Brazzaville), Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Central African Republic, the first Adventist missionaries didn’t arrive until the late 1960s and early 1970s, well after independence. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was introduced into Rwanda by D. E. Delhove, a European from Belgium. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I,

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 83 Deholve was serving in British missions in British East Africa, but he was soon drafted into the Belgian Army, where he did clerical work for the Belgian forces in German East Africa (Ruanda [now Rwanda] and Burundi), which later became the Belgian territories. He was later appointed as a missionary in these territories where, with the help of Henri Monnier, they pioneered the Adventist work in Rwanda.130 In Cameroon, Adventism was introduced in November 1926, when W. H. Anderson, the founder of several missions in South Africa and Congo, explored the country to find a site for the first Adventist mission station. Anderson chose the site at Nanga-Eboko, around 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of Yaoundé, the capital. In 1928, through the work of Robert L. Jones, a Sabbath School branch and the first primary school were established. Just one year later, on 1 January 1929, Cameroon became part of the Southern European Division. At the same time, Marius Raspal, the pioneer missionary in Madagascar, was asked to go to Cameroon. He conducted the first baptisms, on 12 March 1930, at which 11 persons were baptized, including Daniel Ndi, Josué Medjo, and Antoine Mpfoumi. Raspal then constructed the first church building, where the converts worshipped. A year later, Adventism reached North Cameroon. Ruben Bergström from Sweden arrived in January 1931 and established a mission station in Dogba, 15 miles (25 kilometres) from Maroua. Two other stations were added, one in Mikiri and the other in Mokio, and Jean Bikoé was sent from the south in 1934 to support the mission in North Cameroon. Bergström and Bikoé opened a school in Dogba. In March 1935, the first six converts were baptized. As the work progressed, another mission station was opened in Koza in 1949. In 1954, the first Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Northern Cameroon was opened in Koza. Dr. F. W. Brennwald and his wife were the first medical missionaries in this hospital.131 In Chad, Adventism entered in 1967, when Albert Bodenmann and his family arrived in Fort-Lamy (later renamed N’Djamena), then the capital.132 Five years later, Jean Kempf and his family, who had left Togo in 1970, arrived in Congo (Brazzaville) in July 1972. The Church faced difficult times between 1978 and 1990. In 1991 Gary Wagner arrived and reorganized the Church, and by 1993, there were 32 members in Congo (Brazzaville).133 In Equatorial Guinea, José Lopez and his wife, who were both trained nurses, arrived from Spain on 9 September 1960. They opened a dispensary and preached the Adventist message. The first baptism took place on 19 May 1962, when two individuals publicly declared their stance for Adventism. In 1963, four other individuals were baptized, two from São Tomé. In 1963, there were 15 members, one of whom was an ordained pastor.134 In Gabon, the Seventh-day Adventist Church registered its presence officially in 1981, when, through the missionary endeavours of Daniel

84 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One Cordas, the Adventist faith entered Libreville and Port Gentile. In the 1990s, Max Pierre organized evangelistic campaigns, during which several people joined the Adventist Church.135 Progress in North Africa As noted earlier, Adventism entered North Africa through Egypt. Gradually, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, and Sudan were entered. In Algeria, the first known Adventist was Joseph Gomis, who was Spanish. He became a Protestant at the age of 16, although his parents were Roman Catholics. He read Les Signes des Temps, an Adventist magazine published in French in Switzerland, accepted the Adventist faith, and was baptized. By 1886, he owned a bakery in the town of Relizane in Oran, Algeria. His trade was an avenue through which he shared his new faith, first with his family members and then with others. Several of them accepted the Sabbath message. Around 1889, J. D. Comte and Albert Vuilleumier, on a missionary trip to Algeria, strengthened the faith of the converts and baptized them. Though some of the converts later emigrated to South Africa, those who remained continued in their new faith. In 1909, with the coming of Joseph Abella, a colporteur missionary, four women were baptized.136 In Tunisia, Adventist work began as early as 1928, when Alphonse Gissler settled in and conducted evangelistic work. With the support of colporteurs, Adventism developed a solid foundation. By 1937, Tunisia was organized as a mission field, and later a dispensary was opened. By 1947, there were about 60 members, all of whom were Europeans. Thus, the success of Adventism among indigenous people was very low.137 In Morocco, Adventism began in 1925, when Jean Reynaud and his wife arrived as missionaries.138 They conducted evangelistic meetings mostly among the European population, with the help of colporteurs, and the first baptism took place that same year. Thus, gradually, Adventism in Morocco progressed. The Seventh-day Adventist Church entered Libya in 1928 and was assigned to the Southern European Division. It was difficult to obtain permission from the government to operate a Christian church in Libya because of the strong Islamic presence. In 1953, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was given a permit to begin medical work in this country, but no evangelistic work was permitted. Dr. Roy S. Cornell, a medical doctor from North America opened a hospital on 21 May 1956, at Benghazi. Creative methods to enhance evangelistic activities were adopted, even though any hope of getting converts was slim.139 In Sudan, the first exploratory work for Adventist mission was undertaken in 1927. At that time, Sudan was placed under the territory of the European Division. The progress was very slow, but, in 1953, Farris Basta Bishai, from Egypt, moved with his family to Khartoum as official missionaries. Munir Andrawis and his wife were the first converts. After they

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 85 accepted the Adventist faith, they had an opportunity to attend Middle East College in Beirut for two years between 1954 and 1955. After their training, they returned to their home country and began preaching to people. In 1951, Northern Sudan came under the direction of the Middle East Division, while Southern Sudan remained an integral part of the Northern European Division until 1958.140 It is thus notable that while colonialism was underway in Africa, Adventism was also progressing. Adventism, through the ministry of selfless missionaries, was able to overcome prejudice to become established in many African countries. Although not all African countries could be entered before the early 1960s, eventually Adventism was successfully established in most of them. As the Western missionaries left in the 1960s and 1970s, African evangelists took over the responsibility of advancing Adventism in African countries so far not yet penetrated.

Conclusion The relationship between colonialism and Seventh-day Adventist mission is complex. Adventist missionaries came to Africa at a time when Westerners were exploiting the continent for its wealth in natural resources. Western countries were also competing to expand their hegemonies, while consolidating and searching for colonies in Africa. Most missionary activities from the early nineteenth century up to the last quarter of the twentieth were caught up in the quandary of colonial discourse. Seventh-day Adventism had to wrestle with realities linked to the vestiges of colonialism to expand the Adventist mission in Africa. While Adventist missionaries were genuine in taking the gospel to Africans, they, nonetheless, had to follow colonial protocol that imposed the respect of norms and regulations set by colonial empires. This reality meant that missionaries were usually sent to the colonies from the empires they belonged to. Consequently, Adventist mission in Africa grew following the line of colonial attachment up to the late twentieth century. This connection was important in the sense that it produced positive impact in terms of education and medicine, which were the two branches of gospel evangelism. These subsidiaries prepared the way for Adventism in Africa to shake off its precarious beginning and its emergence as a competitive denomination in Africa today. They also largely paved the way for new, indigenous evangelists, whose zeal gave a new touch to the legacy of Western missionaries.

Notes 1 See, The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Ulan Press, 2012). 2 Ronald D. Graybill, ‘The Abolitionist-Millerite Connection’, in The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Ronald L. Numbers

86 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13

14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

and Jonathan M. Butler (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1993), 139–152. Graybill, ‘Abolitionist-Millerite Connection’, 143. Graybill, ‘Abolitionist-Millerite Connection’, 143. Adventist missionaries entered Africa first from South Africa as early as 1887. By the early twentieth century, Tanzania and Sierra Leone became doors through which countries in Eastern Africa and Western Africa were penetrated. A. Adu Boahen, ed., Africa Under Colonial Domination, 1880–1935 (California, CA: The University of California Press, 1985). Fransjohan Pretorius, A History of South Africa: From the Distant Past to the Present Day (Pretoria, South Africa: Protea Book House, 2014). Andrew Ross, David Livingstone, Mission and Empire (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2004), 110. Christine de Gemeaux, Amaury Lorin, eds., L’Europe Coloniale et le Grand Tournant de la Conférence de Berlin, 1884–1885 (Paris: Editions Le Manuscrit, 2013). Andrews, ‘Christian Missions’, 663–664. Norman Etherington, ‘Introduction’, in Missions and Empires, ed. Norman Etherington (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 4. E. E. Andrews, ‘Christian Missions’ 663. See also Roy R. Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, and Christopher B. Steiner, eds., Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2010); Tatah Mentan, Africa in the Colonial Ages of Empire: Slavery, Capitalism, Racism, Colonialism, Decolonization, Independence as Recolonization, and Beyond (Oxford: African Books Collective, 2017). Charles Bradford, Sabbath Roots: The African Connections (Silver Spring, MD: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1999). See also Bekele Heye, The Sabbath in Ethiopia: An Exploration of Christian Roots (Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2003). Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1911), 63, 577–578. Robert O. Bonsu, ‘Sabbath Observance among the Akan’s of Ghana and Its Impact on the Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ghana’, AsiaAfrica Journal of Mission and Ministry 7 (2013): 3–26; Kofi Owusu-Mensa, Saturday God and Adventism in Ghana (Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 1993); Chigemezi N. Wogu, ‘Preparing Converts for the Second Coming of Christ: The Encounter of Seventh-day Adventist Missionaries with Indigenous Issues in Nigeria from 1900 to the 1940s’, Spes Christiana 31, no. 2 (2020): 95. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1950, 221, 222. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 10 April 1939, General Conference Archives, 1112, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1939-04.pdf, accessed 14 April 2021. GCC minutes, 10 April 1939, 1112. Gordon R. Doss, ‘Adventist Responses through Evangelism and Discipleship’, in Adventist Mission in Africa: Challenges and Prospects, ed. Gordon R. Doss

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 87

27

28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

45 46 47

48 49

(Berrien Springs: Department of World Mission, Andrews University, 2011), 49. Paul G. Hiebert, ‘The Flaw of the Excluded Middle’, Missiology 10, no. 1 (1982): 35. On some important works dealing with the topic, see Paul G. Hiebert, The Gospel in Human Context: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2008); Paul G. Hiebert, Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 1994); Paul G. Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1986). See, Aquino de Braganpa and Immanuel Wallerstein, eds., The African Liberation Reader: The Anatomy of Colonialism, vol. 1 (London: Zed, 1982). Braganpa and Wallerstein, African Liberation Reader. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 18 February 1960, 529, General Conference Archives, 529, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/ Minutes/GCC/GCC1960-02.pdf, accessed 14 April 2021. Nehemiah M. Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5I81&highlight=Adventists| and|African|Traditional|Religion, accessed, 7 May 2021. Yvonne J. Öster, an Adventist historian from Sweden, interview by the author, April 2014, Nyhyttan, Sweden. She reported that Ruben Bergström had a difficult beginning because the local population was hostile to the Whites. Chukwudi A. Njoku, ‘The Missionary Factor in African Christianity, 1884–1914’, in African Christianity: An African Story, ed. Ogbu U. Kalu (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2007), 218. Njoku, ‘The Missionary Factor’, 253–254. Öster interview, April 2014. Yvonne J. Öster, email communication with the author, December 29, 2020. See also Gösta Wiklander, De kallade honom Baba Duniary ‘Landsfader’ (Stockholm: SDA Media, 2006), 149–151. Issa Babba, Former Executive Secretary of North Cameroon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, phone interview by the author, 5 May 2022. Toppenberg, Africa Has My Heart, 76. William H. Anderson, On the Trail of Livingstone (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1919), 173. Anderson, On the Trail of Livingstone, 173. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910–1915. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1931–1933. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920, 1921; General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, September 1928, General Conference Archives, 630–632, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1928.pdf, accessed 9 May 2021. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920, 1921, 1930, 1931. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920, 1921, 1930, 1931. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920. See also General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 8 November 1921, 1157, General Conference Archives, 1157, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1921.pdf, accessed 9 May 2021. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 23 July 1931, General Conference Archives, 383. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1931-07.pdf, April 14, 2021. ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920, 1970.

88 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 50 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 2 January 1964, General Conference Archives, 510, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1964-01.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 51 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910, 1920, 1970, 1971. 52 For more insights, see General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 8 October 1971, General Conference Archives, 667, https://documents. adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1971-10.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 53 Trim, A Passion for Mission, 133–150. 54 The East-Central Africa Division was organized with the following territories: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Republic of Djibouti, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division was organized in 2003 with the following territories: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Kerguelen Islands, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Reunion, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha Islands. The West-Central Africa Division was organized in 2003 and reorganized in 2013, with the following territories: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. North Africa is an integral part of the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, a field attached to the General Conference. This field was organized in 2012 and reorganized in 2015. This mission field is part of the 10/40 window, which is of special interest to the General Conference. It is an area hugely populated by Islam with only a tiny minority of Christians. 55 L. H. Davidson, ‘The Mightiest Weapon of the Church Militant’, West-African Messenger 6, no. 4 (1952): 6. 56 Davidson, ‘The Mightiest Weapon’, 6. 57 Davidson, ‘The Mightiest Weapon’, 6. 58 Njoku, ‘The Missionary Factor’, 254. 59 Norman Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, in Missions and Empires, 261. 60 Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, 261. 61 Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, 261. 62 Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, 285–286. 63 See Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1903). 64 Ndala Kayongo, ‘West Zambia Field’ in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist. org/article?id=5D26&highlight=Zambia, August 12, 2020. 65 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:35. 66 Spalding, Origin and History, 4:35. 67 Geoffrey Mbwana, ‘Like a Mustard Seed: Adventism in the East-Central Africa Division’, Adventist World, 17 April 2014: 24–25. 68 D. C. Babcock, ‘West Africa’, Review and Herald, 12 July 1906: 17. 69 D. C. Babcock, ‘West Africa’, Review and Herald, 30 June 1910: 8. 70 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 23. 71 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 24. 72 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 24 December 1947, General Conference Archives, 852, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1947-09.pdf, accessed 27April 2021. 73 GCC minutes, 24 December 1947, 852. 74 Agboola, Seventh-Day Adventist History, 78–79. 75 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1903–1989; Chiemela N. Ikonne, ‘Adventist Responses to Mission Challenges in Africa through Education and

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 89

76 77 78 79

80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

97

Leadership’, in Adventist Mission in Africa: Challenges & Opportunities (Berrien Springs, MI: Department of World Mission, Andrews University), 2011, 75–98; Delbert Baker, ed., Adventists in Africa: A Tradition of Progress (Silver Spring, MD: Review & Herald, 1988); Owusu-Mensa, Ghana Seventhday Adventism (2005); David O. Babalola, Sweet Memories of Our Pioneers (Lagos, Nigeria: Emaphire Reprographics, 2001). Kenya National Archives DC/KSI/3/2, quoted in Nehemiah M. Nyaundi, ‘The Beginning, Expansion and Future of Seventh-day Adventism in Kenya’, Journal of Adventist Theological Thought in Africa 2, no. 1 (1996): 8. W. W. Armstrong, ‘Kenya Colony’, Review and Herald 110, no. 04 (26 January 1933): 11. Kenya National Archives DC/KSI/1/4, quoted in Nyaundi ‘The Beginning’, 9. See the works of Kwame Bediako, Theology and Identity (Oxford: Regnum Press, 1992); Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, rev. exp. 2nd ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009); Lamin Sanneh, ‘Bible Translation and Ethnic Mobilization in Africa’, in New Paradigms for Bible Study: The Bible in the Third Millennium, ed. Robert M. Fowler (New York & London: T & T International, 2004). General Conference Committee, 20 April 1947, General Conference Archives, 476, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1947-04.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021. Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘Christianity and the Development of the Nigerian State’, in Nigerian Peoples and Cultures (Ibadan, Nigeria: Davidson, 1997), 142. Quoted in Norman Etherington, ‘Missionary Doctors and African Healers in Mid-Victorian South Africa’, South African Historical Journal, 14 (1987): 78. Megan Vaughan, Curing their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991), 56. Sherman A. Nagel, ‘Educating Medical Missionaries’, West-African Messenger 5, no. 1 (1951): 15. Nagel, ‘Educating Medical Missionaries’, 15. Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, 276. Etherington, ‘Education and Medicine’, 276. See also Andrew Porter, ‘An Overview, 1700–1914’, in Mission Empires, ed. Norman Etherington (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 40–63. Babalola, Sweet Memories, 20. Babalola, Sweet Memories, 21. Dudley U. Hale, ‘Cape Coast, West Africa’, Review and Herald, vo. 73, no. 24 (16 June 1896): 378. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 43. K. B. Elineema, ‘Development of the Adventist Church in Tanzania’ in The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Africa, ed. by E. Elineema (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: self-pub., 1992), 50. Elineema, ‘Development of the Adventist Church’, 51. See also, A. F. Bull, ‘A Trip in Upare, East Africa’, The Missionary Worker, vol. 32, no.18 (19 September 1927): 2. Elineema, ‘Development of the Adventist Church’, 51. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 14, 22, 44. Yvonne J. Öster, ‘Early Adventist Missions from Scandinavia’, in Contours of European Adventism: Issues in the History of the Denomination on the Old Continent, ed. Stefan Höschele and Chigemezi N. Wogu (Friedensau, Germany: Institute of Adventist Studies, 2020), 65. Öster, ‘Early Adventist Missions’, 65.

90 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 98 James L. Fly, Africa Adopted Us: The Story of Aimé and Madeleine Cosendai (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1987), 34. 99 Fly, Africa Adopted Us, 37. 100 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 24 September 1952, General Conference Archives, 947, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/ Minutes/GCC/GCC1952-09.pdf, accessed 29 April 2021. 101 Seventh-day Adventist Document File 3002.01, Heritage Room, Loma Linda University, quoted in Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking A Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 2nd ed. (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007), 14. 102 Booton Herndon, The Seventh Day (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), 1, 2. 103 Lewis R. Walton, et al., How You Can Live Six Extra Years (Santa Barbara, CA: Woodbridge, 1981); John Cook, ‘A Church Whose Members Have Less Cancer’, Saturday Evening Post, March 1984; Dan Buettner, ‘The Secrets of Long Life’, National Geographic, November 2005. 104 For a deeper understanding of religious economy, see Michael Taylor, Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Lawrence A. Young, Rational Choice Theory and Religion (London: Routledge, 1997). 105 Steve Bruce, Choice and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). 106 Abiodun A. Adesegun, ‘Babcock University’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia. adventist.org/article?id=3C2P&highlight=Babcock, accessed 10 June 2021. 107 For example, hymn 18 ‘Duniyaru Ndu Mere’, in Deftere Gimmi Be Fulfuldé (Maroua, Cameroun: Fédération Des Eglises Adventiste Du Septième, n.d.), 13. The song is an expression of a longing for the soon coming of Christ. 108 Nyaundi ‘The Beginning’, 9. See also Nyaundi, Religion and Social Change. 109 K. G. Webster, quoted in F. G. Clifford, ‘Mission Victories in Africa’, Review and Herald 128, no. 5 (1 February 1951): 8. 110 W. S. Hyatt, ‘Industrial Missions’, South African Missionary 2, no. 11 (1904): 2. 111 Mac Dixon-Fyle, ‘The Seventh-day Adventists (S.D.A) in the Protest Politics of the Tonga Plateau, The Northern Rhodesia’, African Social Research 26 (1978): 456. 112 Dixon-Fyle, ‘The Seventh-day Adventists’, 456. 113 O. Brozio, ‘Clothing for Africans Lepers’, Trans-Africa Division 63, no. 5 (1965): 1. 114 For more details on Haskell’s trip in Africa, see General Conference Committee, 1897, General Conference Archives, 289, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/ Minutes/FMBM/FMBM18970316.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 115 R. Visser, ‘The Work in South-West Africa’, Southern African Division Outlook, 1 November 1939, 4. See also, Lee L. Mubonenwa, Seventh-day Adventist Church History in Namibia (Windhoek, Namibia: John Meinert Printing, n.d.), 199; R. Visser, ‘The Work in South-West Africa’, Southern African Division Outlook, 1 November 1939, 4; C. S. Pike, ‘Literature Work in South-West Africa’, Southern African Division Outlook, 1 May 1940. 116 W. H. Anderson, ‘The Report of the Angola Union to the African Division Constituency’, African Division Outlook 27, no.15 (1929): 8–9; B. M. Heald, ‘Angola Items’, African Division Outlook 27, no. 19 (1929): 6–7. 117 E. W. Pedersen, ‘Nchwanga Training School’, The Advent Survey 10, no. 6 (1938): 7; M. E. Lind, ‘Eastern Uganda’, The Advent Survey 10, no. 6 (1938): 8. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia [SDAE], rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Uganda’. 118 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1932, 1933; Samuel Ndikumana, ‘The Fruit of a Work String: Beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism in Burundi’ (research paper, Friedensau Adventist University, 2010).

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part One 91 119 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Burundi’. 120 J. A. Morgado, ‘Thirty Years of God’s Work in Mozambique’, Adventist Review and Herald, 2 April 1964; António V. Waya, ‘Mozambique’, ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BD2D&highlight=Mozambique, accessed 6 May 2021; J. F. Wright, ‘Renewed Call to Evangelism’, African Division Outlook, 25 July 1929, 6; J. F. Wright, ‘A New Opening in Portuguese East Africa’, Adventist Review and Herald, 16 June 1932, 24. 121 General Conference Daily Bulletin 5, no. 2, (29 Jan. 1893). 122 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996) s. v. ‘Liberia’. 123 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 26 January 1914, General Conference Archives, 118, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1914.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 124 Details for the beginnings and development of Adventism in Nigeria can be found in David O. Babalola, On Becoming a Conference: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Yorubaland 1914–2002 (Ibadan, Nigeria: OSB Design Limited, 2002); David Izuma, A Short History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Eastern States of Nigeria, (Aba, Nigeria: Span Limited, n.d.); David O. Babalola, ‘Nigeria’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist. org/article?id=CC2R&highlight=Nigeria, accessed 7 May 2021. 125 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Sierra Leone’. 126 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 20 April 1947, General Conference Archives, 476, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1947-04.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021. 127 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Togo’. See also, Enyonam Kokoutsè Agbedigue, ‘Togo’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=7F5E&highlight= Togo. 128 Jacques Mansaly, ‘Senegal’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/ article?id=AG7J&highlight=Senegal, accessed 6 May 2021. 129 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Guinea-Bissau’. 130 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s.v. ‘Rwanda’. See also, Ngabo Jérôme Birikunzira, Implantation and Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rwanda (Saarbrücken, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010). 131 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Cameroon’. 132 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1968; Tony Ogouma, ‘Chad’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=4CBF&highlight=Chad, accessed May 06, 2021. 133 SDAE, rev. ed. (1996), s. v. ‘Congo [Brazzaville]’, (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1976). 134 Tony Ogouma, ‘Equatorial Guinea’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist. org/article?id=EE0P&highlight=cameroon#fn5, accessed 6 May 2021. 135 Tony Ogouma, ‘Gabon’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article? id=AE0O&highlight=cameroon, accessed, 6 May 2021. See also, SDAE, rev. ed. (1976), s. v. ‘Gabon’. 136 SDAE (1996), s.v. ‘Tunisia’; W. R. Beach, ‘Desperate Needs in Europe’, Adventist Review and Herald, 14 November 1946: 16; W. R. Beach, ‘Southern Europe’, Adventist Review and Herald, 127, no. 21 (15 May 1950): 19. 137 SDAE (1996), s.v. ‘Algeria’. 138 SDAE, rev. ed., (1996), s.v. ‘Morocco’; J. C. Raft, ‘Annual Meetings in North Africa’, AHR, 27 November 1930: 24; L.L. Caviness, ‘North Africa—No. 1’, AHR, 14 May 1931: 14; F. Jones, ‘Meetings in Northern Africa’, AHR, 14 December 1933: 14. 139 SDAE (1996), s.v. ‘Libya’. 140 SDAE (1996), s.v. ‘Sudan’.

4

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two Personalities, Moving Stories, and the Progress of Adventism in Africa (1886–1990)

The story of Adventism in Africa intersects with stories of individuals who sought to bring Africans to Christ. Western Adventist missionaries came from Europe and America during the time that Africans were still undergoing the trauma of racial discrimination, the complex of inferiority motivated by the Western spirit of superiority over the Blacks, and the Western mentality that Western culture was far superior to the African culture. In the midst of a complex society that favoured the denigration of the Blacks, White Adventist missionaries came to write history in Africa, surpassing cultural barriers, Western imperialism, and colonial besetment. That these missionaries were able to sow the seed of the Christian gospel amidst cultural and political imperialism was not a mystery. Ellen G. White’s active role in sending letters to pioneer missionaries in Africa helped reshape their vision. However, individualities, groomed in the context of Western hegemony, had their influence on missionary enterprise. This chapter will briefly examine the complex relationship between Adventist missionaries’ personalities and individualities within the context of cultural imperialism, stories of select missionaries whose contributions can be retraced, and the methods of White Adventist missionaries in early African Adventism.

Ellen White, Adventist Missionary Enterprise, and Western Cultural Imperialism Adventist missionaries were adepts of the fight against racial discrimination. They were abolitionists in their own right, for their views were shaped by their close collaboration with the Church’s pioneers, and the progressive acceptance of the writings of Ellen White. White not only advocated for the abolition of slavery in America, but also affirmed the equality of all races before God. White believed that slavery is a sin. She wrote that, All heaven beholds with indignation human beings, the workmanship of God, reduced by their fellow men to the lowest depths of degradation and placed on a level with the brute creation. Professed followers DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-5

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 93 of that dear Saviour whose compassion was ever moved at that the sight of human woe, heartily engage in this enormous and grievous sin, and deal in slaves and souls of men.1 In 1862, White noted that, ‘God is punishing this nation for the high crime of slavery. He has the destiny of the nation in His hands. He will punish the South for the sin of slavery, and the North for so long suffering its overreaching and overbearing influence’.2 Other Adventist pioneers such as Joseph Bates, James White, and John Loughborough all joined the fight against slavery in America. In reality, discourses in race relations in Adventism can be better understood within the history of race relations in America. American Adventists of the nineteenth century condemned the practice of slavery. In the 1830s for instance, Joseph Bates, one of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism, and a leading Millerite, organized an antislavery society. He affirmed that ‘[my] duty was clear that I could not be a consistent Christian if I stood on the side of the oppressor, for God was not there. Neither could I claim his promises if I stood on neutral ground. Hence, my only alternative was to plead for the slave, and thus I decided’.3 Bates denounced the evil of slavery. He stood with the Black people in the South to preach the Gospel to them.4 Other early Seventh-day Adventist proponents of the abolition of slavery included men such as Joshua V. Himes, Charles Fitch, George Storrs, and John Byington, later the first president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.5 Thus, Adventist apocalyptic understanding and descriptions of historical occurrences of their time made them agents of the fight against racial discrimination. They laboured in Africa with a sense of the urgency of the coming of Christ, and the imminent destruction of the world in which the evil of racism and discrimination abounded. However, Adventist missionaries had their humanness and limitations. In the South African context, true brotherhood and sisterhood was restricted to Westerners; a sense of true equality between Africans and Westerners was barely visible. Western imperial mentality was observable in almost all Western missionaries who came to Africa between the 1880s and the 1970s. ‘African humanity was not part of universal humanity. Therefore, Africans could be treated like creatures less than human. They could be deprived of privileges, of power and of the right to decision-making. They had to be receptacles of the gospel, not its dispensers’.6 A close evaluation of the writings of Adventist historian Arthur Spalding (1877–1953) highlights the spirit of imperialism and American hegemony that could be illustrative of greater struggles among Adventist Whites of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spalding described various missionary activities of Western Adventist missionaries in Africa. He referred to Africans as ‘barbaric’. Spalding demonstrated the popular prejudices of his time towards the Blacks. He viewed their innate capacities as

94 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two inferior to the Whites. At times, he used words that would be offensive to modern sensibilities, including ‘nigger’, ‘negro’, and similar words demonstrating the racial prejudices of his time.7 The writings of Spalding revealed an inner struggle within the conscience of some White Adventists. This racism was linked to several areas of Church policy, such as inequality in the pay for the same job within the same structure, separate dining areas for Black people (Black people were not able to eat in the Review and Herald cafeteria with their White colleagues until the 1950s), nonadmission to Adventist hospitals because of race, and segregation of Blacks and Whites in worship, especially after the 1890s.8 It is difficult to separate American and European cultural and racial hegemony from the nineteenth-century Christian missionary enterprise. Winthrop Hudson noted that nineteenth-century American missionary activities were entwined with the political interests of American expansionism across the world.9 During the presidency of William McKinley (1897–1901), the United States linked American imperial and cultural interest with missionary interests. America viewed itself at that time as the major world power and the chief evangelizer in the world. As American missionaries travelled to the Pacific, the Philippines, and Africa, they portrayed a master-servant mentality as a reflection of their cultural hegemony. Ellen White thus requested the Adventist missionaries in Africa to make a difference by exalting Christ and loving their Black brethren. She later noted: ‘Many who have been looked upon as hopeless will become educators of their [Black] race. Through the grace of God, the race that the enemy has for generations oppressed may rise to the dignity of God-given manhood and womanhood’.10 She kept a distance from the rampant evil of racial discrimination and condemned its practice among Seventh-day Adventists. She affirmed that ‘the fact that their skin is dark does not prove that they are sinners above the White race’.11 Although White Adventist missionaries struck a balance between imperialism and gospel ministry, the fact that they were brought up in societies which regarded Whites as superiors blinded them to the full equality of the races. When they came to Africa, they avoided interference with governmental affairs that supported racism. In South Africa, the social realities were very complex, as depicted within the context of Apartheid. White missionaries were viewed as accomplices of the government that maintained and promoted social inequality and racial segregation.12 Not that White missionaries necessarily supported segregationally oriented policies, but they did not pledge public support for the cause of marginalized South Africans, for instance. White missionaries in South Africa maintained a neutral position. The prophets in Israel, however, did not maintain silence in the face of oppression and injustice (Micah 6: 8–10). In her general message to Adventist missionaries, Ellen White stated that ‘whatever may be the nationality or colour, whatever may be the social condition, the missionary for God will look upon all men as the purchased

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 95 of the blood of Christ, and will understand that there is no caste with God. No one is to be looked upon with indifference, or to be regarded as unimportant; for every soul has been purchased with an infinite price’.13 She also wrote that ‘the black man’s name is written in the book of life beside the white man’s. All are one in Christ. Birth, station, nationality, or colour cannot elevate or degrade men. The character makes man. If … an African gives his heart to God in obedience and faith, Jesus loves him nonetheless for his colour. He calls him His well-beloved brother’.14 Perhaps, it was with the intention of supporting the Adventist mission in Africa, within the context of colonial and cultural denigration of the Blacks, that White wrote several letters to Adventist missionaries in Africa. The first batch of Adventist missionaries left America for Cape Town with a memorable letter from Ellen White, ‘having become deeply interested in their mission’, dated 18 June 1887, and addressed to all seven of them.15 It expressed her commitment to Adventist mission: ‘We have a great and sacred trust in the elevated truths committed to us’.16 White wanted the missionaries to expose Adventist beliefs to Africans. She warned the missionaries to be ready to face hardship and adventures. They could only expect small remuneration from the General Conference (the governing body of Seventh-day Adventism). White wrote that ‘the men who will give themselves to the great work of teaching the truth are not the men who will be bribed with wealth or frightened by poverty’.17 Each missionary should constantly ask important questions: ‘What am I? And what ought I to be and do?’18 Self-examination was necessary. In her subsequent letters to specific missionaries and individuals in Africa, White continued to express her commitment to the establishment of Seventhday Adventism in Africa. For this reason, she cautioned the missionaries about their obvious shortcomings that were detrimental to their mission. In her letter dated 25 June 1887, White addressed Brother Boyd and Miss. C. L. Boyd, who were set to be missionaries in Africa. After she appreciated their missionary zeal, she pointed out their deficiencies. She warned them about their self-exaltation. White wrote: ‘As you are to begin work in a new mission, be careful that your defects are not exalted as virtues, and thus retard the work of God’.19 White was aware of the fact that missionary activities were about sacred exposition of God’s Word and the truth it contains. She was not afraid of exposing the missionaries to their weaknesses, which could hinder the missionary endeavour. Ellen White also frequently corresponded with A. T. Robinson, another prominent American missionary who was sent to Africa in 1891. Ellen White wrote him letters of encouragement while she was in Australia. In line with her shared address to all Adventist missionaries in Africa, she reiterated that A. T. Robinson should not give in to discouragement. ‘Jesus gave His life for us, that we should not perish, but believe in Him and have everlasting life. And shall we distrust God for one moment, when He has given us such evidence of His love? No, no; my soul cries out for the living

96 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two water of life that I may refresh others’.20 Her message was expressive of her commitment for the establishment of Adventism in Africa. In her letter dated 27 April 1898, she expressed her words of consolation to Mary Tripp who lost her husband. ‘We were distressed as we heard of the death of your husband in the far-off land of Africa, and you may be assured that you have our sympathies’.21 The goal of this letter was to provide words of consolation to Mary Tripp. The tender spirit of White was a demonstration of her commitment to uplift the spirit of missionaries who suffered in Africa. While in Australia, Ellen White sent a letter to W. S. Hyatt, who was labouring in Africa. She saw Hyatt as an instrument for the furthering of Adventist mission in Africa. She wrote that ‘it is God’s plan to work through His instrumentalities, His chosen earthen vessels, and men are honoured when He places them as His appointed messengers’.22 Ellen White’s letters were instrumental for the establishment of Adventist mission in Africa within the setting of Western cultural imperialism. Although she did not live long enough to witness the growth of Adventism in this continent, she was hopeful that Africans would, in large number, accept the Adventist faith. Ellen White has become a household name in Africa today. As affirmed by George R. Knight, ‘It is good to be a living prophet. But it may be better to be a dead one’.23 Ellen White was little known in Africa at the time of her death, but she became very popular among African Seventh-day Adventists long after her death because of her writings. This appreciation of Ellen White has a deep historical foundation. She supported the emancipation of Blacks, and called on the White missionaries to treat the Africans as their own brethren. Her love for Africans was immense at a time when most Whites denigrated the Blacks. Adventist missionaries in Africa cherished her counsels over the years; even those who came to Africa long after her death would have benefited from her teachings, instructions, admonitions, and words of encouragement.

