Autorentext

Mary Nyangweso is the J. W. H. Peel distinguished Chair in Religious Studies at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. Her specialty is African religions, Islam, religion, gender and sexuality, and healthcare. She is author of Female Genital Cutting: Mutilation or Cultural Right? (2014). Female Circumcision: The Interplay Between Religion, Gender and Culture in Kenya (2007) co-author of Religion, Gender-Based Violence, Immigration, and Human Rights (Routledge, 2019). She also editor of and co-editor of World Religions in the Global Society (2022), and co-editor of Pan - Africanism in Dialogue: 21st Century Strategies for the Future (forthcoming).

Klappentext

This book considers the diverse journeys which Africans have made throughout human history and how they have formed distinct socio-cultural and religious diaspora communities outside of the continent of Africa.

Starting from prehistoric times, the book traces the movements of Africans to the diaspora, highlighting how their evolving circumstances, persistence, and resilience in the face of oppression and marginalization resulted in the formation of unique heritage rooted in the African experience. The book traces the often unacknowledged and sometimes erased role that African epistemologies, cultural heritage, history, methodological understandings, evolutions, and revitalized forms religiosity and spirituality have played in shaping contemporary societies around the world. The book concludes by focusing specifically on the role of religion as an agent of socialization and empowerment of the African experience across the globe.

Grounding its discussion in interdisciplinary pan-African ideas, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African studies, history, anthropology, sociology, culture, and religion.

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. Pre-colonial Africa 3. African Civilizations: Kingdoms and Empires 4. African Queens and Heroines 5. Trans-atlantic Migrations 6. European Encounters, Invasion, Colonization 7. The African Diaspora 8. Religiosity 9. Conclusion