Preambular remarks: This is another topical, timely and appropriate book from the stable of   Bishop Deji Okegbile. This review is to give us a bird’s eye view of the salient contents of the book in just a few pages. 

  1. INTRODUCTION.

Title of book: Indigenised To Decolonize: Celebrating Nigerian Methodism.

The title of this precious book is, on the one hand, captivating, alluring and sufficient to be the fulcrum of a doctoral thesis at the graduate level.  On the other hand, it is sufficiently loaded to be the subject matter of a semester of three months in an evangelism course at a tertiary educational institution.  After perusing the book, one comes to the irresistible conclusion that God Almighty Himself inspired the title.   

Author:  The author is Bishop Deji Okegbile.

The book is printed in Great Britain by Sadlprint, London.

Copyright of this unique book is in the author: Bishop Deji Okegbile.

The book has an ISBN: 978- 1-80517-333-5.

Year of publication:  2024.

Number of Pages: 53.

Number of Chapters: 8.

Cover design: The cover is an artist’s impression/picture by the author, Bishop Deji Okegbile himself. The cover pages are gloss, and the quality of the paper used in printing them is exceptional. The back page is divided into two equal parts, with the first portion having an articulate statement about the book and the second portion having an eloquent statement about the author.

While page 51 lists some of the author’s past literary works and publications, the last two inside back pages, pages 52 and 53, have coloured pictures of the front pages of 18 previous books published by the author at various times. 

 The contents of the book:

 For ease of reading and understanding, apart from the Introduction, this book isdivided into the following eight chapters: –

  1. Methodism to Post-Colonial People.
  2. Beyond Western Theology.
  3. The World is our Parish.
  4. Celebrating Birch Freeman’s Legacy.
  5. Shift in Methodism Gravity.
  6. Reaching the Unreached.
  7. Our histories, and last but not the least. 
  8. Government, Support and Propagation.

It must be stated that each chapter has vibrant literature that traversed theology, history, geography, church administration, people and places just to mention a few.  Each chapter is like a mustard seed, small but very potent. The chapters are written in simple, fluid, easy-to-understand English. The book lacks high-sounding, jaw-breaking English words, terms and phrases. The writing style is evidence of the author doing what he preached: decolonising the language so that all and sundry will understand both the message and the messenger.   There are occasional quotations by the author, which add spice to the book. 

  1. STRONG POINTS OF THE BOOK
  2. In this book, one will read about the meaning of indigenisation as the term relates to Christendom in Africa, that is, to authenticate Christianity in Africa with true biblical meaning and expression. Among other things, the title is also a call to personal and corporate renewal that is Bible-based and prayer-focused. It is also a reminder that ‘the borders of theological discourse can no longer afford to stay within the familiar perimeter of Western discourse’.
  3. The author stressed that the quest to seek Nigerian Christian identity and spirituality towards an indigenous church came into Nigerian church history to decolonise the Western missionaries’ mission theology and leadership approach.
  4. One will read about His Eminence, Professor Bolaji Idowu, his advocacy on indigenisation and his charge to missionaries.
  5. One of the takeaways from this book is that it again opened Christians’ eyes to the fact that sole dependency on Western missions for maintenance and survival is a significant setback that must be overcome.
  6. The pioneering and distinct influence of Methodism’s scriptural holiness revival since 1842 (almost two centuries now, 182 years ago) played a prominent role in Nigeria being described as the ‘Pentecost Republic’. This historical fact is contained in this book.
  7. The book contains information about Wesley’s age, the period, the resistance and opposition, and its significance to Nigerian Methodism.
  8. This important book reiterates the four alls of Methodism :(1) All need to be saved; (2) All can be saved; (3)  All can know themselves saved, and  (4) All can be saved to the uttermost. This is one of the cardinal foundations upon which the MCN stands.   
  9. Among the rich historical facts contained in this book is the fact that the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN) celebrated its 180th year of existence and 60th year of autonomy from British Methodism in 2022.
  10. The book emphasises the dominant feature in the Methodist Church Nigeria’s (MCN) crest, ‘Worthy is the Lamb. ‘ The MCN is Lamb–centred and Lamb–crucified, and its crest provides an overall historical, contemporary, relevant, and missional mandate. The Lamb is the title used for Jesus Christ 28 times in the Book of Revelation.
  11. Restating African continuous Christian history not only makes the continent a theological laboratory of major ecumenical significance but also naturally reveals things that Western Christians miss in reading the New Testament.
  12. The charge from this book is that we, as Nigerian Methodists, are … indigenised to decolonise, liberating the Bible and Christian tradition ‘from distorted usages, definitions, and languages’.

 This is a great charge to all of us, and we cannot afford to fail in this respect. This charge further imposes a duty on us to not only revitalise our language but also safeguard native languages, religion, worship, stories, songs, prayers, and culture for generations to come. It offers healing and empowerment.

