Black Jesus

• SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see Category:Black Jesus (subject)

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

Overview

The tendency of Christians of all centuries has been to portrait Jesus as "one of them." As Christianity was predominantly an European phenomenon, the image of Jesus as a "white male" became standard in Christian iconography. 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 black slaves, to affirm European cultural and racial superiority.

In the post-colonial age, the banner of Black Jesus has often characterized radical movements of opposition against European racial supremacy (especially in the Americas and South Africa).

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