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Black Jesus refers to a series of fictional works depicting Jesus' identity as a black male.

• This page is edited by Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan.

Overview

The tendency of Christians of all centuries has been to portrait Jesus as "one of them." As Christianity was predominantly a Mediterranean (and European) phenomenon, the image of Jesus as a "white male" became standard in Christian iconography. The numerous "Black Madonnas" present in European churches, statues or paintings of Mary in which she was depicted with dark skin, were venerated without any ethnic or racial connotations. The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is the most popular example of such icons. The only conspicuous exception was offered by the Ethiopian Church, the only major "native" Christian Church in "Black" Africa, in which Jesus was for identical reasons imagined as a black male.

In the colonial age, the image of the Aryan Jesus was "exported," first in the Americas and then in Africa and Asia, and imposed (especially in the Americas) on the masses of Blacks and Latinos, to affirm European cultural and racial superiority. In the new context of Latin America, sacred images of Black Jesus and Black Madonna became powerful symbols of racial self-consciousness and resistance in the popular culture and devotion of Blacks and Latinos, as in the case of the images of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil), Black Christ of Portobelo (Panama), etc.

In the post-colonial age, the banner of Black Jesus has often characterized radical movements of opposition against European racial supremacy. In 1929 African-American poet Countee Cullen compared the lynching of an innocent black man to the crucifixion of Jesus. Black Jesus became a popular icon in the American Civil Rights and Black Power movements (notably, in the work of Albert B. Cleage) as well as in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. More recently, the film Color of the Cross (2006) suggested that the blackness of Jesus might have been a factor even in his death.

Jesus Mafa (1973), art, and The Son of Man (2005 Dornford-May), film offer a departure from the polarization Black vs. Aryan Jesus as they (re-)located Black Jesus in the context of pan-African culture and politics.

Popular culture

In popular culture the nickname Black Jesus has been applied to people of (Christ-like) authority, notably, the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I (1892–1975), the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), or Perence Shiri (b.1955) current commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, as well as to religious figures, such as Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935-2007) leader of the Nation of Yahweh, an American black supremacist religious movement founded in 1979, or Steven Tari (b.1971) a Papua New Guinean self-proclaimed messiah. The prototype is that offered in 1920 by Eugene O'Neill in his play, The Emperor Jones, which enjoyed great popularity and in 1933 was adapted as an opera and a film.

Black Jesus may also label generically an experience of personal or religious awakening, like in songs by Richard H. Kirk (1986), Everlast (2000), and Lady Gaga (2011).

Black Jesus in Scholarship

Major studies on the topic include The Black Christ (1994 Douglas), book and Racializing Jesus: Race, Ideology, and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship (2002 Kelley), book.

External links