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Exporting Religion Abroad: New African Immigrants in America and their Churches

Adebayo Oyebade, Department of History, Tennessee State University
aoyebade@tnstate.edu

The changing character of African immigration to the United States has created the impetus for the establishment of African churches in America. Two basic changes underline African immigration. One is that the volume of immigration has increased significantly in the last twenty years (due, among other reasons, to violent conflicts in some states, and dismal economic condition in many others). Second, African immigration has also changed in the sense that most immigrants, whether consciously or unconsciously, have made the United States their permanent home, rather than being a temporary place of sojourn. These two changes have added a new dynamic to the community of African immigrants in America—the need for African churches that would cater for spiritual, social, and cultural needs of African immigrants. This has led to the proliferation of African churches in the last two decades. This presentation will examine the African church in America within the framework of African immigration. It will use the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), the fastes growing African church in the United States, as specific case study.