Early African Christianity

In honor of this being the last day of Black History Month, we share with you an educational, edifying and eye-opening documentary on the long history of Christianity in Africa.

This feature-length film takes an in-depth look at early African Christianity and its enduring heritage in African diaspora communities in America, dispelling the notion that Christianity is exclusively a 'white man’s religion.' Director Christopher Lamark and his team interview historians, religious scholars, and cultural influencers, including Dr. Vince Bantu, the Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley, the Rev. Dr. Charlie Dates, Lecrae Moore, and Sho Baraka, who reveal that Africans accepted Christianity of their own agency long before colonization or the slave trade, not just in the North but in sub-Saharan Africa as well. Bantu even points out that the Reformation was well underway in Africa a hundred years before Martin Luther, as the Ethiopian Christian monk Estifanos led a movement to bring the church’s practices more in line with scripture and to challenge abuses.

The false narrative that the Black church was born from those who "drank the Kool-Aid" served to them by their white oppressors has done a lot of damage, imposing shame and deterring young black people from the Christian faith. That’s why it’s so important to correct this misinformation, to let people know that colonialism and slavery didn’t bring Christianity; it mutated it. At a time when much of white America was corrupting the gospel, black Americans preserved their ancient religious heritage for subsequent generations.

Unspoken was produced by Lisa Fields of the Jude 3 Project, and Don Carey. It is streaming for free on TUBI.