Ghanaian Migrants in Search of a Promised Land Abroad: The Role of Biblical Narrative in the Transcontinental Migration from Ghana

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the influence of biblical narratives on the transcontinental migration from Ghana to Europe and the rest of the West. This paper adopts a case study approach and examines how two neo-prophetic churches in Ghana, relying on biblical narratives, incorporate migration into their theology and ministry. This paper shows that biblical narratives, such as the call of Abraham and the exodus experience of the Jews, influence the teaching and ministerial practices of the churches. This paper further sheds light on how coloniality, failed state, and economic injustice, among others, underpin and interrelate with the situation of the migrants, their motivation, and their actions within the migration and religion ecosystem. Under the influence of prosperity theology, these churches reinforce the belief that migration from Ghana to Europe, North America, and the rest of the developed world is a journey to the Promised Land.

1. Introduction

Migration from Ghana to Europe, like other contemporary African migrations, has been described by various scholars and in popular narratives as an exodus (Collier 2013), seeking greener pastures abroad (Auer and Schaub 2023; Uggla 2015), searching for a better country (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019), an invasion (Agyeman 2020; De Haas 2007), and in many similar terms. There is no doubt that all these descriptions, which have been used to portray African migrations, draw on the Old Testament narratives of the migration experience of the patriarchs reported in the book of Genesis and the exodus experience of the Jews from Egypt to Canaan as depicted in the Book of Exodus and Deuteronomy (Dube 2016).

Contemporary Ghanaian migration to Europe is largely motivated by the urgent need for people to escape from poverty, violence, bondage, hopelessness, and the misery occasioned by poor governance and negligent leadership, which have, unfortunately, become a characteristic of most post-colonial African states (Giménez-Gómez et al. 2019; Flahaux and De Haas 2016). A lot of these migrants see Europe and the rest of the Western world as the Promised Land. However, similar to the experiences of the ancient Jews, contemporary migration journeys are also fraught with difficulties. They are full of obstacles. In fact, due to the difficulty in getting a free passage to Europe and the rest of the West (Agyeman 2020; William 2018; Collier 2013), significant numbers of Ghanaian and other African youth perish every year while trying to cross the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to reach fortress Europe, their imagined Promised Land (Dearden et al. 2024). Yet these deaths have in no way been a deterrent to the desperate Ghanaian youth who are so determined to migrate (Tweneboah and Agyeman 2021). Ghanaian Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians interpret these realities as a faith journey, largely re-enacting the migration experience of the ancient Jews. They interpret their own journeys along those undertaken by the Biblical Patriarchs as depicted in the Old Testament (Boloje 2024; Dube 2016).

In this paper, therefore, we attempt to explain Ghanaians’ transcontinental migration drive through the lens of Christian theology and literature. We analyse how biblical narratives depicting the migration experiences of the Jews are drawn upon by Ghanaian Christians to explain the realities of their contemporary migrants. We critically examine the prosperity theology of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity in Ghana and how it interprets transcontinental migration as a salvation journey. We examine how these religious groups align salvation to prosperity and how the journey from Ghana to the West is interpreted as one from a place of domination and suffering to a place of freedom and greener pastures. In the subsequent section, we explain our research methodology and theoretical framework, which is followed by an analysis of biblical narratives that neo-prophetic religious groups in Ghana rely upon to develop a migration ministry. This is followed by an analysis of migration as a salvation journey and how all of these are informed by the prosperity theology prevalent in post-colonial African Christianity.

This work relies on ethnography and sociological interpretations to explain the intersection between biblical narratives and the migration theology of contemporary Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians in Ghana. It questions the social, political, and economic bases of Ghanaian Pentecostal migration theology. Using ideas from many fields, the piece goes beyond simple description to criticize and analyse the phenomena as a complicated post-colonial religious reaction. This study is mostly about people moving to Western countries; however, the focus on this area is not random. Many Ghanaian Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians deeply consider migrating to Western countries, particularly Europe and North America, because of the dependencies or interdependencies between these two societies as a result of colonialism. Most people in Ghana see the Western world as the ideal “Promised Land,” not just because of its economic growth but also because of its long history of colonialism and other problems that have made these areas more important to Ghanaians’ economic, religious, and social life (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019; Sackey-Ansah 2020). Migration from Ghana to Latin America, Asia, and Oceania, and to other parts of Africa, on the other hand, is not a big part of this imagination; thus, such migration does not have the same religious intensity as moving to the West.

