12 - The African diaspora in the Caribbean and Europe from pre-emancipation to the present day

Summary

The history of Caribbean Christianity can be divided, with overlaps, into four main periods: the rather monolithic form of Spanish Catholicism from 1492, and of the Church of England from 1620; the arrival of the Evangelicals or non-conformist missionaries, Moravians, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, from the mid-eighteenth century; the consolidation and growth of various European denominations in the region in uneasy tension with the proliferation of independent black Christian groups and African religions in the post-emancipation era from 1833; and the contest for political, economic and religious independence after 1870, including the shift from British imperial intervention and influence to that from North America, and national independence after 1962. Because the Caribbean has been dis-cussed only briefly in earlier volumes of the series, this chapter will deal with the earlier history in some detail, before focusing on the twentieth century.

Contemporary studies in anthropology and sociology of religion speak of ‘religions on the move’, or the process of transmigration and transculturation, as it refers to dynamic, reciprocal, transitory and multi-dimensional creations in shaping a ‘poly-contextual world’. This implies that religions have to be regarded as cultural and spiritual phenomena whose ‘taken-for granted’ essence has resulted from transcultural and transnational processes of mutual influence, interaction and continuous adaptation to new environments, developments and encounters. The emphasis here is on ‘a new model of understanding religion which emphasizes process and practitioners over form and content’: religions, including different forms of Christianity, respond to ever-changing circumstances and play a role in constructing and reconstructing cultural and national identities.