wfn.org | Africans and African Americans Identify Barriers

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 19, 1998

AFRICANS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IDENTIFY BARRIERS
98-FE-02-BW*

     TUSKEGEE, Ala. (ELCA) -- "This event has given us native Africans a
way to identify the barriers between Africans and African Americans.  It
has given me a deeper appreciation for the Lutheran church in its efforts
to remove some of those barriers," said Dr. Alfred Amah, Peoples Community
Lutheran Church, Baltimore.
     "We can now act as torch bearers and spread the word of unity and
brotherhood, telling everyone that we all come from the same blood," said
Amah.  "I'd like to see the church involve all of our congregations."
     The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) gathered more than
300 people for a consultation, "Africans and Blacks in Diaspora," June 4-7
at Tuskegee University.  Diaspora is defined as "people settled far from
their ancestral homeland."
     "This meeting brought together native Africans and the descendants of
Africans who were dispersed to several countries throughout the world as
slaves," said the Rev. Eric T. Campbell, ELCA director for African American
Ministries.
     "The end of apartheid did not mean the end of racism," said Dr. Musa
Biyela, rector, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Umphumulo in Kwazulu-Natal, South
Africa, a keynote speaker for the event.  "Freedom is fragile;
it must be protected.  Freedom has memories and responsibilities," he said.
"An African is a person who identifies with both the soil and the people of
Africa.  African Americans have a right to belong both to Africa and
America," he said.
     "The very name of the consultation is a reminder of our rich heritage
as the people of God.  The Scripture reminds us that here we have no
abiding home, that we are all in the diaspora in some sense," said the Rev.
H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, in a letter to the consultation
participants.  "This event, held at Tuskegee University, is unique in the
history of our young church.  I trust that it will be a great blessing, not
only for those in attendance at the consultation, but in an ongoing way in
the life of our church," he said.

     "In a larger and deeper measure those who have their roots in Africa
have experienced diaspora in a particular kind of way.  In this country the
history of slavery and racism are not to be forgotten by the people of God.
Those who have struggled to be free understand the meaning of the Gospel of
freedom in particularly deep and profound ways.  It is for this reason that
Africans and Blacks in the diaspora can make such a powerful contribution
in the life of our church and within the broader Christian family," said
Anderson.
     The event offered daily devotions, workshops, Village meetings and
plenary sessions.  Workshop titles included; Blacks in the Bible; Women and
Children in Poverty; A Focus on Youth: Rites of Passage; Immigration
Policies and Realities; and Economic Development and Global Sustainability:
George Washington Carver's Vision.

IMMIGRATION
     "The Lutheran church has led the effort in immigration for people of
color for more than 20 years," said Michelle Ellison, New York.  "The
Lutheran church was worked very hard around the globe so that people of
color can get here," she said.
     John Whitfield, director for immigration services, Lutheran
Immigration and Refugee Service, New York, told the group "Congress has
recognized that there has been injustice in the immigration process, and it
has created something called the 'diversity visa lottery.'  It is actually
a lottery that allows about 55,000 persons each government year to come to
the United States as immigrants.  People send in a simple application form
during a particular period.  Some people will win that lottery; most won't
because millions of people apply," he said.
     "Because this is an attempt to take into account the fact that
certain regions of the world have not sent large numbers of immigrants to
the United States it tends to favor Africans.  More than 20,000 of those
visas go to Africans, but some of those Africans who win the visas may not
be able come here because they cannot show that they will not become
'public charges' or persons who go on welfare," said Whitfield.
     "This is a very complicated issue; we ought to think about ways that
perhaps the 'diversity visa lottery' could be expanded to more persons of
African descent to remedy past injustices in the immigration process.  The
other thing is that we need to educate ourselves so that we can become
better advocates.  One way to learn more about the immigration process is
by coming to gatherings such as this.  We have to think about ways of
getting together nationally to address immigration concerns of importance
to persons of African decent," he said.
     "It has to go beyond just the Lutheran church, it has to be an
involvement of the total African American community," said Whitfield.