2. A Methodological Approach

This paper does not undertake a textual analysis of biblical text but rather provides a sociological interpretation of the use of the Bible by Ghanaian Christians to promote migration. Therefore, in order to understand how these Christians rely on the Bible to facilitate migration out of Ghana, we adopted a sociological approach to tease out the meanings that people derive from biblical narratives to overcome socio-economic vulnerabilities. A case study approach was adopted, and through ethnography, we spent time with two neo-prophetic churches in Ghana to learn about how they interpret migration in light of the Bible as well as their migration theology and ministry. The two religious sites that were purposively sampled for fieldwork included the Bethel Prayer Ministry, located at Aprade-Parkoso near Kumasi, and the Movement of Glory Prayer Army (MOGPA), which is headquartered at Mfensi, also near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Though these churches broadly fall under neo-Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity (Asamoah-Gyadu 2013), they are also described as neo-prophetic churches due to their emphasis on miracles, visions, and oracles (Manu 2023).

The key criterion for the selection of the two churches was that migration features strongly in their ministry. Both churches provide spiritual support for prospective migrants, and they follow up on those who are able to successfully migrate to the host country. To reach out to migrants and prospective migrants across a wider geographical space, they have developed a robust tele-evangelical infrastructure (Manu 2023; Agyeman and Kyei 2019; de Witte 2011). Testimonies of those who have obtained a travel breakthrough from these churches to migrate overseas are often recorded and displayed on the church’s social media handles and YouTube channels. These forms of advertisement enable the churches to gain more clients and to widen their sphere of influence. The economic implications of this religious commercialization have been examined in detail elsewhere (see Manu et al. 2023). We downloaded and analyzed several of these videos. We also undertook participant observation by joining church services and other devotional activities. In addition, we undertook key informant interviews with church leaders and members, including some returned migrants. We took extensive notes of homilies, prayer themes, devotions, testimonies, and rituals to expand our knowledge of how these churches make meaning of biblical narratives to interpret contemporary migration. During the fieldwork, we sought to know which biblical narratives were prevalent in the migration ministry of the churches. This helped us to understand how pastors, migrants, and prospective migrants interpret their past, present, or future migration aspirations in light of Bible stories. Unless otherwise indicated, all names of interviewees used in this paper are pseudonyms.

2.1. Theoretical Framework

This paper is grounded in post-colonial theory. It relies on the ideas of power imbalance between Europe and its formerly colonized societies, which has led to several forms of spatial and socio-economic inequalities between the colonized and the colonizer. This paper draws on the idea of coloniality of power (Quijano 2000) and coloniality of being (Maldonado-Torres 2007) to frame its analysis of the intersection of religion, pursuit of economic emancipation, and migration from Ghana. People see migration not only as a way to escape from economic problems but also as a way to confront structural disenchantment after colonialism. Ghanaian migrants’ religio-social imagination is a mix of Christian religious canons and unresolved colonial pain. Therefore, this is how we understand prosperity theology: a post-colonial practice that makes up for being left out of politics and the economy (Ela 1986; Wariboko 2014). By drawing on post-colonial theory, we are able to understand how prosperity theology developed among Ghanaian Christians. This theology, which we shall espouse in detail later, helps to read meaning into reasons behind the deep emphasis by African Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity on worldly well-being, while we analyze how coloniality, failed states, and economic injustice underpin this social trend. Among other things, the main focus of neo-prophetic ministries in Ghana is to alleviate the poverty and all forms of misery and suffering of followers (Manu et al. 2023).

Neo-prophetic churches are a unique branch of Ghanaian neo-Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity that puts a lot of weight on the prophet’s authority as a way for God to reveal himself. Neo-prophetic churches focus their theology on direct, personal experiences with the divine, such as dreams, visions, deliverance rituals, and individualized prophecy. Such an approach makes the prophet an essential spiritual mediator (Manu 2023).

In general, neo-Pentecostalism is the name for the new wave of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that started in Africa after the missions ended in the 1970s. These churches are different from traditional mission-founded Pentecostalism because they have a practical theology that focuses on material well-being, mass media usage, prosperity, deliverance, and spiritual warfare (Asamoah-Gyadu 2013; Dodeye 2022).

