Nkeiruka

Nkeiruka (“the future is brighter”) is a collection of critical essays that offers a fresh historiographical reflection on the history of Seventh-day Adventist mission in Nigeria. It is a result of years of historical research, archival work in Europe, the United States, and Nigeria, and a series of scholarly articles.

This book challenges conventional mission narratives that portray expansion as a seamless, top-down process. Instead, it highlights uncertainty, improvisation, and local agency. Aside from the efforts of foreign missionaries, this book argues that Nigerian Adventism often grew unevenly through grassroots choices by teachers, converts, and indigenous leaders who adapted Adventist faith to cultural, political, and social realities. From the pioneering missions of the early 1900s, through the colonial era, to post-independence nationalism and the civil war, the book demonstrates how contextual pressures shaped Adventism’s indigenization.

Thematically, Nkeiruka frames history through “eschatological optimism,” the Adventist belief in Christ’s second coming, which transforms setbacks into part of a hopeful trajectory. This collection of critical essays emphasizes Adventism’s distinct and confessionally grounded journey. At the same time, it calls mission historians to move beyond nostalgia toward critical reflection and anticipatory vision, affirming that the promise of faith lies not only in the past but in the brighter future ahead.