The African Christian Diaspora: New Currents and Emerging Trends in World Christianity
By: Afe Adogame
Published: 2013
ISBN: 9781441112729
London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-african-christian-diaspora-9781441112729/
About The African Christian Diaspora
The last three decades have witnessed a rapid proliferation of African Christian communities, particularly in Europe and North American diaspora, thus resulting in the remapping of old religious landscapes.
This migratory trend and development bring to the fore the crucial role, functions and import of religious symbolic systems in new geo-cultural contexts. The trans-national linkages between African-led churches in the countries of origin (Africa) and the “host” societies are assuming increasing importance for African immigrants. The links and networks that are established and maintained between these contexts are of immense religious, cultural, economic, political and social importance.
This suggests how African Christianities can be understood within processes of religious transnationalism and African modernity.
Based on extensive religious ethnography undertaken by the author among African Christian communities in Europe, the USA and Africa in the last 17 years, this book maps and describes the incipience and consolidation of new brands of African Christianities in diaspora. The book demonstrates how African Christianities are negotiating and assimilating notions of the global while maintaining their local identities.
Table Of Contents
Preface \ 1. Trajectories of African Migration \ 2. Narratives of African Migration \ 3. Situating the Local Scene(s) \ 4. Historiography of new African Christianities in Diaspora \ 5. A Phenomenology of African Christian Communities in Diaspora \ 6. African Christianities as Social, Cultural and Spiritual Capital \ 7. Negotiation Identity, Citizenship and Power \ 8. Globalization, Media and Transnationalism \ 9. Reverse Mission \ 10. The Politics of Networking \ Notes \ Bibliography \ Index
Reviews
“This is an important and impressive work. It is the first book to bring together all that we have learned in recent years about African Christian diasporas in Europe and the United States. Afe Adogame brings to this volume not only his powers of synthesis, but also the fruits of his own research on three continents. He shows how Africans? religious dynamism is changing the environment of the very countries where they are settling.”
– Gerrie ter Haar, Professor Religion and Development, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
“The presence of African Christians and of African churches is being increasingly recognized as an important feature of the Christianity of Europe and North America. That presence is also a manifestation of a greater World Christianity. We owe much gratitude to Dr Adogame for this valuable book, with its comprehensive survey of the development and its useful demostration of the demographic, economic, political and legislative settings.”
– Andrew F Walls, Professor of the History of Missions at Liverpool Hope University, UK and Research Professor at Akrofi-Christaller Institute, Ghana