2.2. Movement of Glory Prayer Army (MOGPA)

The Movement of Glory Prayer Army (MOGPA) was established in 2011 through radio broadcasting. Its founder, Rev. Osei-Bonsu, started his ministry by hosting the Kessben Gospel Broadcast (KGB) program on Kessben FM, a radio station that belonged to his brother. During the early stages, he also preached on many other radio stations in Kumasi, such as Fox FM and Solid FM. Today, the movement has its own radio and television stations, including MOGPA Radio, MOGPA TV, and MOGPA TV Plus, that are available on Amos Channel 17 and Intelsat 20. Migrants are able to join Life Church services through these facilities. During offertory times, local, foreign, and international money transfer systems are made available for members to easily contribute their tithe, offering, thanksgiving, and other seed-sowing amounts to the church. MOGPA considers migration as an important path to prosperity. It provides spiritual backing for migrants to succeed. The church has developed a strong ministry for migrants through radio and televangelism. In addition, it has opened several branches in Europe and North America. The Church offers migrants a series of prayers and rituals for breakthroughs, breaking of chains, and obtaining work and residence permits, jobs, and many other necessities overseas. The church members are encouraged to give testimonies about what God has done in their lives, which are then recorded, compiled, and published or broadcast on the radio (Osei-Bonsu 2019). Holy items, including hand badges, holy water, and banners, are sold to members to facilitate their prayer life and economic emancipation (Agyeman and Kyei 2019). Life prayer sections by the MOGPA prayer team start at 2 am in order to be able to reach out to migrants in Europe and North America. The church has thirty prophetic declarations that focus on prosperity. Two of them read as follows: “I decree and declare that I will prosper in all things in the name of Jesus”, and “I will prosper in my body, health, finances, and in all things in the name of Jesus,” (Osei-Bonsu 2021, p. 30).

2.3. Bethel Prayer Ministry

The other church that was involved in our research was Bethel Prayer Ministry, which was established by prophetess Mrs. Vida Osei Mensah, who is affectionately called “Mama Yee” by her church members. The heavily broadcast program known as Flag Akwankyere (Flag Ministry), which Mama Yee annually organizes for prospective migrants, drew us to her church. During the program, believers carry the flag of the country they wish to travel to. In fact, this church could be described as a spiritual house for aspiring migrants. The majority of the church’s membership includes people who are hoping to travel overseas or parents, particularly mothers, of people who have received the grace to travel through the intervention of the prophetess. In and around the church building, one could count flags of several countries, including the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany, Japan, and that of the European Union. This church, like the previous one, claims to be non-denominational. On its website, the church describes itself as “a Bible-based, evangelistic, spirit-empowered church that is overwhelmed by the gift of salvation we have found in Jesus.” The church’s mission is “to see God’s kingdom established across the earth.” Therefore, we can argue that the main goal of the church is to ensure prosperity among its believers. It is on the basis of this that migration features strongly in the church’s ministry. In several YouTube videos, church members claimed they received a visa to travel after they participated in the Flag Akwankyere program. In one video, Mary, in a very joyful mood, said,

Bethel, Bethel. Last stop, last stop. Flag, ooo flag. Mama Yee’s god has been charitable to me. He has gifted me a house. He has gifted me a store. And now he has gifted me a travel opportunity. Anyone who wants to travel or anyone who is looking for a child should bring his/her case to Bethel Prayer Ministry. Mama Yee’s god will gift you what you are looking for. I came here two years ago with a visa request. Within this period, it is not only a visa that Mama Yee’s god has given me. He gave me a house, then a store, and now, after we completed the Flag Akwankyere program, he has gifted me a visa. Schengen visa. European countries. Now that I can go to whichever country I want to visit, I want to say, Mama Yee’s god, I thank you. Soon after we ended the program last week, the German embassy invited me to come and pick up my German visa, and when I got there, I even got a Schengen visa.

(Mary, Video 1 n.d.)

While the video, which also looks like an advertisement, represents trends of commercialization of contemporary African Christianity, it also shows the degree of trust that Ghanaians repose in religious intermediaries as a pathway to achieve economic emancipation. However, despite this lady being able to own a house and a shop in Ghana, she was overjoyed that she had gotten a visa to travel to Europe. In addition to the Schengen visa she was able to obtain, she claimed that she was also working on a United Kingdom visa through someone in the UK and that one too was almost through. This means that, for many contemporary Ghanaian Christians, being able to travel to the West is their ultimate goal in their religious journey. Additionally, the fact that she says Bethel Prayer Ministry is the last stop also shows the level of desperation in which Ghanaians move from one church to another looking for material success and overseas travel opportunities. A visit to any of the foreign consulates in Accra on a normal working day usually presents a spectacle of long queues of persons in open waiting spaces, sometimes under the scorching sun, which testifies to this desperation. Recently, the newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister of Ghana, Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa, said he was going to lodge an official complaint to the embassies for this inhumane treatment of Ghanaian citizens seeking a visa to travel abroad (Adu-Owusu 2025).

