African Blessings
Africans abroad are reviving Christianity worldwide. by Stanley Chinedum Nwoji
A
frica has been a continent in motion. Humanity mi-
grated from Africa, and today, there is the rural-urban
migration, country to country migration within Africa,
and international migration out of Africa.
There are many reasons for these movements though many
scholars have limited their understanding of the phenomenon
to merely economic, political, geographical, ecological, and other
academic reasons, excluding the missional. Interest has been
on the brain-drain problems associated with the emigrations
clouding the advantages of such movements.
With the Church of Jesus Christ growing fastest in Africa,
Christianity has also gained from the movement of Africans.
This paper is to expose readers to the fact that African Christians
in Diaspora are making impacts and have the potential of mak-
ing more impacts on the nations.
My examples will mainly come from African Christians in
Diaspora in the West, that is, Europe and North America. Of
course, the same trends are seen in Asia, Australia, and South
America.
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 49 www.momentum-mag.org
Some Concepts
The Diaspora
Originally the word Diasporafrom the Greek word for a
scattering or sowing of seeds referred to citizens of an imperial
city who migrated to a conquered land to colonize and assimilate
the territory into the Greek empire (Bathsheba H Belai, 2006:1).
Over time it became a description for Jewish people exiled from
Israel by the invasion of the Babylonians in 586 BC and the
Romans in 135 AD. Eventually it expanded to include all Jews
living outside Israel from then to the present (CARM 2006:2).
This narrow definition limits the word to the Jewish Diaspora.
However, wars, persecution, forced slavery, economic hardships,
natural disasters, globalization, and other factors have caused the
migration of many ethnic nationalities from their original places
to other destinations giving impetus to the word being used for
others living outside their original lands.
Stanley Nwoji, married to Margaret, is President of Millions For Christ Mis-
sions and a PhD Student at Asbury Theological Seminary.
 There is, therefore, need for a better definition that includes
all peoples that voluntarily or involuntarily find themselves
outside their original lands. So, the MSN Encarta Dictionary de-
fines Diaspora as the scattering of language, culture, or people:
a dispersion of a people, language, or culture that was formerly
concentrated in one place (www.encarta.msn.com/dictionary_
1861604451/diaspora.html). This is an inclusive definition. It is
not restricted to Jews, or merely to people; languages and cultures
could become diasporic; the English language is an example.
Presently, Archaeologists use the term to refer to any large
scale migration of people, whether voluntary or forced, such as
the African Diaspora into the Americas or the South Asian
emigration to the Pacific coast (K. Kris Hirst, 2006:1).
Peter Stearns (2001:1) has described Diasporas or migrating
communities as cultures in motion. This means people in Dias-
pora still have a remembrance of who they were, and maintain
strong links to their homeland. They may even be incarnational
where they are, yet, they do not forget where they came from.
The above definitions concentrate on certain parameters that
may be important for us to understand the word; parameters like:
displacement, ethnicity, and mobility. But, the question is do
these parameters sufficiently define the word diaspora?
Roza Tsagarousianou (2004:52) suggests we may need to
rethink the concept. The line of argument taken suggests that
Diasporas should better be seen as depending not so much on
displacement but on connectivity, or on the complex nexus of
linkages that contemporary transnational dynamics make pos-
sible and sustain. The displacement and lostness that being in
diaspora create could lead to connectivity and linkages. In fact,
those in diaspora are able to construct new identities that could
sustain them in the midst of the entropy created by their being
away from the land. A good definition, therefore, must not only
concentrate on displacement, but on the connectivity created.
W. Safran (1991:83-99) introduces some important charac-
teristics of Diasporas:
They, or their ancestors, have been dispersed from a specific
original center to two or more peripheral, or foreign, regions;
They retain a collective memory, vision, or myth of their
homelandits physical location, history and achievements;
They believe they are notand perhaps cannot befully
accepted by their host society and therefore feel partly alienated
and insulated from it;
They regard their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal
home and as the place to which they or their descendants would
(or should) eventually returnwhen conditions are appropriate;
They believe they should, collectively, be committed to the
maintenance or restoration of their original homeland and its
safety and prosperity; and they continue to relate, personally or
vicariously, to that homeland in one way or another, and their
ethnocommunal consciousness and solidarity are importantly
defined by the existence of such relationship.
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 50 www.momentum-mag.org
Safrans characteristics suggest displacement, ethnicity, mobil-
ity and connectivity. It also shows these Diasporas have struc-
tures and are not loose arrangements of minority peoples living
away from home. Safran understands once a people become so
assimilated to the host culture they forget homewherever
that may bethen they cease from being the Diaspora.
It is difficult to differentiate immigrants from Diasporas from
the above definition. Diasporas are immigrants, but they are dif-
ferent from all immigrants because they have strong links with
home, and are capable of creating home in the host country.
It might be necessary, in the light of all this, to give a defini-
tion of the diaspora appropriate for this article: Diaspora is a
stable community of people of similar ethnic roots who volun-
tarily or involuntarily live in a foreign locality different from
their original environment who have reinvented and recon-
structed cultures and social institutions (sometimes religious) and
identities complementary and compatible to their host nations
which permit them to exist in the new place while having strong
links to their homeland.
The African Diaspora
Recently the African Union (11-12 April, 2005) called a meet-
ing of experts to define the African Diaspora. This is what the
experts decided on: The African Diaspora consists of peoples of
African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their
citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to
the development of the continent and the building of the Afri-
can Union (2005:7).
This definition is important because this is a definition given
by Africans, generated by the effort of their leaders to recognize
the Diaspora as the sixth zone of the African Union. This is not
an exotic definition given by foreigners. The African leaders not
only recognized the Diaspora but invited them to participate
in the development of Africa. This definition is inclusive of any
historical period and therefore includes Africans who are now
indigenous to Asia, the Americas and Europe. What is lacking
in it is that those Africans in Diaspora who are not committed
to the development of the African continent are not regarded as
African Diaspora.
Historically, Africans, like other humans, have been migrat-
ing. A careful study of the African Diaspora shows there are
different times when Africans moved from Africa. Sundiata
said: We must speak of not one but many Diasporas, recogniz-
ing each creates its own history and each projects backwards as
the Diasporic experience. There could actually be overlapping
Diasporas. For instance if scientific proofs about ancient and
modern man originating from Africa is true (Donald Johanson,
2001:6), then the whole human race could be defined as Africans
in Diaspora.
George Shepperson (1976:1-17) was the first to use the term
African Diaspora in his Introduction to the book The Afri-
can Diaspora: Interpretive Essays edited by Martin L Kilson and
Robert I. Rotberg. He used this term because he saw a relation-
ship between the Jewish Diaspora and the African one. R. W
Beachey (1967) was the first to apply the term in his lectures.
Today the term is acceptable to most scholars. Joseph Harris
(1993:3-4) defined the diaspora this way:
The African Diaspora subsumes the following:
the global dispersion (voluntary and involuntary) of
Africans throughout history; the emergence of a cul-
tural identity abroad based on origin and social condi-
tion; and the psychological or physical return to the
homeland, Africa. Thus viewed, the African Diaspora
assumes the character of a dynamic, continuous, and
complex phenomenon stretching across time, geography,
class and gender.
Allusine Jallohs (1996:3) definition calls our attention to the
fact that this dispersion of Africans was not only trans-Atlantic:
The African Diaspora was born out of voluntary
and involuntary movement of Africans to various areas
of the world since ancient times, but involuntary migra-
tion through the trans-Saharan, trans-Atlantic and In-
dian Ocean slave trades accounts for most of the black
presence outside of Africa today. The concept of the
African Diaspora has also come to include the psycho-
logical and physical return of people of African descent
to their homeland. Today, the historical relationship be-
tween Africans and their descendants abroad is a major
subject not only in history but other disciplines as well.
This article, however, is not on the former Diasporas as
indicated in the definitions above. We will concentrate on the
modern African Diaspora that has migrated out of Africa after
the collapse of the slave trade and colonization.
Ainalem Tabeje (2005:1) believes this exodus of Africans
from Africa leads to a brain drain and is costing the continent
skilled professionals like doctors, engineers, administrators and
others. It is also costing the continent billions of dollars to im-
port expatriates to do the work the Africans in Diaspora would
have done in Africa.
Gumisai Mutume (2003:1) acknowledges the brain drain but
suggests return of Africans in Diaspora would not help; instead,
there is the need to tap the knowledge and skills of their profes-
sionals based overseas. This approach is popular because it does
not require participants to relocate to their home countries.
This is the Diaspora option. The Diaspora option or the vir-
tual participation which encourages highly skilled expatriates to
contribute their experience to the development of their country
without necessarily physically relocating emerged in the early
1990s as a more realistic strategy to alleviate the consequences of
brain drain. Ainalem puts it this way: One potential solution to
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 51 www.momentum-mag.org
Africas brain drain is virtual participation. Virtual participation
is participation in nation building without physical relocation. It
also shows promise as a means to engage the African Diaspora
in development efforts.
For this article, therefore, the African Diaspora we are
interested in is the modern African Diaspora: that community
Most of the people migrating from
Africa are Christians.
of Africans who left Africa voluntarily or involuntarily to other
parts of the world, after independence from the West, who
have also reinvented and reconstructed cultures, institutions and
identities, which would help them live in their host countries and
at the same time have strong spiritual, economic, developmental,
technological, ethnic, and other ties with the homeland.
Who are African Christians in Diaspora?
They are modern African Christians who voluntarily or invol-
untarily migrated from Africa after colonization was eradicated
from the continent to other parts of the world to form stable
community of African Christians who live for Christ where they
are, and are involved in Gods mission on earth.
John A Arthur writes in detail about this modern Africans
in Diaspora. In page 2 of his book Invisible Sojourners: African
Immigrant Diaspora in the United States he identifies the nations
from where most of these immigrants come from:
The African immigrants are coming to the United States
principally from Nigeria, South Africa, Liberia, Cape Verde,
Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and the Horn of Africa (mainly
Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea) African immigration to the
United States from North Africa has slowed while immigration
from Sub-Saharan Africa has increased.
It is vital to note that all the countries mentioned, except
Egypt and Eritrea, have majority Christian populations. John
Arthur is telling us indirectly that most of the people that are
migrating to the United States from Africa, in this era, are
Christians. John Arthur (2000:5-6) confirmed that this people
are very educated and skilled people.
Christianity is more and more African. Philip Jenkins
(2002:3-6) has shown that though Christianity seems to be
declining in the West, it is on the increase in the Southern
hemisphere especially in Africa. The African Church is the
fastest growing in the world (Barrett & Johnson, 2001:383), and
Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Africa (Method
Kilaini, 2001:358). These are the same Christians coming to the
United States and other western countries. These Christians are
zealous, charismatic, and bible-believing.
Would all of them go back to Africa? I do not think so.
Would those who live in the West and East neglect Africa? I do
not think so. The Bible and history have proved the Diasporic
concept has been fundamental in developing sending and receiv-
ing nations alike. They have been placed in strategic places so
Africa and the ends of the earth would be discipled. This paper is
about their current and potential impact on the nations.
Historical Streams of Africans in Diaspora
Migration is not new to Africa. The modern diasporic stream
is just one of many diaspora streams that emanated from the
African continent.
Donald Johanson (2001:6), professor of anthropology and
Director of the Institute of Origins of the Arizona State Uni-
versity argues that all scientific evidences: anatomical, archaeo-
logical, and genetical; point to the Out of Africa Model for
ancient and modern humans. Colin Palmer (1998:1) believes
that to study early humankind is to study the African diaspora.
There are other scholarly works on the dispersal of Africans to
the Mesopotamian and Indian regions 4000 years before Christ
(Rudolf R Windsow, 2003:17). David Noss (2003:18) confirms
the Aryans, invaders of Northwest India, found a long estab-
lished population there and described them as dark skinned,
thick-lipped people who possessed cattle and spoke in a strange
language
Three thousand years before Christ, the Bantu people, who
lived in the region that is now the contemporary nations of
Nigeria and Cameroon, moved to other parts of the African con-
tinent and the Indian Ocean (Colin Palmer, 1998:1). By the fifth
century before Christ, African trading and diplomatic diaspora
were in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Palmer argues this
prolonged diasporic stream resulted in the creation of commu-
nities of various sizes composed of peoples of African descent
in India, Portugal, Spain, the Italian city-states, and elsewhere
in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia long before Christopher
Columbus undertook his voyages across the Atlantic.
Frank M Snowden (1970:140) shares that a sizeable number
of Ethiopians were part of the population of Rome, and many of
them served in the military. He did not give the exact number of
Ethiopians in Rome, but while the exact number of Ethiopians
who entered the Greco-Roman world as a result of military,
diplomatic, and commercial activity is difficult to determine
all the evidence suggests a sizeable Ethiopian element in the
population of the Roman world. It has to be noted that at that
time the term Ethiopian stood for Black Africans.
All these dispersals were voluntary. However, the trans-Sa-
haran slave trade took Africans involuntarily outside Africa.
From the 7th century to the present period, Arab nations have
delighted in trading on African slaves. What is most amazing is
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 52 www.momentum-mag.org
the ignorance of the Christian and scholarly community on this
trade that took over 11 million Africans to the Arab world. It
is probably true to say that for every gallon of ink that has been
split on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its consequences, only
one very small drop has been split on the study of the forced
migration of black Africans into the Mediterranean world of Is-
Centuries before Christ, African
traders and diplomats were in
Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
lam and the broader question of slavery within modern societies
( John Hunwick and Eve Trout Powell, 2001: ix).
From the 15th to the early 19th century, Africans were
bought in Africa, carried through the Atlantic, and sold as slaves
in Europe and the Americas. This forced migration has left Afri-
can diaspora communities in the whole of Europe, United States,
Canada, and South America. This is also the most documented
and reported diaspora of Africans.
After these involuntary or forced migrations, voluntary migra-
tions out of Africa began again. Manthia Diawara (2001:1)
suggests voluntary immigration from sub-Saharan Africa dates
back to the 1860s, when men from Cape Verdethen Portu-
guese-controlled islands off the coast of Senegalmade their
way to Massachusetts.
They were seamen, and most were employed as whalers.
Women soon followed, and after the demise of whale hunting,
Cape Verdeans worked mostly in textile mills and cranberry
bogs. For several decades, they represented the largest African
communityother than Egyptians and white South Afri-
cansin the United States. Several hundred other sub-Saharan
Africans were also living in the country up to the end of the
nineteenth century: they were former slaves who had arrived
before and after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in
1808. Some survived until the 1930s.
Today, Africans are migrating to Europe, North America,
Asia and other parts of Africa since the demise of colonialism
and slave trade (Baffour K. Takyi, 2002:32).
Modern Migration Streams are larger within Africa
Africa is not a country but a continent of many countries.
The description of the African Diaspora is not as simple as that
of the other popular Diasporas like the Jewish and the Irish. The
Economic Commission For Africa (2006:xv) suggests:
Migration flows within and out of Africa display a
wide range of patterns, modulated by strategies to cope
with factors such as economic and ecological prob-
 lems, intra-regional disparities in economic well-being,
political instability, and restrictive migration policies.
African international migration involves a wide range
of voluntary and forced cross-border movements within
the continent, as well as regular and irregular migration
to destinations outside the continent. Migration streams
within Africa are much larger than those out of Africa,
and forced migration plays a significant part.
Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, produces the largest number
of immigrants in the world, about 35 million immigrants by the
year 2000 ( James H Mittelman, 2000:59). These modern immi-
grants are forming the modern Africans in Diaspora.
Most of these modern African immigrants are Christians
coming from the fastest growing Church in the world (Method

In page 2 of the same report we read: A large proportion of

Africans are, therefore, migrants, and the volume of migration 67% of Africans decide to return to
between African countries is far greater than the movement out
of the continent altogether, and page 5 explains that forced mi-
Africa in less than 5 years.
gration is an important component of international migration in
Africa. Conflicts, environmental catastrophes, such as droughts
and famines, have forced people to flee their communities...
Kilani, 2001:2). Stephen Warner (2004:20) argues what many
What the Economic Commission For Africa has discovered
people have not heard, and need to hear, is that great major-
is Africans are not trooping out en masse from Africa running
ity of the newcomers are Christians this means that the new
away from the dark continent, but Africans are migrating with-
immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American
in the continent for various reasons including: economic, politi-
society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.
cal, geographical, environmental, ecological, and missiological.
Another phenomenon that supports this is the religious
Africa Recruit (2003: 18), Common Wealth Business Council,
nature of the sending nations. Initially, African migrations to the
surveyed Africans in Diaspora and found that 67% of Africans
West were mostly from the north of Africa, but presently most
in Diaspora have decided to return to Africa in less than 5 years,
Africans coming to the West are from the Sub-Saharan region
and only 1% would not want to return to Africa at all. This again
( John Arthur, 2000:5-6). Baffour K. Takyi (2002:32) confirms
debunks the idea that Africans in Diaspora would not like to
John Arthurs observation:
return back to Africa.
It is important, therefore, to understand that the modern ... prior to the 1980s, non-black Africans (especially
diasporic stream living outside Africa do not outnumber the those from North Africa) provided the bulk of the
diasporic stream within Africa, and though a significant number African immigrants to the United States. By the late
of them are very skilled and contributing immensely to the de- 1980s, however, this pattern had changed, with black
velopment of their host nations, they are not intending to leave Africa providing most of the immigrants. Indeed, black
Africa outside their scope of operations. African immigrants have in recent years outnumbered
their non-black counterparts by nearly two to one.
Outside Africa, Africans become truly African
These observations confirm most of these immigrants are
Despite the forced amalgamation of African ethnic nationali-
Christians. Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk (2001:21) also
ties by colonial masters for their own selfish interests, Africans
confirm most of Sub-Saharan Africa is Christian. The multitude
still are attached to their ethnicities. In Nigeria, for instance, you
of African-led Churches springing up in many places in the
are Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, or the other over 500 ethnic groups.
West suggests these immigrants are not just Christians; they are
This is the same in other countries of Africa.
very interested in maintaining and sharing their faith. Today, we
It is when Africans are in diaspora that they shed being Igbo
have in the West a sizeable population of African Christians in
or Kikuyi or Guva and become African. They take all the identi-
Diaspora, who are not content in being quietly Christians but are
ties that the others have imposed on the African whether good
ready to be the channels through whom the faith is extended to
or bad. Africanness, therefore, is assumed mostly in the diaspora.
other peoples of the world:

