Marthinus "Inus" L. Daneel

Inus Daneel, African Theologian

Marthinus “Inus” Louis Daneel of Somerville, MA, and Polokwane, South Africa, died on July 29, 2024, at age 87, after a long illness. Daneel was a noted eco-theologian, ecumenist, author of fourteen published scholarly volumes on African Christianity and traditional religion, and founder of ecumenical movements in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe. He leaves his beloved wife of 28 years, Dana L. Robert Daneel; fouradult children Alec Daneel, Lidia Haines (Russell), Talita Du Preez (Drean), and Inus Daneel, Jr. (Annelie); two stepsons Samuel Massie (Wenchi) and John Massie (Bonnie); and twelve grandchildren. He was predeceased by his parents Alec and Tina Daneel, his sister Nyasa Groenewald, and his adopted son Leonard Gono. He is survived by three sisters Charlotte Joubert, Alta Klopper, and Cinie-Marie Simmelink.

Inus was born of missionary parents in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He grew up fluent in Afrikaans and in Karanga, a dialect of Shona, the majority language of Zimbabwe. In 1960, he graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a B.A. Hons. in Philosophy. He received the prestigious Abe Bailey Bursary, which sent a dozen outstanding South African graduates to the United Kingdom. Cashing in his travel award, he headed to the Netherlands and in 1971 earned the D. Theol. (cum laude), from the Free University of Amsterdam with a dissertation on “The background and rise of Southern Shona Independent Churches.” He was Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Africa sponsored by the Free University of Amsterdam and the African Study Centre of Leiden University from 1965 to 1971. He founded and directed both the African Independent Church Conference (Fambidzano) (1972-1989), and the Zimbabwean Institute of Religious Research and Ecological Conservation (ZIRRCON) (1984-2000). In addition to his activism, he was Professor of Missiology at the University of South Africa (1981-1995), and Professor of Missiology Part-Time at the Boston University School of Theology from 1997 until his retirement in 2012. In 2004, his war novel Guerilla Snuff was named by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair as one of the best 75 books of twentieth-century fiction in Zimbabwe (one of 25 in English), the only one by a white Zimbabwean.

In 1965, Daneel moved into the Matopo Hills in apartheid-era Rhodesia to conduct research onindigenous Christian movements. Befriending the priests of the traditional high god Mwari, Daneel was the only white person admitted to the oracular cave of the deity. The deity sent him to warn Rhodesian government officials of the impending civil war, if white settlers did not return land to the Africans. His warnings went unheeded. For his refusal to bear arms against the Shona people, he was summoned before a Rhodesian military tribunal and threatened with imprisonment. With leaders of African Initiated Churches, he founded the ecumenical movement Fambidzano that conducted theological education by extension throughout central Zimbabwe. As the adopted son of the Rev. Samuel Mutendi,founder of the Zion Christian Church in Zimbabwe, Daneel sat in the docket with the Mutendi family and bailed them out when they were convicted of resisting government seizure of ancestral land. After thewar, although he was a Dutch Reformed church elder, Daneel was made a Bishop by Ndaza Zionist Churches in recognition of his ecological leadership. Called “Bishop Moses,” he raised funds for church development projects, planted trees, and wrote the most extensive detailed studies of African indigenous churches in a single cultural group.

After the civil war ended, resulting in the country of Zimbabwe in 1980, Daneel turned over the theological extension work to local church leaders and was appointed Professor of Missiology at the University of South Africa. His marriage to Beulah Curle ended in divorce in 1984. In his 15 years in Pretoria, he taught black and African theologies while commuting to Masvingo, Zimbabwe, where in 1985 with a group of chiefs and spirit mediums, he founded ZIRRCON to restore the lands ecologically-devastated by the civil war. With a traditionalist branch and a Christian branch, ZIRRCON initiated religious rituals for tree-planting, gully reclamation, and similar efforts to “clothe the earth.” For roughly fifteen years, ZIRRCON was the largest grassroots tree-planting movement in southern Africa. It hosted dozens of tree nurseries, 80 women’s clubs, and theological education by extension that included eco-theology and HIV-AIDS awareness.

As a self-professed “nomad” and adventurer, during the late years of the war Daneel designed boats and with his team Mutapa Eagles won multiple championships over a five-year period at the Tiger Invitational Tournament at Lake Kariba, the largest freshwater fishing tournament in the world. In 1996, Daneel married fellow missiologist Dana Robert. He began a decades-long commute between southern Africa and teaching African religions and theology at Boston University. In 2001, Daneel and Robert founded the Center for Global Christianity and Mission (CGCM). He was a member of the Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church in Cambridge, MA. His ashes will be interred at Mt. Auburn Cemetery and a memorial service held at a later date. Donations in his memory may be sent to the CGCM, Boston University School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215.