Apart from the annual Flag Akwankyere program, personalized prayer sections and spiritual directions are organized for individuals who visit the camp to seek spiritual support to migrate. Although most of the people who were interviewed were reluctant to mention whether one needs to pay a consultation fee or not, it is a common practice among the prophetic churches in Ghana to charge a consultation fee. Nevertheless, the intended migrants need to book an appointment with the prophetess. The first encounter, according to the respondents, is to brief the prophetess on one’s current travelling issues. And depending on the individual circumstances, private spiritual directions are given to the intended migrant. The church provides hostel facilities for persons who need to spend a period of time at the camp in order to undertake a spiritual exercise. Some visitors are advised to keep attending the Flag Akwankyere program; others are asked to present their passports and other travel documents and leave them with the prophetess for deliverance. In other instances, prospective migrants are asked to undergo a period of fasting, while some are asked to go round the church building several times a day to break a curse or some demonic powers hindering their journey. Usually, after the program, a few people would get the opportunity to migrate. Those who are unsuccessful are encouraged to stay, keep praying, and be hopeful until their time to migrate is due. For the believers, everything is about timing, and one has to be patient and hope for their time to come. One participant said the following:

“I have attended the Flag Akwankyere for three years now, and I am still hopeful that my time will come. When ‘Mama Yee’ says it is time, nothing can stop it. I met a few people in my situation, and they are now in Europe. I just have to obey her and follow what God will tell me through her spiritual directions.”

(Michael, Kumasi, interviewed on 8 June 2024).

Through interaction with congregants, we realized that most of the members who came there for the Flag Akwankyere program have now become permanent church members, still hoping to reach the Promised Land one day.

3. Biblical Narratives and Migration

The field research in the churches and among church members revealed that the story of Abraham and the exodus experience of the Jews are the main biblical teachings that influence the migration discourse and ministry. In Genesis 12:1–9, God asked Abraham to leave his country and go to another, which he would show him. At the Bethel Prayer Ministry, we observed that the vision that motivated the prophetess to start teaching on the flag has several similarities with the story of Abraham as narrated in Genesis 12:1–9. In fact, the idea of moving to another land in order to receive blessings is the basis upon which Prophetess Vida Mensa initiated the Flag Akwankyere program. Concerning this, the prophetess said the following:

Some time ago I travelled. After my return, I was praying one day, and during the prayer, I saw the sky open, and I saw different flags of several countries. So, I started to fast about the dream, and it was during the fast that I heard the Holy Spirit say he blesses people through migration, so through the flag he can bless anyone. Through the flag, he can change the destiny of anyone who has faith in God, loves him, and trusts in his word. I fasted again, and God revealed to me the third time about the flag. So I prayed over it and realized that in the material world, too, there are a lot of youth who are suffering due to unemployment. But the Bible says Abraham migrated, and through the migration, God blessed him; Jacob migrated, and through the migration, God blessed him. Therefore, if the youth believe in God, and the love of God lives in them, then God’s hand will be in the flag, and once there is God’s hand in the flag, through one young man, the destiny of a household will change.

(Prophetess, Kumasi, interviewed on 11 August 2024)

The idea of “journeying to another land for blessing” is similar to the Christian practice of pilgrimage. But there are some differences, though. Neo-prophetic theology supports a linear, materialistic movement, while traditional pilgrimage is based on return and spiritual transformation. In the former, migration is not about going back home changed; it is about permanently staying in the “Promised Land” overseas. Such an approach makes it a pilgrimage with no return. It portrays a theology of displacement, rather than a cyclical sacred pilgrimage where there is often a return to origin (Dube 2016).

From the biblical narrative, we understand that Abraham and generations after him were to receive blessings in a foreign land. Therefore, as the prophetess noted, there are blessings in migration. However, in order to receive such a blessing, it is important that one remains close to God and obeys his command. Regarding this, she said the following:

So, as I did teachings about the flag, I told the youth that if you migrate and God’s word is not in you, if the fear of God is not in you, and you are not truthful, you are going to waste your salary on things you are not supposed to do. However, if you possess the Holy Spirit and adhere to our church’s teachings, you will amass abundant riches and have the ability to assist your people back home. There is work available in abundance elsewhere. So, as you travel, be focused, and once you focus, you will bring blessings to Ghana so that, through you, others will find work to do in Ghana. You will also have the opportunity to build a house in Ghana and rent it out, providing people with a place to lay their heads. So, I added the material dimension to the vision I had and started the flag teachings.

(Prophetess, Kumasi, interviewed on 11 August 2024)

The prophetess’s argument shows a sophisticated political theology that does not call for Ghana to be cut off from the world but sees migration as a way for God to redistribute people. Her vision is an economic religion of interdependence, in which the migrant, who is blessed abroad, becomes an economic messiah to their family and community back home. This case shows that there is an indigenous theology of remittances as a way to make up for the state’s mistakes (Wariboko 2014).

