Ethiopian movement

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The Ethiopian movement is a religious movement that began in southern Africa towards the end of the 19th and early 20th century, when two groups broke away from the Anglican and Methodist churches. Reasons for breaking away included anti-black racism, racial segregation and Eurocentrism in these churches. Meanwhile, many people of African descent who found themselves in the Americas due to slavery found solace in the Biblical passage (Psalm 68:31):^[1]

This verse suggested a future in which Africans could self-govern, and allowed a sense of shared culture and history to develop among black Christians in the Americas. Contact between black churches in southern Africa and the Americas allowed ideas to be subsequently shared between them. The movement was especially focused on the history of Africa before European colonization and combined both European and African ideas.^[1]

The term was later given a much wider interpretation by Bengt Sundkler, referring to all African-led churches which had broken away from European Protestant groups. His book, Bantu Prophets in South Africa, was the first comprehensive study of these African Initiated Churches (AICs).