The Wayfarer: Perspectives on Forced Migration and Transformational Community Development

Scripture testifies to God's care for displaced peoples. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a narrative filled with migrants, with refugees, and with wayfarers. Even God himself is shown to be "on the move" - a God who does not stay on one side of the border but crosses over to save his people.

In The Wayfarer, Dr. Barnabé Anzuruni Msabah engages the global refugee crisis from an interdisciplinary perspective that encompasses both development studies and theological reflection. Using specific examples from Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, Msabah provides an overview of the sociopolitical, economic, and environmental dynamics of forced migration, while simultaneously exploring theological and cultural frameworks for understanding transformational community development. He examines both the church's calling to provide sanctuary for displaced peoples and the role of refugees in contributing to the socioeconomic welfare of their host countries. While the church's mandate is to act with justice and mercy towards the world's most vulnerable populations, Msabah also reminds us that refugees are not passive recipients but powerful examples of courage, resilience, and hope who can, in their turn, transform our nations and our faith communities for the better.

BARNABÉ ANZURUNI MSABAH holds a PhD in Theology and Development (Practical Theology), specializing in community development, from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is Tearfund's Regional Coordinator for Church and Community Transformation (CCT) in East and Central Africa and teaches theology and development at Pan Africa Christian University, Nairobi, Kenya. Dr Msabah is a former refugee and has experienced many of the challenges that refugee communities face around the world, as well as the resilience, courage and hope with which refugees face those challenges.