The Christian Black Atlantic: African-Americans and Ethiopianism

Andrew Barnes, from Arizona State University, argues that many Europeans saw Africa’s colonization as an exhibition of European racial ascendancy. African Christians saw Africa’s subjugation as a demonstration of European technological superiority. If the latter was the case, then the path to Africa’s liberation ran through the development of a competitive African technology.  Barnes will chronicle African Christians’ turn to American-style industrial education, particularly the model developed by Booker T. Washington at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, as a vehicle for Christian regeneration in Africa. Over the period 1880–1920, African Christians, motivated by Ethiopianism and its conviction that Africans should be saved by other Africans, founded schools based upon the Tuskegee model. Though the attempts by African Christians to create industrial education schools ultimately failed,  Barnes will highlight the success of transatlantic black identity and Christian resurgence in Africa.

When 12:30 pm on Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Contact Name Daryl Ireland
Phone 6174714163
Contact Email dri@bu.edu
Contact Organization STH/CGCM
Fees Free
Speakers Andrew Barnes