This paper extends and contributes to the literature on tourism for transformative and inclusive growth from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective. Specifically, we examine the impact of CSR of multinational oil companies (MOCs) on empowerment of rural women in strengthening agriculture-tourism linkages in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A total of 800 rural women were sampled across the region. Results from the use of a logit model indicates that rural women seldom participate in the global memorandum of understandings (GMoUs) interventions in agritourism value chain projects, due to the norms and culture of the rural communities. This implies that if the tradition of the people continues to hinder direct participation of the rural women from GMoUs programmes, achieving gender equality and cultural change would be limited in the region, and rural women would remain excluded from the economic benefits of agritourism when compared with the male counterparts. The finding suggests that, GMoU interventions engaging women smallholders in the tourism value chain can be an important vehicle for advancing gender empowerment and fostering social inclusion. Also, cluster development boards (CDBs) should pay close attention to which extent the participation of rural women in the GMoUs projects may be limited by traditions.
The public role of Christianity in Africa has gained increased attention from scholars. This article gives four snapshots of the responses of churches to COVID-19 in Africa in the early weeks of disease spread on the continent. In many countries, churches are at the forefront of formal and informal health delivery and disease control, through medical services and faith healing. An examination of different approaches of Christian communities to the pandemic shows the influence and the limits of Christian action as governments acted quickly to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Using research methods (remote interviews and surveys, and analysis of authors' own denominations or congregations) consonant with physical distancing measures, the authors observed Churches attempting to carry out their mission as measures were put in place to arrest disease. They maintained worship services, moving them online. They helped Christians make sense of the pandemic and offered themselves as repositories of public trust. In some cases, however, they were less successful than they wished in carrying out their social responsibility because many of their institutions were closed as part of the measures to restrict the spread of disease.
The religious transnationalism evident in the 21st century has heralded a new paradigm of religion ‘made to travel’ as adherents of religions navigate various cultural frontiers within Africa, Europe and North America. The role of Africa in shaping the global religious landscape, particularly the Christian tradition, designates the continent as one of the major actors of the Christian faith in the 21st century. The inability of European Christianity to address most of the existential realities of Africans and the stigmatisation of African Traditional Religion mainly contributed to the emergence of African Independent Churches in the 19th century in Africa. The emergence and proliferation of African Independent Churches in Africa was Africa’s response to Europeanised Christianity with its imperialistic doctrines and practices that negated expectation of its new context – Africa. Despite the declining fortunes of Christianity in the West, African Christianity, which includes the African Independent Churches and African Pentecostal traditions, is now a major non-commodity export within Africa and North America. Apart from their rituals and peculiarities, African Independent Churches like other faith organisations are development actors. Although notions about the role of religion in development amongst some social scientists are mainly negative, African Independent Churches over the years are actively involved in various human and community transformation initiatives. This study argues that the transnational status of African Independent Churches has led to the emergence of developmental ideals that defy territorialisation. The collaboration with some Western development agencies by some of the African Independent Churches in Diaspora further blurs the concept of diaspora as the members of this Christian movement are active development actors in the receiving nations and their former home countries. This study argues that the role of religion in development in any context cannot be overemphasised. As a result of the globalisation of African Independent Churches, the United Kingdom and Nigeria will serve as our case study using historical survey and descriptive analyses to highlight African Independent Churches as development actors.
The spread of African Christianity to Europe (including Britain) and North America over the last six decades has heralded a distinctive phase in global church history. Religion, which had been hitherto ignored as one of the motivations for migration, is gradually becoming a major mover in the global proliferation of African Christianity to the point that it is now a transadantic phenomenon. Britain's Black Majority Churches (BMCs) make use of self-representation and symbolic mapping in their discourses. The image of Britain as a post-Christian nation is projected with such epithets as "dead continent," "prodigal nation," and "secularized Britain." It is apt to note that Britain's BMCs are but one case of reverse mission that, in reality, more resembles migrant sanctuaries all across the Western world. The lack of understanding of the British culture, flawed church-planting strategies, and the operational methods employed by these churches have severely hampered the BMCs' missionary endeavors in Britain.
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