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EDITORIAL Frieder Ludwig's account of the Garrick Braide movement would have been included in the August issue had there been space, but it seems that we do not have for Braide quite the intimate evidence available, through Nfinangani and Nyuvudi, for Kim- bangu. Braide remains in consequence a relatively shadowy figure among 20th-century prophets. To compare him with Thompson . Samkange may seem singularly inappropriate. As Christianity came a good deal later to Mashonaland than to the Niger Delta, their chronological position vis-a-vis the growth of the church is, nevertheless, not dissimilar. In themselves they represent highly contrasting modes of response to the predicament of an African Christianity within a colonial context. Certainly we have no reason to think that Samkange would have sympathised with Braide any more than James Johnson did so. There were plenty of prophets in the Rhodesia of the 1930s but that was not Samkange's way. Yet Braide's movement quickly turned into the Christ Army Church whose ethos may not have been so different from a revival move- ment at Sanikange's Pakame. The point is that we may not distinguish the one from the other too sharply without restricting unduly the relevance of each. There is enough continuity between Samkange enthused by Tambaram, Braide possessed by the calling of Elijah, or for that matter the questions raised by A.C. Musopole on a biblical reading of witch- craft terminology, to encourage a single discussion to range across all three. All operate inside the tension between western and African requirements for a contemporary Christianity. Samkange represents what remains the least carefully explored strand within the African appropriation of Christian belief during the first half of this century: how it felt inside the mainline chur- ches. Professor Ranger is fortunate in the remarkable archive Samkange left behind him. In consequence we have for Thompson something of the intimacy Nfinangani offers us for Simon. His archive can throw an illuminating beam across a rather dim area. ' It is not impossible that other early clergymen may have left com- parable deposits still guarded by their families. It would be nice to know. I
Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 1993
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