It is clear that the neo-prophetic churches appropriate biblical narratives in their prosperity teachings. Dube (2016) has noted that the biblical narrative of Abraham’s migration serves as a story of faith and obedience to God’s calling, serving as a teaching tool on how to faithfully listen to God’s voice, even in the face of adversity. However, Dube (2016) further argues that even though Abraham’s story is analyzed in theological institutions and Bible colleges as a prototype of a faith story and obedience to God, it is also important to regard Abraham as an archetypal migrant whose story is reminiscent of contemporary migrants. Dube is insistent on the fact that Abraham’s story represents that of migrants in our contemporary time. Regarding this, he writes the following:

With regard to Abraham, his nomadic lifestyle and struggle for survival are comparable to migrants who travel from place to place in search of a better and safer place to exist. Embedded within the Abraham story are themes such as fight and conflict over resources and the struggles of women—issues that are also present among migrants today.

(Dube 2016, p. 72)

Yet, even though one can argue that contemporary migration, especially from Africa to Europe, is largely motivated by spatial inequalities occasioned by colonial and post-colonial geopolitics, neo-prophetic Christians believe that in the context of migration, accepting God and obeying his commands lead to blessings and the transformation of lives. These blessings will persist once one remains attached to God and his church. The scenario is explained by the prophetess as follows:

Since I started the flag in God’s name … for the past nine years, many people’s lives have changed. Many parents in this church have around five children who live overseas. Some have six children, some have two, some have three, and some have four living overseas. God has planted each of them in a different country. As I speak to you today, if God permits, on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, I may travel. God has again revealed to me that some of those who have migrated are struggling to obtain resident and work permits, and some have very minimal knowledge of the word of God. So, I am taking further steps to go preach the word of God to them again so that, through me, once again, the migrant can receive the full blessings of the migration.

(Prophetess, Kumasi, interviewed on 11 August 2024)

Planting God’s children in different countries undoubtedly increases their sphere of opportunities, which may lead to economic emancipation. While the individuals who manage to reach the foreign destination can hope for economic liberation, their parents, siblings, and other relatives at home can be assured of lifesaving remittances due to strong translocal ties that often exist between the migrants and their non-migrant family members (Owusu and Crush 2024). However, for the African Christian migrant, faith in God, like the case of Abraham, was the key to success, or in other words, receiving the blessings of God. When one is not succeeding or receiving the full benefit of one’s migration, it means that one’s faith is not strong. That is why there is a need to be attached to God. During one of the church services at MOGPA, the following thanksgiving offerings from migrants were announced by Madam Vida this way:

“Our brother [name anonymized] says God has done well. He has opened a job opportunity for him in Canada. So, he is here with GHC 350.00 to thank the God of MOGPA for the grace he has received. Our very own sister [name anonymized] in the USA says she thanks the God of MOGPA for giving her a job opportunity. So, she is here with GHC 1000.00 to thank the God of MOGPA. Our own brother [name anonymized] is also here, thanking the God of MOGPA for giving him a traveling breakthrough. Our sister [name anonymized] says she thanks the God of MOGPA for adding another year to her years. She leaves everything to God to continue His beneficial works towards her”.

(Vida, Kumasi, recorded on 11 August 2024)

The example above elicits the religious dimension of the migration experience and the belief that success is a fruit of faith and obedience to God’s will. The obligation to thank God for a breakthrough is also derived from Abraham’s story, where, in Genesis 12, he built an altar at Bethel to Yahweh and invoked his name. As Asamoah-Gyadu (2019) notes, there is the belief that God’s people are constantly fighting against principalities that do not want God’s blessing to flourish among his people. Therefore, believers need to keep watch. Additionally, the crossing of the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, which has become part of the migration experience of several desperate youth leaving the African continent, embodies a deep religious faith reminiscent of the exodus experience (Tweneboah and Agyeman 2021).

The second narrative, which is Exodus, presents a scenario where the Jews found themselves enslaved in Egypt and needed a liberator in the person of Moses to lead them to the Promised Land, which is Israel. However, in this instance too, the journey is bedeviled with several hindrances, including the reluctance of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, to liberate the Jews; the crossing of the Red Sea; and wandering in the desert for forty years. This narrative, too, is presented as a faith journey, and it is through an act of faith and obedience that those who finally reached the Promised Land were able to do so.

During this study, we observed that migration out of Africa was perceived to be an act of deliverance from the domain of the devil, symbolized by poverty and suffering on the African soil. Migration was seen as a breakthrough, a liberation from the shackles hindering human progress, and a sign of God’s blessings to his people. In line with the prosperity teaching, the church members believed that once one has given one’s life to Christ, one should see a transformation in one’s socio-economic well-being. There are so many ways that one could receive these blessings, and migration to a foreign land is one of such. This assertion was evident during our interviews with several church members. At MOGPA, a senior pastor, Stephen, who himself was a migrant, having spent several years in Nigeria during the 1980s and six years in Israel from 1984 to 1990, said the following:

For some, it is God’s plan that they travel, and if they do not, they will not prosper. Through migration, faith, and obedience, God can send you to the Promised Land. Sometimes, too, God sends his people to go and learn wisdom in a foreign land.

