Building a Progressive Pan-African Christian Movement

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the work of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), an African American organization that in recent years has become active in Africa. Rooted in the traditions of black Pentecostalism and black liberation theology, TFAM was founded in the year 2000 to promote the ‘gospel of radical inclusivity’. The chapter offers an overview of TFAM’s history and its recent engagement with the African continent. It reconstructs how the organization and its local partners are promoting a pan-African, progressive, LGBTI-affirming and justice-oriented form of Pentecostal Christianity that seeks to combat the influence of American conservative, mostly white, evangelicals in Africa. It also offers an account of LGBTI-affirming congregation established with the support of TFAM, the Cosmopolitan Affirming Community in Nairobi, Kenya. Doing so, the chapter discusses TFAM’s work as a charismatic alternative to secular forms of LGBTI activism.