A Truly African Christianity

Abstract

John Gachango Gatũ (1925–2017) was one of the most prominent and important Kenyan church leaders of his generation. He was the first African to serve as general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, and then went on to be moderator. He also held influential positions in numerous Christian organizations, including the All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of Churches. He is best remembered for his call, first issued in 1971, for a moratorium on Western missionaries and resources in the developing world. At the time, this controversial proposal also led to some discussion about whether or not he was a still an Evangelical. Gatũ published three books in the twenty-first century, including a substantial autobiography, and in the light of these it is now possible to assess his thought and his entire life and ministry on their own terms. When that is done it become apparent that he emphasized three distinctives of his churchmanship: he was a revivalist who was deeply committed to the East African Revival Movement; an ecumenist who worked tirelessly for Christian cooperation and unity; and, perhaps most of all, an Africanist who continually sought to inhabit and commend a truly African Christianity.