(Stephen, Kumasi, interviewed on 4 August 2024)

Therefore, within the prosperity theology paradigm, migration plays an important role in the path towards prosperity. The pastor talked about a recent migration of his three children to the United Kingdom, which he considered a breakthrough. He said the following:

The migration of my three children to the UK last year, all at once, was a breakthrough. I did not pay money to anyone. Everything was genuine. Now they are all working. The two boys have completed the university in Ghana, and the girl was a nurse. However, when the blessings come like that, it tells you to stand firm. So I advise them to join the MOGPA service and continue praying.

(Stephen, Kumasi, interviewed on 4 August 2024)

Most Ghanaian migrants do not feel a direct call from God to move, unlike Abraham. Instead, they want to move and then ask God to confirm that they did the right thing. This post-desire sanctification changes the migration process from being launched by people to being sanctioned by God, making it harder to apply biblical literalism to modern life. Maintaining this distinction is crucial to avoid oversimplifying the biblical typology.

The high unemployment rate in Ghana among university graduates has become a source of worry to many parents who have spent so many resources to provide their children with a good education. Therefore, the chances of traveling and finding a job overseas are a source of relief to parents. In another video, a woman is seen flaunting her son, who has received a visa to travel overseas for work. The woman claimed that her son, who appeared to be in his early twenties, had completed a degree in engineering and had obtained a visa to travel overseas to work through the intervention of the Bethel Prayer Ministry. She claimed she started bringing her son to the ministry when he was a kid, and she interpreted her son’s achievement as God’s blessings to her and her family. This suggests that for many Ghanaian Christians, the ability to obtain a visa to travel overseas is the ultimate goal of their membership in the Christian community. For them, being a Christian should lead to one achieving a breakthrough on earth. Pain and suffering should not be part of the Christian experience. These are the work of the devil and symbolize the absence of God’s blessings in the life of a Christian.

4. Influence of Prosperity Theology

In this study, we have observed that migration from Africa to Europe, North America, and other parts of the developed world is perceived by the African neo-prophetic churches as a salvation journey (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019). The biblical narratives, which form the basis of these ideas, provide important summaries for unpacking the theological foundation on which the church bases its understanding of salvation. On this basis, prosperity theology, which has gained firm roots in the African Christian religious landscape, offers a useful explanation. As part of the processes of domesticating global Christianity, African Charismatics and Pentecostals have advanced an existentialist theology known as prosperity theology. Gifford (2001, p. 62) explains that the main thrust of the theology is that

God has met all the needs of human beings in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, and every Christian should now share in the victory of Christ over sin, sickness, and poverty. A believer has a right to the blessing of health and wealth won by Christ, and he or she can obtain these blessings merely by a positive confession of faith.

The growth of migration ministries in these churches shows a way of interpreting the world that does not work. Ghanaian neo-prophetic movements fill the gap left by years of poor government. They offer spiritual remedies where legislation has failed, acting as welfare systems, employment brokers, and hope merchants in a post-colonial world where institutions are not trustworthy (Ela 1986). This theology has had a strong impact on post-colonial African Christianity, within which migration ministry also takes center stage. Paul Gifford (2015) explains that modern African Christianity shows up in two very different ways: One is enchanted Christianity, found in various types of Pentecostalism, which sees the world filled with spiritual forces like witches, demons, spirits, and ancestral curses that can harm the bright future of believers (Ela 1989). Hence, there is a need to deliver believers from these spirits and equip them with the powers to combat these forces that thwart human progress. The second form of Christianity, the disenchanted one, like Catholicism, lays emphasis on human agency. However, Gifford (2015) claims that the first form of Christianity does not promote economic development due to the fact that it encourages fear and distrust and, at the same time, diminishes human agency and responsibility. Yet, on the contrary, it promotes migration, which is viewed as a means of liberation. It thrives on the belief that by mere confession of faith, believers will receive blessings in the form of economic emancipation and physical well-being. The only thing that the believer needs to do is to counter the evil acts of enemies and demons who have the power to impede the believer’s access to blessings (Court 2020). In some churches, salvation is not just spiritual or about the end of the world; it is also about money. Being saved means being successful. People view obtaining a visa, landing a job abroad, purchasing a home, and having the ability to send money home as signs of God’s favor. The result is a soteriology of productivity, which says that God’s favor is based on how much money you have (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019). Therefore, in light of prosperity theology, failure, suffering, and poverty are considered the work of the devil, which must be combated through the support of God’s intermediaries, such as the pastor or prophetess (Agyeman and Carsamer 2018).

