Seeking Canada, Finding Africa: Unravelling the Identity Formations of continental African Christian immigrants in Canada

Since the 1990s, extensive research has been conducted on the rise and expansion of African-initiated churches in Europe and North America. This phenomenon has sparked significant debate regarding the shifting center of global Christianity from north to south and the concept of ‘reverse missions.’ Some scholars argue that the emergence and proliferation of African-initiated Churches in the West are primarily the result of conscious efforts by continental Africans to engage in missionary expansion in Europe and North America. Others assert that what we are witnessing is a phenomenon in which African immigrants are (re)establishing religious spaces to safeguard their ethnic, cultural, national, and ‘African’ identities in new environments. While the debate is more pronounced in Europe than in North America, the Canadian context has received limited attention. In 2016, Statistics Canada ranked Africa as the second-largest source continent of recent immigrants, surpassing Europe. However, the religious integration of African Christian immigrants into the Canadian landscape has not been adequately recognized in academic or public spheres. What motivates African immigrants to establish churches, particularly with Pentecostal-Charismatic orientations, in Canadian cities? Are they attempting to evangelize a supposedly de-Christianized and secularizing Canada? Or do African Christian immigrants desire to preserve their ethnic, cultural, national, and ‘African’ identities while upholding their Christian faith in Canada?

This paper critically examines the motivations underlying the formation and expansion of African Christian immigrant communities in Canada. It focuses on the experiences of three churches, two Ghanaian and one Nigerian, situated in Toronto and Kingston, Ontario. The paper explores how these communities navigate their intricate identities as ‘Canadian,’ ‘African,’ and ‘Christian,’ and the implications of these identities on their integration into Canadian society and their position within the global Christian landscape.

Drawing on data gathered through online surveys (N=50), participant observations, and semi-structured interviews (n=25), this paper reveals that African and more broadly, Black-initiated Christian communities in Canada continue to experience marginalization, existing on the periphery of the respectability enjoyed by the historic French Roman Catholic and English Protestant establishments. This marginalization is evident not only in the lack of public recognition but also in the relegation of their religious communities to the margins of Canadian scholarship. Despite this prevailing Euro-centric perception of ‘Christianity’ in Canada, the African-initiated churches studied actively assert their agency through their religious place-making and integration processes. Guided by the ‘global ethos’ of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, the churches challenge the stigmatization of their communities as mere ‘ethno-racial enclaves’ or ‘ethnic Christian’ communities. They subvert the stereotyping of their communities as exclusively ‘African’ within the Canadian context. Having established themselves within a geo-cultural framework that values diversity and multiculturalism, the churches in this study assert their identity as ‘ideally Canadian’ based on their formal registration in Canada, legal recognition by the Canadian state as independent non-profit organizations, and their mission to proselytize within Canada.

Despite the assertions of Canadian identity and the organizational efforts to assimilate into Canadian socioreligious society, these religious communities also exhibit a vibrant expression of cultural heritage from their countries of origin (Ghana and Nigeria). This is evident through their clothing, dance, music, and food during important events such as naming ceremonies, weddings, birthdays, and funerals. The coexistence of cultural expression from their countries of origin alongside a strong Canadian identity does not contradict one another, but rather emphasizes the agency of immigrants, both as collective groups and as individuals, in creating religious spaces that foster the integration of social identities in unconventional ways.

In conclusion, this paper challenges traditional narratives that primarily present the emergence of African-initiated churches in the West as mere responses to ethnic, cultural, or nationalistic needs within diaspora communities. By examining the lived experiences and identities of continental African Christian immigrants in Canada, the paper reveals a more intricate and nuanced picture of how identities are formed, and religious integration occurs. It enhances our understanding of the dynamic nature of global Christianity, advocating for a shift in perspective to recognize the role of African Christian migrants in not only preserving their cultural heritage but also actively engaging with their unique religious histories, current realities, and envisioned futures to construct multifaceted identities in new geographic and cultural contexts. The paper urges scholars to adopt a more comprehensive viewpoint that acknowledges the agency of migrant communities in navigating and blending their religious, cultural, and national identities in innovative and unscripted ways.