Erasto N. Kweka (b. April 24, 1934) was the second bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT)'s Northern Diocese after independence. His episcopacy from 1976 to 2004 covered the last nine years of the presidency of Julius Nyerere (until 1985), the ten years of Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1985–95), and the first nine years of Benjamin Mkapa's presidency (1995–2005). This was a transformative period for the East African country, marked by the transition from ujamaa socialism to structural adjustment programs and a market economy, as well as from a one-party system to multi-party democracy, among other changes. Kweka led the diocese through these and other transitions which also affected church-state relationships, and he was an important representative of this generation of ‘mainline’ African church leaders who have not yet received enough scholarly attention.
Amy Stambach and Aikande Kwayu's work therefore fills a gap. Based on ten interviews with the former bishop, eight interviews with his wife Shichanaisaria Kweka, and ten interviews with others, it introduces Erasto Kweka's ‘biography of religious engagement’ (8). Most interviews were conducted between June 2018 and April 2020. The authors also had access to Kweka's personal files.
The book is structured in six chapters. In Chapter One, ‘Mainline Christianity: The Practical Work of the Lutheran Church’, the authors argue that the ELCT ‘operationalizes pragmatic faith whereby what must be done is seen to be revealed through trust in God's guidance for reasonable doing, to accomplish God's work in civil, not only churchly, affairs’ (4). One reason for introducing this key term is to distinguish the approach of the mainline churches from the Pentecostal or charismatic movements. Chapter Two, ‘Vocational Calling’, highlights Kweka's narrative of his early life and relates it to the local as well as to the wider Tanzanian contexts. In order to add depth, the authors also include life stories of Fatuma Aleghafyoose Nkawasingira Massawe (a friend of Kweka's mother) and Kweka's wife Shichanaisaria Kweka. Chapter Three, ‘Political Philosophy’, briefly outlines Nyerere's concept of ujamaa socialism and the cooperative relations between the ELCT and the state, before it continues to follow Kweka's education at the ruling party's political college Kivukoni and at Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in Minnesota. In 1973, he submitted his master's thesis on ‘The Church and State in Tanzania’ in which he ‘profoundly espoused the ideals of state Ujamaa socialism’ (59). The authors point out that Kweka used polyvalent terms like uhuru (freedom), ujamaa (familyness), and kujitegemea (self-reliance) to link Lutheran concepts to the national philosophy. The chapter also briefly refers to the conflict around ethnicity, further analyzed in Chapter Four. The conflict evolved when Meru secessionist leaders in the early 1990s accused the church of favoring the bishop's ethnic group, the Chagga. It argues that ‘Kweka's management success in handling the conflict lay in his highly rationalized approach to handling secessionists grievances’ (80). The ‘power of protocol’ (87) — Kweka's close observance of institutional and diocesan procedures — is an interpretative trail that is followed also in Chapter Five, ‘Evangelical Prophecy: Procedure, Power, and Diplomacy’ in which Kweka's defense of church traditions against ‘show-church prophets’ is discussed, as well as his struggle to introduce women's ordination. The last chapter discusses the strategies and networks Kweka, nicknamed the ‘bishop of projects’, used to advance church development projects. The authors remark, ‘Unlike non-denominational and unaffiliated mission churches that draw members to the church through ecstatic and charismatic preaching, Lutherans believe that managing programs entrusted to their care is itself a form of evangelism that will “help further the coming of the kingdom”’ (104).
Statements like this are questionable. They construct a simplified contrast between denominations which represent different varieties of Christianity, but at the same time are also characterized by a broad spectrum of positions within, as well as by interactions between them. Some nondenominational, charismatic churches engage in stewardship, while in the Lutheran churches the interpretation of management programs as a form of evangelism was also not uncontested. In the presentation of plausibility structures, the book is often close to ELCT and to Erasto Kweka's perspectives. But also in this regard, one would like to learn more about the networks, power structures, and negotiations within the ELCT and between the ELCT and other churches and umbrella organizations, as well as the changing relationships between church and state under Nyerere's successors, Mwinyi and Mkapa. Some conflicts, such as the refusal of the ELCT to recognize same-sex marriages, are indicated, but not elaborated upon (8).
The book thus leaves room for further research. However, it tackles important dimensions of Kweka's background and episcopacy. It analyzes his work and shows how Kweka connected mainline Christianity with everyday life in local communities, how he used polyvalent language, procedural approaches, and the ‘power of protocol’ (87), how he ‘wielded combinations of quiet-charismatic, institutional, economic and political authority’ (118) to exercise influence in the ELCT. With its focus on a bishop of a mainline denomination, it adds an important dimension to research on African Christianity.
