African Religion in Africa and the Diaspora

Use of Ifá as a Means of Addressing Mental Health Concerns Among African American Clients

by Kenja McCray

For this article, I researched and wrote information about African Americans' historic relationshp with Ifa'.

African Americans underuse counseling services because of factors such as cultural mistrust, stigma, and culturally... more African Americans underuse counseling services because of factors such as cultural mistrust, stigma, and culturally incongruent treatment interventions. As a result, this population relies on informal healing networks. The foundations of these networks have been outlined within the professional literature. However, limited attention has been given to the indigenous healing methods used by African Americans in lieu of counseling. This article explores the conceptual, diagnostic, and treatment strategies of the indigenous healing system, Yorùbá-based Ifá.

`Truly We Have a Good Heritage': Musical Mediations in a Yoruba Christian Diaspora

by Vicki Brennan

Source: Journal of Religion in Africa, Volume 42, Number 1, 2012 , pp. 3-25.

This essay discusses the Asaphs of Seraph, a Yoruba Christian organization based in the United States whose primary... more This essay discusses the Asaphs of Seraph, a Yoruba Christian organization based in the United States whose primary activity consists of holding an annual convention for current and former members of Cherubim and Seraphim churches in Nigeria. I examine how the Asaphs of Seraph use musical performances and media to circulate Yoruba Christian forms of practice and subjectivity. Through an analytic focus on processes of mediation and circulation, I explore how the Asaphs of Seraph produce and maintain diasporic consciousness and community through the use of religious music.

BARBARA MACGOWAN COOPER, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS IN THE MUSLIM SAHEL

by Duane Alexander Miller

Orality, Literature, and African Religions (Kenneth Mtata and Jonathan A. Draper)

by Kenneth Mtata

African theological anthropology : the place of children.

by Kenneth Mtata

Pp. 50-73: In: Journal of gender and religion in Africa. - 17. 2011,

NEW WEST AFRICAN FILMS BURNING HOT ON THE MEDIA MENU OF THE BLACK DIASPORA IN SOUTHEAST AMSTERDAM

by louise muller

Irregular Visitors: Narratives about Ogbaanje (Spirit Children) in Nigerian Popular Writing

by Misty Bastian

The Emergence of Buddhism in Africa 2 [Thai Version]

by Patra 黄博 Suwanwatthana

กําเนิดพุทธศาสนาในแอฟริกา (ฉบับปรับปรุงล่าสุด) ตอนที่ 2 กําเนิดพุทธศาสนาในแอฟริกา (ฉบับปรับปรุงล่าสุด) ตอนที่ 2

Capitals and networks : a sociology of Paris’ black churches

by Baptiste Coulmont

Paper given at the conference “‘African Churches’ in Europe. Mediating Imaginations”
December 2010, Université Libre de Bruxelles

This paper is the first quantitative analysis of the social world composed by African immigrants’ churches in and... more This paper is the first quantitative analysis of the social world composed by African immigrants’ churches in and around Paris, France. The data are based on an unusual material: advertisement posters for religious events. With these data I can conceive of this world as structured by an unequal allocation of capitals and by the establishment of cross-relationships among actors.
Protestant black churches, since the end of the 1990s, have publicly advertised their main religious events. The posters publicize a number of specific elements (location, description of the religious product,  hierarchic titles...). With more than one hundred posters (gathered since july, 2008), my paper proposes both a quantitative sociography of this world, and an attempt to theorize its inner working. After analysis, thoses churches appear to be transnational churches located in poor neighborhoods in the northern suburbs of Paris, they are churches of « pastors » rather than « prophets » (one third of the titles worn by the characters is « pastor »), churches that propose “seminars”, “conventions” or “day” more than half the time (and rarely “crusades”).
Those churches combine in the same move an intense competition and collaborative networking. I use in this paper the invitations and counter-invitations advertized on the posters to draw and analyse part of this collaborative network. It is not a dense network, but it seems to follow some basic rules.