Modern Africans in Diaspora are mainly Christians

In Diaspora to spread Christianity
Stephen Castles and Mark J Miller (1998:3-5) have argued
April Gordon (1998:1) contends that there are five major
that the present generation is an age of migration. Truly, global-
factors that account for the patterns in African migration cur-
ization, wars, droughts, natural disasters, economic slavery, and
rently observable. He gives the following factors:
other factors have multiplied the need for people to migrate. Hu-
Globalization and the integration of World Economy
mans, therefore, are now in a constant migratory state especially
Economic and Political Failures in Africa
from the South to the North (David Held, 1999: 303 305).

Momentum January/February 2007 Page 53 www.momentum-mag.org

PHOTOCOLLAGE NO. 2: PEOPLE ON THE MOVE: MINISTRY MUST BE MOBILE

Women and children become refugees from conflict. A Tuareg man brings his wares to market

Mission to the nomadic Fulani must be mission on the way Nigerian Slum

A schoolteacher in a refugee camp Trying to reach the Spanish-owned Canary Islands

Momentum January/February 2007 Page 54 www.momentum-mag.org

 Immigration and refugee policies in Europe and the USA
Language background
Historic ties of sending countries to the host countries
Bafour K. Takyi (2002:32-29) has identified the following
reasons: economic determinism and changes in colonial Africa;
political instability; dependency relations; educational opportuni-
ties; and changing immigration policies; as some of the reasons
that pull Africans away from the continent.
Gordons and Takyis observations are real, but like most
scholars they assume that migratory tendencies result from
economic and social reasons only. Many are not seeing that the
explosion of the Church in Africa could lead to voluntary migra-
tion of Christians to other places to spread their faith.
James A. Beckford (1999:349) cautions those who regard im-
migration as purely economic process to have second thoughts.
Consider the findings of many scholars about the
history and growth of Christianity in Africa. Accord-
ing to Philip Jenkins (2002:2), radical writers have seen
Christianity as an ideological arm of Western imperial-
ism. The idea that Christianity is a religion of the West
and Westerners has become questionable. If Christian-
ity is only for the West, then it is dying, and globally the
religion of the future must be Islam or Humanism. But,
Philip Jenkins shows that the center of gravity in the
Christian world has shifted inexorably southward, to
Africa, Asia and Latin America. Already today, the larg-
est Christian communities on the planet are to be found
in Africa and Latin America. Scholarly research agrees
with Jenkins that if we want to visualize a typical
contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman
living in a village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela.
Christianity is not new to Africa. In fact, Christianity is
indigenous to Africa, [and] it antedates the oldest African
Islam Modern African Christianity is not only the result of
movements among Africans, but has been principally sustained
by Africans, and is to a surprising extent the result of African
initiatives (Andrew Walls, 1993:4,5).
Africans, during New Testament times and the present
period, have labored dutifully to expand Christianity globally.
What seems to be new is the tremendous growth of Christian-
ity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Christian History Institute in
its issue #151 has this to say about the growth of Christianity
in Africa: In the twentieth century, the Christian population in
Africa exploded from an estimated eight or nine million in 1900
(8 to 9%) to some 335 million in 2000 (45%), marking a shift
in the center of gravity of Christianity from the West to Latin
America, parts of Asia and Africa.
Could the fastest growing Church in the world send out her
members merely because of economic and political reasons?
Would it not make biblical and historical sense that every region
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 55 www.momentum-mag.org
having a high concentration of Christians would always try to
reach out to the regions without Christians or where Christian-
ity is declining? The present dispensation suggests that another
reason for the migration of Africans from the continent is mis-
sional. They might take advantage of globalization and immigra-
tion policies but the major reason is Missio Dei.
Christianity is indigenous to Africa
and antedates the oldest African
Islam... and has been principally
sustained by Africans.
Many scholars confirm this proposition. Jehu J Hanciles,
(2003:2) rightly observes that immigrants travel with their
religion. It is central to their way of life and a crucial means of
preserving identity as well as homeland connections. He be-
lieves that recent migration movements, as a critical dimension
of contemporary global transformations, have the potential to
significantly affect the geographic and demographic contours of
the worlds major religions and provide a vital outlet for prosely-
tism and missionary expansion.
Samuel Escobar (2000:34) talks about the migration model.
He said: The migration model has also functioned through the
centuries. Migrants from poor countries who move in search of
economic survival carry the Christian message and missionary
initiative with them.
Kenneth Scott Latourette (1938:2) showed Christianity was
entrenched in Europe by the vast movement of peoples notably
the Eurasian landmass. The present migratory trends from the
new heartlands of Christianity (the African countries) to the
North may be what would keep Christianity from collapsing
into a minority religion. Christianity has survived by cross-cul-
tural diffusion (Andrew Walls, 1996:22). The present African
Christian Diaspora, a new missionary movement, would be one
of those organs God would use to expand His kingdom.
Most African Christians migrating from Africa are intelli-