Select Adventist Missionaries in Africa This section will examine the missionary activities of a number of White Adventist missionaries across Africa. Each of the individuals discussed here is selected partly due to the availability of sources to retrace their achievements, but also for their contributions to Adventism, and, in particular, the regional impact that each of them made. Therefore, not all the Adventist missionaries who laboured in Africa will be discussed, but only those who have laboured across different regions of Africa. Each of their stories, in the regions where they served, demonstrates their passion and commitment to the expansion of Adventism across Africa. William H. Anderson spent 50 years in active service in Africa, and his contributions to the development of Adventism in Africa cannot be underestimated. He was born in Mexico, Indiana on 25 June 1870. His parents

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 97 were Elijah and Naomi (Pierson) Anderson. He attended Battle Creek College and was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1889. He married Nora Haysmer on 24 October 1893, with whom he journeyed to Africa for a life of missionary activities. In Africa, their daughter Naomi Anderson (Hively) was born in 1899.24 The Andersons sailed from New York to South Africa on 10 April 1895, along with George and Mary Tripp and their son George; Dr. A. S Carmichael joined them at Cape Town. On 22 May, they all departed Cape Town for Solusi. At first they travelled by train, but later had to continue their journey by ox-drawn covered wagons for seven weeks, as this was the means of transportation in the local area, before reaching Solusi on 26 July.25 When the Andersons arrived in Solusi, they lived in mud-built houses; it was not until much later that suitable habitation for missionaries was constructed. As noted in Chapter 2, in the early 1890s Solusi had been devastated by local diseases. By 1901, most of the Adventist missionaries working at Solusi had been either killed or disabled by the disease, and William and Nora Anderson were the only active missionaries. In the midst of such discouraging circumstances, the Andersons continued their missionary work with dedication. Such devotion was rewarded. On 1 December 1900, Jim Mainza, a native African, was baptized. He was subsequently ordained in the gospel ministry in the Adventist Church in 1922. As Adventist missionaries defied the threat of deadly local diseases by joining Adventist missions across Southern Africa, William Anderson and his co-workers journeyed in 1903 to Zambia, travelling 1,000 miles by foot for four months. The incredible dedication of crossing deadly rivers and jungles with the aim of reaching Africans with the gospel was noteworthy, and was appreciated by the colonial authorities. Cecil Rhodes asked Anderson to work among the Batonga tribe in Zambia. Rhodes sent him to Chief Monze, who was usually unfriendly to colonial authorities, but Monze helped Anderson identify a suitable site for an industrial school at Pemba (renamed Rusangu), which later became ‘the center of a satellite system of self-supporting schools’. In subsequent years, Anderson superintended missionary activities in this region through the financial support of Seventh-day Adventists from North America. With such help from abroad, William, Nora, and eight-year-old Naomi persevered in mission activities at Rusangu. They once again lived in a mud-built house before the completion of a solid and suitable house. On 24 November 1907, Nora contracted blackwater fever, to which she succumbed on 4 February 1908. Her death left Anderson in perplexity, although his passion for the mission of Christ did not diminish.26 He later married Mary Elizabeth Perin, on 10 May 1910, and together they continued the missionary work in Africa. In 1919, Anderson travelled to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (today Botswana) to pioneer the Adventist message. He served there from 1919 to 1924, when he became superintendent of the Angola Union Mission until 1933. The following year, Anderson was appointed a field secretary to the

98 Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two Southern Africa Division. Anderson celebrated his fiftieth anniversary as a missionary in Africa on 26 July 1944. The Andersons returned to the United States in 1945, after 50 years of fruitful missionary work in Africa. His legacy can be appropriately summarized by his own words: ‘I have given my money, my strength, my wife, and I intend to give the rest of my poor self to finish the work God has given me to do. I want you who read these lines to ask yourself that question, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”’27 One of the most influential missionaries in North Africa, and a key pioneer figure in Algeria and Morocco, was Albert Meyer.28 He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1889, and his family were among the first Adventist converts in the town. Meyer was of a humble background. He worked in various capacities, including in a food factory, known as Aliment Pur, and training as a tailor, before accepting a call to become a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He married Marguerite Michaud in 1915 and, together, they accepted the missionary call to Africa in 1921. He was a superintendent of the mission field that supervised the Adventist work in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. With the creation of the North African Union in 1928, Meyer became superintendent of the Moroccan mission. He moved with his family to Casablanca.29 Albert Meyer conducted the first baptism in Morocco in 1925. In 1928, Morocco became a mission field with Meyer as president. Later, Ernest Veuthey and his wife settled in Fez. R. R. Hilborn and his wife, two medical doctors from North America, came in as self-supporting medical missionaries between 1932 and 1933. A church building was constructed in January 1958. By 1964, the mission field had five churches and 165 members, although the work became difficult as the government prohibited the Seventh-day Adventist Church from operating. Meyer returned with his family to France in 1936, and died in 1963, at 74 years old. His contribution to Adventism in Africa was significant. He was the key pioneer of Adventism in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. He worked among Muslims with determination, although he was more influential among the European community in North African than the indigenous people. His legacy to North African Adventism, however, speaks even today.30 Another missionary, who was instrumental in the establishment of Adventism in Kenya, was Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen, the first Seventhday Adventist missionary to Kenya. He was born in Canada in 1879 to George and Ordelia. He joined the Adventist Church with his parents in the United States in 1899. His father was a man with many skills, who taught his son carpentry, metalwork, blacksmithing, and even farming.31 He attended school until he was 10 years old, but he was able to read and write, which enabled him to serve as a Bible interpreter. In fact, because of his commitment to God’s word, he was recruited by A. G. Daniells to be a worker for Adventism in Britain, in order to strengthen the colporteur evangelism in Wales, Scotland, and England. He later went to Newbold College to train in

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 99 theology, and was spotted by L. R. Conradi, the president of the European Division. He was ordained into the gospel ministry in England 1906, the same year he completed his course at Newbold.32 In 1906, just after his ordination, Carscallen accepted a call to Kenya, in British East Africa. It was a privilege to receive such a call, because ‘between 1906 and 1956 generations of British Adventist youth were brought up with the belief that overseas mission service was the highest form of service to Christ’.33 At that time, Arthur was courting Helen Bruce Thomson. Therefore, as Arthur went to Kenya, he requested the European Division to send Helen a year later. Carscallen sailed from Hamburg on 1 October 1906 with Peter Nyambo, a Malawian who had gone to Newbold College for training. On their way to Mombasa, they met A. C. Ennis, a German missionary, at the island port of Tanga, in Tanganyika (today Tanzania). Together, they travelled from Tanga to Mombasa on 27 November 1906. They were welcomed by an Anglican priest belonging to the local Church Missionary Society. But their final destination was not Mombasa. They travelled 600 miles (960 km) by rail to Winam Gulf, in the northeast of Lake Victoria in Southwestern Kenya. They found residence in Ogango, but they later moved to Gendia, which became the first mission station.34 On 27 November 1906, Arthur Carscallen described his excitement about how they befriended the natives: The country here is very thickly settled with a most friendly class of natives. We can stand on our hill and count about two hundred villages, each of the nearest ones sending us a present of at least a fowl. The natives have made friends with us quite quickly, and we now have a good deal of company every day. The chiefs have shown themselves most friendly and have come to see us several times. Whenever they come they bring us some little present. One brought a fine sheep the other day. Another, who wants two boys educated, brought us a fine young bullock, nearly full grown, to pay for the education of the boys. Other missionaries say it is best to take something that way from the chiefs as it makes people feel that the education is worth something. We hope that at least one more chief will be liberal enough to bring another bullock as two will be of use to us later on the mission farm.35 J. Delmer Baker and his wife, Ane, arrived on the scene on 27 July 1907 to support Carscallen in his work in Kenya, bringing Carscallen’s fiancée, Helen. On the day of their arrival, Arthur and Helen married. Reverend Wright, an Anglican priest, conducted the wedding in an Anglican cathedral. Delmer was the best man, while Ane was the Matron of Honour. They also accompanied the newlyweds on their ‘honeymoon’ which was next day and comprised one of the most spectacular rail journeys the world has to offer, not only because of the awesome terrain but also

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In spite of being in a foreign country, Carscallen was able to celebrate a true love with his wife Helen. They worked hand-in-hand to advance Adventism in Kenya with equal passion. Carscallen learnt the language of the Luos, and spoke it fluently. He translated some passages of the New Testament, which were published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. He also wrote a standard Dholuo grammar textbook, which was used by other missionaries in Kenya.37 Helen was a seamstress, and she cared about the fact that the Luos would need clothes. She not only solicited clothes from Europe for the Luos, but made clothes for them herself.38 Because of her missionary activities, which consisted of clothing the poor, she became a ‘useful cotton-grower while the cotton was used to make clothes’.39 Carscallen and his wife provided exemplary missionary work that was truly inspired by Jesus. They ministered to both the people’s spiritual and physical needs. In Kenya, 16 people were baptized on 21 May 1911. Gradually, Adventism became established in Kenya. Unfortunately, during World War I, the Germans became suspicious, and several missions were looted and destroyed, while the workers were taken as prisoners of war. Providentially, Carscallen was spared.40 Carscallen returned to the United States in 1921, but Helen died in the same year. In 1924, he married Anita Johnson, with whom he continued the gospel ministry until his death in 1964, in California.41 Arthur and Helen Carscallen’s legacy to Adventism in Africa was significant. Both worked hard to establish Adventism in Kenya, and Kenyans benefited from their service in many ways. They baptized the first converts to Adventism in Kenya and, with the support of other missionaries, they built Adventist schools and introduced the skills of commercial farming by creating a large cotton farm. In 1913, Carscallen set up a printing plant at Gendia, which was later known as the Africa Herald Publishing House. In Central Africa, a remarkable and influential missionary who shaped the lives of Africans in at least three countries, Ruanda (Rwanda), Urundi (Burundi), and Congo (Republic Democratic of Congo), was David Delhove. He and his wife, Virginie, were pioneer missionaries to these three countries. Delhove was born in Belgium to François and Joséphine on 9 June 1882. David’s parents were farmers and David learnt farming skills. He had a basic education, but dropped out of high school. Later, he engaged in various manual activities, including shoe repair, to support himself. Delhove first heard of Adventism by reading tracts sent to people in Belgium by Seventhday Adventists from Canada. Subsequently, he attended an evangelistic meeting organized by Joseph Curdy, an Adventist from Switzerland. David and Virginie, who were simply friends at this time, were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1906.42 The two were married on 22 April 1909.43

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 101 Delhove and Virginie went to England, where both of them received training in nursing. In 1913, the couple received the call to be missionaries in Kamagambo, in British East Africa, near Lake Victoria. However, Delhove travelled alone first, in order to explore the mission field before letting his wife join him. The European Division advised that ‘husbands going to do pioneer work would do so under primitive conditions; that such would be no place for women and young children—not for a while’.44 Delhove left his family in Belgium while he joined missionaries working in East Africa. However, as the missionaries were enthusiastically carrying out their work, World War I broke out. During this period, the British East African missions were traumatized; some of them were ransacked. Delhove lost contact with his family. As he struggled whether to go back to Belgium or continue to wait for a better opportunity to go on with the missionary activity, he decided to join the Belgian army in East Africa. As a member of the Belgian army, he was appointed the district commissioner at Rutshuru, which was on the border of Ruanda-Urundi. Since he was a trained nurse, the Belgian army employed him as food and medicine supplier. He was also a tax collector and, at the same time, a police chief. But, as a devout Adventist, he did not want to use a gun. He advocated for the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. He shared his faith with his comrades, and anyone he had contact with. He treated the wounded, cared for their needs, and studied the Bible with them. Even in time of war, Delhove never lost a chance to spread the good news of the love of God to humanity. He also examined the possibilities of establishing a mission field on the border of Ruanda-Urundi territory, a place where he was later to serve officially as a missionary. Eventually, Delhove was given a furlough to England in May 1918. After more than five months in England, he reunited with his family in December. Thereafter, Delhove and his family left Belgium and arrived in the Belgian Congo as official missionaries in March 1919.45 The region was not that strange to him since he had worked there with the Belgian army during the war, and he was a familiar figure to the Belgian authorities.46 In this territory, at the border of Ruanda-Urundi, Delhove established the first mission station at Gitwe. His choice for this mission field was courageous, because Gitwe was under the anathema of local deities; it was ‘the place of skulls’. Several bones and skulls of human beings were found in this area.47 Yet, Delhove decided to establish his mission station there, contrary to the expectation of the local community. As the community observed that Delhove defied the gods, the natives began following him and listened to his preaching. They wanted to know more about the divine power through which Delhove was able to resist the curse of the deities. Initially, they were afraid of the White people, but later the fear was overcome as they experienced the love of the missionaries. The prejudices they held against the Whites waned and paved the way for the gospel.48

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Delhove was ordained into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1922.49 A year later, he was able to conduct his first baptism, during which five people joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including his own daughter, Lydie.50 Thus, Gitwe proved to be a successful mission station for Delhove. With this experience, he was given the opportunity to be a pioneer missionary at the Buganda mission in the province of Cibitoye (Burundi). In 1925, Delhove and his family moved to Buganda,51 and Gitwe mission was left under the aegis of Henry Monier, a missionary from Switzerland. The Delhoves were not only the first Adventist missionaries to penetrate the region of modern-day Burundi after World War I, but also the first Protestant missionaries in the area.52 In this new mission station, Delhove’s ministry flourished right from its inception. His ability to communicate with indigenous people in their own language, which he learnt during his years of military service in the Belgian Army and at Gitwe, was remarkable. He built mission schools and a dispensary. After three years of active service at Buganda, Delhove and his family returned to Gitwe mission station. They continued to provide strong leadership that fostered the development of Adventism in Burundi. Also, as someone who had received training in manual activities, he had a boot repair shop, even as a missionary in a foreign land.53 In 1929, Delhove and his family moved to Congo, where his daughter Lydie worked as a medical nurse at Songa Seventh-day Adventist Hospital, and his second daughter, Lucy, became a teacher at the Songa mission school.54 Despite their resounding success in ministry, Delhove’s family was not without their low point. Delhove, in an attempt to secure the natives, supported the government to arrest a witch doctor who reputedly metamorphosed into a leopard to kill people. When it was apparent that Delhove had cooperated with the government in this regard, the indigenes rebelled against the government and its workers. The Southern African Division voted the permanent return of the Delhoves to Belgium, but this decision did not sit well with the family, as they were still eager to continue the mission for which they had left everything in Europe.55 They relocated to the south of Kirundu Mission in Congo in 1939 and continued their missionary enterprise there. Sadly, the family were involved in a car accident while travelling on furlough in 1943 and Lucy, who had joined the family on the holiday trip, died in the accident. In 1945, the Southern Africa Division voted the retirement of the Delhoves, but because of their love for Africans, they refused to travel back to Belgium. So, they became self-supporting missionaries. They built their retirement house in the Belgian Congo, and were given a sustentation fund by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. David Delhove died on 12 March 1949, at the age of 60, four years after his retirement.56 Just two weeks before his death, the Belgium government gave him a medal known as ‘Chevalier de l’ Ordre de Léopold II’. He was granted a military funeral as a

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 103 war veteran. At his funeral, it was noted that ‘every contact was for Elder Delhove an opportunity to witness to the truth and only the day of final reckoning will show the extent of the Christian influence of this man of God. He sleeps, but his works do follow him. He awaits the return of His Lord, whom he loved and served so long’.57 After he passed away, his wife, Virginie, continued living with her children in Congo until her death in 1963, at the age of 79.58 The legacy of David and Virginie Delhove to the establishment and progress of Adventism in Africa was significant. They worked with unreserved commitment to spread the gospel among Africans in Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo. They were pioneers and historical figures of Adventism in Central Africa. They were missionaries who not only provided spiritual and physical care to Africans, but fought for the social stability of their communities. They had six children, Lydie, Lucy, Clara, Edna, Jean, and Paul; some were medical professionals, others were teachers and church employees. They came to Africa to evangelize; they captured the hearts of Africans for Jesus and lived among them as true brethren. They did not think of comfort in their own land, but hoped for a better future for the people to whom they came to minister. Among the Adventist missionaries who have made indelible marks in the history of African Adventism is a Swiss missionary, Maria Haseneder, who was born on 2 October 1901, in Zürich.59 She received training at the Wadfriede Adventist Nursing Training School in Berlin. She was a medical missionary in Ethiopia, the Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, and South Africa. She had extraordinary potential that enabled her to expose holistic gospel truth to her patients. Though she was a nurse, she acted as a minister as well, for she prayed for the healing of her patients, had Bible study with them, and nurtured them in the faith. Haseneder’s missionary journey in Africa began in 1928 in Ethiopia, where she worked at Dessie mission station. She travelled from Addis Ababa to Dessie mission on mules and caravans. For a European lady to adjust right from her arrival to the means of transportation used in the region where she travelled was an expression of a devotion and passion for missionary activity. As she arrived at Dessie, she took up the responsibility to be a teacher at the mission station. Because she wanted to be efficient, she learnt Amharic.60 She avoided any issue relating to language deficiency.61 At Dessie, she worked with Dr. Bergman and his wife. As they arrived, they healed the sick. They soon founded a hospital at Dessie that was instrumental in the spread of the Adventist message in Ethiopia. It was ‘the only medical help to inhabitants in a radius of about 150 miles’.62 People came en masse to the hospital and received healing from various diseases. However, when local witch doctors realized that the arrival of White people brought relief, healing, and celebration to the communities, they devised means to counteract their influence. Soon, rumour started to circulate that the Whites were cannibals, and that their white skin could only be sustained when they drank human blood. Such a rumour had a negative impact on

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the mission. People stopped coming to the hospital for healing as they feared for their lives, especially following the death of a patient who was admitted to the hospital; no one was ready to be the second victim. Dr. Bergman, his wife, and Haseneder had to develop strategies to win back people’s hearts. They befriended the natives and gave them gifts; a gesture which further deepened the witch doctors’ resentment against the Whites. Haseneder never lost any opportunity for evangelism. She never received training in pastoral work, but acted as a spiritual guide to people. Like Paul the Apostle, she went to the marketplaces in Addis Alem to speak about Jesus to Ethiopians.63 With such a passion, she was given the privilege of being the director of the girls’ school in the capital city, Addis Ababa.64 After just four years in Ethiopia, she had to travel back to Switzerland on health grounds. However, she was excited about missionary work and wanted to be back in Africa. To boost her efficiency in her calling, she travelled to Belgium to take a course in tropical medicine in Antwerp. With this basic training, added to the experience she received at Lake Geneva Sanatorium from 1933 to 1937, she was ready to return to Africa. During her return to Europe, she had hoped to marry a German man, but he died, cutting short her dream of being married, and she returned to Africa alone. In 1937, Haseneder finally returned to Africa: not to Ethiopia, but the Belgian Congo (Ruanda-Urundi). Now, with basic training in tropical medicine, she could work as a professional nurse. She joined Henry Monnier and his wife at Rwankeri mission station to assist in medical work.65 In 1942, she accepted the call to assist as medical personnel in Nokuphila Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. There, she also worked as a part-time instructor for nurses. In July 1946, she returned to Switzerland to take care of her mother. She soon found a job with the German Swiss conference, where she worked from 1948 to 1957. In 1957, she went back to Africa. She was sent to Ngoma Mission Hospital in the Belgian Congo. Later, she was sent to Songa Seventh-day Adventist hospital, where she took care of lepers and other patients. Later, she worked in Rhodesia (Zambia). She retired in 1961 and went back home to Switzerland after a brief stay in India, where she also worked as a nurse. She died on 16 June 1995, when she was 94 years old. Her missionary achievement was remarkable and worthy of appreciation. She stands together with all the male missionaries who worked with her in Africa between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries as a great historical figure for Adventism in Africa. One of the most influential historical figures to champion Adventism in three West African countries, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, was David Babcock, born on 12 September 1854. He received training in pastoral ministry and became a pastor in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He married Ann Davis in 1875 and they had three children. In 1901, Ann died, and he later married Mina Bradshaw, with whom he travelled to Africa as missionaries.

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 105 They were not the first Adventist missionaries to have come to West Africa; Edward L. Sanford, Karl G. Rudolph, and J. M. Hyatt had worked there earlier, as highlighted in Chapter 2. Adventism took its shape in West Africa with the arrival of Babcock, who spent 12 years labouring in Sierra Leone, Ghana, and later Nigeria. He arrived in July 1905 and first resided in Sierra Leone. He was a visionary leader who inspired mission stations in West Africa to build several schools. Babcock understood that educational institutions were a means through which Adventism could become established in West Africa. In 1906, he began a day school in Ghana, with the assistance of American missionaries, W. H. Lewis and his wife. From that year onward, school buildings, dispensaries, and churches were erected almost every year across Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria. One of his successful ministerial works was the baptism of 50 people, as early as 1910, in the Axim area of Sierra Leone. He used the opportunity to erect churches in which these believers and new converts could worship. He built two churches for them, one at Axim and another one at Kikam. Between 1905 and 1913, he coordinated missionary activities mainly in Sierra Leone and Ghana, and these years saw the construction of churches, schools, and dispensaries in the two countries. In 1914, Babcock arrived in Lagos, Nigeria. He travelled to the interior of Yorubaland in order to identify a suitable location for the first mission station in the country. He soon received an invitation from the chief of Ibadan to come and establish the mission in his region. Babcock reported that the chief gave him an invitation to open Adventist work in a city of 18,000 people.66 He established his first mission at Erunmu, in the vicinity of Ibadan. With this small but encouraging beginning, Babcock continued working with determination. He worked day and night, and had little, as he was driven by the passion to spread the gospel of Christ to Nigerians. He used the evangelistic strategy that had proved to be successful in Sierra Leone and Ghana, by constructing schools and health institutions. The chief, his family members, and his associates were among the first converts of Babcock in Erunmu.67 As the work was being established in Erunmu, Babcock relinquished the responsibility of this mission station to his colleagues and then travelled to Ilorin, in Kwara State of modern Nigeria, a Muslim-dominated area. He was asked to travel seven miles from Ilorin, to Sao, to establish his new mission station. As soon as he arrived in Sao, Babcock opened a village school, which was endorsed by the government in 1918; it served as a training ground for national leaders. In Sao, he also built a church, which was instrumental in sending local pioneers to other areas in Yorubaland. With this strategy, he conquered Yorubaland with the Adventist message. With the strategic construction of schools and dispensaries, Babcock became famous in Yorubaland. Ordinary people and local chiefs called on him to come and establish his mission in their territories. Some were fascinated by Babcock’s passion for Christian truths; others, mostly the chiefs,

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were concerned about the education that his mission schools fostered. In Ijero-Ekiti, an Anglican convert requested Babcock to come to his village to preach the Sabbath truth. Babcock answered the call and went to preach from house to house. The result was tremendous, and a church building was erected in the area. About 78 people were baptized in a single day.68 People abandoned the Anglican faith and joined the Adventist faith, which kept the Sabbath. The popularity of Babcock increased to the point that, in 1917, he requested the General Conference to send additional missionaries to Nigeria. In 1923, Jessie Clifford was sent to the Eastern region of Nigeria, and later, in 1930, Adventism was pioneered in the northern part of the country through J. J. Hyde. In 1917, Babcock fell sick due to tropical diseases. While he was laying the foundation of a church building in Ipoti, his sickness grew worse. He was taken to Oshogbo in a hammock. From this village, he was taken to Lagos by train. He was immediately taken to England with his family. It was in ‘this unceremonious way that a stop was put to Elder D. C. Babcock’s work, ably started in Yorubaland in 1914’.69 Fortunately, he recovered from his illness, but never returned to Africa. He died in Arlington, Virginia on 7 April 1932. Babcock was the father of Adventism in West Africa. His 12 years of missionary activities in the region of Africa brought Adventism into the spotlight and made it a very competitive religious movement among the religious groups. Through the building of village schools, hospitals, and churches, he left an indelible mark on the West African religious market. Other missionaries whose contributions to African Adventism were significant, especially in its early days, are numerous. These missionaries worked in Africa before the wind of African independence in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, other missionaries, some as pioneer missionaries, replaced those who had to return to their home country. Others joined the missionary enterprises between the 1960s and the 1980s. (See Appendix I) All these missionaries constituted the real founders of Adventism in Africa. In their own capacities, they laboured for the establishment, progress, and development of the Church. They came from different backgrounds; some from established families, but the majority from average families in terms of financial capability. Some were well educated, with university degrees, such as medicine, theology, or nursing. Others had only received a basic education. They all worked with noble intentions, everyone giving his or her best to the establishment and expansion of the Adventist faith in Africa.

White Missionary Methods and Strategies The Adventist missionaries in Africa used health and educational institutions as centres for evangelism. By so doing, they provided humanitarian projects to meet the physical needs of the suffering Africans. As they reached out to

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 107 people through pragmatic ways, the ears of the people they ministered to opened for the reception of the Word of God. It is commonly said that le ventre affamé n’a pas d’oreilles (‘an empty belly has no ears’). As the missionaries provided health services, they trained the locals in tropical medicine and educated the Africans on modern agricultural techniques. They succeeded in proving the genuine nature of their work against the popular accusation of being the handmaids of the colonizers. Such approaches were adopted by missionaries in all parts of Africa. The sacrifice of W. H. Anderson, who spent 50 years in Africa trekking and crossing jungles in Southern Africa and Congo, speaks to the genuineness of the Adventist faith.70 The passion for ministry of E. L. Sanford, R. G. Rudolph, and D. U. Hale that brought them face-to-face with deadly mosquitoes in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), was clear evidence that spoke in favour of the faith they expressed. Such sacrifices for the good of the local people in Africa changed the mentality of the natives, who had viewed Adventist missionaries as connected with the exploitation of the imperial colonies. William H. Anderson in Angola, Carscallen in Kenya, Ole Andres Olsen and John Luis Shaw in South Africa, Babcock, W. T. B. Hyde, and Jessie Clifford in Nigeria, among many others, adopted practical and useful methodologies that touched lives through exemplary and Christ-like behaviour. Another efficient methodology employed by White missionaries was the training of local pioneers in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The missionaries intelligently sought to follow Christ’s method, which consisted in training a number of individuals, who in turn were to train others. The General Conference Executive committee noted on 21 September 1904, that, ‘the need of Africa is trained and disciplined men, able to learn languages and teach and train students’.71 This appeal was centred on the Western missionaries who needed to be trained in order to train Africans. Several trained and well-educated missionaries decided to embark to Africa. On 26 October 1948, the GC executive committee reported that ‘a great responsibility therefore rests upon the workers in Africa in looking after those 50,000 men and women, boys and girls, who are in training’.72 So, the White missionaries trained indigenous people to spread the gospel. It was noted at the GC executive meeting that ‘the task of the European worker is to train and lead the native worker into soul saving service’.73 Through their help, they organized evangelistic meetings, which resulted in bringing more people to Adventism in Africa.74 In 1948, an estimated 992 evangelistic meetings took place across Africa.75 Thousands of people attended the meetings, which were mostly held in the evenings. The White missionaries stood not only as mentors but travelled with local pioneers to villages where they met local chiefs or kings of kingdoms to secure their approval in order to preach about the Adventist faith. This method, which sought to make friends of the traditional elite, helped reduce local hostility against the missionaries. White missionaries also used literature evangelism as a channel to reach intellectuals.76 Through the selling of books, the early political leaders in

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Africa were reached with the Word of God. Added to this method was evangelism by correspondence through the Voice of Prophecy series.77 In 1948, the General Conference reported that ‘The Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence School is one of the outstanding features of our work. 165,000 people have taken the course’.78 Several individuals were able to receive the Adventist message by simply enroling for the Voice of Prophecy studies. Evangelism through camp meetings was also efficient and brought people to the Adventist faith. White Adventist missionaries adopted methods that helped them achieve a significant goal. These methods, as highlighted in this chapter, were very pragmatic, as they responded primarily to the needs of the people. However, the White missionaries came with cultural baggage, which sometimes hindered the adoption of creative methods that could have brought appropriate responses to practices related to African traditional religious systems. The missionaries thought that they could replace African customs with Christian Adventist customs. Unfortunately, a lack of critical contextualization of the gospel, in the early stages of African Adventism, left a vacuum in the psyche of converts from families devoted to African traditional religious beliefs, and this will be explored in Chapter 8.

Conclusion Adventism in Africa was established through the coordinated efforts of Western missionaries. They came from Europe and America, all with the same purpose of spreading the faith of Jesus to Africans. Most of them came during a period when missionaries of other denominations had already entered Africa. But Adventist missionaries, through their dedication to the principles of divine truth, excelled in preaching the gospel message to people. They won the hearts of Africans and, by the time they retired and travelled back home, Africa had received the Adventist message. The growth of Adventism in Africa today has not been accidental. It has been due to the efforts of Western missionaries, with the frank collaboration of local pioneers, who learned evangelistic skills from them in order to reach their own families, communities, and tribes with clear convincing truth. The next chapter thus focuses on the contributions of local pioneers to the origin, development, and progress of Adventism in Africa.

Notes 1 Ellen G. White, Early Writings of Ellen G. White (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1882), 275. 2 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948), 9:264. 3 Joseph Bates, The Autobiography of Elder Joseph Bates (Battle Creek, MI: Steam Press, 1868), 236. 4 Bates, The Autobiography, 277.

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 109 5 Jonathan Butler, ‘Race Relations in the Church, Part I, The Early Radicalism’, Insight, 30 January 1979: 9. 6 Pule B. Magethi and Thula M. Nkosi, God or Apartheid: A Challenge to South Africa Adventism (Braamfontein, South Africa: The Institute for Contextual Theology, 2017), 16. 7 Arthur W. Spalding, ‘Lights and Shades in the Black Belt’ (unpub. manuscript, n.d.) http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/LSBB.pdf, accessed 7 June 2021. 8 Jonathan Butler, ‘Race Relations in the Church, Part 3: Black Adventists Protest’, Insight, 13 February 1979: 15, 16; White, Testimonies for the Church, 206–214; Benjamin Baker, ‘The Lucille Byard Affair’, Adventist Review, 31 July 2019; Benjamin Baker, ‘Death by Wasting Away: The Life, Last Days, and Legacy of Lucy Byard’, Journal of Black Studies, 17 June 2020. 9 Winthrop Hudson, Religion in America, 3rd ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981), 319, 320. 10 White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 229. 11 Ellen G. White, ‘An Appeal for the South’, Review and Herald 72, no. 49 (3 December 1895): 769. 12 Magethi & Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 1–35. 13 White, ‘An Appeal for the South’, 769. 14 Ellen G. White, The Southern Work (Hagerstown, MD: Review & Herald, 2004), 8, written on March 20, 1891. 15 Ellen G. White, Letter 14, 1887. Ellen G. White Estate, ‘The Ellen G. White Africa Collection’, in Testimonies to Southern Africa (Washington, DC: Ellen G. White Estate, 2010), 4. 16 White, Letter 14, 1887. Testimonies to Southern Africa; White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 7. 17 White, Letter 14, 1887 Testimonies to Southern Africa; White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 7. 18 White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 9. 19 White to C. L. Boyd, Letter 12, 1887, Testimonies to Southern Africa; Ellen G. White, Principles for Christian Leaders (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2018), 222; White, Letter 14, 1887; White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 14. 20 White to A. T. Robinson, Letter 102, 1897, Testimonies to Southern Africa; White, Manuscript Releases (Silver Spring, MD: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990), 4:392. 21 Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 13 (Washington, DC: Ellen G. White Estate, 1899); White, Letter 32 to Mary Tripp 1898, par. 8, Testimonies to Southern Africa. 22 White to S. W. Hyatt, Letter 183, 1899, Testimonies to Southern Africa; White, Testimonies to Southern Africa, 77. 23 George R. Knight, Ellen G. White’s Afterlife: Delightful Fictions, Troubling Facts, Enlightening Research (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2019), 13. 24 William Harrison Anderson, ‘Obituary’, Adventist Review and Herald, 31 August 1950, 20; B. F. Kneeland, ‘William Harrison Anderson Obituary’, Southern Africa Division Outlook, 15 August 1950: 6. 25 Virgil Robinson, The Solusi Story (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1979), 26–31. 26 Anderson, On the Trail of Livingstone, 351. 27 Anderson, On the Trail of Livingstone, 351. 28 ASTR, ‘North African Mission’, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, DC: Review & Herald, 1922), 93. 29 Charles Cornaz, ‘Church Dedication Casablanca, Morocco’, Quarterly Review, March 1958: 2. See also Albert Meyer, ‘The Moroccan Evangelical Mission of Seventh-day Adventists’, Missions Quarterly, Third Quarter, 1930: 36.

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30 Albert Meyer, ‘Annual Meeting of the Moroccan Mission’, Quarterly Review, December 1930; Albert Meyer, ‘Progress in Morocco’, Missions Quarterly, Second Quarter, 1932; Albert Meyer, ‘The Moroccan Evangelical Mission of Seventh-day Adventists’, Missions Quarterly, Third Quarter, 1930. 31 Jack Mahon, ‘What Happened in 1906?’ in Messenger: 100 Years of Mission: 1906–2006, ed. D. N. Marshall (Watford, UK: The British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2006), 3. 32 Mahon, ‘What Happened in 1906?’, 3. 33 Nathaniel Mumbere Walemba, ‘Carscallen, Arthur Asa Grandville (1879–1964)’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=6IHG&highlight=CArscallen, accessed 1 June 2021. 34 Eric Nyankanga Maangi, Seventh-day Adventists in Nyanza, The Contribution and Influence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Development of Postsecondary Education in South Nyanza, 1971–2000 (PhD diss., 2014, UNISA, South Africa), 45, https://www.africansdahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/ 11/SDA-IN-NYANZA.pdf, accessed 1 June 2021. 35 Mahon, ‘What Happened in 1906?’, 5. 36 Mahon, ‘What Happened in 1906?’, 5. 37 SDAE (1996), s.v. ‘Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen’. 38 Nehemiah M. Nyaundi, Seventh-day Adventism in Gusii (Kendu Bay, Kenya: Africa Herald Publishing House, 1997), 22. 39 Mahon, ‘What Happened in 1906?’, 3. 40 Nathaniel Mumbere Walemba, ‘Carscallen, Arthur Asa Grandville (1879–1964)’ ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=6IHG&highlight=Carscallen, November 4, 2022. 41 ‘Carscallen, Arthur Asa Grandville’, in History of African Biography, 1985, https://dacb.org/stories/kenya/carscallen-arthur/, accessed 1 June 2021. 42 Lydie Delhove, A Daughter Remembers D. E. Delhove: Pioneer Missionary in Central Africa (self-pub., 1984), 2. 43 L. Delhove, A Daughter Remembers, 2. 44 L. Delhove, A Daughter Remembers, 5. 45 ‘Word from Brother Delhove’, Missionary Worker, May 1919: 16. 46 David E. Delhove, ‘In British East Africa After the War’, Adventist Review and Herald, 26 May 1921: 9, 10. 47 David E. Delhove, ‘Building a Mission in East Africa’, Present Truth and Signs of the Times, 19 January 1922; 5. 48 See C. W. Bozarth, ‘Report of the Central African Union Mission Rendered at the Division Council’, African Division Outlook, 24 October 1929; J. M. French, ‘Joining Hands in Africa’, Adventist Review and Herald, 12 February 1925: 12; ‘The East African Institute’, Missionary Worker, 8 February 1922: 2. 49 M. N. Campbell, ‘The East African Institute’, Missionary Worker, 8 February 1922: 2. 50 W. E. Read, ‘Notes of Progress in Our Foreign Missions’, Quarterly Review of the European Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Fourth Quarter, 1923: 15. 51 L. Delhove, A Daughter Remembers, 24. 52 Ndikumana, ‘The Fruit of a Work String’, 11. 53 E. D. Dick, ‘Buganda Mission’, African Division Outlook, April 1929: 1; L. Delhove, A Daughter Remembers, 35. 54 David E. Delhove, ‘Songa Mission’, Southern African Division Outlook, 1 October 1932: 8; W. R. Vail, ‘Mission Geography Helps’, Home and School, January 1935: 22.

Mission in the Age of Colonialism, Part Two 111 55 Chigemezi N. Wogu, ‘Delhove, David E. (1882–1949) and Virginie (Baily) (1884–1963)’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AHXY& highlight=Delhove, accessed 2 June 2021. 56 Milton Robinson, ‘Word has been … ’, Southern African Division Outlook, 1 April 1949: 5. 57 E. D. Dick, ‘Obituaries’, Adventist Review and Herald, 28 April 1949: 20; K. F. Amss, ‘Obituaries’, Southern African Division Outlook, 15 April 1949: 8. 58 L. Delhove, A Daughter Remembers, 87. 59 J. Niedermaier, ‘Missionarin Maria Haseneder’, Adventecho, 11 November 1995: 24. 60 Maria Haseneder, A White Nurse in Africa (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1951), 1. 61 Haseneder, A White Nurse in Africa, 26–40. 62 Haseneder, A White Nurse in Africa, 34. 63 Haseneder, A White Nurse in Africa, 71. 64 G. Gudmundsen, ‘From Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia’, Adventist Review and Herald, 28 April 1932: 395. 65 Gudmundsen, ‘From Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia’, 395. 66 SDAE (1996), s.v. Nigeria, 866. 67 Babalola, Sweet Memories, 30. 68 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventists in Yorubaland, 6. 69 SDAE (1996), s.v. Nigeria, 548. 70 The General Conference Executive Committee voted the permanent return of W. H. Anderson on 22 January 1945, after he had spent fifty years in Africa. He arrived in Africa in 1895. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 22 January 1945, General Conference Archives, 1727, https://documents. adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1945-01.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021. 71 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 21 September 1904, General Conference Archives, 20, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1904-01.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 72 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 26 October 1948, General Conference Archives, 1220, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-10-AC.pdf, accessed 28 April 2021. 73 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 13 April 1948, General Conference Archives, 1446, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-04.pdf. accessed 28 April 2021. 74 J. A Hyde, ‘Annual Report of North Nigerian Mission’, West-African Messenger 3, no. 3 (1951): 3. 75 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 26 October 1948, General Conference Archives, 1220, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-10-AC.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021. 76 J. L. McElhaney, ‘Thousands Have Been Won’, West-African Messenger 5, no. 5 (1951): 5. 77 G. L. Annis, ‘I Go to Jail’, West-African Messenger 6, no. 5 (1952): 5. 78 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 26 October 1948, General Conference Archives, 1220, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-10-AC.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021.

