Prof Afe Adogame (Associate Professor: World Christianity, School of Divinity,
University of Edinburgh, UK) at the Africa Speaks lecture series on religion, migration and globalisation.
With communities now fomenting social change and responding to forces of globalisation, migration and religion, the need to interrogate the relationship (or the lack of it) is greater than before. Through Unisa’s College of Human Sciences Africa Speaks lecture series, a platform was created on 8 May 2013 for Prof Afe Adogame, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, to do so. This platform was especially significant for Unisa as this year the university celebrates 140 years of shaping futures in Africa.
Many question what the connecting nexus between African migration, religion and the processes of globalisation is.
Adogame underlines the importance of examining globalisation as a concept and process before attempting to explore the relationship. “Globalisation, if it is to be of enduring analytical value, should transcend inferior and superiority boundaries. It should refer to influences at the level of elements and symbols, not entire structures but substructures. In this respect, globalisation depends on where you are and what you are talking about,” he explains.
Looking at some issues of global consciousness such as the brain drain, economic exploitation and expropriation, xenophobia, trafficking, global security, peace and integration to name a few, Adogame enters murky waters, questioning what globalisation is actually good for? As a starting point, globalisation is good to think with; however, one challenge of a globalising world, Adogame points out, is “To think through the complex relationship between global and local by paying attention to how global forces influence, shape and structure local situations on the one hand, but also how local forces mediate and negotiate global.”
From left: Prof Rosemary Moeketsi (Executive Dean: College of Human Sciences), Prof Paul Gundani (Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology), Prof Afe Adogame (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom), Prof Michel Clasquin-Johnson (Department of Religious Studies and Arabic), Prof Christina Landman (Research Institute for Theology and Religion) and Prof Victor Molobi (Research Institute for Theology and Religion).
Globalisation does not only encompass economic, political, cultural and technological processes but also religion, as religious beliefs travel across continents, hand in hand with migrants as it spreads through mass mediation. “Religions react to global developments and crises but contribute and shape the flow of events themselves through their own actions in an increasingly globalising world,” says Adogame.
With the recent waves of immigration, an unprecedented upsurge in the number of African migrants is heralding a new phase in the history of the African diaspora. In more recent times, African migration assumed a more diffused dimension; this trend was thus marked by increasing diversification, in both the number of countries sending and receiving immigrants.
In terms of a mesh of religion, migration, and globalisation, Adogame highlights that the religious landscape of Africa and throughout Europe, North America and elsewhere has become more diverse – a consequence of the processes of globalisation and migration. Not only the diversity of religious traditions in society, but the diversity within major religions has increased as well. “Similarly, religion has remained as a crucial factor in politics – the politicisation of religion and the religionisation of politics. The religious diversity increases the potential for conflict in the more and more complex society, but also provides enriching factors and bridges to integration and social cohesion,” he says.
This innovative lecture series was established by the College of Human Sciences to achieve a number of objectives that are aimed at improving the research capacity of the college and enhancing critical discourse by academics with African intellectuals on the African continent and in the diaspora.
He finds quite interesting the concept of religions on the move whereby Africans have migrated to Europe, the US and elsewhere, largely carrying their religious identities with them. Most often, their sojourn in a different cultural context has encouraged these immigrants to reconstruct, organise, and identify their religions, both for themselves and for the non-Africans around them. “The increasing presence of these religious communities in the new host religious landscapes necessitates a proper grasp of the nature, scope and flavour of this pluriformity,” explains Adogame.
Driving home the importance of the concepts of religion, migration, and globalisation, Adogame is urging scholars to pay more attention to individual life stories and institutional narratives that shape and mirror migratory processes. “We need to explore how migrants use religion in different stages of the migration process such as decision-making, preparing for the trip, the journey (transit), the arrival, the role of the ethnic church in immigrant settlement and return migration.”
Adogame is deeply concerned by the appropriation of new media as a conduit for the dissemination of religious messages. The proliferation of internet websites, recruitment of new clientele and alternative prayer techniques are very much a reality that has transformed religion and its structures. “Now we see new media being used as an alternate form of a prayer. Prayer has gone online now. You don’t need to go to your pastor, wherever he is. All you need to do is fill a prayer request form online and then you will get feedback (once again online) that, for example, at 13:00, you should put your hand on your laptop or your television and remain still. So these are ways in which the media is transforming, not only belief but also religious practice. I would suggest it’s very important to pay attention to the place of media within processes of globalisation,” cautions Adogame.
*Article by Kirosha Naicker
