The East African Revival was not born in a cathedral. It began on hospital floors, in missionary dormitories, and under the weight of spiritual fatigue. It was neither an official reform nor a planned campaign. It was, at its heart, a protest—a cry of hunger from within a suffocating church, ignited by an unusual intimacy between African orderlies and European missionaries in 1930s Rwanda. By the time it reached Kenya, it had shed many of its European manners. What remained was fire.
This fire would be named Balokole—“the saved ones.” But salvation came at a price.
Rwanda: Where the Fire Fell
The East African Revival began in 1930s Gahini, Rwanda, where a young British doctor, Joe Church, encountered Simeon Nsibambi, a Ugandan Christian who felt the missionary church had grown spiritually lethargic. From their private confessions and shared prayer meetings emerged a culture of transparency and brokenness, one that would soon disrupt the settled Christianity of the day (Maseno & Owojaiye, 2015, p. 29).
He has been regarded by some as the father of the revival.
What marked this revival was not just its call to holiness but its method: public confession. Sins were not whispered to priests but shouted to the congregation. A person could not claim to be “saved” while hiding “secret sins”—a phrase repeated obsessively by revival preachers across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanganyika (Bruner, 2012).
By 1937, revival conventions were held in Kenya. Testimonies were emotional, raw, and sometimes uncomfortable. Church elders looked on, stunned, as laymen and laywomen wept over gossip, adultery, theft, pride, and backbiting. But the gospel they preached was not shame—it was freedom through honesty.
He was a teacher in Gahini, Rwanda, who emerged as the most prominent and dynamic preacher during the revival.
The Balokole Theology: Confession as Liberation
Revivalists introduced a radical theological ethic: walk in the light (1 John 1:7). This was not a suggestion. It was a spiritual mandate. To be a Christian meant living with no secrets, no masks, and no private sins. Repentance was continuous, not a one-time prayer. Salvation was proven by one’s willingness to be publicly broken.
This doctrine cut through colonial respectability and missionary formality. The revivalists were often accused of fanaticism. But they were simply implementing what the Church had forgotten: that sanctity begins with confession and requires death to pride (Peterson, 2012).
They also rejected worldliness. Alcohol, gambling, sexual immorality, wealth accumulation, and food taboos were denounced. Many even refused to pay or accept bride-price. Their motto was “Jesus is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.”
Women in the Revival: From Silence to Song
Perhaps no group was more transformed by the revival than women. In patriarchal societies where women were expected to be silent, submissive, and largely invisible in public faith, the Balokole movement offered something close to spiritual emancipation.
Women confessed sins publicly. They prayed aloud. They shared dreams. They wept and sang and spoke in tongues. In revival meetings, gender hierarchies were temporarily dismantled. As Harvey Cox observed in Pentecostal contexts, “Wherever the fire fell, women burned brightest” (Cox, 2001, p. 125).
They also redefined domestic life. Balokole women became known for their clean homes, sober husbands, and disciplined children. Husbands confessed infidelity and alcoholism to their wives. Marriages grew more mutual. Hospitality expanded. Widows found new spiritual kinships that protected them from marginalization (Maseno & Owojaiye, 2015, pp. 31–33).
But it wasn’t just personal. It was political. Balokole women resisted Mau Mau oath ceremonies, abandoned traditional marriage customs, and defied social expectations. They shaved their heads, threw out their amulets, and changed their diets—all in the name of “walking in the light” (Peterson, 2012).
Collision with the Church and State
As the revival spread, it encountered resistance. Many bishops welcomed the emotional renewal. Others saw it as a threat to church order. The revival bypassed hierarchical structures. It empowered laypeople. It questioned theological colleges and mission curricula. It unsettled a church already navigating colonial tensions.
In Kenya, the revival’s impact was most visible in schools and rural parishes. Teachers, nurses, railway workers, and housewives formed small prayer fellowships that met in homes and hostels. These groups often operated parallel to formal church structures—loyal to Christ, but not always to the bishop.
Politically, revivalists were largely apolitical but became controversial for refusing to take oaths—particularly during the Mau Mau era. This refusal was seen by some as cowardice and by others as principled resistance. What is clear is that many revivalists died rather than compromise their convictions (Maseno & Owojaiye, 2015, p. 34).
A Spiritual Legacy Still Burning
By the 1950s, the revival had become a permanent undercurrent in East African Protestantism. It produced bishops, teachers, and missionaries. Its songs—especially Tukutendereza Yesu—still echo in churches across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
Its influence survives in today’s evangelical fellowships, Pentecostal churches, and campus ministries. Testimony culture, emphasis on personal holiness, and public altar calls are its children.
And perhaps more importantly, it changed the way many African Christians viewed faith. No longer as something imported from Europe. But as something intimate, disruptive, and powerfully African.
References
Bruner, J. (2012). Public Confession and the Moral Universe of the East African Revival. Studies in World Christianity, 18(3), 254–268.
Cox, H. (2001). Fire from Heaven: The rise of Pentecostal spirituality and the reshaping of religion in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
Maseno, L., & Owojaiye, B. M. (2015). African Women and Revival: The Case of the East African Revival. European Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 3(3), 28–36.
Peterson, D. R. (2012). Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival: A History of Dissent, c. 1935–1972. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ward, K., & Wild-Wood, E. (Eds.). (2012). The East African Revival: History and Legacies. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing.