Black Christianity inEurope

Abstract

South has come North. Mass immigration from the Caribbean to Britain began in 1952, followed by immigration from Africa in the 1960s. Ever since, there has been a steadily growing influx also from sub‐Saharan Africa to the European continent, swelled in the 1980s and 90s by the flow of refugees and asylum‐seekers from troubled countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Eritrea, into diverse regions. In Britain, the Caribbean community originally consisted of ex‐servicemen and laborers, and the African community of male students and seamen; but over five decades, as families arrived and children were born, there has been a major shift to long‐term migrants or settlers. Societies and churches are faced with a “staying power” (Fryer) with people who will, voluntarily and involuntarily, remain: the old, who more easily relate back to their original cultural and spiritual traditions, and the young who search for a new “African European,” “African British,” “African German,” “African French,” or “African Dutch” identity without being yet fully accepted as co‐citizens by the indigenous populations. Over years, the position of all these has become even more precarious under governments who have cut back aid, introduced restrictive regulations on immigration, employment, and education, and made “multiculturalism” and the entry of refugees and asylum‐seekers electoral issues. Additional predicaments are economic imbalance, unemployment, new poverty, cultural exclusion, and endemic racism in Europe, political instability and deprivation in Africa, and an overall lack of preparation and recognition by European institutions (including the churches) that the historical relationship between the “first” and the “third” worlds has changed profoundly. In the third millennium, with the expansion of the European Union, the debate about the Reform Treaty, and disagreements about Europe's self‐image as a federation of nation states, a super‐state, or rather a union of most diverse cultural, linguistic, and religious identities, the issues of human rights, religious freedom, racial equality, and social justice play a decisive role. In this, the position of the African Diaspora from both sides of the Atlantic, especially the legal status of youths, women, and refugees, is crucial, as the relationship of “whites” to people of color and the east/south connection are put to the test. As religion “forms the foundation and the all‐governing principles of life for Africans” (O. U. Abiola), the commitment of Christian churches, white and black, western and eastern, is highly significant for determining the relevance of Christianity. The black‐majority churches in Britain, and African communities in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and other regions, contribute greatly to the revival, growth, social life, and consolidation of Christian congregations in the inner cities. Indeed, many have bought and refurbished redundant church buildings and re‐dedicated them to their original purpose. In some places they begin, in number and enthusiasm, to outgrow the indigenous church‐goers.