THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AFRICAN CHRISTIAN DIASPORA IN EUROPE*

Abstract

A REPORT ON FOUR EVENTS IN 1997/98 The Leeds Consultation In September 1997, a Consultation took place on The Significance of the African Religious Diaspora in Europe under the auspices of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds. The organizing team consisted of the Revd Jerisdan Jehu-Appiah and Bishop Henry Kontor of the British African community, in conjunction with myself and Dr Kevin Ward from the Department. The background to this undertaking was varied: increased immigration of people of African descent into the European political and monetary union; the growing importance of issues such as human rights, religious freedom, racial equality and social justice; the deficit in partnership models between African independent groups and European religious and secular institutions; and most of all, the lack of knowledge and research in African religious communities as mainstays for their survival in indifferent or even hostile environments. Therefore the objectives - puzzling for those who distinguish strictly between research and grassroots practice - were: * to help networking between scholars and African religious communities from different countries; * to stimulate research in hitherto under-researched regions; * to encourage the development of young researchers; * to facilitate dialogue between African communities and the historic churches; * to equip people from oral cultures to tell their stories, which can serve as reliable material for analysis and understanding; * to help European institutions to perceive people's religion and spirituality as central to their survival in dignity and affirmation of life, and * to contribute to policy-making in terms of mutual support and empowerment across national borders. The conference took place in an atmosphere of cooperation and commitment. The fifty-five or so delegates represented several European countries including Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. They came from a wide range of cultural, national, religious and linguistic backgrounds within the African Diaspora. Besides resource people from the African continent such as Professor Christopher O. Oshun (Lagos State University) and Dr Titilayo M. Dipe (who researches in women's issues in the Aladura movement), the participants represented various cultural traditions from places such as Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo/Zaire, and the Caribbean. Workshops, interspersed by plenaries with formal papers, included four main areas: * the socio-economic contexts in which African religions arise; * the vast pluriformity and contextuality of their religious traditions; * the patterns of faith and spirituality which make people 'belong' in a climate of exclusion, uprootedness, crisis, deprivation and exposure to racism; * the tensions and conflicts among themselves and with their environment. The consultation culminated in the question of how significant, locally and globally, the African dimension is both for the societies in which Africans live, and in the present transformation of Christianity. Despite problems concerning finance, visas and linguistics, the conference was a success in terms of a high degree of engagement by all, and of an atmosphere of mutual support and release from isolation. It brought together, for the first time in this context, anglophone and francophone communities, and simultaneous translation helped build human relationships. With last-minute changes, it acted like an orchestra where the players have learned to improvise for the improvement of the music. Since Africans made up the majority of participants, the meeting, although aiming at excellence, was not Western style academic but gave space to self-definition, helped people to articulate themselves, and strengthened the dialogue between scholars and practitioners. …