The neo-prophetic Christians believe that while migration to Europe and North America is a means to free oneself from bondage, a family curse, evil persons, and demons can block one’s access to these places through the actions of consulate officials, immigration officers, and state authorities who are authorized to process travel documents such as passports, visas, as well as residence and work permits. The Christians interpret these impediments as the walls of Jericho, requiring an act of faith to break them down. For this reason, the churches teach their followers to overcome these impediments through an act of prayer, fasting, sowing a seed, and making a covenant with God.

At the Bethel Prayer Ministry, the ritual of going round the church building several times was meant to fall the Jericho wall. The period of waiting to obtain travel documents or a residence and work permit in the host country is interpreted as wandering in the desert, as experienced by the Jews in the Exodus story. Therefore, church members are encouraged to keep praying, keep their faith in God’s intermediaries, and remain hopeful.

It is important to note that prosperity theology also resonates with several aspects of African indigenous worldviews. Court (2020) argues that prosperity theology aligns with the African traditional religious worldview due to the resonance of themes such as spiritual proximity, religious specialists (herbalist, medicine man, witch doctor, shaman, diviner, medium, priest/priestess, prophet/prophetess, and rainmaker), offering and sacrifice, suffering, and focus on the present redemption rather than an eschatological future (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2013; Mbembe 2001). Charismatic leaders, prophetesses, prophets, and pastors play an essential role in helping believers overcome all spiritual hindrances in order to achieve worldly success. Prayer camps are established where necessary to serve as sacred places where this spiritual backing is received (Agyeman and Carsamer 2018). Therefore, in line with Asamoah-Gyadu, we can argue that prosperity theology, which constitutes an “existential message based on theological readings such as the call of Abraham, has developed around migration as a redemptive or salvific process through which God opens doors of human flourishing and prosperity for his children” (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019, p. 160). This interpretation by Asamoah-Gyadu fits with Nimi Wariboko’s (2014) notion that prosperity theology, even if it is often criticized, provides a way for those who are poor to be free. Thus, this new theology encourages people to take charge of their own finances and their faith in places where government policy and formal economics have failed. Also, it is important to highlight that Gifford’s ideas about African Pentecostalism as enchanted Christianity are similar to those of John S. Mbiti (1969), whose groundbreaking work on African religious cosmologies has had a significant impact on how we perceive African spiritual epistemologies. That is, a society that places so much emphasis on spirituality rather than human agency as the means for economic progress. However, as Gifford (2015) has observed, such emphasis rather prolongs African people’s continuous damnation and imprisonment in oppressive post-colonial socio-economic structures.

5. Imagining Europe as the Promised Land

We cannot understand the neo-prophetic churches’ religious beliefs without contemplating colonialism. Quijano (2000) says that coloniality lives on in the cultural frameworks that shape modernity. Thiong’o (1986) called this “coloniality of the mind,” which means that people are still stuck in their own minds to the colonial past, and it affects their goals, aspirations, beliefs, and even their essence. By extension, we can argue that, per their migration aspirations and behavior, Ghanaian Christians perceive Europe as a place of divine blessings, while they perceive Africa as a place of slavery and retrogression. These forms of imagination, internalized attitudes, beliefs, and feelings that project the society and culture of the former colonizer as superior have been described by post-colonial theorists such as Franz Fanon as the bane of formerly colonized societies (David and Okazaki 2006; Fanon 1963, 1967).

Within the framework of coloniality of being, the theology of African (Ghanaian) Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians is one that perceives Africa as Egypt, a land of slavery and suffering by God’s people, whereas Europe and the rest of the developed world are conceived to be places of liberation, the land that God has promised to his children. Therefore, in their search for a better and safer place, African Christians set their eyes on Western countries instead of taking steps to improve conditions in their own country. Sackey-Ansah (2020) and Agyeman and Carsamer (2018) observe that due to poverty and several socio-economic difficulties that Ghanaians have faced after independence, Ghanaian Christians, like other African Christians, view Western societies, that is, the land of their former colonizer, as lands of opportunities. Therefore, their migration to these places is interpreted as obedience to God’s will in order to achieve a breakthrough in their life and also to carry out the divine mandate of spreading the gospel (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019; Sackey-Ansah 2020).

This change in perception got stronger, starting in the 1980s, thanks to structural adjustment programs imposed on Ghanaians and other African nations by the Briton-Wood institutions and the fading of post-independence hope. Jean-Marc Ela’s (1986, 1989) criticism of reliance and his sociological–theological thoughts in “My Faith as an African” and “African Cry” present us a strong way to consider why people are turning to spiritual globalization as a way to make up for nationalism that did not work.