VIDEO TELECONFERENCE
     A video teleconference linked the consultation with people in S o
Paulo, Brazil and Johannesburg, South Africa.
     In South Africa the discussion centered around immigration issues
throughout the continent of Africa.
     "Four years after democracy, many immigrants from other parts of
Africa still find it very difficult to make South Africa their home," said
the Rev. Molefe Tsele, executive director, Ecumenical Service for Socio-Economic
Transformation, Johannesburg, South Africa.
     "Many of the problems for those living in South Africa, be they
unemployment or crime, are being blamed on brothers and sisters coming here
from Zaire, Nigeria, Mozambique or Zimbabwe," said Tsele.
     "Presently in South Africa there is a very vibrant discussion about
relationships between Black South Africans and African Americans.  There
are some in the white media who do their best to form hostility between
these two groups," he said.  "They portray African Americans as
opportunists who are just coming now to take away jobs from South Africans.
It is very important that we emphasize the ties that bind us through our
history of the struggle for liberation," Tsele said.
     "Race matters here in Brazil, but it is more important that one
appear to look like they are from an upper-class or middle-class family,"
said the Rev. Peter Nash, an ELCA pastor and instructor at the Escola
Superior de Teologia Rua Martin Luterno Seminary, S o Leopoldo, Brazil.
      "The way you look will often determine how far you can go and how
much freedom you will have.  Light complexioned or European-looking
Brazilian people have a much less difficult time obtaining visas than
Brazilian people with darker skin," said Nash.
     Routinely officers in universities discourage dark-skinned students
from even applying for visas because they will be most likely be denied, he
said.

YOUTH TRACK
     Thirty young participants were guided through a reenactment of how
people in West Africa were captured, shipped to the Caribbean and United
States and sold as slaves.  The reenactment was very vivid, and the youth
were not expecting what happened to them.
     They were shown slides of a particular region and given a description
of how life was in that region.  The last slide in the presentation was
blank, the room was darkened, and the participants were blindfolded.  There
were screams, and sounds of gun shots throughout the room.  The youth were
snatched out of their seats and pushed and shoved about the room.  They
were packed together on the floor as a reenactment of the voyages on slave
ships.  They were given very vivid descriptions of the voyages, from how
the slaves were placed on the ship to how they were treated.
     The facilitator, Michael P. Russell, a vicar at Hosanna Lutheran
Church, St. Charles, Ill., verbally stripped the youth of all identity and
told them they were to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.  An auction
took place and the young people had an opportunity to identify with how the
people from Africa must have felt as they were paraded around for those who
would eventually become their masters to view.
     The reenactment was emotionally disturbing for many of the youth, who
were visibly shaken by the exercise.  The facilitators anticipated such a
response and had pastors and crisis counselors immediately available to
comfort the youth.
     Youth also talked with one another about misinformation and
stereotypes they had of people from Africa.  They visited a slave cemetery
and followed the civil rights freedom trail on a bus to Selma and
Montgomery, Ala.  They saw historical landmarks of the civil rights
movement and learned of some of the 'not so famous' key players in the
movement.
     "I didn't quite know what to expect coming here, but I now know a lot
more about the struggles of my people.  Their struggles paved the way for
me to get where I am today," said Janequa Harris, St. Paul Lutheran Church,
Chicago.

HISTORICAL AND ECUMENICAL
     "This was an historic event for the church and brought a sense of
unity to some religious and secular organizations in Tuskegee.  They all
pulled together for the common cause of helping us (the ELCA) to make this
event a memorable one for everyone,"Campbell said.
     The consultation was ecumenical with participants, speakers or
workshop leaders from the ELCA, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Canada and the
Interdenominational Minister's Council.
     "It was important that this be an ecumenical event to allow divergent
theological understandings to come together under a common theme of being
Black," said Campbell.
     The consultation was supported by a grant from Lutheran Brotherhood,
a fraternal benefits organization, Minneapolis, and was co-sponsored by the
Interdenominational Minister's Council of Tuskegee and Tuskegee
University's Center for Continuing Education.

     [Brenda Williams is editorial assistant for production and
     media services for ELCA News and information.]

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Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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