Zedekia Marwa Kisare, first national bishop of the Tanzania Mennonite Church (Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania), founded 1934). He and his wife Susana studied in the Bukiroba Bible School (1936-1939); he taught at the school during the 1950s, and in 1965 graduated from Mennonite Theological College, Bukiroba. The couple served in evangelism and church planting in the Shirati area and in the newly-established Luo settlement at Kisaka, some 80 miles (130 km) from Shirati.

Bishop Kisare grew up in Shirati, a Luo people's village in an area called Kiseru, in Mara Region between Lake Victoria and the Serengeti Plain. Following Luo custom, he was a goatherd as a boy and a cattle-herder as a youth. His first contact with Christians was with Seventh-day Adventist African evangelists.

As a five- or six-year-old, Kisare recalls musing on the question, "How did I, Marwa, come to be a human being?" Though not much is said about God in traditional Luo worship, the answer that came to him in that moment was, "If God would not have been, then I, Marwa, would not have been. God is both the purpose (why) and manner (how) of my existence."

When he was 14 years old he began attending the Adventist church in a nearby village in Kenya. Wanting to walk pleasing to God, he was baptized and became a member of that church in 1933. He chose a new name, Zedekia, though years later, with perspective on the meaning of names, began using his given name, Marwa, in addition to his Christian name.

In 1933 he married Nyaeri Akello from a Luo village 12 miles (20 km) away. He eventually sought work with the new mission station of the Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (MC) at Shirati. His first contacts were Elam Stauffer and John Mosemann.

The dramatic story of Bishop Kisare's life reveals a person dedicated to the mission of Christ. The story includes leadership roles in the Tanzania Mennonite Church as evangelist, minister (ordained 10 December 1950), and the first African bishop (ordained 15 January 1967), spanning the very beginning of that church through the missionary era to independence and beyond, well into the era of the indigenous church. Basic to his leadership was experiencing and preaching a revival that frees from fleshly sins, jealousy, pride, and self-righteousness, giving place to reconciliation; learning the Bible so that a concordance was not needed; making do with meager financial resources; seeing the church grow to more than 30,000 members; observing and serving the church on six visits to North America; seeing his beloved wife and coworker die in 1983; and remarriage in 1984 to Margaret Awiti.

In one of his sermons on a preaching safari Bishop Kisare said, "Confession of our sin is not something we do once and then forget about. It is a way of life practiced by God's people." 

Zedekia Kisare died 11 June 1999.

Bibliography

©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

To cite this page: