The Rise and Demise of Black Theology

Black Theology emerged in the 1960s as a response to black consciousness. In South Africa, it is a critique of power; in the UK, it is a political theology of black culture. The dominant form of Black Theology has been in the USA, originally influenced by Black Power and the critique of white racism. Since then it claims to have broadened its perspective to include oppression on the grounds of race, gender and class. In this book, Alistair Kee contests this claim, especially by Womanist (black women) Theology. Black and Womanist Theologies present inadequate analyses of race and gender and no account at all of class (economic) oppression. With a few notable exceptions, Black Theology in the USA repeats the mantras of the 1970s, the discourse of modernity. Content with American capitalism, it fails to address the source of the impoverishment of black Americans at home. Content with a romantic imaginary of Africa, this 'African-American' movement fails to defend contemporary Africa against predatory American global ambitions.