Strengthening Christian Fabric in African Higher Education
On July 6-9, 2025, Daystar University will host the INCHE Africa conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Steven Nduto, a member of the Daystar University Theology Department, is guiding the planning committee. The committee includes Ruth Jebet and Martin Munyao, both of Daystar University; Magda Diedericks from Akademic Reformatoriese Opleiding en Studies (South Africa), and Amos Alabi from Bowen University (Nigeria). Already the planning committee has decided on the theme of “Strengthening Christian Fabric in African Higher Education.” Corat Africa, a Christian conference center near the Nairobi National Park, has been reserved for this event.
Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Damaris Parsitau
Damaris Parsitau is an Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies, and the Director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. She was the immediate former Country Director of the British Institute in East Africa. In 2018-2019, she served as a Research Associate and Visiting Professor at Harvard University, where she taught for one academic year. In 2017, She was appointed as a global scholar by the Brooking Institutions, a leading policy think tank in Washington DC where she researched policy issues in Girls’ Education in Kenya. She is also a Professor Extraordinaire at the University of South Africa and the University of the Western Cape both in South Africa. Her field of teaching and research interests includes Religion and Culture, Pentecostal/Evangelical churches and their intersections with gender, politics, civic and public engagement among many others. Prof Parsitau is highly published in peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, monographs, opinion pieces, and policy blogs and briefs. She is a thought leader in cultural issues affecting girls’ education among the Maasai of Kenya and is the founder of Let Maasai Girls Learn, a non-profit that supports girls’ education in Rural Kenya.
Dr. Danny McCain
Danny McCain (BA, MA, MA, PhD) is a Professor of Biblical Theology who has served in UNIJOS since 1991. He is part of the Department of Religion and Philosophy but currently serves as Director of the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies. From 1988 to 1991, he worked at the Rivers State University in Port Harcourt. McCain is the founder of Global Scholars, a US-based organization that helps support Christian academics in public universities. He also helped create and serves on the international executive committee of the Society of Christian Scholars.
Since 2010, McCain has been engaged in various grass-roots peace efforts in Jos, including organizing dialogue projects, peace efforts through sports, speaking and writing on peace issues. In addition to university work, since 1994, Prof. McCain has worked with the Nigerian Ministry of Education, conducting seminars and developing material to support Christian Religious Education and promoting faith-based approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. Prof. McCain serves as the chairman of Africa Christian Textbooks and has written 23 academic journal articles, 8 book chapters, 34 books, manuals and monographs and over 121 unpublished conference and seminar papers. He helped initiate and edit the Africa Study Bible.
Before Nigeria, McCain lived in the USA and worked as a roofing contractor, pastor, lecturer, chaplain, school teacher, and principal.
Dr. Abraham Waigi Ng’ang’a
Coordinator of the Andrew Walls Centre for the study of African and Asian Christianity, at Liverpool Hope University, Abraham is also a Research Fellow at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, in Akropong, Ghana, and at the Leeds University Centre for African Studies and Leeds Arts Humanities Research Institute.
Born in Kenya, Abraham has studied and worked in Germany, South Africa, Ghana and United Kingdom. His research interest in in the field of Theology and Literature. His PhD thesis, entitled “African Theology and African Literature: A Theological Critique of Wole Soyinka’s Aesthetic Framework for Reconstituting African Life and Thought”, was completed in May 2015.
Having undertaken graduate and postgraduate studies through the mentorship of world-class authorities and inspiring teachers, Abraham is committed to scholarship as a Christian vocation. Convinced that intellectual and spiritual formation must advance hand in hand in academic pursuits and, his vision of a greater humanity informs his quest for societal transformation. He has imbibed an interdisciplinary approach in his own training and nurture as a scholar. Believing this to be a life’s calling, and while imbibing a global outlook and a concern for intercultural relations, he is committed to intercultural relations and global networking between like-minded institutions.
Please place July 6-9, 2025, on your calendar. More details will be available within the next few months.