Therefore, the ongoing quest for socio-economic emancipation by African people, especially the youth, in the post-colonial era has resulted in a strong drive to cross the continent in search of ‘greener pastures’ in the land of the former colonizers (Asamoah-Gyadu 2019; Adepoju 2010; Anderson 2013). This drive to migrate from Africa to Europe is largely motivated by an existential need to escape from poverty, violence, bondage, misery, and desperation occasioned by poor governance and weak leadership in post-colonial African states (Giménez-Gómez et al. 2019; Flahaux and De Haas 2016; Asamoah-Gyadu 2005). It is true that post-colonial African societies have been characterized by violence, social inequalities, human rights abuse, exploitation, conflicts, political malaise, and wars, as well as natural and man-made disasters. During the 1980s, the economy of several African countries collapsed, which led to the adoption of austerity measures imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions. After more than four decades, many African countries have not fully recovered. Additionally, climate change and environmental destruction have posed threats to livelihoods in several places on the continent, leading to food insecurities in some places, which have also degenerated into armed conflict, political instability, and forced migration, particularly towards the cities and abroad (Ayuba et al. 2023; Romankiewicz 2019). High population growth without adequate planning and control has resulted in urban poverty, high unemployment rates, underemployment, and several social problems (Prempeh 2022).

However, the role that the neo-prophetic churches play reinforces Africa’s dependence on its colonial past. In fact, the idea of migration as “deliverance from the devil’s continent” is a religious echo of what colonial missionaries said. Many African Christians still have the idea that the missionaries’ description of Africa as the “dark continent” in the past was justified. In addition, African churches continue to display images of angels, Jesus, Mary, and the saints as being white people, while Satan is black. Therefore, deliverance becomes a matter of land: Europe is considered holy and Africa cursed. This spatial theology shows that there are still an unresolved colonial trauma and a deep psychological prison among African (Ghanaian) Christians (Thiong’o 1986).

Amidst these challenges, many Africans have turned to religion for solutions. In fact, since the 1960s, the Christian religion has experienced explosive growth in both the types of demonization and the number of congregants (Gifford 2015; Asamoah-Gyadu 2013). Church buildings swiftly replaced the collapsed factory buildings during the economic downturn in the 1970s and 1980s (Gifford 2001). Therefore, in order to make meaning in their life, the Christian Bible became an important reference. Through the help of pastors, prophetesses, and priests, African Christians sought meaning and understanding of their existence in light of biblical narratives. It is within this context that the Bible has become an important instrument for African migrants’ interpretation and understanding of their daily realities in order to search for meaning, hope, and endurance in the rough terrain of contemporary migration (Buch-Hansen and Poulsen 2022). The terrain is rough because a lot of Africans migrate out of desperation to places in Europe and North America where they are hardly wanted. Even though European nations have, since the last decades, erected several barriers to prevent this “unwanted” migration, Africans continue to risk their lives through the desert and the seas to reach fortress Europe (Agyeman 2020; Williams 2018; Collier 2013). As a result, significant numbers of them perish every year while trying to cross the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to reach the Promised Land (Dearden et al. 2024). Yet these deaths do not deter African youth from migrating to Europe due to the faith and hope that they derive from religion (Tweneboah and Agyeman 2021). It is within this context that narratives in the Christian Bible play a role in motivating and sustaining African transcontinental migration.

In this sense, the prosperity gospel is a theology of optimism in the face of systemic marginalization. Kwok (2010) says that Third World theologies generally come from a place of desperation but provide people with a lot of hope. Therefore, migration ministries are the physical expression of that hope—a transnational altar made of both prayer and passports.

6. Conclusions

In this chapter, we have shown that there is a linkage between contemporary African Christianity and transcontinental migration. We have provided evidence indicating that prospective Ghanaian migrants draw a lot of inspiration from Biblical narratives due to their adherence to the teachings of Pentecostal/charismatic theology of prosperity. We have explained that, based on the Abraham story in the Book of Genesis and the exodus experience of the Jews as narrated in the Book of Exodus, Ghanaian neo-prophetic Christians have developed a migration theology and ministry to support transcontinental migration. We looked at how migrants attached a deeper emotion to what they saw as a divinely sanctioned path to their breakthroughs and destiny fulfillment. We explained that Ghanaian migrants living in Europe often develop attachments and strong bonds to churches based in Ghana, which often establish a branch in the diaspora. By appropriating modern communication technologies, pastors, prophets, and prophetesses living in Ghana are able to minister to a wider population, as well as to migrants living in Europe, on a daily basis. We further looked at neo-prophetic Christianity, migration, and their connections in broader response to the state’s failure, post-colonial economic trajectories, global inequalities, and the dysfunctionalities in the socio-political state of Ghana and Africa at large, and how this aligns them to neo-prophetic ministries to compensate for the deficit in their socio-economic lives. Through this ministry, religious leaders in Africa can offer spiritual support to individuals considering migration, accompany them on their daily journeys, provide moral and emotional assistance, and significantly influence the migrants’ religious and social lives abroad.