Immigrant and second-generation African young people in Britain are engaging in transnational and hybrid religious practices that contrast with adult patterns of religion and migration, according to a study by Dominic Pasura of the University of Glasgow. Pasura, who presented his study at the August meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Chicago, attended by RW, noted that most research on migration and religion among Africans has centered on adults, rarely looking at youth. The researcher conducted a multi-site study of Nigerian and Zimbabwean youth in London, Birmingham, Lagos, Harare, and Johannesburg, interviewing 160 young African Christians, Muslims, and indigenous religious participants (as well as 39 key informants). Pasura finds that African immigrant youth venture beyond “home-host” binaries as they engage in “selective, fragmented transnationalism, drawing on pan-African networks, digital platforms and multi-faith spaces.” These young migrant and second-generation Africans share less stable religious participation based on ethnicity and nationality than their parents as they seek a spiritual home, attending different churches. Pasura finds that the “hybrid spiritualities” of these youth combine gospel rap, African traditional religion, and online networks.
Even before they arrive in the UK, Pasura finds that there are “migration-focused spiritual practices” that are popular in Africa. The “Japa phenomenon” in Nigeria, where young professionals seek to emigrate for financial and social reasons, is seen in clergy encouraging some young members to go abroad. Before traveling abroad, young people may consult ancestors and prophets, who may anoint passports and offer prayers. Migration is seen as a spiritual journey in these cases, Pasura says. The idea of “home” is a shifting symbol for these young immigrants. Parents may send their children back to Zimbabwe as a corrective measure when they misbehave. The hybridity can also serve as an anchor for the immigrant. One Muslim leader uses Nigerian Yoruba culture, “so the kids born here don’t feel much like they’ve left home. They can have teachings of the culture along with Islamic knowledge.” But the hybrid practices may also reflect a shift from parental authority to peer and online sources, as when a Muslim young person said he was “looking into things myself more, trying to understand it myself before even going to other people. So looking through the Quran, asking people online.” In the UK, wearing the hijab or public displays of Yoruba spirituality become “acts of identity and assertion” against racism and exclusion, Pasura adds.
