This project is rooted and centered in the experience of Progressive Community Center, the Peoples’ Church, recognizing that this congregation is part of a larger PanAfrican community, and is expressive of a Christian diasporic identity. In this project I have attempted to do three things: first to describe the continuing connections of Africans and African Americans in the contemporary world; secondly to identify some debilitating pathologies that have sundered these connections; and thirdly to pursue reconciliation by crafting a series of faithful interventions to reclaim old connections, and to create new connections involving Africans and African Americans. This is an effort to begin work on our historical past in bringing healing to the psychic pain that has produced a pathology of ignorance, self hatred, suspicion, and guilt. It is my hope that we can continue to work toward reconciliation through these interventions.
This project presents a model of a center for healing “Ebony kinships.” I discuss in this project the question of how to heal the ruptured relationships between Africans and African Americans who are Ebony kinspeople. I describe how one black church congregation has sought to co-create and sustain a community of Africans on the Mother Continent and in the African diaspora through a process of changes using theories of reconciliation and conflict transformation to bring healing through transatlantic reengagement. This thesis also speaks to a particular project focus in the involvement of Progressive Community Center with Oyeadzeyie Estates Center for Transatlantic Truth, Healing, Reconciliation, and Development, Inc., in Ghana, West Africa.
