From the Cross (and Crescent) to the Cedar and Back Again: Transnational Religion and Politics Among Lebanese Christians in Senegal.
This article examines the changing relationship between religion, secularism, national politics, and identity formation among Lebanese Christians in Senegal. Notre Dame du Liban, the first Lebanese religious institution in West Africa, draws on its Lebanese "national" character to accommodate Lebanese Maronite Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians in Dakar, remaining an icon of "Lebanese" religion, yet departing from religious sectarianism in Lebanon. As such,transnational religioncan vary fromnational religion,gaining new resonances and reinforcing a wider "secular" ethno-national identity.
Michigan State University.
Mara A
MA
Leichtman
Lebanon; Maronite Church; Senegal; Transnational migration; ethnicity; politics; religion