African Immigrant Religions in America. Edited by Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani

Abstract

Until recently, the religious and socio-cultural experiences and expressions of new African immigrants in the United States seem to have drawn media gaze rather than the attention of migration and diaspora scholars. Besides few works, such as by Paul Stoller, Rogaia Abusharaf, and JoAnn D'Alisera, the burgeoning literature on contemporary immigrant religions in the United States largely undermines the rich dynamic of African immigrant religiosity that contributes to the diversification of American religio-cultural mosaic. As editor Jacob K. Olupona reiterates, “It has frequently been assumed, at least in the literature, if not in the subconscious of Euro-Americans, that, since the ‘cessation’ of slavery in America, there has been no African immigration to the United States” (27). The conference from which these book chapters were drawn marked the apogee of a Ford Foundation funded project “African Immigrant Religious Communities: Identity Formation in America's Pluralistic Society” anchored by Jacob Olupona to explore the scope, nature, and significance of African religious communities within the context of the American religious scene and cultural pluralism. It was aimed at “determining the multifaceted nature of the interrelationships among religion, immigration, and social integration as experienced by African people; identifying the resources and expertise available to African immigrant religious communities; engaging in critical discourse on the construction of cultural meaning and identity formation among new African religious and ethnic immigrant communities; and contributing important theoretical and conceptual perspectives to the emerging field of religious pluralism and the dynamics of the immigration process” (27).