gent spirit-filled disciples of Jesus Christ. Some of them have led
congregations and ministries. They have great potential. In many
big cities in the United States, African Christian Fellowships
and African based Churches are springing up
Current impact on the nations
The ecclesiastical and missiological impact
Interestingly, the secular media in America has taken notice of
the missional nature of the African Christians and the Churches
they plant in the United States.
Brian Murphy of the Washington Times (May 29, 2006)
reported 7,000 people attended the Redeemed Churchs annual the African churches: branches in the UK of Churches
conference last year in New Yorks Madison Square Garden. originating and operating in countries in Africa;
The Redeemed Christian Church of God is a Nigerian Church Churches started in Africa but which have since moved
whose leader, Rev. Enoch Adeboye, had vowed that there must headquarters and operation to Britain, or which were
be at least one member of the Church in every household in started here but have since opened branches in Africa;
the world. Rachel Zoll of Associated Press (March 27, 2006) and Churches started in Britain which are completely
described the Redeemed Christian Church of God as a part of
the boom in African Churches establishing American outposts.
She quoted Jacob Olupona, a Harvard University Professor, as
saying Anyone who writes about Christianity in America in the
African Christians in Europe have
21st Century will have to write about African Churches. Zoll been able to keep the Christian
pointed out that The Church has opened 200 parishes in just
over a decade, from Chicago and Atlanta to Washington and faith from being completely put off.
New York, and is training Americans of all races to help them
reach beyond the African immigration community.
What Zoll has discovered is that the Redeemed Christian autonomous and without any formal links to Africa; the
Church of God is not the only African Church taking over the third group tend more towards north American new-
religious market space of the United States. Other Nigerian Charismatic practice and teaching.
pastors are following close behind. Jonathan Owhe who became
In Ukraine, a Nigerian named Sunday Adelaja (www.pas-
a pastor after migrating to New York, started Christ the Rock
torsunday.com) is the pastor of the largest evangelical charis-
World Restoration Church in 1995 in Brooklyn, then branched
matic church in all of Europe. His Church is made up of 99%
to Tennessee and Georgia then overseas to Sri-Lanka, India,
White Europeans, showing that cross-cultural evangelism is
Pakistan and other countries. The Christian Century (August 13,
still a reality in the 21st Century. The Church, Embassy of God
1997) calls these African Christians, African missionaries to the
Churches, which sits 25,000 people, has planted 300 Churches
United States. It says:
in 30 countries in 10 years and has witnessed the conversion of
For generations, Christian missionaries from the U.S. jour-
politicians, mafia leaders and members. Their soup kitchen feeds
neyed to Africa to teach their religion. Now, however, amid a
1,500 people daily.
burgeoning of Christianity in Africa, churches there are sending
There are also parachurch organizations started by African
thousands of missionaries overseas to preach the Christian mes-
Christians in Diaspora. One of them, the African Christian
sage in their own unique style. And many of them are coming to
Fellowship, is in every important city in the United States.
the United States
The African Christian Fellowship is an interdenominational
We cannot deny the Church in Europe has been marginal-
Christian organization committed to being a thriving Christian
ized (Werner Ustorf, 2006:1). African Christians in Europe have
community that models integrity, excellence, and compassion.
been able to keep the Christian faith from being completely put
The vision is to mobilize and empower Africans worldwide in
off. African Christians in Diaspora are planting Churches in Eu-
impacting our generation and to work towards the realization
rope. In 1998, the statistics was that there were 3000 congrega-
of Gods purpose and vision for the continent of Africa and
tions in Britain alone started and pastored by African Christians
peoples of African descent worldwide (http://www.acfbaltimore.
(Gerrie ter Haar, 1998:92). These Churches are everywhere in
org/index.cfm?id=1135&fuseaction=browse&pageid=1). The
continental Europe where the number of African Christians has
Fellowship has short-term mission programs to Africa and has
grown to three million (Roswith Gerloff, 2001:277).
been effective in working with local Churches in Africa to reach
Afe Adogame (2001:3) shares that churches like Redeemed
the unreached in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, and other African na-
Christian Church of God; the Deeper Life Christian Ministry
tions, and have dared to work among such Islamic ethnic groups
(DLCM); the Church of Pentecostal International (CPI); Chris-
like the Kanuris, the Hausas, and others. Most are professors,
tian Church Outreach Mission (CCOM); Kingsway Christian
doctors, nurses, lawyers and very skilled professionals who are
Center (KCC); and many other African-led Churches have kept
useful both to the United States and the African continent.
the light of Christianity burning in Europe. He gives a short his-
What is fundamental about these Church and para-Church
tory of how the African Churches started in the UK:
groups of African Christians in Diaspora is that financial sup-
African churches started in the UK in the sixties, port for their projects are raised from among themselves; there
the first said to be the Church of the Lord (Aladura) is no economic dependency on the Churches of the West. Of
in 1964. Many were started in the mid-seventies and course, no sector of Christianity could do the work alone, and
quite a lot in the last ten years. There are three groups of the financial support of the very rich Western Churches is