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Early African Adventist Evangelists African Adventism and Indigenous Contributions (1940s–1990s)

The rise of the new evangelists in Africa is deeply rooted in several complex historical events. The way local agents in Christian evangelism in Africa rose to prominence necessitates an analysis of both the political and the religious dynamics that ushered in the post-colonial era. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, African nations regained their independence from European countries. The only countries that had never been colonized were Ethiopia and Liberia. The first was due to its strategic resistance to Italian forces and other European empires; the second was the place for freed slaves from Europe and America. The fight for independence started immediately after World War II. Libya obtained its independence from Italy in 1951, followed by other countries, culminating in a mass proclamation of freedom from colonial rulers by the 1960s. The year 1960 marked the peak for independence in Africa, with 17 countries fashioning their flags of freedom, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Madagascar, and Somalia. The end of the colonial period was mostly attributable to the African rejection of European oppression. The idea that European civilization was immensely superior to African culture received widespread opposition. Also, Africans became enlightened through education, and could thus evaluate the limits of colonialism and oppose it. Historical events such as the World War I and World War II had also exposed the brutality of the European nations that had inflicted misery and loss of life on Africans. These discoveries prompted Africans to question the right of Europe to dictate any moral code to other continents. As a result, African elites began to express the need to administer their own countries. Africans in the British, French, and Portuguese colonies had emerged, through the opportunities offered by Western education and a new economic viability, far better than those of traditional African societies. Christian missions provided education for many Africans who helped in the translation of documents into local languages. By the 1960s, Africans had become zealous about Western education and invested huge efforts in it for the transformation of African societies. School attendance by the 1960s was on the increase, compared to the early twentieth century, when DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-6

Early African Adventist Evangelists 113 missionaries had to beg people to attend the schools they founded. In French colonies as well as British colonies, there was significant progress in the encouragement of school attendance.1 For instance, by the mid-1950s, there were more than two million school children in Nigeria, about 6% of the entire Nigerian population; in the Gold Coast (Ghana), they were not less than 600,000, about 12% of the entire Ghanaian population. Universities were already established in Nigeria by 1948 and Ghana in the 1960s; Nigerian University graduated around 4,500 students, while Ghana had 5,000 university graduates. The first French African University was a federal institution founded in 1950; by the 1960s, it had about 1,800 graduates.2 In the British former colonies such as South Africa, Nelson Mandela and other political leaders had benefitted from Western education, many of whom emerged as successful leaders opposing Apartheid. So, by the 1960s, Africans sought to take over the leadership of African nations. Europeans were forced to leave the continent, as local leaders progressively obtained the independence of their countries. The transfer of leadership did not take place only among the governmental forces, but also among the Christian denominations that were still operating along colonial lines. Seventh-day Adventism followed the pattern of other Christian denominations that handed leadership to local people following the independence of their countries.3 In view of the foregoing, this chapter provides a brief analysis of the post-colonial movement, before examining the rise of Adventism’s new evangelists, who took over from or collaborated with Western missionaries for the expansion of Adventist mission in Africa.

Post-colonial Theory and Christian Missions in Africa The political and cultural developments of Africa, with its collective rejection of colonialism around the 1960s, became a defining moment for the continent. Christianity was deeply affected by the views of local leaders and indigenous theologians, which were termed post-colonial. Post-colonial theologians believed that the teachings of Western missionaries who brought Christianity into Africa were shaped and influenced by European colonialism, which implied and reinforced the idea of Eurocentrism and the notion of the superiority of European culture. Africans in the post-colonial era, therefore, adopted new approaches to theologizing the Bible, with the intention to ‘make the Bible comprehensible to the colonized cultures on their own terms’.4 In this regard, the field of biblical hermeneutics was adjusted in light of post-colonial criticism. This approach is inscribed in the idea of African theology, a term that was first coined in 1965 at the All Africa Conference of Churches. This theology was viewed from the angle of liberation theology, originally connected with Black theology in North America, though later appreciated by South African Black theology as a way of shaking off the effects of Apartheid.5

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Missions in Africa felt the winds of post-colonialism as Africans began to condemn Western religious policies that denied them an equal place in mission councils and general assemblies. This was a plain sign that African clergy did not want links with mission societies that refused to acknowledge their equal prerogatives with White missionaries.6 R. Elphick noted that, Missionaries often refused to treat the African clergy as their professional equals and brothers in Christ. Consequently many Africans, embittered by their treatment as second-class ministers, quarrelled with the missionaries over money, status, and authority—few of these squabbles concerned Christian doctrine or disagreements over principles of church governance.7 Following this trend of self-awareness of the identity of African clergy, emotional and psychological pressure was placed on missionaries, with the clear request to share, if not relinquish, their positions of authority to the indigenous. Such a vision of leadership in Christian churches in Africa probably contributed to the appropriation of fulfilment theology. According to its proponents, ‘God had granted special insights to Hindus, Africans and other peoples that would give new dimensions to European worship, just as their acceptance of Christ would fulfil their progress towards salvation’.8 Such electrifying arguments and authoritative pronouncements yielded abundant fruits. By the 1980s, Western missionaries had almost entirely left their former colonies and returned home, although they still tried to adopt a paternalistic attitude towards the mission fields from abroad. The General Conference Executive Committee minutes of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from the 1960s to the 1980s contained numerous votes for the permanent return of Adventist missionaries to their homelands. As Western missionaries began relinquishing their leadership positions to local pioneers, the latter saddled themselves with the responsibility of contextualizing Christianity in their own way. They acted as real agents of conversion to their fellow Africans. Norman Etherington observed that, ‘the greatest difficulty faced by those who have tried to argue that Christian missions were a form of cultural imperialism has been the overwhelming evidence that the agents of conversion were local people, not foreign missionaries’.9 The missionaries bountifully sowed, but the local pioneers were the ones who developed strategic plans for harvest. They took the Christian message to remote areas of the African bush and desert. They sat with their people on the ground while they gathered around the trees to listen to the good news of Jesus’s redeeming grace from their own brethren, who taught them in their own languages. None of them were forced to accept the message, but they all recognized its significance as their brethren, the pioneers, highlighted that Jesus would end all sufferings and hand to each a new mansion in gold and pearl (Rev 20; John 14:1).

Early African Adventist Evangelists 115 In the British colonies, as far back as 1900, there ‘were 882 of these agents—pastors, readers, schoolmasters, etc.’ who supported the work of Christ for the salvation of their brethren. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of thousands of these agents travelled hundreds of miles on foot, resisting deadly rainforests, storms, and thunder and lightning to share the gospel, mostly unpaid. Just as Christianity spread through the efforts of the Apostles and unnamed ordinary individuals in the first century around the Mediterranean Sea, so was the case with Christianity in the early twentieth century in Africa. As Peggy Brock wrote, ‘Christian beliefs were spread by ordinary people, whose numbers grew as colonial development increased mobility’.10 Just as with the unnamed missionaries in the Bible (2 Kings 5:1–5; Heb. 11: 34b, 35, 36), the experiences of countless local agents of mission in Africa remain largely undocumented. Thus, ‘If, as some assert, the missionary movement was part of a larger imperial project of cultural colonialism, it is important to recognize that the foot soldiers of the advance were the indigenous preachers’.11 With just a basic understanding of Christian doctrines, They communicated their own understanding of Christianity based partly on what missionaries had taught them and partly on their own cultural assumptions. Those who evangelized among distant peoples not only carried messages forged during the development of European Christianity, they often carried technical, social, and political concepts from their own cultures with them such as new forms of housing, village organisation, and cuisine.12 If they did not know much about European values and culture, the local agents of Christian mission in Africa had masterly understanding of their own cultures. They had the knowledge of cannibalism, witchcraft, sorceries, and other unchristian practices of the traditional African religions. They confronted these cultural practices with their essential knowledge of the Bible. They made a huge impression on African societies as they defied evil practices, and the doom pronounced by the defenders of these practices had no effect on the agents of God’s mission. This is probable evidence of serious tension between the new evangelists and their converts, although the details of these encounters at the outset of their gatherings remain unknown to both historians and Africans themselves. While there could be a variety of approaches deployed by the new evangelists in the Christian denominations in Africa, their basic strategies remained the same—the communications of Christian truth with clear passion and a spirit of martyrdom.

The Rise of Early African Adventist Evangelists The story of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa would be incomplete without a mention of the local pioneers. Just as in the mainline Christian denominations

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in Africa, Seventh-day Adventist’s new evangelists championed the Adventist message as early as the first decade of the twentieth century. They used a variety of strategies to convey the Adventist message to non-Christians, as well as non-Adventists, as they did extend their message to other Christian groups. If the French and the British in the nineteenth century spoke of missions as designed enterprises meant to convert non-Christians such as the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, and the traditionalists, for Seventh-day Adventist new evangelists and their mentors, the converts were to be sought even among the Christian denominations. They highlighted the Sabbath message, which the other Christian churches did not preach. As J. A. Hyde, a missionary in Northern Nigeria, reported in 1951, ‘the majority of the teaching in this mission is carried out by the members themselves’. What the missionaries did was to train them on how to reach out to souls. So one of the first things that we do when we take the Gospel to them is to teach them to read, and to read the Bible for themselves. … Then as they learn to read, and write, and so study the Bible for themselves they immediately, while still pupils, join the teaching band, helping others who do not know as much as they do. Thus, from one hundred and fifty members we know of one hundred teachers.13 So, the new evangelists were at the forefront of the Adventist missions as they brought hundreds of people to Christ, even while still students themselves. The GC Executive Committee noted in 1948 that the growth of Adventism in Africa was ‘largely the result of the work of hundreds of native evangelists trained in our schools, who go out into the highways and byways with their Bibles and picture rolls, and the message in their hearts’.14 Once they were trained, African evangelists were good at preaching to their own people. By the time they had a basic knowledge of the Adventist faith, they were able to carry out the mission without further guidance from the White missionaries. They used their God-given talents and, being guided by the Spirit of God, they were able to communicate the divine truth to those to whom they ministered. In general, the new evangelists translated the Christian message through a clever apprehension of indigenous concepts. While they could recognize and accept most of the African core values such as charity, hospitality, and the spirit of Ubuntu, 15 they also expressed their revulsion against the drinking of alcohol, the eating of unclean meats, and the worship of ‘pagan’ gods, in line with the Adventist lifestyle and standard.16 Thus, they advocated for the destruction of pre-existing rituals and beliefs that ran against the teachings of Christianity. To concentrate on the work of the new evangelists is significant because they were, in some places, the first to convert their fellow brethren before the missionaries came to know them. Two individuals from Cote d’Ivoire who ‘had been to Ghana to learn how to cultivate cocoa had accepted and

Early African Adventist Evangelists 117 brought [the] Seventh-day Adventist Message to [the] Dida tribe’ to which they belonged.17 These individuals, Joseph Kouame Djouman and Pierre Kouame Adingrah, shared their new faith in their village. It was later that the mission based in Ghana heard about their success stories, and decided to send J. K. Garbrar to reinforce the mission already in progress. Later, Felix Donkoh and John Zakka, both from Cote d’Ivoire, gave impetus to the mission in their country, supporting earlier foundations.18 Similarly, in the Eastern part of Nigeria, Seventh-day Adventism was already present before Jessie Clifford settled there. Bankole Loving-good, who attended an Adventist school at Waterloo, Sierra Leone, preached and converted people to the Adventist message.19 In Zambia, ‘there were already native converts to Adventism in Barotseland before the missionaries reached Liumba Hill’. 20 The new evangelists sometimes had places where they were trained. Places such as the Union of South Africa and Solusi, both in Southern Africa, Ghana and Nigeria in the West Coast, and Cameroon in Central Africa, and Tanganyika, in East Africa, served as training centres from where pioneers, alongside Western missionaries, were sent out to spread the Word; sometimes the indigenous Africans acted as foreign missionaries themselves in neighbouring countries. Solusi especially played a significant role. Spalding noted in 1962 that, ‘Old “Solusi”’ was able to live ‘even to this day in the affections of the missionaries in Africa, as the mother and almoner of them all’. This was because ‘out of and through Solusi came the pioneers of the lands and mission stations beyond and even behind’. It was a well-equipped centre for the evangelism of ‘native people, staffed with both White and Black teachers, and sending forth well-equipped evangelists and teachers of the Bible’, across Africa.21 With such training, the evangelists were able to take the gospel to villagers across Southern Africa and East Africa. Spalding referred to six of the most prominent evangelists: James Malinki, David Kalaka, Richard Moko, Isaac Xiba, James Moyo, and John Ncube.22 These were not the only ones; there were also ‘hundreds of others, many of them notable in service’, who were ‘pressing the gospel into new areas, teaching in schools, in some cases being directors of missions and headmasters of schools’.23 Solusi was thus ‘the hub, the missions rayed out in every direction, the first extensions becoming bases for later extensions, up into the heart of Africa, down toward its southernmost point, out into the territory east and west, to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic’.24 All of them were Filled with the spirit of the message, burning with zeal to bring the blessings of the gospel into the lives of their people, and working with a fraction of the financial support required by the Europeans, they form the great body of the Christian army of workers in Africa.25

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These workers were able to stand as real agents of mission and advanced the message of the Sabbath. Not all of them were trained at Solusi. Some were not trained in the setting of formal schools, but by individual missionaries. This group of workers formed the majority of the new evangelists. As all the new evangelists in one way or the other got their training from Western missionaries; they did not stay silent, but shared the burning flame of God’s love with their brethren. For instance, Peter Nyambo from Malawi was a missionary in Kenya, along with Arthur Carscallen, a Canadian.26 Ondoua Raymond, a Cameroonian, was a missionary in Gabon, while R. P. Dauphin from Sierra Leone and Dunca Morgue from Ghana supported the work of D. C. Babcock in Nigeria.27 Andrew Noah Daitey, Christian T. Quarcco, and Dr. Kofi Owusu-Mensa served at the Adventist Seminary of West Africa in Nigeria. Pastor W. B. Ackar and his wife were missionaries in the North Nigerian Mission from 1971 to 1975. D. Cudjoe and his wife were sent to the Gambia as missionaries from 1973 to 1977.28 These local agents of missions brought about the transformation of several African jungles into real centres of Adventism today. At the time the new evangelists were supporting the missionaries or pioneering the Adventist message in many places, evangelism could be a dangerous and life-threatening enterprise.29 Sometimes the evangelists were blamed for epidemics as they promoted new religion that angered the gods. Jealous traditional chiefs wanted them killed or judged by the deities.30 Evangelist J. J. Hamilton from Sierra Leone narrated his own deadly experience in March 1937. When lightning hit his house, he was told that the gods were angry with him and his activities in Ilesha, Nigeria. No one ventured to assist him and his family members. He expressed his sadness in these words: ‘The Yorubas worship thunder, and if anyone is struck, their desire is that the unfortunate one should die. So no one would venture to help us’.31 In such circumstances, one had to be really determined to be an evangelist. While all the new evangelists preached with determination, their ultimate goal was to communicate their new faith, which they believed was superior to that of their ancestors, who did not mention Jesus in their religious gatherings. While they emphasized the love of God in their sermons, the new Christian evangelists used simple sentences, which created a sharp effect on the mind of those who threatened them with death. The African evangelist ‘knows how to draw illustrations from native life that bring home the message as no foreign missionary could possibly do’.32 The story of Stephen and the Apostles of Christ, such as Peter, James, John, and Paul stimulated in them the passion for God’s mission that no human threat was able to quench. Sometimes, they openly confronted the practice of juju and defeated it in the name of Christ. In Ghana for instance, Daniel Gyasi, a convert in 1950, asked a new evangelist, Appiah Dankwah, to remove his idols and juju from his house and throw them away.33 Dankwah further reports that

Early African Adventist Evangelists 119 One bright Sabbath morning on the 16th Sept. 1950, Mr. and Mrs. Vetter, Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Appiah, and myself went to the village, after the church services, the man, brought in his various idols and in the presence of the village chief, his elders, and the town folks the man stood in the midst of the people and witnessed for the wonderful message of Christ which has changed his heart to commit to the flames these rubbish idols. I poured kerosene on them and a stick of match raised a towering flame, no mean bonfire and devoured the whole thing without reserve. The flames of the fire must have appealed to the minds of the awe stricken populace who were looking to the worthless idols they once served and worshipped.34 A similar incident was recorded in Umuocha village. R. Wigwe reported that there was a young man and his mother who requested that prayers be offered for them, and that their juju be taken away from them. Wigwe wrote that There was one young man in this village and his mother 70 years of age who were converted to the truth on a Sabbath a few days ago. This young man and his mother requested that we come and destroy their juju. The old woman has a familiar spirit, she began to explain how much she had suffered since her connection with juju. One large room was set apart for the juju, then we used a basket packing them out to the street and burned them up. A sermon was given them that God is a true creator, all the false gods will perish in the days of the Lord’s anger. After the sermon the repentant man began to ask what good thing he could do to become a real Christian. I told him “not until you enlist your name in the baptismal class will we let you know.” May the Lord help this man to make his decision a firm one together with his mother so as to stand fast in their faith.35 Such courage from the new evangelists brought the villagers and the local chiefs to Christ. It set them high above the social prejudices against accepting Christ and the fear that the invisible spirits could harm even those who accept Christ. In East Nigeria Mission, a story of a juju priestess was told Ekeoma Igwe—about 75—juju priestess was married in a little village called Elehia in Ogba District. She had nine children, eight of whom have since died; her husband also is dead, leaving her a son who has been in bed for three years. Ekeoma has since her life devoted her strength, money and all her belongings to the worship of her gods, but the gods have done nothing good for her. In a dream last year she found herself in a church and on coming out she wore a white garment and had a book in her hand and was accompanied by many church members until she got to her house. It was at this point that she awoke

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Early African Adventist Evangelists from her sleep, not understanding what she had dreamt. A few weeks later she fell ill and no one cared for her—no, not even her juju. Our Dorcas Society near that village heard this and hastened to help her. They fed her, supplied wood for heating the house, water for washing her clothes and for her bath and, most important of all, they prayed with her until she became well again.36

The priestess was impressed by the power of love found in women who professed Christ. They declared to the priestess that Jesus is mighty, and his followers are shielded from invisible forces and misfortunes. The priestess was compelled by the power of her logic and reasoning, and most importantly, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, to make an unusual declaration, especially from a juju priestess Since I became a juju priestess I have given all that I have—goats, sheep, chickens, cola nuts—to the juju but it has never done me any good. All my children have died; no one is caring for me except these good Sabbath women who have been feeding and taking good care of me. I would have died of hunger.37 After mumbling these tingling words, she ‘went straight to the apartment where lay her gods’. She stood bold before her juju and said, ‘I am going to serve the God of these Sabbath women who helped me when I was ill; I will serve you no longer’. She became a Sabbath keeper, and The Ogba District Dorcas Society bought new clothes in addition to other gifts to this old juju priestess. After the church service the worker in charge of that area and the laity marched to the woman’s home where she turned over the juju to the Church of God; the Church of God presented the juju to the flames! O! How the jujus burnt! Today, Ekeoma Igwe is enjoying attending Sabbath School; she is very happy and, looking forward to being baptized and received into fellowship in God’s remnant church.38 As villagers experienced such an ecstatic vision of God in ordinary men, they came out en masse to pledge their allegiance to the unknown Christ, and confessed to the evangelists that Christ was indeed the Saviour of the world. They vowed to live for Him, work for Him and convert more people for His love. At such times, even juju priests and witch doctors understood that the name Jesus was an extraordinary name. They also came out and confessed their public acceptance of Jesus because the power He invests in those who follow Him is superior to that of initiated witches. Such was the case of two witches, Maria Simuli and Khakasa. They witnessed a baptismal service where they were touched and understood that they needed God’s grace.

Early African Adventist Evangelists 121 After all, After all, they knew that the Lord did not approve of their activities in the villages. A couple of weeks later, at the Chebwai campmeeting a call was made for sinners to repent. To the astonishment and joy of the congregation the two witches, who were present, came forward carrying all their medicines, poisons and materials with which they used to invoke the favour of the spirits. While the people rejoiced the two women knelt and gave their hearts to the Lord. Maria and Khakasa are now studying the Word in the Bible class and await the day when they may join the remnant church fully through baptism.39 If witches who were believed to bewitch people and claimed extraordinary power could confess Christ, there was little option for other people to reject the name of Jesus. In often unusual circumstances, the name of Jesus was exalted. African evangelists used every opportunity to live out their beliefs, which drew many people to Christ. While the new evangelists had learnt a lot from the evangelistic methods of the Western missionaries, they developed their own strategies that suited their working conditions and circumstances.40 The new evangelists constituted a real strength for the Adventist mission in Africa by the 1960s. There were 86 passionate evangelists in 1968 in the West Coast. By the 1970s, women joined men to advance the mission of Adventism in Africa. Among the first known women evangelists in West Africa were Miss Odias of Benin-City, Nigeria, and Miss Ogunseso from Ode Remo, Nigeria.41 Both were graduates of the Adventist Seminary of West Africa and they supported the mission in their own capacity. Other women who were evangelists were Mrs. Eithlhopha D. Mosinyi from Botswana and Mrs. Danibe from South Africa. Both women excelled in literature evangelism.42 B. B. Beech reported that a total of 374 students, who became evangelists, had graduated from the Bible Correspondence School in 1973, and more than 8,000 active students were enroled to serve later as new evangelists in Africa.43 In East Africa, when the German missionaries were expelled from their colony, and taken as prisoners of war in 1916, the mission work continued through the help of African evangelists. Indigenous people at Pare, under the leadership of Ezekiel Kibwana, Daniel Teendwa, Petro Sebughe, and Abraham Msangi, assured the continuity of the missionary work. And by 1921, after World War I, there were dozens of newcomers added to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, when not less than one hundred believers were awaiting baptism.44 E. Mafuru and J. Salimu emerged as evangelists and potential leaders by the 1950s in Tanganyika. Most importantly, F. H. Muderpach led an exemplary life, and his testimony transformed his community. He ‘spent all his time and funds for the sake of his African brothers. At his death, even the Muslims held a special service at their mosque, and the Roman Catholics sent a delegation to his graveside, declaring him to be a true “saint”’.45

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All of these exemplary services contributed immensely to the development of Adventist mission in Africa. Unfortunately, the works of these early local pioneers have not yet received an intense study. This is due to some major issues. First, historians are confronted with the problem of sources. Until the coming of Western education to Africa, African societies had mainly depended, with the exception of Egypt’s and Timbuktu’s civilizations, on oral tradition to preserve and record their past. There was no documentation of their victories, vicissitudes, and earnest struggles in life. Second, when Western Adventist missionaries came, they were giving reports of their achievements in denominational magazines such as the Review and Herald, the South African Sentinel, the South African Missionary, the African Division Outlook (1921–1931), the South African Missionary (1903–1921), the Trans-African Division Outlook (1964–1974), and the West African Advent Messenger (1951–1985). These accounts are mostly stories of the faith, struggles, and successes of Western missionaries. While they sometimes referred to local pioneers who collaborated with them in their missions, they could not describe the feelings of these local agents. Therefore, we know little of the magnitude of information that existed with regards to the stories of the indigenous evangelists and how they were able to change the face of Adventism from a struggling movement to a prosperous and very competitive religious organization in Africa.46 The Western missionaries documented their experiences in part because they were required to do so. The General Conference needed to hear from them. The Department of Foreign Mission worked closely with Adventist missionaries around the world to ensure that the Church strove to achieve its goal of penetrating every single corner of the earth. Even when the missionaries may not have wanted to document their stories, they were in some way obliged to do so, resulting in the massive documentation of their stories compared to the experiences of the African evangelists. However, the hope of retracing the feelings and anxiety of the new evangelists is not completely lost. The story of the denomination in Africa is very recent: less than 140 years as of 2022. Historians still have the opportunity to interview the immediate descendants of these local agents of Adventist mission in Africa. To do this, the Church must be more intentional in sponsoring the project. With the recent Encyclopaedia of Seventh-day Adventists, there is hope for a systematic analysis of the stories of local pioneers in Africa. Although oral history may not suffice for the missing account of their missionary trajectory, it may provide insights that will enable a fair appreciation of their sacrifice that may be beneficial to the denomination.

Select New Evangelists A number of Seventh-day Adventist new evangelists, whose contributions have been in some way documented, will be briefly highlighted. In this

Early African Adventist Evangelists 123 endeavour, it is impossible to expect a detailed explanation of their achievements, for the reasons stated earlier. The first to consider is Richard Moko from South Africa. His success story in Adventist mission, amidst a society geared towards racial segregation, needs to be told. Ordained into the gospel ministry in 1915,47 he was the first ever Black ordained minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa. He accepted the Adventist message in 1895 and was therefore among the first Africans to be converted to the denomination.48 A talented individual, ‘Moko had the gift of languages; he could read and write English and Dutch’.49 He was an asset at a time when many Africans could barely communicate with people of foreign language. Moko was committed to the study and teaching of the Bible. He brought people to Christ. Another local pioneer whose story is documented is Isaiah Aina Ajibola Balogun from Ekiti, Nigeria. Balogun was born around 1882 and became a member of the Anglican Church in 1906. Because of his exceptional abilities in ‘handling spiritual matters, he was appointed a leader in the Anglican church’.50 He had no salary for the work he was doing. He earned his livelihood through his own work as a sawyer. But when he came in contact with the Seventh-day Adventist message and its Sabbath truth, Balogun zealously embraced the Adventist message and taught others.51 R. P Dauphin, a pioneer missionary who resided in Sierra Leone gave this report about Balogun: There is a young man here whose name is Isaiah Balogun. Balogun is a Yoruba word which means captain. He wanted to know who we are. Someone told him we are the people keeping the Seventh-day as the Sabbath. Finally, with joy he heard the message; and without any outward demonstration, spread the gospel news among his countrymen many miles away and as a result, a large number of people accepted the message.52 He was the first to be ordained in the Adventist pastoral work in Nigeria, on 16 February 1930, 15 years after the ordination of Richard Moko.53 An individual highly respected among his peers, Balogun pioneered the Adventist message among the Yorubas at a time when most of them shared common social values, patterned after the worship of traditional deities. The Oyo, the Ketu, the Sabe, the Egbado and Egba, the Ekiti, the Ondo, the Akoko, and the Owo formed some of the major Yoruba people among whom the impact of Balogun’s work was felt. By the time the Seventh-day Adventist Church came to Ekiti, where Balogun was born, the Anglican Church already had several converts. Hence, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was a latecomer to the region. Upon his conversion into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1916, Balogun’s leadership and ministerial skills were recognized. He was appointed the district pastor in charge of churches at Iloro, Odo-Owa, and

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Oke-Ila. ‘Under his leadership, many of the Anglicans defected to the Adventist Church’.54 He worked in several other places in Oyo and Kwara states, championing the gospel among the idol worshippers by converting them to the Christian faith. He died on 27 July 1947, at the age of 65. Although the adherents of the Anglican Church were not happy with him because he ‘fished’ from their church, Balogun was ‘able to meet his own people readily on their own ground. He knew some of his members and some of them grew together with him. He was familiar with local terrains and where the missionaries could not go, he led the way. He became a forerunner for the expatriates; though limited in education, he performed excellently well’.55 At his death, many villages from all over Nigeria had received the Adventist message when the Sabbath truth was preached. He remained a giant in Adventist’s collective story in Nigeria, and in West Africa. Other pioneers who were influential in advancing the Adventist message in Nigeria included John Jacob Hyde, Albert Job Dike, Joseph Adeyemo Adeogun, and Chibunna Chima.56 In Ghana, an influential new evangelist who contributed to the development and growth of Seventh-day Adventism was Charles Bennet Mensah. Born in 1918, he accepted the Adventist message through the work of Hyde, another pioneer missionary in West Africa.57 He began his pastoral work in 1933, and was ordained on 24 July 1945, alongside the White missionaries, who served as his mentors in the preaching of God’s Word. Mensah had the passion to exalt Christ, and present Him to his own brethren. Soon, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ghana detected his exceptional talent. During his presidency, [he] encouraged more laymen into evangelism. He strategically used camp meetings as big platforms for soul winning. C. B. Mensah’s presidency initiated and promoted the opening of Asokore Teachers’ Training College and Agona Teachers’ Training College in 1962 and 1963 respectively. These colleges became great pathways to Adventist missions. Many students who passed through these colleges were impacted positively by Adventist doctrines and many more were converted into the faith. … C. B. Mensah’s administration brought many souls into Adventism: membership of 4,933 in 42 churches he inherited was more than twofold as it increased to 10,034 in 56 churches.58 Mensah’s role in advancing the cause of Adventism in Ghana was thus important. Under his leadership, the Church grew in membership, more schools were established, and members were enlightened to accept Seventhday Adventism not as part of a foreign religion, but as the church of God given to humanity. Mensah could connect the Sabbath message to the Saturday worship that predated the arrival of White missionaries in Africa. In Cameroon, among the most significant local pioneers who took the Adventist message to the villagers and preached to them in their own native

Early African Adventist Evangelists 125 language were Bendele Thomas, Andoulko Barnabas, Ndongo Matthew, Andre Makong, and Babba Abraham. With just rudimentary education, they succeeded in communicating the Bible truth to the people in their communities. They were highly esteemed, as they rendered their service to humanity with total abnegation. The villagers held them among the saints of the Bible. Philemon Amanze and others, who documented the work of Ndongo, reported that: Pastor Ndongo was very strategic and systematic in evangelism. To win the hearts of many converts, he contributed to their welfare by encouraging periodic community gathering and initiating community projects with the approval of the village rulers. He even went as far as forming community groups to relieve families that had heavy work load[s] and financial challenges. All these avenues were created by Pastor Ndongo to preach the gospel and the Lord blessed his efforts.59 When the pioneers passed away, not only the church mourned, but also the people who knew them; Muslims, idols worshippers, and members of other Christian denominations, all affirmed that they were indeed God’s angels in human form. Through their exemplary lives, hundreds of people accepted Seventh-day Adventism in Cameroon.60 In Zimbabwe, the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church can in part be attributed to the sacrifices of indigenous leaders. One of them was Reward Register Ndhlovu (1927–2000), who had administrative, evangelistic and pastoral skills. He was born in a village called Essexvale (now Esigodini), on 27 April 1927,61 and grew up in an Adventist family. His parents gave him the name ‘Reward’ to demonstrate their sense of commitment to the coming of Jesus and the eternal reward that He will grant to the faithful. Every child in Ndhlovu’s family bore a name that was an expression of certainty of Christ’s promised Second Coming. These names were ‘Signs’, ‘Promise’, ‘Reward’, ‘Message’, ‘Waiting’, ‘Grace’, ‘Winning’, ‘Cometh’, and ‘Remnant’. The third-born in the family, Reward, chose to become a pastor, just like his father. As he watched his father pray for the growth of Adventism in Zimbabwe, Reward decided to respond to be one of the labourers in the field of God’s mission. He became a pastor in 1956, around the time African countries were launching their fight for independence from colonial rulers. This was also the time when the new evangelists made sense of Seventh-day Adventism as a religion that could be acculturated in Africa. Reward had only one year of pastoral training, but he was studious and diligent. In 1957, he became the director of personal ministries and Sabbath School, a major branch of evangelism in the Southern Rhodesia mission field.62 Through his dedication to ministry, lay people were inspired to get involved in the ministry of bringing more people into God’s kingdom. In 1961, he became the Zambesi Union’s director of evangelism. Under his leadership, indigenous people joined the Seventh-day

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Adventist Church in large numbers.63 In 1985, just five years after the independence of Zimbabwe, Reward was elected the Zambesi Union president. He served in this capacity for ten years (1985–1995). Through his leadership, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Zimbabwe was able to experience membership growth ‘from 85,857 in 1986 to 206,543 by December 1994’, and the number of health and educational institutions, as well as the ‘village chapels’, increased significantly. In appreciation of his ministry, ‘Solusi University conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1995’, just five years before his death.64 By this time, the Church in Zimbabwe occupied a prominent place in African Adventism. Young African people were inspired to further the work as White missionaries retreated from Zimbabwe. In Zambia, Diamond Chibwe Lufungulo was one of the local evangelists whose contributions had been significant to the development of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. He was born in Mwamfuli, Samfya on 6 June 1924, in what was then known as Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). He began his pastoral work in 1958.65 This was a critical period in the history of African Christianity, as the leadership of the Church was handed to Africans. By the time Zambia gained independence from the British in 1964, Lufungulo became the ‘first Zambian to serve as the mission station director of Chimpempe, a position he held until 1971’.66 He worked with lay people to inspire them and travelled to Zambian villages to win them to Seventh-day Adventism. In December 1978, he became the director of the lay activities department at the union in Zambia. Two years later, he was appointed the executive secretary of the union. He died on 9 November 1994. He left behind hundreds of young people who were inspired by his love for the ministry, his passion for winning souls, and his dedication to preaching the Word of God. The evangelists mentioned here are only a few of those whose work has been documented. There have been a significant number of African evangelists who worked for the development of Seventh-day Adventism in Liberia, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Gabon, Lesotho, Kenya, Rwanda, and in all the remaining African countries. The foreign missionaries had sown the seed of the gospel; the new evangelists developed local strategies to nurse it and bring it to prominence. Finding itself within a non-Western context, the Seventh-day Adventist Church had to make sense of African realities to be able to preach to the adherents of African traditional religions, as well as to the adherents of indigenous African Christian churches. To this end, Seventh-day Adventist evangelists had to provide teachings more convincing than the utterances of prophets from indigenous churches. They preached that Seventh-day Adventists were God’s true children and are protected against the evil eye. Such a public perception of Seventh-day Adventists constitutes a significant advantage in preaching the Adventist faith to Africans. From the beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, its adherents viewed themselves as special:

Early African Adventist Evangelists 127 In retrospect some of this seems a little paranoid, but the fact remains that because of this perception, most Adventists at one time felt that they knew exactly who they were: the “remnant” “the people of God” “the true church” with a special message for a special time. They had “the truth”.67 Energetic preaching to non-Adventists, emphasis on prophetic portions of the Bible, the imminent return of Christ, and special emphasis on the Ten Commandments, led to spiritual revivals.68 Adventist evangelists in Africa preached that people must separate themselves from practices that detract attention from living a righteous life. These constitute additional ingredients that nurtured the commitment of Seventh-day Adventists in Africa to win the hearts of non-Adventists.

The Impact of Early New Evangelists on the Collective Growth of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa As early as the 1940s, the GC Executive committee realized the importance of having indigenous leadership. It was noticed that ‘it is evident that we must have a native leadership who can not only evangelize, but who can become leaders in the administrative side of our work’.69 When the leadership of the Church in Africa was relinquished to the new evangelists, the Church grew tremendously. Mission fields, conferences, and unions were added. As more people joined the Church, the new evangelists served as mentors. They trained their fellow brethren and sent them first to their families, their immediate communities and tribes, and then the neighbouring villages, and people near and far within their reach. They travelled on foot, sometimes with hunger and under the sun, but very courageously, in fulfilling the gospel commission. As they preached in local languages, villagers were thrilled and had no choice but to heed the message of the ‘men and women of God’ as they were often called.70 In the eyes of the villagers, the new evangelists possessed a supernatural power surpassing that of traditional witches. As the doom pronounced by witches against the new evangelists had no effect, people came to accept the Sabbath message as a sign of peculiarity in the fight against evil spirits, demons, curses, diseases, and sufferings. The villagers called upon the new evangelists for prayer.71 As the new evangelists prayed, the Lord visited the villagers and blessed their families. Such divine visitation was celebrated in the communities. The new converts were not afraid to recount the stories of how they overcame the fear of evil spirits, the doom of demons, and the invisible plans of witches through the prayer of the men of God. As the converts testified, their stories became legends of conversion, as they were retold from one place to another, one village to another, and one tribe to another, each with new added meaning to thrill the hearers of the Christian power found in the Adventist faith.

