This past summer, I rejoined the staff of the Journal of Africana Religions, which I co-founded with Sylvester Johnson in 2011, as interim managing editor.

When I left the journal in 2021, the journal was fully staffed. We had recruited three new editors; Prof. Johnson and long-time Managing Editor Jeremy Rehwaldt were also still serving. But by 2025, only two staff members, Prof. Johnson and Prof. Danielle Boaz, remained. No one resigned for ideological reasons–different career and personal demands simply called them away.

Publishing a journal with no paid staff is too much for two people, and I volunteered to help out. I consider the journal, which brings together scholarship on religion in both Africa and global African diaspora, to be one of my most meaningful career accomplishments, and its success is a priority for me. Professors Johnson and Boaz welcomed my offer of help, and Prof. Boaz came up with my new title of “interim managing editor.” My job was to help work through the backlog of submissions and other deferred tasks, to publish both of the 2025 issues, and to recruit a new managing editor. I also made as much progress as I could on Volume 14, Issue 1, due to be published in early 2026.

I enjoyed the work, as I put together the two 2025 issues, updated the website, and perhaps most importantly, found a new managing editor. To do so, I wrote to fifty or so academics asking for nominations, and I was very lucky that Prof. Judith Weisenfeld responded with the recommendation of Prof. Ahmad Greene-Hayes. A professor at Harvard Divinity School and long a supporter of the journal, Dr. Greene-Hayes brings exceedingly creative intellectual energies and excellent managerial skills to the task. Prof. Greene-Hayes is joined by another new editor, Prof. Ayodeji Ogunnaike, whom Drs. Boaz and Johnson had already recruited earlier this year. Part of my job has been to ensure a smooth transition for both new editors.

Rather than leave the journal altogether, I am going to stay around as Editor Emeritus and as an officer of the Journal of Africana Religions, Inc., the Delaware corporation that owns the journal. I will be available to consult with the editorial team as they like and I can help out, as needed, with special projects or discrete tasks. I will also do some corporate paperwork.

I feel as strongly as ever that the journal’s purview is critically important. Taking a global approach to the academic study of Africana religions can serve a variety of functions and meanings, but for me, one of the the most important ones is to appreciate the diverse religious experiences of Africana peoples beyond any one specific geographic location. Recognizing Africana religions as a global heritage is a necessary step in fighting the regnant power of global anti-Black racism. Even more, the global study of Africana religions has the potential to teach us so much about the human experience as we–all of us students of the vast world of Africana religions–encounter a variety of religious, national, and ethnic Africana communities.

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