A Ghanaian scholar of religion argues that poverty is a particularly complex subject in traditional African cultures, where holistic worldviews unite life’s material and spiritual dimensions. A South African ethicist examines informal economies in Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, and South Africa, looking at their ideological roots, social organization, and vulnerability to global capital. African American theologians offer ethnographic accounts of empowering religious rituals performed in churches in the United States, Jamaica, and South Africa. This important collection brings together these and other Pan-African perspectives on religion and poverty in Africa and the African diaspora. Contributors from Africa and North America explore poverty’s roots and effects, the ways that experiences and understandings of deprivation are shaped by religion, and the capacity and limitations of religion as a means of alleviating poverty. As part of a collaborative project, the contributors visited Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as Jamaica and the United States. In each location, they met with clergy, scholars, government representatives, and NGO workers, and they examined how religious groups and community organizations address poverty. Their essays complement one another. Some focus on poverty, some on religion, others on their intersection, and still others on social change. A Jamaican scholar of gender studies decries the feminization of poverty, while a Nigerian ethicist and lawyer argues that the protection of human rights must factor into efforts to overcome poverty. A church historian from Togo examines the idea of poverty as a moral virtue and its repercussions in Africa, and a Tanzanian theologian and priest analyzes ujamaa, an African philosophy of community and social change. Taken together, the volume’s essays create a discourse of mutual understanding across linguistic, religious, ethnic, and national boundaries. Contributors. Elizabeth Amoah, Kossi A. Ayedze, Barbara Bailey, Katie G. Cannon, Noel Erskine, Dwight N. Hopkins, Simeon O. Ilesanmi, Laurenti Magesa, Madipoane Masenya, Takatso A. Mofokeng, Esther M. Mombo, Nyambura J. Njoroge, Jacob Olupona, Peter J. Paris, Anthony B. Pinn, Linda E. Thomas, Lewin L. Williams

Poverty reduction is a worldwide concern, yet if the church is to play an effective role in its alleviation, an approach that is both biblical and contextual is required. In Poverty, the Bible, and Africa, Isaac Boaheng formulates a theology of poverty that engages Scripture, African traditional wisdom, and contemporary African concerns to create a paradigm for understanding and alleviating poverty in Africa. Boaheng highlights that, whatever our cultural context, God frowns upon materialism, extravagance, and love for riches; yet the author also demonstrates why a contextual theology must address people’s societal and cultural needs alongside spiritual ones. If we desire a model for poverty reduction that is both theologically sound and contextually appropriate, we must facilitate an encounter between the teachings of Scripture and the socio-economic, political, and religious realities of a particular context. Combining in-depth cultural analysis with careful exegetical reflection, this book offers refreshing insight into the challenge of confronting poverty in Africa. Boaheng’s approach, however, is relevant far beyond the continent and is transferable to any context where others are seeking to effectively understand and combat poverty.

The book takes a look at the African society, which has been stuck in conditions of poverty and crises, against an economic background dominated by the influences of bad leadership, religion and tradition. It pays a particular attention to the Hausa-Fulani Muslim society in Nigeria, examining the interlocking relationship between poverty, religion and crisis in that part of the country, in particular and African society, in general. A reader of this book would in addition to knowing the above issues, gain insightful bits of information on global security risks, importance of science and technology, problems of religion, rise and fall of a superpower, American democracy and foreign affairs and new ideas, such as religionarism, PAW-Diplomacy, demo-fanaticism, demo-extremism etc.

Western interpretations of poverty proverbs in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs have tended to see a status quo acceptance in the ancient texts, thus neglecting existential challenges of the poverty issue. In contrast, Lechion Peter Kimilike argues that African proverbial material on poverty may - when used comparatively to interpret the corresponding Old Testament poverty proverbs - create a more dynamic analysis. The author's new and thought-provoking interpretation suggests «an African transformational hermeneutic» that balances between the questions and methodology of the «global [i.e., western] guild» and the concerns of the African interpretative context.

Is Africa a poor continent, a continent without hope? The answer is straightforward and definitely NO. Africa is not poor. The people are also not poor but they have been made poor by a multiplicity of factors. Africa as a continent is potentially endowed with rich natural and human resources. The question now is how the continent is working out of poverty so that the people experience, at least, some concrete glimpses of riches in their daily lives? Also, it is a truism that Africans are religious and today the major religions in Africa are impacting on the lives of the people in a significant way from cradle to grave. On the one hand religion can be said to be helping in ameliorating poverty and on the other hand, it is used as an instrument of deepening the poverty status of the people. This places religion at the centre of both Africa's development and poverty. The writer therefore touches on the understanding of the three major religions in Africa of poverty and how the religious groups are trying to deal with this phenomenon of poverty. It is the hope that many people will gain from this work and contribute their quota to Africa's Renaissance.