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It was no surprise that from the 1950s to 2000, when the new evangelists took over the leadership of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa, the Church experienced dramatic growth. As they preached together with the White missionaries, new converts joined their movement. They baptized them in the name of Christ. Usually, baptisms were preceded by a series of ceremonies. A service was offered, followed by the taking of vows, and the attending community was invited to join the converts in prayer. The relatives of the converts are also called upon to surrender their lives to Christ.72 Many candidates resisted any attempts from relatives to obstruct their decision to get baptized. For instance, One of the candidates received a beating from her husband just before she came. He tried to keep her from coming, and said she should not be baptised; but the Lord gave her the victory. Her husband has beaten her several times for keeping the Sabbath, and has frequently turned her out of doors and told her not to come back. This has caused quite an excitement in the location, and has led some to inquire into this new doctrine.73 The candidates were immersed in water while the company gathered at the water’s edge. The neophytes were then welcomed into their new community with the celebration of the ordinances of the Lord’s house (The Lord’s Supper).74 Such experiences led to the winning of many new converts. In 1948, for instance, there were only 80,395 church members. This number increased to 319,170 in 1968, 821,725 in 1981, 1,769,082 in 1988, and 3,176,662 in 1998.75 A sophisticated means of evangelism deployed by the new evangelists was the sale of Christian books.76 Literature evangelism was significant and accounted for most of the increase in membership among the elites, as it targeted those who were able to read and write, who in turn shared their new discovery and new faith with members of their household. Hundreds of literature evangelists pledged their commitment to Christ and service to humanity as they entered every corner of Africa to spread the Word of God and the message for the salvation of humanity. In November 1951, one of the literature evangelists, A. N. Daity, in an article titled, ‘Why I Became a Colporteur Evangelist’, wrote: I feel it an immense pleasure to express my views of entering this noble work of colporteur evangelism. Being a member of the great Advent Movement, I realised the need of speedily carrying the third angel’s message to the people of this sin-sick world of ours, and especially to my own people here in the Gold Coast. … I saw that it would be the right channel through which I could bring many lost souls to the Saviour. The Lord is richly blessing my labour. I enjoy my work. Dear believers, the fields are really ripe for the harvest. It is the augmenting of

Early African Adventist Evangelists 129 this colporteur work which will provide an opportunity to let many in this generation know more of the love of God, His plan of redemption, and the imminent coming of our Redeemer Jesus Christ.77 New evangelists, through literature evangelism, believed that they provided opportunities for people to know more about God’s love and the urgency of His Second Coming. Thus, through various means, the new evangelists communicated the Adventist faith to people. Through their labour, they progressively changed the demography of Adventism. To appreciate these changes, in early 1910 there were only 768 Seventh-day Adventists in Africa, with fewer than 50 churches.78 By 1940, the Church had expanded from Southern and Eastern Africa to the West Coast, and the total membership of Seventh-day Adventists in Africa in 1940 was 44,358, with more than 170 churches.79 At this time, the number of new evangelists had increased. They began to take the lead in evangelism as White missionaries mentored them. The results of their labour became visible by the 1950s. Thus, following the hard work of the new evangelists, as well as the collapse of imperialism and its paternalistic colouration, significant growth was registered in Congo, with nearly 65, 000 members.80 By the 1960s, the total membership in the sub-Sahara was 236,000. This figure increased to 700,000 by 1980, and to 2,900,000 by 1996.81 Steady growth and reorganization continued through the years after the departure of the missionaries in order to adjust the Church structures to African realities. A major factor that contributed to the enthusiasm of the new evangelists and the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa between 1950 and 2000 was the work of educational and health institutions. The schools, which were founded with the help of missionaries between 1900 and the 1940s, became renowned institutions, and several others were added. The educational institutions that were established during the colonial era, and which have become centres of educational excellence today, include Babcock University (previously Adventist Seminary of West Africa) in Nigeria; Solusi Adventist University (previously Solusi Training School) in Zimbabwe; Valley University in Ghana; Adventist University of Eastern Barathon in Kenya; Adventist University in Rwanda; and Rusangu Adventist University in Zambia. These schools have become influential in their countries, as political leaders send their children to these schools. They became centres for evangelism as staff and students accepted the Adventist message through public baptism. After the independence of African nations, although the Church kept growing, the political map of Africa changed with the creation of the new independent countries, and hard times challenged the growth of the Church. Conflict in Zaire (Congo), the Biafran war in Nigeria, and famine in most parts of Africa, constituted some of the most difficult events with which the Church had to struggle. Added to these hardships were Muslim-

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Christian tensions over converts, the economic recession in the 1990s, and the Rwandan genocide, during which an estimated 10,000 Seventh-day Adventists were killed,82 among other serious factors that affected the new faith on the African continent. But through the work of the new evangelists, the Church was able to fight against the odds to maintain its steady growth.

Local Pioneers’ Evangelistic Methods It is quite difficult to give details of all the possible methods used by the local pioneers for the advancement of Adventism in Africa. As noted earlier, not all the experiences and mission stories of local pioneers have been documented. But the few writings about their missionary activities documented in the West African Messenger, the South African Missionary, the African Division Outlook, and the Trans-African Division Outlook attest to not only their dedication to the Adventist faith, but most especially their ability to be more creative in their approaches to preaching the gospel to their peoples, through common sense and critical reasoning. Some had basic training from White missionaries, while others ventured into evangelistic endeavours out of passion and their love for Christ. Most of the evangelistic meetings did not take place in churches, since there weren’t many church buildings before the 1930s. Evangelistic gatherings took place under trees, in private houses, in marketplaces, or in open-air places. But the fact is that most converts to Adventism were made by unknown local pioneers who brought hundreds and even thousands of peoples to the Adventist faith. Not all their stories and names have been documented. Their experiences echo similar experiences in the early days of the Christian faith. Many converts were made through the able service of unknown individuals, among whom one finds slaves and traders. Perhaps the most spectacular forms of Christian witness were instances when local pioneers openly defied the threats of witch doctors by freeing people from their curses. The local evangelists also destroyed house idols and released people from the duty of worshipping them. When people noticed the demonstration of such extraordinary faith in the God of Christianity, they surrendered their lives to Christ as the only person who truly protects from evil forces. Many of the famous cases of evangelism were when idol worshippers agreed for the local evangelists to throw their idols into rivers or openly burn them before the eyes of everyone. Such moments were exciting because the local evangelists were accompanied in their faith demonstration by the rhythmic and musical sounds of traditional instruments, followed by powerful Christian hymns. Sometimes, through dramatic experiences of healing, deliverance from evil spirits, or confrontation with African traditional practices, the Adventist message penetrated the cities and the rural areas, slowly, with difficulty, but with the clear assurance of hope. Finally, one should note that by the early 1960s and late 1970s, as African countries gradually obtained their independence from their

Early African Adventist Evangelists 131 colonizers, they came to be more creative in adapting methods taught by the White missionaries. By this time, mass evangelistic campaigns in towns and villages were visible. Camp meetings were also organized here and there with the clear intent to increase the Adventist population in Africa.83 Thus, it was a combination of several strategic evangelistic methods that paved the way for the new demography of Adventism in Africa.

Conclusion This chapter examined the role of Adventist new evangelists in the development, expansion, and growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa. They were the major players who sought to present the biblical truths to their families, and near and distant communities, with a passion equal to that of their mentors, the Western missionaries. Following the general trends of independence, African Adventist evangelists sought not only to assure the continuity of the teachings of the Church, but also to develop strategies for touching the hearts of non-believers, whose customs and traditions gave little hope to Western missionaries that they could be reached and accept the Adventist faith. From South Africa to Ghana, Nigeria to Zimbabwe, and Kenya to Egypt, the new evangelists spared no means to preach the gospel of Christ. They reached hundreds of thousands of people and led them to accept Adventism. Between the 1960s and the 2000s, the growth of the Church was impressive, as skills taught by Western missionaries were integrated and redefined intuitively by people who had only a rudimentary education. Their labour transformed Adventism in Africa to a major religious movement, which is likely to prove its strengths further, as thousands become Adventists each year.

Notes 1 See James S. Coleman, Nigeria Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1958). 2 See Amy McKenna, ed., The History of Western Africa (New York: Britannica Educational, 2011), 76. 3 Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 68–77. 4 Marèque Steele Ireland, ‘Postcolonial Theology’, in Global Dictionary of Theology, eds. William A. Dyrness and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Nottingham, UK: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 684. 5 Luke Lungile Pato, ‘African Theologies’, in Doing Theology in Context: South African Perspectives: Theology and Praxis, eds. John W. De Gruchy and Charles Villa-Vicencio (New York: Orbis Books, 1994), 153. 6 Etherington, ‘Introduction’, 13. 7 Richard Elphick, ‘The Benevolent and the Social Gospel: Missionaries and South African Christians in the Age of Segregation’, in Christianity in South Africa A Political, Social, and Cultural History, eds. Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport (Oxford: James Currey, 1997), 350. 8 Etherington, ‘Introduction’, 16, footnote 27. 9 Etherington, ‘Introduction’, 7.

132 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

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Peggy Brock, ‘New Christians as Evangelists’, in Missions and Empires, 132. Brock, ‘New Christians as Evangelists’, 132. Brock, ‘New Christians as Evangelists’, 132. Hyde, ‘North Nigerian Teachers Send Greetings’, 3. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 13 April 1948, General Conference Archives, 1446, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-04.pdf, accessed 29 April 2021. Samuel A. Paul, The Ubuntu God: Deconstructing a South African Narrative of Oppression (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009), 177. ‘Resolutions and Expressions from the Foreign Missions Council’, Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 14, no. 2 (1928): 14. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 36. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 36. Babalola, Sweet Memories, 78. Ndala Kayongo, ‘West Zambia Field’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist. org/article?id=5D26, 15 November 2020. Spalding, Origin and History, 13. Spalding, Origin and History, 15. See also, Mxolisi Michael Sokupa, ‘Documented Memories of Richard Moko’s Life and Contribution: a Seventhday Adventist Heritage Reflection’, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 3 (2015): 171–183. Spalding, Origin and History, 15. Compare with the message of Ellen G. White to missionaries in Africa in White, Testimonies To Southern Africa, 1–98. Spalding, Origin and History, 21. Spalding, Origin and History, 15. Gershom N. Amayo, ‘The Role of the Adventists in the Development of Education in Kenya’, in Seventh-day Adventist Contributions, 67, 68. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 24. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 72. Brock, ‘New Christians as Evangelists’, 140. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 43. James J. Hamilton, ‘Deliverance from Lightning’, The Advent Survey 10, no. 3 (March 1938), 8. General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 13 April 1948, General Conference Archives, 1446, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-04.pdf, accessed 27 April 2021. Appiah Dankwah, ‘A Scene at Kwaaso Village’, Western African Advent, January 1951: 4. Dankwah, ‘A Scene at Kwaaso Village’, 4. R. Wigwe, ‘Juju Was Destroyed: Umuocha District’, West-African Messenger 6, no.8 (1952): 4. M. U. Adiele, ‘Juju Priestess Repudiates Her God’, West-African Messenger 10, no. 2 (1960): 3. Adiele, ‘Juju Priestess Repudiates Her God’, 3. Adiele, ‘Juju Priestess Repudiates Her God’, 3. H. Brandt, ‘Witches Seek the Lord’, Trans-Africa Division 62, no. 8 (1964): 9. K. B. Elineema, ‘Development of the Adventist Church in Tanzania’ in The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Africa, ed. E. Elineema (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: self-pub., 1992), 57. See also K. B. Elineema, ‘The Mission’s Contributions to Tanzania’, in Seventh-day Adventist Contributions, 41–56. Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 72.

Early African Adventist Evangelists 133 42 G. E. Game, ‘Top Canvasser of Zambesi Union: Mrs. Eitlhopha D. Mosinyi’, Trans-Africa Division 72, no. 6 (1974): 3; ‘Publishing Department Highlights’, Trans-Africa Division 72, no. 5 (1974): 5. 43 B. B. Beech, quoted in Agboola, Seventh-day Adventist History, 77. 44 Elineema, ‘Development’, 59. 45 Elineema, ‘Development’, 59. 46 Bekele Heye, The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa (self-pub., n.d.). 47 Mxolisi Michael Sokupa, ‘Documented Memories of Richard Moko’s Life and Contribution: a Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Reflection’, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 41, no. 3 (2015): 173. 48 Mxolisi Michael Sokupa, ‘Moko, Richard (1850–1932)’, Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AGYW& highlight=y#fn4, November 4, 2022; SDAE, (1996), 632. 49 Sokupa, ‘Documented Memories’, 171–183. 50 Sokupa, ‘Documented Memories’, 171–183. 51 Sokupa, ‘Documented Memories’, 116. 52 R. P Dauphin, ‘Erunmu, Southern Nigeria’ Adventist Review and Herald, 8 June 1916: 12. 53 Babalola, Sweet Memories, 123. 54 David O. Babalola, ‘Balogun, Isaiah Ajibola (1882–1947)’ in ESDA, https:// encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=6G6P#fn2. 55 Babalola, Sweet Memories, 124. 56 Philemon O. Amanze, Abimbola O. Fagbe, and Oyewale A. Akintunde, Pioneers: Courageous Stories of God’s People (Lagos, Nigeria: Jamiro Press, 2011), 31–34, 42–45, 46–49, 55–60, 65–67,77–79; Babalola, Sweet Memories, 61–167. 57 Jacob Hyde was an Adventist missionary in West Africa. His contributions to Adventism in Northern Nigeria were significant. John J. Hyde, ‘An Urgent Plea from Northern Nigeria’, Missionary Worker 39, (1 June 1934); John J. Hyde, ‘A Door Opening’, British Advent Messenger 42, no. 26, (24 December 1937). 58 Kwame Boakye Kwanin, ‘Ghana’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/ assets/pdf/article-CC1L.pdf, 15 November 2020. 59 Amanze, et al., Pioneers, 81. 60 Patrice Pahimi, ‘Mobilité de la main-d’oeuvre missionnaire et dynamique d’intégration sous-régionale en Afrique centrale: cas des Missions Fraternelle Luthérienne et Adventiste du Septième Jour au nord du Cameroun et au sud du Tchad – XXe siècle-début XXIe siècle’, in Afrika Zamani 22 & 23, (2014–2015): 131–150; Amanze, et al., Pioneers, 73–79, 80–86, 98–102. 61 Paminus Machamire, ‘Ndhlovu, Reward Register (1927–2000)’, in ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=6CDG&highlight=Zimbabwe# fn21, 23 September 2020. 62 John M. Dry, ‘Zambesi Union: Here Am I’, Southern African Division Outlook, 15 March 1960: 7. 63 F. G. Reid, ‘Report of the Zambesi Union’, Southern African Division Outlook, 15 February 1963: 15. 64 Machamire, ‘Ndhlovu, Reward Register’. 65 Lydia Bwalya Lufungulo Chembo, ‘Lufungulo, Diamond Chibwe (1924–1994)’, ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5DE2&highlight=Zimbabwe, September 23, 2020. 66 Chembo, ‘Lufungulo, Diamond Chibwe’. 67 Jack W. Provonsha, Remnant Crisis (Hagerstown, MD: Review & Herald, 1993), 8, 9. 68 Mavalla, Conflict Transformation, 46.

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69 General Conference Committee, Meeting minutes, 13 April 1948, , General Conference Archives, 1447, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/ GCC/GCC1948-04.pdf, accessed 29 April 2021. 70 Edgar Keslake, ‘Sierra Leone Mission: Annual Report for the Year 1951’, WestAfrican Messenger 6, no. 4 (1952): 2. 71 Brandt, ‘Witches Seek the Lord’, 9. 72 C. R. Sparrow, ‘Matabele Mission’, South African Missionary 7, no. 7 (1904): 6. 73 I. J. Hankins, ‘Another Baptism’, South African Missionary 2, no. 5 (1904): 4. 74 R. C. Porter, ‘A Visit to the Wilgehoek Church’, South African Missionary 10, no. 4 (1911): 1. 75 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1950, 1970, 1982, 1989, 1999. The statistics are calculated by extracting the membership of African territories located in the European Division and the Southern African Division. 76 E. A. Akintunde, ‘I Will Fear No Evil: Suggestions for Evangelistic Workers’, West-African Messenger 10, no. 1 (1960): 4–5. See also Publishing Department of the West African Union Mission, ‘Seven Reasons Why We Believe in Gospel Literature’, West-African Messenger 10, no. 1 (1960): 7–8. 77 A. N. Daity, ‘Why I Became a Colporteur Evangelist’, West African Advent Messenger, November 1951: 2. 78 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910. 79 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1910. 80 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 546. 81 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 546. 82 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 546. 83 E. M. Howard, ‘Methods of Work in Johannesburg’, South African Missionary 2, no. 5 (1904): 6.

6

Adventism in Africa The Statistical Centre of Global Seventh-Day Adventism (2008– the Present)

From its inception up to the 1950s, Adventism was concentrated in North America, with slow membership growth in other parts of the world. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were dramatic and unprecedented changes in the trajectory of Seventh-day Adventism. Thousands of converts were coming from the Global South: Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Today, while the journey has maintained its pace, the statistical centre of gravity of Seventh-day Adventism is now in Africa. Briefly described in this chapter is the odyssey of the statistical centre of global Adventism from 1860 to 2020. This is illustrative of the trajectory of global Christianity itself. Todd M. Johnson and Sun Young Chung of Gordon Theological Seminary note that the Christian centre of gravity has been in the Global South since the early 1980s.1 During this same time, there has been a significant increase of Christians in the East (Asia), particularly China and India. This move of Christianity to the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania) will be more significant in years to come. According to Johnson and Chung, ‘by 2100, the geographic centre of Christianity is expected to be a full 30° of latitude south of where it was at its most northern point in AD 1500 and 20° south of Jerusalem where it began in AD 33’.2 According to this projection, by 2100, there will be over 2.8 billion Christians in the Global South, a number that ‘will be well over three times as numerous as Northern Christians (775 millions)’.3 Adventism’s trajectory follows current trends in global Christianity, with the difference that the early centre of global Christianity was in the Middle East while Adventism had its early centre in the North (North America). Seventh-day Adventism’s trajectory is calculated based on the number of Seventh-day Adventists in each division, utilizing the General Conference statistics. Three major points could be identified as informing the course of the growth of Seventh-day Adventism from its beginning in 1860. First, Adventism started in North America and this continent was for more than ten decades the centre of Adventism, as there were more Adventists who lived in North America than in any other single continent from 1860 to 1960. During its second phase, Adventism expanded significantly in South America. The third stage started when Africa, for the first time, recorded a DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-7

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higher number of Seventh-day Adventists than any other single continent on earth. Today, the growth of Seventh-day Adventism is illustrative of the global statistical centre of Christianity; it has moved south, with its centre in Africa.

Following the Trajectory in Early Adventism’s History There have been three significant steps in Adventism’s trajectory towards statistical centre of gravity: the early centre in North America, from the beginning of the denomination to the late 1960s, the move to South America, and then Africa as the present centre of Adventism.4

The Early Centre in North America From 1860 to the 1960s, Seventh-day Adventists were concentrated in North America. From North America, Seventh-day Adventism spread to the whole world, first to Europe, then to Australia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the rest of the globe. From its earliest beginnings, Adventism grew more towards the north and northwest than to the south and the east. During this time, Northern Adventist scholars shaped the theology and lifestyle of the denomination, before the Church experienced a major shift by growing exponentially in the Global South. The growth of the Church declined in the Global North (North America, Europe, and Australia) between the 1970s and the 1990s. Although North America tripled in membership between 1950s and 1997, it dropped from the first rank it held to sixth among the 13 divisions of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In part, this decline in rank was mirrored by the decline of acceptance of the Christian message in the Global North. North America, Europe, and Australia have seen the increasing impact of secularism; the Christian faith and its promises based on the supernatural created little effect on the minds of people at the close of the modern era and the beginning of the postmodern world. Even among Adventist scholars, some began to ask critical questions.5 They sought to question the very foundation of Adventist beliefs.

From North America to South America Latin America witnessed an era of membership explosion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As the colonialists retreated from this part of the world, it coincided with a spirit of nationalism. Local leaders took upon themselves the task of furthering the Adventist message, which resulted in explosive growth in the 1980s and 1990s.6 The success of this new leadership led to adjustments in the denominational administration of the Church previously dominated by North Americans and Europeans. With such a zeal for mission, as early as 1945, the South American Division reported 41,000 members, while the Inter-American Division had

Adventism in Africa 137 a membership of 54,000. According to Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, ‘about one of every six Adventists in the world lived in these two divisions’ in 1945.7 But the centre of Adventism remained in North America, until the 1970s, when the North American Division experienced membership decline, and South America unprecedented growth. By the early 1970s, Latin America became the centre of global Adventism worldwide in terms of membership.8 In 1999, in Latin America, there were 3,546,970 Adventists, the highest number in any continent in the world, followed by Africa, with 3,528,865 members in the same year.9 Latin America held this position for almost four decades until 2008, when, for the first time, the global statistical centre of Adventism shifted to Africa.

Growth Moving to Africa Adventism in Africa started to experience a major growth in membership when local pioneers got involved in preaching the gospel to their own brethren. They drew huge crowds that gathered to hear the truth they had never heard before. As they preached, very few were unyielding to their message. With this excitement for the gospel ministry, there were 80,395 members in Africa in 1950. This was significant progress, considering the uncertainty that greeted the inception of the denomination on the continent in the early twentieth century. The membership continued to increase, and, by the 1980s, Adventism in Africa was second only to Latin America in terms of membership representation by continent. As Latin America stood at the statistical centre for global Adventism by the late 1960s, and held this position for decades, Africa was by its side as the continent with the secondhighest number of Seventh-day Adventists (Figure 6.1). Despite its difficult background, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa has been growing rapidly. Africa had 99,265 members in 1950, 241,007 in 1960, 438,927 in 1970, 725,322 in 1980, 1,998,104 in 1990, and 3,864,848 in 2000. From 2008, there have been more Seventh-day Adventists in Africa than in any other continent in the world; the combined membership of the Latin American divisions was 5,313,485, while Africa’s combined membership, from its various divisions and attached fields, was 5,740,844.10 Thus, Africa emerged as the statistical centre of global Adventism in 2008. Since then, Africa has kept its ranking, with tremendous growth achieved between 2010 and 2018. During these 10 years, Adventism in Africa added more than a third of the membership it had in 2008 (see Table 6.1). The total membership in Africa today is more than a third of the total membership of the worldwide Church, grouped in three divisions: the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, the East-Central Africa Division, and the West-Central Africa Division. The North Africa Region and the Egypt-Sudan Field, are attached directly to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (Figure 6.2).

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Figure 6.1 Growth of Adventism in Africa. Table 6.1 Worldwide Adventist membership by division, as of 30 June 2008 Divisions North America Inter-America South America Trans-European Euro-Africa Euro-Asia East-Central Africa West-Central Africa Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Northern Asia-Pacific Southern Asia Southern Asia-Pacific South Pacific Total

Membership 1,108,158 3,271,224 2,015,910 112,645 176,835 139,194 2,584,456 850,219 2,489,871 625,626 1,476,866 1,036,239 420,637 16,307,880

Source: 147th Annual Statistical Report—2009 (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists).

The line on the map indicates how the statistical centre of gravity of Adventism has progressed over the years. The Church began in North America in 1863, and the highest concentration of members remained there, first in Michigan and then in California, until the late 1960s. From

Adventism in Africa 139

Figure 6.2 Change in the statistical centre of global Adventism, 1863–2008.

there it shifted dramatically to South America as church membership growth in the Global South began to accelerate. Since 2008, Africa can claim the highest numbers of members in the world, and thus the statistical centre of gravity, with its epicentre in Zambia. One of the three African divisions, the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, was formed in 2003, and includes South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Botswana. Countries in this division contain populations of more than 150 million people, with about 3.5 million Seventh-day Adventists (a ratio of one Adventist for every 43 people). In this division, there are five tertiary educational institutions: Helderberg College (South Africa), Mozambique Adventist Seminary, Rusangu University (Zambia), Solusi University (Zimbabwe), and Zurcher Adventist University (Madagascar). There are also healthcare institutions, among which are Kanye Seventh-day Adventist Hospital (1921) in Botswana; Mwami Adventist Hospital (1927) in Zambia; Maluti Adventist Hospital in Lesotho (1951); and Vista Clinic Psychiatric Hospital (1984) in South Africa. The East-Central Africa Division comprises 11 countries, with a population of about 307 million. The Adventist membership is about 4.5 million. It has higher-education institutions such as the Adventist University of Africa (AUA) in Kenya, which has a theological seminary and a graduate school providing education for both Adventists and non-Adventists in Africa; the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton in Kenya; the Adventist University of Central Africa in Rwanda; Bugema University in Uganda; the University of Arusha in Tanzania; Université Adventiste de Lukanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Ethiopian Adventist College. The West-Central Africa Division covers 22 countries, ranging from Mauritania in the northwest to the Republic of the Congo in the south, and

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Table 6.2 The ten African countries with the most Adventists Country

Country population, 2020

Adventist membership, 2020

Ratio of Adventists to country population

Zambia Kenya Zimbabwe Rwanda Tanzania Congo Malawi Angola Uganda Mozambique

17.86 67.51 14.64 12.62 58.00 86.79 18.62 31.42 44.27 30.36

1,336,124 1,048,013 969,739 947,151 769,645 668,916 588,566 516,310 409,328 369,876

1:13 1:64 1:15 1:13 1:75 1:130 1:32 1:61 1:108 1:82

million million million million million million million million million million

Source: 2020 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2021), 43–74; 295–320; 393–426.

Chad in the northeast, with a population of about 350 million; the division has a membership of about 865,000. The division has five universities in its territory: Babcock University (West Nigeria), Clifford University (East Nigeria), Valley View University (Ghana), Adventist University Cosendai (Cameroon),11 and the Adventist University of West Africa (Liberia). There are also healthcare institutions such as the Benjamin Carson School of Medicine (Nigeria), among several other hospitals and clinics across the divisions. (Table 6.2) The top ten countries with significant numbers of Seventh-day Adventists are found in two world divisions of the global Seventh-day Adventist Church: the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (SID) and East-Central Africa Division (ECD). These divisions record 8,474,830 members: 4,194,712 in SID and 4,280,118 in ECD.12 The third African division, the West-Central Africa Division (WAD), records 846,614 members. The SID and ECD therefore contain 90.91% of the total Seventh-day Adventists in Africa and 39.87% of the total global Seventh-day Adventists; this means that one Seventh-day Adventist out of each 2.5 in the world lives in the SID and ECD; and one Seventh-day Adventist out of each 2.27 lives in Africa. In sum, the three divisions in Africa record a significant number of Adventists, especially compared to divisions in Europe and Asia. In addition to the three divisions mentioned earlier is the membership from North Africa. The North Africa region, which covers Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara, has been mostly dominated by Islam. Although there were signs of growth in the early twentieth century in this region, it slowed down significantly and remains stagnant. In June 1948, there were 17 churches and 591 baptized Adventists in the North African Union Mission that comprised Algeria, French Morocco, Spanish Morocco, Tangier, and Tunis. These countries had a combined population of 15,000,000. Egypt and Northern

Adventism in Africa 141 Table 6.3 Growth of Adventist membership worldwide and in Africa Year

World Adventist membership

African Adventist membership

Percentage of Adventists in Africa

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

756,712 1,245125 2087473 3,383,055 6,497,999 11,336,023 16,641,357 21,614,231

99,265 241,007 438,927 725,322 1,998,104 3,864,848 6,085,262 9,634,571

13.11 19.03 21.02 21.43 30.74 34.09 36.56 44.57

Source: Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks of 1952, 1972, 1981, 1991, 2011, and 2021.

Sudan at that time had a combined population of 22,000,000, with 13 churches and 478 members,13 but as of 30 June 2020, there had been some significant progress over the years. This field records a total of 23 churches and 1,389 members, in a population of 144,652,00014 (Table 6.3). This table shows the rapid growth rate of Adventism in Africa compared to the worldwide growth rate. This is an indication that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will likely maintain its centre of gravity in Africa for several decades to come.

Factors Explaining the Growth of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa Although this Christian movement is patterned after its Western background, a different story reflects its development on the African continent. Several factors can account for its expansion and growth. First, the outreach strategy employed by the Adventist missionaries was significantly positive, as it culminated in the numerical growth of the Seventhday Adventist Church in Africa. White missionaries used health and educational institutions as centres of evangelism. They also trained the local pioneers who later replaced them in proclaiming the gospel to their own people. Second, the wave of nationalism that broke the link with the European colonial powers strengthened the process of indigenization of Christianity, and therefore Adventism, in Africa. Africans understood that the mission and future of Adventism in Africa rested on their shoulders. They took Adventism not as a Western religious movement, but as a true religion with universal salvific truth. These two reasons listed atop could explain the growth of all Christian denominations in Africa. The growth of Adventism in Africa in such a distinctive way has a number of explanations. First, the early counsels of Ellen G. White to missionaries in Africa were timely and relevant. She never came to Africa, but her contributions to the

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establishment of Adventist missions in Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are incomparable. She admonished the missionaries to work with passion and leave an indelible imprint, and they followed her counsels to live out a ‘Christlike character’. They worked with an unimaginable passion for the advancement of the gospel in Africa.15 Second, the apocalyptic sermons preached by Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in Africa were influential. Adventist missionaries relied on the power of their teachings to convince Africans. They told Africans that they had brought the Christian gospel with new insight that is promised to all Christians, including Catholics and other Christian denominations. They placed emphasis on their distinctive doctrines, coupled with apocalyptic sermons, through the Voice Of Prophecy radio programs, and literature evangelism, which spoke to the hearts of Africans.16 Such creative reflection created a sharp appeal in the minds of the converts to Adventism. Therefore, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists who accepted Adventism explained their new faith to the adherents of their previous churches. Such political spirituality adopted by Adventist missionaries, and the converts who accepted their message, favoured the insertion of Adventism within the setting of African religious market, even though they were latecomers. The third reason that favoured the growth of Adventism in Africa was the acceptance of the Sabbath (Saturday) as the true day of worship well before Seventh-day Adventist missionaries came to sub-Saharan Africa. In East and West Africa there were groups of people who worshipped God on Saturday well before the Adventist missionaries came to Africa preaching the Sabbath. For a number of people in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, earmarking the seventh day as a day of worship was not a Western idea, but a part of their traditional religious practices.17 The fourth reason was the remnant ecclesiological perception of Seventhday Adventist missionaries and their early converts. As Adventist missionaries came to Africa, they presented themselves as belonging to a remnant community tasked to preach an end-time message to the whole world. They preached the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6–12 as they understood them, as the last warnings to the world before the return of Christ.

Implications of Adventism on Global Southern Trajectory These implications can be divided into two major groups: theological and missiological. This section will briefly highlight these two points.

Theological Implications As noted earlier, the dominant theology of Seventh-day Adventism has been penned by scholars from the Northern hemisphere (North America, Europe, and Australia), but the move of the centre of Adventism to the

Adventism in Africa 143 Global South, with its epicentre in Africa, necessitates readjustment to theological reflections to accommodate those African cultural practices that are not unbiblical. Voices emerged from the Global South to denounce theological imperialism, as the Global North that was once at the centre of Seventh-day Adventism is now on the margins in terms of membership. Matching with theological reflection is the language issue. Primarily, the language of the Church is English, although it may be used concurrently with other languages. Spanish is considered the language of the Church in South America; Church publications there are mainly in Spanish and Portuguese rather than English. Similarly in Africa, Seventh-day Adventists worship in multiple languages, among which one finds Swahili, Fulfulde, Zulu, and Yoruba. In Africa today, there are 234 languages and dialects used in Church publications; 239 languages and dialects heard in broadcasts; and 415 languages and dialects used in oral work.18 The Adventist message in Africa needs translation into local languages if the Church is to adjust to the reality of its new statistical centre of gravity.

Missiological Implications Seventh-day Adventists and other Christian groups such as Catholics, Protestants, and Pentecostals, have long been in proximity to Islamists in countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana. Conversely, in Asia, Seventh-day Adventists have been in contact with Buddhists, Hindus, Confucianists, Shinto, Taoists, and Zoroastrians. This gives Adventism a huge opportunity to widen its evangelistic scope. Seventh-day Adventists have the privilege of sharing the truth they have with their Christian brethren, as well as with the adherents of other world religions that have prospered in Asia and Africa. Related to missiological issues is the problem of finances and membership numbers. God measures the growth of His church not by the extent of its finances, but by its faithfulness and honesty in rendering what the church is requested to do. The example of the widow’s offering is a biblical model in terms of offerings and tithes—the believer must give what they have in accordance with their income by being faithful to God’s principles and the Church’s pronouncements. In Luke 21:1–4, we find the story of the faithful widow: ‘Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you”, he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” ’. Everyone should be aware of the 10% tithe from one’s income for the support of God’s work. In addition to tithes are offerings, which do not exclude generous giving for church building, support for believers in faith, and the expression of love to fellow human beings. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa should encourage its members to be more faithful. Economic disadvantage may prevent the

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9.6 million members in Africa from making the same kind of financial contribution coming from the 1,263,064 members of the North American Division.19 Therefore, what the African Adventists can contribute financially should not be compared to what North American Adventists can contribute. This disadvantage should not be a point of complacency in the continuous quest for financial assistance from the West, while the West should not also take advantage of the pitiable economic situation of the poor to impose its political theological views and construct agendas that may endanger the spirituality of Seventh-day Adventists in the Global South. Thus, the process of the enculturation of the Adventist message must be supported more than ever before.

Conclusion Adventism in Africa has eased itself to the centre of global Adventism. It counts more than 44% of the global membership as of 30 June 2020, and this number is likely to increase in the near future. Its growth rate in the past 60 years has been very impressive: a pointer to the fact that Adventism is gradually affirming its strengths in Africa. African Adventism has set itself to be the greatest missionary-sending continent to spread the Adventist faith around the globe. As African Adventists emigrate to Europe, Australia, and America, they take with them their experience of the African Adventist Church. In their own capacities, they have been acting as unofficial missionaries in different countries. This is an affirmation of John Dybdahl’s prediction in 2011. He asserted that, ‘the greatest missionary sending continent within the next forty years will be Africa. If that is so, we must urgently begin to prepare now to not only encourage Africans to write theology for the new Africa, but learn the process so well that they can use it as they become cross-cultural missionaries to help the neo-pagan parts of the world write their own new theologies’.20 The global Church should be intentional in supporting the process of contextualization of the gospel and help African Adventists to write theology from an African perspective, without diluting the fundamental beliefs of the Church.

Notes 1 Todd M. Johnson and Sun Young Chung, ‘Tracking Global Christianity’s Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33-AD 2100’, International Review of Mission 95, no. 369 (2004): 174. 2 Johnson and Chung, ‘Tracking Global Christianity’s Statistical Centre’, 174. 3 Johnson and Chung, ‘Tracking Global Christianity’s Statistical Centre’, 174. 4 Gabriel Masfa, ‘Tracking the Statistical Centre of Global Seventh-Day Adventism: 1863-to the Present’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 46 (4), (October 2022), 574–584. 5 Gabriel Masfa, Seventh-day Adventist Historiography: An Introduction (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021), 127–180.

