Nkeiruka

Critical Essays in the Mission History of Seventh-day Adventism in Nigeria

Chigemezi Nnadozie Wogu

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9798385257546
  9798385257553
• eBook ISBN:
  9798385257560
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: African History

Nkeiruka (“the future is brighter”) is a collection of critical essays that offers a fresh historiographical reflection on the history of Seventh-day Adventist mission in Nigeria. It is a result of years of historical research, archival work in Europe, the United States, and Nigeria, and a series of scholarly articles.

This book challenges conventional mission narratives that portray expansion as a seamless, top-down process. Instead, it highlights uncertainty, improvisation, and local agency. Aside from the efforts of foreign missionaries, this book argues that Nigerian Adventism often grew unevenly through grassroots choices by teachers, converts, and indigenous leaders who adapted Adventist faith to cultural, political, and social realities. From the pioneering missions of the early 1900s, through the colonial era, to post-independence nationalism and the civil war, the book demonstrates how contextual pressures shaped Adventism’s indigenization.

Thematically, Nkeiruka frames history through “eschatological optimism,” the Adventist belief in Christ’s second coming, which transforms setbacks into part of a hopeful trajectory. This collection of critical essays emphasizes Adventism’s distinct and confessionally grounded journey. At the same time, it calls mission historians to move beyond nostalgia toward critical reflection and anticipatory vision, affirming that the promise of faith lies not only in the past but in the brighter future ahead.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Nkeiruka: The Flow of Seventh-day Adventist Mission Historiography
• Chapter 2: The Beginnings: Trailblazers of Adventism in Western and Southern Nigeria, 1900s–1930s
• Chapter 3: Colonial Politics, Missionary Rivalry, and the Beginnings of Adventist Mission in Northern Nigeria
• Chapter 4: The Encounter of Adventist Missionaries with Indigenous Issues in Nigeria from 1900 to the 1940s
• Chapter 5: Independence, Civil War, and the Beginnings of Indigenization of Adventism in Nigeria from the 1940s to 1990s
• Chapter 6: Nkeiruka and the Future of Adventism in Nigeria
• Bibliography