  1. The gaps that the Church of England did not fill but which the Methodist church came to fill were highlighted on page 16 of the book.
  2. This rich book mentions the historical, spiritual, and scriptural giant steps taken by John Wesley. On page 17, he is described as someone who was small in stature but bigger than the eighteenth century, a man of diverse and remarkable gifts who travelled a quarter of a million miles on horseback to reach the world for Jesus.
  3. The evolution of John and Charles Wesley’s compilation and development of the Methodist Hymnbook is given pride of place in the book under review. This is worth reading, and the historical facts are noted for records.
  4. In chapter 4, the author writes about the life-changing event of 1736, as experienced by John Wesley, when he (John)  travelled with Charles, accompanied by General Oglethorpe, from England to Georgia in America. John saw families encountering a terrible storm. However, the families sang and exhibited amazing faith in God rather than being terrified. It is this type of faith that is expected of Christians. This faith over fear was one of the turning points in John’s life, and it is worthy of emulation in this contemporary world.
  5. The author’s fundamental distinction, made on page 20, between ‘crusaders’ and ‘missionaries’, is worthy of being noted to serve as a guide for our activities.
  6. In Chapter 4, the author highlights the beautiful and peaceful city of Badagry as the place where early missionaries came ashore from their voyage.
  7. In chapter 4,, we also read about Thomas Birch Freeman: his parents, his place of birth, his date of birth, his previous wives and the death of those wives in Africa, and ultimately, his landmark contributions to the Methodist Church, especially in the West African region, are facts that added monumental value to this book.
  8. Ideological differences once became a wedge between the ‘Primitive Methodist Connection’ / the ‘Camp Meeting Methodists’ and the mainstream Wesleyan Methodists. This book mentions the grounds for these ideological differences and discusses the eventual resolution of the differences and the merger of the two groups.
  9. The eminent roles played by various organisations/societies, such as the Church Missionary Society (CMS) ;

Landmark roles played by individuals such as   Henry Townsend, Samuel Ajayi Crowther; Andrew Wilhem, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Hastings, Bourne, William Clowes, Rev. Henry Roe, Rev. R. W. Burnett, Rev. William Christie, Rev. Fredrick Dodds, Rev. William R . Norcross, Rev. R. Barham Rev. E.J. Jones, Rev. J.O.E. Soremekun, Dr Moma, His Pre-eminence Professor Bolaji Idowu, His Eminence Dr Sunday Mbang, His Eminence Sunday Ola Makinde, and Sir Micheal M . Familusi, just to mention a few.

Furthermore, monumental roles played by some towns and cities such as Abeokuta, Asaba, Badagry,  Calabar, Gold Coast, Otukpo,  Sierra Leone, and Archibong, including the said discovery of the source of the Niger in 1830,  were all given prominence in this book.

  1. It is important to mention that the author specifically highlighted the roles of Henry Townsend on pages 23 to 25, including the presentation of the gift of the Bible from the Queen and the presentation of the corn mill from the Prince Consort in 1845 in Abeokuta. Also, in 1859, he set up a printing press that began printing Iwe Irohin. This newspaper served as a medium for spreading the Christian gospel; in 1862, he founded the Ake Orphanage, he represented the Egba interests to the British authorities in Lagos in 1866, he worked with Samuel Ajayi Crowther to write several Yoruba hymns, and from 1871 t0 1872, Rev. Henry and Mrs. Townsend were co-principals of CMS Female Institution Lagos Nigeria.
  2. The author compared Henry Townsend and Freeman in the areas of support for their missionary activities. While Townsend received financial support from CMS in Britain and the Queen in England, Freeman was charged with overspending in 1857. The rest of the story can be found on pages 25 to 26 of the book. There are great inspirations to be drawn from the comparison, making it another compelling reason for everyone to buy, read, understand and digest the contents of this book.   
  3. In pages 29 to 32, the author, in an enviable methodical manner, gives a chronology of the Methodist crises, reconciliation, and reorganisation and traced and grouped the leadership development in Nigerian Methodism into four periods based on the five constitutions promulgated by the church between 1962 and 2007.
  4. The author used an African proverb from the Akan in Southern Ghana, that the mother feeds the baby daughter before she has teeth so that the daughter will feed the mother when she loses her teeth, to drive home the deeper cultural and geographical meaning of the title of this book. Please see page 36 for this beautiful exposition and juxtaposition of theology with culture and language so that the message is not lost on the people.   
  5. CONCLUSION:

 This book points to a reform agenda for effectively repositioning the first international denomination in Nigeria.  We must move beyond John Wesley’s famous saying, ‘I look upon all the world as my parish, beyond an announcement of a programme for world evangelisation…’ rather, we must continue to give life to those words as the panacea and justification for preaching in other people’s parishes. This book has come to rekindle our interests and redouble our energies as Christians to decolonise others from the shackles of the remnants of imperialism. On page 39, the author succinctly states this is  ‘a timely missional invitation, forward to the past to revisit or possibly rediscover those lessons from our not–so–distant past in order to overcome our present decline’.  This should be our takeaway from this book. It should galvanise all of us to ensure that we get sufficient copies of the book adorn our bookshelves in the various libraries with the book; we should read and read and read the contents of the book and let the message contained be our mantra now and always.

We must not rest on our oars until we achieve the goal of decolonising others and freeing them from the shackles of theological imperialism. We must key into the metaphorical analogy on page 47 of the book to separate the plants from the pot.

I thank the author for this contribution to the ever-growing world of Christian literature. This book is in a special class of its own, and it is recommended to all and sundry. I thank the author for inviting me to review the book, and I thank you all for your attention.

Thank You.

Hon. Justice E. O. Osinuga

2024.