Adventism in Africa 145 6 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 539. 7 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 540. 8 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1970, https://documents.adventistarchives. org/Yearbooks/YB1970.pdf. 9 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1999. 10 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 2009. 11 The General Conference Executive Committee voted to open a training school at Nanga-Eboko as a site for Francophone peoples. A post-secondary level was approved in 1974. 12 See the combined statistic of the divisions online. Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, ‘General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Church’, https://www. adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=10010, accessed 6 September 2020. 13 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1950), 221, 233. 14 ASTR, ‘Egypt-Sudan Field’, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook Online, https:// www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=12858, accessed on 1 August 2021. 15 Gabriel Masfa, ‘The Legacy of Ellen G. White in Africa, 1887–1915’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research. 46, no. 4 (October 2022), 586–594. 16 Agboola, A History of Christianity in Nigeria, 56–61. 17 See Charles Bradford, Sabbath Roots: The African Connections (Silver Spring, MD: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1999). See also Bekele Heye, The Sabbath in Ethiopia: An Exploration of Christian Roots (Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2003). 18 ASTR, 2019 Annual Statistical Report (Silver Spring, MD: The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2019), 75. 19 ASTR, Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2021), 181. 20 John Dybdahl, ‘Adventist Responses to Missions Challenges through Theology and Contextualization’, in Adventist Mission in Africa: Challenges and Prospects, ed. Gordon R. Doss (Berrien Springs, MI: Department of World Mission, Andrews University, 2011), 43.

7

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa and Its Relations with Other Christian Denominations

Despite its difficult beginning and the scanty growth observed in the early stages of its emergence in Africa, Christianity remains a fast-growing religion in the continent. Represented by several denominations, Christianity is on the move.1 Illustrative of this growth is the rapid development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This Church came to Africa as the result of Adventist missionary zeal motivated by various Evangelical societies for the advancement of the gospel of Christ. Just like many other Christian denominations that are today emerging in Africa, Seventh-day Adventism had to wrestle with difficult circumstances before its visible emergence today, as described in Chapter 2. But having overcome its difficult days, the Church has now become a competitive denomination amidst thousands of other Christian and religious groups in Africa. This chapter examines the relationship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with other Christian denominations in Africa. To this end, it is important to give a brief overview of the current status of Christianity in Africa before examining the place of Adventism within African Christianity.

Christian Denominations in Africa: Current Status Today, Southeast, Southern, and Central African countries, as well as some in West Africa, have embraced Christianity. According to Gina A. Zurlo, as of 2020, Christians form 49% of the total population of the continent.2 Studies from the Gordon Theological Seminary show that Africa is now the centre of Christianity; there are more Christians in Africa than on any other continent on earth. It is worth noting that Africa is home to three major religions: Christianity, Islam, and African traditional religion. Islam makes up 42% of the total population; thus, 91% of the population of Africa belongs to two Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam. Only 9% belongs to other religions such as African traditional religion, Judaism, Buddhism, and others. It is worth noting that even though the majority of Africans are Christians, there is a significant level of syncretism, which results in an amalgamation of African traditional religious practices with Christian beliefs. DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-8

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa 147 The encounters between these religions create a flux of interactions that enrich each other, they also clash over attempts to transgress religious boundaries, especially between Islam and Christianity. While Christianity and Islam draw their converts mainly from African traditional religion, they also seek to poach from each other: a ‘rivalry’ that endangers the relationship between them. Christians and Muslims built educational institutions throughout the continent with the intention of consolidating their respective missionary beliefs and philosophies, and also strengthen the faith of new converts. The mainline Christian denominations in the continent such as the Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, search for converts primarily from adherents of African traditional religion.3 Generally, these churches made headway as early as the eighteenth century, when the Western missionaries came to popularize them. Through simple methods of preaching the gospel and meeting the needs of Africans, as well as constructing schools and hospitals, they were able to affirm the genuine nature of their mission. One should note that the Christian religion in Africa is multifaceted and has been a major factor influencing cultural philosophy, destroying the traditional status quo by providing education, even to the less privileged, granting them a better future. Across different geographical locations, Africans search for the denomination that can respond to their needs and, often, that can emulate their own (traditional) religious practices.4 African Christian denominations work within the frame of solving the immediate concerns of the people they intend to convert. This is logical because Africans search for religion that can respond to existential needs: protection against the evil eye, provision of food, elimination of sufferings, and fertility of the soil and the women. It was from this perspective that Africans sought to adapt Christianity to their own context. The Kimbanguist Church in Congo, the Aladura churches in Nigeria, Christian Brethren in Egypt, and the United Church in Zambia, among other indigenous Christian churches, incorporate in their own practices realities that are distinctive and representative of African contexts.5 As they read the Bible, the adherents of these churches interpret it in the light of their culture.6 Thus, Christianity has been gaining ground in Africa. According to a 2018 study, the majority of Christians (631 million) live in Africa.7 The secondhighest number (601 million) reside in Latin America, while Europe comes third (571 million).8 There has been incredible growth of Christianity in Africa; a development that has led to a decline in adherence to traditional African religions. One should note that there were only about nine million Christians in Africa in 1900, but this number increased to 380 million in 2000; a study in 2021 found that there are about 685 million Christians in Africa today, and 760 million expected by 2025.9 Many of the adherents of Christianity are from Christian denominations that are not much known to the Western world. For instance, in 2006, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study reported that there were 147 million

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African Christians who were Pentecostals.10 Africa is now home to thousands of Christian denominations with variances of belief, modes of worship, and teachings. African Christianity has drastically shifted from ancient Christianity and shows traits of various forms, ranging from Orthodox Christianity in Egypt, Eritrea, and Ethiopia to the newest forms of Christian denominations in Nigeria. Nigeria is now home to several Pentecostal and revivalists Christian bodies such as the Aladura, Living Faith Church Worldwide, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ Embassy/Believers’ Love World Incorporated, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, The Synagogue Church of All Nations, Salvation Ministries, Church of God Mission International, and Assemblies of God Church. Several other messianic Christian bodies exist throughout Africa, among which are the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa, evangelist Dag Heward-Mills, and several Nigerian Pentecostal movements. In addition to the Pentecostal denominations are the mainline Christian denominations such as the Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants. They all exist in the millions in Africa. The Roman Catholics, for instance, rose from two million in 1900 to 140 million in 2013.11 The Eastern Orthodox Church, divided into several different groups, counts more than 220 million adherents worldwide. Protestant denominations such as the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, and Evangelical Congregationalists, can be counted in several millions in the African continent alone. Added to these are several churches born in and existing across Africa: Zion Christian Church, Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim, Kimbanguist Church, Council of African Instituted Churches, Church of Christ Light of the Holy Spirit, African Church of the Holy Spirit, African Israel Church Nineveh, and New Apostolic Church. Africa is the new cradle of the Christian faith. It is within this matrix of dynamic and intricate realities that the examination of the relation of Seventh-day Adventists to other Christians in Africa can be scrutinized.

Seventh-day Adventism within Christianity in Africa How is Seventh-day Adventism unique within Christianity in Africa? Seventh-day Adventists have always valued their identity, which is embodied in their distinctive teachings as highlighted in Chapter 1. The sanctuary doctrine, the Sabbath message, the state of the dead, premillennialism, all tied to the concept of the three angels’ messages, form the core of Adventist theology. As Seventh-day Adventists interpret these beliefs, they see themselves as having a mandate to share the timely and present truth with Christians of all denominations. These doctrines played a strategic role in popularizing Seventh-day Adventism. When Adventist missionaries arrived in Africa, the terrain had been occupied by the Roman Catholics as early as the fifteenth century; the Church Missionary Society (Anglican Church) and the Wesleyan Church had been introduced in the 1790s, and the Baptists

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa 149 and Presbyterians in the nineteenth century. The Seventh-day Adventist Church arrived in South Africa in the 1880s. This arrival into the African religious market coincided with the rise of African independent churches, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.12 These new churches were dissatisfied with the teachings of the mainline churches, who did not acknowledge the leadership skills of the local clergy. One should note that the search for historic Seventh-day Adventism within Christianity is not limited to an African context. As early as the 1950s, there was debate about whether Seventh-day Adventists professed the Christian faith. In September 1956, Donald Grey Barnhouse published an article in Eternity magazine, asking ‘Are Seventh-day Adventists Christians?’ Barnhouse exonerated Seventh-day Adventists from the accusations that they were not Christians. He make an exception for those Adventists, such as M. L. Andreasen, who held strange beliefs contrary to the majority of Adventists, the ‘lunatic fringe’, saying that Andreasen and his followers were similar to the ‘wild-eyed irresponsible in every field of fundamental Christianity’.13 A popular and charismatic figure in the Evangelical world, Barnhouse noted that the Evangelical community was ‘delighted to do justice to a much-maligned group of sincere believers, and in our minds and hearts take them out of the group of utter heretics like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christian Scientists, to acknowledge them as redeemed brethren and members of the body of Christ’.14 This article put a mark of respect and acceptability on Seventh-day Adventists among Christian communities. Barnhouse’s conclusion was the result of a series of 18 conferences that took place in 1955 and 1956, between himself and the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Walter Martin, a well-known writer and specialist in American cults, was commissioned by Zondervan publishing company to write a book about Seventh-day Adventism. He attended the conferences with Barnhouse, and drew the same conclusion: that Seventh-day Adventists are true Christians. Four years later, Martin wrote The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism with Zondervan, explaining that Adventists are true believers, clearing Adventists of the charge of being a cult.15 Although later debates would question the arguments put forward by L. E. Froom and R. E. Andreasen, leaders of the General Conference Ministerial Association who had dialogued with Barnhouse and explained the fundamental teachings of the denomination to him,16 Seventh-day Adventists benefited from the subsequent acceptance among Christians, especially Protestants, since Adventists believe that they are heirs of European Protestantism.17 With regards to Seventh-day Adventism and the Roman Catholic Church, the relationships between the two denominations have not been historically friendly. First, from the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century until the Second Vatican Council, which took place between 11 October 1962 and 8 December 1965, the Roman Catholic Church taught that there was no salvation outside its realm, believing that

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the door of the Kingdom of God was closed to adherents of any other denomination. Such an extreme soteriological view made relations between the Catholic Church and all Protestant bodies, including Seventh-day Adventists, very tense. Although this tenet has been amended somewhat, the results of such a longstanding doctrine cannot be easily erased. Second, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has taught that the Roman Catholic Church is the very denomination that fulfils the prophecy of the book of Revelation 13:8. The beast coming from the sea is interpreted to be the papal system, which holds massive religious and political powers. Seventh-day Adventists believe that Satan invested the beast (the papal system) as his co-regent and representative on earth. This belief echoes the view of Martin Luther, who considered the papacy to be the antichrist.18 Such an interpretation of the book of Revelation displeases adherents of the Catholic Church, and relations between Adventism and Catholicism in Africa have not always been pleasant, especially theologically speaking. Other Protestants, such as the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, also had unfriendly relationships at some points with Seventhday Adventists in Africa. Their leaders made the work of Adventism difficult because they portrayed the Seventh-day Adventist Church as legalistic. The way missionaries from other Christian denominations related to Adventist missionaries varied across Africa, but the context remained basically the same. In Yorubaland for instance, non-Adventist missionaries ‘used to tell their own church members not to listen to Adventist teachings. They called the Adventists “Jews” who killed Jesus Christ’.19 In Cameroon, Adventist missionaries were not allowed to settle in areas where other missionaries were present. Non-Seventh-day Adventist preachers prevented their members, and even other Christians who were not their members, to join Adventist fellowships. Adventist missions were viewed as heretical because they kept the Sabbath instead of the well-accepted Sunday as the day of worship. Adventists were labelled as people of the Old Testament, people who ignored the teachings of the New Testament. In Yorubaland in Nigeria, ‘local chiefs and policemen were wrongly informed about the mission of the Adventist Church’.20 Often, Adventists were viewed as people who did not appreciate social cohesion. Adventists would not do governmental work on Sabbath day, and were portrayed as enemies of local governments. Seventh-day Adventists have been portrayed as politically inactive, refusing to vote on Sabbath. These accusations seem to have been adopted by adherents of Pentecostal churches, as well as the African Initiated Churches. Seventh-day Adventists silently repudiated many of the accusations against them. They developed an ecclesiology that helps shape their selfunderstanding in the midst of Christian denominations in the world. They see themselves as belonging to a nucleus of God’s true people, through whom God’s redemptive work will succeed in spite of threats, obstacles, and opposition. Situations

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa 151 arise in history that would oppose God’s sovereign purpose, threatening His people and the realization of His plans for the human race, but God has always preserved a remnant through which His willingness to save the human race from extinction was to be fulfilled. For this ‘believing minority’ there is a future, and through it, a future for the human race.21 The Seventh-day Adventist Church views itself as the end-time religious denomination that will fulfil the prophetic message that consists of ushering in the divine plan to redeem the human race from suffering. It identifies itself as the denomination that is faithful to the prophetic message of Revelation 14:6–12. The Church also considers the following marks as characteristic of its identity: the keeping of the commandments as outlined in Revelation 12:7; the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12:7), understood as the spirit of prophecy (Romans 5:3–4); the perseverant remnant (Rev. 14:12); and the faith of Jesus (Rev. 14:12). Revelation 12–14 constitutes the basis for Adventist teaching about the present remnant that is called to fulfil God’s purpose for an end-time people. This concept of remnant is not new, and Adventists believe that they are among the historical remnant that has existed throughout human time and history. The difference between the remnant in history past and the remnant today is that Adventists believe they live at the end of time and that their ministry will usher in the Second Coming of Christ. Thus, Adventists view themselves as the visible eschatological remnant. In this regard, their appearance was ‘linked to Christ’s newly assumed judicial role (in 1844) in the sixth stage of the biblical narrative’.22 With their understanding of ecclesiology distinct from other Christian denominations, Seventh-day Adventists repelled all sorts of accusations against them. Regarding their relationship with the government, Seventhday Adventists have argued that the government needs to be prayed for and supported by good moral people more than it needs them to attend political meetings on Sabbath. While they show their obedience to governmental authorities, they also believe that, in terms of faith, their allegiance must first be to God. They continue to preach the gospel in spite of difficulties. Their commitment to the preaching of the gospel has been heightened by their understanding of the three angels’ messages that they are tasked to share with all non-Christians, as well as all non-Adventist Christians. This message informed their position on ecumenical teachings.

Further Ecumenical Considerations Ecumenism is a concept that promotes unity and evangelical co-operation among Christian churches. Through its teachings, churches work together to develop an amicable relationship. A unifying factor among these denominations is the profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The ecumenical movement began as early as 1908 when Christian denominations in the United States

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founded the Federal Council of Churches for Christ. In 1920, Germanus V of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, urged ‘closer co-operation among separated Christians, and suggesting a “League of Churches”, parallel to the newly founded League of Nations’.23 This address bore fruit as several Christian leaders resolved to establish the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1937, with the purpose of fostering unity among Christian bodies. This body includes the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Mennonite Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Churches, the Moravian Church, various Pentecostal Churches, and the Reformed Churches. The Roman Catholic Church participates in various gatherings as an observer, without holding any membership.24 The most important document, providing a clear and comprehensive understanding of Adventism and its relations with other Christian denominations, was voted in 1919. It states that ‘we recognize those agencies that lift up Christ before men as a part of the divine plan for evangelization of the world, and we hold in high esteem Christian men and women in other communions who are engaged in winning souls to Christ’. The document adds, ‘when interdivision work brings us in contact with other Christian societies and religious bodies, the spirit of Christian courtesy, frankness, and fairness shall prevail at all times’.25 This document predated the Church Manual of 1932. Produced only five years after the death of Ellen White, it is not only informative but also authoritative in terms of how Adventists relate to adherents of other Christian denominations. The document is friendly and presents no ambiguity as to what Adventists should do if a believer of other denominations accepts their faith. The document highlights the distinctiveness of Adventism, while it avoids expressions that may lead to the argument that Seventh-day Adventists can hold membership in ecumenical bodies. It states that, ‘the Seventh-day Adventist Church is unable to confine its mission to restricted geographical areas because of its understanding of the gospel commission’s mandate’.26 The mission of Seventh-day Adventism is a global message to be shared with all human beings on earth. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been a careful observer of activities taking place during ecumenical gatherings. The Church claims its separateness from the other Christian denominations because of its special calling. Sabbath observance, for instance, puts Seventh-day Adventism in direct doctrinal confrontation with the rest of the Christian churches that ignore this doctrine. White encouraged separateness because she believed that freedom would be ‘jeopardized if Protestantism and Catholicism joined hands’.27 Therefore, Seventhday Adventists believe their understanding of the Gospel commission would be altered if they joined the ecumenical movement. The Adventists’ selfperception and ‘their beliefs limited their interaction with other non-SDA churches’.28 They do not forget their eschatological interpretation of biblical events. They believe that prior to the Second Coming of Christ, the whole world will reunite in the attempt to enforce Sunday as the day of worship.

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Africa 153 Even though the Roman Catholic Church has declined to accept membership in the ecumenical council, Adventists believe that their interpretation of prophecy is true and that Christian churches will reunite to impose the false day of worship. Seventh-day Adventists in Africa find themselves in the most profound context of sharing the Adventist faith. Africans, more than ever before, are open to the gospel message, and are sometimes confused about the plethora of Christian messages coming from different settings. Therefore, many of them are in search of the truth, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that it has what Africans may be looking for. In this regard, Adventism sees itself as a movement that has the evangelical mandate to bring all Africans to discover the present truth, which is packaged into the doctrines of the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the imminent Second Coming of Christ, and the appeal to live a righteous life.29

Conclusion The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the religious Christian bodies that succeeded in establishing itself across Africa. In a setting of diverse religious faiths and belief systems, the Church has defined its presence as ‘a force to reckon with’. Its relationship with other Christian denominations has never been overly friendly, because the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been accused of self-isolation, or of being a Jewish sect or a religious body that ignores governmental authorities, since they do not attend political meetings on Sabbath. But, through its institutions that offer competitive religious products such as healing, education, and prayer services, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has resisted being marginalized. With the continued determination to establish more institutions capable of offering competitive religious products, the Church is likely to become even more popular in the years to come.

Notes 1 For a deeper understanding of the progressive growth of Christianity in Africa from the early 1910s, see Barret, ‘AD 2000’, 59. 2 Gina A. Zurlo, ‘African Christianity’, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary blog, 2020, https://www.gordonconwell.edu/blog/african-christianity, October 2020. 3 See Willem Adolph V. Hooft, The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches (Geneva, Switzerland: World Council of Churches, 1982). 4 See John D. Y. Peel, Aladura: A Religious Movement Among the Yoruba (London: Oxford University Press, 1969); H. W. Turner, African Independent Church, Vol. II: The Life and Faith of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967). 5 Valuable sources are Allan H. Anderson, African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Africa World Press, 2001); Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

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6 See John Mbiti, Bible and Theology in African Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), and Gerald O. West, The Stolen Bible: From Tool of Imperialism to African Icon, Biblical Interpretation Series (Leicester, UK: Brill, 2016). 7 Todd M. Johnson, et al. ‘Christianity 2018: More African Christians and Counting Martyrs’, International Bulletin of Mission Research 42, no. 1: 20–28. 8 J. P. Mauro, ‘Africa Overtakes Latin America for the Highest Christian Population’, Aleteia (24 July 2018), https://aleteia.org/2018/07/24/africa-overtakes-latinamerica-for-the-highest-christian-population/, accessed 7 June 2021. 9 Gordon Theological Seminary, ‘Status of Global Christianity, 2021, in the Context of 1900–2050’, https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-globalchristianity/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/12/Status-of-Global-Christianity2021.pdf?, accessed 7 June 2021. 10 Isaac Phiri and Joe Maxwell, ‘Gospel Riches: Africa’s Rapid Embrace of Prosperity Pentecostalism Provokes Concern and Hope’, Christianity Today, July 2007. 11 Pew Research Center, ‘The Global Catholic Population’, https://www.pewforum. org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/, accessed 7 June 2021. 12 Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (New York: Orbis Books, 1983), 15–34, 35–50, 60, 106–126, 168–204. 13 Donald Grey Barnhouse, ‘Are Seventh-day Adventists Christians’, Eternity 7, no. 9 (Sept. 1956): 6. 14 Barnhouse, ‘Are Seventh-day Adventists Christians’, 45. 15 Walter R. Martin, The Truth about Seventh-day Adventism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1960). 16 See George R. Knight, A Search for Identity: The Development of Seventh-day Adventists Beliefs (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2000), 164, 165–178. 17 Hugh Dunton, ed., Heirs of the Reformation: The Story of Seventh-Day Adventists in Europe (Grantham, UK: Stanborough Press, 1997). 18 Martin Luther, Antichrist Revealed, trans. Charles Smith (London: Seeley, 1846). 19 Agboola, The Seventh-day Adventists, 81. 20 Agboola, The Seventh-day Adventists, 81. 21 Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, ‘God’s End-Time Remnant and the Christian Church’, in Toward a Theology of the Remnant: Studies in Adventist Ecclesiology, ed. Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, (Silver Spring: Biblical Research Institute, 2009), 202. 22 Tihomir Lazi
, Towards an Adventist Version of Communio Ecclesiology Remnant in Koinonia (London: Palgrave, 2019), 66. 23 Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church (New York: Penguin Adult, 1993), 322. 24 Steven R Harmon, Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010), 97. 25 Seventh-day Adventist Church, ‘Synopsis: Our Relationship to Other Societies (1919)’, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 97, no. 34 (1920), 5–6. 26 Seventh-day Adventist Church, ‘Synopsis’, 6. 27 Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 451. 28 Mavalla, Conflict Transformation, 46. See also Sake Kubo, The God of Relations: How the Gospel Helps Us Reach across Barriers Such as Race, Culture, and Gender (Hagerstown, MD: Review & Herald, 1993). 29 For an insightful analysis of the church’s position versus the ecumenical council, see Schwarz and Greenleaf, Light Bearers, 451–454.

8

Identity Crisis Traditions, African Religions, and African Adventism

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa is one of the Christian denominations that struggles to contain the influence of traditions and African traditional religion on their members.1 Africans who become Adventists often come from families devoted to the traditional religious systems that the White missionaries combatted. African traditions so permeate the psyche of Africans that when they accept Christianity they are unable to relinquish those traditions in favour of the requirements of their newfound faith. They struggle to conform absolutely to the tenets of their new faith.2 This is not caused simply by the attractive benefits that traditions offer, but by the failure of the White missionaries to clearly define the points of divergence and convergence between African religious beliefs and Christian dogmas. When the missionaries came, they concluded that Africans had nothing ‘religious’ in their traditions upon which they could build the new faith. Nehemiah M. Nyaundi argues that ‘missionary misunderstanding of ATR viewed the religion as actually non-religion’.3 When Africans accepted Christianity, they soon found themselves tangled in the strands of Christianity and African traditions.4 Converts to Christianity often reverted ‘to the traditional ways of dealing with existential concerns’.5 Adventist missionaries, just like other Christian missionaries, ‘approached ATR from a common European attitude that viewed native religions as savage, heathen, satanic, and animistic, among other negative terms’.6 In such circumstances, the converts to Christianity (or Adventism), although they expressed their genuine intention to abide by the promises of Christianity and its benefits for human existence, had no manual from which they could draw insights to creatively and effectively shun the attractions of African traditions.

Adventism and Culture in Early and Modern African Societies: The Context of Identity Crisis Modern scholars have been critical of missionaries who did not seek to preach to Africans from the African perspective. Gordon R. Doss writes that, ‘both missionaries and African leaders could probably have done better, had the process of critical contextualization been understood’.7 A correct DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-9

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understanding of what culture is would prove helpful. It is not ‘of itself either an enemy or a friend to God or humans. It is something that is there to be used by personal beings such as humans, God, and Satan.’8 Culture is an expression of the supreme encounters between human civilizations in time. As Charles H. Kraft and Marguerite G. Kraft argue, ‘The human psyche is structured by culture, as is every expression of groupness, including family, community, and church’.9 God works with human culture to reveal His will to His people. Emphasizing the importance of the integration of Christian gospel into African communities, C. H. Kraft and M. G. Kraft asked, ‘When God sought to reveal Himself completely, did he reject human culture and language as either too evil or too imperfect to serve as the vehicle for His incarnation?’10 Christianity would benefit from accepting and consecrating what is of value in the African culture in order to realize its purpose ‘to fulfil, and not to destroy; to make free, and not to enslave’ while maintaining an uncompromised allegiance to Christ.11 From this angle, the principle of tabula rasa, ‘that there is nothing in the non-Christian culture on which the Christian missionary can build, and consequently every aspect of the traditional non-Christian culture must be destroyed before Christianity can be built up’,12 created more harm than benefit to Christianity. This approach was a deliberate policy, aimed at ‘wiping out and replacing’ African cultural heritage.13 What missionaries did not understand was that ‘in spite of all societal transformations, there was a basic continuity between traditional and modern African identities residing’ in African believers.14 Western Adventist missionaries asked Africans to reject, or at least drastically transform or modify, their cultural practices in order to forge a new identity as a ‘Christian’. Stefan Höschele, a German theologian, wrote that ‘the Seventh-day Adventist Church entered Africa with its background of a peculiar relationship with culture that would shape what was to happen in this new environment. Since its inception in the nineteenth century, the denomination was among those which tried to safeguard a rigid lifestyle’.15 As the Church moved into the hinterland of Africa, it sought to portray a distinct identity, rooted in American Christian thinking of the nineteenth century, inspired by the holiness movement. A set of prohibitions regulated lives among Christian missionaries. There was strictness in dress, food, and types of recreational activities. Most importantly, the Adventist Church, as a remnant denomination, expressed strictness towards cultural phenomena. Adventist missionaries, therefore, through their understanding of mission and a set of prohibitions, demonstrated a unique remnant identity that vowed to abide by the things of heaven. In 1972, the General Conference clearly expressed its position regarding eschatology, remnant identity, and the need for strictness regarding cultural practices, especially in non-Western contexts. In this final hour of earth’s history, the church must not lower its standards, blur its identity, or muffle its witness, but must with renewed

Identity Crisis 157 emphasis give strong support to the standards and principles that have distinguished the remnant church throughout its history and have kept it separate from the world.16 This statement was demonstrative of the way Adventist missionaries entered Africa and other non-Christian societies in the nineteenth century. Their understanding of Christian mission was equated to the rejection of African cultural practices or traditions.17 For instance, Western Adventist missionaries subjected Africans in Tanzania to ‘a hard devotional life’ that discouraged cultural recreational amusements, as they saw them as ‘directly evil’.18 Adventists sought to create a new culture free from ‘evil traditions’. They avoided any discussion related to enculturation because they saw no insight in African traditions. Robert Wieland, a prominent Adventist scholar in the 1970s, rejected the concepts of ‘Africanisation’, ‘Europeanization’, and ‘Americanization’, which he viewed as unhelpful for Adventist identity, which, in this case, was considered as above culture.19 As early as 1928, the European Adventist Foreign Missions Council, for instance, sought to suppress African traditions in the name of creating an emerging Christian Sabbath-keeping denomination in Africa. We do not declare war upon native customs except as these have definite heathen significance; and … in laying down any regulations we move in harmony with the body of native believers as far as possible.20 There appears to have been little compassion or sympathy in the approach to African traditions. Western missionaries sought to create a new religion in the heart of Africans as if they had nothing as ‘religion’ in their inherited traditions. Such a spirit hampered the process of contextualization of Adventist mission in Africa. Most of the cultural clashes and identity crises in African Adventism today can partly be attributed to serious lack of enculturation in the early beginnings of Adventism on the continent.

Crisis as Linked to African Traditional Religion In the following pages, this chapter will briefly discuss major aspects of African traditional religions, and their belief systems, within the setting of sub-Saharan Africa. It will then examine how the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as the other Christian bodies in Africa, finds itself in a quandary as to how to maintain its identity amid competing ideologies from traditions that assure Africans of salvation here and now.

The Nature of African Traditional Religion African traditional religion (ATR) is a set of beliefs that cuts across ethnicity, religion, and tradition. These beliefs are preserved through revered

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traditional practices that include festivals, rituals, and songs. The belief in a higher god does not nullify an allegiance to a lower god and other beings of exceptional traditional significance, such as the ancestors. The ATRs compete among themselves in terms of beliefs, but do not necessarily contradict one other.21 While there are various types of African traditional religious beliefs, most of them can be termed animistic. Animism is a belief in spiritual beings that animate the material world. This belief encompasses the activities of mystical powers that influence human beings, either by harming them or by bringing to them good luck in everyday happenings.22 Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was the first scholar to survey animistic belief with his pioneering study, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Art and Customs (1871). Animism emphasizes the worship of nature and the ancestors, and belief in an afterlife. Thus, it can be argued that the various religious traditions of Africa are intrinsically linked by animistic belief; a belief in spirits and ancestors constitute the principal element of African religion. Gods are usually viewed as self-created; they do not depend on any cause for their existence, they are spirits that are worshipped by the people.23 Ancestor veneration is central to the worldview of African religious traditions. Ancestors are an integral part of everyday life, and some people even believe that they become powerful supernatural beings, with powers equal to the deities. Ancestors are believed to be spirits, and therefore occupy a strategic position in the African psyche. They are invested with metaphysical and mysterious powers that give direction to people’s lives, and are believed to possess the ability to bestow either blessings or diseases upon their living descendants.24

Traditional Medicine Directly connected to traditional African religions is traditional African medicine.25 It is understood as a healing method, founded on the use of important components of traditional values, and includes herbal medicine, ecstatic healing, hydrotherapy, spinal manipulation, and therapeutic occultism. African traditional medicine is divided into two major types: the physical and the metaphysical. The first usually employs plants, animals, and mineral substances as means to administer healing. The second is based on incantations and prayers, with the association of mysterious forces.26

Practice of Magic and Witchcraft Another characteristic of African traditional religion is the practice of magic and witchcraft. These two phenomena constitute the mystical powers that are prevalent in African societies. Magic is based on a two-fold principle, referred to as the law of similarity and the law of contagion.27 According to James

Identity Crisis 159 Frazer, a Scottish social anthropologist of the early twentieth century, the law of similarity is based on the concept of ‘like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause’, while the law of contagion is based on the idea ‘that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed’.28 The laws of similarity and contagion help the magician to produce the effects he desires. With the law of similarity, ‘the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it’, while with the second, the magician ‘infers that whatever he does to a material object will affect equally the person with whom the object was once in contact, whether it formed part of his body or not’.29 In the African context, the practitioner of the law of similarity is usually an expert in African traditional medicine. [He] prepares an effigy (image) with cotton wool, mud, wood, or with any other material. … The effigy is subsequently hurt with a knife, thorns, needles, dangerous chemicals, rope, or other weapons. In the end, whatever damage is done to the effigy is expected to harm the enemy whom the effigy represents. If the effigy is destroyed completely, then the life of the individual in question also comes to an end.30 The law of contagion, on the other hand, presupposes that once there has been a contact between things or persons, they can continue to influence each other. According to Frazer, ‘the most familiar example of Contagious Magic is the magical sympathy which is supposed to exist between a man and any severed portion of his person, as his hair or nails; so that whoever gets possession of human hair or nails may work his will, at any distance, upon the person from whom they were cut. This superstition is worldwide’.31 The magician can also make use of items of clothing, footprints in the soil, urine, blood samples, and other things related to the human body, in order to produce an effect on an enemy. Witchcraft is the invocation of supernatural power to harm people, control events, or cause misfortune to people. Witchcraft involves the work of individuals who meet at night, commune with the devil, indulge in cannibalism, and perform evil acts referred to as black magic, in contrast with white magic, which is the use of supernatural powers for selfless purposes such as protection against evil forces through the use of charms, amulets, incantations, and cuts on the body, among other elements.32 White magic is thus different from witchcraft in nature and practice even though both are concerned with the intent of producing effects on people through the use of supernatural forces.33

The Supreme God Traditional African religions are best described as complex because they are centred on the religious traditions and beliefs of the people. Some African

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religions have a clear idea of a creator. The Yoruba, for instance, have a concept of a supreme being, called Olorun or Olodumare: the creator of the universe. He is invested with special power by the various deities (Orisa) to create the world and sustain it, including those who live in it. The Mouyang in Cameroon also have a concept of a supreme being, called Melefit, who is a self-created god with unimaginable omnipotence and omniscience, and who cares for those who worship him and protects them from misfortune.34 African cosmologies are characteristic of African spirituality. Beliefs and practices inform every facet of human life, and as such, religious and mundane life are in a symbiotic relationship. For instance, misfortune is not solely a function of one’s inability to achieve one’s goal, but also a corollary of a discrepancy between one’s social life and the fulfilment of demands from the ancestors.35

ATR and the Abrahamic Religions Although adherents to ATRs in sub-Saharan Africa have been in decline since the coming of Islam in the eight century, and Christianity from the early eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, today there are over one hundred million adherents of African traditional religions in sub-Saharan Africa alone.36 The two Abrahamic religions, Islam and Christianity, appear to attract the adherents of ATRs, but the adherents of these new religions, in everyday life, combine the practices of the ATRs with that of the Abrahamic religions to ensure their survival in society.37 Thus, Islam and Christianity are accommodated within the context of African culture and belief systems. As highlighted in Chapter 1, the religious demography of Africa shows a close competition between Christianity and Islam, each representing about 40% of the African population. African traditional religions are extant in most of sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly strong in the central and western parts of the continent.38 Countries such as Benin, Togo, and Gabon record substantial numbers of devotees to African religious traditions.39 Christianity is dominant in the south, while Islam is dominant in the north. The bottom line then is that Africans who still wholly practice African indigenous religions are only about 10 percent of the African population, a fraction of what it used to be only a century ago, when indigenous religions dominated most of the continent. I should add that without claiming to be full members of indigenous traditions, there are many professed Christians and Muslims who participate in one form of indigenous religious rituals and practices or another. That testifies to the enduring power of indigenous religion and its ability to domesticate Christianity and Islam in modern Africa.40

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ATR and the African Diaspora African traditional religion is also spreading around the world. Many developed countries in Western Europe and North America are witnessing the presence of African diaspora religions. Haitian voodoo, and the Yoruba and the Zulu religions, have quickly spread across the globe.41 African religions have been resilient in the face of the exponential growth of Christianity and Islam among Africans in the African continent, as well as in the diaspora; there is a sense of beauty in African traditional religious systems that attract the devotees. Africans who have travelled abroad are able to seek charms, talismans, and spiritual care from men and women who make use of traditional medicine, as well as in securing a good fortune. The devotees of African traditional religion can even visit Christian pastors or priests, despite their regular patronage of African traditional religion.42 Thus, African traditional religion is now globally seeking to accommodate religious beliefs from world religions. Apparently, there is no contradiction between African spirituality and other faiths, if the devotee can secure basic needs to respond to their existential needs. This is one of the reasons why there is a greater sense of revival and rapid global spread of African religions, despite scientific exploration that questions their promises rooted in supernaturalism. Even among Africans in the Western world, one is still able to observe that ritual sacrifices and witchcraft beliefs are rampant.

