ABSTRACT
Black theologies have articulated the gospel from within the context of identity politics and have examined the diverse, cultural, political and social influences emanating from Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. How these identities are politicized or why so much political investment is being made in the construction of Afro-centric identity continue to be important questions for Black Theology. However Afro-centrism, Pan-Africanism, various religious movements and cultures are not the focus of this chapter. The influence of this complex tapestry upon the African Diaspora in the construction of identities is the context of racialization processes, linking slavery and capitalism with the contemporary position of Black people in the UK, whose presence is not a recent innovation. Our history goes back to Elizabethan times when we were brought into this country as slaves and sold in British cities. Immigration took place after the First World War when Black people who had been in the armed forces settled in the UK and we came here in 1945 onwards in response to invitations to fill labour shortages.
