Sacred Exchanges: Religious Rhetoric and Twentieth-Century West African Student Migration in the United States

During the Cold War, hundreds of West African students flocked to the United States in search of higher educational opportunities that would equip them to usher in a new Africa free from colonial rule. Meanwhile, U.S. religious, educational, and political leaders grew concerned that students’ perceptions of the U.S. might harm the nation’s image abroad. Given that many of these students previously attended missionary schools in their homelands, they were often referred to as “products of missions” in popular U.S. media—that is, forever indebted to U.S. missionary contributions. In this presentation, I consider how West African students complicated and countered this religious rhetoric. Through a rhetorical analysis of U.S. newspapers and West African student writings, I explore how religious metaphors surrounding African student migration contributed to the formation of affective bonds between West African students and U.S. Christians—bonds that were often tested as students encountered U.S. racism firsthand.