The politics of public confession in the East African Revival in Uganda, ca. 1930-1950.

摘要

When the East African Revival emerged among Anglican mission stations in Rwanda and Uganda in the early-mid 1930s, the public confession of sins became a distinctive and controversial practice among those who converted. Converts made known their thefts of mission resources, illicit sexual affairs, and possession of secret charms, fetishes, and medicine horns and exhorted others to do the same. For these revivalists, true repentance was manifested in the confession of these, and other, sins. This dissertation uses this complex association of confession, repentance, conversion, and salvation as a means for understanding the East African Revival. It argues that the practice of public confession was a unique African Christian response to perceived problems within mission Christianity. They preached that the public confession of sin was the sine qua non of true conversion to Christianity. This dissertation, however, argues that the practice of public confession had ramifications that rippled well beyond individuals' personal quest for salvation. Public confession was a means through which East African Christians articulated a variety of problems facing individuals, families, and societies in the late colonial era. Through the articulation of these problems as "sinful," revivalists were creating new communities with new moral boundaries that provided answers to the problems they perceived. These changes were most immediately apparent with respect to the domestic sphere but also impacted significantly how revivalists interacted with priests, chiefs, elders, missionaries, and colonial administrators. It was through the language of confession that revivalists developed their notions of power, authority, and community. The practice of public confession, therefore, was a means through which East African revivalists envisioned and articulated a new world, and it was the foundation of the intimate fellowship they created as they journeyed there together. These were the politics of public confession.