Momentum January/February 2007 Page 56 www.momentum-mag.org

needed, but the fact that they can plan their programs and raise
the needed support for it is a good sign to missional effort of the
African Church. Cindi John (2006:2), the BBC Community Af-
fairs Reporter, observed that in UK the Black majority churches
are not only successful at attracting worshippers; many are
hugely financially successful too, in stark comparison to many of
the UKs traditional churches. One of the churches there, called
Glory House Church, started by Nigerian immigrants in 1992
had a turn over of nearly 1.5m pounds [US$3 millionEd.]
last year much of it in terms of tithes donations by members
around 10% of their income.
The African Christians in Diaspora could be the African
Church group that would lead the discipling of the world in
partnership with the global Church. It seems to be the picture of
the future when we combine the growth of the Church in Africa
and its Pentecostal-charismatic nature, and globalization and
immigration trends. I suggest this group need not be neglected
in the mission roundtable discussions going on.
African Christians in Diaspora are providing Bible believing
Christians alternatives to the compromised Christian environ-
ment of the West. Ted Olsen in Christianity Today reports:
The big religion news today is the votes of eight
northern Virginia Episcopal churches to leave the
diocese of Virginia. The votes at two of the countrys
most prominent Episcopal parishescolonial-era Truro
Church and The Falls Churchwerent even close, with
at least 90 percent voting to align with the Church of
Nigeria. Its a significant development in the long story
of the upheaval in the Anglican Communion.
The presence of Nigerian Christians in the United States, no
doubt, made this arrangement possible. Who would have imag-
ined that an American Church would come under the bishopric
of an African Church in order to remain biblical. We have also
seen other United States Episcopal Churches aligning with joy
under the bishopric of Uganda. The African Christians in Dias-
pora and the Churches they lead are providing prophetic voices
to the global Church. Their stand with the Bible in the midst of
humanism and secularism in the West has brought the needed
alternative to a dying structuralized faith.
2. Other Impacts:
Africans see life as a whole; there may be compartments, but
those compartments relate and iterate. You cannot differenti-
ate the religious from the secular; life is holistic. This is why this
article will also show what African Christians in Diaspora are
doing in other areas of life, apart from the spiritual, to impact
the sending and the hosting nations. These other areas of impact
would include: the economic and developmental impact; the
political impact, and the environmental impact.
First, let us concentrate on the impact African Christians
Momentum January/February 2007 Page 57 www.momentum-mag.org
in Diaspora make on the host nations. The African Yellow Pages
(by Mimi Alemayehou, 2005) listed the following impressions
people in the West have about Africans in diaspora:
Africans are mostly working low-level jobs;
Africans are seeking welfare and living off the system;
Africans are not that educated; and,
Who would imagine an American
church would come under an Afri-
can bishopric to remain biblical.
Africans are illegal and therefore are not paying taxes.
However, the book showed in reality, Africans in diaspora are:
By far the most educated immigrants in the US. More than
49% have a college degree. Asian Immigrants are number 2, and
Europeans are number 3 (2000 US Census Bureau report).
There are more Nigerian Doctors in the US than in Nigeria
There are more Ghanaian doctors in Britain than in Ghana
20% of Howard Universitys School of Pharmacy graduates
in 2005 were from Ethiopia including the Valedictorian.
African-born residents of the United States are sharing their
prosperity here by sending more than $1 billion annually back to
their families and friends. (New York Times, 2005)
The above statistics show Africans in Diaspora are not eco-
nomic burdens to the host nations, but are in fact contributing
immensely to the development of the host nations, sometimes, to
the loss of the sending nations.
Because of globalization, the modern era is characterized by
high human capital demand at the country, regional, and global
level despite security restrictions after 9/11. The great demand
for skilled and unskilled labor in the developing world will come
from the underdeveloped countries (GCIM 2005). The African
brain-drain is a great gain for the West and the East. What is
important is that African Christians are converting the brain-
drain into brain-gain and brain circulation. We will see how later.
Though Diasporas could constitute security threats to the host
nations, African Christians are no security threats to the West.
In fact, some are fleeing Islamic terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
Their Christian heritage had put them in jeopardy. If the West
would want immigrants that could labor intensely for the benefit
of their people and yet help the nations were they emanate from,
then African Christians in Diaspora would be their best bet.
Second, let us look at the current impact African Christians
in Diaspora has on the countries that sent them. First, African
Christians in Diaspora have formed associations to address po-
litical, economic, ecological, developmental, academic, and other
issues of their sending communities. An example is the African
Christian Fellowships found in most big cities in the United
States. Second, remittances from African Christians in Diaspora
to their local communities have relieved African economies from
total collapse. Third, African medical professionals in diaspora
have been very helpful in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pan-
demic in Africa. Fourth, African Christians in Diaspora were in
the forefront in the fight against apartheid, and are still working
through their associations and networks to fight injustices in the
continent. African Christians in Diaspora through the African
Christian Fellowships have been helping the persecuted Chris-
tians in the Sudan. Fifth, African Christians in Diaspora return
home periodically to share their expertise with their communi-
ties in terms of education, technology, development, care for the
poor and the sick, etc. Many home associations send representa-
tives to Africa yearly to make sure that they contribute finan-
cially to the development of their people.
Potential Impacts
In my own opinion, I envisage the African Christians in Dias-
pora making the following impacts in the future:
1. African Christians in diaspora could be the needed link
between the fastest growing Church (the African Church) in the
world with the global Church.
2. African Christians in Diaspora could be the group that
could relate with the Western Church on equal basis, and could
come to the mission roundtable as equal partners without being
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The Christian Century

1997 August 13 edition

Rain beats a leopards skin, but it doesnt wash out the spots. Ashanti

A cripple does not start a war song. Empty boasting will be revealed. Ewe

Even if a log stays ages in the water, it never becomes a crocodile. Fulani

Rain does not fall on one roof alone. Cameroon

Mutual gifts cement friendship. Ivory Coast

Momentum January/February 2007 Page 60 www.momentum-mag.org

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