Transforming Masculinities towards Gender Justice in an Era of HIV and AIDS

by Adriaan van Klinken

Published in B. Haddad (ed.), Religion and HIV and AIDS: Charting the Terrain, Scottsville: University of Kwazulu-Natal Press 2011, 275-296.

As part of a survey project on religion, HIV and AIDS, this paper examines literature on the intersection of men,... more As part of a survey project on religion, HIV and AIDS, this paper examines literature on the intersection of men, masculinities and HIV/AIDS from the perspective of religion and theology.

Double Presence: Proselytism and Belonging in an Angolan Prophetic Church's Diaspora in Europe

by Ruy Llera Blanes

2011. Journal of Religion in Europe, Volume 4, Number 3, pp. 409-428 (20).

This article discusses the issue of proselytism and belonging among Angolan Christians in Europe, namely those... more This article discusses the issue of proselytism and belonging among Angolan Christians in Europe, namely those belonging to the Tokoist Church, a propheticbased movement originated in Angola in the 1940s and later transnationalized into other African countries and Europe. Invoking fieldwork performed with the church in Lisbon and Luanda, I suggest that religious proselytism in diasporic contexts, as an expression of transnational religiosity, cannot be analyzed without approaching the issue of identity and belonging, which in turn is processed through the production of 'double presences,' a reflection of the multiple agencies and territorialities in which migrants are involved.

IGBO METAPHYSICS ON GOD AND MAN

by Jonathan Okeke

Visibility and invisibility of migrant faith in the city: diaspora religion and the politics of emplacement of Afro-Christian churches (forthcoming in: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies)

by David GARBIN

forthcoming in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS)

In today’s post-industrial city, migrants and ethnic minorities are forming, through their religious practices,... more In today’s post-industrial city, migrants and ethnic minorities are forming, through their religious practices, particular spaces of alterity, often at the ‘margin’ of the urban experience, for instance in converting anonymous warehouses into places of worship. This paper examines diverse facets of the religious spatiality of Afro-Christian diasporic churches - from local emplacement to more visible public parade of faith in the urban landscape. One of the aims is to explore to what extent particular spatial configurations and locations constitute ‘objective expression’ of social status and symbolic positionalities in the post-migration secular environment of the ‘host societies’. Without denying the impact of urban marginality, the paper shows how religious groups such as African Pentecostal and Prophetic churches are also engaged, in their own terms, in a transformative project of spatial appropriation, regeneration and re-enchantment of the urban landscape. The case study of the Congolese Kimbanguist church in London and Atlanta also demonstrates the need to examine the articulation of local, transnational and global practices and imaginaries to understand how religious and ethnic identities are renegotiated in newly ‘localised’ diasporic settings.


Keywords:
Diaspora religion - African churches - Urban space – Pentecostalism - Kimbanguism

Why there are still tribal heads in Africa and what has this to do with their religion?

by louise muller

This is a briefing about the relationship between religion and the persistence of chieftaincy in Ghana This is a briefing about the relationship between religion and the persistence of chieftaincy in Ghana

Symbole w działaniu. Akademickie konteksty nurtu symbolicznego w antropologii

by Jarema Drozdowicz

Symbolic Geographies of the Sacred: Diasporic Territorialization and Charismatic Power in a Transnational Congolese Prophetic Church

by David GARBIN

published in

Hüwelmeier, G. & Krause, K. 2010 (eds): Traveling spirits: migrants, markets and mobilities. London: Routledge.

