This source book of translated texts gives insight into the history of religious and social change in East Africa, from the 1890s until the 1930s, through the everyday concerns of African Christians. Originally in Luganda, the documents are written by, or about, an early Ugandan clergyman Apolo Kivebulaya who propagated a Protestant form of Christianity in Toro and Ituri (Congo). They show how a literate Christian identity was formed away from centres of power, and how African admirers responded to Kivebulaya and influenced their own societies. Kivebulaya was a forerunner of a piety propagated through the East African Revival that continues to infuse contemporary Christianity in the region and influences in the Great Lakes region.

Reverend Apolo Kivebulaya was a clergyman in the Native Anglican Church of Uganda, becoming a teacher after his 1895 baptism. His writing illustrates a literate Christian identity formed away from centres of power, while oral and written accounts about him show the responses of African admirers and how Christianity influenced their societies.

A valuable record.