Influence of African Traditional Religion on Seventh-day Adventism in Africa After conversion to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Africans coming from families devoted to African traditional religious systems find themselves still attracted to their former religious beliefs; practices from African religions continue to be observed among converts to the Adventist faith. In most cases, these practices seek to meet existential needs such as protection against witches, invisible enemies, disease, and the desire for food security. Although there has not been a systematic study to analyze all the attractions from African traditional religion and their influence on converts to the Adventist faith, there have been several recent significant studies that looked at specific practices. One of the most important of these is the work edited by Kwabena Donkor titled The Church, Culture and Spirits: Adventism in Africa. This is a clear and in-depth study that seeks to respond to a specific problem in African Adventism—the challenge of spiritualistic manifestations such as ancestor worship, witchcraft, divinations, magic, and the influence of practitioners of traditional medicine. This study is a collective effort between the three divisions of the Church in Africa, with a two-fold objective. First, the Church sought to provide ‘an Adventist biblical response to these spiritualistic phenomena’. Second, the Church sought to formulate practical ‘guidelines that would assist the church in dealing with spiritualistic manifestation within the

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African culture’.43 It was during the same timeframe that a set of guidelines was voted in each of the three divisions in Africa to provide a collective response to a cultural phenomenon. One document that is especially significant is ‘Spiritualism and the Adventist Church in Africa: Guidelines and Recommendations’. This document provides the Church with global responses to some of the most challenging issues that threaten its identity, especially within the context of African Adventism. Several other parallel studies provide further insights into understanding and suggesting adequate responses to specific practices in the African religions that influence the faith of Adventists in Africa. Most of these studies have been published in the Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry and the Journal of Adventist Mission Studies. Among the most relevant papers are the following series of publications in 2017: ‘What Attracts People to Occult and Witchcraft Practices?’, by Pardon Mwansa; ‘The Cosmology of Witchcraft in the African Context: Implications for Mission and Theology’, by Samuel Lumwe; ‘Witchcraft Accusations: Destroying Family, Community, and Church’, by Boubakar Sanou; as well as two important publications by Kelvin Onongha in 2007 and 2012 respectively: ‘African Pentecostalism and its Relationship to Witchcraft Beliefs and Accusations: Biblical Responses to a Pernicious Problem Confronting the Adventist Church in Africa’, and ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery and Divination to African Christianity’.44 These materials explain ways in which African traditions such as witchcraft, divination, and magic present serious threats to the advancement and maturity of the Adventist faith in Africa. Onongha noted in 2007 that ‘sorcery and divination present a serious challenge to Christian missions in the African continent’.45 Onongha outlines three major reasons behind these practices. The first is connected to ‘the niche they fill’. The second is linked to the ‘function they perform’. The third is related to ‘the worldview yearnings they satisfy in the lives and experiences of the people’.46 These reasons are attractive to African Christians, including Seventh-day Adventists. Onongha gives an account of a church whose members invited a witch doctor to perform the rituals of divination to settle a case of sorcery. At a pastoral retreat a few years ago, a couple shared the story of a harrowing experience in their ministry. They told how the minister’s wife had been accused of practicing witchcraft. Elders in the area hired the services of a local witchdoctor to confirm their allegations. Fortunately, the witchdoctor absolved the pastor’s wife, but indicted some of the conspirators. However, the minister eventually lost his position in that district and it took several years of pain and anguish before the issue could finally be laid to rest.47 A story of this kind popularizes the patronage of witch doctors and the practice of divination in the African collective mind, and consequently, in Christianity.

Identity Crisis 163 Onongha tells another story in which a witch doctor was invited to a church service to make incantations and divination to identify witches in Nigeria.48 Similarly, Samuel Lumwe, in his ‘Cosmology of Witchcraft’, tells of three events that were linked to the practice of witchcraft in his community in Kenya. His accounts point to the reality of witchcraft, and the fatal nature of the attack of witches. Witches eat human flesh; they kill even their close relations to satisfy their desire for human meat.49 Their actions can lead to barrenness, miscarriage, and lack of employment, and they can cause misfortune in business and school progress. Witches are invested with mystical powers to cause harm. Mitchell argues that a witch ‘is believed to have an inherent power to harm other people’.50 Unfortunately, Christian communities appear to contain many witches in their midst. Cases like the ones highlighted by Onongha and Lumwe are frequent in several African Christian communities. Sanou also notes that in Africa, it is ‘widely believed that all forms of misfortune, such as crop failures, poor spending, barrenness, addiction, sicknesses, accidents, and death, are caused by witchcraft’.51 There was a case where an entire village was forbidden to attend worship on Sabbath morning in Baka, a village in Northern Cameroon. The village was accused of hiding witches who damaged the reputation of the church they attended. Although there was an attempt to solve the issue without calling upon a witch doctor, several church members abandoned the faith and re-joined their earlier traditions by securing protective mystical devices against the attacks of invisible enemies.52 Beliefs in sorcery, divination, magic, and witchcraft have a damaging impact on Adventist communities. Some Africans, after their conversion to Adventism, still feel they are ‘entitled’ to some sense of protection obtained within their traditions. Pardon M. Mwansa argues that people are attracted to witchcraft because there they can find answers to human needs such as the fear of death, protection against enemies, the desire to be loved, and daily physical needs such as food security.53 Africans believe in the existence of spiritual beings who have the potential to influence the course of their lives, and their outlook and experiences in life are therefore hugely shaped by such beliefs.54 John S. Mbiti noted that ‘belief in the function and dangers of bad magic, sorcery and witchcraft is deeply rooted in African life, and in spite of modern education and religions like Christianity and Islam, it is very difficult to eradicate this belief’.55

A Review of Adventist Responses to Practices Derived from African Traditional Religion and Traditions Adventist scholars from Africa, as well as established missiologists in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, have made several suggestions and recommendations as to how the denomination should respond to unbiblical practices rooted in African traditions and religious systems.

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The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in cooperation with the three African divisions (the highest hierarchical structures of the administration of Seventh-day Adventism in Africa), was able to produce official responses to some of the practices of African traditional religion and traditions that have a huge influence on the Adventist faith. The Church, Culture and Spirits (referred to above), was published by the Biblical Research Institute of Seventh-day Adventists and is a significant scholarly contribution to the issues of spiritualistic manifestations in Adventism in Africa. Scholars from the three divisions in Africa have examined how the Church can be pragmatic, and provide biblical substitutes to the practices of African traditional religions. These guidelines are divided into five sections: 1) guidelines in the case of demonic possession, 2) guidelines regarding the practice of ancestor veneration, 3) guidelines as responses to witchcraft, magic, and sorcery, 4) guidelines in cases of traditional healing, and 5) guidelines in response to the practice of rites of passage. They provide helpful recommendations on how to confront the African religious beliefs that counteract the Adventist faith. Although the authors’ intention was to provide pragmatic responses to the challenges posed by belief in the spirit world, the twelve-chapter book essentially focuses on an admittance of the existence of the spirit world and spiritualistic manifestations in Africa. Nonetheless, virtually all the chapters contain practical suggestions and recommendations on how the Church can help members who are entangled in the struggles of spiritualistic manifestations. These guidelines centre on the role of prayer and fasting, developing faith in the power of God, and inculcating appropriate doctrinal teachings in church members. Illustrating this observation are chapters by Lameck Miyayo, Mkombe Canaan, Vida Mensah and Nathaniel Walemba, based on their personal reflections and experiences. The most significant chapters, providing detailed responses, are by Kwabena Donkor and Sampson M. Nwaomah, who did masterly scholarly examination of responses founded on published works. While Nwaomah acknowledges the importance of anointing as a practice rooted in biblical teaching, he critiques the unbiblical use of oil for anointing subjects. He argues that ‘the biblical motif of anointing with oil for healing is a very popular practice in African Christianity’, but he notes that the practice of anointing in certain circles of the Nigerian Christian population ‘portrays gross perversion’ of the biblical models. Donkor, in his chapter, ‘Ancestor Worship, Biblical Anthropology, and Spiritualistic Manifestations in Africa’, discusses not only the pervasive influence of the African worldview shaped by ancestor worship, but also examines theological and practical Adventist responses to African traditions. After presenting foundational biblical arguments in favour of the origins of humanity, the composition of humans, the destiny of humans, and the state of the dead, among other themes, he proposes how Seventh-day Adventists should respond theologically to the challenge of ancestor worship. He presents

Identity Crisis 165 a three-dimensional approach. The first is the response of withdrawal. It simply means ‘the refusal to allow one’s life to be defined in any shape or form by the cult. It is a withdrawal from ideologies and practices that hitherto defined and shaped one’s life, but, which by the virtue of Christ’s death, have been denied that function.’56 This first response appeals to believers to abandon their fears as they seek protection in Christ Jesus. The cult of ancestors should therefore be replaced with the teaching of the kingdom of God and God’s family. The second theological response is the response of defence. Seventh-day Adventists must recognize that they live in a setting of a cosmic conflict, in which the reality of spiritual powers should not be contested. The Bible affirms that human beings fight against authorities of the unseen world, and not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:10–18). The Christian is to hold to the principles listed in this text: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation in Christ, the reading of the word of God, belief in God’s promises of protection, security, love, and care, and belief in the power of prayer. Donkor’s third response to ancestor worship is that of offense. He argues that ‘the response of offense foresees situations in which the Christian deliberately engages the powers’.57 When a member is confronted with the ancestor worship, an offensive response can be recognized as upholding the biblical and Christian worldview. These three theological responses to the worship of ancestors are significant and can be used by Adventists in Africa. In addition to the suggestions found in The Church, Culture and Spirits, other scholars, such as Onongha, Sanou, Bauer, and Lumwe, have produced suggestions from a missiological perspective. All agree that the process of nurturing Seventh-day Adventists in Africa requires an in-depth understanding of the African worldview,58 which leads to what Sanou refers to as a balanced approach to the truth in Christianity.59 The fact that most converts to Adventism in Africa come from African traditional religions or have family members who are devoted adherents to practices of ATR, their interpretation of the Christian message is informed or shaped by their ATR worldview. It is expected that, at the point of conversion to the Adventist faith, a readjustment to a Christian worldview should be seen.60 This change of worldview can be exhibited through the demonstration of God’s power to heal the sick, the blind, the leper; to cast out demons as in the Apostolic era; and to perform visible miracles through the power of God. Converts to the new faith long to testify with visible demonstrations that the Christian God is powerful to overcome the spirits, to protect against the power of sorcerers, and to provide daily food for His children.61 Because we believe in the reality of the Great Controversy, there should be a steady and systematic discussion about witchcraft and the power of God to conquer evil powers in training programs for church leaders, seminarians, and church members. Onongha suggests other practical steps, including: 1

To seek to understand the function these practices fulfil in the worldview and logic system of the people.

166 2

3

4

5

6

Identity Crisis A contextual analysis of the religion, culture and society of the people in order to discover functional substitutes to replace those unbiblical practices with biblically appropriate ones. The development of various theologies necessary to respond to these challenges; such as theologies of dynamism, divination, discernment, communalism, reconciliation, suffering and evil, and the cross. These theologies should then be taught and applied to respond to the needs and fears of the people. Rather than regard education and civilization as the means by which such practices shall be brought to cease, this challenge must be viewed in the context of the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan which shall continue until the second coming of Christ. The role and power of prayer in personal and corporate life needs to be emphasized especially among such people whose worldview already acknowledges the potency and efficacy of this vital spiritual tool. Narrative theology, which recognizes the value of understanding the people’s myths, proverbs, wisdom, and poetry, as well as the heuristic nature of scriptural narratives, should receive greater emphasis among African cultures.62

The Great Controversy, and its place in responding to the problem of suffering, is another way to solve the discontinuity between ATR and new converts to Adventism. Religious scholars, theologians and missiologists, and historians should develop a theology that provides better, scriptural explanations for human suffering—a theology more convincing than that of African traditional religion, which views spirits (deities), ancestors, witches, and witch doctors as agents offering solutions to the problem of suffering and evil. Adventist pastors should, more than ever before, demonstrate the healing power invested in their ministry, just as in the days of the Apostles. The display of God’s power through Adventists pastors could help to solve the problem of members being attracted to those claiming to be miracle workers within the ATR. This sort of power was instrumental in transforming the early non-Christian societies into centres of Christian evangelism; Ephesus, Athens, and Colossae were among the cities transformed into centres of Christian influence.63 Onongha argues that ‘the time has come to act, for the Adventist Church in Africa to lead the way in applying and demonstrating a theology that is contextually developed, which responds to the twin challenges of intransigent witchcraft beliefs, and the warped, syncretistic methodologies of African Pentecostalism’.64

Crisis as Linked to African Adventism’s Self-Awareness among other Cultural Diversities As noted previously, the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa has been impressive for the past sixty years. But far from celebrating

Identity Crisis 167 this numerical and statistical achievement, one can observe the bewildering setting. The Church is far-flung from its apostolic foundation; and it is rocked by issues that create an identity crisis, leading to self-denigration and selfhatred. This phenomenon itself is due, as noted earlier, to the clash of identities between Adventism with a Western origin and that of African culture as a backdrop to Adventism on the continent. Seventh-day Adventism in Africa grew in the context of the influx of diverse cultures from African society, as well as Western, European and American cultures. As the Americans and Europeans (British, Germans, French, Scandinavians, and others) came to Africa with the baggage of their individual cultural realities, they equated the diverse Western culture with biblical culture and asked Africans to submit to this foreign cultural intrusion. Now, after over a century of Adventism outside its birth place, the conundrum between the cultures is even more apparent. The crisis of identity observed in the denomination in Africa is linked to complex historical constructs and issues. Africans accepted the Christian message but did not fully understand how to use its worldview to provide substantial substitutes to their cultural practices. In the process of making sense of the Christian message, they blended it with their interpretation of old traditional symbols, metaphors, allusions, and traditions at the core of past religious experiences. Theologians call this blend syncretism; but for the adherents, it is called true Christianity. Seventh-day Adventists are confronted with the same experience. Other issues that threaten the identity of the Church today are polygamy; divisive church politics, bullying, and policy implementation; dual religious allegiance; the Church’s responses to its youth’s dealing with the postmodern world; the effect of Pentecostalism and its link to issues of innovation versus tradition; and leadership principles.65 Equally important are issues pertaining to the interpretation and application of Ellen White’s writings; the interpretation of the Bible and its application to African culture; gender issues and their relation to Church missions; Muslim-Adventist relations;66 modern music in relation to worship; the interference of African religious traditions with Adventist faith; and the Adventist health message versus the popular teachings inherited from African traditions. Scholars’ collective responses to these issues are necessary if the denomination in Africa is to offer a positive meaning to its new position. In a way, all these issues are linked to the fact that the early missionaries in Africa did not offer converts appropriate biblical substitutes. The Christian mentality the missionaries sought to create was initiated within Western culture and the Adventist concept of otherness. Such cultural imperialism is demonstrating its limits more than ever, as Africans still cannot separate themselves from elements of deep cultural heritage that are different from Adventism’s real identity geared in prophetic otherness. The issues above highlight the discrepancies that exist between the Adventist faith and the cultural African milieu. In such circumstances, new members coming from such religious backgrounds to Adventism find it

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hard to cut ties with their previously accepted cultural norms. When Western Adventist missionaries came to Africa, they failed to fully understand the religious person of an African. They did not provide the means through which the new converts could make sense of Christianity by detaching themselves from the complex religious worldview they had. Missionaries did not confront African practices with functional biblical substitutes. When challenged by existential issues such as illness, generational curses, and the evil eye, the new convert chooses to consult the gods of the old faith; an acceptable practice among most of the African initiated churches. Seventh-day Adventists in Africa have been trapped in this complex worldview.67 One of the serious concerns that hindered the idea of a positive cultural interpretation of the Bible and the adaptation of its truths to an African context was ‘the imposition of a Euro-American interpretation of the Bible’.68 White Adventist missionaries were not trained in evangelism, and they did not believe that African culture possessed divine Christian truths upon which they could build their teachings. ‘It has been expected of Africans that they prove their conversion within a Western cultural milieu. Africans had to undergo cultural transformation of a Western type to “genuinely” [be] converted.’69 Western missionaries made ‘cultural circumcision’ a precondition to the Christianization of Africans. ‘Africans had to disengage from their cultural traditions which were seen as pagan and unredeemed, and adopt the traditions, norms and values of their evangelizers which were defined as higher and redeemed.’70 In the face of disregard for the African culture, ‘God was presented as the sum total of Western religious understanding and the epicentre of Western thought. Even artistic representations of religious truth were formulated in non-African categories. The hymnody was non-African.’71 Africans were taught to integrate Christianity within the Western understanding of theological and ecclesiological interpretations. African traditions were viewed as altogether unessential and were expected to be replaced by European and American traditions. Africans had to dress like Westerners to go to church; they had to wear a jacket and tie; and they had to follow the way of life of the White missionaries. Clothing Christianity with Western culture as if the two were synonymous eventually began to be questioned; missionaries needed to teach not cultural spirituality but biblical spirituality. Biblical spirituality can easily adjust to culture to redeem it, transform it, and orient it; cultural spirituality is imperial because it is geared towards superiority and hegemony. Biblical spirituality can be contextualized, but cultural spirituality resists contextualization. Western missionaries mixed and confused cultural spirituality with biblical spirituality. Christ has made Himself available to all cultures. The Gentiles did not need circumcision to be accepted by Christ. The Jewish culture was not a prerequisite for the acceptance of the Christian message by the Gentiles (Galatians 3:28). To believe that one must accept Christ

Identity Crisis 169 from a Western worldview was a demonstration of cultural imperialism and cultural spirituality. Unfortunately, ‘All standard Adventist literature displays this tendency to maintain a Western modality. Western perceptions of reality have assumed the level of a canon. The synonymity between Western thought and Christian thought is so close that a rejection of the former is seen as an assault on the latter.’72 In the mass of Christian conversion in Africa lies the issue of cultural conflicts. The difference between biblical spirituality and cultural spirituality must be maintained, and a distinction must be made between what is cultural and what is biblical and cross-cultural. Cross-cultural spirituality is integrative of biblical spirituality; but cultural spirituality is blind to biblical spirituality. White missionaries did not understand that biblical spiritualty within a cultural context is more appropriate than its interpretation from the Western worldview. Seventh-day Adventism in Africa might respond to its crisis of identity through the development of biblical spirituality more relevant to the African context, and Africans can benefit from cultural insights to add relevance to their worship, liturgy, evangelism, and religious practices. While one must recognize and admit that Western missionaries of all denominations failed to contextualize the Christian gospel in Africa, it is also true to note that African scholars have overemphasized the African methods of interpreting and analyzing African Christianity. Yusufu Turaki notes that, African scholarship has overturned the era of the missionary presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is no longer the gospel and the Bible that confront Africa, but Africa that confronts the gospel and the Bible through her religious scholars. African scholars now seek to define the meaning of the gospel and the Bible so as to indicate how they differ from the missionaries. The missionaries’ ideological interpretation of the gospel has been replaced by the African ideological interpretations of the gospel and the Bible.73 In this competing and confrontational approach to the Christian gospel, it is obvious that ‘one ideology has replaced the other. We have simply moved from one extreme to the other.’74 Therefore, one must be deliberate in suggesting an approach that is more appropriate to help African Seventhday Adventists in living out their Christian faith within the African context. Seventh-day Adventists in Africa must learn to study their cultural context, be informed about the African realities, and assess their traditional beliefs from a Christian perspective. One should advocate for understanding and integrating Adventism in Africa not from the perspective of African cultural realities, but from the perspective of Christian and biblical tenets. This is an attempt to offer a fresh, alternative methodology to the study of Adventism in the Global South by using a biblical worldview to engage and interact

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with the cultural African context. This proposal is more in line with remnant theology, which is more inclusive in its approach to evangelizing the world. The centre of Adventism is now in Africa; this means that the approach of the Church to mission could be more influential than ever before. It remains important, therefore, to creatively enculturate the Adventist gospel to the African people without compromising the truth the Church preaches to the world. Issues linked to politics, worship, the spirit world, dual allegiance, Pentecostalism, and other related issues of liturgy and faith profession, should be carefully confronted with appropriate and sufficient biblical principles.

Conclusion This chapter examined the complex interweaving of African traditional religion with African Adventism. Practical issues borne from the interactions of Adventism with African culture need continuous investigation. One should seek to understand why and how Seventh-day Adventists in Africa have faced challenges, as well as the advantage the cultural milieu offers them in terms of immense gospel mission opportunities. African Adventism clashes with ATRs, and the Church’s practical guidelines to resolve this divide must be considered. Equally, scholars’ reflections and suggestions should receive attention. The chapter also examined the struggles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in maintaining its identity as a Christian denomination with distinctive Adventist features, and the challenge of detaching or integrating elements of African culture. The Church must be aware of what can be integrated into its worship life, its doctrinal purity, its beliefs, and norms of faith. Through an investigation of the Adventists’ past in Africa, one can reflect on Adventism’s self-identity amid the clash of cultures, including the Western culture through which Adventist missionaries brought the Adventist message to Africans.

Notes 1 Important studies on African traditional religion include:, Jacob K. Olupona, African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014); Afe Adogame, Ezra Chitando, and Bolaji Bateye , eds. African Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa: Emerging Trends, Indigenous Spirituality and the Interface with Other World Religions, Essays in Honour of Jacob Kehinde Olupona (London: Routledge, 2016); Bolaji Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (London: SCM Press, 1973); John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books, 1969); John S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (London: SPCK, 1970); John S Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 1975).

Identity Crisis 171 2 Nehemiah M. Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’, ESDA, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5I81&highlight=Adventists|and| African|Traditional|Religion, accessed 7 May 2021. 3 Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’. 4 Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’. See also, Benjamin C. Ray, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual and Community (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976), 3 5 Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’. 6 Nyaundi, ‘Adventists and African Traditional Religion’. See also, Nehemiah M. Nyaundi ‘African Traditional Religion in Pluralistic Africa: A Case of Relevance, Resilience and Pragmatism’, in Traditional African Religions in South African Law, ed. Tom W. Bennett, (Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 2011), 16. 7 Gordon R. Doss, ‘Adventist Responses through Evangelism and Discipleship’, in Adventist Mission in Africa: Challenges and Prospects, ed. Gordon R. Doss (Berrien Springs, MI: Department of World Mission, Andrews University, 2011), 49. 8 Charles H. Kraft and Marguerite G. Kraft, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing in Cross Cultural Perspective, rev. ed. (New York: Orbis Books, 2005), 89. 9 Kraft and Kraft, Christianity in Culture, 89. 10 Kraft and Kraft, Christianity in Culture, 90. 11 Bolaji Idowu, Towards an Indigenous Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 7. 12 J. S. Pobee, Towards an African Theology (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1979), 48, 49. 13 Abraham A. Kuranga, ‘Seventh-Day Adventism in Western Nigeria, 1914–1981: A Study in the Relationship between Christianity and African Culture from the Missionary Era to the Introduction of African Leadership’, (PhD diss., Miami University, 1991), 201. 14 Stefan Höschele, Christian Remnant—African Folk Church, Studies in Christian Mission, (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 34:64. 15 Höschele, Christian Remnant, 260–261. 16 General Conference Committee ‘Display and Adornment’, no. 1225, 20 October 1972, General Conference Archives, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/ Minutes/GCC/GCC1972-10b.pdf, accessed 14 April 2021. 17 Dennis Steley, ‘The Adventist Package Deal: New Lives for Old’, in In and Out of the World: Seventh-Day Adventists in New Zealand, ed. Peter H. Ballis (Palmerston North, New Zealand: Dunmore Press, 1985), 152–171. 18 R. E. S. Tanner, Transition in African Beliefs. Traditional Religion and Christian Change: A Study in Sukumaland, Tanzania, East Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Maryknoll Publications, 1967), 71. 19 Robert J. Wieland, ‘Shall We Africanize the Teachings of Christ?’, unpub/ manuscript (photocopy) n.d., 13 [located at Africa Herald Publishing House]. 20 ‘Resolutions and Expressions from the Foreign Missions Council’, Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 14, no. 2 (1928): 14. 21 See these valuable studies by John Mbiti: African Religions and Philosophy; Concepts of God in Africa; Introduction to African Religions, Bible and Theology in African Christianity; and Idowu, African Traditional Religion. 22 See Graham Harvey, Animism: Respecting the Living World (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). 23 See Glenn S. Holland, Gods in the Desert: Religions of the Ancient Near East (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). 24 Olupona, African Religions, 20–38.

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25 Karen E. Flint, Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820–1948 (Scottsville, South Africa: University of Kwazulu Natal Press, 2008). 26 Isaac Sindiga, Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha and Mary P. Kanunah, eds. Traditional Medicine in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers Ltd, 1995). 27 James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion (New York: Cosimo Classic, 2005), 11. 28 Frazer, The Golden Bough, 14. 29 Frazer, The Golden Bough, 14. 30 Amanze and Kayode, ‘Mystical Powers’, 25. 31 Frazer, The Golden Bough, 34. 32 Anthony Chiorazzi, Interview with Jacob Olupona, ‘The Spirituality of Africa’, The Harvard Gazette online, 6 October 2015, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ story/2015/10/the-spirituality-of-africa/, accessed 25 April 2021. 33 For an in-depth discussion on the concept of black magic, see Jared L. Miller, ‘Practice and Perception of Black Magic among the Hittites’, Akademie Verlag 37 (2010): 2, 167–185; Happy Baglari, ‘The Magic Art of Witchcraft and Black Magic’, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 5, no. 6 (2015): 8–13. 34 Jean Masfa, An elder among the Mouyangs in Baka, Interview by the author, April 2022. 35 Olupona, African Religion, 1–20. 36 J. Baur, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa: An African church history (Nairobi, Kenya: Paulines Publications Africa, 2009). 37 Elijah Obinna, ‘‘Life Is Superior to Wealth?’: Indigenous Healers in African Community, Amasiri, Nigeria’, in African Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa, 135–148. 38 Baur, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa, 253–260. 39 Baur, 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa, 254–255. 40 Chiorazzi, Interview with Jacob Olupona. 41 Mambo C. Taan, Haitian Vodou: An Introduction to Haiti’s Indigenous Spiritual Tradition (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2012). 42 Olupona, African Religions, 20–38. 43 Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, ‘Preface’, in The Church, Culture, and Spirits, ix. 44 Pardon Mwansa ‘What Attracts People to Occult and Witchcraft Practices?’ Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13 (2017): 14–19; Samuel Lumwe, ‘The Cosmology of Witchcraft in the African Context: Implications for Mission and Theology’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13, no. 1 (2017): 83–94; Christopher R. Mwashinga, ‘Relationship between Social and Economic Status and Witchcraft in Africa’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13 no. 1: 23–32; B. Sanou, ‘Witchcraft Accusations: Destroying Family, Community, and Church’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13, no. 1 (2017): 33–45; Kelvin Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery and Divination to African Christianity’, Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry 7 (2012): 47–57; Kelvin Onongha, ‘African Pentecostalism and Its Relationship to Witchcraft Beliefs and Accusations: Biblical Responses to a Pernicious Problem Confronting the Adventist Church in Africa’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13, no. 1 (2017): 45–54. 45 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery, 47. 46 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery, 47. 47 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery, 48. 48 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma of Sorcery, 48. 49 Lumwe, ‘The Cosmology of Witchcraft’, 89–90.

Identity Crisis 173 50 Cameron R. Mitchell, African Primal Religions (Niles, IL: Argus Communications, 1977), 67. 51 Sanou, ‘Witchcraft Accusations’, 34. 52 Personal experience of the author in the village of Baka, in the sub-division of Tokombere in the Far North Region of Cameroon. 53 Pardon Mwansa, ‘What Attracts People to Occult and Witchcraft Practices?’ Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13, no. 1 (2017): 18. 54 Mbiti, Introduction to African Religions, 81. 55 Mbiti, Introduction to African Religions, 165. 56 Donkor, ‘Ancestor Worship, Biblical Anthropology, and Spiritualistic Manifestations in Africa’, in The Church, Culture and Spirits, 87. 57 Donkor, ‘Ancestor Worship’, 88. 58 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma’, 47–60; Sanou, ‘Witchcraft Accusations’, 33–44; Bruce Bauer, ‘A Response to Dual Allegiance’, Evangelical Mission Quarterly 44 (2008): 340–347; Lumwe, ‘The Cosmology of Witchcraft’, 83–97. 59 Boubakar Sanou, ‘Truth, Allegiance, and Power Dimensions in Christian Discipleship: From a Language of Priority to a Balanced Approach’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 9, no. 1 (2013): 45–56. 60 Bruce L. Bauer, ‘Conversion and Worldview Transformation among Postmoderns’, in Revisiting Postmodernism: An Old Debate on a New Era, ed. Bruce L. Bauer and Kleber O. Gonçalves (Berrien Springs, MI: Department of World Mission, Andrews University, 2013), 85. 61 Bauer, ‘A Response to Dual Allegiance’, 342. 62 Onongha, ‘The Missiological Dilemma’, 57. 63 Daniel Berchie, ‘Miracle-Working among African Seventh-day Adventists: Biblical Phenomenon?’ Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry 4 (2011): 3–25. 64 Onongha, ‘African Pentecostalism’, 53. 65 Kelvin Onongha, ‘Pentecostalism, Power, and Politics in Nigeria’, in Pentecostalism and Politics in Africa, eds. A. Afolayan, O. Yacob-Haliso, and T. Falola (London: Palgrave, 2018), 371–382; Kelvin Onongha ‘African Pentecostalism and Its Relationship to Witchcraft Beliefs and Accusations: Biblical Responses to a Pernicious Problem Confronting the Adventist Church in Africa’, Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 13, no. 1 (2017): 45–54; Zacchaeus Mathema, ‘Towards an Understanding of the African Worldview’, in The Church, Culture and Spirits, 37–38. 66 Mavalla, Conflict Transformation, 35–100. 67 Kwabena Donkor, ‘Ancestor Worship, Biblical Anthropology, and Spiritualistic Manifestations in Africa’, in The Church, Culture and Spirits: Adventism in Africa, ed., Kwabena Donkor (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2011), 89. 68 Magethi and Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 16. 69 Magethi and Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 16. 70 Magethi and Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 16. 71 Magethi and Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 16. 72 Magethi and Nkosi, God or Apartheid, 16. 73 Yusufu Turaki, Engaging World Religions and World Views in Africa (Carlisle, UK: Langham, 2020, xxviii). 74 Turaki, Engaging World Religions, xxviii.

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This chapter briefly presents the summary and conclusions of this study.

Summary Adventism in Africa has reached a considerable level of development in terms of membership, infrastructure, and influence on the continent. This phenomenon itself is an illustration of the development of Christianity in Africa (Chapter 1), as it has become the centre of global Christianity today. Chapter 1 analyzed how Adventism began in America. After setting a solid foundation in North America, the denomination spread like wildfire to penetrate almost every country recognized by the United Nations today. This growth is occasioned by the theology of the denomination, which sees the world as a field for evangelism. The denomination seeks to convert all non-Sabbath worshipers. Adventism’s theological components, such as the Sabbath, the Second Coming of Christ, the state of the dead, and the sanctuary message, are integrally wrapped up with and form the identity of the denomination. This chapter also examined Christianity in Africa as it provides a backdrop to the establishment of Adventism in Africa. Chapter 2 examined the difficult beginnings of Adventism in Africa, due to human and natural factors unfavourable to the spread of the gospel. Through unsettling circumstances linked to disease, climate, tribal war, and hostility of various degrees, Adventist missionaries sought to spread the Christian gospel. This was only possible because these missionaries worked with determination, even within the framework of colonialism. But the Christian message succeeded in having an impact on Africans. Chapter 3 explored the relationship between colonialism and Adventist missions. Adventist missionaries came to Africa at a time when the continent was coveted by Western powers for its natural resources, and the expansion of their hegemonies in the continent. Seventh-day Adventism had to grapple with the realities of colonialism in order to expand Adventist mission in Africa. While Adventist missionaries were genuine in bringing the gospel to Africans, they nonetheless had to follow colonial protocol, which required adherence to standards and regulations established by DOI: 10.4324/9781003332107-10

General Conclusion 175 colonial empires, and missionaries were usually sent to the colonies attached to the empires to which they belonged. Therefore, Adventist mission in Africa developed along the line of colonial attachment until the end of the twentieth century. This connection was important in that it produced a positive impact in terms of education and medicine, which formed the two branches of evangelism. Chapter 4 examined how Seventh-day Adventism was founded in Africa within the contexts of political and racial imperialism. It revealed the remarkable exploits of Western missionaries who came from Europe and America to spread the gospel to Africans. They were intentional in their evangelistic approach, which brought about the successful establishment of the Church. Chapter 5 analyzed the role of early African evangelists in the development, expansion, and growth of Adventism in Africa. They were the main actors seeking to present Bible truths to their families, and to both neighbouring and remote communities, with a passion equal to that of their mentors, the Western missionaries. Following the general trend of African independence in the mid-twentieth century, the new African Adventist evangelists sought to ensure not only the continuity of the teachings of the Church, but also the development of strategies to win the hearts of traditionalists. Chapter 6 shows how Adventism in Africa has become the centre of world Adventism. African Adventism has set itself the goal of being the leading Christian movement for sending missionaries to spread the Adventist faith around the world. As African Adventists migrate to Europe, Australia, and America, they take with them their experiences of the African Adventist Church. Chapter 7 reflected on the relationship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with other Christian bodies. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has set herself as a denomination that possesses divine truth to communicate to non-Adventists, including all Christians who are non-Sabbath keepers. Even though the Church is accused of stealing members from other Christian denominations, a development that hampers the relationship of Adventism with other religious movements in Africa, the Seventh-day Adventist Church views herself as an end-time Church that must face persecution from other churches. The chapter also highlighted how the public image of the Church was reshaped through its institutions. The Church has become a highly competitive religious firm with significant popularity, especially as one reflects on the roles of its universities in Africa. Chapter 8 highlighted the Church’s struggles against African traditional religious systems and practices. It revealed the elements of tradition that influence the practice of the Christian faith in Africa. African religions show some form of closeness with spiritual beings that are believed to be influencers of everyday life. Adventism must root its teachings in the Scriptures in order to provide substitutes for the dysfunctional realities that affect the

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practice of the Adventist faith in Africa. This chapter examined some recommendations and suggestions for dealing with issues pertaining to African traditions and culture that are averse to the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, superstitious beliefs, and ancestor worship are evaluated in the light of biblical Adventist teachings. It also focused on the Church’s identity struggles in relation to African cultural traditions, between maintaining its identity as a Christian denomination with distinctive Adventist characteristics and the challenge of detaching or integrating elements of African culture. In view of this dynamic conundrum, the Church must be aware of what can be integrated into its life of worship, its doctrinal purity, and its beliefs and standards of faith. The centre of Adventism is now in Africa, which means the Church’s approach to mission in this continent could be more influential than ever. It therefore remains important to creatively enculturate the Adventist gospel to the African people without compromising the truth that the Church preaches to the world. Questions relating to politics, worship, dual allegiance, and Pentecostalism must be carefully confronted with sufficient biblical principles. Likewise, the lack of emphasis on the meaning of the Sabbath in daily life calls for a theological and practical revival in churches.

Conclusion Amid the notable growth in African Adventism is the issue of the clash of identities. After more than a century, the process of contextualizing the Adventist message has not been fully attained, which creates a crisis of identity. This crisis is the result of the dichotomy between the African factor, imbedded in African traditions and culture, and the Western factor, in which Adventist missionaries viewed Western culture as biblical culture. Added to this is a revival of African traditional religions. But, with an open and conscious mind-set, and engagement with Adventist fundamental beliefs and their reinterpretations as necessitated by the imperative of enculturation and contextualization, Adventism would likely resolve its deadlock. As one reflects on the shift of the centre of Seventh-day Adventism, several questions linger in the mind: Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Africa have the means to accept the task and opportunities? Are Africans ready for the shift? How can global Adventism rise above the issues of racism, political discrimination, and the systemic complex of the superiority of the West, in order to reinforce the growth of the Church in Africa? How would a general audience respond to the new paradigm? Answers to these questions are difficult to find. They require a conglomerate of concerns that the Church within and outside Africa must take into consideration. It is the investigation of the interplay of issues, themes, and cultural realities that gives important clues for a fresh reflection on Seventh-day Adventism in Africa. Most of the Adventist missionaries who came to Africa operated within the framework of converting Africans from perceived heathenism,

General Conclusion 177 following the popular prejudices of the time. However, they did learn African customs and languages, and adopted approaches that seemed the very best to their judgement within the prevailing circumstances of their time. Most of them were driven by the glamour of redeeming Africa from the darkness of its cultures and replacing it with a new, and true religion. That understanding of the African religious context did not predict the complexity of African spirituality created by the clash of civilizations due to Western Christianity. Today, as Seventh-day Adventism is fast growing in Africa, it has become compelling to reflect critically on the dynamics that may favour continuing growth. A historical analysis of the time from the arrival of Adventist missionaries in Africa to the present realities in Adventism in the continent may henceforth prove valuable. In this search for new meaning in African Adventism, one should reconsider the approaches or methodologies used by the pioneers to convince adherents of other Christian denominations that Adventism is unique and has something those other denominations do not have. Apocalyptic sermons, coupled with the message that Adventism can bring answers to existential concerns, must be revived as a response to the Pentecostal revolution in African Christianity. The Adventist remnant identity that stresses the uniqueness of a denominational community within contesting and competing religious entities in Africa should be cherished; Africans are attracted to what is promoted as distinctive and superior to others. It is now over five decades since Adventism moved away from its traditional centres (North America, Europe, and Australia) to both non-Christian and Christian lands in Africa, South America, Asia, and Oceania; the denomination can no longer solely draw on the Northern cultural, political, missiological, and theological frameworks. But, the South cannot be the only dominant voice within global Adventism. There should be an intentional, integrative, and inclusive diversity that seeks to remedy racial issues in respect of Adventism’s leadership representation. In addition, deliberate attention should be paid to the missiological and theological suggestions from the Global South. Perhaps, it is this defined diversity or inclusive pluralism that will give a new direction to the new Global Adventism.

