Mashigani, Haruni Kija (1921–2009)

Haruni Kija Mashigani belongs to the first generation of National Adventist leaders in Tanzania. He was among key leaders of the Post-Independence Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tanzania.¹

Early Life

Mashigani was born in 1921 in Isanga Village, then the Maswa District in Shinyanga Region, Tanzania. He was the first born to the family of Paulo Mashigani Ndolyo and Mrs. Elizaberth Mashigani, a family blessed with seven children: Haruni Kija, Kezia Sunge, Miriam, Yakobo, Elisha, Tizira, and Joshua. His father was converted to Adventism and was baptized together with his wife in 1928 after hearing the message preached by a missionary named H. Robson.²

Mashigani is a renowned Adventist leader having served as teacher, frontline pastor, Union department director as well as Field president. His unique contribution to Adventist Church history in Tanzania can be seen in his effort to pioneer the establishment of fields, conferences, and other church institutions like schools and dispensaries.³

Education and Marriage

Mashigani started his primary education in 1935 at the Ikunguilipu Primary School in Itilima, Shinyanga. In 1938, he joined Ikizu Middle School, and in 1939, he shifted to Mwagala Middle School, where he completed his primary education. In 1940, he returned to Ikizu where he was admitted to Ikizu Teachers’ College to undertake Teacher Education Grade II, which he completed in October 1945. While studying at Ikizu, he married Ada Salu in 1943. They had ten children: Ester/Kuyega, Elizabeth/Ngw'amba, Joramu/Nyanda, Kanengo, Merry/Obeja, Ruth/Kulwa, Hellen/Doto, Emmanuel, Yusufu/Matela, and Mashigani. In 1953, he went to Bugema Missionary College in Uganda for ministerial studies and graduated in November 1954 with a diploma in Pastoral Ministry. In 1961, he went to Solusi University in Zimbambwe for a one-year course in leadership. In 1963, his wife, Ada Salu, died. In 1968, he married Judith Stephano Makubi from Kabita Nassa, with whom he had ten children: Amani, Happy, Kabula, Pendo, Debora, Nkwaya, Zawadi, Elizabeth, Masu, and Grace.⁴

Career and Ministry

In 1946, Harun Kija Mashigani was first employed as a teacher at Kibumaye Primary School in Tarime, where he worked for six years. His students regarded him “as a role model and one who inspired learners to work hard to reach their highest dreams for the glory of God.”⁵ From 1955 to 1957, he served as frontline pastor at Nassa Nassa in what currently is the Simiyu Region. While pastoring in the Nassa District, he managed to build Mwamanyili Church and two schools, namely the Mwamanyili and Mwamigongwa Primary schools. From 1958 to 1959, he was a frontline pastor in the Ntuzu Mission District, where he mobilized the building of Bupandagila Middle School, which officially started in 1960 with four classrooms. Due to his tremendous work, in 1960, he was elected Church Development secretary at the East African Union offices in Nairobi, Kenya, which was comprised of three countries of East Africa, namely Tanganyika, Kenya, and Uganda.⁶ From 1969 to 1970, he served as Church Development and Stewardship director for the newly organized Tanzania Union in Busegwe Musoma⁷, which oversaw the work of five fields, including East Lake Field in Butimbaru, Tarime; West Lake Field in Ntuzu Mission; Majita and Ukerewe Field in Bwasi, Musoma; Northen East Field at Suji Mission in Same; and Tanganyika General Field in Morogoro.

From 1972 to his retirement in 1989, Haruni Kija Mashigani served as field president in the South Nyanza Field (1972-76), Mara Kagera Field from 1977 to 1983, and again South Nyanza Field from 1984 to 1989 and continued as president of the field after it became South Nyanza Conference due to his strong leadership⁸. In 1977, he played a big role in uniting East Nyanza Field at Kibumaye, Tarime, and Central Nyanza Field at Bwasi, Musoma, into the Mara Kagera Field with a headquarters at Busegwe after a shift of the Tanzania Union from there to Arusha.⁹

In 1991, Haruni Kija Mashigani retired from active ministry and lived at Bupandagila, his home until his death on January 18, 2009.

Legacy

One of Haruni Kija Mashigani’s unique contributions to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tanzania was his ability to promote and mobilize church members to build church institutions like schools and hospitals.¹⁰

Sources

Hoschele, S. “Mashigani, Haruni Kija.” Dictionary of African Christian Biography (2005), https://dacb.org/.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Various years, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.  

Notes

1. S. Hoschele. “Mashigani, Haruni Kija” in Dictionary of African Christian Biography (2005).↩

2. Judith Mashigani, interview with Onesmo Daniel, Bupandagila, Tanzania, June 15, 2019.↩

3. Jacob Bohole, interview with Baraka Manjale Ngussa, Njiro Hill, March 15, 2020.↩

4. Judith Mashigani, interview with Onesmo Daniel, Bupadagila, Tanzania, June 15, 2019.↩

5. Gershom Amayo, interview with Baraka Manjale Ngussa, Baraton, Kenya, April 20, 2007.↩

6. Judith, Mashigani, interview with Onesmo Daniel, Bupandagila, Tanzania, June 15, 2019.↩

7. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1978, retrieved from http://documents.adventistarchives.org/ Yearbooks/YB1978.pdf.↩

8. Muhutasari wa Historia ya Kanisa, South Nyanza Conference, 2020.↩

9. Lameck Mwamukonda, interview with Baraka Manjale Ngussa, Njiro Hill, March 11, 2020.↩

10. Ibid.↩