Happy to send the full version on request

Symbolic Geographies of the Sacred
Diasporic... more Happy to send the full version on request

Symbolic Geographies of the Sacred
Diasporic Territorialization and Charismatic Power in a Transnational Congolese Prophetic Church
David GARBIN


This chapter examines the relationship between migration, transnational religion, and the territorialization/reterritorialization of diasporic identities, taking as a case study the Kimbanguist Church, one of the largest “African-initiated” Christian churches. Initially a prophetic renewal movement led by Simon Kimbangu among the Bakongo people of the then Belgian Congo, Kimbanguism now has a strong presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and Angola (Mokoko Gampiot 2004; Mélice 2006; Sarró, Blanes, and Viegas 2008). As a result of the development of a Congolese diaspora in Europe and North America, Kimbanguism has progressively acquired a transnational dimension. It is against this backdrop of transnationalization that I wish to examine a set of issues related to the socio-spatial experience of the sacred among Kimbanguists in diaspora. How are religious identities and power dynamics produced or reproduced in new diasporic set- tings? What is the role of transnational ties in generating a sense of religious diasporic belonging? How is space sacralized in diaspora? Another dimension that I wish to explore with reference to the Kimbanguist church relates to the “schismatic universe” of internal tensions and ecclesiastical conflicts. How are these tensions and conflicts negotiated across different diasporic scales?

My analysis will draw on data collected during fieldwork in London among the Kimbanguist community, mainly composed of Congolese migrants, and during field visits in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2007 and 2008. My overall focus in this chapter will be on the construction of what I shall call “symbolic geographies of the sacred” among diasporic Kim-banguists. These symbolic geographies of the sacred relate to the ways in which worshippers and religious experts/leaders define, produce, or imagine translocal fields of religious presence, flows, and mobility. While the pro cesses of physical or symbolic place-making and territorialization are integral to the constitution of these geographies, I wish to consider how a “diasporic sense of place” challenges fixed notions of territory and territorial identity. Indeed as Brenner (1999) argued this notion of territory often conveys ideas of timelessness, boundedness or “State-centrism”. Tarrius (2000, 2002) has provided a useful alternative analytical framework for the study of territori-alization through an exploration of transmediterranean diasporic networks. He shows how territories crystallize a creative tension between local spaces and global processes, between rootedness and mobility, between the realms of materiality (urban spaces or trade networks for example) and symbolic systems of meaning (such as diasporic consciousness or collective memory). According to this perspective, mobility and circulation shape deterritorialized spaces, and localities are reinterpreted by transmigrants as hybrid “homes” through both transnational networks and global “imagined communities”.
In addition to the multi-layered and “glocal” dimension of territorialized processes, the second important element to consider in the making and remaking of these geographies is the role played by the sacred. While this realm of the sacred is essential to the production of a Kimbanguist identity, especially in the diasporic context, it is also closely associated with power dynamics. Debates around the legitimacy of certain spiritual manifesta- tions and politico-charismatic authority are bound up with tensions over a sacred Kimbanguist body/space matrix. For many Kimbanguists, this body/ space matrix relates to an ideal organization of the church and a particular prophetic embodiment and territorialization. Thus, integral to this is the charismatic authority of the spiritual leader (chef spirituel) who embod- ies the Molimo Mosanto (Holy Spirit) and who has the power to regulate the use of spiritual gifts. While the centralized structure of the church, inspired by the missionary model, eroded from the mid-70s, partly due to the emergence of prayer circles and retreats (beko) as Mélice (2001) pointed out, the “centering” of Nkamba, the Holy City of Kimbanguism, remains an essential component of the contemporary Kimbanguist ethos (Eade and Garbin 2007). Nkamba, the main place of pilgrimage for Kimbanguists, is where Simon Kimbangu was born and where the current spiritual leader of the church resides. There is a sacralization of Nkamba associated with this presence of the spiritual leader of the church, one of the grandchildren of Simon Kimbangu, but the symbolic and spiritual power of the Holy City (Mbenza Velela) is also deeply rooted in a temporal and spatial Bibli- cal dimension, the “New Jerusalem”. As we shall see, this dimension has acquired a specific meaning in the post-colonial context, with the emer- gence of both a Pan-African vision and a particular collective memory.

The maintenance of a prophetic model, mainly through a ritualistic con-tinuity between the center and the (sometimes emerging) peripheries, is a key issue shaping contemporary symbolic geographies of Kimbanguism. However, tensions and conflicts over charismatic authority, ecclesiastic legitimacy and the sacred Kimbanguist body/space matrix have also played a role in the (re)configuration of these geographies.

