In 1913, a couple from Africa Inland Mission (AIM) walked over 90 miles from the first missionary outpost in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) to Shinyanga, a remote village. They pitched tents around a tamarind tree and began offering medical treatment to locals. By 1962, Shinyanga was a well-established mission station and eventually the place where Bishop Mussa Magwesela M.A. ’19 was born.

Today, Mussa is Archbishop of the Africa Inland Church (AIC) in Tanzania and uses his time at Wheaton to study the history of AIM and the AIC (which sprung out of AIM). In the Billy Graham Center Archives, he discovered the origin story of the missionary outpost where he was born.

“Almost 90 percent of who we are now [as the AIC] is because missionaries started these congregations, schools, and hospitals,” he says.

Bishop Magwesela’s research focuses on the daily struggles of AIM missionaries and the transition of leadership to local Christians. He plans to turn his research into books and curriculum for AIC’s theological colleges in Tanzania. At Wheaton, he’s encountered dialogue-based teaching and methods of archival record preservation, some of which he hopes to bring back home.

HOMETOWN: GEITA, TANZANIA

DEGREE PROGRAM: M.A., HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

EDUCATION: M.A., CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, NAIROBI EVANGELICAL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, KENYA; BACHELOR OF THEOLOGY, SCOTT THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, KENYA; DIPLOMA, MAJAHIDA BIBLE SCHOOL, TANZANIA

FUN FACT: BISHOP MAGWESELA’S FAVORITE AMERICAN DRINKS ARE HOT CHOCOLATE AND SWEETENED ICED TEA