Appendices

Appendix I: Chronology of the Development of Adventist Missions in Africa and the Pioneer Missionaries Algeria (about 1889): J. D. Comte, Albert Vuilleumier Angola (1922): W. H. Anderson Dahomey (Benin) (1957): Georges Vaysse Botswana (1921): W. H. Anderson Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) (1971): Henry Kempf Burundi (1962): D. E. Delhove Cameroon (1926): W. H. Anderson, Robert L. Jones, Marius Raspal, Ruben Bergström Cape Verde (1935): A. F. Raposo Central African Republic (1960): Jean Kempf, Manuel Martorell Chad (1967): Albert Bodenmann, Armin Krakolinig Comoros (1965): Sulleman Ali Pax Cote D’Ivoire (1946): Joseph K. Djouman, Pierre K. Adingrah, G. M. Ellstrom, J. L. Jespersen Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa (1917): Christopher Robinson, Therese Robinson, Gilbert Willmore. Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) (1972): Jean Kempf (Djibouti) Egypt (1878): Romualdo Bartola Equatorial Guinea (1960): José López Gutiérrez, Domingo Segundo, Jeremiah Anougwa Eritrea (1907) Ethiopia (1907): P. N. Lindegren, J. Persson Gabon (1981): Ondoua Raymond, Jean Kempf, Daniel Cordas Gambia (1973): Daniel Cudjoe Ghana (1894): Edward L. Sanford, Karl G. Rudolph Guinea Conakry (1987) Guinea-Bissau (1973): Francisco Cordas Kenya (1906): A. A. Carscallen, E. C. Enns Lesotho (1899): J. M. Freeman, David Kalaka Liberia (1926): R. Helbig, E. Flammer

Appendices 179 Libya (1928): André Rasamoelina Madagascar (1922): M. Raspal Malawi (Nyasaland) (1893): George James Mali (1978): Dona Sabou Mauritania (1992) Morocco (1925): Jean Reynaud Mozambique (1933): O. U. Giddings, Max Webster Namibia (1938): J. van der Merwe Niger (1972) Nigeria (1914): D. C. Babcock, Jessie Clifford, J. J. Hyde Reunion (1936): Paul Girard Rwanda (1914): D. E. Delhove Senegal (1952): Robert Erdmann Seychelles (1930): Daniel Ignace Sierra Leone (1905): J. M. Hyatt, D. C. Babcock Somalia (1992): Richard and Jean Hall South Africa (1886): D. A. Robinson, C. L. Boyd Sudan (1953): Farris Basta Bishai Swaziland (1920): J. C. Rogers Tanzania (1903): W. Ehlers, A. C. Enns Togo (1956): Georges Vaysse Tunisia (1928): Alphonse Gissler Uganda (1906): E. C. Enns Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) (1903): W. H. Anderson, Jacob Detcha Zimbabwe (1894): A. T. Robinson, G. B. Tripp, Dr. A. S. Carmichael, W. H. Anderson

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To be also noted: 1

Richard Moko, the first Black SDA minister, ordained in 1915, an indigene of South Africa.

Appendices 181 2

W. H. Anderson, the longest serving Adventist missionary in Africa (1895–1945)

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Appendix II: Early Schools in Southern, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa Table 9.1 Early Schools in Southern Africa YEAR

COUNTRY

SCHOOLS

1893

South Africa

Adventist school at Helderberg

1894

Zimbabwe

Training centre at Solusi

1902s

Malawi

Adventist school at Blantyre

1910

Lesotho

Adventist school for girls and boys

1927

Malawi

Adventist school at Malamulo

1927

Malawi

Training school at Malamulo

1938

Madagascar

Training school at Antananarivo

1951

Zambia

Rusango Secondary School

Table 9.2 Early Schools in Central Africa YEAR

COUNTRY

SCHOOLS

1921

Rwanda

Adventist Gitwe Mission school

1928

Cameroon

Adventist school at Nanga-Eboko

1937

Cameroon

Adventist secondary school at Nanga-Eboko

1975

Cameroon

Adventist primary school at Yaounde

Table 9.3 Early Schools in Eastern Africa YEARS

PLACES

SCHOOLS

1903

Tanzania

Adventist school at Pare Mission

1907

Eritrea

Education programme

1921

Ethiopia

Akaki Adventist school

1924

Tanzania

Adventist teacher training college at Suji

1925

Kenya

Nurse training centre at Kendu

1928

Kenya

Kamgambo Adventist High School

1948

Uganda

Bugema Adventist College

1950

Ethiopia

Adventist nursing school at Gimbie

1978

Kenya

University of Eastern Africa, Baraton

Appendices 183 Table 9.4 Early Schools in Western Africa YEARS

PLACES

SCHOOLS

1907

Gold Coast

Adventist school at Cape Coast

1907

Sierra Leone

Adventist school at Freetown

1908

Ghana

Adventist school at Axim

1914

Nigeria

Adventist school at Erunmu

1915

Nigeria

Adventist school at Sao

1923

Nigeria

Adventist school at Aba

1948

Nigeria

Secondary school, training school at Ihie

1955

Nigeria

Adventist training school at Otun-Ekiti

1958

Côte d’Ivoire

Adventist primary school at Divo

1959

Nigeria

Adventist College of West Africa (Babcock University)

Appendix III: Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (2015 Edition) The Holy Scriptures The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God, given by divine inspiration. The inspired authors spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this Word, God has committed to humanity the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative, and the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the definitive revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God’s acts in history. (Ps. 119:105; Prov. 30:5, 6; Isa. 8:20; John 17:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21) The Trinity There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons. God is immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing, above all, and ever present. He is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through His self-revelation. God, who is love, is forever worthy of worship, adoration, and service by the whole creation. (Gen. 1:26; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 6:8; Matt. 28:19; John 3:16; 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; 13:14; Eph. 4:4–6; 1 Pet. 1:2)

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The Father God the eternal Father is the Creator, Source, Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creation. He is just and holy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The qualities and powers exhibited in the Son and the Holy Spirit are also those of the Father. (Gen. 1:1; Deut. 4:35; Ps. 110:1, 4; John 3:16; 14:9; 1 Cor. 15:28; 1 Tim. 1:17; 1 John 4:8; Rev. 4:11) The Son God the eternal Son became incarnate in Jesus Christ. Through Him, all things were created, the character of God is revealed, the salvation of humanity is accomplished, and the world is judged. Forever truly God, He became also truly human, Jesus the Christ. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived and experienced temptation as a human being, but perfectly exemplified the righteousness and love of God. By His miracles He manifested God’s power and was attested as God’s promised Messiah. He suffered and died voluntarily on the cross for our sins and in our place, was raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven to minister in the heavenly sanctuary in our behalf. He will come again in glory for the final deliverance of His people and the restoration of all things. (Isa. 53:4–6; Dan. 9:25–27; Luke 1:35; John 1:1–3, 14; 5:22; 10:30; 14:1–3, 9, 13; Rom. 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4; 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:17–19; Phil. 2:5–11; Col. 1:15–19; Heb. 2:9–18; 8:1, 2) The Holy Spirit God the eternal Spirit was active with the Father and the Son in Creation, incarnation, and redemption. He is as much a person as are the Father and the Son. He inspired the writers of Scripture. He filled Christ’s life with power. He draws and convicts human beings; and those who respond He renews and transforms into the image of God. Sent by the Father and the Son to be always with His children, He extends spiritual gifts to the church, empowers it to bear witness to Christ, and in harmony with the Scriptures leads it into all truth. (Gen. 1:1, 2; 2 Sam. 23:2; Ps. 51:11; Isa. 61:1; Luke 1:35; 4:18; John 14:16–18, 26; 15:26; 16:7–13; Acts 1:8; 5:3; 10:38; Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 12:7–11; 2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Pet. 1:21) Creation God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made ‘the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them’ and rested on the seventh day. Thus, He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of the work He performed and completed during six literal

Appendices 185 days that together with the Sabbath constituted the same unit of time that we call a week today. The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was ‘very good’, declaring the glory of God. (Gen. 1–2; 5; 11; Exod. 20:8–11; Ps. 19:1–6; 33:6, 9; 104; Isa. 45:12, 18; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; 11:3; Rev. 10:6; 14:7) The Nature of Humanity Man and woman were made in the image of God with individuality, the power and freedom to think and to do. Though created free beings, each is an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit, dependent upon God for life and breath and all else. When our first parents disobeyed God, they denied their dependence upon Him and fell from their high position. The image of God in them was marred and they became subject to death. Their descendants share this fallen nature and its consequences. They are born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil. But God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and by His Spirit restores in penitent mortals the image of their Maker. Created for the glory of God, they are called to love Him and one another, and to care for their environment. (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:7, 15; 3; Ps. 8:4–8; 51:5, 10; 58:3; Jer. 17:9; Acts 17:24–28; Rom. 5:12–17; 2 Cor. 5:19, 20; Eph. 2:3; 1 Thess. 5:23; 1 John 3:4; 4:7, 8, 11, 20) The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ In Christ’s life of perfect obedience to God’s will, His suffering, death, and resurrection, God provided the only means of atonement for human sin, so that those who by faith accept this atonement may have eternal life, and the whole creation may better understand the infinite and holy love of the Creator. This perfect atonement vindicates the righteousness of God’s law and the graciousness of His character; for it both condemns our sin and provides for our forgiveness. The death of Christ is substitutionary and expiatory, reconciling and transforming. The bodily resurrection of Christ proclaims God’s triumph over the forces of evil, and for those who accept the atonement assures their final victory over sin and death. It declares the Lordship of Jesus Christ, before whom every knee in heaven and on earth will bow. (Gen. 3:15; Ps. 22:1; Isa. 53; John 3:16; 14:30; Rom. 1:4; 3:25; 4:25; 8:3, 4; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4, 20–22; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19–21; Phil. 2:6–11; Col. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:21, 22; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) The Experience of Salvation In infinite love and mercy God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God. Led by the

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Holy Spirit we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, Substitute and Example. This saving faith comes through the divine power of the Word and is the gift of God’s grace. Through Christ we are justified, adopted as God’s sons and daughters, and delivered from the lordship of sin. Through the Spirit we are born again and sanctified; the Spirit renews our minds, writes God’s law of love in our hearts, and we are given the power to live a holy life. Abiding in Him we become partakers of the divine nature and have the assurance of salvation now and in the judgement. (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 45:22; 53; Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 33:11; 36:25–27; Hab. 2:4; Mark 9:23, 24; John 3:3–8, 16; 16:8; Rom. 3:21–26; 8:1–4, 14–17; 5:6–10; 10:17; 12:2; 2 Cor. 5:17–21; Gal. 1:4; 3:13, 14, 26; 4:4–7; Eph. 2:4–10; Col. 1:13, 14; Titus 3:3–7; Heb. 8:7–12; 1 Pet. 1:23; 2:21, 22; 2 Pet. 1:3, 4; Rev. 13:8) Growing in Christ By His death on the cross Jesus triumphed over the forces of evil. He who subjugated the demonic spirits during His earthly ministry has broken their power and made certain their ultimate doom. Jesus’s victory gives us victory over the evil forces that still seek to control us, as we walk with Him in peace, joy, and assurance of His love. Now the Holy Spirit dwells within us and empowers us. Continually committed to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we are set free from the burden of our past deeds. No longer do we live in the darkness, fear of evil powers, ignorance, and meaninglessness of our former way of life. In this new freedom in Jesus, we are called to grow into the likeness of His character, communing with Him daily in prayer, feeding on His Word, meditating on it and on His providence, singing His praises, gathering together for worship, and participating in the mission of the Church. We are also called to follow Christ’s example by compassionately ministering to the physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual needs of humanity. As we give ourselves in loving service to those around us and in witnessing to His salvation, His constant presence with us through the Spirit transforms every moment and every task into a spiritual experience. (1 Chron. 29:11; Ps. 1:1, 2; 23:4; 77:11, 12; Matt. 20:25–28; 25:31–46; Luke 10:17–20; John 20:21; Rom. 8:38, 39; 2 Cor. 3:17, 18; Gal. 5:22–25; Eph. 5:19, 20; 6:12–18; Phil. 3:7–14; Col. 1:13, 14; 2:6, 14, 15; 1 Thess. 5:16–18, 23; Heb. 10:25; James 1:27; 2 Pet. 2:9; 3:18; 1 John 4:4) The Church The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world; and we join together for worship, for fellowship, for instruction in the Word, for the celebration of the Lord’s

Appendices 187 Supper, for service to humanity, and for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word revealed in the Scriptures. The church is God’s family; adopted by Him as children, its members live on the basis of the new covenant. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head. The church is the bride for whom Christ died that He might sanctify and cleanse her. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. (Gen. 12:1–3; Exod. 19:3–7; Matt. 16:13–20; 18:18; 28:19, 20; Acts 2:38–42; 7:38; 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 1:22, 23; 2:19–22; 3:8–11; 5:23–27; Col. 1:17, 18; 1 Pet. 2:9) The Remnant and Its Mission The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgement hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second Advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgement in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness. (Dan. 7:9–14; Isa. 1:9; 11:11; Jer. 23:3; Mic. 2:12; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 1:16–19; 4:17; 2 Pet. 3:10–14; Jude 3, 14; Rev. 12:17; 14:6–12; 18:1–4) Unity in the Body of Christ The church is one body with many members, called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. In Christ we are a new creation; distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us. We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another; we are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation. Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we share the same faith and hope, and reach out in one witness to all. This unity has its source in the oneness of the triune God, who has adopted us as His children. (Ps. 133:1; Matt. 28:19, 20; John 17:20–23; Acts 17:26, 27; Rom. 12:4, 5; 1 Cor. 12:12–14; 2 Cor. 5:16, 17; Gal. 3:27–29; Eph. 2:13–16; 4:3–6, 11–16; Col. 3:10–15) Baptism By baptism we confess our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and testify of our death to sin and of our purpose to walk in newness

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of life. Thus we acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour, become His people, and are received as members by His church. Baptism is a symbol of our union with Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, and our reception of the Holy Spirit. It is by immersion in water and is contingent on an affirmation of faith in Jesus and evidence of repentance of sin. It follows instruction in the Holy Scriptures and acceptance of their teachings. (Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 2:38; 16:30–33; 22:16; Rom. 6:1–6; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12, 13) The Lord’s Supper The Lord’s Supper is a participation in the emblems of the body and blood of Jesus as an expression of faith in Him, our Lord and Saviour. In this experience of communion Christ is present to meet and strengthen His people. As we partake, we joyfully proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes again. Preparation for the Supper includes self-examination, repentance, and confession. The Master ordained the service of foot-washing to signify renewed cleansing, to express a willingness to serve one another in Christlike humility, and to unite our hearts in love. The communion service is open to all believing Christians. (Matt. 26:17–30; John 6:48–63; 13:1–17; 1 Cor. 10:16, 17; 11:23–30; Rev. 3:20) Spiritual Gifts and Ministries God bestows upon all members of His church in every age spiritual gifts that each member is to employ in loving ministry for the common good of the church and of humanity. Given by the agency of the Holy Spirit, who apportions to each member as He wills, the gifts provide all abilities and ministries needed by the church to fulfil its divinely ordained functions. According to the Scriptures, these gifts include such ministries as faith, healing, prophecy, proclamation, teaching, administration, reconciliation, compassion, and self-sacrificing service and charity for the help and encouragement of people. Some members are called of God and endowed by the Spirit for functions recognized by the church in pastoral, evangelistic, and teaching ministries particularly needed to equip the members for service, to build up the church to spiritual maturity, and to foster unity of the faith and knowledge of God. When members employ these spiritual gifts as faithful stewards of God’s varied grace, the church is protected from the destructive influence of false doctrine, grows with a growth that is from God, and is built up in faith and love. (Acts 6:1–7; Rom. 12:4–8; 1 Cor. 12:7–11, 27, 28; Eph. 4:8, 11–16; 1 Tim. 3:1–13; 1 Pet. 4:10, 11) The Gift of Prophecy The Scriptures testify that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church, and we believe it was

Appendices 189 manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. (Num. 12:6; 2 Chron. 20:20; Amos 3:7; Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:14–21; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Heb. 1:1–3; Rev. 12:17; 19:10; 22:8, 9) The Law of God The great principles of God’s law are embodied in the Ten Commandments and exemplified in the life of Christ. They express God’s love, will, and purposes concerning human conduct and relationships and are binding upon all people in every age. These precepts are the basis of God’s covenant with His people and the standard in God’s judgement. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, they point out sin and awaken a sense of need for a Saviour. Salvation is all of grace and not of works, and its fruit is obedience to the Commandments. This obedience develops Christian character and results in a sense of well-being. It is evidence of our love for the Lord and our concern for our fellow human beings. The obedience of faith demonstrates the power of Christ to transform lives, and therefore strengthens Christian witness. (Exod. 20:1–17; Deut. 28:1–14; Ps. 19:7–14; 40:7, 8; Matt. 5:17–20; 22:36–40; John 14:15; 15:7–10; Rom. 8:3, 4; Eph. 2:8–10; Heb. 8:8–10; 1 John 2:3; 5:3; Rev. 12:17; 14:12) The Sabbath The gracious Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God’s kingdom. The Sabbath is God’s perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God’s creative and redemptive acts. (Gen. 2:1–3; Exod. 20:8–11; 31:13–17; Lev. 23:32; Deut. 5:12–15; Isa. 56:5, 6; 58:13, 14; Ezek. 20:12, 20; Matt. 12:1–12; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:16; Heb. 4:1–11) Stewardship We are God’s stewards, entrusted by Him with time and opportunities, abilities and possessions, and the blessings of the earth and its resources. We are responsible to Him for their proper use. We acknowledge God’s

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ownership by faithful service to Him and our fellow human beings, and by returning tithe and giving offerings for the proclamation of His gospel and the support and growth of His church. Stewardship is a privilege given to us by God for nurture in love and the victory over selfishness and covetousness. Stewards rejoice in the blessings that come to others as a result of their faithfulness. (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:15; 1 Chron. 29:14; Haggai 1:3–11; Mal. 3:8–12; Matt. 23:23; Rom. 15:26, 27; 1 Cor. 9:9–14; 2 Cor. 8:1–15; 9:7) Christian Behaviour We are called to be a godly people who think, feel, and act in harmony with biblical principles in all aspects of personal and social life. For the Spirit to recreate in us the character of our Lord, we involve ourselves only in those things that will produce Christlike purity, health, and joy in our lives. This means that our amusement and entertainment should meet the highest standards of Christian taste and beauty. While recognizing cultural differences, our dress is to be simple, modest, and neat, befitting those whose true beauty does not consist of outward adornment but in the imperishable ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit. It also means that because our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, we are to care for them intelligently. Along with adequate exercise and rest, we are to adopt the most healthful diet possible and abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures. Since alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and the irresponsible use of drugs and narcotics are harmful to our bodies, we are to abstain from them as well. Instead, we are to engage in whatever brings our thoughts and bodies into the discipline of Christ, who desires our wholesomeness, joy, and goodness. (Gen. 7:2; Exod. 20:15; Lev. 11:1–47; Ps. 106:3; Rom. 12:1, 2; 1 Cor. 6:19, 20; 10:31; 2 Cor. 6:14–7:1; 10:5; Eph. 5:1–21; Phil. 2:4; 4:8; 1 Tim. 2:9, 10; Titus 2:11, 12; 1 Pet. 3:1–4; 1 John 2:6; 3 John 2) Marriage and the Family Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship. For the Christian, a marriage commitment is to God as well as to the spouse, and should be entered into only between a man and a woman who share a common faith. Mutual love, honour, respect, and responsibility are the fabric of this relationship, which is to reflect the love, sanctity, closeness, and permanence of the relationship between Christ and His church. Regarding divorce, Jesus taught that the person who divorces a spouse, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. Although some family relationships may fall short of the ideal, a man and a woman who fully commit themselves to each other in Christ through marriage may achieve loving unity through the guidance of the Spirit and the nurture of the church. God blesses the family and intends that its members shall assist each other toward

Appendices 191 complete maturity. Increasing family closeness is one of the earmarks of the final gospel message. Parents are to bring up their children to love and obey the Lord. By their example and their words, they are to teach them that Christ is a loving, tender, and caring guide who wants them to become members of His body, the family of God which embraces both single and married persons. (Gen. 2:18–25; Exod. 20:12; Deut. 6:5–9; Prov. 22:6; Mal. 4:5, 6; Matt. 5:31, 32; 19:3–9, 12; Mark 10:11, 12; John 2:1–11; 1 Cor. 7:7, 10, 11; 2 Cor. 6:14; Eph. 5:21–33; 6:1–4) Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle that the Lord set up and not humans. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. At His ascension, He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and, began His intercessory ministry, which was typified by the work of the high priest in the holy place of the earthly sanctuary. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry, which was typified by the work of the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary. It is a work of investigative judgement which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement. In that typical service the sanctuary was cleansed with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things are purified with the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Jesus. The investigative judgement reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgement vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent. (Lev. 16; Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6; Dan. 7:9–27; 8:13, 14; 9:24–27; Heb. 1:3; 2:16, 17; 4:14–16; 8:1–5; 9:11–28; 10:19– 22; Rev. 8:3–5; 11:19; 14:6, 7; 20:12; 14:12; 22:11, 12) The Second Coming of Christ The Second Coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Saviour’s coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die. The almost complete fulfilment of most lines of prophecy, together with the present condition of the world, indicates that Christ’s coming

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is near. The time of that event has not been revealed, and we are therefore exhorted to be ready at all times. (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21; John 14:1–3; Acts 1:9–11; 1 Cor. 15:51–54; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; 5:1–6; 2 Thess. 1:7–10; 2:8; 2 Tim. 3:1–5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 9:28; Rev. 1:7; 14:14–20; 19:11–21) Death and Resurrection The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. (Job 19:25–27; Ps. 146:3, 4; Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10; Dan. 12:2, 13; Isa. 25:8; John 5:28, 29; 11:11–14; Rom. 6:23; 16; 1 Cor. 15:51–54; Col. 3:4; 1 Thess. 4:13–17; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 20:1–10) The Millennium and the End of Sin The millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ with His saints in heaven between the first and second resurrections. During this time, the wicked dead will be judged; the earth will be utterly desolate, without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels. At its close Christ with His saints and the Holy City will descend from heaven to earth. The unrighteous dead will then be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city; but fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth. The universe will thus be freed of sin and sinners forever. (Jer. 4:23–26; Ezek. 28:18, 19; Mal. 4:1; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3; Rev. 20; 21:1–5) The New Earth On the new earth, in which righteousness dwells, God will provide an eternal home for the redeemed and a perfect environment for everlasting life, love, joy, and learning in His presence. For here God Himself will dwell with His people, and suffering and death will have passed away. The great controversy will be ended, and sin will be no more. All things, animate and inanimate, will declare that God is love; and He shall reign forever. Amen. (Isa. 35; 65:17–25; Matt. 5:5; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 11:15; 21:1–7; 22:1–5.

Appendix IV: Spiritualism and the Adventist Church in Africa: Guidelines and Recommendations (Document voted in the three divisions in Africa: Taken from The Church, Culture and Spirits: Adventism in Africa, p. 227–239)

Appendices 193 Introduction The African worldview is inculcated in the African child so well that it takes a strong ideological shift to stem its influence in adulthood. This worldview has a lingering influence on a Christian who is not well instructed in Christian doctrine. Among Seventh-day Adventists in Africa, the fear of magic, witchcraft, and other spiritualistic arts remain a temptation. This outlook is particularly the case when they confront difficulties, and help does not seem to be demonstrable within the spiritual authority in the Church as they may want it to express itself. Thus, among the basic challenges confronting members and pastors in Africa are magic, witchcraft, and spiritualism. It has been observed that some members are affected by spiritualistic phenomena, such as demon possession, spiritual marriages, and spells, while there are others who may be practicing magic, witchcraft, ancestor worship, rites of passage, and other similar practices. With these challenges as the setting, this document provides 1) an Adventist biblical response to these spiritualistic phenomena, and 2) guidelines for church leaders, pastors, ministerial students, and other interested persons to assist them in dealing with these spiritualistic manifestations. Theological Foundation We should approach the phenomenon of spiritualistic manifestations with one fundamental conviction: Evil powers were defeated once and for all by Christ on the cross. This defeat sealed forever the final fate of Lucifer, the fallen angel, and of the angels who joined him in his rebellion against the government of God in heaven (Isa. 14:12–14; Rev. 12:4, 7–10). Those evil powers are real, and, since their fall, they have been involved in an open cosmic conflict against God and His people. The good news is that Christ overcame them in heaven and inflicted a mortal defeat to them on the cross. Therefore, our topic of discussion is not the power of the enemy but the glorious power of our Saviour and Lord. Paul states, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’ (Rom. 1:16). We should deemphasize the power of demons and always emphasize the power of God, revealed in Christ. That power continues to be available to us in the proclamation of the gospel of salvation. Although they were defeated by Christ, demons are still unwilling to surrender to Him by accepting their defeat. In fact, because of Christ’s victory over them, they are now enraged against God’s people on earth, those through whom redemption through Christ is being proclaimed to the world (Rev. 12:13). Their attack against them is, in fact, an attack against Christ Himself (Rev. 17:14). At the close of the cosmic conflict, those powers will fight once more against Him, but He will consummate His victory over them on the cross by bringing their rebellion and their existence to an end (Rev. 17:14; 20:1–3, 10).

194

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Based on Christ’s victory over them and their future final extinction, the Christian believer can now enjoy freedom from the fear of evil powers. Fear usually leads to subjection to those powers manifested in the performance of particular rituals and practices in an attempt to establish good relations with them and to obtain certain benefits. The biblical message is that, because Christ overcame them, there is no need at all to seek to placate them or to obtain guidance from them. Although persons fully baptized by the Spirit of the Lord, who now dwells in their hearts and guides them through the study of His Word. As we confront spiritualistic manifestations, we should keep in mind that the primary task of the Church is the fulfilment of the gospel commission and not the casting out of demons. If, in the fulfilment of that mission, supernatural spiritualistic manifestations appear to interfere with it, we are called to confront them in the name of Jesus. In other words, Christ has shared with His people His power and victory over evil, but they are to be used in the context of the gospel commission (Matt. 28:16–20; cf. Mark 16:15–17). It is common for demonic powers to claim to be the spirit of a person’s dead ancestors. The idea that those who die are still alive in the world of the spirits originated on the deceptive lips of Satan himself (Gen. 3:2, 3). The Bible establishes that those who have died have no interaction at all with those who are still alive (Eccl. 9:5, 6). Therefore, Christian believers should not be involved at all in practices and rituals that seek to interact with the spirits of the dead. Otherwise, they would be entering into contact with demons. The biblical doctrine of the state of the dead will protect us from demonic deception. Such deception will increase as we approach the closing of the cosmic conflict. Our only refuge is the victory of Christ over them and a clear understanding of the biblical teaching on the state of the dead.

Specific Guidelines Demonic Possession Definition and Diagnosis Demon possession designates the condition of being under the control of an evil spirit, or spirits, that occupies and dominates a person from within and causes the possessed to act and speak after the manner of such a spirit. Often demon possession manifests itself in the form of apparent mental and physical diseases and strange behaviour. The New Testament mentions the following phenomena in the context of casting out demons: crying with a loud voice (Luke 4:41; Acts 8:7), mental disorder (Matt. 17:15), muteness (Mark 9:17; Matt. 9:32; Luke 11:14); foaming at the mouth, gnashing of teeth, and physical rigidity (Mark 9:18; Luke 9:39); convulsion and wallowing (Mark 9:20); deafness (Mark 9:25); blindness (Matt. 12:22); nakedness and isolation (Luke 8:27); exceeding fierceness (Acts 16:16); and infirmities (Luke 3:11).

Appendices 195 The fact that demon possession is associated with diseases makes it, at times, difficult to distinguish from a natural disease. However, demon possession is usually accompanied by the manifestation of a supernatural power in the individual. Sometimes knowing the history of the person may help in establishing whether the case in question is one of natural sickness or possession. It also can be helpful to contact a physician or other appropriate health-care professional. Demon possession is, by and large, associated with a deep level of moral and spiritual deterioration or with contact or exposure to evil powers or phenomena. Specific Guidelines The Scripture does not provide an explicit formula to be used in the casting out of demons. The following guidelines are based on the cases recorded in the Bible: 1

2

3

4

5

In cases in which it is possible to plan the service in advance, those who will participate should prepare themselves through prayer and fasting (cf. Mark 9:29). The victim must show a willingness and readiness to be freed from the power of Satan. This will be evidenced by his or her expression of willingness to friends or relatives or some other person, by the victim’s being present in a place where help could be provided to him or her (e.g. in a church meeting, in an evangelistic campaign), and by his or her separation from any objects or materials of a spiritualistic nature or origin. The service should evidence that the delivering power comes from Christ’s victory over all evil powers. Therefore, following the New Testament practice, those leading out should call upon the name of Jesus to deliver the victim from the controlling power of Satan (Acts 19:13). This type of prayer is indispensable in the casting out of demons and could be accompanied by the laying on of hands (Luke 13:13). The act of deliverance should be characterized by calmness and order, as evidenced in the ministry of Jesus. When confronted by demoniacs, He calmly ordered the demons to be quiet and to come out and leave (1:24–25; 5:8). He even expelled them from a distance through the power of His word (Mark 7:24–30). It is not desirable or even necessary to enter into a dialogue with the demon(s). There is only one case in the ministry of Jesus in which this happened, but this was not His common practice (Mark 5:7–10; cf. 1:24–25). Keep in mind that the Bible rejects communicating with unclean spirits. They have nothing to share with those who believe in Christ as Saviour and Lord. We should only talk with the Risen Lord whose power over them will be displayed, bringing deliverance to the victim.

196 6

Appendices In cases in which there is resistance by the demons, those involved should persevere in praying, singing (cf. 1 Sam. 16:23), and the reading of scripture.

Integration of the Former Victim into the Church 1 2

3

4 5 6

It is expected that the former victims will commit their whole lives to Christ as Saviour and Lord. If the victim was not a church member, the person should immediately join a baptismal class in preparation for baptism. If he or she was a church member, they should study the doctrines of the church again. The leaders in the local congregation should ensure that those who were delivered will obtain a clear understanding of the biblical teaching of the state of the dead and recognize that, on the cross, Christ defeated all demonic powers. The former victim should break away from spiritualistic contacts, activities, ties, or symbols (cf. Acts 19:8–20). The person needs to develop a regular devotional life, including prayer and the study of Scripture, and become active in the mission of the Church. The pastor or local church elder is expected to lead the congregation in a warm-hearted acceptance of the former victims into the life of the church. The deliverance of individuals from the power of Satan, whether they are new converts or already Adventists, should fill the local church with heavenly joy.

Prevention 1

2

3 4 5

The church leadership must take seriously the responsibility of teaching the members all the biblical doctrines, particularly doctrines such as the state of the dead, spiritualism, cosmic conflict, assurance of salvation, and Christ’s victory over demonic powers. The leadership must develop and implement a continuous nurturing programme, including ongoing review of biblical doctrines, for newly baptized members. Ways should be found to involve members in an active ministry of the church. Pastors and elders should address the issue of spiritualism, from a biblical perspective, on a regular basis, through preaching and teaching. Provide to church members resources in various forms, such as small, inexpensive pamphlets, DVDs, church TV systems, web access, etc.

Other Demonic Interferences In cases in which spiritualistic phenomena are manifested in the life of the person in the form of spiritual marriages and/or demonic

Appendices 197 harassment, the pastor or local church elder should present the victim to the Lord and ask for deliverance in the name of Christ from such perturbing attacks. Ancestor Veneration Definition and Diagnosis Ancestor veneration is the practice of honouring the deceased (called the living dead), based on the belief that the dead are still alive in the spirit world and perform the role of intercessors, protectors, and facilitators between those who are actually living and the spirit world. Ancestors are believed to visit their families and share meals with them from time to time. Rites of passage (see below, ‘Rites of Passage’) are considered to be means of communication between those who are living on the earth and those who live in the spirit world. Negligence in the fulfilment of these duties is believed to result in the spirits’ wrath. Seventh-day Adventists regard godly family traditions and values, but sharply distinguish between respect for the dead and veneration of ancestors. Ancestor veneration is an open negation of biblical doctrines and should not be practiced by believers (Eccl. 9:5, 10; Deut. 18:10–12). Specific Guidelines 1

2

3 4

5

6

Where practices of ancestor veneration are observed among church members, pastors and/or elders should draw the attention of those involved in these practices to the incompatibility of the gospel with the belief in the living dead and urge them to accept the biblical worldview and to desist from these practices. Church members involved in ancestor veneration should be taught to let go of their fear of suffering adverse consequences for standing on biblical principles, commit their lives more fully to the Lord, and accept the victory of Christ. They should be prayed for. According to Scripture, Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and humanity. The mediatorial and intercessor work of Christ must be highlighted as having made obsolete all other mediators, including ancestors (1 Tim. 2:5). The biblical doctrine of the state of the dead does not leave room for the concept of the living dead. This biblical teaching, along with other doctrines held by Adventists, must receive special attention in personal Bible study, group Bible studies, Sabbath afternoon Bible classes, seminars, etc. Church members should be encouraged to help their children and/or their families to make right choices by arranging for, and expressing, their wishes for a Christian burial before they die.

198 7

8

Appendices Under all circumstances, pastors and church elders should stay away from practices that would indicate acceptance of, or indifference to, ancestor veneration. They should set a good example in these matters. The local church family must plan to support the bereaved member who, following the biblical teachings, suffers negative consequences (e.g. rejection by family members). This support should be both emotional and economic where necessary.

