| Summary: | This study explores and assesses the initiatives and contributions of indigenous agents (both men and women, converts, and non-converts) in the growth of mission Christianity in Ugogo and Ukaguru, central Tanzania. To some extent, it is also an attempt to re-write the story of the work of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in that region. The thesis argues that like other missions in Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the CMS mission adopted strategies of Cllristianisation mainly through literacy training, and preaching as well. The active involvement of the indigenous agents was indispensable to this process. The fact that their role has been largely ignored in the standard literature relating to the work of the CMS mission in Ugogo and Ukaguru exposes a bias in mission historiography. To redress this omission, this research explores and evaluates the actual contributions and experiences of indigenous agents in the growth of Christianity in Ugogo and Ukaguru. The study uses a socio-historical method, and takes into account the context in which Christianity grew. It therefore considers the challenges posed by the resilience of the traditional Gogo and Kaguru social and religious practices to mission Christianity. The dynamics of operating under the German and British colonial governments; and the impact of the competition with Islam, and the Benedictine Roman Catholic mission, upon the growth process are explored. A thematic presentation of the material begins with an analysis of some aspects of political, social and religious life of the Wagogo and Wakaguru before and at the time of the arrival of the CMS mission. Aspects considered are those which the CMS mission regarded as controversial as mission work progressed. The initial work of the CMS from 1876 to 1900 is explored and assessed in the next chapter. It is argued that little growth took place in this first phase, yet, African initiatives and contributions began to emerge in this period. The chapter that follows examines and assesses the contribution of the chiefs. It argues that though most of them maintained loyalty to their traditional political, social and religious obligations, nonetheless, their initiatives were indispensable to the establishment of literacy and preaching centres.
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