Projects

Classic Texts in the History of Missiology Website
For the past few years, we have been scanning classic texts in the history of missiology. Under the supervision of librarian Jack Ammerman, we are working to assemble these texts into a web-based site that will include brief biographies of important missiologists along with scanned texts of their works. The core of the project focuses on Protestant missiologists relevant to the modern missionary movement. The site will include such writings as monographs on mission theory and practice, published journals and diaries, and biographies of missiologically significant early converts to Christianity and mission thinkers. Initial texts will be in English, but we hope to expand to other languages over time. Watch for the launch of a beta version of our website in October 2007.

African Initiatives in Christian Mission
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. Little attention has been paid by scholars to African initiatives in Christian mission, nor have missiological studies been made exclusively 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, has been the product of African Christians, both in the "mission churches" and the "African Initiated/Independent Churches (AICs)." The African Initiatives in Christian Mission is published by UNISA Press and includes the following volumes:

No. 1: A Man with A Shadow: The Life and Times of Professor ZK Matthews by Willem Saayman

No. 2: African Earthkeepers. Vol. 1: Interfaith Mission in Earth-Care by Marthinus L. Daneel

No. 3: African Earthkeepers. Vol 2: Environmental Mission and Liberation in Christian Perspective by Marthinus L. Daneel

No. 4: Transfigured Night: Mission and Culture in Zimbabwe’s Vigil Movement by Titus Presler

No. 5: Touching the Heart: Xhosa Missionaries to Malawi, 1876-1888 by Jack Thompson

No. 6: Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal Zionist Apostolic Churches in South Africa by Allan Anderson

No. 7: African Christian Outreach. Vol. 1: The African Initiated Churches edited by Marthinus L. Daneel

No. 8: Frontiers of African Christianity: Essays in honour of Inus Daneel edited by Greg Cuthbertson, Hennie Pretorius, and Dana Robert

No. 9: African Christian Outreach. Vol. 2. The Mission Churches edited by Dana L. Robert

No. 10: Drumbeats: Sounds of Zion in the Cape Flats by Hennie Pretorius

Research on Indigenous Religions in Zimbabwe
Having engaged in empirical field research in Zimbabwe for many years, Professor Daneel has contributed numerous publications on African Initiated Churches (AICs), African Traditional Religion, Earthkeeping, and related missiological subjects. He has just completed a three-year research project on the High God cult in the Matopo Hills (near Bulawayo) and will be engaged the next few years in preparing publications on this subject. In addition, he is studying the opening of a new shrine for the High God under the supervision of an important female prophet who has trained hundreds of women devoted to Shona traditional religion, and who bears a message of environmental stewardship.Ongoing research projects include the publication series African Initiatives in Christian Mission, originally funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Research for the series has included the supervision of team members in the original research project, who hailed from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. We hope to expand the series to incorporate studies on other parts of Africa.

Preservation project for African Initiated Churches Zimbabwe Archive For forty years, Professor M.L. Daneel has been systematically collecting primary materials on African Initiated Churches in Zimbabwe. This collection includes recorded sermons and rituals, photographs, and interviews conducted with AIC leaders and members beginning in the 1960s. Recordings were transcribed by hand into Shona. These materials provide an unparalleled view of rural African life, as well as preserve the theology and religious activities of an oral culture.

Beginning in January of 2006, the Center will begin Phase 1 of the project by typing materials into a data base. We aim to preserve these materials in digital form so that they will not be lost. Phase 2 of the project will consist of organization and translation of the materials into English.

Student Research
The Center faculty encourage projects undertaken by doctoral students. In the past few years, doctoral students have engaged in field research for their doctoral dissertations, some with the funding of the African Studies Center of Boston University. Casely Essamuah traveled to Ghana and interviewed leaders of the Methodist Church, Ghana for a mission history of the denomination since 1960. Kenaleone Ketshabile is currently in South Africa researching funeral rites among Methodists and AICs in Mofokeng. Other former students who engaged in empirical field research in the past decade include Charles Farhadian, who lived in Irian while researching urbanization and conversion among the Dani people. David Restrick interviewed Nazarene missionaries and pastors in Mozambique about the recent history of the denomination. Gift Makwasha has done exploratory research on the relationship between christology and ancestors in Zimbabwe.

AIC Photo Archive
Prof. Daneel's years of research have yielded a wealth of photographs that document African Initiated Churches. The Center is working to digitize these images and to make them available online. Some photos are already available: AIC Photo Archive.