Prevention 1 2

Pastors and elders should develop strategies that will help believers incorporate the biblical doctrine of the state of the dead into their lives. Based on the teaching of Scripture, any of the following or similar ceremonies or rites connected to ancestor veneration must be discouraged and abandoned or substituted by Christian rites that are compatible with the biblical message. a

b

c

d

e

f

Birth Rites: When the ceremonies connect the newborn to the ancestors—by giving the child the name of a family idol or a bad name in order to avoid further ‘reincarnations’ of the child, etc.—they become incompatible with biblical teachings. Marriage Rites: Although marriage rites are not considered improper, whenever the rites convey or are associated with the conviction that, when the women leave their own families, they are incorporated into the families of their husbands and the spirit of the dead ancestors, they compromise the biblical teaching on the state of the dead. Holy Day Rites: Whenever the celebration of holy days includes oblations and sacrifices made to the ancestors, it becomes incompatible with biblical teachings. Practices Pertaining to Daily Living: When these include, among others, wearing amulets and certain types of jewellery that supposedly protect against evil influences, drinks and food items left for consumption by the ancestors, and family shrines connecting the household to the ancestors, including oblations and sacrifices made to the ancestors, they become incompatible with biblical teachings. Inheritance Rites: An inheritance rite that requires the inheritor of the property of a deceased person to perform specific rites in order to honour and appease the ancestors in the fulfilment of his or her obligations toward them is incompatible with biblical teachings. Burial Rites: Burial rites are indispensable in the grieving process, but, when they imply a continuing relationship between the deceased and the living, they become incompatible with the Christian message of Christ’s victory over all powers. Such practices include special

Appendices 199

g

h

spiritualistic preparations before burial for persons who experienced sudden ‘mysterious’ death, such as by certain diseases, accidents, lightning strikes, and death during childbirth; special ritual treatments required in cases of suicide; certain spiritualistic ritual obligations imposed on the firstborn and other family members when a parent dies; the subjection of widows and surviving twins to spiritualistic rituals in order to safeguard their well-being. There are other spiritualistic ceremonies and rituals directly associated with the veneration of ancestors that are performed before the actual burial and particularly when the body of the deceased is being prepared and during the burial itself (e.g. positioning the corpse in a certain way) that should not be practiced by believers in Christ. Post-Burial Rites: Some post-burial rites are not compatible with biblical teachings and are not to be practiced. This includes cleansing rituals that perpetuate the belief that, if the cleansing is not performed, the spirit will return to haunt the surviving spouse or other relatives; those involving sex with a clan relative to remove the evil spirit; and the smearing of white powder, or similar acts, for protection. Exhumation: Exhumation is the practice of showing respect to the spirits of dead ancestors by replacing burial sheets with new ones. This practice is done in order to prevent the curse of the dead ancestors upon the families, their businesses, agriculture, and other activities of the descendants. The ritual consists of taking the dead body out of the tomb (after five or more years) and conducting festivities lasting several days before replacing the old sheets and holding a new funeral. This is regarded as a family reunion and is called the returning of the dead. During the festivities, the descendants ask for the blessings of their dead ancestors through the performance of different rites. The members of the families who do not participate in these festivities and rites may be denied the right to inherit the properties of the family. They are accused of despising the ancestors and jeopardizing the unity of the family. Christians who believe in the non-immortality of the soul relate to this ceremony in different ways. Because Scripture denies the teaching, Seventh-day Adventists should not participate in exhumation rituals. They are encouraged to set a good example to the whole family by showing respect to the elderly people while they are still alive. Long before the exhumation ceremonies take place, Adventists should explain to the other members of the family their biblical beliefs and their commitment to the unity of the family. They are to display love and compassion in the fulfilment of all other family and social responsibilities, without compromising biblical principles and teachings in general and, in particular, those related to the state of the dead (Eccl. 9:5, 6).

200

Appendices i

3

4

Mourning Rites: Mourning rites are not necessarily incompatible with the biblical message, but excessive, injurious, degrading, and violent mourning and grieving rites performed before and during the burial are incompatible with the biblical faith, particularly when they are considered to be vehicle through which the mourner’s innocence in his or her death is expressed to the deceased.

The church should become a surrogate family for those members who, because of their faith convictions, have become disowned or marginalized by their family. Church leaders must be concerned about the violation of these guidelines.

Witchcraft, Magic, and Sorcery Definition and Diagnosis Witchcraft and the related practices of magic and sorcery are defined as the possession, exercise, and/or invocation of any supernatural power other than of divine origin to control and/or manipulate people, things, or events, often to harm, obstruct, or take advantage of the victims (cf. Deut.18:10; Gal. 5:19, 20; Rev. 21:8; 22:15). In the African context, this happens predominantly in casting spells on persons or objects. Because it is not the goal of the church to hunt for, or identify, witches and their victims, Adventists should get involved only with persons that come to pastors and church members for help, taking seriously their claim to be involved in, or affected by, witchcraft. Specific Guidelines When dealing with phenomena such as witchcraft, magic, and sorcery, Adventists should be aware that they are dealing with spiritualistic powers in the context of the Great Controversy. While seeking to help these victims, they should focus on Jesus as Saviour and as Lord of lords and Kings of kings, who is all powerful and willing to help those who are suffering. 1

2

It is assumed that persons who identify themselves as witches may be demon possessed. In such cases, the guidelines on dealing with demon possession apply and should be carried out. Church members must be encouraged to avoid or sever any probable links to witchcraft, magic, and sorcery. These links may include gifts and sweets that can be used as avenues to pass on witchcraft. Under no circumstances should a Christian enter into illicit sexual relationships with persons known to be witches. In fact, the Scripture prohibits any premarital and extramarital sexual relationships.

Appendices 201 3

4

5

6

Persons who are victims of witchcraft should be pointed to Jesus as their Redeemer and as the ultimate answer to sin, suffering, and death; prayers should be offered for them, claiming deliverance from harassment in the name of Jesus. In some cases, it may be considered appropriate to refer the victims to a Christian counsellor. If a spell is associated, follow the counsel given in James 5:13–18 for the anointing of the sick. The victims should be encouraged to become actively involved in a personal daily devotional life. They should also understand and accept that some forms of suffering are the consequence of living in a world of sin and death and that such conditions will be eradicated only in God’s kingdom of glory. In their effort to help victims, Adventists should be aware of the danger that even prayer and anointing may be subject to abuses. Therefore, they must not give the impression that prayers and anointing function in a magical way. In all efforts of the church to help persons involved in witchcraft fail and these persons are unwilling to sever their ties with the spiritualistic realm, the church may have to resort to church discipline as defined in the Church Manual in order to help these members and protect the community of believers. However, church members who have repented of their connection to witchcraft should be incorporated into church fellowship.

Prevention 1

2

3

Church leaders must thoroughly instruct prospective and current members in all biblical doctrines, especially the teachings of Jesus as Saviour, Lord, and Mediator; the non-immorality of the soul; and the condition for, and reality of, eternal life. The instruction can be done in personal Bible studies, sermons, campaigns, seminars, etc. Church members must be encouraged to maintain a consistent devotional life (prayer and the study of Scripture), to attend church regularly, and to get involved in the ministry and outreach of the church. Churches must seek to involve all members in some form of church ministry.

Traditional Healing Definition Traditional healers are persons who have a store of knowledge and practices that have been passed on from one generation to another either orally or in writing. This traditional knowledge, based on experiences and observations, is used in diagnosing, preventing, or eliminating a physical, mental, or social disease. The traditional healer draws on materials from nature and the sociological environment, as well as metaphysical forces.

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Among the traditional healers are herbalists and medicine men (the latter referred to as mystic healers in this document). Mystic healers use natural means and metaphysical forces. They perform rituals and require ritualistic materials (e.g. chickens, eggs, cola nuts, cloths). They also diagnose by means of consulting the spirits and perform ritualistic actions with beads, sticks, water, etc. Herbalists use natural means coming from trees and plants (cf. 2 Kgs. 20:7). There are no rituals involved; herbalists do not require ritualistic materials from their patients. Specific Guidelines 1

2 3

From a biblical perspective the source of power of mystic healers comes from Satan and not from God. Scripture indicates that Satan is a destroyer rather than a healer (Job 2:1–8; Luke 13:10–16). Therefore, church members should not seek help from mystic healers. Church members should be encouraged to pray for healing, as well as to visit a medical facility or an herbalist. Church members should also invite the church to pray for them and, if necessary, to anoint them (Jas. 5:13–17).

Intervention 1 2

3

Members who have visited a mystic healer should be required to break off any contact with the mystic healer. They should be instructed with respect to the incompatibility of that practice with their Adventist faith (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14; Isa. 8:19, 20; Deut. 18:10–12). They also should understand that, although God has power to heal (Exod. 15:26; Ps. 103:3), He does not always answer our request for healing in the way we may have asked (2 Cor. 12:7–10). Nevertheless, He promises His sustaining presence (Isa. 41:10). They also need to be assured that God loves them, and that forgiveness is always available to them (1 John 1:9).

Rites of Passage Definition In the African worldview, there are different stages of life. Rites of passage are rituals and ceremonies performed to mark and empower these stages of growth and development. These rites begin at birth and continue even after death. The final stage of this process is the living-dead existence. The traditional stages of life are birth, puberty, marriage, death, and the afterlife. For Seventh-day Adventists, the traditional rites and ceremonies present a problem whenever they are enacted within a spiritualistic frame of reference and/or worldview. Based on Christ’s victory, it is also problematic to

Appendices 203 believe that, if the ceremonies are not performed, those responsible will be affected negatively, e.g. being haunted by the dead, losing one’s health, or experiencing financial loss, etc. Specific Guidelines While Seventh-day Adventists recognize the importance of the various stages of human development, the celebration of these various stages needs to be done in harmony with the biblical worldview and our faith in Jesus Christ. This insight means that the way these stages of life are celebrated should exclude all spiritualistic elements, as well as the celebration of the afterlife. 1

At Birth a

b

2

3

4

Parents and the extended family should understand that children are a gift from God and belong to God (Ps. 127:3). A childdedication service, therefore, is appropriate. Where naming ceremonies are conducted, they should be performed without any spiritualistic elements. Names of children should have no occult overtones.

Puberty If church members want to circumcise their male children, this should preferably be done in a hospital. They should not allow, or participate in, female circumcision. Marriage Marriage ceremonies should be in keeping with the Adventist lifestyle and beliefs. Death a

b

c

d

Adventists should bury their dead in accordance with the biblical understanding of the nature of death (Ps. 115:17; Eccl. 9:5, 6; John 11:11–14). This acknowledgement means they should be intentional about not conducting funeral ceremonies that contain spiritualistic elements or practices. Furthermore, while it may be appropriate to attend the funeral of a family member or a neighbour, church members should not actively participate in the spiritualistic elements of the funeral. If necessary, the church should provide assistance to grieving family members (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13–18). It should be made clear that Adventists reject the concept of living dead. Where the committal practice has spiritualistic implications, it should be discontinued. Messages to the dead should not be read, etc.

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Index

Abaribe, Enyinnaya H., Adventist education of 69 Abbott, Dr. Donald E. 33 Aberle, L. 56 Abraham, Babba 125 Abrich, Mr. B. B. 70 Ackar, Pastor W. B. 118 Adeogun, Joseph Adeyemo 124 Adingrah, Pierre Kouame 117 Aduwa, Ethiopia, battle at 33 Advent message, preaching of 12 Adventism, theological components of 174 Adventist College of West Africa, Nigeria 66 Adventist community in Egypt, organization of 41 Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), focus of 77 Adventist Gitwe Mission School, Rwanda 68 Adventist hymns, local languages of 75 Adventist missionary zeal, motivation for 8 Adventist Nursery School, Gimbre, Ethiopia 68 Adventist philosophy of Education 65 Adventist Review 36 Adventist Teacher Training College, Tanzania 68 Adventist theology, core of 148 Adventist University Cosendai Cameroon 140 Adventist University, Rwanda 129 Adventist University, Uganda 139 Adventists’ fundamental beliefs, engagement with 176 Afonso, Henry, first black Catholic Bishop 6

African Division 61, 62 African Herald Printing House 100 African Israel Church Nineveh 148 African National Congress, political party 52 African Traditional Religion (ATR) 57, 58, 146, 147, 155, 157–160, 174 African-Indian Ocean Division 62 Akali Adventist School Ethiopia 68 Aladura Church, Nigeria, indigenous Christian church 147 Alao, Jacob, Yoruba interpreter 44 Albany Adventists 18, 19 Algeria, French and Sabbath keepers in 41 Algerian Mission, organization of 57 Amanze, Philemon, writing of 125 American Bible Society, emergence of 14 “an empty belly has no ears” 107 ancestor veneration, centrality of 158 Andereasen, M. L. 149 Anderson, Elder W. H. 29 Anderson, Mrs., death of 78 Anderson, Naomi-Pierson 97 Anderson, W. H. 44, 56, 60, 78, 83, 96, 107; mission school by 76; use of quinine by 31 Andrawis, Munir 84 Andreasen, R. E. 149 Andrews, Edward, writing of 53 Andrews, J. N. 35, 40 Andrews, John N.: first official missionary of the Seventh-day Adventists 23; missionary to Europe 51 Angola Union Mission 97 animism, meaning of 158 Apam, arrival at 37 Apartheid: spread of 29; theologians, theology of 52, 63, 94, 113

228

Index

apocalyptic sermons, preaching and effect of 142 Appiah, Mrs. 119 Armitage, F.B. 56 Ashton, E. 42, 81 Asia-Africa Journal of Mission and Ministry 162 Association de Mission Française au Cameroun, part of 59 Austen, S. C. 56 Australia, mission base 24 Avondale College, establishment of 24 Azambuja, Diego de Dom, Catholic missionary 5 Babcock University 129, 140 Babcock, David C. 39, 42, 44, 56, 65, 80, 81, 104–107, 118 Baker, Delmer J., bestman of 99 Baker, J. D. 55, 79 Balogun, Isaiah Aina Ajibola, first ordained Nigerian Missionary 123 Baptist Missionary Board 7 Baptist Missionary Society, formation of 7 Baptists, branch off from 12 Barathon, Kenya 129 Barnabas, Andoulko 125 Barnhouse, Donald Grey, publication of 149 Bartlett, W. T. 79 Bartola, Romualdo - Italian Adventist 40 Basel Missionary Society, formation of 7 Bates, Joseph 21, 25, 93 Bathoen II, regent of 78 Batonga tribe, Zambia 97 Battle Creek College 97 Baumen, J. C. 56 Bediako, Samuel, book of 8 Benghazi Adventist Hospital, Libya 72 Benjamin Carson School of Medicine, Nigeria 140 Bergerstrom, Reuben 56 Bergman, Dr. 103 Bergman, Esther 34 Bergstrom, Auben 71 Bergstrom, Hama 71 Bergstrom, Ruben, medal of 59 Bergstrom, William 83 Berlin treaty 53 Berthier, General Alexandre 13

Bethel College 28 Bezirdjian, O. 56 Biafran war, Nigeria 129 Biko, Steve, nationalist 65 Bikoe, Jean 83 Birckel, R. 57 Bishai, Farris Basta 84 Black consciousness movement, demonstrations by 52 blackwater fever 31, 37, 38, 78, 97 The books of Daniel and Revelation 13 Boyd C. L. 55 Boyd, Brother, letter to 95 Boyd, C. L., Missionary to South Africa 28 Boyd, Sister C. L., letter to 95 Bradshaw, Mina 104 Branch, Thomas H. 29 Branson, President W. H. 31 Bremen Mission, Germany 7 Brennwald, Dr. F.W. 83 British and foreign Bible Societies, emergence of 14 British private schools, inducement by 64 Brock, Peggy 115 Bulawayo, land grant at 28 Byington, John 93 Call to Central Africa or Asia, death sentence view 70 camp meetings, organisations of 17 Campbell, J. R. 79 Canaan, Mkombe 164 Cape Coast, arrival at 37 Cape Town, Churches across 28 Capuchins, Italian missionaries 6 Carmichael, Dr. A. S.: demise of 30, 97 Carscallen 107 Carscallen, A. A., missionary at Kenya 29, 55, 68, 118 Carscallen, Grandville Arthur Asa 98 Chadwack, Lawrence C. 37, 80, 81 Chebwai camp meeting, incident at 21 Chevalier de l’ Ordre de Léopold II, medal 102 Chikamatondo, Chief request of 65 China, Chibunna 124 Christ Embassy Church 148 Christ like Character, Counsel of 142 Christian Brethren Church, Egypt, indigenous Christian Church 147 Christian Scientists 149 Christianity, beginning and spread of 2

Index 229 Chung, Sun Young 135 Church Missionary Society (CMS) 8, 148 Church of Christ Light of the Holy Spirit 148 Church of God Mission International 148 The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter- day Saints, origin of 13 Clairmont, Cape Province, headquarters of 31 Claremont Union College (Helderberg College) 28 clash of identity, issue of 176 Clifford University, Nigeria 140 Clifford, Jesse 81, 105, 107, 117 come out of Babylon, anti-millerites’ language 18 Comte, J. D. 84 Congregationalists, branch off from 12 Conradi, Ludwig Richard 23, 56, 99 Constantine grant of 3 contextualizing Advent message 176 Cordas, Daniel 84 Cordas, Francisco 82 Cornell, Dr. Roy S. 84 Cosenedo, Madeleine 72 Council of African Instituted Churches 148 critical contextualization of the gospel, lack of 108 Crosier O. R. L. 19 Crosier, brother 20 Cudejoe, D. 118 Cudejoe, Daniel 82 Curdy, Joseph 100 Czechowski, M. B. 23, 35 Dairy, A. N., literature evangelist 128 Daitey, Andrew Noah 118 Damibs, Mrs. - Literature evangelist 121 Daniells, A. G., General Conference President 24, 38, 98 Dankwah, Appiah 118 d’Aroguiar Rui 6 Dauphin 118, 123 Davenport, T. R. H. 8 Davidson, L. H. 64 Davis, Ann, Babcock’s wife 104 The Day Star Extra, newspaper 19, 20 Delhore, D. E., Missionary at Burundi 29, 59, 79, 82, 100–103

Dessie Adventist Hospital, destruction of 34 Detcha, Jacob 78 diamonds and gold, discovery of 52 Dike, Albert Job 124 Djouman, Joseph Kouame 117 Dolphin, Francis I. 37 Donkoh, Felix 117 Donkor, Kwabena, work of 161, 164 Dorcas Society, Ogba District 120 Doss, Gordon R., writing of 57, 155 Dragmeister, H. 56 Druten, Van George 28 Dumbar, E. W., report of 58 Dunkel, R. 57 East Central Africa Division 137 Eastern Nigeria 81 ecumenism, concept of 151 Edie, E. 56 Edinburg World Missionary Conference 190; report of 47 Edison, Hiram, vision of 19 Edmed, H. J. 56 Edson, Hiram 1 educational and health institutions, effects of 63 educational institutions take over in Nigeria, history of 66 Edward, L. 56 Egypt, pioneering centre for Adventism in North Africa 40 Ehlers, Johannes 56 Ehlers, W., missionary at Tanzania 29 Elimeema, K. B. 71 Elphick, R., notes of 8, 114 Elshaheed, A. A. 56 Emerson, M. E. 56 Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists 122 Enns, A. C., missionary at Tanzania 29, 56 Enns, E. C. 79 Erdmann, Robert 82 Eritrea 33 Erunmu, Nigeria 65, 66, 80, 105 Eschatology, position of 156 Esposito, Roland 57 Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim 148 Ethiopia: Italians invasion of 34; take of Seventh-day Adventist at 34 Ethiopia Adventist College 139

230

Index

Ethiopia, missionary works at 24 Euro-Africa Division 62 European Adventist Foreign Mission Council, depression by 157 evangelistic meetings in Africa 107 Evans, I. H. 38 Ezana, King in Axum 4 Federal Council of Churches, founding of 152 Ferdinand, Archduke France, assassination of 41 Fife, J. A. 56 Finney, Evangelist Charles, antislavery stance of 14 First Advent Conference, holiday of 17 First Angel’s message 20 First World War, effect of 41 Fitch, Charles 93 Flammer, E. 80 flaw of the excluded middle 57 Franklin, Benjamin 15 Frazer, James 158 Freeman, J. M. 78 French African University 113 French Colonies, Adventists’ operation in 59 French, Mr. T. M. 39, 56, 65, 79 Froom, L. E. 149 Frumentius, trader, pioneer Christian in Axum kingdom 4 Fuchs, W. 57 Gagoangwe, Queen mother 78 Galdeano, C. 57 Garbrar, J. K. 117 Garrison, William Lloyd, antislavery stance of 14 Gaston 80 The General Conference Daily Bulletin 80 General Conference, policy of 54, 56, 66 George, T. 56 German Union Conference, missionaries from 32 Germanus, V., counsel of 152 Gibson, Mrs. 119 Giddings, O. U. 79 Gifford, P., writing of 46 Girard, P. 57 Gissler, Alphose 84 Gitwe, mission station at 100

Global South, components of 1 Gnostics of the early Church, belief of 18 God or Apartheid; A challenge to South African Adventism 29 The Gold Coast Mission: organization of 56 Gomis, Joseph, Spanish Adventist 84 Gordon Theological Seminary 135, 146 Gospel Commission 54 The Great Controversy: author of 55; extent of 166 The Great Disappointment 1, 18, 21 Gregorian Calendar helplessness of 17 Gregory, Pope XVI, supervision of 7 Grindset, Anol - Norwegian missionary 33 Gyasi, Daniel 118 Hahn, F. B. 19 Haitian voodoo, spread of 161 Hale, Appollos 18 Hale, Dudle 37, 38, 70, 107 Hale, Mrs. 56 Hamilton, Evangelist J. J., narration of 118 Hanson Mrs. 65 Harmon, Ellen G. 25 Haseneder, Maria 103 Haskell, S. N. 335, 36, 55, 78 Haysmer, Nora 97 health living, calls for 14 Heckers Weiler, J. J. 57 Heilskov-Joassen, Elizabeth 72 Helbig, R. 80 Helderberg College 139 Henry, Prince of Portugal 5 Heri Hospital, Tanzania 71 Herndon, Booton 73 Heward-Mills, Evangelist Dag 148 Hewitt, Clyde 1 Hiebert, Paul 57 Hime, Joshua V. 16, 18, 93 The History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, author of 55 Hlubi, Joseph 78 Honey, R. C. 56 Hope of Israel, article in 21 Hoschele, Stefan 156 Hullborn, R. R., Dr. 98 Hume, David 15 Hunt, William 25, 28 Hyatt, James M. 38, 56, 105 Hyatt, Mr. & Mrs. 81

Index 231 Hyatt, W.S. 95 Hyde J. J. 81, 105, 107, 115, 124 Ignace, Daniel 80 Igwe, Ekeoma, juju priestess 119 imperial forces, roles of 32 independent prophets, appearance of 13 indigenous leadership, importance of 127, 137 International Tract Society 36 investigative judgement 20 Ipoti, Nigeria - Church building at 106 Isichei, Elizabeth, book of 8 Islam, strong presence of 40 Islamic people, resistance of 41 Jameson, Leander Starr, Dr. 28 Jehovah’s Witness 149 Jerusalem, beginning of Christianity at 135 Jewish Day, of Atonement 17 Jewish Religious Calendar 17 Johansson, Lisa 34 Johnson, Anita 100–102 Johnson, Todd M. 135 Jones, Rober L. 83 Joshua, blind Ugandan, first Adventist convert 79 Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 162 Juju, confrontation with 118 Kabunda, Nathan 77 Kalahari Desert 52 Kalaka, David 78, 117 Kaltenhauser, K. 56 Kanye Adventist Hospital, Botswana 71 Karl, G. 56 Kasulu, leper colony at 71 Kempt, H. 82 Kendu Hospital, Kenya 71 Kenny, J. B. 56 Kenya, missionary works at 24 Kenya Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital Vista Clinic, Psychiatric Hospital, South Africa 139 Keough, George 41, 56 Kerr, Francis William, death of 38 Kerr, George and Eva, medical works of 70 Kerr, George T. 37 Kerr, Mrs. 56 Khakasa, a witch 120

Khalbous 57 Kibwana, Ezekiel 121 Kimbanguist Church, Congo, indigenous Christian Church 147, 148 Knight, George R. 18, 95 Knight, R., writing of 22 Kolhing, W. 56 Konigmacher, S. M. 56 Kotz, E. 56 Koza Adventist Hospital 72 Kraft, Charles H. 156 Kraft, M. G. 156 Kretschmar, Dr. A. H. 79 Lake Geneva Sanitarium 104 Lake Ngami, Botswana discovery of 53 Langford, L. F. 80 law of contagion, use of 159 League of Churches versus League of Nations 152 Lee, Mother Ann, preacher 13 leprosy, call to confront 71 Les Signes des Temps, publications of 23, 84 Lesotho, South Africa 78 Levant Union 41 Lewis, W. H. 65, 105 Libya, strong Islamic presence at 84 Lindgren, N. 55 Litch, Josiah, Dr. 6 literature evangelism, use of 107 Living Faith Church Worldwide 148 Livingstone, David 52, 54, 69 local architecture, improvement of 76 local pioneers, works of 114 Locke, John, philosophical thinker 15 Loma Linda; speech at 73, 74; University of 74 Lopez, Jose 83 Lorntz, Emery 55 Loughborough, John 93 Loumba, Hill-Zambia 117 Loving-good, Bankole 117 Lufungulo, Diamond Chibwe, Zambian missionary 126 Lugard, Sir Frederick, governor 46 Lumwe, Samuel 162, 163 Luo tribe of Kenya 56 Luther, Martin, view of 150 Lutheran Church 152 Mafuru, E. 121 magic and witchcraft, practice of 158

232

Index

Mainza, Jum- baptism of 97 Malaria, effect of 30, 37, 38 Malawi/Nyasaland, missionary at 29 Malinki, James 117 Malomo, Phillip 7 Manala, Matsobane J. 29 Mandela Nelson 52, 65, 113 Martin, Walter, writer on American cults 149 Maxwell, S. G. 79 Mbeki Thabo, missionary school of 65 Mbemba, Prince Nzinga 6 Mbiti, John S. 163 McClement, W. 81 McKinley, William, presidency of 94 Medjo, Josue, baptism of 83 Melefit, Supreme Being in Cameroon 160 Mennonite Church 152 Mensah, Charles Benet 124 Meroe, collapse of kingdom of 4 Merwe, Van der J. 79 Methodists, branch off from 12 Meyer, Albert 98 Meyer, E. W., Dr. 70 Meyer, R. 57 Michaud, Marguerite 97 Middle East Union 62 The Midnight Cry, newspape 16 Miller, William 1, 12, 14, 15, 16 Millerism 1 Millerite movement 1, 12, 15, 16 Miyayo, Lameck 164 Mohammed, Islamic prophet 45 Moko, Richard - South African Missionary 56, 117, 123 Monnier, Henry 103 Monotheism 45 Monze, Chief, gift of 60, 78, 97 Mopofu, Jack Mahlatini 78 Moravian Church 152 More, Hannah, early missionary work of 35–37 Morgue, Duncan 118 Morgue, S. 80 Mormons 149 Morocco Mission, organization of 57 Morocco, first baptism at 98 Morse, B. L., secretary 55 Mosiniyi, Eithlhopha D., Literature evangelist 121 Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church 148

Moyo, James 117 Mozambique Adventist Seminary 139 Mptoumi, Anthony, baptism of 83 Msangi, Abraham 121 Muderpach, F. H. 121 Mugabe, President Robert 73 Muller, Wilhelmina 56 Munzig, R. 56 Mwanachiagwala, Chief 77 Mwansa, Pardon, works of 162, 163 Myers, Dr. E. W. 82 Namibia, Adventism in 79 nationalism, effect of 141 Ndhlovu, Reward Register, Zimbabwean missionary 125 Ndi, Daniel, baptism of 83 Ndongo, Charles 69 Ndongo, Pastor Matthew 125 Nek, R. 56 Neube, John 117 New Apostolic Church 148 Newbold College, England 55 Ngoma Mission Hospital, Belgian Congo 104 Nixon, President Richards, speech of 73 Nkomo, John L., Dr., Adventist education of 69 Nkrumah, Kwame, Pan Africanist 65 North Africa, Missions approach at 40 North America, beginning of Adventism from 135, 136 Northern European Division, inclusion of 62 Nova Scotian Methodists 7 Nwaomah, Sampson M. 164 Nyakana, Andrew 78 Nyambo, Peter 55, 118 Nyasaland (Malawi) 56 Nyaundi, Nehemiah M. 58, 76, 155 Odias, Miss 121 Ogunseso, Miss 121 Ohme, B. 56 Olmstead, H. C. 78 Olorun or Olodumare, Supreme Being 160 Olsen, Ole Andres, trip to Africa of 30, 107 Onongha, Kelvin, work on sorcery and witchcraft of 162–164 Oosterwal, Gottfried 22 Oriental Orthodox Church 152

Index 233 Oriental Union Mission, formation of 41 Oswell, William 52 outreach strategy of Adventist Missionaries 141 Owusu-Mensa, Dr. Kofi 118 Oyelese, Chief 65 Padroada, meaning of 5 Pain, Thomas 15 Palm, H. 56 Pasha, Colonel Arabi, killing by 40 Pastor-evangelist teachers 68 Pederson, E. W. 34 Pemba, (Rusagu), school at 97 Perin, Elizabeth Mary, marriage of 97 Person, J. & Lindgren, Swedish Missionaries 33, 56 Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life, report of 147 Phillip III, King of Spain 6 Pierre, Max 84 Plumstead Sanitarium 28 Polygamy, threat of 167 Pope Pius VI, arrest of 13 Porter, C. O. 56 post millerniarism 13 pre-Advent judgement 20 Preble, T. M. 21 Premillennialism, teaching of 148 Prenig, M. 56 Presbyterian Missionary Society, formation of 7 Presbyterians, branch off from 12 Prescott, W. W. 38 Present Truth magazine 37 The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A.D 1843, a book 16 The Quakers, teachings of 13 Quarco, Christian T. 118 Queen of Sheba from Axum, effect of 4, 5 Quran, Arabic recitation of 45 Randolph, Mrs. 56 Randolph, R. G. 107 Raspel, Marius 83 Raymond 118 Rebsomen, A. 57 Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pentecostal 148 religious economy, theory of 74

remnant ecclesiological perception of S.D.A. Missionaries 142 remnant, uses of 125, 127 Renouard, Maria 57 Review and Herald cafeteria, segregation at 94, 122 Reynaud, Jean 84 Rhodes, Cecil, Prime minister, Cape Colony 28, 60, 97 Riggs, Colporteur 37, 38 Riggs, G. P. 56 Rinderpest, cattle destroyers 28 Robinson, A. T. R., letter to 95 Robinson, Christopher, missionary at the Belgian Congo 29 Robinson, D. A., Missionary to South Africa 28, 55 Robinson, Virgil, writing of 30, 33 Rogers, J. C. 56, 78 Roman Catholic in Africa, growth of 148 Roman Catholicism, suffering from 31 The Royal Geographical Society: award of 52 Royal Province Regent of Belgium, medal from 59 Rudolph, Karl G. 37, 105 Ruf, W. 57 Rusanga Mission Station, inauguration of 78 Rusangu Adventist University, Zambia 129, 139 Rush, Benjamin 15 Rwanda, highest Adventist presence in Central Africa 68 Sabbatarian Adventists 18–20 “The Sabbath and shut door people” 22 Sabbath message 148 Sadio, Albert, baptism of 82 Salimu, J. 121 Sanctuary, doctrine of 21, 148 Sanford, Edward L. 37, 105, 107 Sanford, Mrs. 56 Sanneh, Lamin, book of 8 Sanou, Boubakar 162 Scharz, Robert W. 137 Sebughe, Petro 121 The Second: Advent movement 12; Great awakening 12; Vatican Council 149 Second coming of Christ, doctrine of 21 Second coming of Jesus Christ, expectation of 13

234

Index

Seiler, W. 56 Selassie, Haile L. 33, 65 Senty, R. 57 The Seventh-day: Adventist Church formation of 1; Sabbath, a perpetual sign, author of 21 Seventh-day Adeventism, historical content of 12 Seventh-day Adventist Church: Africa, growth of 137–139; African population of 2 Seventh-day Adventists, name adoption of 22 Seventh-day Baptist Church 21 Seychelles, beginning of Adventism in 80 The Shakers, religious group, formation of 13 Shao, Nigeria: Babcock’s work at 105; soldiers rampage at 42 Shaw, John Luis 107 Shurich, B. 56 Shut door, terminology of 22 Signes des Temps 40 Signs of the Times, beginning of 16 Simple sentences, use of 118 Simuli, Maria, a witch 120 Slave Trade Act, passage of 51 Smith, Joseph, Prophetic utterances teachings and death of 13, 14 Solusi Adventist University 129, 139 Solusi mission station: founding of 29, 8, 69, 71, 97, 117 Songa Seventh-day Adventist Hospital 104 Sorensen, M. J. 34 South Africa, establishment of Seventhday Adventist in 24 South African Missionary Newsletter 122, 130 South African Sentinel 122 South- African Union - organization of 56, 60 South Union Conference of South Africa, formation of 29 Southern Africa Indian Ocean Division 137, 138 Southern African Division: early membership of 31; formation of 61 Soyo and Luanola, landing of the Portuguese at 6 Spalding, Arthur, writing of 39, 41, 93 Sparrow, H. M. 33

Spicer, W. A., book of 24, 82 Spirit world, admittance of existence of 164 Spiritualisers 21 Stadin, Dr. A. R. 34 Stanley, Morton 54 State of the dead 148 Steed, Christopher 6, 8 Stein, R. 56 Steine, Hans 33 Steiner, Hans 55 Storrs, George 93 Sturdevant, M. C. 56 Stureman, J. F., Missionary to South Africa 28 Sturzenegger, Karl 80 Sundkler, Benght 6 Sundkler, Benght 8 Swaziland, first Adventist preaching at 78 The Synagogue Church of All Nations 148 Syncretism: high level of 146; meaning of 167 Tabula rasa, principle of 156 Talari, Ras, regent, king and emperor 33 Tangayika (Tanzania), Missionaries to 57 Tanzania, missionary works at 24, 68 Taylor, Sir Edward Burnett, study of 158 Teendwa Daniel 121 Trans African Division Outlook 122 third Angel’s message 22 Thomas, Bendele 125 Thompson, C. E. F. 39, 56 Thompson, George 36 Thomson, Helen Bruce 98 Threats to Church identity 167 Three Angels’ messages 148 Tithe, Purpose of 143 Tonga Plateau, Zambia mission school at 76 Toppenberg, Valdemar E., report of 30, 33, 56, 60 Toure, Sekou 46 Tract showing that the seventh day should be observed as Sabbath instead of the first day 21 traditional African doctors, reliance on 69

Index 235 traditional African medicine, understanding and components of 158 Trans-African Division Outlook 122, 130 Tripp, George B., demise of 30 Tripp, Mary, letter to 95, 97 The Trumpet of Alarm, newspaper 16–17 Tunis Mission, organization of 57 Turaki, Yusufu 169 Turner, Joseph 18 Ude, Oko Chukwu, Adventist education of 69 Umuocha village, idol destruction at 119 The United Church, Zambia indigenous Christian Church 147 Université de Lukanga, D. R. Congo 139 University of Arusha, Tanzania 139 University of Eastern Africa- Baraton, Kenya 68, 139 Valley University, Ghana 129, 140 Vasenius, Dr. F. W. 33, 56, 71 Vaysse, Colporteur George 82 Vermont, home of William Miller 15 The Vermont Telegraph, Baptist periodical 16 Vetter, Mr. & Mrs. 119 Veuthey, Dr. Ernest 98 Vida, Mensah 164 Vie et Sante Clinic, Algeria 72 Vita, Dona Beatriz Kimpa 6 Vocational training, uses of 75The Voice of Elijah, newspaper 17 The Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence School 108 Voice of Prophecy, radio programme of 142 Vuilleumier, Albert 84 Wadfriede Adventist Nursing Training School, Belin 103 Wagner Gary 83 Wakeham, W. H. 41 Walemba, Nathaniel 164 Wallath, O. 56

Walston, W. G. 56 Ward, Henry Dana, editor, Anti Masonic Magazine 17 Washington S. D. A. Church, members of 80 Watts, Ralph S. 46 Webster, K. G. 76 Webster, Max 79 Weld, Evangelist Theodore, antislavery stance of 14 Wesleyan Church 148 Wesleyan Missionary Society, formation of 7 Wessels, Peter 28 West Africa: first official mission to 80; withdrawal of Adventist Missionaries from 38 West African Messenger, newsletter 122, 130 West African Union Mission 39 West Central Africa Division 137 The Western Midnight Cry, newspaper 16 Western missionaries, traditional historiography of 54 Wheeler, keeping of Sabbath of 21 White, Ellen 12, 20–22, 35, 55, 58, 92–96, 141, 152, 167 White, James 12, 21, 25, 93 Wieland, Robert - Adventist scholar 157 Wigwe, R. 119 Wilkinson, Jemima, Prophet 13 Wilson, J. H. 25 Wilson, J. V. 56 Winter, F. 56 World Council of Churches, establishment of 152 Xiba, Isaac 117 Zaire, conflict in 129 Zakka, John 117 Zion Christian Church 148 Zondervan Publishing Company, commission of 149 Zurcher Adventist University, Madagascar 139 Zurlo, Gina A. 146