Black faith, the Bible and reclaiming Africa’s role in the Christian story

Dr Marvin Sanguinetti outlines the critical role Africa and Black Christians have played in the Bible and Early Church history

Every October, Black History Month offers a moment to reflect on the significant yet often overlooked contributions of Black people throughout history.

In my recent lectures on hermeneutics, we explored the powerful role of Black and African figures in shaping Christianity. It was never solely a “Western religion”. Rather, Africa has always played a central role in the Christian story, both biblically and historically.

From the very start, Africa appears in the Bible as a key player. Egypt, for instance, is mentioned over 600 times. It was to Egypt that Mary and Joseph fled with Baby Jesus to escape Herod’s massacre (Matthew 2:13–15). Jesus’ family, very early, lived on African soil.

Similarly, Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry His Cross (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26), came from modern-day Libya. He is a powerful symbol of African participation in the suffering and redemption of Christ.

We also read of Apollos, an eloquent Jewish Christian teacher from Alexandria, Egypt (Acts 18:24–28). And then there’s the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26–40), one of the earliest recorded converts to Christianity, baptised on a desert road by Philip. These individuals were not footnotes; they were frontline figures in spreading the Gospel.

Yet, popular history books and Sunday school images have done little to affirm these truths. Christianity is too often presented through a European lens. The 1940 Warner Sallman White Jesus, White angelic figures, and non-Black saints dominate Christian art. Meanwhile, demons are frequently cast as Black. Even Marian iconography has been heavily whitewashed, despite the long-standing veneration of the Black Madonna across parts of Europe and South America.

This bias has helped sustain the myth that Christianity came to Africa through European missionaries during colonial times. In reality, Christianity had already taken root in Africa by the 1st and 2nd centuries. Long before the transatlantic slave trade, African theologians, bishops and scholars had been shaping the Global Church.

Consider the African Church Fathers and theologians:

• Tertullian (Tunisia), one of the earliest Christian apologists
• Origen (Egypt), a pioneering biblical scholar
• Athanasius (Egypt), a key player at the Council of Nicaea 325CE
• Augustine (Algeria), whose writings deeply influenced Western theology
• Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian of Carthage, Aurelius, and St Mark the Evangelist, the first bishop of Alexandria, all of whom were Africans

These were not minor players. Without them, we would not have the Nicene Creed or the theological foundation that many churches still uphold today. Christianity did not just arrive in Africa, it flourished there.

We also know that powerful Christian kingdoms, like Makuria, Nobatia and Alodia existed in Nubia (modern-day Sudan) well before any European missionary set foot on the continent. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. In fact, one of the oldest known Bible translations is found in Ethiopia, a testament to Africa’s longstanding love of Scripture.

This history directly challenges the myth that Christianity is a “White man’s religion”. The notion that Africans first encountered Jesus through slave ships and colonial conquest is simply false. What was brought during those dark times were certain colonial versions of Christianity, brands of the faith, stripped of their liberating, prophetic voice. Some versions even featured a ‘Slave Bible’ (despite questions surrounding its authenticity), where key passages about freedom and justice were deliberately removed.

And yet, even under slavery, African Christianity persisted. On the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean and the cotton fields of the Americas, enslaved Africans held onto their faith. They combined spiritual resilience with rebellion, leading revolts like Paul Bogle’s Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica (1865). It was not simply colonial kindness that ended slavery, as commonly (mis)construed; it was resistance, faith, and the determination of Black people.

We must also remember that the African Church was built on a strong, intellectual foundation. The Church Fathers were not only theologians; they were also philosophers, scholars, and deep thinkers. Today, sadly, some churches across the African world struggle with anti-intellectualism. If we want to truly honour our heritage, we must reclaim the African commitment to critical theological thought, education and wisdom.

Decolonising Christianity means telling the full story. It is about challenging the whitewashing of biblical figures and reclaiming the African voice in Christian history. It also means celebrating the ways Christianity adapted and thrived within African cultures, not as a foreign import, but as something deeply familiar, local and empowering.

As Christians, we should appreciate all expressions of the faith equally, whether they come from Canterbury or Carthage, Ethiopia or Edinburgh. The goal is not to pit one against the other, but to affirm that the Christian story is far richer, broader and more inclusive than many of us were taught.

Christianity was Black before it ever became White. Let’s remember that (not just during Black History Month) but every day.

DR MARVIN SANGUINETTI (PHD, SFHEA)
Reader in Theology & Religious Studies, 

Biblical Studies, and Christian Theology