Research Projects
The Ngoma Ecumenical Publishing Consortium
Ngoma encourages research into Ugandan Christianity and its publication both in Uganda and internationally. Uganda has a rich Christian history that dates back to the late 19th Century. The first generation of Ugandan converts to Christianity reflected on their Christian experience in an impressive series of publications and manuscripts, often in vernacular languages. From the 1930s onwards both Ugandans and expatriates researched Ugandan Christianity as they obtained postgraduate qualifications. From the 1970s onwards, African researchers outstripped expatriates by four to one.
African researchers are usually imbedded in the life of Ugandan Christian communities. So they are best placed to research the pressing issues that these communities face. For example Dr Olivia Nassaka decided to research how Anglican Christians in Buganda understood the presence of evil in their lives out of her experiences as a parish priest in Mityana. Her position of trust within the community enabled her to interview over 150 Baganda Anglicans to produce research that is both academically rigorous and pastorally relevant. Illuminating research into Catholic and Pentecostal expressions of Christianity in Uganda has also been conducted.
However research by Africans is less likely to be published than that of Western researchers. If research is published in Western publications, these are less likely to be accessible in Uganda. Ngoma wants to address this situation by hosting writers’ workshops in Uganda and by offering Ugandan researchers writers’ sabbaticals in Nairobi. In this way, unpublished research will become accessible both in Uganda and internationally. Over time, Ngoma also aims to make publications from previous generations more available in Uganda, preserve important primary sources and foster new research projects.
Ngoma is an ecumenical publishing consortium, consciously bringing research and reflection from across Uganda’s different streams of Christianity into dialogue. This diversity is reflected in the current membership of the consortium:
- The Centre for African Christian Studies for Liberation and Inculturation (Catholic)
- The Department of Religious & Peace Studies, Makerere University (Inter-religious)
- St Mary’s National Major Seminary (Catholic)
- The Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, Uganda Christian University (Anglican)
The Henry Martyn Centre based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom is a partner organization to Ngoma.
For further information, please contact:
- In Uganda: Dr Paddy Musana at musana@arts.mak.ac.ug or +256 (0)7724 57725
- In the United Kingdom: Angus Crichton at ac772@cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)7981 801178.
To view images of Ugandan Christianity click here