Series preface

Literature on Christian mission in Africa has been biased toward the activity of western-oriented mission. White missionaries, western mission policies and the relationship of mission to European imperialism have dominated the discussion of African missions. Scholars have paid little or no attention to African initiatives in Christian mission, nor have missiological studies been made from the perspective of the so-called ‘recipients’. Yet the phenomenal growth of Christianity in Africa has occurred in the 20th century, much of it after the independence of the continent from outside control. The series ‘African Initiatives in Christian Mission’ represents an attempt to address the reality that the spread of Christianity in Africa, its shape and character, have been the product of African Christians, both in the ‘mission churches’ and the ‘African Initiated/Independent Churches (AICs)’.

Mission churches and AICs are the two primary ecclesiastical contexts in which African initiative has occurred. Mission churches are those that have evolved directly from the outreach of western denominations, and still represent the collegial traditions. AICs are churches begun by Africans in Africa primarily for Africans. AICs have consistently asserted their own leadership autonomy and religio-cultural contextuality free from the immediate control or influence of Western-oriented church leaders. These classificatory terms are somewhat misleading in that AICs are missionary churches par excellence, and the mission churches, by virtue of the missionary contributions of their members from the beginnings of their history, could be characterised as AICs. Nevertheless the distinction between the two families of churches remains important for historical and sociological reasons.

This series seeks to overcome some of the limitations of previous studies of missions in Africa. Mission churches have been analysed primarily as denominational institutions, with a focus on educational work, or else as participants in political processes such as nation building. Less attention has been paid to mission churches as social movements, as products of indigenous culture and leadership, or as creators of African theologies. In short, the indigenous mission dimension has been weak in many of these studies. Works on mission churches today tend to be generalised rather than based on reliable, representative information gleaned from empirical enquiries. Thus the uniqueness and witness of these churches remains obscure.