BACK TO BLACK OR DIVERSITY IN THE DIASPORA? RE-IMAGINING PAN-AFRICAN CHRISTIAN IDENTITY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

The modern movement of people, goods, services, and ideas around the world has been conceptualized using terms such as transnationalism, globalisation, and diasporas. This article explores the phenomenon of the creation of "new postcolonial African diasporas," in particular, Christian African diasporic communities. The article examines how these "new" faith communities influence our conceptions of Black collective spaces and Black theological traditions. It is argued that whilst there is a pressing need to retain a sense of Black collective identity in the face of global trends that accentuate de-essentialization, there is also a need to recognize that racialized articulations of Black Theology do not fully address or explain the unfolding identities and experiences of postcolonial African Christians in the diaspora. A Pan-African understanding of Christian identity, it is argued, provides a more nuanced way of bringing old and new African diasporic concerns together.