BOOK REVIEWS 205Ethiopianism and Afro-Americans in Southern Africa, 1883-1916 ByJ. M. Chirenje. Baton Rouge and London, Louisiana State University Press,1987. 231 pp., ISBN 0-8071-1319-0. £26,15.In the >tudy of Christianity in Africa attention is necessarily given to local Churchmovements, which develop independently of -Š and sometimes in contrast toŠmissionary-related mainstream churches. Since B. Sundkler's pioneering studyBantu Prophets in South Africa was published in 1948, increasing attention notleast among anthropologists Š has been given to enthusiastic religiousmovements which identify their place of worship with the Old Testament MountZion and which attach considerable apostolic authority to their specific founder.In scholarly discussions in Zimbabwe (which are informed by M. L. Daneel'sextensive inventories) such Zionist churches are combined with the Vapostoriwithin the class of 'Spirit-churches'.This extensive scholarly interest in enthusiastic religious Zionism has giventhe more culturally nationalistic Ethiopian churches second place in the studyof independent church movements. However, there are some useful studies byG. Shepperson, J. Webster and F. Welbourn on Ethiopian church movements inCentral Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, respectively. In Facing Mount Kenya JomoKenyatta gave some interesting details about the Ethiopian Kenya IndependentChurches and schools. In Zimbabwe T. O. Ranger initiated the scholarly study ofthe Ethiopian churchman Matthew Zwimba.Ethiopianism remains a significant dynamic within the independent type ofChristianity in Southern Africa Š including Zimbabwe Š but we lacked acomprehensive monograph on Southern African Ethiopianism, which can matchWebster's and Shepperson's contributions from their respective areas of interest.Now we have what we wanted in the late Dr Chirenje's book.References to Ethiopia among African Christians in South Africa reflect thesymbolic significance of both the African and the Biblical Ethiopia; as was notedby Sundkler, independent South African churchmen supported with prayers andcollections the case of Emperor Menelik against the invading Italians at the timeof the Battle of Adowa. However, the name of the movement also tries to conveythe sense of African self-reliance which Ethiopia represents and which hasinspired enterprising Š and often well-educated Š African churchmen whocould not endure what they experienced under missionary patriarchalism tofound their own independent African churches.In his comprehensive and well-written study Chirenje highlights the personalexperiences and leadership of such African pioneers as the Revd MangemaMokone from Kilnerton, who broke away from the Wesleyan Methodist Churchin the Transvaal and founded his own Ethiopian Church of South Africa beforehe was affiliated to the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC); the RevdJames Mata Dwane, who ended up as the spearhead of the Ibandla Lose Tivopiawithin the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa; and the Revd MicahMakqatho, who left the Dutch Reformed Mission at Morgenster, in reaction toRevd A. Louw's determined leadership, and pioneered Ethiopianism and thecause of the AMEC in Zimbabwe.However, Chirenje does not see the rise and subsequent development ofEthiopianism in Southern Africa simply as the result of local frictions between206 BOOK REVIEWSpatriarchalistic missionaries and enterprising African churchmen. More deci-dedly than Webster and more like Sundkler (who, in his continuing studies ofSouthern African Zionism has highlighted the impact in Natal of the enthusiasticRevd A. Dowie and his Zionist centre near Chicago), Chirenje explores theinteraction of local Southern African Ethiopianism and the political andmissionary outreach of the AMEC. He, thus, gives a comprehensive account ofthe determined ventures of the enterprising Bishop McNeal Turner from his firstinvolvement in South Africa in 1893 until his retreat and the more carefulecclesiastical Š and economic Š policies of the new AMEC leadershiprepresented by Bishops H. B. Parks and L. J. Coppin which had far-reachingramifications within Southern African Ethiopianism.At a time when Š in the name of Black Theology Š new combinationsbetween Afro-American and Southern African theologians have developed (andwe could note that John E. Cone who has articulated the Black Theology ofLiberation has his denominational background in the AMEC!) Chirenje's study ismost welcome. It is of immediate interest in the study of Christianity in Africa. Italso contributes to our understanding of the history of the African NationalCongress, especially by placing the Revd H. R. Nqcayiya in his ecclesiasticalcontext. Chirenje's study also marks a milestone in the intellectual history ofSouthern Africa, with his detailed study of the pre-history of Fort Hare UniversityCollege, where the ideas of Booker T. Washington were contrasted to those ofBishop Turner and where Ethiopian churchmen with American degrees provideda challenge to Jabavu, Dube and other distinguished representatives ofmainstream Christianity. The significance of this dimension as well as that of FortHare is underlined by the choice of 1916 as the terminus ad qucm of this study.There is one area where Chirenje's new book invites further discussion. Itconcerns the comparative analysis of the motifs and ideology of Ethiopianchurch-leaders, on the one hand, and determined pioneers of the African NationalCongress from within mainstream Christianity, such as John Dube, Sol Plaatjeand others, on the other. John T. Jabavu's statement on Native Churches in ImvoZabantusundu (14 November 1898) which Chirenje includes as Appendix D inhis collection of contemporary texts, for instance, illustrates that there were basicissues concerning the understanding of the Church involved in their choice ofmainstream Christianity.Uppsala University C. F. HAI.LENCREUTZZimbabwe: An Introduction to the Economics of Transformation By P. RoussosHarare, Baobab Books, 1988, 184 pp., ISBN 0-7974-0793-6. ZS 19,35.Peter Roussos's book is yet another work by a local scholar intended to improveour understanding of the Zimbabwean economy and its problems. The bookconsists of seven chapters and three appendices, and has numerous tables, boxesof information and pictures, all aimed at simplifying the discussion.The book is aptly titled, since after almost nine years of Independence, peoplehave begun asking if there has been any significant change in the social andeconomic lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. Unfortunately, Roussos defines