The Intersection of Religion and Migration Experience: Lessons from the Scriptures

Abstract

Religion is an integral part of man as a spiritual being. The African man is a spiritually inclined and devoted worshipper of the element of his spiritual belief. This explains why he takes his god, the arrowhead of his belief system with him anywhere he goes. For the African man therefore the issue of what to believe and how to serve the object of his belief were never in contention before the coming of the Europeans with Christianity and Arabs with Islam. It is also the reason the three religions, Traditional religion, Christianity and Islam are strongly upheld by their adherents. This study adopts a qualitative approach which undertakes a descriptive analysis of Biblical figures whobrought home development from their land of sojourn as examples from where African Diaspora should draw inspiration to repatriate economic prosperity to their home countries. Drawing inferences from the Bible and the patterns of migration of the Jews, the study discovers that Africans in Diaspora have the potential to bring development to their home countries after retirement from active service in foreign land. It was suggested that African Diaspora irrespective of their religious beliefs should take a cue from Jewish migrants who returned to build prosperous nation which is a reflection of modern state of Israel.