Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 9, no. 2/3

Abstract

[This double issue of the Journal honors two giants of African Christianity who have died in the past year, Marthinus “Inus” Daneel (1937-June 29, 2024) and Allison Mary Howell (1951-2023). Zimbabwean by birth, Daneel was a pioneering eco-theologian and expert in the early study of African Independent Churches and movements, as well as an ecumenist and an activist on behalf of the Shona people. Howell was Australian and lived as a missionary before becoming a scholar, making her home among the Kasena, in northern Ghana, where she ultimately was buried. Daneel and Howell were both children of missionaries. One powerful aspect of their two separate legacies was their willingness to intimately embrace the people among whom they chose to live and whose religious lives they documented. As a result, the scholarship they left behind for the African and the global church is not the teaching of “armchair theologians,” but instead that of researchers who were first trusted friends and even adopted family members. Their enduring legacies emerge from the richness of intentional relationships n their immediate cultural contexts, in educational institutions with their students, and within the global church and scholarly community at large. Other legacies in this issue are documented with biographies from Ghana, Zimbabwe, and the DR Congo. Michael Wandusim’s account of the life of Ludwig Adzaklo, a pioneering Bible translator, teacher, and catechist, born in late nineteenth century Ghana, challenges us to reflect on how to factor fallen humanity into the assessment of our enduring Christian legacy. Luke Donner’s biography of Bishop Stephen Ndlovu highlights his strong leadership and advocacy for women’s leadership at a time of great political struggle in Zimbabwe and internal conflicts in his own church (Brethren in Christ), all the while maintaining a spirit of collaboration and ecumenism. The story of Rebecca Sengu Mbongu comes to us from the DRC, from the pen of her adopted daughter and accomplished Bible Institute director, Berci Ba-Dia-Ngungu Mundedi. Mundedi has painted in fine detail the life of an outstanding and accomplished servant of God who ministered to others from the depths of her own affliction, putting her Savior and others before her own needs, thus blazing a trail for other women to follow.]