Book Review: Journeys of Asian Diaspora: Mapping Originations and Destinations, volume 1

Abstract

transnationalism (217) as he prioritized the plurality of peoples and a panoply of means to reach them (226), bringing the peoples he shepherds together into the shared space of Anglican church life and apostolic ministry (220 ff.). Wild-Wood demonstrates how Kivebulaya chose to expand where others dared not venture, centering the marginalized, most notably groups commonly labeled “pygmy” deep in the Congo forest (201ff.). Though Kivebulaya performs a transnational, heavenly vision of universal belonging, Wild-Wood helps the reader understand that Kivebulaya was a product of his time, that his preoccupation with racial harmony disallowed him from countenancing the gross racial inequalities meted out by colonial policy (255). Important also, WildWood responds to the concern of Christianity as a “hegemonic force” complicit in imperialistic aims with a balanced and nuanced view, acknowledging missionary entanglements with colonial projects (275) while also demonstrating a genuine Christian concern and love for different people groups in the Great Lakes region, notably demonstrated by Kivebulaya and his colleagues (see 225, 235, 245 for a few examples). Wild-Wood has gifted us by centering a black African apostolic leader and healer who challenged the ethnocentric biases of both missionaries and local Christians alike. For those looking for more than hagiography in biography, for a robust and not-to-beequaled account of one of the most notable and interesting agents of mission in the twentieth century, then look no further than The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya. Emma Wild-Wood offers her readership a rich and satisfying palette of biographical interest centered in the complex social realities of Kivebulaya’s time.