LA INVENCIÓN DE LA IDENTIDAD AFRO-AMERICANA El papel del vudú en la Independencia Haitiana

by Antonio De Diego

Ponencia presentada en el IV SICLA (Seminario de Identidad Cultural Latinoamericana). Celebrado en la Universidad del Norte de Paraguay (Asunción, Paraguay) del 12 al 15 de Julio de 2011.

En la actualidad, no se podría comprender el desarrollo histórico de América Latina sin tener en cuenta el proceso que... more En la actualidad, no se podría comprender el desarrollo histórico de América Latina sin tener en cuenta el proceso que tuvo lugar en el periodo que abarca desde la esclavitud a la independencia. Esto se debe a  los quince millones de africanos que acabaron en América.  Con ellos entraría en el Nuevo Mundo otra cosmovisión, que se sumaría al acerbo cultural americano. Hoy en día la afluencia africana ha pasado a formar parte del imaginario colectivo de América. La esclavitud ha constituido un paradigma importante en la conformación de la identidad de América Latina.  el objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar la progresión que va desde la esclavitud hasta la Independencia y la forma en que se fue vertebrando la identidad afro-americana. Para ello se analizará el caso de Haití durante los siglo XVIII y XIX. Este trabajo se centra en los antecedentes y la revolución de 1804, que tanto impacto tuvo en la política americana, pues Haití fue el primer país de Latino-América en independizarse y mostrar una identidad nacional propia.

Blakely, T D, Van Beeck, W E A & Thomson, D L (eds) 1994. Religion in Africa: Experience and expression

by Michel Clasquin-Johnson

Book Review in Religion and Theology 3:3. 1996. pp. 313-314.

St. Joachim as a Model of Catholic Manhood in Times of AIDS: A Case Study on Masculinity in an African Christian Context

by Adriaan van Klinken

Published in CrossCurrents 61/4 (December 2011), special issue on Embattled Masculinities in Religious Traditions, p. 467-479.

Themes of Unity and Division in Beta Israel Identity Formation

by Allison Mickel

Until the early twentieth century, in Ethiopia there lived a community of people practicing a form of pre-Talmudic... more Until the early twentieth century, in Ethiopia there lived a community of people practicing a form of pre-Talmudic Judaism in isolation from the larger Jewish world. Surrounded by the Ethiopian Christian ruling class since the fourth century, these people—who would later be known as the Beta Israel—faced constant pressure to convert and to dissolve their segregated, unified group. For the most part, however, they managed to resist and to preserve their adherence to the tenets of the Old Testament. Soon after the turn of the twentieth century, the Beta Israel confronted a similar tension from an altogether different source. Western Jews became aware of the plight of the Beta Israel and of their commitment to practicing Judaism despite centuries of what the West perceived as persecution. Part of the solution proposed by leaders of the global Jewish community was to educate the Beta Israel in contemporary Jewish practice to encourage assimilation. The Israeli government conducted two official operations—along with several covert ones—in order to move the entire Beta Israel population from Ethiopia to Israel by 1992. Nevertheless, the Beta Israel remain an identifiable and separate sect within Israel and the worldwide Jewish community. The process of identity formation for the Beta Israel has not, however, been a constant battle against forces attempting to coerce their dissolution. Instead, it has involved a continual re-definition of the Beta Israel as a group, a response to changing historical conditions sometimes favoring integration, sometimes isolation. Through determining the extent to which they located themselves within each sector defined on this matrix, the Beta Israel forged a sense of unity and a clear communal identity. Ultimately, the very act of group self-definition contributed to a sense of unity; in other words, as Beta Israel were forced to interact with the pressures outlined above, they drew together and forged a continually greater sense of community over the centuries. Consequently, an examination of the particular ways in which these pressures acted upon the Beta Israel—and the unique ways in which the Beta Israel responded—will form the basis for an understanding of the nature and source of the Beta Israel’s distinction as a group, a distinctiveness which remains independent and identifiable even today.